_Journey from Charleston, through Augusta, Milledgeville, Macon,
and the country of the Creek Indians, to Montgomery, in the
State of Alabama._
My design had been to travel from Charleston to Savannah. I understood,
however, that the stage to Savannah was very bad; that the steam-boat
went very irregularly; that Savannah had lost its importance as a place
of trade, and on the whole, contained nothing worthy of observation. As
this tour would cost me many days, and a circuitous route, I resolved to
relinquish the visit to Savannah, and betake myself the nearest way to
Augusta, one hundred and twenty-nine miles distant; thence by
Milledgeville through the Creek Indians, to go into the state of
Alabama. Colonel Wool liked my plan, as also did Mr. Temple Bowdoin, an
Anglo-American, a very polished man, who had travelled, and who in his
younger days served in the British army. We had engaged the mail stage
for ourselves alone, and in it left Charleston on the 20th of December.
We passed Ashley river at the same place, and in the same team-boat,
as I did eight days back. It was at low ebb, and many oyster banks were
exposed dry. This was a novel spectacle to me. The oysters stood
straight up, close together, and had somewhat the appearance of a brush.
Several negroes were employed in taking them out of the mud, in baskets.
Even on the piers of the bridge, many oysters were sticking fast. On the
opposite shore the road ran through a country generally woody, but
partly ornamented with plantations. Several of these plantations are
pretty, commonly an avenue of ancient, well preserved live oaks, leads
up to the mansion-house, at the entrance of which a grated gate is
placed. Maize and cotton are planted here, and in some places also rice,
which is the staple of the lower part of South Carolina. The rice fields
must stand several months of the year under water. On this account they
are situated in swampy districts, and surrounded by ditches of water.
But in consequence of this, these places are so unhealthy, that hardly a
white planter can remain during the summer on his plantation; he is
obliged to resort to Charleston, or the northern states. The climate of
Charleston is such, that whoever is there in the beginning of the hot
season, dares not to sleep a single night during the continuance of it,
upon a plantation, without exposing his life to imminent danger. The
blacks are the only human beings on whom this deadly climate has no bad
effect, and they are, therefore, indispensable for the cultivation of
this district. The vegetation was again extremely beautiful, noble live
oaks, laurel trees, magnolias, cabbage and macaw trees. The road ran
upon light bridges over small rivers, on the banks of which negroes were
busied in angling. We saw the family of a planter in an elegant boat,
manned by six black oarsmen, rowing to their plantation. In a large inn,
which was itself the mansion-house of a plantation, we found a
particularly good dinner. In the evening we crossed the Edisto river in
a narrow ferry-boat, for the arrival of which we were obliged to delay a
long time. The soil was mostly very sandy, partly also marshy, and the
jolting log causeways made us tired of our lives. On this side of the
river we arrived at the village of Edisto. We travelled through the
whole night, and I suffered much from the cold in my airy seat.
Otherwise, it was a clear moonlight, and if it had been a little warmer
would deserve the appellation of a fine night. We changed our stage
during the night, but gained nothing.
The succeeding morning exhibited all the ponds of water covered with a
crust of ice. We passed the Salkechee and Cambahee rivers upon bridges,
and noticed nothing worthy of observation. The vegetation was less
beautiful than on the preceding day; the plantations were also less
considerable. At a new plantation, at which we arrived about break of
day, I spoke to the overseer of the negroes. The man’s employment I
recognised from his whip, and from the use he made of it, in rousing up
the negroes to make a fire. He told us that in the district, where the
plantation was situated, and where maize and cotton were planted, but a
little time before there was nothing but forest; his employer had
commenced in 1816, with two negroes, and now he possessed one hundred
and four, who were kept at work in clearing the wood, and extending the
plantation. The cotton crop was finished in most of the fields, and
cattle were driven in, to consume the weeds and tops of the bushes.
We passed several mill-ponds, and saw some saw-mills. Only pine trees
appeared to flourish in this part of the country; upon the whole, it was
hilly, and the progress was tedious through the deep sand. We passed the
river Savannah three miles from Augusta, in a little ferry-boat. The
left bank appeared here and there to be rocky, and pretty high; the
right is sandy. When we crossed the river, we left the state of South
Carolina, and entered that of Georgia, the most southern of the old
thirteen United States, which in fifty years have grown to twenty-four
in number. We reached Augusta in the evening at nine o’clock, on a very
good road, a scattered built town of four thousand six hundred
inhabitants, of both complexions. We took up our quarters in the Globe
Hotel, a tolerable inn; during the whole day it was very clear, but cold
weather, in the evening it froze hard. The old remark is a very just
one, that one suffers no where so much from cold as in a warm climate,
since the dwellings are well calculated to resist heat, but in nowise
suited to repel cold.
