GEOGRAPHICAL EANOIUM 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MISSISSIPPI RIVER, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 SUiuentum of tlje
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Class 
 
 Book 
 
 Volume 
 
 ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SMVEY
 
 DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF 
 
 BANVARD'S PANORAMA 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 PAINTED ON 
 
 THREE MILES OF CANVAS: 
 
 EXHIBITING A VIEW OF COUNTRY 
 
 1200 MILES IN LENGTH, 
 
 EXTENDING FROM THE 
 
 Mouth of the Missouri River to the City of New Orleans ; 
 
 BEING BY FAR 
 
 EVER EXECUTED BY MAN. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 JOHN PUTNAM, PRINTER, 
 
 No. 81 Cornhill. 
 
 1847. 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 3177 

 
 ADVENTURES OF THE ARTIST, 
 
 [NoTE. As many inquiries respecting the past history of the artist have been made 
 by those who have viewed his painting, at the suggestion of a number of his friends 
 the following sketch of his adventures is inserted from the Christian Alliance, and 
 Saturday Rambler, published in Boston.] 
 
 The subject of this sketch, Mr. JOHN BANVARD, was born in 
 New York, and received his education at the High School in 
 that city. He is the brother of Rev. Joseph Banvard, pastor 
 of Harvard St. church, Boston, and author of several popular 
 works". John showed the bent of his genius at a very early age. 
 Being of delicate health, and confined in-doors much of his 
 time, his favorite amusement was drawing and painting, and 
 he thus became quite an accomplished draughtsman while yet 
 a mere boy. While his more favored brothers were in the open 
 air at play, he sometimes would be in his room projecting some 
 instrument of natural science a camera obscura, or solar mi- 
 croscope. He once came very near losing his eye sight, by 
 
 <o the explosion of a glass receiver, in which he was collecting 
 
 hydrogen gas. His room was quite a laboratory and museum. 
 
 J He constructed a respectable diorama of the sea, having mov- 
 
 ing boats, fish, and a naval engagement. He saved the pen- 
 
 , ^ nies that were given him, and bought some types, and made 
 
 C- a wooden printing press, and printed some hand-bills for his 
 Q^ juvenile exhibition. We have one of them now in our pos- 
 
 & session, and it is quite a genteel specimen of typography. 
 
 Young Banvard was intimate with Woodworth, the poet, 
 the author of the " Old Oaken Bucket," whose family were 
 neighbors to his father. He evinced a great taste for poetry, 
 at which he early began to try his versatile genius. He 
 wrote some very pretty verses on La Fayette's arrival at this 
 
 ^ country, when he was about nine years of age. He has con- 
 
 H 
 
 p 
 
 30789
 
 tinued occasionally to amuse his leisure hours in this way, up 
 to the present time ; and several of his poetical productions 
 have recently appeared in the city papers. His poem of the 
 White Fawn, which he recites to his audiences, in illustra- 
 tion of a scene in his beautiful picture, certainly stamps him 
 a poet of no ordinary abilities. 
 
 When Banvard was about fifteeji years of age, his family 
 met with a severe reverse of fortune. His father lived just 
 long enough to see his property, collected by frugal industry 
 and perseverance, swept away from him by the mismanage- 
 ment of an indiscreet partner, and his family turned houseless 
 upon a pitiless world. John then went to the West, poor and 
 friendless, and far away from his"mother, brother and sisters, 
 and those he held dear. He arrived at Louisville, Kentucky, 
 sought employment, and procured a situation in a drug store ; 
 but this did not suit his taste. Instead of making pills, his 
 employer would often find him with a piece of chalk or coal, 
 sketching the likenesses of his fellow clerks upon the walls of 
 the rooms, where they were putting up medicines. His em- 
 ployer told him he thought he could make better likenesses 
 than he could pills. John thought so too, and so " threw 
 physic to the dogs," and left the druggist. 
 
 We next find him engaged in his favorite employment of 
 painting he having made an engagement to ornament and 
 decorate a public garden. But this concern soon failed and 
 left him without money or employment. At this time he was 
 about sixteen years old. Our hero, nothing daunted, by per- 
 severing labor obtained a little money, engaged a room, and 
 pursued the business of painting for himself. The day had 
 not arrived for success in his chosen pursuit ; so being fond 
 of adventure, he started down the river with some young 
 men of his acquaintance, to seek anew his fortune. 
 
 When they had reached the mouth of the Saline river, they 
 met with a disaster which had well nigh proved fatal to the 
 young artist. The river was lashed by a terrific storm ; the 
 night was dark; the boat broke loose from its moorings. By 
 great exertions of all hands on board, in pumping and bailing
 
 all night, they succeeded in keeping the craft afloat, and 
 made a safe landing. During this perilous night, our young 
 adventurer, at the hazard of his own life, saved the life of 
 one of his comrades who fell overboard. When day broke 
 they discovered a stock boat but a few yards below them, 
 whose proximity they had not discovered during the night, 
 from the noise of the storm. It was an ill-fated night for the 
 stock boat. It was sunk, all the stock was drowned, and the 
 men were found sitting on the bank nearly frozen, whom the 
 more fortunate party generously relieved. A large number 
 of boats met with a similar fate with the stock boat, on that 
 fatal night. 
 
 The next we find of Banvard, he is in the village of New 
 Harmony, on the Wabash river, \vhere in company with 
 three or four other young men, he " got up" some dioramic 
 paintings, fitted them up for public exhibition, in a flat boat 
 which they built for the purpose, and started off down the 
 Wabash with the intention of " coasting " that river into the 
 Ohio, and so down the Mississippi to New Orleans; thus ex- 
 hibiting to the sparse population of the wilderness specimens 
 of the fine arts, at the same time replenishing their exhausted 
 funds. This proved to be a very unfortunate speculation. 
 The capital of the company gave out before they were able 
 to complete their plans, and they left port with their boat in 
 an unfinished condition, calculating to finish it with their 
 first proceeds, they having invested their last few dimes in a 
 supply of bacon, corn, meal and potatoes; but fate conspired 
 against them. The river was low, and none of them had 
 ever descended the Wabash ; consequently they were igno- 
 rant of the channel, lodged on the sand bars, and hung on the 
 snags until they exhausted their scanty supply of provisions. 
 They at length found themselves fast on a sand bar. and 
 down to their last peck of potatoes at the same time. They 
 labored hard all day to get out of this predicament, but with- 
 out success; and having roasted their last potatoes, they 
 went to bed, or rather to bench, for their money gave out be- 
 fore they had procured bedding, and they had to content
 
 6 
 
 themselves with the softest plank of their seats for their slum- 
 bers Next morning they were up before the sun, with their 
 spirits refreshed by a night's repose; but without any break- 
 fast, they jumped into the water, and with their rails went 
 stoutly to work again to force their boat over the bar. Over 
 exertion, together with being in the water too long without 
 food brought a severe fit of ague upon Banvard. The bar 
 upon which they were fast was called the Bone Bank " 
 bar as, immediately opposite on the shore, the bank of the 
 river was full of organic remains. Some of the large bones 
 were then protruding out of the side of the bank in full view. 
 As Banvard lay on the soft sand of the bar, (it was more 
 comfortable than the hard plank of the boat) his head burn- 
 ing with the fever and his limbs scorched with pain, he 
 looked at these gloomy relics of an antediluvian race, and 
 felt as though his bones would soon be laid with them, 
 at sunset the rest of the company got the boat over the bar, 
 took Banvard aboard, and landed in the woods, all nearly 
 exhausted. Food was as scarce here as it was upon the bar, 
 and all hands went supperless to bed. Next morning they 
 started early, not intent on exhibiting specimens of the fine arts, 
 but on obtaining something to eat, as by this time they were 
 nearly half starved. But the contrary winds landed their 
 luckless craft on Wabash Island, which was uninhabited. 
 Here, fortunately, they found some pawpaws, and they all 
 feasted voraciously on them except Banvard, who was too 
 sick to eat any thing, and who lay upon one of the benches 
 burning with a violent fever. Next day they sent their 
 hand-bills down to the village of Shawneetown, which was 
 in sight, about seven miles ahead, informing the inhabitants 
 that something would be done up brown in the dioramic 
 line that evening, at their wharf ; and so there was; for as 
 the company approached the wharf with their boat, no doubt 
 with high expectations of a good supper, they observed a 
 large audience awaiting their arrival. But the exhibition 
 turned out different from what was expected. The boat 
 lodged on a ledge of rocks about half a cable's length from
 
 the shore. The men from the boat got out a line to the peo- 
 ple on the wharf, who pulled with the same eagerness that 
 the half starved company on board pushed and pried with 
 their poles. But fate, regardless of the philosophy of action 
 and reaction, as well as of the interests of the fine arts at 
 Shawneetown, held the boat fast, and the audience went 
 away without a sight of the paintings, and the artists to sleep 
 again without a supper. That night the swells from a pass- 
 ing steamer lifted the boat from the rocks, and set it afloat 
 down the river ; and when those on board awoke in the 
 morning they found themselves hard aground again on the 
 Cincinnati bar, about eight miles below Shawneetown. The 
 boat was got off with but little trouble, and they landed in a 
 settlement. Here they were very liberal in their terms, as 
 money was scarce, and they wanted to make sure of some- 
 thing to eat. A bushel of potatoes, a fowl, or a dozen of eggs, 
 were good for an admission to their interesting exhibition. 
 That night, after they got through, they had a luxurious sup- 
 per. Fasting so long appeared to have done Banvard some 
 good, for it starved the fever out of him, and in a few days 
 he was entirely well. 
 
 The adventurers continued on with their boat, stopping at 
 the settlements along the shore, and "astonishing the na- 
 tives" with their dioramas. The boat was not very large, 
 and if the audience collected too much on one side, the water 
 would intrude over their low gunwales into the exhibition 
 room. This kept the company by turns in the un-artist-like 
 employment of pumping, to keep the boat from sinking. 
 Sometimes the swells from a passing steamer would cause 
 the water to rush through the cracks of the weather-board- 
 ing, and give the audience a bathing. Banvard says they 
 made no extra charge for this part of the exhibition, although 
 it was not mentioned in the programme. 
 
