[figure description] Page 283.[end figure description]

My last letter, dated from this beautiful villa, a
sugar estate, eleven miles above the city of New Orleans,
detailed to you my grief at the loss of the round dozen
“Needles,” and my reluctance to rewrite; indeed, my
inability to write them a second time. I, therefore, must
briefly state in this that the space covered by the twelve
letters was three months, and that the twelfth found me
on the prairies near the capital of Mississippi, traveling
in a sort of caravan-fashion with the colonel and a large
party, going to look at some Indian lands which they
had purchased. We soon returned to the hospital mansion
near Natchez, where we had been a few weeks sojourning,
and the following week embarked for New
Orleans. From this embarkation I resume my letters,
aided by copious notes which I took while descending the
river. The city of Natchez has a romantic site, being
situated, like Quebec, upon an elevated table, which on
the verge of the river forms a perpendicular bluff of
nearly two hundred feet. Along the edge of this precipice
is a green mall, or promenade, with seats sociably
placed underneath the trees, upon which idlers can sit
enjoying the fresh breeze from the river, watching the
ascending and descending steamers that pass a score

[figure description] Page 284.[end figure description]

a-day, or looking at the horsemen cantering through the
level streets of the opposite village of Concordia. On
our way to the landing we stopped a few moments to
admire the wide view. It was grand and ocean-like, so
plane and illimitable is the level sea of foliage that
recedes westward to the even horizon. Four miles above
the city the mighty Father of Waters emerges from this
great valley of vast forests, and expands before us like
a lake, and flows sweeping past with the aspect of irresistible
power, and, five miles below, loses himself again
in the bosom of this cypress desert-sea.

Our boat was not yet in sight, but a tall column of
smoke, in form like that which went before Israel, was
pointed out to me, full twelve miles northwardly, rising
skyward from the level surface of the emerald ocean of
forest. The river itself and the steamer borne upon it,
were invisible, being hidden within the heart of the savannah;
but we could trace the unseen course and tortuous
windings of the flood by the onward motion of the
column of smoke. At length, after watching it half an
hour above the trees, and seeing it come nearer, the
column, the steamer, and the river simultaneously shot
out from the embracing trees a league off. Oh! it was
a grand sight to behold the noble steamer plough its
powerful prow through the turbid flood, turning aside
like straws in its path, floating trees that would have
made masts for line-of-battle ships, while the rushing
of the waters cleaved by her bow, and torn up by her
wheels, mingling with the hoarse double-note of her two
escape-pipes, loudly reached our ears. As she drew
nearer, she fired a gun from her bow, and the report
echoed from the cliff, and re-echoed from Fort Rosalie,

[figure description] Page 285.[end figure description]

a fine old ruin, overhanging the lower town, sunk growling
away among the hills.

We were soon on board, and in possession of luxurious
state-rooms, richly carpeted, and containing elegant beds,
superbly hung with drapery, marble laver stands, velvet-colored
lounges, and every luxury that taste could invent.
I don't wonder now that the people travel so much here.
The boat is a regular packet between Vicksburg and
New Orleans, and being always filled with wealth and
fashion—for the travel up and down the river of the
planters and their families is immense—the saloons of a
steamer are like a continual Levée.

But we did not long delay in our gorgeous state-rooms,
inviting as they were;—Isabel and I, taking the colonel's
arms, and making him a secure prisoner—he surrendering
his liberty gracefully—went to the upper deck, to take
a farewell view of Natchez, that hospitable, wealthy,
and polished town, which has so often been spoken of by
travelers, as the most charming place in the sunny South—
a testimony to which I freely add my own. We had
left dear friends there, and we could see some of them
waving their handkerchiefs or hats from carriage-windows
or on horseback, which signals of friendship we answered
as long as we could distinguish the flutter of a handkerchief.

We were delighted with the scenery—with the fine old
hills, broken into precipices of the most romantic shapes
and wildest beauty. The spires and towers of the city
appeared with striking effect above the cliff; but the
most prominent object of all was the green parapet and
glacis of Fort Panmure, or Rosalie, as the French
anciently termed it.

