text:
Jochanan Hakkadosh

"This now, this other story makes amends And justifies our Mishna," quoth the Jew Aforesaid. "Tell it, learnedest of friends!"

—————

A certain morn broke beautiful and blue O'er Schiphaz city, bringing joy and mirth, —So had ye deemed; while the reverse was true,

Since one small house there gave a sorrow birth In such black sort that, to each faithful eye, Midnight, not morning settled on the earth.

How else, when it grew certain thou wouldst die, Our much-enlightened master, Israel's prop, Eximious Jochanan Ben Sabbathai?

Old, yea, but, undiminished of a drop, The vital essence pulsed through heart and brain; Time left unsickled yet the plenteous crop

On poll and chin and cheek, whereof a skein Handmaids might weave—hairs silk-soft, silver-white, Such as the wool-plant's; none the less in vain

Had Physic striven her best against the spite Of fell disease: the Rabbi must succumb; And, round the couch whereon in piteous plight

He lay a-dying, scholars,—awe-struck, dumb Throughout the night-watch,—roused themselves and spoke One to the other: "Ere death's touch benumb

"His active sense,—while yet 'neath Reason's yoke Obedient toils his tongue,—befits we claim The fruit of long experience, bid this oak

"Shed us an acorn which may, all the same, Grow to a temple-pillar,—dear that day!— When Israel's scattered seed finds place and name

"Among the envious nations. Lamp us, pray, Thou the Knlightener! Partest hence in peace? Hailest without regret—much less, dismay—

"The hour of thine approximate release From fleshly bondage soul hath found obstruct? Calmly envisagest the sure increase

"Of knowledge? Eden's tree must hold unplucked Some apple, sure, has never tried thy tooth, Juicy with sapience thou hast sought, not sucked?

"Say, does agn acquiesce in vanished youth?  Still towers thy purity above—as erst— Our pleasant follies? Be thy last word—truth!"

The Rabbi groaned; then, grimly, "Last as first The truth speak I—in boyhood who began Striving to live an angel, and, amerced

"For such presumption, die now hardly man. What have I proved of life? To live, indeed, That much I learned: but here lies Jochanan

"More luckless than stood David when, to speed His fighting with the Philistine, they brought  Saul's harness forth: whereat, 'Alack, I need

" 'Armour to arm me, but have never fought With sword and spear, nor tried to manage shield, Proving arms' use, as well-trained warrior ought.

" 'Only a sling and pebbles can I wield!' So he: while I, contrariwise, 'No trick Of weapon helpful on the battle-field

"Comes unfamiliar to my theoric: But, bid me put in practice what I know, Give me a sword—it stings like Moses' stick,

" 'A serpent I let drop apace.' E'en so, I,—able to comport me at each stage Of human life as never here below

"Man played his part,—since mine the heritage Of wisdom carried to that perfect pitch, Ye rightly praise,—I therefore, who, thus sage,

"Could sure act man triumphantly, enrich Life's annals with example how I played Lover, Bard, Soldier, Statist,—(all of which

"Parts in presentment failing, cries invade  The world's ear—'Ah, the Past, the pearl-gift thrown To hogs, time's opportunity we made

" 'So light of, only recognized when flown! Had we been wise!')—in fine, I—wise enough,— What profit brings me wisdom never shown

"Just when its showing would from each rebuff Shelter weak virtue, threaten back to bounds Encroaching vice, tread smooth each track too rough

"For youth's unsteady footstep, climb the rounds Of life's long ladder, one by slippery one,  Yet make no stumble? Me hard fate confounds

"With that same crowd of wailers I outrun By promising to teach another cry Of more hilarious mood than theirs, the sun

"I look my last at is insulted by. What cry,—ye ask? Give ear on every side! Witness yon Lover! 'How entrapped am I!

" 'Methought, because a virgin's rose-lip vied With ripe Khubbezleh's, needs must beauty mate With meekness and discretion in a bride:

" 'Bride she became to me who wail—too late— Unwise I loved!' That's one cry. 'Mind's my gift: I might have loaded me with lore, full weight

" 'Pressed down and running over at each rift O' the brain-bag where the famished clung and fed. I filled it with what rubbish!—would not sift

" 'The wheat from chaff, sound grain from musty—shed Poison abroad as oft as nutriment— And sighing say but as my fellows said,

" Unwise I learned! That's two. 'In dwarf's-play spent  Was giant's prowess: warrior all unversed In war's right waging, I struck brand, was lent

" 'For steel's fit service, on mere stone—and cursed Alike the shocked limb and the shivered steel, Seeing too late the blade's true use which erst

" 'How was I blind to! My cry swells the peal— Unwise I fought!' That's three. But wherefore waste Breath on the wailings longer? Why reveal

"A root of bitterness whereof the taste Is noisome to Humanity at large?  First we get Power, but Power absurdly placed

"In Folly's keeping, who resigns her charge To Wisdom when all Power grows nothing worth Bones marrowless are mocked with helm and targe

"When, like your Master's, soon below the earth With worms shall warfare only be. Fare well, Children! I die a failure since my birth!"

"Not so!" arose a protest as, pell-mell, They pattered from his chamber to the street, Bent on a last resource. Our Targums tell

That such resource there is. Put case, there meet The Nine Points of Perfection—rarest chance— Within some saintly teacher whom the fleet

Years, in their blind implacable advance, O'ertake beforeflit teaching born of these Have magnified his scholars' countenance,—

If haply folk compassionating please To render up—according to his store, Each one—a portion of the life he sees

Hardly worth saving when 'tis set before Earth's benefit should the Saint, Hakkadosh, Favoured thereby, attain to full fourscore—

If such contribute (Scoffer, spare thy "Bosh!") A year, a month, a day, an hour—to eke Life out,—in him away the gift shall wash

That much of ill-spent time recorded, streak The twilight of the so-assisted sage With a new sunrise: truth, though strange to speak!

Quick to the doorway, then, where youth and age, All Israel, thronging, waited for the last News of the loved one. "'Tis the final stage:

"Art's utmost done, the Rabbi's feet tread fast The way of all flesh!" So announced that apt Olive-branch Tsaddik: "Yet, O Brethren, cast

"No eye to earthward! Look where heaven has clapped Morning's extinguisher—yon ray-shot robe Of sun-threads—on the constellation mapped

"And mentioned by our Elders,—yea, from Job Down to Satam,—as figuring forth—what? Perpend a mystery! Ye call it Dob,

" 'The Bear': I trow, a wiser name than that Were Aisch—'The Bier': a corpse those four stars hold, Which—are not those Three Daughters weeping at,

"Banoth? I judge so: list while I unfold The reason. As in twice twelve hours this Bier Goes and returns, about the East-cone rolled,

"So may a setting luminary here Be rescued from extinction, rolled anew Upon its track of labour, strong and clear,

"About the Pole—that Salem, every Jew  Helps to build up when thus he saves some Saint Ordained its architect. Ye grasp the clue

"To all ye seek? The Rabbi's lamp-flame faint Sinks: would ye raise it? Lend then life from yours, Spare each his oil-drop! Do I need acquaint

"The Chosen how self-sacrifice ensures Tenfold requital?—urge ye emulate The fame of those Old Just Ones death procures

"Such praise for, that 'tis now men's sole debate Which of the Ten who volunteered at Rome  To die for glory to our Race, was great

"Beyond his fellows? Was it thou—the comb Of iron carded, flesh from bone, away, While thy lips sputtered thro' their bloody foam

"Without a stoppage (O brave Akiba!) 'Hear, Israel, our Lord God is One'? Or thou, Jischab?—who smiledst, burning, since there lay,

"Burning along with thee, our Law! I trow, Such martyrdom might tax flesh to afford: While that for which I make petition now,

"To what amounts it? Youngster, wilt thou hoard Each minute of long years thou look'st to spend In dalliance with thy spouse? Hast thou so soared,

"Singer of songs, all out of sight of friend And teacher, warbling like a woodland bird, There's left no Selah, 'twixt two psalms, to lend

"Our late-so-tuneful quirist? Thou, averred The fighter born to plant our lion-flag Once more on Zion's mount,—doth, all-unheard,

"My pleading fail to move thee? Toss some rag  Shall staunch our wound, some minute never missed From swordsman's lustihood like thine! Wilt lag

"In liberal bestowment, show close fist When open palm we look for,—thou, wide-known For statecraft? whom, 'tis said, an if thou list,

"The Shah himself would seat beside his throne. So valued were advice from thee". . . But here He stopped short: such a hubbub! Not alone

From those addressed, but far as well as near The crowd broke into clamour: "Mine, mine, mine—  Lop from my life the excrescence, never fear!

"At me thou lookedst, markedst me! Assign To me that privilege of granting life— Mine, mine!" Then he: "Be patient! I combine

"The needful portions only, wage no strife With Nature's law nor seek to lengthen out The Rabbi's day unduly. 'Tis the knife

"I stop,—would cut its thread too short. About As much as helps life last the proper term, The appointed Fourscore,—that I crave, and scout

"A too-prolonged existence. Let the worm Change at fit season to the butterfly! And here a story strikes me, to confirm

"This judgment. Of our worthies, none ranks high As Perida who kept the famous school: None rivalled him in patience: none! For why?