We were compelled to remain in Augusta during the 22d of December, as
the mail stage for the first time went to Milledgeville on the following
day, and Colonel Wool had to inspect the United States’ arsenal here,
which contained about six thousand stand of arms for infantry. We
understood that Mr. Crawford, formerly embassador of the United States,
in Paris, afterwards secretary of state, and lastly, candidate for the
office of president, was here at a friend’s house. We therefore paid him
a visit. Mr. Crawford is a man of gigantic stature, and dignified
appearance; he had a stroke of apoplexy about a year since, so that he
was crippled on one side, and could not speak without difficulty. To my
astonishment, he did not speak French, though he had been several years
an envoy in Paris. They say, that Mr. Crawford’s predecessor in Paris,
was chancellor Livingston, this gentleman was deaf; both Livingston and
Crawford were introduced to the Emperor Napoleon at the same time; the
emperor, who could carry on no conversation with either of them,
expressed his surprise, that the United States had sent him a deaf and
dumb embassy. I likewise reaped very little profit from Mr. Crawford’s
conversation. As he was an old friend of Mr. Bowdoin, almost all the
benefit of it fell to his share, and I addressed myself chiefly to his
daughter, and one of her female friends, who were present. Much indeed
was to be anticipated as the result of a conversation with the daughter
of such a statesman. She had been educated in a school of the southern
states. My conclusion was, the farther south I advanced, so much the
firmer am I convinced that the inhabitants of these states suffer in
comparing their education with those of the north. To conclude, Mr.
Crawford was the hero of the democratic party, and would, in all
probability, have been chosen president in the spring of 1825, had not
his apoplectic attack supervened. On account of his indisposition,
General Jackson was pushed before him; and so much was brought forward
against the individual character of this person in opposition, that the
present incumbent, Adams, on that account, succeeded.
The city of Augusta is very regularly built. The main street is about
one hundred feet wide, it contains many brick houses, and good-looking
stores. None of the streets are paved, but all have brick foot-paths.
A wooden bridge, three hundred and fifty yards long, and thirty feet
wide, crosses from the neighbourhood of the city, to the left bank of
Savannah river, the city lies on the right bank. Along the bank is
erected a quay in the manner of a terrace, which is one of the most
suitable that I have seen; for it is accommodated to the swell of the
river, which often rises above twenty feet. It has three terraces. The
lower one has a margin of beams, mostly of cypress timber, at which,
in the present uncommon low stage of the water, the vessels are loaded.
From the second terrace, (which as well as the upper one, has a brick
facing,) are wooden landings reaching to the edge of the under terrace,
by which, at higher stages, the vessels may land there. The upper
terrace is paved with large stones, which are quarried above the city.
The quay, as well as the landings, belong to the State Bank of Georgia:
the landings produce fifteen per cent. annually.
Augusta is the depôt for the cotton, which is conveyed from the upper
part of Georgia by land carriage, and here shipped either to Savannah or
Charleston. We noticed a couple of vessels of a peculiar structure,
employed in this trade. They are flat underneath, and look like large
ferry-boats. Each vessel can carry a load of three hundred tons. The
bales of cotton, each of which weighs about three hundred pounds, were
piled upon one another to the height of eleven feet. Steam-boats are
provided to tow these vessels up and down the stream, but on account of
the present low state of the water, they cannot come up to Augusta.
I was assured that year by year between fifteen and twenty thousand
bales of cotton were sent down the river. The state of South Carolina,
to which the left bank of the river belongs, was formerly compelled to
make Augusta its depôt. To prevent this, Mr. Schulz, a man of
enterprise, originally from Holstein, has founded a new town, called
Hamburg, upon the left bank of the river, close by the bridge,
supported, as is said, by the legislature of South Carolina with an
advance of fifty thousand dollars. This town was commenced in the year
1821, and numbers about four hundred inhabitants, who are collectively
maintained by the forwarding business. It consists of one single row of
wooden houses, streaked with white, which appear very well upon the dark
back ground, formed by the high forest close behind the houses. Nearly
every house contains a store, a single one, which comprised two stores,
was rented for one thousand dollars. Several new houses were building,
and population and comfort appear fast increasing. The row of houses
which form the town, runs parallel with the river, and is removed back
from it about one hundred and fifty paces. Upon this space stands a
large warehouse, and a little wooden hut, looking quite snug, upon the
whole, with the superscription “Bank.” A Hamburg bank in such a booth,
was so tempting an object for me, that I could not refrain from
gratifying my curiosity. I went in, and made acquaintance with Mr.
Schulz, who was there. He appears to me to be a very public-spirited
man, having been one of the most prominent undertakers of the landings
and quay of Augusta. It is said, however, that he only accomplishes good
objects for other people, and realizes nothing for himself. He has
already several times possessed a respectable fortune, which he has
always sunk again by too daring speculations. This Hamburg bank,
moreover, has suspended its payments, and will not resume business till
the first of next month. On this account, it was not possible for me to
obtain its notes, which, for the curiosity of the thing, I would gladly
have taken back with me to Germany.
On the 23d December we left Augusta, about four o’clock, by moonlight,
and the weather pretty cold, in the miserable mail stage, which we had
engaged for ourselves. It went for Milledgeville, eighty-six miles
distant from Augusta. The road was one of the most tedious that I had
hitherto met with in the United States; hilly, nothing but sand, at
times solitary pieces of rock, and eternal pine woods with very little
foliage; none of the evergreen trees and the southern plants seen
elsewhere, which, new as they were to my eye, had so pleasantly broke
the monotony of the tiresome forests through which I had travelled from
the beginning of December; even the houses were clap-board cabins. Every
thing contributed to give me an unfavourable impression. The inhabitants
of Georgia are regarded in the United States under the character of
great barbarians, and this reputation appears really not unjustly
conferred. We see unpleasant countenances even in Italy: but here all
the faces are haggard, and bear the stamp of the sickly climate.