[figure description] Page 286.[end figure description]

This truly picturesque fort has been the scene of many
a thrilling romance. The pens of Griffith, of Monette,
of Dupee, have invested its site with associations of the
deepest interest. Above its now verdant embrasures has
floated the golden-hued flag of Spain, the lily of France,
the double-cross and blood-red ensign of England, and
more lately the cheerful stars and stripes of my own
country; and it is my patriotic prayer that no fifth banner
wave above it, till “time shall be no longer.”

Twenty miles below Natchez, we passed a congeries of
precipices frowning above the river, called the “White
Cliffs.” They are broken and cloven by the sapping of
the river into the hundreds of fantastic shapes; and as
the strata are varied by the most brilliantly-tinted argillaceous
soils, the appearance of their lofty faces is extremely
beautiful. A rainbow seemed to have been
driven against it by the winds, and left fragments of
every dye staining its sides. One of the cliffs stands
alone, and from the shape of its summit, which seems to
be crested with a battlement, it is called “The Castle.”

It was proposed by Isabel, that it should henceforth
be named “Castle Kossuth,” which suggestion was carried
by acclamation. Please, therefore, Mr. —, make the
whole world and “the rest of mankind” advised of this
addition. Isabel is quite carried away with the great
Magyar, and has named fifty things after him; and I
fear, if he were a single gentleman, she would not hesitate
the turning of a silver three-cent piece to be herself
also named after him. I wonder Madame Kossuth isn't
jealous! I wouldn't like my husband—but no matter.
In my next I will tell you what I think about Mr. Kossuth;
for one lady's opinion of one of the other sex, Mr.

[figure description] Page 287.[end figure description]

—, is worth that of fifty men. We women see and
understand instinctively. You men cogitate, reason,
hem, and haw, and then—judge wrong always. Ah, if
gentlemen in business would ask their wives' opinions of
such and such men they deal with, be sure they would
save them a great deal of loss and vexation. The good
old Bible term, “help meet,” means vastly more than the
“lords matrimonial” ever guessed at. But, dear me—
One of the cliffs is divided, leaving a pair of pinnacles.
From one to the other an Indian girl, pursued by a
vengeful lover, leaped, and saved her life. It was a
fearful gulf across which she bounded; and only wings
of fear could have compassed it in safety. The incident
has drawn from the graceful pen of John T. Griffith, Esq.,
a planter in the vicinity, a charming story, called “The
Fawn's Leap.”

It was first published in one of the earliest, if not the
earliest number of the old “Atlantic Souvenir.” I read
it when a child with great delight. I wish you would
discover it and republish it. Mr. Griffith is a native of
Princeton, N. J., and cousin of Commodore Stockton, and
in him one of the first American writers has been spoiled
by opulence in estate. If Mr. G. had been compelled to
write as an author, he would, now in his fiftieth year, have
stood at the head of American writers.

As evening drew near, we descended from our elevated
promenade to the ladies' cabin. It was lighted by clusters
of chandeliers of the richest description, resplendent
with a thousand trembling prisms. Six chandeliers at
equal distances revealed a series of connected saloons,
with the intervening folding doors thrown back, fully
two hundred feet in length. Along the centre, extended

[figure description] Page 288.[end figure description]

for eighty feet, stood a table for supper, that, in its perfect
and sumptuous arrangements, rivaled that at the
“Irving,” “Girard,” or any first rate hotel. Indeed, the
first class steamers now are first class hotels floating! I
am not surprised at the gentleman, who, for three or four
trips, retained his stateroom, never going on shore at
either port, until, being suspected of being some mysterious
character who had designs forbidden by the eighth
Commandment, he was questioned by the captain. In
reply, he said:

“My dear sir, I find your boat so comfortable, your
table so luxurious, your officers so polite, your servants
so attentive, and such varied company enliven your
cabins, that, being a person of leisure and fortune, I
prefer residing with you, at least till the St. Charles is
rebuilt. I trust you will have no objection to a permanent
passenger!”

The vanity of the gallant captain took the place of
his apprehensions, and, bowing politely, he left this gentleman
of good taste to enjoy himself as he pleased—a
privilege which I will now allow to all my good friends
who have read thus far in this poor letter, which I misgivingly
tender to the tender mercies of all post-masters,
mail-carriers, and mail-bags on the route between this
place and your fair city.