"In lecturing it was his constant rule, Whatever he expounded, to repeat —Ay, and keep on repeating, lest some fool

"Should fail to understand him fully—(feat  Unparalleled, Uzzean!)—do ye mark?— Five hundred times! So might he entrance beat

"For knowledge into howsoever dark And dense the brain-pan. Yet it happed, at close Of one especial lecture, not one spark

"Of light was found to have illumed the rows Of pupils round their pedagogue. 'What, still Impenetrable to me? Then—here goes!'

"And for a second time he sets the rill Of knowledge running, and five hundred times  More re-repeats the matter—and gains nil.

"Out broke a voice from heaven: 'Thy patience climbs Even thus high. Choose! Wilt thou, rather, quick Ascend to bliss—or, since thy zeal sublimes

" 'Such drudgery, will thy back still bear its crick, Bent o'er thy class,—thy voice drone spite of drouth,— Five hundred years more at thy desk wilt stick?'

" 'To heaven with me!' was in the good man's mouth, When all his scholars—cruel-kind were they!— Stopped utterance, from East, West, North and South,

"Rending the welkin with their shout of 'Nay— No heaven as yet for our instructor! Grant Five hundred years on earth for Perida!'

"And so long did he keep instructing! Want Our Master no such misery! I but take Three months of life marital. Ministrant

"Be thou of so much, Poet! Bold I make, Swordsman, with thy frank offer!—and conclude, Statist, with thine! One year,—ye will not shake

"My purpose to accept no more. So rude?  The very boys and girls, forsooth, must press And proffer their addition? Thanks! The mood

"Is laudable, but I reject, no less, One month, week, day of life more. Leave my gown, Ye overbold ones! Your life's gift, you guess,

"Were good as any? Rudesby, get thee down! Set my feet free, or fear my staff! Farewell, Seniors and saviours, sharers of renown

"With Jochanan henceforward!" Straightway fell Sleep on the sufferer; who awoke in health, Hale everyway, so potent was the spell.

—————

O the rare Spring-time! Who is he by stealth Approaches Jochanan?—embowered that sits Under his vine and figtree mid the wealth

Of garden-sights and sounds, since intermits Never the turtle's coo, nor stays nor stints The rose her smell. In homage that befits

The musing Master, Tsaddik, see, imprints A kiss on the extended foot, low bends Forehead to earth, then, all-obsequious, hints

"What if it should be time? A period ends— That of the Lover's gift—his quarter-year Of lustihood: 'tis just thou make amends,

"Return that loan with usury: so, here Come I, of thy Disciples delegate, Claiming our lesson from thee. Make appear

"Thy profit from experience! Plainly state How men should Love!" Thus he: and to him thus The Rabbi: "Love, ye call it?—rather, Hate!

"What wouldst thou? Is it needful I discuss  Wherefore new sweet wine, poured in bottles caked With old strong wine's deposit, otters us

"Spoilt liquor we recoil from, thirst-unslaked? Like earth-smoke from a crevice, out there wound Languors and yearnings: not a sense but ached

"Weighed on by fancied form and feature, sound Of silver word and sight of sunny smile: No beckoning of a flower-branch, no profound

'— Purple of noon-oppression, no light wile O' the West wind, but transformed itself till—brief— Before me stood the phantasy ye style

"Youth's love, the joy that shall not come to grief, Born to endure, eternal, unimpaired By custom the accloyer, time the thief.

"Had Age's hard cold knowledge only spared That ignorance of Youth! But now the dream, Fresh as from Paradise, alighting fared

"As fares the pigeon, finding what may seem Her nest's safe hollow holds a snake inside Coiled to enclasp her. See, Eve stands supreme

"In youth and beauty! Take her for thy bride! What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew Morn set a-sparkle, but which noon has dried

"While Youth hent gazing at its red and blue Supposed perennial,—never dreamed the sun Which kindled the display would quench it too.

"Graces of shape and colour—everyone With its appointed period of decay When ripe to purpose! 'Still, these dead and done,

" 'Survives the woman-nature—the soft sway  Of undefinable omnipotence O'er our strong male-stuff, we of Adam's clay.'

"Ay, if my physics taught not why and whence The attraction! Am I like the simple steer Who, from his pasture lured inside the fence,

"Where yoke and goad await him, holds that mere Kindliness prompts extension of the hand Hollowed for barley, which drew near and near

"His nose—in proof that, of the horned band, The farmer best affected him? Beside,  Steer, long since calfhood, got to understand

"Farmers a many in the world so wide Were ready with a handful just as choice Or choicer—maize and cummin, treats untried.

"Shall I wed wife, and all my days rejoice I gained the peacock? 'Las me, round I look, And lo—'With me thou would'st have blamed no voice

" 'Like hers that daily deafens like a rook: I am the phoenix!'—'I, the lark, the dove, —The owl,' for aught knows he who blindly took

"Peacock for partner, while the vale, the grove, The plain held bird-mates in abundance. There! Youth, try fresh capture! Age has found out Love

"Long ago. War seems better worth man's care. But leave me! Disappointment finds a balm Haply in slumber." "This first step o' the stair

"To knowledge fails me, but the victor's palm Lies on the next to tempt him overleap A stumbling-block. Experienced, gather calm,

"Thou excellence of Judah, cured by sleep  Which ushers in the Warrior, to replace The Lover! At due season I shall reap

"Fruit of my planting!" So, with lengthened face, Departed Tsaddik: and three moons more waxed And waned, and not until the Summer-space

Waned likewise, any second visit taxed The Rabbi's patience. But at three months' end, Behold, supine beneath a rock, relaxed

The sage lay musing till the noon should spend Its ardour. Up comes Tsaddik, who but he, With "Master, may I warn thee, nor offend,

"That time comes round again? We look to see Sprout from the old branch—not the youngling twig— But fruit of sycamine: deliver me,

"To share among my fellows, some plump fig, Juicy as seedy! That same man of war, Who, with a scantling of his store, made big

"Thy starveling nature, caused thee, safe from scar, To share his gains by long acquaintanceship With bump and bruise and all the knocks that are

"Of battle dowry,—he bids loose thy lip, Explain the good of battle! Since thou know'st, Let us know likewise! Fast the moments slip,

"More need that we improve them!"—"Ay, we boast, We warriors in our youth, that with the sword Man goes the swiftliest to the uttermost—

"Takes the straight way thro' lands yet unexplored To absolute Right and Good,—may so obtain God's glory and man's weal too long ignored,

"Too late attained by preachments all in vain—  The passive process. Knots get tangled worse By toying with: does cut cord close again?

"Moreover there is blessing in the curse Peace-praisers call war. What so sure evolves All the capacities of soul, proves nurse

"Of that self-sacrifice in men which solves The riddle—Wherein differs Man from beast? Foxes boast cleverness and courage wolves:

"Nowhere but in mankind is found the least Touch of an impulse 'To our fellows—good  I' the highest!—not diminished but increased

" 'By the condition plainly understood —Such good shall be attained at price of hurt I' the highest to ourselves!' Fine sparks, that brood

"Confusedly in Man, 'tis war bids spurt Forth into flame: as fares the meteor-mass, Whereof no particle but holds inert

"Some seed of light and heat, however crass The enclosure, yet avails not to discharge Its radiant birth before there come to pass

"Some push external,—strong to set at large Those dormant fire-seeds, whirl them in a trice Through heaven, and light up earth from marge to marge:

"Since force by motion makes—what erst was ice— Crash into fervency and so expire, Because some Djinn has hit on a device

"For proving the full prettiness of fire! Ay, thus we prattle—young: but old—why, first, Where's that same Right and Good—(the wise inquire)—

"So absolute, it warrants the outburst  Of blood, tears, all war's woeful consequence, That comes of the fine flaring? Which plague cursed

"The more your benefited Man—offence, Or what suppressed the offender? Say it did— Show us the evil cured by violence,

"Submission cures not also! Lift the lid From the maturing crucible, we find Its slow sure coaxing-out of virtue, hid

"In that same meteor-mass, hath uncombined Those particles and, yielding for result  Gold, not mere flame, by so much leaves behind

"The heroic product. E'en the simple cult Of Edom's children wisely bids them turn Cheek to the smiter with Sic Jesus vult.

"Say there's a tyrant by whose death we earn Freedom, and justify a war to wage: Good!—were we only able to discern

"Exactly how to reach and catch and cage Him only and no innocent beside! Whereas the folk whereon war wreaks its rage

"—How shared they his ill-doing? Far and wide The victims of our warfare strew the plain, Ten thousand dead, thereof not one but died

"In faith that vassals owed their suzerain Life: therefore each paid tribute,—honest soul,— To that same Right and Good ourselves are fain

"To claim exclusively our end. From bole (Since ye accept in me a sycamine) Pluck, eat, digest a fable—yea, the sole

"Fig I afford you! 'Dost thou dwarf my vine?'  (So did a certain husbandman address The tree which faced his field.) 'Receive condign

" 'Punishment, prompt removal by the stress Of axe I forthwith lay unto thy root!' Long did he hack and hew, the root no less

"As long defied him, for its tough strings shoot As deep down as the boughs above aspire: All that he did was—shake to the tree's foot

"Leafage and fruitage, things we most require For shadow and refreshment: which good deed  Thoroughly done, behold the axe-haft tires

"His hand, and he desisting leaves unfreed The vine he hacked and hewed for. Comes a frost, One natural night's work, and there's little need

"Of hacking, hewing: lo, the tree's a ghost! Perished it starves, black death from topmost bough To farthest-reaching fibre! Shall I boast

"My rough work,—warfare,—helped more? Loving, now— That, by comparison, seems wiser, since The loving fool was able to avow

"He could effect his purpose, just evince Love's willingness,—once 'ware of what she lacked, His loved one,—to go work for that, nor wince

"At self-expenditure: he neither hacked Nor hewed, but when the lady of his field Required defence because the sun attacked,

"He, failing to obtain a fitter shield, Would interpose his body, and so blaze, Blest in the burning. Ah, were mine to wield

"The intellectual weapon—poet-lays,—  How preferably had I sung one song Which . . . but my sadness sinks me: go your ways!

