st yourself without danger to its stream. It is a
furious, rapid, desolating torrent, loaded with alluvial soil; and few
of those who are received into its waters ever rise again, or can
support themselves long on its surface without assistance from some
friendly log. It contains the coarsest and most uneatable of fish, such
as the cat-fish and such genus, and, as you descend, its banks are
occupied with the fetid alligator, while the panther basks at its edge
in the cane-brakes, almost impervious to man. Pouring its impetuous
waters through wild tracks, covered with trees of little value except
for firewood, it sweeps down whole forests in its course, which
disappear in tumultuous confusion, whirled away by the stream now loaded
with the masses of soil which nourished their roots, often blocking up
and changing for a time the channel of the river, which, as if in anger
at its being opposed, inundates and devastates the whole country round;
and as soon as it forces its way through its former channel, plants in
every direction the uprooted monarchs of the forest (upon whose branches
the bird will never again perch, or the racoon, the opossum or the
squirrel, climb) as traps to the adventurous navigators of its waters by
steam, who, borne down upon these concealed dangers which pierce through
the planks, very often have not time to steer for and gain the shore
before they sink to the bottom. There are no pleasing associations
connected with the great common sewer of the western America, which
pours out its mud into the Mexican Gulf, polluting the clear blue sea
for many miles beyond its mouth. It is a river of desolation; and
instead of reminding you, like other beautiful rivers, of an angel which
has descended for the benefit of man, you imagine it a devil, whose
energies have been only overcome by the wonderful power of steam.

The early history of the Mississippi is one of piracy and buccaneering;
its mouths were frequented by these marauders, as in the bayous and
creeks they found protection and concealment for themselves and their
ill-gotten wealth. Even until after the war of 1814 these sea-robbers
still to a certain extent flourished, and the name of Lafitte, the last
of their leaders, is deservedly renowned for courage and for crime; his
vessels were usually secreted in the land-locked bay of Barataria, to
the westward of the mouth of the river. They were, however, soon
extirpated by the American government.