s, the distinction of being the
fastest upon the river, and not fully aware, perhaps, of the inevitable
danger which attended this rash experiment.

"On Wednesday the 25th of April, between four and five o'clock in the
afternoon, this shocking catastrophe occurred. The boat was crowded
with passengers; and, as is usually the case on our western rivers, in
regard to vessels passing westerly, the largest proportion were
emigrants. They were mostly deck passengers, many of whom were poor
Germans, ignorant of any language but their own, and the larger portion
consisted of families, comprising persons of all ages. Although not a
large boat, there were eighty-five passengers in the cabin, which was a
much larger number than could be comfortably accommodated; the number of
deck passengers is not exactly known, but, as is estimated, at between
one hundred and twenty and one hundred and fifty; and the officers and
crew amounted to thirty, making in all about two hundred and sixty
souls.

"It was a pleasant afternoon, and the boat, with steam raised, delayed
at the wharf, to increase the number--already too great--of her
passengers, who continued to crowd in, singly or in companies, all
anxious to hurry onwards in the first boat, or eager to take passage in
the _fast-running_ Moselle. They were of all conditions--the military
officer hastening to Florida to take command of his regiment--the
merchant bound to St Louis--the youth seeking a field on which to
commence the career of life--and the indigent emigrant with his wife and
children, already exhausted in purse and spirits, but still pushing
onward to the distant frontier.

"On leaving the wharf, the boat ran up the river about a mile, to take
in some families and freight, and having touched at the shore for that
purpose, for a few minutes, was about to lay her course down the river.
The spot at which she thus landed was at a suburb of the city, called
Fulton, and a number of persons had stopped to witness her departure,
several of whom remarked, from the peculiar sound of the steam, that it
had been raised to an unusual height. The crowd thus attracted--the
high repute of the Moselle--and certain vague rumours which began to
circulate, that the captain had determined, at every risk, to beat
another boat which had just departed--all these circumstances gave an
unusual eclat to the departure of this ill-fated vessel.

"The landing completed, the bow of the boat was shov