To the cold weather which we had for several days, warm temperature
succeeded to-day. We were considerably annoyed by dust. Besides several
solitary houses and plantations, we encountered two little hamlets here,
called towns, Warrenton and Powelton, this last lies upon Great Ogechee
river, over which passes a wooden bridge. We stopped at Warrenton. The
court of justice is in the only brick house of the place: close by it
stands the prison, or county gaol, a building composed of strong planks
and beams nailed together. Between Warrenton and Powelton, we had a
drunken Irishman for our driver, who placed us more than once in great
danger. This race of beings, who have spread themselves like a
pestilence over the United States, are here also, and despised even by
the Georgians. We travelled again all night; it was, however, not so
cold as the nights previous. Towards midnight, we reached a trifling
place called Sparta. We were obliged to stop here some time, as the
stage and horses were to be changed. We seated ourselves at the
fire-place in the tavern. All of a sudden there stood betwixt us, like
an evil genius, a stout fellow, with an abominable visage, who appeared
to be intoxicated, and crowded himself in behind Mr. Bowdoin.
I addressed this gentleman to be on guard for his pockets. The ruffian
made a movement, and a dirk fell from his sleeve, which he clutched up,
and made off. They told me that he was an Irishman, who, abandoned to
liquor, as most of his countrymen were, had no means of subsistence, and
often slunk about at night to sleep in houses that happened to be open.
Most probably he had intended to steal. We then obtained another driver,
whom, from his half drunkenness and imprecations, I judged to be a son
of Hibernia, and was not deceived.
On the 24th December, we left this unlucky Sparta at one o’clock in the
morning. The driver wished very much to put a passenger in the stage
with us, which we prevented. Vexed by this, he drove us so tediously,
that we spent full eight hours going twenty-two miles to Milledgeville,
and did not therefore reach there until nine in the morning. Immediately
after leaving Norfolk, and travelling in the woods where there was
little accommodation for travellers, we had every night seen bivouacs of
wagoners or emigrants, moving to the western states--the backwoods. The
horses of such a caravan are tied to the side of the wagon, and stand
feeding at their trough; near the wagon is a large fire lighted up, of
fallen or cut timber. At this fire the people sleep in good weather, in
bad, they lay themselves in or under the wagon. After leaving Augusta we
encountered several of these bivouacs, which consist partly of numerous
families with harnessed wagons. They intended to go to Alabama, the
district of country lately sold by the United States, and there to set
themselves down and fall to hewing and building. I saw three families
sitting on a long fallen tree, to which they had set fire in three
places. These groups placed themselves in a very picturesque manner; but
their way of acting is very dangerous. The night before we saw the woods
on fire in three different directions, and the fire was without doubt
occasioned by such emigrants as these. The lofty pine trees look very
handsome while burning, when they are insulated, but the owner of the
forest has all the trouble attending it to himself.
The country which we passed through towards morning was hilly, the
bottom constantly sandy, towards the last, mixed with clay and rock. The
trees were nothing but long-leafed pines. Close by Milledgeville, we
crossed the Oconee river on a bridge that had been finished but a few
days, and which rested on wooden piles. Until now the river was passed
by a ferry-boat. Both shores are very high and steep, so that going in
and coming out were attended with great difficulty.
Milledgeville lies upon elevated ground, the town is very regularly
built, its broad streets are right-angled, they are, however, unpaved.
It numbers about three thousand inhabitants of both complexions. It was
established about twenty years ago, and increased very rapidly from its
commencement, as it is the capital of the state of Georgia, and the seat
of the legislature. Its increase is now calculated to be checked, since
the story goes that the seat of government will be changed to the
newly-founded town of Macon, or when the state has conquered congress in
the cause yet depending before that body, and part of the Creek Indians
territory is obtained, then it will be placed at Athens, where the
university of the state is situated. We took up our residence at La
Fayette Hall, a large tavern.
Soon after our arrival, I took a walk through the town. It contains
mostly wooden houses, but they were good and even elegantly built, good
stores, also a bookseller’s shop, and several printing presses. There
are published here four gazettes, which a little while since were
exceedingly active on the sides of the two parties who oppose each other
in the state. One party is that of Governor Troup, who, from his
discussions with the United States concerning the Creek territory, and
on account of his warmth in his official correspondence, has become
noted; the other is the party of the former governor, General Clark, who
is, in all appearance, a very mild man, and very much respected by
sensible and well-disposed persons. At the last election of the
governor, it was believed and hoped that General Clark would be chosen.
He had the majority of the legislature in his favour, yet, as the
governor in this state is chosen for two years by the people, and every
man that pays half a dollar tax has a vote, it so happened that Governor
Troup succeeded, by his popularity, in bearing off the palm.
I examined the state-house, which is a simple, but well-finished brick
building of two stories. In the ground floor are the offices, in the
upper story two halls, one is for the senate, the other for the
representatives. In each there is a seat, with a canopy, for the
speaker. The senators have each a desk before them, in the hall of the
representatives one desk serves two persons. All places are numbered,
to prevent awkward encounters. In each hall there is a gallery for the
public. The state-house is placed alone on a little eminence. In its
neighbourhood stands the state arsenal. Another house belonging to the
state, is appointed for the residence of the governor. Mr. Troup,
notwithstanding, does not inhabit it; he has no family establishment,
and has domesticated himself in a plain boarding-house. We intended to
pay him our respects, he could not, however, receive us, as he lay
dangerously ill of a pleurisy. Through two friends, Colonel Hamilton and
Mr. Ringold, he tendered us his apologies, and these gentlemen, in his
name, proffered us their services.
