448 COME BACK TO ME-MISSISSIPPI. seized him on each side, and he was dismounted From the Saturday Evening Post. in a trice. The staff rushed in to the relief of VIEWS OF THE WEST. their commander, with a kind of howl which was gradually heightened into a shriek, and which sent the word" Claymore," loud on air. It was a moment of frightful confusion. They threw themselves on the guards. Fresh guards, consisting of students, poured themselves in upon them. And in their turn the forty men in the rear fell upon those. A fresh supply of townsmen and students rushed in upon them. The swords clashed. Poignards glanced in the air. They screamed: they cursed: they fought. The women and children shrieked, and tumbled down in heaps; while others ran pell mell upon them, as they lay groaning, and sprachlin, and banning those who had broken their limbs, limbs, and led their shins. Meantime the kettle drum, peeled in the rear, kept up a constant roll, which effectually drowned the noise of the tumult, so that the main body neither saw their officers, nor, for this reason, heard them. The result was, that they were all disarmed, and the officers deprived of their horses. Written for the Casket. COME BACK TO ΜΕ. When the light upon the mountains In untroubled murmurs flow; When the tired sun is sinking, When the veil that gently trembles When softened winds are stealing. And the stars their watch are keeping, Oh! wilt thou view the mountains C. H. W. It matters not whether our good humor be construed by others into insensibility, or even idiotism; it is happiness to ourselves, and none but a fool would measure his satisfaction, by what the world thinks of it.-Goldsmith. CONCLUDED. MISSISSIPPI. Very little is known of the interior of this State from the reports of travellers, compared with what we learn of our Eastern States, from the same source. Descending the Mississippi river to New Orleans, the passenger is shown the State which takes its name from the magnificent stream on which he is floating; but he sees a succession of bluffs and receding hills with very few inhabitants, and from so superficial a view would be led to conclude there was no population. Such a conclusion, however, would be very erroneous, the cultivated lands being situated more in the interior, and the planters themselves little given to travel. Mississippi is bounded on the north by Tennessee; east by Alabama; south by the gulf of Mexico and Louisiana; west by Louisiana and the Mississippi, and contains according to Darby 32,640,900 acres, but Mr. Flint is probably nearer the fact when he states it at twenty-eight millions. It is 300 miles in average length, and from 150 to 160 miles in average breadth. The soil may be divided into three distinct positions, thus: the alluvial borders of the rivers, the bluffs adjacent to the Mississippi alluvion, and the pine forest land. There are several distinct ranges of hills and eminences, some of which are washed by the river; two of them divide the State much as in Pennsylvania into sectional divisions, and a considerable portion of the table lands have precipitous sides which expose them to the misfortune of washing. Pine Ridge is a singular elevation, seen from the river and resembling an island. The bluff zone of Mississippi is supposed to equal in intrinsic value any other tract of similar extent in the Union. In its natural state this region was covered with a dense, heavy forest, consisting of oak, hickory, laurel, magnolia, sweet gum, ash, maple, the tulip tree or American poplar, and pine, with a great variety of vines and underwood, and so, much of it still continues. The soil is rich, black and deep, and presents the singular appearance in some places of hills covered with cane brake. The part inhabited by the Chickasaw Indians abounds in vallies of great fertility. Loftus Heights, 150 feet high, contain the last stones that have been discovered in descending the river, which washes the shores of the State, including all its meanders, for a distance of nearly seven hundred miles! The right line of the shore is less than half that distance, but the river here is remarkably circuitous, often curving round seven or eight leagues and almost returning back on its course. Much of this long line of river coast is inundated swamp, inhabited only by woodcutters for the steamboats, whose residences are peculiarly inconvenient and unwholesome. An occupied elevation occasionally peeps up, where a solitary settler has fixed upon a farm, and lives a life like Robinson Crusoe, except that for a servant Friday, he counts two or three for each day of the week. The Yazoo river is the most considerable river having its whole course in the State. There are MISSISSIPPI. some of our readers who will remember the speculation in Yazoo stock with the unenviable feelings of lame ducks on the stock exchange.The first broker who offered the scrip for sale was laughed at, but