107 Down the Mississippi (1791)
March 4th 1791. Proceeded down the Ohio in company with a Frenchman who was taking his American Wife and Children along with him to Langue la Graisse or the Greasy Bent, now called by the Spaniards Nuevo Madrid, on the western side of the Mississippi.
March 12th 1791. Breakfasted and dined with Señor Pedro Foucher, Commandant at Nuevo Madrid. The garrison consists of about ninety men who are well supplied with food and raiment. They have an excellent train of artillery which appears to be their chief defense. Two regular companies of musketeers with charged bayonets might take this place. Of this opinion is the Commandant himself, who complains that he is not sufficiently supported. On the evening of this day [we] embarked in a boat called the Smoke-House bound to New Orleans and anchored on the Georgian Shore about thirty miles below Madrid.
14th. 8 o’clock at night one of Mr. Craig’s tobacco boats with forty hogsheads of tobacco and a large quantity of flour and plank passed us whilst we lay in harbor. She had lost her rudder and sprung a leak. In this situation with only three hands on board, they implored our aid which through prudential motives was denied.
15th. At sunrise espied the Frenchman’s boat in good harbor and uninjured. But different was the fate of Mr. Craig’s which had sprung a leak in her bow and appeared to be stranded opposite to the second Chickasaw Bluff, where the river is about four hundred yards wide. At 9 o’clock we viewed the third Chickasaw Bluff opposite to the Bayou St. John, where the river is not quite four hundred yards wide. Here the Chickasaws once had a small pottery. Upon this bluff is the most eligible situation for a town which I have as yet seen on the banks of the Mississippi. From the lower end of this bluff the river suddenly opens to the amazing width of four, five and six miles. Upon examination, I find our crew consist of one Irishman, one Anspacher, one Kentuckean, one person born on sea, one Virginian, and one Welshman; six total. At 12 o’clock came on a violent storm which with difficulty we evaded by exerting every nerve to gain the shore.
March 17th, 1791. The Irishman in honor of St. Patrick purloined all our brandy, sugar and eggs to make a tub of egg-nog, of which he drank so copiously that whilst at the helm he insensibly ran the vessel into a strong eddy, to get her out of which employed all hands in hard labor the balance of the day.
March 18th. At sunrise came on a slight snow which formed a curious contrast to the verdure of the trees. All the afternoon of this day we run due north.
19th. At 8 o’clock we run due south. All this day the weather was intensely cold, the wind blowing from north. At 1 o’clock we were hailed by a Pennsylvanian and a lad in a peroch laden with bear and buffalo meat taken on the St. Francis River and bound up the Osarque [Osage] River where there is a settlement of thirty families about thirty miles from its mouth. At 3 o’clock overtaken by two boats laden with flour and tobacco.
20th. At sunrise drew up a Kitten [catfish] of about twenty lbs. weight which with the help of God and an Irish cook we made into most excellent broth. At 9 o’clock came up with two large Pittsburg Boats at anchor laden with flour on the shore, opposite to which was a concourse of Osarque Indians.
21st. At 8 o’clock descried a keel-bottomed boat with a square sail bound to New Madrid. Her progress under a fair wind was at the rate of two and a half miles per hour, which might have been accelerated by the addition of oars. At sunset three of Mr. Craig’s tobacco boats came up with us whilst we lay in harbor.
22nd. At sunrise espied a vessel of General Wilkinson under the command of Captain Swaine, bound to New Orleans. At 8 o’clock we had in view six sail of the line.
24th. At break of day espied the Walnut Hills about ten miles below the Yasous [Yazoo] River which his Catholic Majesty limits as his boundary and below which his Vicegerents say that citizens of the United States shall not inhabit unless they throw themselves under the laws, banners, and protection of the King of Spain.
24th. At sunrise we shot the Grand Gulf opposite to which on either side the cane grows to the enormous height of forty and sometimes forty-five feet. At 9 o’clock passed the Bayou Pierre on the banks of which are three small houses and about thirty acres of ground under cultivation. About ten miles higher up the country it is pretty thickly inhabited by Virginians, Carolinians, Georgians, and some few stragglers from the eastern states.
26th. At sunrise came in sight of the town of Natchez, situated on the eastern bank of the river. It contains about a hundred houses and is the metropolis of the district and residence of Don Gayoso, the Governor. In this town and its vicinity we continued about a week.
27th. On Sunday I took a view of the Governor’s palace as also of the fort which from its elevated situation has a fine command of the river for about a mile up and double that distance down it. Though I think it might be assailed with success by a single regiment or taken by surprise with a less number. They have a good train of artillery though very injudiciously arranged, the back part of the fort being pregnable to a dozen men.
28th. Paid a visit to Don Granfrey, Commandant of the regular forces throughout the Natchez District. He lives about two miles from town. Here I was regaled with different kinds of fruits, wines, and parmesan cheese which were succeedent to [after] a very good substantial dinner.
29th. At the Natchez I observed an advertisement relating to a stray horse, for the setting up of which the owner was obliged to get the previous sanction of a magistrate. An inhabitant under the jurisdiction of Spain may be said to be, “Homo sine Spe, sine Sede, sine Re” [a man without credit, without hope, without anything].
The soil of this district is better adapted to the growing of corn, rice, and indigo than of tobacco, the cultivation of which is gradually falling into disuse. As an admittance of it into the king’s store is now positively refused from some political motives which the Governor thinks himself under no obligation to communicate, though the present crop was raised under a confidence reposed in his promise to receive and allow eight dollars per hundred for it.
30th. At 10 o’clock discovered the wreck of one of Mr. Craig’s tobacco boats which he had directed to be got under way. Into this boat exclusive of tobacco he had stowed a considerable quantity of bacon, butter, flour, and plank. He lost almost the whole.
31st. At 3 o’clock hailed by a row galley from New Orleans bound to New Madrid. At 4 o’clock espied the Long Reach, where the eye may take in an uninterrupted water prospect of twenty-three miles. At our entrance into the Long Reach we viewed the Red River about a quarter of a mile wide on the western side of the Mississippi. And three miles below it the Bayou Chappaliere which taking its leave of this river, disembogues its gentle stream into the Gulf of Mexico several leagues from the mouths of the Mississippi.
April 2nd. Hailed by two perochs, one bound to the Natchez, the other to the Bayou Pierre. For two days past we have been much harassed by mosquitoes. The poor Indians who go almost naked, construct an elevated bed of reeds which they fumigate so as to banish insects of every description from their lodgments. Slight whitewashed airy buildings become more common on the eastern side of the river and are in general occupied by people from the United States. Here are the most delightful prospects that ever caught my view.
3rd. At 10 o’clock viewed Point Coupee, a village twenty-one miles in length though narrow, consisting of inferior buildings interspersed now and then with dwelling houses and chapels of tolerable elegance. At 4 o’clock saw eight country seats on the eastern bank and at the lower end of some high bluffs, a large building of extraordinary workmanship and a dock-yard about half a mile below it. At 6 o’clock viewed the Alexandrian Bluffs from which on both sides of the river there is a continuation of beauteous farms and elegant buildings for the distance of sixty-one miles. The general width of the river all this day is about three quarters of a mile or rather less.
4th. About noon espied the suburbs of New Orleans and at 2 o’clock came abreast of the city on the eastern side of the river, in an island formed by the Mississippi and the Bayou St. John.
Source: John Pope, A Tour through the Southern and Western Territories of the United States (1792; reprinted for Charles L. Woodward, 1888), 21-37. https://archive.org/details/toldcontemporari03hartrich/page/110/mode/2up