We were then carried to the state prison, a large brick edifice, under
the superintendence of Mr. Williams, and contained seventy-six
prisoners. All these were white persons, for the black were punished by
the whip, and not with imprisonment. No idleness was suffered among the
prisoners. If one understood no mechanical trade, he was obliged to
learn one. I found most of them employed in wagon and saddle-making;
others laboured in a smithy; others as shoemakers or tailors. The
greatest quiet and silence prevailed among the prisoners. Their dress is
blue, with broad white stripes upon all the seams. The interior of the
lodging-house did not please me as much as the workshops. Cleanliness,
so indispensable to such an establishment, was wanting here; it was
neither swept nor scrubbed, and in the cells of the prisoners, in which
four or five slept upon the floor, the woollen coverlets and pillows lay
confusedly together. There were also cells for solitary confinement,
this was, however, used only as a means of house discipline. The eating
room was equally disagreeable to me. A piece of cooked meat was laid on
the table for each prisoner, without knives, forks, or plates. Bread did
not appear to be furnished every day; at least the day we were there,
none was to be seen. The prison is surrounded by a high wall, at each of
its four corners stands a sentry-box for the watch, which they ascend
from without, and from which the whole yard can be overlooked. This
establishment is so well conducted, that it occasions no expense to the
state, on the contrary, it produces a profit. Upon the principal
building stands a turret, which commands an extensive view over the town
and circumjacent country. The district around appears uneven and covered
with wood, the monotony of the view is relieved by nothing. The woods
begin at the edge of the town.
Colonel Hamilton and Dr. Rogers accompanied us on Christmas day to the
state-house. A travelling Unitarian clergyman from the northern states
held divine service in the hall of representatives. The generality of
people here are either Methodists or Baptists. As the Unitarian had
found the churches here shut on this day, he had opened his temple in
the state-house. His audience was composed of the beau monde, as a
Unitarian was something new. He delivered a good discourse, in which he
set forth pure morality, and received general approbation. After dinner
he proposed to give a second service, for the purpose of expounding the
doctrines of his belief, as founded on common sense.
Colonel Hamilton, a particular friend of Governor Troup, was formerly
secretary of state of Georgia. The appointment to this office belongs to
the legislature. This was the cause that though Troup is again chosen
governor by the people, Mr. Hamilton and all the friends of the governor
have lost their places, which are occupied by persons attached to the
Clark party. Dr. Rodgers was secretary of the state treasury, and has
been deprived of his office from the same cause. We saw here several
Indians of both sexes, from the Creek nation, who sold bows, arrows, and
very neatly made baskets. These Indians had a much better appearance
than those I saw in the western part of the state of New York and
Canada. Afterwards several of the grandees of the country were presented
to me by Colonel Hamilton. All these gentlemen had their own peculiar
character. It was evident that they lived in a state separated from the
civilized world.
We were constrained to remain in Milledgeville on the day after
Christmas, how unpleasant soever it might be. No stage goes from this
place through the Indian territory to Montgomery on the Alabama river,
whither we intended to bend our way. We therefore hired for this journey
of one hundred and ninety-eight miles, a four-horse extra stage, for the
price of two hundred and twenty-five dollars; this stage was at present
under repair in the state prison, and could not be placed at our
disposal before the 27th of December. It was necessary for us to have
patience, and pass the time as well as possible, and the few gentlemen
with whom we had formed acquaintance exerted themselves to amuse us.
On the 27th of December we left Milledgeville at nine o’clock in the
morning. It was a pretty cold day, and there was ice half an inch thick.
We rode only thirty miles to Macon. In spite of the large sum of money
which our carriage had cost us, it broke twice; the repairs consumed
much time, and we left it several miles behind. The day was very clear,
and towards midday moderately warm, in the evening there was again a
strong frost. I was pleased with the dark blue of the sky, such as we
hardly have in Germany in a midsummer’s day. We met with several
families, emigrating with their property to Macon and the State of
Alabama. One of these families, who had paid their wagoners beforehand,
had been left by them under frivolous pretext in the middle of the
woods, two miles from Milledgeville: we found these unfortunate persons,
who had made a bivouac, after they had waited several days in vain for
their runaway wagoner and his horses. Several lonely houses which we
passed were grog-shops, in which the neighbours were celebrating the
third day of the Christmas holy-days. Every thing as at home, thought I,
and fancied that I was in a European country. We noticed a gentleman and
lady on horseback, the horses were not loaded completely, a barefooted
negro wench was obliged to run with a heavy sack of corn on her
shoulders to feed the horses! Then I was convinced, and with pleasure,
that I was not in Europe! The road was sandy, uneven, and passed through
pine woods. This wood was here and there cleared, and a patch of cotton
and Indian corn planted. Close by Macon we crossed the Oakmulgee river
in a ferry-boat, and reached the town after sunset. We found tolerable
accommodation in a new tavern.
The country in which Macon is situated, was first purchased from the
Creek Indians, in the year 1822, and the town began about two years ago.
In the last war, the Indians had collected a number of their people
here, and the United States built Fort Hawkins, on the left bank of the
river, at present deserted.
