A DRIFT-LOG ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

BY ZEBEDEE HICKORY.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

"Now I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river, but there was no bridge to go over, and the river was very deep."-BUNYAN.

Ar the mouth of the Mississippi River, and at the point where it disgorges into the sea the contributions of a hundred tributary streams, besides its rapid current that attests its existence to the eye, are some scattered, low banks, scarce elevated above the level of its rushing and turbid waters.

These banks are formed by an accumulation of drift-wood and alluvial deposit, which is annually extending the great valley of the West.

Those banks recently formed, on which vegetation has scarcely commenced, are black and unsightly in appearance. Should curiosity tempt the traveller to plant his foot on their uninviting shores, they will present to him a hard crust of earth cracked into large fissures by an almost tropical sun, piles of drift-wood, the refuse of ancient forests a thousand miles away, bubbling salt springs and stagnant pools, where the halftorpid alligator basks in primeval mud.

On the evening of a fine day in spring, a few moments after sunset, a large clumsy-looking and dismantled ship approached the place described. She bore evident marks of stress of weather; top-gallant mast, fore-yard, and jib-boom carried away, ropes slack and awry, sides green and rusty, and a general appearance of desolation surrounding her, which would seem to denote that adverse and tempestuous winds had detained her long, and inflicted much damage.

On the top of a high and old-fashioned poop a person stood gazing long and intently on the scene (if scene it could be called) before him. He was alone in his musings, and perhaps by choice; others there were in the cuddy below, whose boisterous revelry proclaimed the licence usually taken on an approach to land. But though no misanthrope, this individual felt more disposed to indulge in solitary musings on reaching the land of his adoption, than to take part in the exhilaration of good fellowship.

Young, hale, and well-clad, he might have been a gentleman travelling for pleasure; he might have owned the vessel on which he stood; or he might have come with the prospect of carving his fortune in the western world. He was in the latter case-an adventurer; and there he stood.

The arrival of the extension-line high-pressure steam tow-boat Dandy Jim, puffing volumes of steam in fierce roars through a trumpet-shaped funnel, scarcely distracted his attention until a loud voice hailed the captain of the ship:

"Well, bos! how are you this time?”

"How are you, old horse ?"

"First-rate, old fellow. Bin blowin' pretty considerable where you bin, I expect?"

"Well-we had a few sneezers- -carried away some lumber." "How much water on the bar ?"

"What'll take you over, I guess."

Night closed in almost directly, and there was barely light sufficient to display the pilot-station as the ship passed.

Amongst the persons who came on board the ship, on her passage up the river with the aid of the steamer, was a tall, smooth-faced individual, with long hair like a boy, but with everything in his expression to contradict the juvenility which his apparel attempted; and particularly a remarkably ironical, almost sinister expression about the corners of his small black eye, which might be the result of climate, or might indicate a naturally sarcastic disposition. The person first mentioned, who answered to the name of Godfrey Selborne, had found sufficient interest in the appearance of the river to induce him to resume his station on deck next morning; and he stood looking out as before, when he was startled by a harsh voice at his elbow, which addressed him in these words :

Well, stranger, you're from the old country, I reckon ?"

Selborne turned round, and beheld the person we have partially described. Under the impression that this address was an intrusion on his privacy, he replied drily, and with an inquiring glance as if to say, Who the d-l are you? "I am, sir."

"Well, sir," responded his new acquaintance, "you breathe the air of freedom now."

"Yes, if the atmosphere of the United States deserves the title exclusively, I suppose we do."

"You hain't got such a river as this in your country, I expect?"

"No," replied Selborne, "I understand there is not its equal in the world."

This answer apparently gratified the stranger gentleman. He paused, and shifted his plug of tobacco to the other side of his mouth, and resumed.

"This is the 'father of waters.' An amazing sight of produce comes down here.'

"I do not doubt it," replied the Englishman. "Indeed, from all I can hear, the city above would be one of the largest commercial cities in the world, but for the sickness in it."

""Tain't sickly."

"No? then I have been misinformed. I have always learnt that the epidemics carry off great numbers, and cause business to be entirely suspended during the summer."

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Why, a stranger is bound to go through the acclimating process, any how; but the creoles of the place are hearty; they never die.”