"I sleep out disappointment." "Come along, Never lose heart! There's still as much again Of our bestowment left to right the wrong

"Done by its earlier moiety—explain Wherefore, who may! The Poet's mood comes next. Was he not wishful the poetic vein

"Should pulse within him? Jochanan, thou reck'st Little of what a generous flood shall soon  Float thy clogged spirit free and unperplexed

"Above dry dubitation! Song's the boon Shall make amends for my untoward mistake That Joshua-like thou could'st bid sun and moon—

"Fighter and Lover,—which for most men make All they descry in heaven,—stand both stock-still And lend assistance. Poet shalt thou wake!"

Autumn brings Tsaddik. "Ay, there speeds the rill Loaded with leaves: a scowling sky, beside: The wind makes olive-trees up yonder hill

"Whiten and shudder—symptoms far and wide Of gleaning-time's approach; and glean good store May I presume to trust we shall, thou tried

"And ripe experimenter! Three months more Have ministered to growth of Song: that graft Into thy sterile stock has found at core

"Moisture, I warrant, hitherto unquaffed By boughs, however florid, wanting sap Of prose-experience which provides the draught

"Mere song-sprouts, wanting, wither: vain we tap  A youngling stem all green and immature; Experience must secrete the stuff, our hap

"Will be to quench Man's thirst with, glad and sure That fancy wells up through corrective fact: Missing which test of truth, though flowers allure

"The goodman's eye with promise, soon the pact Is broken, and 'tis flowers,—mere words,—he finds When things,—that's fruit,—he looked for. Well, once cracked

"The nut, how glad my tooth the kernel grinds! Song may henceforth boast substance! Therefore, hail  Proser and poet, perfect in both kinds!

"Thou from whose eye hath dropped the envious scale Which hides the truth of things and substitutes Deceptive show, unaided optics fail

"To transpierce,—hast entrusted to the lute's Soft but sure guardianship some unrevealed Secret shall lift mankind above the brutes

"As only knowledge can?" "A fount unsealed" (Sighed Jochanan) "should seek the heaven in leaps To die in dew-gems—not find death, congealed

"By contact with the cavern's nether deeps, Earth's secretest foundation where, enswathed In dark and fear, primaeval mystery sleeps—

"Petrific fount wherein my fancies bathed And straight turned ice. My dreams of good and fair In soaring upwards had dissolved, unscathed

"By any influence of the kindly air, Singing, as each took flight, The Future—that's Our destination, mists turn rainbows there,

"Which sink to fog, confounded in the flats  O' the Present! Day's the song-time for the lark, Night for her music boasts but owls and bats.

"And what's the Past but night—the deep and dark Ice-spring I speak of, corpse-thicked with its drowned Dead fancies which no sooner touched the mark

"They aimed at—fact—than all at once they found Their film-wings freeze, henceforth unfit to reach And roll in aether, revel—robed and crowned

"As truths, confirmed by falsehood all and each— Sovereign and absolute and ultimate!  Up with them, skyward, Youth, ere Age impeach

"Thy least of promises to re-instate Adam in Eden! Sing on, ever sing, Chirp till thou burst!—the fool cicada's fate,

"Who holds that after Summer next comes Spring, Than Summer's self sun-warmed, spice-scented more. Fighting was better! There, no fancy-fling

"Pitches you past the point was reached of yore By Sampsons, Abners, Joabs, Judases, The mighty men of valour who, before

"Our little day, did wonders none profess To doubt were fable and not fact, so trust By fancy-flights to emulate much less.

"Were I a Statesman, now! Why, that were just To pinnacle my soul, mankind above, A-top the universe: no vulgar lust

"To gratify—fame, greed, at this remove Looked down upon so far—or overlooked So largely, rather—that mine eye should rove

"World-wide and rummage earth, the many-nooked,  Yet find no unit of the human flock Caught straying but straight comes back hooked and crooked

"By the strong shepherd who, from out his stock Of aids proceeds to treat each ailing fleece, Here stimulate to growth, curtail and dock

"There, baldness or excrescence,—that, with grease, This, with up-grubbing of the bristly patch Born of the tick-bite. How supreme a peace

"Steals o'er the Statist,—while, in wit, a match For shrewd Ahithophel, in wisdom . . . well,  His name escapes me—somebody, at watch

"And ward, the fellow of Ahithophel In guidance of the Chosen!"—at which word Eyes closed and fast asleep the Rabbi fell.

"Cold weather!" shivered Tsaddik. "Yet the hoard Of the sagacious ant shows garnered grain, Ever abundant most when fields afford

"Least pasture, and alike disgrace the plain Tall tree and lowly shrub. 'Tis so with us Mortals: our age stores wealth ye seek in vain

"While busy youth culls just what we discuss At leisure in the last days: and the last Truly are these for Jochanan, whom thus

"I make one more appeal to! Thine amassed Experience, now or never, let escape Some portion of! For I perceive aghast

"The end approaches, while they jeer and jape, These sons of Shimei: 'Justify your boast! What have ye gained from Death by twelve months' rape?'

"Statesman, what cure hast thou for—least and most—  Popular grievances? What nostrum, say, Will make the Rich and Poor, expertly dosed,

"Forget disparity, bid each go gay, That, with his bauble,—with his burden, this? Propose an alkahest shall melt away

"Men's lacquer, show by prompt analysis Which is the metal, which the make-believe, So that no longer brass shall find, gold miss

"Coinage and currency? Make haste, retrieve The precious moments, Master!" Whereunto There snarls an "Ever laughing in thy sleeve,

"Pert Tsaddik? Youth indeed sees plain a clue To guide man where life's wood is intricate: How shall he fail to thrid its thickets through

"When every oak-trunk takes the eye? Elate He goes from bole to brushwood, plunging finds— Smothered in briars—that the small's the great!

"All men are men: I would all minds were minds! Whereas 'tis just the many's mindless mass That most needs helping: labourers and hinds

"We legislate for—not the cultured class Which law-makes for itself nor needs the whip And bridle,—proper help for mule and ass,

"Did the brutes know! In vain our statesmanship Strives at contenting the rough multitude: Still the ox cries ' 'Tis me thou shouldst equip

" 'With equine trappings!' or, in humbler mood, 'Cribful of corn for me! and, as for work— Adequate rumination o'er my food!'

"Better remain a Poet! Needs it irk  Such an one if light, kindled in his sphere, Fail to transfuse the Mizraim cold and murk

"Round about Goshen? Though light disappear, Shut inside,—temporary ignorance Got outside of, lo, light emerging clear

"Shows each astonished starer the expanse Of heaven made bright with knowledge! That's the way, The only way—I see it at a glance—

"To legislate for earth! As poet . . . Stay! What is . . . I would that . . . were it . . . I had been . . .  O sudden change, as if my arid clay

"Burst into bloom! . . ." "A change indeed, I ween, And change the last!" sighed Tsaddik as he kissed The closing eyelids. "Just as those serene

"Princes of Night apprised me! Our acquist Of life is spent, since corners only four Hath Aisch, and each in turn was made desist

"In passage round the Pole (O Mishna's lore— Little it profits here!) by strenuous tug Of friends who eked out thus to full fourscore

"The Rabbi's years. I see each shoulder shrug! What have we gained? Away the Bier may roll! To-morrow, when the Master's grave is dug,

"In with his body I may pitch the scroll I hoped to glorify with, text and gloss, My Science of Man's Life: one blank's the whole!

"Love, war, song, statesmanship—no gain, all loss, The stars' bestowment! We on our return To-morrow merely find—not gold but dross,

"The body not the soul. Come, friends, we learn  At least thus much by our experiment— That—that . . . well, find what, whom it may concern!"

But next day through the city rumours went Of a new persecution; so, they fled All Israel, each man,—this time,—from his tent,

Tsaddik among the foremost. When, the dread Subsiding, Israel ventured back again Some three months after, to the cave they sped

Where lay the Sage,—a reverential train! Tsaddik first enters. "What is this I view?  The Rabbi still alive? No stars remain

"Of Aisch to stop within their courses. True, I mind me, certain gamesome boys must urge Their offerings on me: can it be—one threw

"Life at him and it stuck? There needs the scourge To teach that urchin manners! Prithee, grant Forgiveness if we pretermit thy dirge

"Just to explain no friend was ministrant, This time, of life to thee! Some jackanapes, I gather, has presumed to foist his scant

"Scurvy unripe existence—wilding grapes Grass-green and sorrel-sour—on that grand wine, Mighty as mellow, which, so fancy shapes

"May fitly image forth this life of thine Fed on the last low fattening lees—condensed Elixir, no milk-mildness of the vine!

"Rightly with Tsaddik wert thou now incensed Had he been witting of the mischief wrought When, for elixir, verjuice he dispensed!"