In Macon we received a visit from a Colonel Danah, who formerly served
in the army, and was now settled here. He introduced to me several of
the distinguished people of the place, who had come to see me. The town
has only three streets, which crossed at right angles. At the point of
intersection is a large square, there are houses only on three sides of
it; on the fourth side it is contemplated to erect the capitol, if,
as it has been proposed, the government should be removed here from
Milledgeville. One street runs perpendicular to the line of the river,
over which a bridge is intended to be built: the mason work for its
support has been completed on both sides. The streets are about one
hundred feet wide, the roots of the felled trees are visible in them,
of which trees the houses are constructed throughout. The place contains
about sixteen hundred inhabitants, white and black. The population are
partly young people from Georgia, partly emigrants from the two
Carolinas and the northern states, who have fixed themselves here from
motives of speculation. Although the site of the new town is represented
as extremely healthy, yet they have suffered during the preceding summer
from bilious fever. The country around is little built upon, and the
woods begin not far behind the houses.
About nine o’clock in the morning, on the 28th December, we left Macon
and rode thirty-one miles distance to the Indian agency, on the left
bank of Flint river, called by the Indians, Thlo-no-teas-kah. The road
was partly sandy, partly rocky, but extremely uneven. It was kept in
very bad order. No pains had been taken to carry away or saw through
trees, which had fallen more than a year back crosswise over the road;
the carriage was obliged to make a considerable deviation through the
woods to pass these fallen trees. The plantations by which we passed,
are all new; the houses were completely log huts. The tiresome
uniformity of the pine woods were, in the low and marshy places into
which we often came, very pleasantly interrupted by evergreen cane, as
well as by thorn oaks and laurel trees, we also saw several green-leaved
trees, chiefly oaks, as formerly.
Towards four o’clock in the afternoon we reached the agency, a group of
twenty log houses, and some negro huts. It is appointed for the
residence of the agent of the United States with the Creek Indians,
(he, however, was absent at this time,) and is situated in a very
handsome tract of land on the left side of the Flint river, which rushes
over a rocky bed between pretty steep banks. The right bank belongs to
the Creek nation, of about twenty-one thousand souls, and is inhabited
by them. The contest between the state of Georgia and the United States
is caused by this territory. The state of Georgia had concluded a treaty
with one of the Creek chiefs, M‘Intosh, concerning the surrender of this
district of land; the nation, discontented with the treaty, and is
nowise willing to evacuate their country, insisted that they had been
deceived, and killed M‘Intosh. The United States espoused the side of
the Indians, and blamed the Georgia commissioners for scandalous
impositions upon the Indians. Congress is now about to decide upon this
matter. In one of the log-houses, with a Mr. Crowell, we took up our
night’s lodging, and enjoyed some very well cooked venison. In a
neighbouring grog-shop we found a collection of drunken Indians, and
some negroes, who were frolicing during the Christmas holy-days. Several
of them were well dressed; they wore mocassins and leggings of leather;
broad knee-bands ornamented with white glass beads, a sort of coat of
striped cotton, and upon the head a striped cotton cloth, almost like a
turban. Several of them were very large. For a treat of whiskey, which I
gave them, eight of them performed the war dance. They skipped here and
there in a circle, moved themselves right and left, sprung against each
other, raised their hands on high, let them fall again, and bellowed
horribly through the whole scene. Some old men who stood near, took it
in dudgeon, that the young men should dance in such a way before white
people. They called to them to stop. Mr. Crowell, however, brought them
to silence easily, by whiskey.
The colour of these Indians is a dusky brown. They have black straight
hair. Several of them possess negroes, to whom it is very acceptable to
live with them, since they are treated with more equality than by the
whites. Some of these negroes were very well clothed in the Indian
manner, they drank and jumped about with the Indians. One of them was of
colossal stature, and appeared to be in great request among the Indians,
to whom he served as interpreter. The constitution of these Indians is a
mixture of aristocratical and republican form of government. The chiefs
are chosen for life, and the dignity is not hereditary; for improper
conduct they can be deposed. They cannot write their language. Their
laws are of course very simple, and founded on traditionary usage.
It had rained hard in the night, between the 28th and 29th of December,
it rained also in the day, almost incessantly, yet this rain was mild
and warm, nearly like a spring rain in Germany. There was a
consultation, whether we should remain or go farther on, I determined on
the latter. About nine o’clock we left our night quarters. In the
vicinity thereof, the governor of the state of Georgia had built Fort
Lawrence, which was evacuated, and given up at the peace. The houses,
which belonged to the agency, were then built as magazines and hospitals
for the troops, and arranged for a post of defence. Near the chimney,
and the doors and windows, (the last without glass sashes,) were
loop-holes pierced. Behind this post we passed the Flint river in an
Indian ferry-boat, and found ourselves landed upon their territory. We
rode twenty-eight miles farther to a lonely plantation, called Currel’s.
The road ran through the worst part of the Indian lands, the woods
consisted as before, of the long-leaved pine, and it was only in damp
places we observed green leaves. In particular, there grew high and
beautiful cane. The soil is for the most part dry sand, in strata, and
particularly in the bottoms it is mixed with clay, and of a full yellow
colour. The Indians have thrown bridges over two brooks with marshy
shores, at each of them we paid, with great pleasure, half a dollar
toll-money. The bridges are indeed not remarkably good, yet better than
several in the christian state of Georgia, and even in many of the more
northern states. We met but few of the Indian inhabitants; these were
all wrapt up in woollen blankets. We only saw three wigwams, Indian
houses, chiefly toll-houses of the bridges. They resemble the
log-houses, neither are they so open as those which I saw last summer in
the state of New York. The day was exceedingly uninteresting. Mr.
