teau comes on board, and that my negers get away with
whole skins; and a good morning to you, gentlemen--in five minutes we
shall meet again."

And so saying, he emptied the glass which the black steward held out
to him, made a slight bow to the ladies on the quarterdeck, sprang
into the gentlemen's cabin, and thence into the first state-room that
stood open.

"An _entree en scene_ quite _a la_ Doughby," said Richards laughing.

"Quite so," replied I.

Ralph Doughby, Esquire of New Feliciana, La., was an old acquaintance
of Richards and myself, and an excellent specimen of a warm-hearted,
impetuous, breakneck Kentuckian, with a share of earthquake in his
composition that might be deemed large, even in Kentucky. He had come
to Louisiana some eight years previously, a voyage of a thousand miles
or more down the Cumberland River, the Ohio, and Mississippi, in a
flat boat with half a dozen negroes, some casks of flour, hams, and
Indian corn, and a few horses, and had settled at Woodville on a
couple of thousand acres of good land, bought at five dollars an acre,
to be paid in five years. His industry and energy had caused him to
thrive, and he was now as well established planter as any on the
Mississippi; his six negroes had amounted to forty, his wilderness had
become a respectable plantation, his cotton was sought after, and he
had not only paid for his acres but had already a large sum in the
Planters' Bank. His frank open character had made him friends on all
hands, and there was not a more popular man in Louisiana than Major
Ralph Doughby.

During the stay I made at Richards' house previously to my marriage,
Doughby had passed a day there in company with one Mr Lambton and his
daughter, Yankees--the latter a beautiful girl, but cold and formal
like most of her countrywomen. An aunt of hers, who possessed large
plantations on the Mississippi, had made up a match between Miss
Lambton and Doughby, and they were then proceeding to New York, where
the marriage was in due time to be solemnized. Richards and myself had
observed, however, that the wild headlong manners and character of the
Kentuckian, joined though they were to great goodness of heart and
many sterling qualities, did not appear very pleasing to the stiff,
etiquette-loving fine lady, and it was without any great surprise
that we heard, some time afterwards, of the marriage being broken off,
in consequence, it was said, of some wild freak of Doughby's. We