 Money being scarce, they were compelled to receive " truck 
 and trade " for admissions, such as onions, potatoes, eggs, et 
 cetera. It was no unusual thing to see a family coming to 
 witness the " show boat," the father with a bushel of pota-
 
 8 
 
 toes, the mother with a fowl, and the children with a pump- 
 kin a-piece, for their admission fees. On a certain night, 
 while they were exhibiting, some rogue let the boat loose, 
 and it drifted off several miles down stream with the specta- 
 tors, who were landed in a thick cane brake. They were 
 obliged to make their way home as best they could. 
 
 At Plumb Point the boat was attacked by a party of the 
 Murell robbers, a large organized banditti, who infested the 
 country for miles around ; and here our hero came near losing 
 his life. Several pistol shots were fired at him, but being in 
 the dark, none of them took effect, although several lodged 
 in the deck of the boat within a few inches of him. After a 
 desperate resistance, during which one of the robbers was 
 shot, the boat was rescued. During the encounter, one of the 
 company received a severe wound in the arm from a Bowie 
 knife, but the rest escaped unhurt. Mr. Banvard continued 
 with the boat until it arrived at the Grand Gulf, where he 
 obtained a commission to paint some views. He had found 
 the receipts of the floating expedition to be more potatoes 
 than dimes, more eggs than dollars ; so he sold out his in- 
 terest and left. We know nothing further of this expedition, 
 but Banvard seems to have been satisfied with floating 
 dioramas. 
 
 After this, Mr. Banvard engaged in painting at New Or- 
 leans, Natchez, and subsequently at Cincinnati and Louis- 
 ville, and was liberally rewarded. Not content, however, he 
 executed a very fine panorama of the city of Venice, and ex- 
 hibited it in the West with considerable success, and after- 
 wards sold it at a good price. Having accumulated a little 
 capital, we next find him at St. Louis, as the proprietor of 
 the St. Louis museum, which he had purchased of Mr. Koch, 
 who had left it to exhibit his large skeleton of the Missou- 
 rian. But here fate frowned again upon his efforts. He re- 
 mained in St. Louis just long enough to lose all he had pre- 
 viously earned, and then left for Cincinnati, where he fared 
 little better. He then procured a small boat and started 
 down the Ohio river without a dime, and living several days
 
 upon nuts which he collected from the woods. His next 
 stopping place was a small town where he did some painting, 
 and sold a revolving pistol which he had given twelve dollars 
 for in St. Louis, for twenty-five dollars. With this capital he 
 bought a larger boat, got some produce aboard, which he re- 
 tailed out along shore ; then sold his concern for fifty dollars. 
 Having now a little capital, the young artist made several 
 very successful speculations, and managed to make during 
 this Quixotic expedition three thousand dollars. With the 
 capital thus accumulated, he commenced his grand project of 
 painting the Panorama of the Mississippi. 
 
 He procured a small skiff, and descended the river to 
 make the necessary drawings, in the spring of 1840, and the 
 first sketch was made just before he became of age. Had he 
 been aware, when he commenced the undertaking, of the 
 vast amount of labor it required, he would have shrunk from 
 the task in dismay ; but having commenced the work he was 
 determined to proceed, being spurred on to its completion, 
 perhaps, by the doubts of some of his friends to whom he 
 communicated his project, as to its practicability, and by the 
 assertions of some foreign writers, that " America had no 
 artists commensurate with the grandeur and extent of her 
 scenery." The idea of gain never entered his mind when he 
 commenced the undertaking, but he was actuated by a pa- 
 triotic and honorable ambition, that America should produce 
 the largest painting in the world. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties he encountered, was the pre- 
 paratory labor he had to undergo in making the necessary 
 drawings. For this purpose he had to travel thousands of 
 miles alone in an open skiff, crossing and recrossing the rapid 
 stream, in many places over two miles in breadth, to select 
 proper points of sight from which to take his sketch ; his 
 hands became hardened with constantly plying the oar, and 
 his skin as tavvney as an Indian's, from exposure to the rays 
 of the sun and the vicissitudes of the weather. He would be 
 weeks together without speaking to a human being, having 
 no other company than his rifle, which furnished him with 
 2
 
 10 
 
 his meat from the game of the woods or the fowls of the river. 
 When the sun began to sink behind the lofty bluffs, and eve- 
 ning to approach, he would select some secluded sandy cove, 
 overshadowed by the lofty cotton wood, draw out his skiff 
 from the water, and repair to the woods to hunt his supper. 
 Having killed his game he would return, dress, cook, and 
 from some fallen log would eat it with his biscuit, with no 
 other beverage than the wholesome water of the noble river 
 that glided by him. Having finished his lonely meal, he 
 would roll himself in his blanket, creep under his frail skiff, 
 which he turned over to shield him from the night dews, and 
 with his portfolio of drawings for his pillow, and the sand of the 
 bar for his bed, would sleep soundly till the morning ; when he 
 would arise from his lowly couch, eat his breakfast before 
 the rays of the rising sun had dispersed the humid mist from 
 the surface of the river, then would start fresh to his task 
 again. In this way he spent over four hundred days, making 
 the preparatory drawings. Several nights during the time, 
 he was compelled to creep from under his skiff where he 
 slept, and sit all night on a log, and breast the pelting storm, 
 through fear that the banks of the river would cave upon 
 him, and to escape the falling trees. During this time, he 
 pulled his little skiff more than two thousand miles. In 
 the latter part of the summer he reached New Orleans. The 
 yellow fever was raging in the city, but unmindful of that, 
 he made his drawing of the place. The sun the while was 
 so intensely hot, that his skin became so burnt that it peeled 
 from off the back of his hands, and from his face. His eyes 
 became inflamed by such constant and extraordinary efforts, 
 from which unhappy effects he has not recovered to this day. 
 His drawings completed, he erected a building at Louisville, 
 Kentucky, to transfer them to the canvas. His object in 
 painting his picture in the West was to exhibit it to, and 
 procure testimonials from, those who were best calculated to 
 judge of its fidelity, the practical river men ; and he has 
 procured the names of nearly all the principal captains and
 
 II 
 
 pilots navigating the Mississippi, freely testifying to the cor- 
 rectness of the scenery. 
 
 The following interesting letter from Lieutenant S. Wood- 
 worth, who passed through Louisville, bearer of despatches 
 to Oregon and California, to his friend Gen. Morris, at New 
 York, and published in the " National Press," of that city, 
 gives a graphic description of the artist as he appeared at 
 work upon his great painting. 
 
 " ST. Louis, April 13, 1846. 
 
 " MY DEAR GENERAL: Here I am, in this beautiful city of 
 St. Louis, and thus far 'on my winding way' to Oregon 
 and California. In coming down the Ohio, our boat being of 
 the larger class, and the river at a ' low stage,' we were de- 
 tained' several hours at Louisville, and I took advantage of 
 the detention to pay a visit to an old school-mate of mine, one 
 of the master spirits of the age. I mean Banvard, the artist, 
 who is engaged in the herculean task of painting a pan- 
 orama of the Mississippi river, upon more than three miles 
 of canvas! truthfully depicting a range of scenery of up- 
 wards of two thousand miles in extent. In company with a 
 travelling acquaintance, an English gentleman, I called at 
 the artist's studio, an immense wooden building, constructed 
 expressly for the purpose, at the extreme outskirts of the city. 
 After knocking several times, I at length succeeded in making 
 myself heard, when the artist himself, in his working cap and 
 blouse, pallet and pencil in hand, came to the door to admit 
 us. He did not at first recognize me, but when I mentioned 
 my name, he dropped both pallet and pencil, and clasped me 
 in his arms, so delighted was he to see me, after a separation 
 of sixteen years. 
 
 " My fellow-traveller was quite astonished at this sudden 
 manifestation, for I had not informed him of our previous in- 
 timacy, but had merely invited him to accompany me to see 
 in progress this wonder of the world, that is to be, this levi- 
 athan panorama. Banvard immediately conducted us into 
 the interior of the building. He said he had selected the site 
 for his building, far removed from the noise and bustle of the
 
 12 
 
 town, that he might apply himself more closely and uninter- 
 ruptedly to his labor, and be free from the intrusion of vis- 
 itors. Within the studio, all seemed chaos and confusion, 
 but the life-like and natural appearance of a portion of his 
 great picture, displayed on one of the walls in a yet unfinished 
 state. Here and there were scattered about the floor, piles of 
 his original sketches, bales of canvas, and heaps of boxes. 
 Paint-pots, brushes, jars and kegs were strewed about with- 
 out order or arrangement, while along one of the walls 
 several large cases were piled, containing rolls of finished 
 sections of the painting. On the opposite wall was spread a 
 canvas, extending its whole length, upon which the artist 
 was then at work. A portion of this canvas was wound 
 upon an upright roller, or drum, standing at one end x>f the 
 building, and as the artist completes his painting he thus dis- 
 poses of it. Not having the time to spare, I could not stay 
 to have all the immense cylinders unrolled for our inspection, 
 for we were sufficiently occupied in examining that portion 
 on which the artist is now engaged, and which is nearly com- 
 pleted, being from the mouth of Red river to Grand Gulf. Any 
 description of this gigantic undertaking that I should attempt 
 in a letter,, would convey but a faint idea of what it will be 
 when completed. The remarkable truthfulness of the mi- 
 nutest objects upon the shores of the rivers, independent of 
 the masterly style, and artistical execution of the work, will 
 make it the most valuable historical painting in the world, 
 and unequalled for magnitude and variety of interest, by any 
 work that has ever been heard of since the art of painting 
 was discovered. As a medium for the study of geography of 
 this portion of our country, it will be of inestimable value. 
 The manners and customs of the aborigines and the settlers 
 the modes of cultivating and harvesting the peculiar crops 
 cotton, sugar, tobacco, &c. the shipping of the produce in 
 all the variety of novel and curious conveyances employed 
 on these rivers for transportation, are here so vividly por- 
 trayed, that but a slight stretch of the imagination would bring 
 the noise of the puffing steamboats from the river and the
 
 13 
 
 songs of the negroes in the fields, in music to the ear, and one 
 seems to inhale the very atmosphere before him. Such was 
 the impressions produced by our slight and unfavorable view 
 of a portion of this great picture, which Banvard expects to 
 finish this summer. It will be exhibited in New York in the 
 autumn after which it will be sent to London for the same 
 purpose. The mode of exhibiting it is ingenious, and will 
 require considerable machinery. It will be placed upon up- 
 right revolving cylinders, and the canvas will pass gradually 
 before the spectator, thus affording the artist an opportunity 
 of explaining the whole work. After examining many other 
 beautiful specimens of the artist's skill, which adorn his 
 studio, we dined together in the city. As our boat was now 
 ready to start, I shook hands with Banvard, who parted from 
 me with feelings as sad as they had been before joyful. His 
 life has been one of curious interest, replete with stirring in- 
 cidents, and I was greatly amused in listening to anecdotes 
 of his adventures on these western rivers, where, for many 
 years past, he has been a constant sojourner, indefatigably 
 employed in preparing his great work. 
 