And slowly woke,—like Shushan's flower besought By over-curious handling to unloose The curtained secrecy wherein she thought

Her captive bee, mid store of sweets to choose, Would loll in gold, pavilioned lie unteased, Sucking on, sated never,—whose, O whose

Might seem that countenance, uplift, all eased Of old distraction and bewilderment, Absurdly happy? "How ye have appeased

"The strife within me, bred this whole content, This utter acquiescence in my past  Present and future life,—by whom was lent

"The power to work this miracle at last,— Exceeds my guess. Though—ignorance confirmed By knowledge sounds like paradox, I cast

"Vainly about to tell you—fitlier termed— Of calm struck by encountering opposites, Each nullifying either! Henceforth wormed

"From out my heart is every snake that bites The dove that else would brood there: doubt, which kills With hiss of 'What if sorrows end delights?'

"Fear which stings ease with 'Work the Master wills!' Experience which coils round and strangles quick Each hope with 'Ask the Past if hoping skills

" 'To work accomplishment, or proves a trick Wiling thee to endeavour! Strive, fool, stop Nowise, so live, so die—that's law! why kick

" 'Against the pricks?' All out-wormed! Slumber, drop Thy films once more and veil the bliss within! Experience strangle hope? Hope waves a-top

"Her wings triumphant! Come what will, I win,  Whoever loses! Every dream's assured Of soberest fulfilment. Where's a sin

"Except in doubting that the light, which lured The unwary into darkness, meant no wrong Had I but marched on bold, nor paused immured

"By mists I should have pressed thro', passed along My way henceforth rejoicing? Not the boy's Passionate impulse he conceits so strong,

"Which, at first touch, truth, bubble-like, destroys,— Not the man's slow conviction 'Vanity  Of vanities—alike my griefs and joys!'

"Ice!—thawed (look up) each bird, each insect by— (Look round) by all the plants that break in bloom, (Look down) by every dead friend's memory

"That smiles 'Am I the dust within my tomb?' Not either, but both these—amalgam rare— Mix in a product, not from Nature's womb,

"But stuff which He the Operant—who shall dare Describe His operation?—strikes alive And thaumaturgic. I nor know nor care

"How from this tohu-bohu—hopes which dive, And fears which soar—faith, ruined through and through By doubt, and doubt, faith treads to dust—revive

"In some surprising sort,—as see, they do!— Not merely foes no longer but fast friends. What does it mean unless—O strange and new

"Discovery!—this life proves a wine-press—blends Evil and good, both fruits of Paradise, Into a novel drink which—who intends

"To quaff, must bear a brain for ecstasies  Attempered, not this all-inadequate Organ which, quivering within me, dies

"—Nay, lives!—what, how,—too soon, or else too late— I was—I am . . ." ("He babbleth!" Tsaddik mused) "O Thou Almighty who canst reinstate

Truths in their primal clarity, confused By man's perception, which is man's and made To suit his service,—how, once disabused

"Of reason which sees light half shine half shade, Because of flesh, the medium that adjusts  Purity to his visuals, both an aid

"And hindrance,—how to eyes earth's air encrusts, When purged and perfect to receive truth's beam Pouring itself on the new sense it trusts

"With all its plenitude of power,—how seem The intricacies now, of shade and shine, Oppugnant natures—Right and Wrong, we deem

"Irreconcilable? O eyes of mine, Freed now of imperfection, ye avail To see the whole sight, nor may uncombine

"Henceforth what, erst divided, caused you quail— So huge the chasm between the false and true, The dream and the reality! All hail,

"Day of my soul's deliverance—day the new, The never-ending! What though every shape Whereon I wreaked my yearning to pursue

"Even to success each semblance of escape From my own bounded self to some all-fair All-wise external fancy, proved a rape

"Like that old giant's, feigned of fools—on air,  Not solid flesh? How otherwise? To love— That lesson was to learn not here—but there—

"On earth, not here! 'Tis there we learn,—there prove Our parts upon the stuff we needs must spoil, Striving at mastery, there bend above

"The spoiled clay potsherds, many a year of toil Attests the potter tried his hand upon, Till sudden he arose, wiped free from soil

"His hand, cried 'So much for attempt—anon Performance! Taught to mould the living vase,  What matter the cracked pitchers dead and gone?'

"Could I impart and could thy mind embrace The secret, Tsaddik!" "Secret none to me!" Quoth Tsaddik, as the glory on the face

Of Jochanan was quenched. "The truth I see Of what that excellence of Judah wrote, Doughty Halaphta. This a case must be

"Wherein, though the last breath have passed the throat, So that 'The man is dead' we may pronounce, Yet is the Ruach—(thus do we denote

"The imparted Spirit)—in no haste to bounce From its entrusted Body,—some three days Lingers ere it relinquish to the pounce

"Of hawk-clawed Death his victim. Further says Halaphta, 'Instances have been, and yet Again may be, when saints, whose earthly ways

" 'Tend to perfection, very nearly get To heaven while still on earth: and, as a fine Interval shows where waters pure have met

" 'Waves brackish, in a mixture, sweet with brine,  That's neither sea nor river but a taste Of both—so meet the earthly and divine

" 'And each is either.' Thus I hold him graced— Dying on earth, half inside and half out, Wholly in heaven, who knows? My mind embraced

"Thy secret, Jochanan, how dare I doubt? Follow thy Ruach, let earth, all it can, Keep of the leavings!" Thus was brought about

The sepulture of Rabbi Jochanan: Thou hast him,—sinner-saint, live-dead, boy-man,— Schiphaz, on Bendimir, in Farzistan!

Note
This story can have no better authority than that of the treatise, existing dispersedly in fragments of Rabbinical writing, ברים משך של רבים, from which I might have helped myself more liberally. Thus, instead of the simple reference to "Moses' stick",—but what if I make amends by attempting three illustrations, when some thirty might be composed on the same subject, equally justifying that pithy proverb קם כמשה ממשה עד משה לא.

I

Moses the Meek was thirty cubits high, The staff he strode with—thirty cubits long; And when he leapt, so muscular and strong Was Moses that his leaping neared the sky By thirty cubits more: we learn thereby He reached full ninety cubits—am I wrong?— When, in a fight slurred o'er by sacred song, With staff outstretched he took a leap to try The just dimensions of the giant Og. And yet he barely touched—this marvel lacked Posterity to crown earth's catalogue Of marvels—barely touched—to be exact— The giant's ankle-bone, remained a frog That fain would match an ox in stature: fact!

II

And this same fact has met with unbelief! How saith a certain traveller? "Young, I chanced     To come upon an object—if thou canst, Guess me its name and nature! 'Twas, in brief, White, hard, round, hollow, of such length, in chief,      —And this is what especially enhanced My wonder—that it seemed, as i advanced, Never to end. Bind up within thy sheaf Of marvels, this—Posterity! I walked      From end to end,—four hours walked I, who go A goodly pace,—and found—I have not baulked      Thine expectation, Stranger? Ay or No? 'Twas but Og's thigh-bone, all the while. I stalked      Alongside of: respect to Moses, though!

III

Og's thigh-bone—if ye deem its measure strange, Myself can witness to much length of shank Even in birds. Upon a water's bank Once halting, I was minded to exchange Noon heat for cool. Quoth I, "On many a grange     I have seen storks perch—legs both long and lank:      Yon stork's must touch the bottom of this tank, Since on its top doth wet no plume derange Of the smooth breast. I'll bathe there!" "Do not so!" Warned me a voice from heaven. "A man let drop     His axe into that shallow rivulet— As thou accountest—seventy years ago: It fell and fell and still without a stop      Keeps falling, nor has reached the bottom yet."

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 PETER AND WENDY CHAPTER I PETER BREAKS THROUGH

LL children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

Of course they lived at 14, and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was Rh

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Rh like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.

The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.

Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.

Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were Rh

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I. How to Roast and Boil to Perfection every Thing necessary to be sent up to Table. II. Of Made-dishes. III. How expensive a French Cook's Sauce is. IV. To make a Number of pretty little Dishes for a Supper or Side-dish, and little Corner-dishes for a great Table. V. To dress Fish. VI. Of Soops and Broths. VII. Of Puddings. VIII. Of Pies. IX. For a Lent Dinner; a Number of good Dishes, which you may make use of at any other time. X. Directions to prepare proper Food for the Sick. XI. For Captains of Ships; how to make all useful Things for a Voyage; and setting out a Table on board a Ship. XII. Of Hogs Puddings, Sausages, &c. XIII. To pot and make Hams, &c. XIV. Of Pickling. XV. Of making Cakes, &c. XVI. Of Cheese-cakes, Creams, Jellies, Whip-Syllabubs, &c. XVII. Of made Wines, Brewing, French Bread, Muffins, &c. XVIII. Jarring Cherries and Preserves, &c. XIX. To make Anchovies, Vermicella, Catchup, Vinegar, and to keep Artichokes, French Beans, &c. XX. Of Distilling. XXI. How to market; the Season of the Year for Butchers Meat, Poultry, Fish, Herbs, Roots, and Fruit. XXII. A certain Cure for the Bite of a Mad Dog. By Dr. Mead. XXIII. A Receipt to keep clear from Buggs.

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Rh of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darling's guesses.

Wendy came first, then John, then Michael.

For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand and calculating expenses, while she looked at him imploringly. She wanted to risk it, come what might, but that was not his way; his way was with a pencil and a piece of paper, and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin at the beginning again.

"Now don't interrupt," he would beg of her.

"I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; I can cut off my coffee at the office, say ten shillings, making two nine and six, with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven, with five naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven,—who is that moving?—eight nine seven, dot and carry seven—don't speak, my own—and the pound you lent to that man who came to the door—quiet, child—dot and carry child—there, you've done it!—did I say nine nine seven? yes, I said nine nine seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on nine nine seven?"

