of ever attempting
to reduce these lands to profitable cultivation. But with the increase
of population came wealth and enterprise. The levees were continued up
the river. A long period of comparatively low water encouraged
settlements upon the alluvial bottoms. The levees were continued up the
west bank, and in a few years the forests had melted away from the
margin of the river. Large fields were in their stead, and were
continually increasing in extent. Improvements of a superior character
were commencing, and an occasional break in the levee, and partial
inundation, did not deter, but rather stimulated the planters to
increased exertion, to discipline and control the great floods poured
down from the rain-sheds extending from the headwaters of the Ohio to
those of the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Red Rivers, embracing
in extent an area greater than the continent of Europe. It really
seemed an attempt to defy the decrees of fate. In 1828, the waters from
Cairo to Baton Rouge, a distance of nine hundred miles, averaged fifty
miles in width. For months the great river was covered with forests of
timber, torn up with the roots by the flood, floating and tumbling
wildly along the terrible torrent, making the navigation extremely
dangerous for the few steamers then upon the river. How often have I
heard old men, who were long resident in the country, when standing on
the bluff at Natchez, viewing the extent of that memorable flood, say:
"Every man who attempts to cultivate these bottom lands will be ruined.
The river demands them as a reservoir for her surplus waters when in
flood." But enterprise was undeterred; the levees went up and the
settlements went on to increase; and when the spoiler came all the
valley was dotted over with pretty villages and magnificent cotton
plantations, containing and sustaining a prosperous, rich, intelligent,
and happy population. They are swept away, and ruin reigns over this
desolated land.

This was but the beginning of the subduing to man's will and
cultivation this entire and unparalleled valley. What had been done
demonstrated the possibility of redeeming every inch of the alluvial
land along the entire valley to the production of the richest staples,
with all the necessaries to man's support, comfort, and wealth. It is
pleasing to contemplate this immense plain as one extended scene of
cultivation--the beautiful lakes of every form, surrounded with
palatial homes and fertil