 WOODWORTH." 
 
 Mr. Banvard's money gave out just before he finished his 
 picture. He endeavored to get credit for a few pieces of can- 
 vas to complete it, from the merchant of whom he had pur- 
 chased the principal part of this material, and with whom he 
 had expended hundreds of dollars while speculating on the riv- 
 er, but in vain. Fortunately he obtained a small job to decorate 
 regalia for the Odd Fellows. With the avails he procured 
 canvas to finish his picture. He was obliged, during all this 
 time, to practice great economy. He split and carried his 
 wood and water at night, after it was too dark to paint. 
 When his picture was finished, he had not a single genteel 
 suit of clothes. He endeavored to obtain credit for a coat 
 from a person who professed to be his friend, but in vain. 
 The Gas Company, too. before they would put up fix- 
 tures for him, ordered him to deposit double the amount of the
 
 14 
 
 cost of such fixtures in their bank. To raise this amount, he 
 gave a piece of philosophical apparatus to a society in the 
 city, provided they bought fifty tickets in advance. They 
 agreed to this, of course, as they desired the apparatus very 
 much, as it was worth twice the amount they paid for the 
 tickets. 
 
 The first night he opened in Louisville, he received not a 
 cent. The night was rainy. The artist returned to his 
 room with a sorrowful heart. But " there are better times 
 a-coming." On the next night of exhibition, he received the 
 enormous sum of ten -dollars. Finally, the public became 
 convinced that his picture was worth looking at, and then 
 they rushed to see it by hundreds. The great painter left 
 the city with a few thousand dollars. He went directly to 
 Boston, where the work of art has been duly appreciated. 
 Admiring thousands have visited it, and the enterprising art- 
 ist is deservedly reaping a golden harvest.
 
 MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 
 
 The Mississippi commences in many branches, that rise, 
 for the most part, in wild rice lakes ; but it traverses no great 
 distance, before it has become a broad stream. Sometimes in 
 its beginnings it moves, a wide expanse of waters, with a cur- 
 rent scarcely perceptible, along a marshy bed. At others, its 
 fishes are seen darting over a white sand, in waters almost as 
 transparent as air. At other times it is compressed to a nar- 
 row and rapid current between ancient and hoary lime-stone 
 bluffs. Having acquired in a length of course, following its 
 meanders, of three hundred miles, a width of half a mile, and 
 having formed its distinctive character, it precipitates its 
 waters down the falls of St. Anthony. Thence it glides, al- 
 ternately through beautiful meadows and deep forests, swell- 
 ing in its advancing march with the tributes of an hundred 
 streams. In its progress it receives a tributary, which of it- 
 self has a course of more than a thousand leagues. Thence 
 it rolls its accumulated, turbid and sweeping mass of waters 
 through continued forests, only broken here and there by the 
 axe, in lonely grandeur to the sea. No thinking mind can 
 contemplate this mighty and resistless wave, sweeping its 
 proud course from point to point, curving round its bends 
 through the dark forests, without a feeling of sublimity. The 
 hundred shores, laved by its waters ; the long course of its 
 tributaries, some of which are already the abodes of cultiva- 
 tion, and others pursuing an immense course without a soli- 
 tary dwelling of civilized man being seen on its banks; the 
 numerous tribes of savages that now roam upon its borders; 
 the affecting and imperishable traces of generations that are 
 gone, leaving no other memorials of their existence, or mate- 
 rials for their history, than their tombs, that rise at frequent 
 intervals along its banks; the dim, but glorious anticipations
 
 16 
 
 of the future ; these are subjects of contemplation that can- 
 not but associate themselves with the view of this river. 
 
 The Mississippi runs but a little distance from its source, 
 as we have remarked, before it becomes a considerable 
 stream. Below the falls of St. Anthony, it broadens to half a 
 mile in width ; and is a clear, placid and noble stream, with 
 wide and fertile bottoms, for a long distance. A few miles 
 below the river Des Moines, is a long rapid of nine miles, 
 which, for a considerable part of the summer, is a great im- 
 pediment to the navigation. Below these rapids, the river as- 
 sumes its medial width and character from that point to the 
 entrance of the Missouri. It is a still more beautiful river than 
 the Ohio, somewhat gentler in its current, a third wider, with 
 broad and clean sand bars, except in time of high waters, 
 when they are all covered. At every little distance, there are 
 islands, sometimes a number of them parallel and broadening 
 the stream to a great width. These islands are many of them 
 large, and have in the summer season an aspect of beauty, 
 as they swell gently from the clear stream, a vigor and 
 grandeur of vegetation, which contribute much to the mag- 
 nificence of the river. The sand bars, in the proper season, 
 are the resort of innumerable swans, geese and water fowls. 
 It is, in general, a full mile in width from bank to bank. 
 For a considerable distance above the mouth of the Missouri, 
 it has more than that width. Altogether, it has, from its al- 
 ternate bluffs and prairies, the calmness and transparency of 
 its waters, the size and beauty of its trees, an aspect of 
 amenity and magnificence, which we have not seen belonging 
 in the same extent to any other stream. 
 
 Where it receives the Missouri, it is a mile and a half wide. 
 The Missouri itself enters with a mouth not more than half a 
 mile wide. The united stream below has thence, to the 
 mouth of the Ohio, a medial width of little more than three 
 quarters of a mile. This mighty tributary seems rather to 
 dimmish, than increase its width ; but it perceptibly alters its 
 depth, its mass of waters, and, what is to be regretted, wholly 
 changes its character. It is no longer the gentle, placid
 
 17 
 
 stream, with smooth shores and clean sand bars ; but has a 
 furious and boiling current, a turbid and dangerous mass, of 
 sweeping waters, jagged and dilapidated shores, and, wher- 
 ever its waters have receded, deposites of mud. It remains a 
 sublime object of contemplation. The noble forest still rises 
 along its banks. But its character of calm magnificence, that 
 so delighted the eye above, is seen no more. 
 
 The bosom of the river is covered with prodigious boils, or 
 swells, that rise with a whirling motion, and a convex sur- 
 face, two or three rods in diameter, and no inconsiderable 
 noise, whirling a boat perceptibly from its track. In its 
 course, accidental circumstances shift the impetus of its cur- 
 rent, and propel it upon the point of an island, bend, or sand 
 bar. In these instances, it tears up the island, removes the 
 sand bars, and sweeps away the tender, alluvial soil of the 
 bends, with all their trees, and deposites the spoils in another 
 place. At the season of high waters, nothing is more familiar 
 to the ear of the people on the river, than the deep crash of a 
 land-slip, in which larger or smaller masses of the soil on the 
 banks, with all the trees, are plunged into the stream. Such 
 is its character from Missouri to the Balize ; a wild, furious, 
 whirling river, never navigated safely, except with great 
 caution. 
 
 No person, who descends this river for the first time, re- 
 ceives clear and adequate ideas of its grandeur, and the 
 amount of water which it carries. If it be in the spring, 
 when the river below the mouth of the Ohio is generally over 
 its banks, although the sheet of water, that is making its way 
 to the gulf, is perhaps thirty miles wide, yet finding its way 
 through deep forests and swamps that conceal all from the 
 eye, no expanse of water is seen, but the width that is curved 
 out between the outline of woods on either bank ; and it sel- 
 dom exceeds, and oftener falls short of a mile. But when he 
 sees, in descending from the falls of St. Anthony, that it swal- 
 lows up one river after another, with mouths as wide as it- 
 self, without affecting its width at all ; when he sees it receiv- 
 ing in succession the mighty Missouri, the broad Ohio, St. 
 3
 
 18 
 
 Francis, White, Arkansas, and Red rivers, all of them of 
 great depth, length and volume of water ; when he sees this 
 mighty river absorbing them all, and retaining a volume, ap- 
 parently unchanged, he begins to estimate rightly the in- 
 creasing depths of current that must roll on its deep channel 
 to the sea. Carried out of the Balize, and sailing with a 
 good breeze for hours, he sees nothing on any side but the 
 white and turbid waters of the Mississippi, long after he is 
 out of sight of land. 
 
 Touching the features of the country through which it 
 passes, from its source to the falls of St. Anthony, it moves 
 alternately through wild rice lakes and swamps, by lime-stone 
 bluffs and craggy hills ; occasionally through deep pine 
 forests, and beautiful prairies; and the tenants on its bor- 
 ders, are elk, buffaloes, bears and deer, and the savages that 
 pursue them. In this distance, there is not a civilized inhabi- 
 tant on its shores, if we except the establishments of Indian 
 traders, and a garrison of the United States. Buffaloes are 
 seldom seen below these falls. Its alluvials become wide, 
 fertile, and, for the most part, heavily timbered. Like the 
 Ohio, its bottoms and bluffs generally alternate. Its broad 
 and placid current is often embarrassed with islands, which 
 are generally rich alluvial lands, often containing from five 
 hundred to a thousand acres, and abounding with wild tur- 
 keys and other small game. For one hundred miles above 
 the mouth of the Missouri, it would be difficult for us to 
 convey an idea of the beauty of the prairies, skirting this 
 noble river. They impress the eye, as a perfect level ; and 
 are in summer covered with a luxuriant growth of grass and 
 flowers, without a tree or bush. 
 