"Of course we can, George," she cried. But she Rh

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Rh was prejudiced in Wendy's favour, and he was really the grander character of the two.

"Remember mumps," he warned her almost threateningly, and off he went again. "Mumps one pound, that is what I have put down, but I daresay it will be more like thirty shillings—don't speak—measles one five, German measles half a guinea, makes two fifteen six—don't waggle your finger—whooping-cough, say fifteen shillings"—and so on it went, and it added up differently each time, but at last Wendy just got through, with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles treated as one.

There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's Kindergarten school, accompanied by their nurse.

Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, Rh

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Rh and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking round your throat. She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. It was a lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them back into line if they strayed. On John's footer days she never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain. There is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom's school where the nurses wait. They sat on forms, while Nana lay on the floor, but that was the only difference. They affected to ignore her as of an inferior social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. She resented visits to the nursery from Mrs. Darling's friends, but if they did come she first whipped off Michael's pinafore and put him into the one with blue braiding,and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash at John's hair. Rh

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Rh No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, and Mr. Darling knew it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily whether the neighbours talked.

He had his position in the city to consider.

Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feeling that she did not admire him. "I know she admires you tremendously, George," Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then she would sign to the children to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed, in which the only other servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget she looked in her long skirt and maid's cap, though she had sworn, when engaged, that she would never see ten again. The gaiety of those romps! And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so wildly that all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had dashed at her you might have got it. There never was a simpler happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.

Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you would see Rh

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Rh your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtinesses and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind, and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.

I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, Rh

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Rh and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, threepence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.

Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents. But on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have each other's nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.

Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one Rh

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54 the Ohio, west by the Mississippi, and north by the line between the United States and Canada, which makes the extent of this Territory considerably greater than the State of Ohio.

The general face of the country approaches to a level, but some parts of it are hilly. It has a number of large, navigable rivers meandering through it to the Ohio and Mississippi, and many smaller streams, some of which run into the lakes.

The Wabash is a large river, rising near the head waters of the river St. Joseph, and the Miami at the lakes, and running in a southwesterly direction empties into the Ohio,about four hundred and seventy miles below the Great Miami river. It is four hundred yards wide at the mouth, and navigable for keel boats, about four hundred miles, to Ouiatan, an ancient French village; and from this village, with small craft, to a portage on a south branch, which forms a communication with the Miami that runs into Lake Erie. This portage is eight miles, and comes to the Miami near Fort Wayne.

From a north branch, by a short portage, a communication is made with the river Saint Joseph, running into Lake Michigan. The Wabash is replenished with numerous tributary streams, and has generally, a gentle current above Saint Vincennes. Below are several rapids. Those which principally obstruct the navigation are between Saint Vincennes and White river, called


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55 the great Rapids. Near the village Ouiatan, it is said a silver mine has been discovered, which it is apprehended will prove valuable. About forty miles below the village comes in the river Vermillion Jaune. On this river is the residence of the much famed Indian Prophet. The town in which he lives is large for an Indian village, and has received the name of the Prophet's town. Much of the land on the Wabash is rich and well timbered, but towards the head waters there is less timber, and very fertile and extensive prairies. A white and blue clay of an excellent quality is said to abound on this river. There are many salt springs, and plenty of lime and free stone.

Saint Vincennes is a handsome town, about an hundred miles from the mouth of the river, situated on the east bank, upon a beautiful, level, and rich spot of ground. It is the largest town in the Territory, and is made the seat of government. This was an ancient French fortress, called Post Saint Vincennes. Since the American revolution the town has been repaired and enlarged, and is now a very thriving place, but the inhabitants still are mostly French. There are more than an hundred houses, some of which are built of free stone, in a handsome style, a considerable number of merchantile stores, a post office and printing office. Here, a profitable trade is carried on in furs and peltry. The situation is healthy, the winters mild, and the rich and highly cultivated lands around it are delightful.


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56 About forty miles from Saint Vincennes, in a southwesterly direction, is the Great Sabine [sic], so called, where salt, in large quantities, is made. It is situated in hilly land, on a stream of water which flows into the Ohio. The land is still owned by the government of the United States, but rented to those who carry on the salt works, and who are said to obligate themselves to make, at least, a certain quantity annually, and are not permitted to sell it for more than at a stipulated price. The waters in this Saline are said to have double the strength of those at the great salt springs on the Scioto river.

The land on the Indiana side, bordering on the Ohio river, from the Great Miami nearly to the Mississippi, a distance of about six hundred miles, is generally hilly and broken, but some excellent bottoms, of different extent, are interspersed. From a small distance above fort Massai and down to the mouth of the Ohio, the land gradually becomes level, forming a rich and delightful prairie. In this distance, there are many small streams, but no considerable river, excepting the Wabash, which falls into the Ohio.

But on the opposite side, within a less distance three large, navigable rivers, besides numerous smaller streams, contribute their waters to the Ohio. The first is Kentucky river, which comes in about seventy miles following the bends of the river below the Great Miami, is ninety yards wide at its mouth, and the same width, when the


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57 water is high, eighty miles above. It is navigable for loaded boats, at a high stage of the water, two hundred miles. The second is the Cumberland, or Shawnee river, which falls into the Ohio about five hundred miles below the Kentucky river, and four hundred miles below the Rapids, and is three hundred yards wide at its mouth. There being no obstructions, and having a fine gentle current, ships of four hundred tons can descend in times of floods from the distance of about four hundred miles into the Ohio. The third is the Tennessee, or Cherokee river, which enters the Ohio, about twelve miles below the Cumberland; and is five hundred yards wide at its mouth. This is the largest river that empties into the Ohio. It is computed to be navigable for boats one thousand miles, and will admit vessels of considerable burden as far as the Muscle Shoals, which is two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth.

On the Indiana side of the Ohio, there are only some scattering settlements, excepting Jeffersonville, and Clarksville, two small villages, at the Rapids, one hundred and fifty miles below the Great Miami. Jeffersonville is situated in the bend of the river, on an high bank, just above the Rapids, where pilots are taken off for conducting vessels over them. It is a post town, but contains only a small number of inhabitants, and probably will never be a thriving place. Clarksville is another small village immediately below


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58 the Rapids, and opposite the elbow at Shippingport. In time it may become a place of considerable business. On the opposite bank, about midway between these two villages and opposite the Rapids, is Louisville, which is much larger, and bids fair to become a flourishing town. It is situated on an elevated plain, and contains about one hundred and fifty houses, a printing and a post office. It is a port of entry, and has a considerable number of mercantile stores, and several ware houses for storing goods. Shippingport is on the same side, at the foot of the falls. Here, boats generally make a landing after passing the Rapids. Ship building was began and was carried on with considerable spirit here, until it received a check by the late embargo law. Having an excellent harbour, the situation appears eligible for prosecuting this business to advantage.

The Rapids are occasioned by a ledge of rocks extending entirely across the river, and is the most dangerous place for navigation, in the whole extent of the Ohio river. The distance over them is about two miles, and the descent from a level above is twenty-two feet and a half. When the water is high the fall is only perceived by an increased velocity of the vessel, which is computed to be at the rate of about ten or twelve miles an hour. When the water is low, a large portion of the rocks are seen, and it is then that the passage becomes dangerous. There are three channels.


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59 One is on the north side, called Indian Schute, and is the main channel, but not passable when the water is high; another is near the middle of the river, and called the Middle Schute, and is safe and easy in all heights of water above the middle stage. The third is on the south side, called the Kentucky Schute, and is only passable when the water is high. Immediately above the falls, in the mouth of Beargrass creek, is a good harbour, having twelve feet of water in the lowest stage of the river. At the foot of the falls is another harbour, called Rock Harbour, with water sufficient, at all times, for vessels of any burden. These two harbours are of the greatest importance to those who have occasion to navigate this dangerous passage.

Opening a channel for the passage of ships by the Rapids has been seriously contemplated; which would be of immense advantage to the trade of the Ohio. That it is practicable cannot be doubted. The only difficulty seems to be to raise a fund sufficient for the purpose. It has been principally proposed to open the canal on the Kentucky side, to commence below Beargrass creek, and enter the river below Shippingport, a distance of about one mile and three quarters; and that it should be sufficient for ships of four hundred tons. The ground through which it would pass is a stiff clay, down to within about three feet of the flower of the canals which then is a rock. The average depth of the canal is computed at about


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60 feet, in order to admit a column of water three feet by twenty-four, at the lowest stage of the river. In passing down the Ohio, about forty miles below the Wabash, a curious cave is seen in a high bank, on the Indiana side. Its mouth opens to the river, and when the water is high it nearly flows into it. The entrance is an arch in a rock about twenty-five feet high in the centre, eighty feet wide at the base, and extending back from the opening one hundred and eighty feet. The mouth is darkened by several large trees growing before it, which give it a gloomy and solemn appearance. Passengers usually visit it, and have engraved on the sides within the mouth, a great number of names, dates and other inscriptions. Indian superstition and other fabulous stories reported respecting this cave do not merit a repetition.

Further down the river, and within forty-six miles of its mouth, is fort Massac, situated on a high commanding bank, where a Lieutenant's command is stationed. It was originally built by the French. Here the land is rich and level, consisting principally of natural meadow, with


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61 some beautiful groves, or copses of large trees. Near the fort, and along the banks of the river there are a number of settlers, who have well cultivated gardens and fields, which are very productive. At a small distance below, is Wilkersonville, situated on a bluff, formerly called Cedar Bluffs, but has very few inhabitants.

