It Sounded To Me Very Much Like Defiance, And Probably Was, For They Execrate The White Men As Hereditary Enemies, And Feel Deeply The Wrongs Inflicted On Their People.

All the steamers we met were more or less crowded with passengers, the visages of many of whom bore traces of fever and ague, and who were, doubtless, removing to a healthier climate.

This insidious disease often terminates fatally in the cities and districts skirting the swamps of Louisiana, and, to avoid its baneful effects, the more affluent people migrate south-west or north when the sickly season sets in. The yellow fever is also very fatal in such situations, and annually claims numbers of victims.

We had by this time reached that latitude where perpetual summer reigns. The banks of the mighty Mississippi, which has for ages rolled on in increasing grandeur, present to the eye a wilderness of sombre scenery, indescribably wild and romantic. The bays, formed by the current, are choked with palmetto and other trees, and teem with alligators, water-snakes, and freshwater turtle, the former basking in the sun in conscious security. Overhead, pelicans, paroquets, and numberless other

"Strange bright birds on their starry wings, Bear the rich hues of all glorious things;"

while the gorgeous magnolia, in luxuriant bloom, and a thousand other evergreens, on shore, vie with voluptuous aquatic flowers to bewilder and delight the astonished traveller, accustomed hitherto only to the more unassuming productions of the sober north. Everything here was new, strange, and solemn. The gigantic trees, encircled by enormous vines, and heavily shrouded in grey funereal moss, mournfully waving in the breeze - the doleful night-cry of the death-bird and the whip-poor-will - the distant bugle of the advancing boats - the moan of the turbid current beneath - the silent and queenly moon above, appearing nearer, larger, and brighter than in our cooler latitudes - the sultry atmosphere - and most of all, perhaps, the sense of the near vicinity of death in this infected region - oppressed my spirit with an ominous feeling of solemnity and awe.

As we passed the plantations which here and there varied the scene, gangs of negroes could be seen at labour - their sturdy overseers, of ruffianly mien, prowling sulkily about, watching every motion of the bondsmen, whip in hand; which weapon they applied with the most wanton freedom, as if the poor sufferers were as destitute of physical sensation, as they themselves were of moral or humane feeling. Armed with a huge bowie-knife and pistols, these embruted creatures were very cut-throats in appearance; and it is well known there, that their conduct in general towards those they lord over, justifies the appellation I have given them.

The steamer halted at intervals to take in wood, which is invariably used, instead of coal as in England. This is piled in parrallelograms on the banks - the logs being split longitudinally. This forms a source of good profit, and is, in many instances, the chief maintenance of the squalid settlers of these plague-stricken and unwholesome places.

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