 Above the mouth of the Missouri, to the rapids of Des 
 Moines, the medial width of the bottom valley, in which the 
 river rolls, measured from bluff to bluff, is not far from six 
 miles. Below the mouth of the Missouri to that of the Ohio, 
 is not far from eight miles. The last stone bluffs of the Mis- 
 sissippi are seen, in descending, about thirty miles above the 
 mouth of the Ohio. Below these, commences on the Missis-
 
 19 
 
 sippi, as is seen on the Ohio for some distance above its 
 mouth, the aspect of a timbere'd bottom on either side, bound- 
 less to the vision. Below the mouth of the Ohio, the alluvion 
 broadens from thirty to fifty miles in width ; still expanding 
 to the Balize, where it is probably three times that width. 
 We express these widths in terms of doubt, because three fifths 
 of the alluvion, below the mouth of the Ohio, is either dead 
 swamp of cypress forest, or stagnant lakes, or creeping bayous, 
 or impenetrable cane brakes, great part of it inundated ; per- 
 haps traversed in a straight direction from bluff to bluff, 
 scarcely once in a year, and never explored, except in cases 
 of urgent necessity. The bluffs, too, are winding, swelling 
 in one direction, and indented in another, and at least as ser- 
 pentine as the course of the river. 
 
 Between the mouth of the Ohio and St. Louis, on the west 
 side of the river, the bluffs are generally near it, seldom di- 
 verging from it more than two miles. They are. for the most 
 part, perpendicular masses of lime-stone ; sometimes shooting 
 up into towers and pinnacles, presenting, as Mr. Jefferson 
 well observed, at a distance, the aspect of the battlements and 
 towers of an ancient city. Sometimes the river sweeps the 
 bases of these perpendicular bluffs, as happens at the Cornice 
 rocks, and at the cliffs above St. Genevieve. They rise here, 
 between two and three hundred feet above the level of the 
 river. There are many imposing spectacles of this sort, near 
 the western bank of the Mississippi, in this distance. We 
 may mention among them that gigantic mass of rocks, form- 
 ing a singular island in the river, called the "Grand Tower," 
 and the shot towers at Herculaneum. 
 
 From the sources of the river to the mouth of the Missouri, 
 the annual flood ordinarily commences in March, and does 
 not subside until the last of May ; and its medial height is 
 fifteen feet. Between the mouth of the Ohio and the St. 
 Francis, there are various shoal places, where pilots are often 
 perplexed to find a sufficient depth of water, when the river 
 is low. Below that point, there is no difficulty for vessels of 
 any draught, except to find the right channel. Below the
 
 mouth of the Ohio, the medial flood is fifty feet ; the highest 
 sixty. Above Natchez, the flo'od begins to decline. At Ba- 
 ton Rouge, it seldom exceeds thirty feet ; and at New Orleans, 
 twelve. Some have supposed this gradual diminution of the 
 flood to result from the draining of the numerous effluxes of 
 the river, that convey away such considerable portions of its 
 waters by separate channels to the sea. To this should be 
 added, no doubt, the check, which the river at this distance 
 begins to feel from the re-action of the sea, where this mighty 
 mass of descending waters finds its level. 
 
 One of the most striking peculiarities of this river, and of 
 all its lower tributaries, has not often been a theme of ob- 
 servation in describing it. It is the uniformity of its mean- 
 ders, called in the phrase of the country, its "points and 
 bends." In many instances these curves are described with 
 a precision, with which they would have been marked off by 
 the sweep of a compass. The river sweeps round, perhaps, 
 the half a circle, and is precipitated from the point, in a cur- 
 rent diagonally across its own channel, to another curve of the 
 same regularity upon the opposite shore. In the bend is 
 the deepest channel, the heaviest movement of water, and 
 what is called the thread of the current. Between this thread 
 and the shore, there are generally counter currents, or eddies ; 
 and in the crumbling and tender alluvial soil, the river is gen- 
 erally making inroads upon its banks on the bend side. Op- 
 posite the bend there is always a sand bar, matched, in the 
 convexity of its conformation, to the concavity of the bend. 
 Here it is, that the appearance of the young cotton wood 
 groves have their most striking aspect. The trees rise from 
 the shore, showing first the vigorous saplings of the present 
 year ; and then those of a date of two and three years; and 
 trees rising in regular gradation to the most ancient and lofty 
 point of the forest. These curves are so regular on this, and 
 all the rivers of the lower country, that the boatmen and In- 
 dians calculate distances by them ; and instead of the num- 
 ber of miles or leagues, they estimate their progress by the 
 number of bends they have passed.
 
 THE PANORAMA. 
 
 RUSH ISLAND 
 
 And Bar, with the wreck of the steamer West Wind, snag- 
 ged here in June, 1846, at the same time the artist was 
 painting this portion of the river. This was a very unfortu- 
 nate boat, having been previously blown up, and killing a 
 large number of persons. 
 
 BLUFFS OF SELMA. 
 
 These bluffs have a very striking and majestic appearance, 
 varying from two to four hundred fee't in height; some of 
 them are beautifully variegated, and resemble the facades of 
 mighty temples, the face of them having uniform arches, 
 and carved niches, almost as regular and order-like as if they 
 were chiselled out by the hands of man. 
 
 HERCULANEUM, 
 
 Standing as it were in an immense natural amphitheatre. 
 The high rock below the town has a very peculiar castle-like 
 appearance. Further up the river, we have the " Cornice 
 Rocks " and the Cornice Island. 
 
 PLATEEN ROCKS, 
 
 Extending ten or twelve miles along the bank of the river; 
 they have a wild, romantic appearance, some of them shoot-
 
 ing up into towers and spires, and, as Jefferson remarks, not 
 unlike those of cities. 
 
 JEFFERSON BARRACKS, 
 
 Pleasantly situated on a low hill, which rises gradually 
 from the river, presenting a very fine view to the spectator 
 passing on a boat, and calling up patriotic emotions as he 
 beholds the noble star-spangled banner waving, with grace- 
 ful folds, in the loyal western air. 
 
 VIDE POUCHE, (or, in English, Empty Pocket.) 
 
 In the style of building, the taste and simplicity of the old 
 French settlers are very apparent. The French have a fash- 
 ion of annually white- washing their houses, which produces 
 a pleasing appearance when viewed from a distance. There 
 were a number of villages settled by the French in this neigh- 
 borhood one at Kaskaskia, one at Vincennes, and several 
 others. They were all characterized as a people of great 
 simplicity and innocence of life social, disinterested, fond of 
 sport and gaiety; but destitute of that enterprise, energy of 
 character, and aspiring disposition, which the Americans ex- 
 hibit. Their lands were generally held and cultivated in 
 common, and their little communities constituted, as it were, 
 but one great family. 
 
 UNITED STATES ARSENAL. 
 
 It is beautifully situated on a gentle declivity immediately 
 below the city, at the foot of " the bar." A short distance 
 below the arsenal commence some rocky bluffs, upon which 
 are situated, very prominently, several lofty shot towers ; 
 they have a very striking appearance when viewed from the 
 river. 
 
 ST. LOUIS. 
 
 St. Louis is one of the oldest and first settled towns in 
 the Mississippi Valley. It was settled and occupied by the
 
 French, until the country was purchased by the American 
 Government. It is, and always has been, the commercial 
 capital of the country now forming the State of Missouri. 
 Since the Americans begun to take the lead in St. Louis, 
 and introduced our laws and enterprise, a new impulse has 
 been given to its improvement, commerce, and prosperity. 
 The situation of the town is very beautiful. It stands on a 
 kind of second bottom, that rises gently from the river to a 
 considerable eminence. Having surmounted this bank, an 
 extensive plain opens to view. In the immediate vicinity of 
 the town, this plain is covered with bushes and shrub oaks. 
 Beyond is an extensive belt of grassy plain or naked prairie. 
 The timber for several miles has been cut away for fuel. 
 The eye reposes, in the spring and summer months, with 
 pleasure upon this sweep of verdure, bounded on the verge of 
 the horizon with forests, and also upon the level bottom and 
 noble forests on the opposite shore of the river. The town has 
 extended itself along the hill ; and some of the best houses are 
 built on that pleasant elevation. The number of the Ameri- 
 cans now predominates over that of the French ; but the 
 population is made up of emigrants from all parts of the 
 world. There is no town in the western country more favor- 
 ably situated as the seat of an immense trade. It is nearly 
 in the centre of the Mississippi Valley, commanding the trade 
 of the Missouri, the upper Mississippi, and the Illinois, with 
 the vast and almost boundless country watered by these gi- 
 gantic streams. The fur trade of this immense country al- 
 ready centres here. It is the depot of the numberless lead 
 mines in this region of country, and all the produce and mer- 
 chandize of the country above it. It has this obvious advan- 
 tage over any town on the Ohio, that steamboats can run be- 
 tween here and New Orleans at the lowest stages of water. 
 A great number of steamboats, and river craft of all descrip- 
 tions, bound to all points of the boatable waters of the Mis- 
 sissippi, are seen at all seasons of the year lying in the har- 
 bor. Miners, trappers, hunters, adventurers, emigrants, and 
 people of all character and languages, meet here, and dis-
 
 perse in pursuit of their various objects, in every direction, 
 some even beyond the remotest points of civilization. Popu- 
 lation about 60,000. 
 
 BLOODY ISLAND. 
 
 ' The name being given to it from the number of duels that 
 have been fought within its shades. 
 
 MISSOURI RIVER. 
 
 This is the largest tributary of the Mississippi river, dis- 
 charging more water into the channel than the Upper Mis- 
 sissippi itself: in fact, it is the longer river of the two. At 
 its confluence it is about half a mile wide ; the united stream 
 from this point to the mouth of the Ohio has a medial breadth 
 of about a mile. This mighty tributary appears rather to di- 
 minish, than to increase the width, but it materially alters 
 the depth of the channel. 
 
 A short distance above the mouth of the Missouri stands 
 the town of Alton, situated at the base of a beautiful bluff, 
 which rolls in on the river in a graceful outline clearly defined 
 against bright sky beyond. 
 