On the river Mississippi, the first settlement of any note in the Indiana Territory, is the village Kaskaskia. It is an ancient French town, about ninety miles above the mouth of the Ohio, situated on the Kaskaskia river, at the distance of five miles from the Mississippi. The village contains about one hundred houses, and the inhabitants principally French. In the vicinity of this village the land -is excellent and highly cultivated. The river Kaskaskia is navigable about one hundred miles, and drains an extensive tract of level country. There is a road leading from Saint Vincennes to the Kaskaskia village, nearly in a west direction. This road passes through almost one continued prairie for about two hundred miles, there being only scattered copses of wood, which have the appearance of small islands, in a wide extended bay. These natural meadows are covered with a tall grass, and the sun appears to rise and set in the grass. On this road there are few settlers, and the traveller is obliged, for several nights, to lodge in the grass or copses of wood. In this prairie, large herds of buffaloe, elk, and 6


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62 deer, may be seen grazing nearly the whole of the year.

Cahokia is another small village, sixty miles further up the Mississippi, and inhabited by French people. It is situated on a small stream, about a mile from the river, and contains about eighty houses. The land *here is rich, mostly level, and covered with large timber.

The Illinois, a noble river, enters the Mississippi forty-five miles further up, and twenty-five miles above the mouth of the Missouri. It is four hundred yards wide at its mouth, and is navigable four hundred and fifty miles. Numerous tributary streams fall into it on both sides, some of which are also navigable a considerable distance. The Little Michilimackinac enters the river, from the southward, one hundred and ninety miles from the mouth, and is navigable ninety miles. One of the principal branches of the Illinois takes its rise near the head waters of the Chichago river, which enters into lake Michigan. Between these two rivers, there is a short portage of only two miles, making an easy communication between the Mississippi and the lakes. The navigation is uninterrupted, for vessels of considerable burden, from Lake Michigan to Niagara falls. From Lake Erie, to the Mohawk river, which empties into the Hudson, it is said, all the portages do not exceed twenty-six miles. Thus, by portages of about twenty-eight miles, an inland navigation is opened between New Orleans and


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63 New York; a distance computed to be nearly four thousand miles. Perhaps there is not to be found an inland navigation of equal extent, in any part of the world. Another large branch of the Illinois rises near the river Saint Joseph, passing south of Lake Michigan, where a portage may be easily formed. It is called the Theakiki river.

The banks of the Illinois are generally high. The bed of the river being a white marble, or clay, or sand, the waters are remarkably clear. It abounds with beautiful islands, one of which is ten miles long; and adjoining or near to it, are many coal mines, salt ponds, and small lakes. It passes through one lake, two hundred and ten miles from its mouth, which is twenty miles in length, and three or four miles in breadth, called Illinois lake. The river, and waters communicating with it, are replenished with a variety of excellent fish. The large tract of country through which this river and its branches meander, is said not to be exceeded in beauty, levelness, richness, and fertility of soil, by any tract of land, of equal extent, in the United States. From the Illinois to the Wabash, excepting some little distance from the rivers, is almost one continued prairie, or natural meadow, intermixed with groves, or copses of wood, and some swamps and small lakes. These beautiful, and, to the eye of the beholder, unlimited fields, are covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, and other vegetable productions, which afford fattening and plentiful grazing for


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64 innumerable herds of buffaloe, elk, and deer. All the variety of forest trees and shrubs, common to the western country, are found in some parts of the Indiana Territory; but different kinds abound more in some situations and soils than in others. There is also a great difference in the* size of the growth of the same kind of trees, in different soils. In the neighbourhood of the Illinois the crab-apple, plumb, and cherry trees grow in great plenty, yielding fruit in abundance. Here the grape vine flourishes admirably, producing large quantities of grapes, of which the inhabitants make a good red wine, for their own consumption. It is said in the year 1769, one hundred and ten hogsheads of well tasted and strong wine were made by the French settlers, from the grapes. The sugar-maple, and black and white mulberry grow in plenty.

The settlers on this river are almost entirely French people, who live principally in small villages. Where the land is cultivated, it yields large crops of almost every article they commit to the ground. It has been found that tobacco, indigo, hemp, and flax, can be raised here to much advantage.

Between the Illinois and the falls of Saint Anthony, a distance of about eight hundred and seventy miles, there are a large number of considerable streams, and some of them navigable rivers, which come from the eastward and discharge their waters into the Mississippi. The following


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65 are the largest navigable rivers, and the computed distance from each other, with the distance they are said to be navigable. The first is Rocky river, or Riviere a la Roche, one hundred and sixty miles above the Illinois. This is a large river, but the navigation is said to be impeded by rocks and rapids. The second is Mine river, or Riviere, a la Mine, two hundred and ten miles above Rocky river, and navigable fifty miles. The third is Ouiconsin, one hundred and twenty miles further up, navigable two hundred miles. A bend in this river, near its head waters, passes so near to a bend in Fose river, which empties into Green Bay, a branch of Lake Michigan, that the portage is said to be only one mile and three quarters, forming another easy communication between the Mississippi and the lakes. The fourth, Black river, one hundred and fifty miles further, and navigable one hundred miles. The fifth, is the river Chippeway, sixty-five miles above Black river, and navigable one hundred miles. The sixth, is Sotoux river, only fifteen miles further up, and navigable eighty miles. The mouth of this river is said to be three hundred and eighty yards wide. The seventh, is the Saint Croix, further distant sixty miles, and is said to be navigable one hundred miles. The mouth of this river is two hundred yards. From the Saint Croix to Saint Anthony's falls, is ninety miles, which is in forty-five degrees of north latitude.


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66 North of the Illinois the country gradually becomes hilly, and near to Lake Superior, are mountains of very considerable attitude. It is inhabited by numerous bands of Indians, of different nations; some wandering bands, others live in villages conveniently situated for hunting excursions. It has been said that near some of these large rivers, lead ore has been found in large quantities, and that in some places copper ore has been discovered of a very great degree of purity. But this extensive tract of country has been very little explored. Almost the only white people who have visited it, have been the traders in furs and peltry.


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 A

DESCRIPTION

OF THE

MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

noble river was made the western boundary of the United States, by the definitive treaty with Great Britain, in the year 1783. Considering its great length, the prodigious column of water rolling in its deep channel, and the quantity dis charged by numerous outlets, it must be rated among the largest rivers on the American continent. It has been called the American Nile, from some resemblance it seems to bear to that celebrated river in Egypt. The fertility of Egypt is well known to be owing to the periodical overflowing of the Nile. From a similar course, vast tracts of land have been enriched by the outlets and overflowing of the Mississippi. The Nile begins to rise about the middle of June, and to subside in September. The floods in the Mississippi begin about the first of April, and the water falls within its banks by the first of August. The overflowing is much greater on the


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68 western, than on the eastern side of the river. From New Madrid to Pointe Coupee, a distance of more than eight hundred miles, the land on the western bank, with the exception of a few small tracts, is overflowed in the spring. In some parts the inundation extends fifty miles back from the river, covering vast cypress swamps, and lands producing different kinds of wood, with a depth of from two to twelve feet of water. No considerable settlements for this distance can be formed on the bank of the river. But much of the bank on the eastern side rises above the highest floods, and will admit of settlements and improvement. The waters of the Nile are extolled by the Egyptians, on account of their wholesome qualities and pleasant taste. The waters of the Mississippi, after filtration, or being in any way purified from a muddy sediment, are not disagreeable to the taste, especially to those who have been habituated to them. They are supposed to be possessed of medical properties, operating on some people as a mild cathartic, and generally cleansing the skin from curtaneous [sic] eruptions.

It is supposed the Mississippi takes its rise in a lake called White Bear Lake, but its head waters appear not to have been very accurately explored. The most that is known is derived from Indian information. The river above the falls of Saint Anthony, is called, by the Indians, Blue river. Here the stream is remarkably clear, and said to be navigable above the falls for three


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69 hundred miles. These falls were first visited by Father Louis Hennipin, a French Missionary, about the year 1680, who was the first European ever seen by the natives, and who gave them the name of Saint Anthony's falls. The country adjacent approaches to a plain, with some swelling hills. At the falls the river is two hundred and fifty yards wide, and the perpendicular descent of the water about thirty feet. Near the falls the prospect is said to be highly picturesque and delightful. This widely expanded sheet of water may be seen several miles below, where the eye of the beholder is struck with pleasing admiration, and views, with rapture, this romantic scene. At these falls a large factory is established, where many of the western bands of Indians bring their furs and peltry, to exchange for various kinds of merchandise.

About ten miles below the falls enters the large river Saint Peters, from the westward. The mouth of this river is one hundred yards wide, and the current deep. It is said that it holds its depth and width very nearly for two hundred miles. Further up, several branches come in; the head waters of some of which are said to take their rise near the streams which run into the Missouri. On this river and its branches are several trading posts, where Indians who reside on the Missouri frequently resort for commerce.

At a small distance above the mouth of the river Chippeway, is a lake, about twenty miles in


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70 length and six miles in breadth, called lake Pepin. The Mississippi passes through this lake, and although the French have denominated it a lake, it has rather the appearance of an extended width of the river. The water in some parts of it is deep, and abounds with several kinds of excellent fish. Large numbers of fowl, such as storks, swan, geese, ducks, and brant, resort to this lake. The groves and plains around it are replenished with turkies and partridges.