"How is that?" said Godfrey.

"Why, they dry up and blow away."

"Oh, that is the way, is it?" said Selborne, with a half smile. "We are a great people," continued his new friend;

some, I tell you.'

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we go ahead

Well, allowing that, you must admit that we have some enterprise in England.'

“The British,” said he, “take things mighty easy. It's a long time before they take up an idea, and as long again before they act on it. They creep along slow, like a cockroach with its legs cut off. They don't fire up as we do. They are always making laws in one house to be

thrown out in the other; and whenever they do get a law passed, the need for it has gone by; or if it hasn't, why it's such a piece of mystification that it's rather more than a Philadelphia lawyer can do to understand it. Now we go right straight ahead. If the people want anything, it's bound to be done. We go on the high-pressure principle -bound to go, or burst."

"You mistake," said Selborne, drawing breath after this catalogue of the errors of his country; "you mistake the character of our system. We have two houses of representatives,-so have you; but we, being an older country, have more than one class to legislate for, and we conceive the delay of which you speak to be a safer error than precipitancy would be. It is our object to obstruct the progress of law-making, as our statute-books are already too cumbrous. For my part, I think safety is better than speed. Our system is more complicated than yours; and we must not be always trying experiments, or we shall get it out of order. It's all very well for a country in the first bloom of its youth, with immense territories and boundless resources, to spring up in fits and starts, for it can hardly move wrong; but for a grown-up nation, with a crowd of people in a small space, with great contrasts of social position, great poverty, and overgrown wealth to reconcile, we should produce a convulsion in a single season unless we legislated with great deliberation."

Selborne stopped here, a little astonished at himself, for he was not usually prosy.

"Well, perhaps," said his new friend; "but I calculate you'll admit we have greater resources than you?" "No," answered Selborne.

on the British empire."

"We have colonies. The sun never sets

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and if it don't, our energy is on the spot,

"It will do some day soon," replied the other; resources are all at hand, our people are here, our we're at home, and have nothing to do but wood up and go ahead, and we're bound to whip creation."

"You are now in the first flush of prosperity and independence," said Selborne; "your enthusiasm is pardonable. Scarcely two generations have passed over since you started on your own account; but by the time that England is stripped of her possessions, the population of America will have increased, so that a republic will be no longer a safe form of government. It will not do then to depend on individual discretion for the maintenance of law and order; you must be in a position to enforce both, or your boasted constitution will vanish before a flood of popular discontent in the hands of unprincipled agitators."

"That's just it," replied the stranger. "Every man here respects the law, and sees it kept. Every man is his own constable. His soul is in the constitution. He feels himself a part of the nation. He has a voice, and can make it heard. We're a great engine, with all the valves in working order, and all the wheels well greased. We don't keep a part of the machine out of sight, and condemn it as unfit for use. We put all the spokes in; and if they don't act, we find it out mighty quick.'

"Pardon me," said Selborne ; "the proper duty of a government is to protect her citizens; and when it becomes necessary for the citizen to protect himself, the government shows its inefficiency to do what it is paid for, besides being a very dangerous precedent, which would give brute force the ascendancy."

"There," said the stranger, changing the subject; "you see that bend in the river; that's called English Turn. It was there that Jackson knocked the Britishers into a cocked-hat."

"I never heard of the occurrence,” said Selborne.

"No!" replied his new friend; "that was the great battle of New Orleans, where the British lost 2000 of their best troops. But I see we are now at the levee: let's travel. Now, I reckon you're a stranger, come to try your hand here. Just mind this. You let our institutions alone, and stick to your business, and you'll get along slick. You'll rile up some of our citizens, if you say as much as you've said to me to-day. Recollect this: the beauty of a republic is, that every man goes on his own hook, and that's a fact. But come, let's go and have a drink." " I may have an oppor

May I ask ?" said Selborne. your name tunity of meeting you again."

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my

Well, you may," said he; diggins. Give me a call some time."

name's Aaron Snag, raised in these

"I shall be glad to do so," replied Selborne. "'Guess you put up at the St. Charles ?"

"Yes, for a week or so, I suppose."