 Immediately in the foreground, under the shade of some 
 stately elms, is an encampment of Shawnee Indians ; the 
 warriors reclining lazily upon the greensward, while their 
 squaws are preparing their rude repast. 
 
 Below the junction of the Missouri stand out in fine relief, 
 some very beautiful islands, clad in the brightest verdure. 
 
 MOUTH OF THE OHIO. 
 
 This is a very beautiful stream, called by the French, " La 
 Belle Rivere." Its banks are thickly settled, and contain 
 many fine cities. 
 
 The spectator has, at the Mouth of the Ohio, a view of 
 three States at one time. To his right, he will see the State of 
 Kentucky ; in the centre, between the two rivers, the State 
 of Illinois ; to his left, the state of Missouri. On the delta of 
 the two rivers stands the city of
 
 25 
 
 CAIRO, 
 
 Laid off by speculators, and fast going to decay. 
 
 N. B. The views of the painting above the mouth of the 
 Ohio are all on the western shore; below the Ohio they are all 
 on the eastern shore. 
 
 IRON BANKS 
 
 And the town of Columbus are the first objects that strike 
 the eye of the voyager after passing the Ohio. They are in- 
 troduced into the picture by moonlight, with the magnificent 
 steamer Peytona wooding; one of the largest and fastest 
 
 its on the river, commanded by Capt. John Shallcross, a 
 well known and gentlemanly commander of the West. In 
 the distance can be seen the 
 
 CHALK BANKS, 
 
 A high bluff of white clay, and falling nearly perpendicu- 
 larly to the river, which washes its base. 
 
 MILLS POINT. 
 
 This is not a point of the river, but a point or spur of high 
 lands that strike into the river, and affords an excellent loca- 
 tion for a town. In the foregroud of the view is a diving bell 
 at work on the wreck of a steamer. 
 
 INDIAN MOUNDS 
 
 And Island Number Twenty-Five. The islands on the Mis- 
 sissippi, below the Mouth of the Ohio, have all been number- 
 ed; but, at present, the numbers are very irregular, owing to 
 the circumstance of many being washed away by the force of 
 the moving waters; the " chutes " of others " growing up," 
 as it is termed, and new ones continually forming. 
 
 This " growing up " of the islands of the Mississippi, is one 
 
 of the most striking characteristics of this mighty river, and 
 
 one that would not present itself to the eye of a voyager in 
 
 4
 
 passing along the stream, unless the islands that were grow- 
 ing up were pointed out, and the philosophy explained to 
 him. This singular peculiarity even escaped the observation 
 of Mr. Flint, as he makes no allusion to it in his excellent 
 description of the Mississippi, contained in his geography of 
 the Western States. 
 
 The cause of this " growing up " of the islands is this : 
 Where the current strikes diagonally off from a point above 
 the head of an island, the eddying waters produce a sand bar 
 under the point at the mouth of the " chute," or channel, 
 round the island. Upon this bar collects the alluvial soil of 
 the river, from which spring the young cotton woods, and 
 being of very rapid growth, soon shoot up into tall trees 
 and completely shut out the channel from the view of the 
 river. The "chutes" behind the islands then form lakes. 
 Upon the waters of these lakes congregate all kind of aquatic 
 fowls, swans, geese, ducks, pelicans, and the like. These 
 lakes are likewise the resort of alligators. 
 
 PLUMB POINT. 
 
 This is one of the most difficult places to boatmen on the 
 Mississippi, from the frequency of the change of channel, the 
 snags, bars, and sawyers. A large number of steam, and 
 other boats, have been lost here. It was a short distance 
 from this place where Murrell, the notorious land pirate and 
 robber, had his encampment. 
 
 When the artist first descended the river, the small flat 
 boat on which he was travelling laid by here ; and during 
 the night the boat was attacked by these robbers, and it was 
 only by a desperate resistance, during which one of the rob- 
 bers was shot, that the boat was rescued, after cutting the 
 lines and leaving them on the shore. During the conflict, 
 Mr. Banvard had a volley of shot fired at him, the balls 
 whistling past and splashing in the river by him; but, fortu- 
 nately, none of them took effect, although several struck in 
 the planking of the boat, only a few inches from him.
 
 FULTON, 
 
 On the First Chickasaw Bluffs, an unimportant town, with 
 the town of 
 
 RANDOLPH, 
 
 On the Second Chickasaw Bluffs, seen in the distance ; the 
 view looking down the chute of No. Thirty- Four. 
 
 MEMPHIS. 
 
 This city is beautifully situated on the Fourth Chickasaw 
 Bluffs, presenting a very fine appearance as you descend the 
 river. It is laid off in regular streets, and, under the impulse 
 of its enterprising citizens, it is fast rising in importance. It 
 is advantageously situated for trade, being a great shipping 
 point for cotton. The United States Naval Depot is located 
 here. From the improvements already made and in progress, 
 Memphis bids fair to become a very important place of busi- 
 ness. It is situated in the south-western corner of the State 
 of Tennessee. On the lower end of the " Fourth Bluffs," is 
 situated the town of 
 
 FORT PICKERING, 
 
 A new place laid off by speculators. It is very handsomely 
 situated opposite the head of 
 
 PRESIDENT'S ISLAND, 
 
 A large and beautiful island, which divides the river just 
 below. Here the voyager will begin to see fine cotton plan- 
 tations, with the slaves working in the cotton fields. He will 
 see the beautiful mansions of the planters, rows of " negro 
 quarters; " and lofty cypress trees, the pride of the Southern 
 forests. A little farther down he passes the town of 
 
 COMMERCE, 
 
 Situated at the head of a deep bend of the river.
 
 STACK ISLAND, 
 
 By moonlight. Here we have a beautiful view of about 
 ten miles up the river, the island in the centre reposing 
 quietly upon the surface of the river, which is broken by the 
 ripples of a passing steamer, the rnoon observed aloft, shed- 
 ding its mellow light and gilding the surrounding landscape 
 with its silvery hues. 
 
 Here we have the first view of the Spanish Moss, hanging 
 in gloomy grandeur from the bough of the cypress trees; 
 likewise the Palmetto, with its broad, fan-like leaf, the lofty 
 Cotton Wood, the sea grass, the impenetrable canebrake, and 
 all the concomitants of a Southern forest. 
 
 VICKSBURG, 
 
 Situated on the Walnut Hills. These hills come in and 
 extend along on the river for about two miles. They rise 
 boldly, though gradually, with alternate swells and gullies, 
 to the height of nearly 500 feet ; and present one of the most 
 beautiful prospects to be met with on the lower Mississippi. 
 At the lower end, the city of Vicksburg is situated, on the 
 shelving declivities of the hills, and the houses are scattered 
 in groups on the terraces, and present a very striking view as 
 the spectator descends the river. A few miles farther down 
 will be seen the small town of 
 
 WARRENTON, 
 
 The seat of justice for Warren County, Mississippi. 
 
 PALMYRA ISLAND, 
 
 With the steamer Uncle Sam. This is one of the finest 
 boats on the river, commanded by clever officers, and makes 
 very regular trips from Louisville to New Orleans. All the 
 steamboats introduced into the Panorama of the Mississippi, 
 are correct likenesses of boats that are now plying on those 
 waters. 
 
 In the foreground of this view we have a wood yard, and
 
 the Pecan tree tresselled with the Muscadine vine. After 
 passing these, we come to the city of 
 
 GRAND GULF, 
 
 Situated at the base of a bold and solitary bluff. A few 
 miles below this is the 
 
 PETITE GULF 
 
 And the town of Rodney. A few miles below Rodney, 
 near the point, stands a very fine cotton plantation belonging 
 to General Taylor. 
 
 NATCHEZ. 
 
 This city is romantically situated on a very high bluff of 
 the east bank of the river, and is much the largest town in 
 the State of Mississippi. The river business is transacted in 
 that part of the city which is called " under the hill." Great 
 number of boats are always lying here. Some very respect- 
 able merchants reside in this part of the city. The upper 
 town is elevated on the summit of the bluff, 300 feet above 
 the level of the river, and commands a fine prospect of the 
 surrounding landscape. The country on the eastern bank is 
 waving, rich, and beautiful ; the eminences presenting open 
 woods, covered with grape vines, and here and there neat 
 country houses. This part of the town is quiet; the streets 
 broad; some of the public buildings are handsome; and the 
 whole has the appearance of comfort and opulence. Many 
 rich planters live here ; and the society is polished and re- 
 spectable. It is the principal town in this region for the ship- 
 ment of cotton, with bales of which, at the proper seasons of 
 the year, the streets are almost barricaded ; and it is the mar- 
 ket for the trade of the numerous population of the contigu- 
 ous country. Notwithstanding the elevation, and apparent 
 healthiness of the city, it has often been visited by the yellow 
 fever. It is owing to this circumstance, that the population 
 does not increase so fast as might be expected from its eligible
 
 30 
 
 position. It is, at present, supposed to contain 5000 inhabi- 
 tants. It is 300 miles above New Orleans. 
 
 ELLIS'S CLIFFS. 
 
 These cliffs have a very peculiar and majestic appearance ; 
 being of sand, the rains are washing them off into a variety 
 of fanciful shapes, some of them resembling towers and bat- 
 tlements. After passing these, the traveller will see the little 
 town of 
 
 FORT ADAMS, 
 
 Romantically situated on the side of a beautiful hill, with 
 a noble bluff just below the village, called Loftus's Heights. 
 Here are the remains of an old fort, erected during the admin- 
 istration of John Adams, in honor of whom it was named. 
 
 BAYOU SARA, 
 
 By moonlight. A short distance above this town stands an 
 old dead tree scathed by the fire, where three negroes were 
 burnt alive. Each of them had committed murder: one of 
 them murdered his mistress and her two daughters. After 
 passing Bayou Sara, the traveller will see some very beautiful 
 cliffs, called the 
 
 WHITE CLIFFS, 
 
 On which are situated the small towns of Port Hudson and 
 Port Hickey, and immediately below these is the very pictu- 
 resque and romantic looking 
 
 PROPHET'S ISLAND. 
 
 Here formerly lived and died Wotongo, an Indian prophet, 
 the last of his tribe. 
 