Below the lake, the river glides with a gentle current, having alternately high lands on one side, and extended meadows on the other. Some of the precipices fronting the river, are high and steep, ascending like pyramids, and exhibiting the appearance of ancient towers. Descending down the river, the eye is delighted, in some places, with the view of large, rich prairies, extending far back towards distant mountains, with beautiful groves or copses of trees, scattered over them, and watered with a number of small lakes.

Between the Saint Peters and Missouri rivers, many streams of considerable magnitude enter the Mississippi from the westward. The largest of them is the river Moin, about one hundred miles above the mouth of the Illinois. On this river the Sioux, and some other bands of Indians, frequently descend with their furs and skins for market. The current of the Mississippi continues gentle, and its water clear, until it joins the Missouri, where it becomes much more rapid, and


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71 remarkably cold and muddy. At the common stage of the waters, in these two streams, the Missouri is supposed to be the largest river. This junction is formed twenty-five miles below the Illinois, and two hundred and thirty miles above the Ohio.

The land on the banks of the Missouri are rich, and where they are well cultivated, exceedingly productive. There are two settlements, Saint Charles and Saint Andrew, principally inhabited by emigrants from Kentucky. Other small settlements have commenced further up the river. The most distant settlement of white people is Saint John's, which is one hundred miles from its mouth. The great extent of this river was unknown until it was, explored by Captain Lewis, and Captain Clark. Traders had before ascended two thousand miles, but Captain Lewis computes the distance from the mouth to the great falls, to be two thousand five hundred and seventy-five miles. About one hundred miles above Saint John's, the river becomes broad,being eight hundred and seventy-five yards wide, where the Osage river enters; but about fifty miles further up it narrows again to about three hundred yards. The Osage comes in from the south, and is one hundred and ninety-seven yards wide at its mouth. The Osage Indians reside on this river, from whom it takes its name, about two hundred miles from its mouth. Here the extensive prairies commence, wholly destitute of trees,


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72 but covered with tall grass, and continue, with little interruption, far towards the borders of New Mexico, and the Rocky Mountains.

Fifteen miles below the mouth of the Missouri, is Saint Louis, delightfully situated on elevated ground, upon the bank of the Mississippi. It is considered to be the most healthy and pleasant situation known in this part of the country. The settlement of this village was began by a few French people, who came over from the east side of the river, about the year 1765. It became the residence of the Spanish Commandant, and of the principal Indian traders. The trade of the Indians on the Missouri, part of the Mississippi, and Illinois, was chiefly drawn to this village. Before the purchase of Louisiana by the United States, it contained one hundred and twenty houses, mostly built of stone, but large and commodious dwellings. It contained about eight hundred inhabitants who were mostly French. Since this purchase was made, numbers have emigrated to this village from different parts of the United States. There are now more than two hundred houses, a post office, and a printing office, issuing a Weekly Gazette. There are many mercantile stores, and a flourishing trade in furs and peltry. It is made the seat of territorial government for Upper Louisiana.

Saint Genevieve, or Missire is sixty-four miles lower down, on the bank of the Mississippi, and nearly opposite the village of Kaskaskia. It is a


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73 considerable village, containing more than two hundred houses. In the year 1773, this and Saint Louis were the only villages on the western side of the river. At a short distance below is a small settlement, called the Saline, where large quantities of salt are made, and sold at the works for about one dollar per bushel. Not far from Saint Genevieve, in a western direction, a large number of lead furnaces are worked, producing great quantities of lead, where it may be purchased at three or four cents per pound. In various parts of a large tract of country south of the Missouri, numerous lead mines are to be found. Many of them are not more than two or three feet below the surface, and may be worked with great ease. Were the inhabitants sufficiently numerous to work the mines, it is supposed a quantity of lead might be obtained from the ore, equal to the supply of all Europe.

The principal mines which have yet been worked, are near the head waters and branches of the river Marameg. This river is of considerable size; it enters the Mississippi about twenty miles below Saint Louis; it comes in nearly in the direction of the Missouri; and its widely extended branches reach far back into the country. About forty miles from Saint Genevieve, on a branch of the Marameg, is Barton's mine, discovered by Francis Barton, who obtained a grant of the land, and began to work the ore nearly forty years ago. It is now in the possession of a Mr. 7


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 Austin, who has erected a good smelting furnace. This ore is not of the richest kind, but a greater quantity has been worked here, than in any other part of the country, from which the owner has derived great profits. The ore is taken out of the ground in an open prairie which is elevated nearly one hundred feet above the bed of the creek, and is supposed to extend over some thousands of acres. The mineral is found within two feet of the surface, in a strata of gravel, in which it lies in lumps, from one to fifty pounds weight. Under this strata is a sand rock, easily broken up with a pick-axe, and when exposed to the air, readily crumbles to fine sand. The ore intermixed in the sand rock is similar to that in the upper gravel strata. Under the sand rock is a strata of red clay about six feet thick. Beneath the clay is the best ore, in lumps from ten to two or three hundred pounds weight, the outside of which is frequently covered with a gold or silver coloured talky substance; some portion of arsenic and sulphur; and more or less of spar, antimony, and zinc, are sometimes found intermixed with the ore. Some of this ore will yield from sixty to seventy-five per cent.

About five miles from Barton's, in an eastern direction, is an old mine, discovered by the French, as early as their first settlement in this country, and was worked until Barton erected a furnace at his mine. It was then neglected until the year 1802, when a number of French


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75 made a settlement near it. On opening the mine they found a rich ore in great plenty. But the French furnaces were very badly constructed. They were formed somewhat similar to a lime kiln, at the bottom of which they placed a flooring of large logs, and set up a tier of smaller ones around the sides of the furnace, within which they put a large quantity of ore. A fire was then made and continued until the mineral was smelted, and run off into troughs made to receive it ; but much of the metal was burnt up, or lost in the ashes. In this manner each family smelted their own mineral, until Mr. Austin erected his furnace. Since that time, they find it more advantageous to sell ther [sic] ore to him. It is conjectured that the whole distance between the old mine and Barton's is one continued bed of lead ore.

The time of working the mines is from August to December. After the harvests are over, the inhabitants of Saint Genevieve and other settlements on the Mississippi resort to the mines. The rich employ their negroes, and the poor people work for themselves ; depending on the lead they procure, to furnish necessary articles for their families. The lead is estimated equal to cash for whatever they wish to purchase.

Another mine, called Ranalt's mine, situated on a creek of the same name about six miles north of Barton's, is said to contain very rich ore, but has been worked only a short time.


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76 On another branch of the Marameg, are what are called the American mines,discovered by a number of Americans, who commenced a settlement near them. The appearance of the ore was very promising; but their title to the land has been contested by a number of Frenchmen, who have taken it from them, and have since made little progress in working the mineral.

La Plate mine is on a branch of the river known by that name, which was also discovered by some Americans. A large quantity of rich ore has been found near the surface, and appearances indicate a great extent of the mineral. Little, however, has yet been done in working of it.

At a few miles distant from La Plate, is Joe's mine. The ore is found in large bodies of several hundred pounds weight, and very pure and solid, but has not been much worked. At a small distance from this is Lany's mine, but the mineral is of little estimation. Several other mines have been discovered on the head waters of the Marameg, more than one hundred miles above Barton's of which very little is yet known. La Motte's mine is on the waters of the St. Francis, about thirty miles S. W. from St. Genevieve. It was discovered and began to be worked about the year 1723. The mineral is very solid, disposed in regular veins of three or four feet in thickness. Five of these veins have been opened, and a part of them worked. They are found about four or five feet below the surface


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77 and descend in an oblique direction, at an angle of about 45 degrees. They are in low, flat land, and in a very unhealthy situation; nor can the miners go down very deep before they will be interrupted by water. The mineral is very different in its appearance from any other that has been found in this part of the country. It is of a fine, steel grain, and contains a considerable quantity of silver. In smelting of it, a very different process is necessary from that which the French people have employed, in the other mines. The want of skilful workmen, and differently constructed furnaces, has greatly retarded the working of this mineral. The method these people have pursued, has been to give the ore repeated heatings, by laying, it on piles of logs, before it is prepared for smelting, by which great loss is sustained. They rarely get more than thirty or thirty-five per cent.

There is also found, at this mine, a different kind of ore in beds. It is called, by the miners, gravel mineral, being found intermixed with the soil, in small particles, from the size of a pin's head to that of a hickory nut. After being washed, it is put into a furnace, and smelted into slag, and then placed in another furnace, not unlike a miller's hopper, where a partial fluxion is produced. It is said this kind of ore, in the hands of experienced workmen, with a proper furnace, would yield large profits.


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78 Barton's mine, since the improvements made by Mr. Austin, is calculated to produce lead to the amount of twenty thousand dollars per annum. As the mineral is so easily obtained, the other mines, under proper management, might, doubtless, be rendered exceedingly profitable.

On the borders of the Mississippi, from Saint Genevieve to Cape Girardeau, there are scattered settlements and some considerable villages; but from the Cape to the mouth of the Ohio, there are very few settlers.