those who bought low and held it, ultimately realised a large profit. This river rises near Tennessee, runs a north-west course, receiving many tributary streams, and by a mouth 300 feet wide falls into the Mississippi twelve miles below the Walnut Hils, having its course through a high, salubrious, and pleasant district, mostly inhabited by Indians, who live along its banks for a distance of 150 miles from its mouth. The Yazoo is boatable for large boats fifty miles, and in high stages of the water much further. Building stone is brought down it for the New Orleans market, being the nearest point where the article is met with. Twelve miles above its mouth are situated the Yazoo Hills, and four miles higher is the scite of the old Fort S.. Peter, where an old French settlement was destroyed a hundred years ago by the Yazoo Indians, who in turn are now extinct. On the Big Black, or Lousa Chitto river which has a course of 200 miles, some New England settlers, headed by General Putnam, selected a place for a town in 1773. On Bayou Pierre is the important settlement of Port Gibson, in the centre of a rich country, and rapidly becoming populous and wealthy. Pearl river is next to the Yazoo the most important, and has its whole course in this State, through a country generally fertile, though it sometimes traverses the sterile region of pine of pine woods. Some efforts have been made to improve its navigation, which is of great importance, as it is one of the chief points of communication between the State and the Gulf of Mexico. The Pascagoula river has a course of 250 miles, and at its mouth broadens into an open bay, where is a town of the same name, resorted to by the inhabitants of New Orleans in the sickly season. There are several islands on the coast, but they are low and inundated, sterile and covered with pine. 449 exhibit a vigour which approaches to that of the New England States. The principal bodies of Indians belong to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, amounting in all to about 24,000, in a semi-savage state, exhibiting a curious compound of character. Many of them hold slaves, have good houses, enclosures and cattle-ploughs, looms, and black-smith shops, but their ancient instincts and changes may be traced even through the changes introduced by the missionaries, and municipal regulations. They have an Indian judge, who endeavors to imitate our mode of judicature.They keep good houses of entertainment for travellers, and many white men have married into their families, and seem quite contented to adopt some of their customs. A rich squaw is quite a belle with the whites, and may be seen riding on horseback behind her husband going to church, dressed in all her finery, ear bobs, turban, &c. like an Eastern princess. The missionaries have established boarding schools, where the young Indian ladies really sometimes acquire much information, and are trained to habits of domestic economy like our own, which they retain after going home. We have taken tea with a family thus educated whose manners would have graced a Philadelphia drawing room. The tea service was neat and in good taste, and the politeness of the fair entertainers was extremely fascinating, though they evidently had not many ideas they were willing to communicate, and probably very few in common with our party. The missionaries continue to witness a growing partiality for our modes of life, and their late reports respecting the schools are encouraging. Christianity makes certain progess, and instead of the savage war song and dance, the praises of God resound in these ancient forests. These benevolent individuals are patronised and countenanced in some degree by our government. As much excellent land exists along the streams of the whole State, all the kinds of grains, fruits and vegetables suited to the climate are grown here. The sugar cane has been attempted near the southern frontier; the sweet orange is found to succeed in places, and in the middle regions, figs, grapes of all sorts, tobacco, Indian corn, sweet potatoes, rice, melons, plums, peaches, &c. &c. come to perfection. Castor oil beans are cultivated, and on high and middle regions, the apple and pear may be found, but cotton is the great staple, growing in great perfection all over the State. Cotton is the grand topic of conversation every where, and a man who can't talk the cotton language, calculate a crop, or tell its price in every market of the world might as well talk Spanish or Portuguese, for he would be quite as much listened to. Many planters realised immense fortunes when cotton bore a high price, and some of them visit us in the summer months to spend their large revenues, but in general Mississippians are a home people, who have their own habits, and perhaps know less of those of other States than is common in America. They are plain, simple, honest and industrious, and withal very hospitable. Many