Currel, with whom we passed the night, is a Virginian, who has settled
here for the opportunity of speculating among the Indians, from whom he
purchased his land at a rather cheap rate: to judge from his habits of
intoxication, he has already adapted himself too much to their mode of
life. His plantation buildings are, as all the rest, log huts: the wind
blew to our heart’s content through the room; no lamp could burn, and we
were forced to use a great hearth fire to give us light. There was no
ceiling to our room, but a transparent roof of clap-boards directly over
us. I was surprised to discover Shakspeare’s works in this place. In one
of the out-houses there was a very good supper set before us, at which,
especially, we had excellent venison.
Upon the 30th of December, after we had passed a cold night in our
clap-board hut, which allowed the storm free admission, and locked our
few articles of property in our chamber, from fear of the Indians
sneaking about, we started before break of day, and rode a distance of
thirty-three miles to Fort Mitchel. The weather was cold the whole day
through, and threatened rain. The country again very uninteresting,
mostly pines, a sandy soil, here and there mingled with clay: at length
wood with green leaves. Only in low situations, along the rivulets,
of which we passed three, was the vegetation to be admired. The laurel
bushes particularly looked well. It gave me real pleasure to be able to
walk in a green thicket along a brook, which I could have accomplished
with difficulty in summer, since these bushes are the favourite resort
of a great number of rattlesnakes. In a solitary plantation we took our
breakfast; it belonged to a Mr. Colfrey, a worthy old Virginian, who had
lost a considerable property, and to better his circumstances, had
determined on the hard alternative of settling among the Indians. We
found his plantation in a very uncommon state of order and neatness, and
we were delighted by an unexpected and most excellent breakfast. Mr.
Bowdoin said to the owner of the place, that he appeared as if he had
not always lived thus among the savages, and never can I forget how the
old man, with tears in his eyes, turned away without making an answer.
We met with several wigwams, and various temporary cabins of travelling
Indians, also a number of bridges, at which we were obliged to pay the
Indians toll. The country was very hilly till we came into a valley,
a mile from our night quarters, through which the Chatahouchee flowed.
This river empties itself into the Mexican gulf. The district, even to
the left bank of the river, is rather marshy, grown up with willows,
laurel, and cane. Not far from the river we beheld several buildings
appointed for the popular assembly of the Indians, called the big talk.
They are large and round, having a conical-formed roof, covered with
tree-bark; they have walls of lime, and a covered low entrance also of
lime. The Indians assemble in these buildings only in bad weather, or at
night, and then a fire kindled in the middle of the house, gives light.
In good weather they collect in a square place covered with sheds, under
which the Indians sit down on planks protected from the sun’s heat.
There is also another place for public games, and particularly for
ball-playing. They appeared here also to have a species of masquerade,
for we found some in a half gourd, cut through and made into a mask,
with eyes and mouth cut in it, and the nose set on of a piece of wood.
From the neck of the gourd, which was cut at half its length, they had
made a pair of horns, and fasted them on the mask, and under this a long
white beard.
We passed the river Chatahouchee at one of the ferries belonging to the
Indians, and kept in order by them. The right bank is somewhat steep,
of red earth, which, from the violent rain, had become slippery. Half a
mile from the ferry brought us to Fort Mitchel. It stood upon a height,
and was situated to the right of us. We dismounted not far from this,
between Indian wigwams at Crowell’s tavern. The host was a brother of
the Indian agent. This house has also a plantation attached to it, as
the one above-mentioned had. Colonel Wool and I were lodged in an airy
out-house of clap-boards, without a ceiling, and windows without glass.
We were accommodated with freer circulation than would have fallen to
our lot in a German barn. Four companies of the fourth regiment of
infantry, the staff of which was fixed at Pensacola, lay in garrison at
the fort. The commandant, Major Donoho, and his officers had taken board
at Crowell’s tavern; in the evening we made acquaintance with them. The
most of these officers, pupils of the school at West Point, were men of
information, and we passed the remainder of the evening much pleased
with their society.
We made the 31st of December a day of rest, as Colonel Wool had to
inspect the garrison of the fort. The four companies here stationed form
properly the garrison of Pensacola, and were only sent here last summer
during the contest between Georgia and the United States, to protect the
Creeks against the encroachments of that State. It openly wishes to take
possession of the Indian territory to the Chatahouchee, to which river,
agreeable to the charter, Georgia extends. The right bank of the river,
on which we now found ourselves, is in the jurisdiction of the State of
Alabama. The troops arriving, at first encamped here, but immediately
commenced building a new but smaller fort, on the spot where Fort
Mitchell stands, so called in honour of the then governor of Georgia,
which they now occupy. They hoped, however, that they should return to
Pensacola as soon as the disagreements had been settled.
After the inspection, we took a walk to a plantation lying near, which
belonged to an Indian named M‘Intosh. He was absent at Washington as a
delegate from his nation. He is the son of that M‘Intosh, who obtained
from the State of Georgia the title of General, and who last spring, on
account of the treaty with the state, had been shot by his countrymen
and hewed in pieces. Polygamy prevails among the Indians. The young
M‘Intosh had indeed only two wives, a white woman and an Indian. They
say he had several wives whom he wished to keep: the white woman however
had driven them with scolding and disgrace out of the house, as she
would only submit to one Indian rival. We did not see the Indian wife.
The white wife, however, received us quite politely. She is the daughter
of a planter in Georgia, and tolerably pretty. She was attired in the
European style, only according to the Indian fancy in dress, she carried
a quantity of glass beads about her neck. She showed us her two
children, completely white, and also the portrait of her father-in-law,
as large as life, with the sword of honour given him by the United
States. The family is in very good circumstances, and possesses seventy
negroes.