 BATON ROUGE. 
 
 This is now the capital of the state of Louisiana. This 
 place is handsomely situated on the last bluff that is seen in
 
 31 
 
 the descending river. The site is thirty or forty feet above 
 the highest overflow of the river. This bluff rises from the 
 river by a gentle and gradual swell. The United States' bar- 
 racks here are built in a fine style ; and are supposed to be 
 among the handsomest and most commodious of that kind of 
 works. From the esplanade, the prospect is delightful, com- 
 manding a great extent of the coast, with its handsome 
 houses, and rich cultivation below ; and an extensive view of 
 the back country at the east. The city is tolerably compact, 
 and has a number of neat houses. The town itself, especially 
 in the months when the greatest verdure prevails, as seen 
 from a boat in the river, rising with such a fine swell from the 
 banks, and with its singularly shaped French and Spanish 
 houses, and its green squares, looks like a finely painted land- 
 scape. 
 
 From Baton Rouge, the river below to New Orleans, is 
 lined with splendid sugar plantations, and what is generally 
 termed the " Coast," a strip of land on either side of the 
 river extending back to the cypress swamps, about two miles. 
 It is the richest soil in the world, and will raise nearly all the 
 tropical fruits, oranges, figs, olives, and the like. This 
 coast is protected from inundations by an embankment of 
 earth of six or eight feet in height, called a levee. Behind the 
 levee, we see extensive sugar fields, noble mansions, beautiful 
 gardens, large sugar houses, groups of negro quarters, lofty 
 churches, splendid villas, presenting, in all, one of the finest 
 views of country to be met with in the United States. The 
 inhabitants are chiefly native French or Creoles. 
 
 Just before arriving at New Orleans, will be seen a beauti- 
 fully situated town in the bend above, called 
 
 CARROLTON. 
 
 From this point there is a railroad extending to the centre 
 of New Orleans. After passing a left hand point, the travel- 
 ler will be off 1 the city of
 
 LA FAYETTE, 
 
 This is attached to New Orleans, but under a separate cor- 
 poration. It is where all the flat boats land that descend the 
 river. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 This is the great commercial emporium of the South, situ- 
 ated on the eastern shore of the river, in a bend so deep and 
 sinuous, that the sun rises to the inhabitants of the city over 
 the opposite shore. It stands in latitude north, 29 57', and 
 13 9' west from Washington, and about one thousand miles 
 from the mouth of the Ohio river, and a little more than one 
 thousand two hundred miles from the mouth of the Missouri. 
 
 Viewed from the harbor on a sunny day, no city offers a 
 more striking panoramic view. It envelopes the beholder 
 something in the form of a crescent. An area of many acres, 
 covered with all the grotesque variety of flat boats, keel boats, 
 and water crafts of every description, that have floated from 
 all points of the valley above, lines the upper part of the shore. 
 Steamboats rounding to, or sweeping away, cast their long 
 horizontal streams of smoke behind them. Sloops, schooners, 
 brigs and ships occupy the wharves, arranged below each 
 other in the order of their size, showing a forest of masts. 
 The foreign aspect of the stuccoed houses in the city proper, 
 the massive buildings of the Fauxbourg St. Mary, the bustle 
 and movement on every side, all seen at one view in the bright 
 coloring of the brilliant sun and sky of the climate, present a 
 splendid spectacle.
 
 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 The greater part of the commercial intercourse of the coun- 
 try is with New Orleans, by the river Mississippi, in boats. 
 These are so various in their kinds, and so curious in their 
 construction, that it would be difficult to reduce them to spe- 
 cific classes and divisions. No form of water craft so whim- 
 sical, no shape so outlandish, can well be imagined, but 
 what, on descending to New Orleans, it may somewhere be 
 seen lying to the shore, or floating on the river. The New 
 York canal is generating monstrous conceptions of this sort; 
 and there will soon be a rivalry between the East and the 
 West, which can create the most ingenious floating river 
 monsters of passage and transport. 
 
 But the boats of passage and conveyance, that remain after 
 . the invention of steam boats, and are still important to those 
 objects, are keel boats, and flats. The flat boats are called, 
 in the vernacular phrase, " Kentucky flats," or " broad horns." 
 They are simply an oblong ark,, with a roof slightly curved 
 from the centre to shed rain. They are generally about fif- 
 teen feet wide, and from fifty to eighty, and sometimes an 
 hundred feet in length. The timbers of the bottom are mas- 
 sive beams, and they are intended to be of great strength, 
 and to carry a burden of from two to four hundred barrels. 
 Great numbers of cattle, hogs and horses are conveyed to 
 market in them. We have seen family boats of this descrip- 
 tion, fitted up for the descent of families to the lower country, 
 5
 
 with a stove, comfortable apartments, beds, and arrangements 
 for commodious habitancy. We see in them, ladies, servants, 
 cattle, horses, sheep, dogs and poultry, all floating on the 
 same bottom; and on the roof, the looms, ploughs, spinning 
 wheels and domestic implements of the family. 
 
 Much of the produce of the upper country, even after the 
 invention of steam boats, continues to descend to New Or- 
 leans in Kentucky flats. They generally carry three hands, 
 and perhaps a supernumerary fourth hand, a kind of super- 
 cargo. This boat, in the form of a parallelogram, lying flat 
 and dead in the water, and with square timbers below its bot- 
 tom planks, and carrying such a great weight, runs on a sand 
 bar with a strong headway, and ploughs its timbers into the 
 sand ; and it is of course a work of extreme labor to get the 
 boat afloat again. Its form and its weight render it difficult 
 to give it a direction with any power of oars. Hence, in the 
 shallow waters, it often gets aground. When it has at length 
 cleared the shallow waters, and gained the heavy current of 
 the Mississippi, the landing such an unwieldy water craft, in 
 such a current, is a matter of no little difficulty and danger. 
 
 All the toil, and danger, and exposure, and moving acci- 
 dents of this long and perilous voyage, are hidden, however, 
 from the inhabitants, who contemplate the boats floating by 
 their dwellings on beautiful spring mornings, when the ver- 
 dant forest, the mild and delicious temperature of the air, the 
 delightful azure of the sky of this country, the fine bottom on 
 the one hand, and the romantic bluff on the other, the broad 
 and smooth stream rolling calmly down the forest, and float- 
 ing the boat gently forward, present delightful images and 
 associations to the beholders. At this time, there is no visible 
 danger, or call for labor. The boat takes care of itself; and 
 little do the beholders imagine, how different a scene may be 
 presented in half an hour. Meantime, one of the hands 
 scrapes a violin, and the others dance. Greeting, or rude de- 
 fiances, or trials of wit, or proffers of love to the girls on shore, 
 or saucy messages, are scattered between them and the spec- 
 tators along the banks. The boat glides on until it disap-
 
 35 
 
 pears behind the point of wood. At this moment, perhaps, 
 the bugle, with which all the boats are provided, strikes up 
 its note in the distance over the water. These scenes, and 
 these notes, echoing from the bluffs of the noble Mississippi, 
 have a charm for the imagination, which although heard a 
 thousand times repeated, at all hours and positions, present 
 the image of a tempting and charming youthful existence, 
 that naturally inspires a wish to be a boatman. 
 
 No wonder that to the young, who are reared in these re- 
 mote regions, with that restless curiosity which is fostered 
 by solitude and silence, and who witness scenes like this so 
 frequently, the severe and unremitting labors of agriculture, 
 performed directly in the view of such spectacles, should be- 
 come tasteless and irksome. No wonder, that the young, 
 along the banks of the great streams, should detest the labors 
 of the field, and embrace every opportunity, either openly, or 
 if minors, covertly to escape, and devote themselves to the 
 pernicious employment of boating. In this view, we may ac- 
 count for the detestation of the inhabitants, along these great 
 streams, of steam boats, which are continually diminishing 
 the number of all other boats and boatmen, and which have 
 already withdrawn probably ten thousand from that em- 
 ployment. We have seen what is the character of this em- 
 ployment, notwithstanding all its seductions. In no employ- 
 ment do the hands so soon wear out. It is comparatively 
 but a few years, since these waters have been navigated in 
 any way. Yet at every bend, and every high point of the 
 rivers, where you go on shore for a moment, you may expect 
 to see the narrow mound, and the rude monument, and the 
 coarse memorial carved on an adjoining tree by brother boat- 
 men, to mark the spot where an exhausted boatman yielded 
 his breath and was buried. 
 
 A good landing place on the Mississippi, towards evening, 
 generally brings up the descending flat boats, where they lay 
 by all night ; and this is an excellent point of observation, 
 from which to contemplate their aspect, the character of boat- 
 ing and the descriptions and the amount of produce from the
 
 36 
 
 upper country. You can here take an imaginary voyage to 
 the Falls of St. Anthony, or Missouri ; to the lead mines of 
 Rock River, or to Chicago of Lake Michigan; to Tippecanoe 
 of the Wabash, Orleanne point of the Alleghany, Brownsville 
 of the Monongahela, the Saline of the Kenhawa, or the moun- 
 tains, round whose bases winds the Tennessee; or, if you 
 choose, you may take the cheap and rapid journey of thought 
 along the courses of an hundred other rivers; and in the lapse 
 of a few days' residence in the spring, at this point, you may 
 see boats, which have arrived here from all these imagined 
 places. The boisterous gaiety of the hands, the congratula- 
 tions of acquaintances, who have met here from immense 
 distances, the moving picture of life on hoard the boats, in 
 the numerous animals, large and "small, which they carry, 
 their different ladings, the evidence of the increasing agricul- 
 ture above, and, more than all, the immense distances which 
 they have already traversed, afford a copious fund of medita- 
 tion. In one place there are boats loaded with pine plank, 
 from the pine forests of the south-west of New York. In 
 another quarter there are numerous boats with the " Yankee 
 notions " of Ohio. In another quarter are landed together the 
 boats of "old Kentucky," with their whiskey, hemp, tobacco, 
 bagging and bale rope ; with all the articles of the produce of 
 their soil. From Tennessee there are the same articles, to- 
 gether with boats loaded with bales of cotton. From Illinois 
 and Missouri, cattle, horses, and the general produce of the 
 western country, together with peltry and lead from Missouri. 
 Some boats are loaded with corn in bulk and in the ear. 
 Others with -barrels of apples and potatoes, and great quanti- 
 ties of dried apples and peaches. Others have loads of cider, 
 that has been strengthened by boiling, or freezing. Other 
 boats are loaded with furniture, tools, domestic and agricul- 
 tural implements ; in short, the numerous products of the in- 
 genuity, speculation, manufacture and agriculture of the 
 whole upper country of the West. They have come from re- 
 gions, thousands of miles apart. They have floated to a 
 common point of union. The surface of the boats covers
 