have 200 slaves and even a larger number is The climate may be said to be between the wheat and sugar cane regions, or in other words, the climate adapted to the growth of cotton. The long moss as in most cotton regions is abundant, and the palmeto in the brightness of its winter verdure gives a tropical aspect to the landscape, and the traveller feels himself in a new region for botanical research. Compared with Louisiana, its waters are inhabited by the same fish, and covered with the same water fowls, and birds of beautiful plumage and song. In health it is acknowledged to have decidedly the advantage, and those planters remote from stagnant waters, with access to spring water, enjoy as good constitutions as any where in the Union.The summers it is true are long and warm, when bilious attacks more or less prevail, but pulmonary consumption is almost unheard of, and they look upon that disease which kills its thousands on our Atlantic coast as much the worse evil of the two, wondering how any body will risk his life in a climate where the bills of mortality exhibit their hundreds of victims of that disease in every city. From October to June no climate can be more delightful; many of the inhabitants | common, who are treated humanely. A few, 450 MISSISSIPPI-ALEXANDER SCOTT. says Mr. Flint, who have acquired fortunes ALEXANDER SCOTT. without much previous education or refinement, The following little circumstance, the particu and measuring their own knowledge, acquire-lars of which I received from one of the parties ments and importance, by their intercourse with their slaves, are astonished to find, when they go abroad, that there are other requisites, in order to be sought after and received into the best circles, than the possession of money and slaves. Monticello is a pleasant and flourishing town on the Pearl river. Port Gibson we have already alluded to. Greenville, Woodville, and Winchester, are flourishing villages. Shieldsborough is on the west side of Bayou St. Louis, and a resort from New Orleans during the ravages of yellow fever. engaged, will possibly amuse for the moment, and at the same time illustrate the humanity and noble disinterestedness of our late lamented hero Decatur, and form an interesting and true incident of one of the scenes during the late war. It was when the English Fleet lay off New London, among which were the Ramilies, Majestic, La Hogue, Bulwark, &c. &c. that a boat's crew belonging to the first ship, formed the resolute determination of freeing themselves from that oppressive yoke which galled so many noble necks, and forced them to raise their arms against those, whom their hearts readily acknow Jackson near the head of Pearl river has been recently selected as the permanent seat of gov-ledged as brothers and friends, but which a cruel ernment. Being central and healthy, it will pro- and unjust policy forced them to oppose as bably become an important place. Warrenton enemies. on the banks of the Mississippi is a considerable village. Vicksburgh which has rapidly sprung up, is rising very fast in importance. It is a great point for the shipment of cotton, and steamboats regularly ply to New Orleans. It is on a shelving declivity livity of hills on the bank of the great river of the West, with the houses scattered on the terraces. Natchez is incorporated as a city, and by far the largest place in the State. Romantically situated on the east bank of the river, about 280 miles above New Orleans, with a free navigation for vessels of great burden. Natchez is an important city. So many boats are always lying here, it may be supposed the population partakes of the character of its interior visitors, and access may readily be had in the lower town to all kinds of dissipation and gambling. The upper town is on a bluff 300 feet above the level of the river, from which a most romantic view is presented. The public buildings are handsome, the streets broad, and the whole place wears the aspect of a capital, where the people of the State resort for society and amusement. Being the great cotton mart of the vicinity, the streets in the fall months are barricaded with cotton, and if you arrive there from New Orleans you must be sure to carry accurate accounts of prices and quantities. The opulent planters who reside here, and many distinguished lawyers and physicians, give a tone and polish to the society, not met with in other sections. From this place may be seen the site of Fort Rosalie, the scene of Chateaubriand's wild romance of Atala. The churches are well attended. It has occasionally been visited by yellow fever, which circumstance has retarded its advance in population; it numbers now from 3 to 4000 inhabitants. The smoking steamers, as they ascend and descend the river mostly round to here, and from the upper town add greatly to the picturesque appearance of the scene. Mississippi was admitted into the Union in 