



Produced by Curtis Weyant, Barbara Kosker and the Online
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 THE

 SOUTH-WEST.




 BY A YANKEE.




                Where on my way I went;
 ------------A pilgrim from the North--
 Now more and more attracted, as I drew
 Nearer and nearer.

 ROGERS' ITALY.




 IN TWO VOLUMES.

 VOL. I.




 NEW-YORK:
 HARPER & BROTHERS, CLIFF-ST.
 1835.




[Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835,
by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern
District of New-York.]




 TO THE

 HON. JOHN A. QUITMAN,

 EX-CHANCELLOR OF MISSISSIPPI,

 THESE VOLUMES

 ARE

 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

 BY

 THE AUTHOR.




INTRODUCTION.


The succeeding pages grew out of a private correspondence, which the
author, at the solicitation of his friends, has been led to throw into
the present form, modifying in a great measure the epistolary vein, and
excluding, so far as possible, such portions of the original papers as
were of too personal a nature to be intruded upon the majesty of the
public;--while he has embodied, so far as was compatible with the new
arrangement, every thing likely to interest the general reader.

The author has not written exclusively as a traveller or journalist. His
aim has been to present the result of his experience and observations
during a residence of several years in the South-West. This extensive
and important section of the United States is but little known. Perhaps
there is no region between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic
shores, of which so little accurate information is before the public; a
flying tourist only, having occasionally added a note to his diary, as
he skirted its forest-lined borders.

New-York, Sept. 1835.




CONTENTS.


 I.

 A state of bliss--Cabin passenger--Honey-hunting--Sea-life--Its
 effects--Green horns--Reading--Tempicide--Monotony--Wish for
 excitement--Superlative misery--Log--Combustible materials--Cook
 and bucket--Contrary winds--All ready, good Sirs--Impatient
 passengers--Signal for sailing--Leave-takings--Sheet home--Under
 weigh.                                                           Page 13


 II.

 A tar's headway on land--A gentleman's at sea--An agreeable trio
 --Musical sounds--Helmsman--Supper Steward--A truism--Helmsman's
 cry--Effect--Cases for bipeds--Lullaby--Sleep.                        20


 III.

 Shakspeare--Suicide or a 'foul' deed--A conscientious table--
 Fishing smacks--A pretty boy--Old Skipper, Skipper junior, and
 little Skipper--A young Caliban--An alliterate Man--Fisherman--
 Nurseries--Navy--The Way to train up a Child--Gulf Stream--
 Humboldt--Crossing the Gulf--Ice ships--Yellow fields--Flying
 fish--A game at bowls--Bermuda--A post of observation--Men,
 dwellings, and women of Bermuda--St. George--English society--
 Washing decks--Mornings at sea--Evenings at sea--A Moonlight
 scene--The ocean on fire--Its phosphorescence--Hypotheses             25


 IV.

 Land--Abaco--Fleet--Hole in the Wall--A wrecker's hut--Bahama
 vampyres--Light houses--Conspiracy--Wall of Abaco--Natural
 Bridge--Cause--Night scene--Speak a packet ship--A floating
 city--Wrecker's lugger--Signal of distress--A Yankee lumber
 brig--Portuguese Man of War.                                          42


 V.

 A calm--A breeze on the water--The land of flowers--Juan Ponce de
 Leon--The fountain of perpetual youth--An irremediable loss to
 single gentlemen--Gulf Stream--New-Providence--Cuba--Pan of
 Matanzas--Blue hills of Cuba--An armed cruiser--Cape St. Antonio
 --Pirates--Enter the Mexican Gulf--Mobile--A southern winter--A
 farewell to the North and a welcome to the South--The close of the
 voyage--Balize--Fleet--West Indiaman--Portuguese polacre--Land ho!
 --The land--Its formation--Pilot or "little brief authority"--
 Light house--Revenue cutter--Newspapers--"The meeting of the
 waters"--A singular appearance--A morning off the Balize--The
 tow-boat                                                              55


 VI.

 The Mississippi--The Whale--Description of tow-boats--A package--A
 threatened storm--A beautiful brigantine--Physiognomy of ships--
 Richly furnished cabin--An obliging Captain--Desert the ship--
 Getting under weigh--A chain of captives--Towing--New