 37 
 
 some acres. Fowls are fluttering over the roofs, as invari- 
 able appendages. The piercing note of the chanticleer is 
 heard. The cattle low. The horses trample, as in their 
 stables. The swine utter the cries of fighting with each 
 other. The turkeys gobble. The dogs of an hundred re- 
 gions become acquainted. The boatmen travel about from 
 boat to boat, make inquiries and acquaintances, agree to 
 "lash boats," as it is called, and form alliances to yield mu- 
 tual assistance to each other on the way to New Orleans. 
 After an hour or two passed in this way, they spring on 
 shore, to " raise the wind" in the village. If they tarry all 
 night, as is generally the case, it is well for the people of the 
 town if they do not become riotous in the course of the eve- 
 ning; in which case, strong measures are adopted, and the 
 proceedings on both sides are summary and decisive. With 
 the first dawn, all is bustle and motion ; and amidst shouts, 
 and trampling of cattle, and barking of dogs, and crowing of 
 the fowls, the fleet is in half an hour all under-weigh ; and 
 when the sun rises, nothing is seen but the broad stream roll- 
 ing on as before. These boats unite once more at Natchez 
 and New Orleans; and although they live on the same river, 
 it is improbable that they will ever meet again on the earth. 
 
 In passing below, we often see a number of boats lashed, 
 and floating together. In travelling over the roofs of the 
 floating town, you have a considerable walk. These associ- 
 ations have various objects. Boats so united, as is well 
 known, float considerably faster. Perhaps the object is to 
 barter, and obtain supplies. Perhaps it is to kill beef or pork, 
 for fresh provisions. Apples, cider, nuts, dried fruit, whis- 
 key, peach brandy, and drams are retailed ; and the concern 
 is, for a while, one of great merriment and good will. Un- 
 forseen moral storms arise; and the partnership, which began 
 in a frolic, ends in a quarrel. The aggrieved discharge a few 
 mutual volleys of the compliments usually interchanged on 
 such occasions, unlash, and each one manages his boat in his 
 own way. 
 
 The order of things in the western country, naturally fos-
 
 38 
 
 ters a propensity for a floating life on the water. The inhab- 
 itants will ultimately become as famous as the Chinese, for 
 having their habitancy in boats. In time of high waters at 
 the month of the Ohio, we were on board an immensely large 
 flat boat on which was "kept a town," which had figured in 
 the papers, as a place that bade fair to rival the ancient 
 metropolis of the Delta of the Nile. The tavern, the retail 
 and dram shops, together with the inhabitants, and no small 
 number of very merry customers, floated on the same bottom. 
 We have seen a large tinner's establishment floating down 
 the Mississippi. It was a respectable manufactory ; and the 
 articles were sold wholesale and retail. There were three 
 apartments, and a number of hands. When they had mended 
 all the tin, and vended all that they could sell in one place, 
 they floated on to another. 
 
 A piece goods store, united with a bookstore, is no uncom- 
 mon establishment. We have heard of a large floating black- 
 smith's establishment; and of another, in which it was con- 
 templated to work a trip hammer. Besides the numerous 
 periogues, or singular looking Spanish and French trading 
 retail boats, commonly called "chicken thieves," which scour 
 the rivers within an hundred leagues of New Orleans, there 
 are on all the waters of the West, retail trading boats. They 
 are often fitted up with no inconsiderable ingenuity and show. 
 The goods are fancifully arranged on shelves. The delicate 
 hands of the vender would bear a comparison with those of 
 the spruce clerk behind our city counters. Every consider- 
 able landing place on the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi 
 has, in the spring, a number of stationary and inhabited boats 
 lying by the shores. They are too often dram shops, and 
 resorts of all kinds of bad company. A severe inquiry ought 
 to be instituted at all these points, respecting the inmates and 
 practices of these floating mansions of iniquity. 
 
 There is no portion of the globe, where the invention of 
 steamboats should be so highly appreciated, as in the valley 
 of the Mississippi. This invention deserves to be estimated 
 the most memorable era of the West ; and the name of the
 
 inventor ought to be handed down with glory to the genera- 
 tions to come. No triumph of art over the obstacles of na- 
 ture has ever been so complete. But for this invention, this 
 valley might have sustained a nation of farmers and planters; 
 and the comforts, the arts, refinement and intelligence of the 
 day would have made their way slowly from New Orleans 
 to the lakes, the sources of the Mississippi, and the Rocky 
 Mountains. Thousands of boatmen would have been slowly 
 and laboriously warping, and rowing, and poling, and cord- 
 elling their boats in a three months' trip up these mighty 
 and long streams, which are now ascended by steamboats in 
 ten days. It may be safely asserted, that in many respects, 
 the improvements of fifty years without steamboats, were 
 brought to this country in five years after their invention. 
 The distant points of the Ohio and the Mississippi used to be 
 separated by distances and obstacles of transit more formi- 
 dable, in the passing, than the Atlantic. These points are 
 now brought into juxtaposition. Distances on the rivers are 
 not indeed annihilated; but they are diminished to about an 
 eighth of their former extent; and their difficulties and dan- 
 gers are reduced even more than that. All the advantages 
 of long rivers, such as variety of soil, climate, productions, 
 remain divested of all the disadvantages of distance and diffi- 
 culty of ascent. The day that commemorates this invention, 
 should be a holiday of interest, only second to that which 
 gave birth to the nation. 
 
 It is, perhaps, necessary to have something of the experi- 
 ence, which we have had, of the slowness, difficulty and 
 danger of propelling boats against the current of these long 
 rivers, fully to estimate the advantages of this invention. 
 We have ascended the Mississippi in this way for fifty days 
 in succession. We have had but too much of the same kind 
 of experience on the other streams. We consider ten miles a 
 day as good progress. It is now refreshing, and it imparts a 
 feeling of energy and power to the beholder, to see the large 
 and beautiful steamboats scudding up the eddies, as though 
 on the wing. When they have run out the eddy, and strike
 
 the current, it is a still more noble spectacle. The foam 
 bursts in a sheet quite over the deck. The boat quivers for 
 a moment with the concussion; and then, as though she had 
 collected energy, and vanquished her enemy, she resumes her 
 stately march, and mounts against the current five or six 
 miles an hour. We have travelled ten days together between 
 New Orleans and Louisville, more than an hundred miles in 
 a day against the stream. The difficulty of ascending used 
 to be the only one that was dreaded in the anticipation of a 
 voyage of this kind. This difficulty has now disappeared, 
 and the only one that remains, is to furnish money for the 
 trip. Even the expense, considering the luxury of the fare 
 and accommodation, is more moderate than could be expect- 
 ed. A family in Pittsburg wishes to make a social visit to a 
 kindred family on Red River. The trip, as matters now 
 stand, is but two thousand miles. Servants, baggage, or 
 ' ; plunder," as the phrase is, the family and the family dog, 
 cat and parrot, all go together. In twelve days they reach 
 the point proposed. Even the return is but a short voyage. 
 Surely we must resist strong temptations, if we do not be- 
 come a social people. You are invited to a breakfast at 
 seventy miles distance. You go on board the passing steam- 
 boat, and are transported, during the night, so as to go out 
 in the morning and reach your appointment. The day will 
 probably come, when the inhabitants of the warm and sickly 
 regions of the lower points of the Mississippi will take their 
 periodical migrations to the north, with the geese and swans, 
 and with them return to the south in the autumn. 
 
 We have compared the most beautiful steamboats of the 
 Atlantic waters with those of the Mississippi; and we have 
 seen none, which, in splendor and striking effect upon the 
 eye, and the luxury and comfort of accommodation, surpass 
 the Western boats. We have been amused in observing an 
 Atlantic stranger, who had heard us described by the phrase, 
 " backwoods men," taking his first survey of such a steam- 
 boat. If there be any ground of complaint, it is, that so much 
 gorgeonsness offends good taste, and seems to be in opposition
 
 41 
 
 to that social ease and comfort, which one would desire in 
 such a place. Certainly, there can be no comparison between 
 the comfort of the passage from Cincinnati to New Orleans in 
 such a steamboat, and a voyage at sea. The barren and 
 boundless expanse of waters soon tires upon every eye but a 
 seaman's. And then there are storms, and the necessity of 
 fastening the tables, and of holding to something, to keep in 
 bed. There is the insupportable nausea of sea sickness, and 
 there is danger. Here you are always near the shore, always 
 see the green earth; can always eat, write, and study, un- 
 disturbed. You can always obtain cream, fowls, vegetables, 
 fruit, fresh meat and wild game, in their season, from the 
 shore. 
 