The face of the country in Upper Louisiana is somewhat broken, but the soil is generally fertile. "It is elevated and healthy, and well watered, with a variety of large rapid streams, calculated for mills and other water works. From Cape Girardeau, above the mouth of the Ohio, to the Missouri, the land contiguous to the river is generally much higher than on the east side, and in many places very rocky on the shore. Some of the heights exhibit a scene truly picturesque. They rise to a height of at least three hundred feet, faced with a perpendicular lime and free stone, carved into various shapes and figures by the hand of nature, and afford the appearance of a multitude of antique towers. From the tops of these elevations, the land gradually slopes back from the river, without gravel or rock, and is covered with valuable timber. It may be said with truth, that, for fertility of soil, no part of the world exceeds the borders of the Mississippi;


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79 the land yields an abundance of all the necessaries of life, and almost spontaneously; very little labour being required in the cultivation of the earth. That part of Upper Louisiana, which borders on North Mexico, is one immense prairie; it produes [sic] nothing but grass; it is filled with buffaloe, deer, and other kinds of game; the land is represented as too rich for the growth of forest trees. It is pretended that upper Louisiana contains in its bowels many silver and copper mines, and various specimens of both are exhibited. Several trials have been made to ascertain the fact; but the want of skill in the artists has hitherto left the business undecided."

The Mississippi, from the junction, of the Missouri, has a strong current, which cannot be stemmed by the force of wind on sails, without the aid of oars. The width of the river is about one mile and a half, and the water always thick and muddy. A depth of fifteen feet of water can be carried down, in low stages of the river; but immediately below the Ohio it deepens to twenty-five feet, and still increases to sixty feet. These waters are well replenished with fish of different kinds. The largest are the cat fish, the spatula fish, and sturgeon. The cat have been taken weighing more than one hundred pounds, and the spatula, of fifty pounds weight. The smaller fish are the pike, buffaloe, perch, trout,


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80 gar, mullet, and carp. It may, however, be doubted whether the carp be of the same species of those caught in Europe. It has been said that herring have been taken in these waters. Alligators have not been observed higher up than the Arkansas river. A peculiar kind of fresh water turtle abounds in these rivers. The feet are webbed, and the upper shell remarkably soft. They are from ten to fifteen pounds weight, and considered very delicious.

Fowl, the greater part of the year, are to be seen here in great abundance; such as swan, crane, heron, geese, ducks, and brant. The pelican are sometimes seen, but far down the river, are very numerous. The size and shape of this singular bird resembles the swan, excepting in its monstrous pouch which is placed under its neck and bill. It seems to be an appendage which nature has provided for carrying and preserving its food for its own support and that of its young. The pouch of a pelican killed by Captain Lewis, when ascending the Missouri, was found to hold five gallons of water. They are frequently prepared and used for bags and other purposes.

The forest trees, in Upper Louisiana, are generally similar to those in the State of Ohio and Indiana Territory. Black and white mulberry is found here in much greater plenty, especially on the Missouri. The cotton wood tree grows in great abundance, on the borders of these rivers. It has been supposed to be the same as the


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81 lombardy poplar, but it is probably a different species. It differs, at least, in the very large quantity of volatile, capillary pappus attached to the seeds. When the seed vessels open, and the seeds come out, it almost fills the air, and, as it descends, covers the bushes and ground, like a fall of light snow. Its appearance very nearly resembles cotton wool, which has doubtless occasioned its trivial name.

The pecan, or Illinois hickery, grow plenty on the Mississippi. In the swamps and lowest flooded land, the cypress of a large size is the principal growth. Where the land is less inundated the swamp and live oak abound, which is highest estimated for ship building. The points at the bends of the river, and ends of islands, are chiefly covered with thickets of small willows. At the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi, its width is very little increased, and continues generally about a mile and a half, as far as the Natchez, where it begins to grow somewhat broader. The principal rivers which discharge their waters into the Mississippi, are the Saint Francis, White, Arkansas, and Red river, on the western side, and on the eastern, the Wolf and the Yazoo rivers.

Immediately on passing out of the Ohio into the Mississippi, the current is very sensibly accelerated, but is not so strong as between the Ohio and the Missouri. It is estimated to run at the rate of three and a half to four miles an


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82 hour; and when the water is high is somewhat increased. The river is exceedingly serpentine, and the islands numerous. Some of the bends in its course down to the line of demarkation, are sudden and large; but between that line and Pointe Coupee, there are several of prodigious magnitude.

In navigating the Mississippi, there is at all times a sufficient depth of water, but many sand bars make off into the river. Frequent strong eddies, and many large currents of water, sitting out of the river, when the water is high, with great rapidity, require the constant and careful attention of the navigator. The navigation is also impeded and endangered, by what are called planters. These are large bodies of trees, with their roots fast at the bottom of the river, and stumps but just above the surface of the water. Another impediment is called sawyers, which are bodies of trees standing in a sloping manner, and moving up and down by the force of the current. A third inconvenience is small wooden islands, composed of drift wood, which, by some means, has been arrested, and immoveably fixed to the bottom; not rising much above the water, are to be seen only at a short distance.

Soon after entering the Mississippi from the Ohio, the whole prospect is so much changed, as to exhibit the appearance of a different country; the climate becomes mild and soft; and the cold of winter seems to have produced very little effect


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83 on the state of vegetation. The sameness of view along the banks of the river, as far down as Pointe Coupee, a distance of nine hundred miles, is scarcely interrupted, excepting by a few settlements, and some high bluffs, on the eastern side. The land appears to be one continued level, clothed with large timber, and an under growth of cane brakes, and small shrubs.

Opposite the mouth of the Ohio is a small settlement consisting principally of men whose employment is hunting. Five miles below, on the east side, is fort Jefferson, which is evacuated. On the west side, sixty-five miles further down, is New Madrid. This settlement was made by Col. George Morgan, of New Jersey, about the year 1790. It is pleasantly situated, on a rich soil, and was intended for a large town. After building a small number of houses, the people became extremely sickly, and no further progress was made in the settlement. On the same side, thirty-three miles below, in a bend of the river, is a settlement, two miles long, called Little Prairie. This tract of land is exceedingly rich and productive.

The first high lands to be seen on the river are the Chickasaw bluffs, on the eastern side. These bluffs are four in number, the first of which are one hundred and seventy-six miles below the Ohio, and continue about a mile on the river. The second are eleven miles below the first; the third twenty-one miles below the second, and


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84 extend about three quarters of a mile. Passing these bluffs, the river is extremely crooked. They rise from sixty to one hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the water. The fourth are thirty-three miles below the third, and just above them Wolf river enters from the eastward. The mouth of this river is not large, and contiguous to it is the site of fort Pike. These bluffs continue about two milts. On the lower extremity is fort Pickering, in an eligible and commanding situation, overlooking the whole of this elevated round. When this fort was built, fort Pike was evacuated. It is a Captain's command, who has a detachment stationed at Post Ozark on the Arkansus [sic] river. This fort is in the Mississippi Territory, where the United States keep a Factor. Here is a small settlement of whites and Indians; but the most of these people are the half breed, which is a mixture of both of them.

On the western side, about sixty-five miles further down, comes in the river Saint Francis. Its mouth is about two hundred yards wide; the current is gentle; and is navigable for a considerable distance. The head waters of this river are said to be not far distant from Saint Genevieve, in a south westerly direction. At the entrance of the river, stood Kappas Old Fort, built by the French, principally for a magazine of stores and provisions, during their wars with the Chickasaw Indians.


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85 Six miles below the Saint Francis, is a beautiful natural meadow, called the Big Prairie. At a small distance from the river, in this prairie, is a fine lake, five miles long, and three wide; it abounds with swan: and discharges its water into the river, by a large bayau.

About eighty-five miles below, enters White river on the same side; and about twenty miles further, comes in the Arkansas, which is much larger than White river; and admits of navigation to a great distance. A communication is made between these rivers by an inland channel, which goes out of White river about three miles above its mouth, and about twenty miles up the Arkansas, connecting the waters of the two rivers. The distance of the Post and Village of Ozark, on the Arkansas, is fifty miles from the mouth of that river; but by passing up White river, and through the channel, it is reduced to about thirty miles. On the upper and head waters of the Arkansas, are a large number of Indian villages. Two hundred and ten miles below the Arkansas, the Yazoo river enters on the eastern side, which takes its rise in Georgia. It comes in with a gentle current, and is nearly three hundred yards wide. It abounds with swan, geese, ducks, and other water fowl. On the borders of this river are the much famed lands, purchased of the State of Georgia, and sold to New England speculators, called the Yazoo company. Twelve miles further down are Walnut hills; on the 8


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Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/94

86 part of which, fort Henry was built, but has been long evacuated. Below Walnut hills, about twenty-four miles, commences the Palmira settlement, on the same side. This is a very handsome settlement; it contains a large number of, houses; extends eight miles on the river; and is in a flourishing state. The land is very rich, and well improved in the culture of cotton. Further down about thirty miles, is the famous seat of Judge Brain. This house is pleasantly situated. This gentleman possesses a large and handsome farm, which is under excellent culture. He is much respected for his hospitality and politeness to passengers when they call upon him.

The city of Natchez is about one hundred and twenty miles below the Walnut hills. It is situated on an extremely elevated bank, which recedes back from the river, with a very moderate descent. Fronting the river, the bluff is nearly perpendicular, and two hundred feet in height, from the surface of the water. Between the base of the bluff and the river, is a space which is level, about six hundred feet wide; it is used for landing; and is spread over with dwellings, trading houses and shops. From this little village a road is dug out, in a zigzag form, to the summit of the bank. The city is built at some distance from the edge of the precipice, leaving a space for a handsome common. It contains more than three hundred houses, mostly frame, and one story high. Some of those more recently erected are