In the afternoon we went to a Methodist mission, one short mile distant.
We found none but the women at home. The missionaries have established a
school, which is frequented by thirty children. They have three Indian
girls, boarders, who were extremely modest. The mission is situated in a
handsome plantation, on which I saw tame deer. The deer here are
evidently smaller than those in Europe.
Sunday, the 1st of January, 1826, we were awakened by the drums and
fifes, which announced the new year, by playing Hail Columbia and Yankee
Doodle. With the break of day, between seven and eight o’clock, we left
Fort Mitchel, and rode twenty-five miles to a plantation called Lewis’s,
which is located on the spot, upon which, in the last war, Fort
Bainbridge stood. The road ran through a very hilly country. At first
the soil was sandy and poor, it bore nothing but pine trees. After we
had passed over half the distance, the soil improved, it looked
reddish-yellow, and the apparently everlasting pines gave place to
handsome oaks and lofty hickories. On the other hand the carriage road
became very bad, and in a narrow place we upset. The carriage fell
slowly towards my side, I took the right moment, sprung from the box on
which I sat, and fell upon my feet. This was the eighth time I had been
overturned, and never did I escape so cheap as on this occasion. As none
of the other gentlemen were injured, we could happily laugh at our
accident. The carriage was somewhat damaged, and since we were only four
miles distant from Lewis’s, and had very fine weather, a true spring
day, with clear dark-blue sky, we went the rest of the way on foot.
We passed several wigwams and temporary Indian huts, in which the men
lived with the hogs, and lay around the fire with them. A hut of this
description is open in front, behind it is closed with pieces of wood
and bark. The residents live on roasted venison and Indian corn. The
hides of the deer, and even of cattle, they stretch out to dry in the
sun, and then sell them. At one hut, covered with cane leaves, there was
venison roasting, and bacon smoking. The venison is cut in pieces, and
spitted on a cane stalk, many such stalks lie upon two blocks near each
other. Under these the fire is kindled, and the stalk continually turned
round, till the flesh is dried through. Upon this is laid a hurdle made
of cane which rests on four posts. To this are all the large pieces
suspended. The hams of bacon are laid upon the hurdle so that the smoke
may draw through them.
The grass in many parts of the woods was in a blaze, and many pine trees
were burning. We crossed two small streams, the Great and Little Uchee,
on tolerable wooden bridges. Between three and four o’clock in the
afternoon we reached Lewis’s, a handsome house, the best that we had
found in the Indian territory. We took here an excellent dinner. We ate
daily of the best of venison. In Fort Mitchel we had eaten partridges,
of which the officers in one day took fifty-seven in the morning, and
forty-six in the evening, in their nets. For the singularity of the
thing, I will notice our dinner of to-day, that the inquisitive reader
may observe that one is in no danger of hunger on the lands of the
Indians: soup of turnips, roast-beef, a roast-turkey, venison with a
kind of sour sauce, roast-chickens, and pork with sweet potatoes.
On the 2d of January we rode thirty-one miles to Walker’s, also a
solitary plantation. The country hilly, the road bad to such a degree
that we could only creep along in the most tedious manner, and were
obliged to proceed on foot very often. The wood on the other hand grew
better and better, and consisted, besides the pines, of handsome oaks,
and various sorts of nut-bearing trees, mostly hickories: the soil, for
the most part, of a reddish yellow. In several marshy places, and on the
banks of rivulets, we saw again the evergreen trees and bushes, and in a
swamp nearly a mile long, through which a causeway ran, some magnolia
grandiflora which were at least sixty feet high. I also saw here again
several trees, which first forming one trunk, four or five feet above
the ground, divided themselves into two trunks, and then shot up into
the air one hundred feet. In the north-western part of the state of New
York, I have seen trees which ran up in five, six, and even seven
trunks. Over a stream with marshy banks, a bridge was thrown, three
hundred and eleven paces long: the view which I took from this bridge of
the luxuriant exotic vegetation which surrounded me, exhibited, as I
thought, the original of the sketches of the Brazilian forests in the
travels of the Prince Nieuwied. The beautiful day, the cloudless
dark-blue sky, also introduced by him, were recalled to me by this
picture. But when I observed upon the trees the hateful Spanish moss,
I was reminded that I was in the neighbourhood of Columbia and
Charleston, and that it was a token of unwholesome air. In the swamps I
noticed several plants which were known to me from hot-house
cultivation, but unfortunately I cannot recall their names.
The country is comparatively populously inhabited by Indians. They live
partly in wigwams, partly in bark cabins. Before one of these huts, or
cabins, hung a skinned otter, upon which they seemed preparing to make a
meal. The Indians roast their maize on the naked coals, then they throw
it into a cavity made in a trunk of a tree, and pound it with a stick of
wood into a sort of coarse meal. I bought a species of nuts, which were
roasted, ground-nuts, and amused myself with the propensity to thievery
a young Indian displayed. As I was putting the nuts in my pocket, one or
more would drop, instantly the young fellow would step forward, as if by
accident, set his foot on the nut, take it between his toes, and move
off. We passed through a tolerably cleared, fenced, and built district,
in which several negro quarters of a decent appearance were scattered
about. This plantation belonged to a chief, one of the principal of the
Creeks, called the Big Warrior, who owns above three hundred negroes,
whose wooden dwelling-house stands in the centre of his property. He is
now at Washington, as one of the deputies of his nation. We came over
another cleared spot, where the Indians were routed in the last war by
the Georgia militia under General Floyd.
