ing, exceeding musical.

As we cast off into the midst of the wide stream, the whole bank of the
Levee, with the warehouses bordering upon it, looked as though
illuminated.

_Wednesday,4th._--Up early in my little stateroom, where I have a small
French bed, a table, a chair, with a sash-window that opens on to the
gallery going round the boat. I find my quarters exceedingly
comfortable; but the vibration, owing to the power of the engines,
renders it difficult to read, and puts all writing quite out of the
question.

The river banks are well cleared and very thickly populated, exclusively
by French. Passing Donaldsonville, where the _bayou la Fourche_ quits
the main river to fall into the Mexican Gulf farther to the southward,
we saw the capitol designed for the use of the legislature of Louisiana,
but which, after being tenanted for a single session, was left for New
Orleans, and is now falling to ruin.

Many of the planters' seats are large, well-looking buildings, but they
appear neglected and badly kept; indeed the climate renders it very
difficult to keep a house in decent order unless it is inhabited all the
year round, in which case it stands a chance of as many changes of
tenants as a Turkish caravansary. These lands have a reputation for
prodigious fertility; at one place, belonging to a General Hampton, two
schooners were loading molasses: here I was informed a thousand slaves
find employment, bringing in to their employer an enormous revenue.

At Baton Rouge a military post of the United States' army, we came upon
the first rise in the banks: this place looks over a noble reach and
bay; the barracks appeared roomy and outwardly in good order.

We frequently drew alongside the forest for a supply of wood, which the
proprietors keep ready prepared in piles for the use of boats, being
paid for it by the cord. The consumption is of course enormous, and in
any other region would remind one that a scarcity must speedily ensue;
here, however, the supply appears exhaustless.

I always landed at these places; and above Baton Rouge, where the French
population is less general, I commonly found the labouring woodcutters
to be North-country men, or from the western part of Michigan. They
informed me that they can clear fifty dollars a month for the seven
months they can work in this region, and that four or five seasons are
sufficient to enable a saving man to buy a farm in the West.

These men uniformly agreed