1817. Near the city of Natchez, was situated the villages of the Natchez tribe of Indians now extinct, about whom so much interesting tradition remains in the histories of the Catholic missions. The first actual settlement was made at this point by the French about 1716, but the colony consisting of 500 persons was massacred by the natives in 1729. Amongst those who were most obnoxious to this boat's crew, for his tyranny and cruelty, was a Master's Mate, by the name of Briley, and it so happened that this officer was ordered to take charge of the boat to row guard, the day formed by these men to effect their emancipation. They had previous to this circumstance settled every thing, and strange as it may appear, depended upon a boy of fifteen years of age, to conquer this formidable tyrant. Their hearts dilated with hope and anticipations of the most sanguine nature when they reflected, that a few short hours would place them upon the land of liberty. For to go, says my informant, we were resolved, be the consequence what it might-aye, even to the death itself. There were six rowers belonging to the boat, and the lad Alexander Scott, who acted as coxswain. It was settled that the man who pulled the after oar, by name Benjamin Baker, (since a gunner's mate in our service) was to give the signal when little Scott was to show his mettle and free himself and boatmates from the British yoke. At length the hour arrived. The Boatswain's Mate's shrill pipe and "array there, black cutter's array," sounded through the atmosphere of a clear October evening, and each man belonging to the boat again felicitated themselves upon their near approach to liberty, at the same time watching the boy's movements, to observe if he betrayed signs of reluctance or dismay at this critical juncture, but nothing of the kind was seen. They tossed their oars. Little Alexander with a silver star in the front of his hat to denote his station-jumped nimbly into the stern sheets-their victim and tyrant muffled in a cloak, seated himself-the word was given "let fall, give way," and immediately the boat began to leave the Ramilies astern. They pulled on for some time in utter silence, the lad's eye fixed upon Baker, and the men "giving way smartly," that the distance between them and the ship might be the greater, and the chance of escape in their favor. At length the moment arrived, the sign was given, the boy gently drew the tiller from the rudder head, and as he sat immediately behind the officer, held it over his head -" shall I!" exclaimed Alexander (in his anxiety, probably, too, some feelings of remorse touched his heart at the thoughts of the officers' death.) The ALEXANDER SCOTT-PRINCESS S, signal was repeated and with all the force he could collect, he struck Briley over the head, who being in a dose had not attended to the boy's exclamation, he started instantly from his seat -staggered-Baker closed with and threw him -and another blow from the tiller left them masters of the boat. They resumed their stations and made for the land and in a very little time were all safe on shore at Gales' Ferry-having first secured their arms, a cutlass and pistol each, they turned the boat adrift, in which still remained the dead body, or apparently so, of the unfortunate Master's Mate. They made for the first house they discovered, which proved to be Gale's Tavern, and were met at the door by an American Middy, who, seeing the men armed, and having paid his respects too ardently at the shrine of Bacchus, retired in disorder, exclaiming gentlemen-gentlemen, New London is taken, the British are at the door! Upon the gentlemen appearing (who proved to be a party of officers at dinner)an explanation took place without bloodshed, and our heroes were regaled with a plentiful repast, received the congratulations of their new friends, and retired to rest half seas over. On the following morning an officer conducted the black cutter's crew on board the Frigate United States, Commodore Stephen Decatur. My informer states, that although now in the place they had risked so much for, they felt somewhat aback, surrounded by strangers requiring explanations which the men did not think proper to give. Nine o'clock arrived-the Guard was turned out, the side piped, and the Commodore advanced towards the capstan-where he remained in conversation with the officers. The cutter's crew feeling diffident in their new situation and likewise knowing the necessity of an interview and explanation, were at a stand how to act, when little Scott stepped forward and said he would speak to the Commodore. The boy advanced to the mainmast, where uncovered he remained standing: at length the Commodore turned, looked at him, spoke to an officer, who bowed and with that placid expression of countenance for which he was so celebrated, beckoned the boy to advance. Making his best bow, he obeyed. "What's your name, my lad?" "Alexander