Well, we'll call in at Hewlett's on the way up."

At the door of the place in question a crowd of some eight or ten people were standing, conversing in a loud tone of voice; one of whom, on perceiving Mr. Snag, called out

"Well, General, you're just in time to stand for the crowd."

"What, you were waiting for me, were you?"

"Fact, General."

"Well, slide in," said the general.

After a round potation at the bar, which was conducted with great speed, the whole party individually touching glasses together solemnly, they stood together conversing, during which time Selborne was introduced to the more prominent of the set. One of the number proposed another drink; to which motion Selborne was going to object, when his friend touched him, and said in an under tone

"Hush! you know the Kentucky rule ?"

No," replied our traveller.

"Either liquor or fight," said his friend.

"Oh!" said Selborne.

tution ?"

"What do you call this? Is it an insti

"No," answered Mr. Snag; "this is the high-pressure principle." "I perceive," answered Selborne.

Having to make arrangements for the night, he hastily tore himself away from the pleasant party, pondering as he went on the new application of the high-pressure principle, and Mr. Snag's theory, which defined the essence of a Republican government to be, "every man going on his own hook."

CHAPTER II.
INITIATIVE.

If you know neither the road you are going, nor where you are, nor the road you came, the first thing I have to inform you is, that you have lost your way. She Stoops to Conquer. GODFREY made his way down to the wharf as fast as he possibly could, for the sun was sinking rapidly, and it promised to be night be

fore he reached the ship. He found no difficulty in gaining the levee, as it lay in a straight line from the place he had left; and, once gained, he moved forward at a rapid pace. Meantime, the short twilight that prevails in these latitudes rapidly disappeared.

The wide and spacious wharf that fronts the river, which in the day had presented a scene of life and bustle not perhaps equalled elsewhere in the world, was now beginning to wear a more quiet appearance.

Hundreds of drays in a continuous line were making their way homewards. The day's work over, the drivers were urging their cattle along at a fast trot; and the clouds of dust disturbed by so great a multitude of wheels was almost unbearable.

Godfrey with some difficulty effected a passage through this train of waggons, not one of which reined up to allow him to pass; and, having gained the steam-boat wharf, pursued his way with more comfort. A few gangs of labourers were working to the last moment to facilitate the departure of the steamers which were to sail that evening; and, much to his surprise, amongst the number he saw a gang of white men labouring under command of a negro, who was called the bos' steredore. Notwithstanding his old-country notions about liberty of the subject, he could not help a feeling of shame at seeing his countrymen (they were all Irish) obedient to the commands, and submissive under the oaths, of a coloured man; for the latter person wielded his authority with rather more assumption and arrogance than was usual with his brethren of a fairer complexion.

Without, however, pausing to philosophise, he passed on, and soon left them, steam-boats and all, far behind. Having made his way to the lower wharf, where, to the best of his recollection, his ship had moored, he paused to look around for her. Much to his annoyance, the sun was now set, and the few persons lingering about the wharf were unable to inform him as to the position of his vessel. He roamed on to the very extremity of the line of ships, but without success. Disappointed, he began to retrace his steps, not altogether despairing of obtaining some clue to her locality; but as night closed in, he began to find that he had an almost hopeless task before him. Not without many ineffectual attempts to read the names of the vessels on the tiers which he passed, did he abandon his task in despair, and set about returning to the city. We need not say that this was almost as difficult a matter as his first object had been, as he now threaded the dark and dirty streets surrounding.

The darkness of the evening was enlivened at intervals by flaring barrooms, thronged by sailors and loafers, while groups within were playing cards at tables. In some of these places loud altercations were going on, and apparently some of the parties were on the eve of proceeding to extremities. At the door of one of these establishments three men were standing as Selborne hurried past. They wore, as far as he could distinguish, long dark beards, and had the appearance of Spaniards or Portugese. Before he could well get past the door, one of them stepped out in such a manner as to obstruct the passage of Selborne, who, in making way for him, had to pass close by the other two. This movement was evidently intentional, for the man pressed forward and looked inquisitively into Selborne's face. The latter could notice that the glance was neither a civil nor respectful one; but however disposed under other circumstances he might have been to stand upon his dignity, the fact of his being a