CHAPTER XV.

EXCURSION ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

February 20, 1855.—This forenoon I dined at a friend’s atWashington, about six miles to the eastward of Natchez. Aparty were dining with him; and although he had treated me tosome catawba at New Orleans, there was no wine on the table.The customs are much changed within a few years with respectto the use of wine, for it is now common to dispense with italtogether. He was largely engaged in horticulture, and pos-sessed about twenty slaves, for whose instruction he was doinga good deal. He read and explained to them a portion ofScripture twice a week. He had also worship morning andevening in his own family, and I found him a candid andearnest man. At the same time he was a most rigid disci-plinarian with his slaves.

Having an introduction to a cotton-planter, whose estatelay about eight miles south of Washington, I set off earlynext morning in a one-horse buggy with a negro to driveand show me the way. The air at daybreak was cold, andthe ground covered with hoar-frost; but it became warmand pleasant by mid-day. Little rain had fallen for someweeks, and the roads were dry and good, though their condi-tion must be wretched during the rainy season, as no mate-rials are used for road-making. Wherever the road wasmuch inclined, the rains had excavated deep cuttings, whichhad all the appearance of having been made by pick and spade;for the sides of the deep gullies cut out of the compact subsoilwere quite perpendicular. The traffic on the roads is trifling,consisting of little else than the carrying of the cotton to the