Scott, sir." "What induced you to desert your country's flag?" "Ill usage, Sir,-besides, it is not my country's flag. 1 am a Scotchman." The commodore eyed him for a moment, then added, "did you kill your officer?" "Not quite killed him, Sir, although Johnson there would have done so, (pointing to one of the men, all of whom, had by this time advanced) but I begged for him, Sir." "Then he was not dead?" 451 "Give you up? no-no-you are a brave little fellow." Then turning to the rest of the men, he added, "my lads, so long as that flag waves o'er my head, you shall receive its protection. You should have retained the boat-common humanity would have dictated this-but 1 hope1 trust the unfortunate man yet lives. No more at present (observing one of the men about to speak.) I know how to make allowances for your feelings, placed in the situation you were -go forward, I will see you again to-morrow." He now called the boy aside, interrogated him respecting the situation of the fleet--the size of their guns-their method of watching, &c. and finding his answers to correspond with his own notes, put such implicit confidence in his relations, that three nights after, in a heavy snow storm, the U. S. Sloop of war Hornet run the gauntlet, and passed clear through the enemy's fleet. The day after the event occurred, a flag of truce was received from Commodore Hardy to Decatur. He demanded the men and offered an exchange of 5 to 1 for the black cutter's crew, but Decatur told the officer, that to give up men who claimed the protection of the American flag, was more than his commission was worth, and in short, as he believed the greater part were Americans, he would protect, but he would not exchange them, were they to offer 50 for 1. It is only necessary to state, that Decatur furnished these men with money and a passport for New York, using them with great humanity. They wished to enter on board the United States. This he would not permit on their own account. Alexander he attempted to keep by him, but the boy insisted upon following his shipmates-and he did so. From this time I lost sight of the boy, but no doubt he acted a pretty conspicuous part during the war, as he entered the service. The present year, I accidentally learned that Alexander Scott was the Boatswain of one of our finest Sloops of war, upon the West India Station. A travelling correspondent of the New York Mirror, now in Europe, gives the following overwrought description of two rare beauties whom he met at Florence. The pictures are evidently drawn by an enthusiast: "The Princes S may be twenty-four years of age. She is of the middle height, with a slight stoop in her shoulders, which is rather a grace than a fault. Her bust is exquisitely turned, her neck slender but full, her arms, hands, and feet, those of a Psyche. Her face is the abstraction of highborn Italian beautycalm, almost to indifference, of an indescribably glowing paleness-a complexion that would be "Oh! no, Sir, his head is too hard for a few alabaster, if it were not for the richness of the blows, like those we gave, to kill him." "How so?" "Because the men said he was a blockhead." "You are a wag I see and a young one too," said the Commodore laughing Alexander seized this moment of saying, "you will not give us up, sir." blood beneath, betrayed in lips whose depth of color and fineness of curve seem only too curiously beautiful to be the work of nature. Her eyes are dark and large, and must have had an indolent expression in her childhood, but are now the seat and soul of feeling. She dresses her hair with a kind of characteristic departure from the mode, parting its glossy flakes on her brow with | dome, spires and pinnacles, and every sublime, nymph-like simplicity, a peculiarity which one regrets not to see in the too Parisian dress of her person. In her manners she is strikingly elegant, but without being absent; she seems to give an unconscious attention to what is about her, and to be gracious and winning without knowing or intending it, merely because she could not listen or speak otherwise. Her voice is sweet, and in her own Italian, mellow and soft to a degree inconceivable by those who have not heard this delicious language spoken in its native land. With all these advantages, and a look of pride that nothing could insult, there is an expression in her beautiful face that reminds you of her sex and its temptations, and prepares you fully for the history which you may hear from the first woman that stands at your elbow. The other is an English girl of seventeen, shrinking timidly from the crowd, and leaning with her hands clasped over her father's arm, apparently listening only to the waltz, and unconscious that every eye is fixed on her in admiration. She has lived all her life in Italy but has been bred by an English mother, in a retired villa of the Val d'Arno-her character and feelings are those of her race, and nothing of