Not far from this place, we noticed a number of Indians collected in the
neighbourhood of a plantation. We left our carriage to inquire into the
cause of it. There had been a horse race of middling unsightly horses:
the festival was, however, ended, and the meeting was on the point of
breaking up. A white planter who was there, conducted us to the son of
the Big Warrior. He was himself a chief, and possessed a high
reputation, as was said amongst those of the nation. He sat upon a
felled tree between two inferior chiefs. His dress was a tunic of
flowered, clear blue calico, a piece of the same stuff was wrapped round
his head like a turban. He wore richly ornamented leather leggings set
with glass beads, and mocassins, and had an equally ornamented hunting
pouch hung around him. Moderately fat, and of a great stature, he
appeared to be about thirty years old. He had mustaches like all his
countrymen. I was introduced to him, and shook hands with him. The
conversation was very trifling and short. It took place through an
interpreter who appeared to be a dismissed soldier. This creature caused
the chief to rise when we commenced speaking to him; when I begged him
to remain sitting, he reseated himself mechanically. He directed no
questions to me, and answered mine with yes and no. To the question,
whether he knew any thing of the country of which I was a native, he
answered by a shake of the head. He looked no more at me. Several
Indians wore their hair in a singular style; it was shorn on both sides
of the head, and the middle, from the neck over to the forehead, stood
up like a cock’s comb. Seen from behind, they appeared as if they wore a
helmet. Quite small boys practised themselves already in shooting with a
little bow. I attempted to joke with a little fellow, three years old,
but he took the jest in bad part, and threatened me with his bow.
After sunset, towards six o’clock in the evening, we reached Walker’s,
and found a good reception in a large log-house, each of us had a
separate chamber. The landlord was a captain of infantry in the United
States’ service formerly, and had, as our host of yesterday, an Indian
wife.
On the following day we rode to Montgomery, twenty-five miles distant.
The road was in the beginning bad, afterwards, however, really good.
We crossed a bridge over a stream one hundred paces long, and were then
obliged to toil over a long, wretched causeway. The vegetation was again
exceedingly luxuriant, it was remarkably beautiful on the banks of Line
Creek, a little river, which forms the boundary between the Indian
territory and the state of Alabama, eight miles from Walker’s. Very
lofty live oaks, and oaks of other descriptions, several magnolias, and
amongst them, a particularly handsome and lofty macrophylla.
As we entered upon the territory of Alabama, we soon observed that we
were upon a much better soil. It was darker, much wood was removed, and
signs of cultivation every where. Upon several plantations, the cotton
fields exhibited themselves in beautiful order; the log houses were only
employed as negro cabins; the mansion-houses, two stories high, are for
the most part painted white, and provided with piazzas and balconies. At
most of them the cotton gins and presses were at work. The planters had
not finished the whole of their crop, on account of the unusual drought.
The Alabama river was so low that the steam-boats had not been able for
several weeks to pass from Mobile to Montgomery. This place had
therefore, for a length of time, suffered for the want of the most
necessary supplies, which are drawn from Mobile; fifteen dollars had
been asked for one bushel of salt. We met several caravans of emigrants
from the eastern part of Georgia, who were on their way to Butler
county, Alabama, to settle themselves on land which they had purchased
very cheap from the United States. The number of their negroes, wagons,
horses, and cattle, showed that these emigrants were in easy
circumstances. On account of the bad road, we went at first a good deal
on foot; at one of the creeks, the carriage passed through the ford, and
we footmen crossed over on one of the simplest bridges in the world,
namely, a felled pine tree of great size. We arrived at Montgomery about
two o’clock. In the night it had frozen, but the day had solaced us with
the warmth of spring.
Montgomery lies on the Alabama river, a navigable stream, which rises
about two hundred and twenty miles above this place, and after it has
joined itself to the Tombigbee, empties into the Mexican gulf, below
Mobile. The town contains about one thousand two hundred inhabitants,
of both complexions. It has two streets, which are very broad, tolerably
good houses, one, not yet finished, of brick, which material is very bad
here. This place was first laid out about five years ago, and has
already a very lively appearance. On the bank of the river, they were
employed in loading two steam-boats with cotton bales, as, within a few
days, the river had risen five feet, and the navigation was once more
carried on with animation.
The journey by water from Montgomery to Mobile, is four hundred miles,
and as we intended to go this way, we took a look at the two steam-boats
lying here, the Steubenville and Hornet, bound for Mobile. We chose the
Steubenville, which gave out to start on the next day. The construction
of both these boats, and their arrangement, was far inferior to that of
the steam-boats in the north: every thing was coarser, and displayed the
difference between the civilization of the two different sections of the
union. This town is so new, that the original forest still stands
between the houses. In a street there was a well digging; I discovered
by this that the earth was exceedingly well adapted to brick-making, and
that an industrious man, who should establish a kiln here, must make a
handsome profit on the business. The bricks which they sell here at ten
dollars a thousand, are scandalous. Of the inhabitants I heard nothing
commendable: and how can this young town, whose situation, at least in
summer, is unhealthy, have a fixed character; how can it attain a high
degree of cultivation? All come here for the purpose of amassing
property, or are driven here by the prostration of their fortunes, in
their old residence!