Italy about her, but the glow of its sunny clime in the else spotless snow of her complexion, and an enthusiasm in her downcast eye, that you may account for as you will-it is not English. Her form has just ripened into womanhood. The bust still wants fulness, and the step confidence. Her forehead is rather too intellectual to be maidenly; but the droop of her singularly long eyelashes, over eyes that elude the most guarded glance of your own, and the modest expression of her lips, closed but not pressed together, redeem her from any look of conscious superiority, and convince you that she only seeks to be unobserved. A single ringlet of golden brown hair falls nearly to her shoulder, catching the light upon its glossy curves with an effect that would enchant a painter. Lillies of the valley, the first of the season, are in her bosom and her hair, and she might be the personification of the flower of delicacy and beauty. You are only disappointed in talking with her. She expresses herself with a nerve and self command which, from a slight glance, you did not anticipate. She shrinks from the general eye, but in conversation she is the highminded woman more than the timid child, for which her manner seems to mark her. In either light, she is the very presence of purity. She stands by the side of her not less beautiful rival, like a Madonna by a Magdalen-both seem not at home in the world, but only one could have dropped from heaven." Rocks of Lake Superior. BY GOVERNOR CASS. Upon the southern coast of Lake Superior, about fifty miles from the falls of St. Mary, are the immense precipitous cliffs, called by the voyagers, Le Pottrail and the Pictured Rocks. This name has been given them in consequence of the different appearance which they present to the traveller, as he passes their base in his canoe. It requires little aid from the imagination to discern in them the castellated tower and lofty grotesque, or fantastic shape which the genius of architecture ever invented. These cliffs are an unbroken mass of rocks, rising to an elevation of 300 feet above the level of the lake, and stretching along the coast for fifteen miles. The voyagers never pass this coast except in the most profound calm; and the Indians, before they make the attempt, offer their accustomed oblations, to propitiate the favour of their Monitas. The eye instinctively searches along this eternal rampart for a single place of security; but the search is vain. With an impassable barrier of rocks on one side, and an interminable expanse of water on the other, a sudden storm upon the lake would as inevitably insure destruction of the passenger in his frail canoe, as if he were on the brink of the cataract of Niagara. The rock itself is a sandstone, which is disentegrated by the continual action of the water with comparative facility. There are no broken masses upon which the eye can rest and find relief. The lake is so deep, that these masses, as they are torn from the precipice, are concealed beneath its waves until they are re duced to sand. The action of the waves has undermined every projecting point: and there the immense precipice rests upon arches, and the foundation is intersected with caverns in every direction. When we passed this immense fabric of nature, the wind was still, and the lake was calm. But even the slightest motion of the waves, which, in the most profound calm, agitates these internal seas, swept through the deep caverns with the noise of distant thunder, and died away upon the ear as it rolled forward in the dark recesses, inaccessible to human observation. No sound more melancholy or more awful ever vibrated upon human nerves. It has left an impression which neither time nor distance can ever efface. Resting in a frail bark canoe upon the limpid waters of the lake, we seemed almost suspended in air, so pellucid is the element upon which we floated. In gazing upon the towering battlements which impended over us, and from which the smallest fragment would have destroyed us, we felt, intensely, our own insignificance. No situation can be imagined, more appalling to the courage, or more humbling to the pride of man. We appeared like a speck upon the face of creation. Our whole party, Indians and voyagers, and soldiers, officers, and servants, contemplated in mute astonishment the awful display of creative power, at whose base we hung; and no sound broke upon the ear to interrupt the ceaseless roaring of the waters. No splendid cathedral, no temple built with human hands, no pomp of worship could ever impress the spectator with such humility, and so strong a convic tion of the immense distance between him and the Almighty Architect. In the pure heart of a girl loving for the first time, love is far more ecstatic than in man, inasmuch as it is unfevered by desire--love then and there makes the only state of human existence which is at once capable of calmness and trans port! |