 A stranger to this mode of travelling would find it difficult 
 to describe his impressions upon descending the Mississippi 
 for the first time in one of these steamboats, which we have 
 named. He contemplates the prodigious construction, with 
 its double tiers of cabins, and its separate establishment for 
 the ladies, and its commodious arrangements for the deck pas- 
 sengers and the servants. Over head, about him, and below 
 him, all is life and movement. He contemplates the splendor 
 of the cabin, its beautiful finishing of the richest woods, its 
 rich carpeting, its mirrors and fine furniture, its sliding tables, 
 its bar room, and all its arrangements for the accommodation 
 of a hundred cabin passengers. The fare is sumptuous, and 
 every thing in a style of splendor, order, arid quiet, far ex- 
 ceeding most city taverns. You read, converse, walk, or 
 sleep, as you choose. You are not burdened by the restraint 
 of useless ceremony. The varied and verdant scenery shifts 
 about you. The trees, the green islands, the houses on the 
 shore, every thing has an appearance, as by enchantment, of 
 moving past you. The river fowl, with their white and ex- 
 tended lines, are wheeling their flight above you. 'The sky is 
 bright. The river is dotted with boats above, beside, and be- 
 low you. You hear the echo of their bugle reverberating 
 from the woods. Behind the wooded point, you see the as- 
 cending column of smoke rising over the trees, which announ- 
 6
 
 4,2 
 
 ces that another steamboat is approaching you. The moving 
 pageant glides through a narrow passage, between an island, 
 thick set with young cotton woods, so even, so beautiful and 
 regular, that they seem to have been planted for a pleasure 
 ground, and the main shore. As you shoot out again into 
 the broad stream, you come in view of a plantation, with all 
 its busy and cheerful accompaniments. At other times, you 
 are sweeping along for many leagues together, where either 
 shore is a boundless and pathless wilderness. A contrast is 
 thus strongly forced upon the mind, of the highest improve- 
 ment and the latest preeminent invention of art with the most 
 lonely aspect of a grand, but desolate nature, the most strik- 
 ing and complete assemblage of splendor and comfort, the 
 cheerfulness of a floating hotel, which carries, perhaps, hun- 
 dreds of guests, with a wild and uninhabited forest, it may be 
 an hundred miles in width, the abode only of bears, owls, 
 and noxious animals.
 
 TRIBUTE TO NATIVE TALENT, 
 
 [FROM THE BOSTON EVENING GAZETTE, APRIL, 1847.] 
 
 A very interesting meeting occurred last Monday evening, 
 at Banvard's Panorama, in Amory Hall. His Excellency 
 Gov. Briggs was present with a large number of the mem- 
 bers of the Senate and House of Representatives, and other 
 high officers of State, together with a large and fashionable 
 audience of ladies and gentlemen. After the picture had 
 passed, the Hon. Wm. Bradbury, Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, arose, and with some appropriate remarks, 
 moved that the spectators would resolve them in a regu- 
 lar meeting and give an expression of opinion regarding the 
 great merit of the painting. The Hon. Mr. B. then moved 
 that his Excellency Gov. Briggs, of Massachusetts, should 
 take the chair, which motion was received unanimously by 
 acclamation. Gov. Briggs accordingly appeared upon the 
 floor. 
 
 As the Governor left the seat which he occupied to take 
 the chair, he was greeted with a hearty round of applause, 
 expressive of his popularity with the audience, and of their 
 approbation of the object of the meeting. 
 
 Upon taking the chair, his Excellency remarked, that there 
 seemed to be a propriety, and for one he should most cheer-
 
 44 
 
 fully do it, to give an expression of their pleasure and admi- 
 ration at the wonderful and extraordinary production which 
 had just passed before them, and of their high appreciation of 
 the talents of the young artist. He said that he was informed 
 by Mr. Banvard, that the idea of this Panorama first entered 
 his mind, when a fatherless, unprotected boy, fifteen years 
 old, he was floating for the first time down the rapid current 
 of this noble river. He was stimulated in the prosecution of 
 his original and herculean task, by seeing it stated in some 
 foreign journal, that in this country there were some of the 
 most picturesque and magnificent scenes in the world, but 
 that America had no artist adequate to the task of giv- 
 ing a correct and faithful representation of them. Mr. B. 
 resolved upon an effort, by which the talent of his country 
 should be redeemed from this aspersion, and by which the 
 world should know that American genius was competent 
 to give an appropriate and beautiful representation of Amer- 
 ican scenes. Successfully and nobly has he accomplished 
 his work. After the idea of this enterprise entered his 
 mind, it followed him by day and haunted him by night 
 for months and years, until it developed itself in the wonder- 
 ful and magnificent production which we have witnessed this 
 evening. More than four hundred days was this young man 
 floating alone in an open skiff upon the bosom of this majes- 
 tic stream, gliding among its romantic islands or wandering 
 upon its beautiful shores, making his drawings of the towns, 
 cities, banks and bluffs, which, as if by enchantment, have 
 just passed before our astonished gaze, in all the correctness 
 of their proportions and beauty of coloring. It should be to 
 us an interesting fact, that this vast and splendid work of art 
 is the production of a young, unencouraged, self-made, self- 
 taught artist. He was born in the city of New York, and as
 
 45 
 
 they say at the West, raised in Kentucky. After Mr. B. had 
 resolved upon this great work he was penniless, he had there- 
 fore to raise funds to purchase materials. He accordingly 
 went up and down the great Father of Waters several times, 
 trading, boating, &c., until he acquired a few thousand dol- 
 lars. With this he erected a house in which to paint, pur- 
 chased canvas, colors, brushes and all necessary articles, and 
 went to work. 
 
 The fame, continued the Governor, of this vast and beau- 
 tiful panorama of the noble Mississippi will continue, and the 
 genius and enterprise of the author be honored so long as the 
 great Father of Waters and its numerous tributaries continued 
 to pour their tides into the great ocean. As it is a truly na- 
 tional work he thought there was a propriety in giving an 
 expression of the high estimate of it as an extraordinary work 
 of art, and of their appreciation of the talents of the artist. 
 
 After the Governor had taken his seat, the Hon. Mr. Cal- 
 houn, President of the Senate, arose, and offered the follow- 
 ing Resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That we regard the Panorama of the Mississippi 
 River, painted by Mr. John Banvard, as a truly wonderful 
 and magnificent production; and we deem it but a just appre- 
 ciation of its extraordinary merit to express our high admira- 
 tion of the boldness and originality of the conception, and of 
 the industry and indefatigable perseverance of the young and 
 talented artist, in the execution of his herculean work. 
 
 Resolved, That the immense extent of this picture, its 
 truthfulness to Nature, as certified by those who are familiar 
 with the river; its minuteness of detail; the wonderful illusion 
 of its perspective; the great variety of its scenery and objects
 
 46 
 
 render it a useful medium for imparting correct information, 
 respecting an interesting portion of our beautiful country. 
 
 Resolved, That as Americans, it is with emotions of pride 
 and pleasure we commend this splendid painting, and its tal- 
 ented artist, who, by its production, has reflected so much 
 honor upon himself, and upon the country of his birth, to the 
 favorable consideration of the admirers of the fine arts, and of 
 all others, who, under the influence of a commendable patri- 
 otism, cherish a disposition to encourage native genius and 
 enterprise. 
 
 At the close of Mr. Calhoun's remarks, Mr. Bradbury arose 
 again, and after making some prefatory remarks, said, that 
 the illustrious Fulton, the inventor of the steam engine, 
 by which invention this most magnificent of all rivers had 
 been available to the inhabitants of the vast valley, and back 
 country, through which it flowed, and to the world, first 
 went to England as an ARTIST; while there, seeing the vari- 
 ous philosophical modes by which machinery was applied for 
 the purpose of saving labor, he was led to abandon his pro- 
 fession, and conceived the idea of applying steam power for 
 locomotives. 
 
 Having wished Mr. Banvard a favorable reception in Eu- 
 rope, when he should visit it, which it was understood he in- 
 tended soon to do, he finished his remarks by moving the 
 adoption of the Resolutions. 
 
 The question being put, it was UNANIMOUSLY decided in the 
 affirmative. The audience th6n returned to their homes, 
 highly gratified with their truly rational and intellectual en- 
 tertainment.
 
 TESTIMONIALS, 
 
 The undersigned has been navigating the Mississippi river 
 for thirty years, and am as well acquainted with it, as I am 
 with the deck of the boat I command; and having twice ex- 
 amined Mr. Banvard's great Painting of the Mississippi river, 
 take great pleasure in testifying to its truthfulness and cor- 
 rectness to nature. 
 
 JOHN SHALCROSS, 
 
 MASTER OF STEAMER PEYTONA. 
 New Orleans, Nov. 20, 1846. 
 
 This is to certify that I have examined Mr. Banvard's 
 Painting of the Mississippi river, and having been engaged 
 for a number of years in the employ of Government, raising 
 snags and removing other obstructions, am well acquainted 
 with the river, and unhesitatingly pronounce Mr. Banvard's 
 Painting remarkably correct and faithful to nature. 
 
 J. MOREHEAD, 
 
 Louisville, Nov. 8, 1846. U. S. ENGINEER. 
 
 KENTUCKY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ROOM, ) 
 Oct. 31, 1846. \ 
 
 JOHN BANVARD, ESQ., 
 
 Dear Sir, Having enjoyed much pleasure in company with 
 the majority of the members of this Society in viewing your 
 magnificent Panorama, I beg leave to tender this voluntary 
 testimonial of my gratification. Having frequently travelled 
 the Mississippi river, I am much acquainted with the 
 grandeur and magnificence of the scenery which you have
 
 48 
 
 portrayed in your stupendous work with a correctness I have 
 never seen equalled. ./ 
 
 At the next regular meeting of the Kentucky Historical 
 Society, you will be awarded its diploma for the fidelity of 
 your Painting. Yours truly, 
 
 TAL. P. SHAFNER, 
 
 SEC. KY. His. Soc. 
 
 the undersigned, being officers of steamboats continu- 
 ally plying on the Mississipppi river, have examined Mr. 
 Banvard's great Painting, and take great pleasure in recom- 
 mending it for its fidelity and truthfulness to nature, and giv- 
 ing a correct delineation of the scenery and peculiar charac- 
 teristics of this mighty river. 
 
 J. JOINER, Captain. B. SMITH, Pilot. 
 
 DANIEL DASHIEL, " HENRY E. LEE, 
 
 C. S. CASTLEMAN, " N. OSTRANDER, 
 
 T. COLEMAN, " ALEX. BADGER, 
 
 JAC. DILLON, " JOHN CRAWFORD, 
 
 SAMUEL PENNINGTON, " JAS. D. HAMILTON, " 
 ELI T. DUSTIN, D. S. HALEY, 
 
 ROBERT BROWN, " JAMES O'NEAL, " 
 
 THOMAS NORTHUP, " ELI VANSICKLE, " 
 R. DE HART, " ALLEN PELL, 
 
 Over one hundred more names omitted for want of room. 
 
 STATE of KENTUCKY. ^ 
 City of Louisville. ^ 
 
 I, F. A. KAYE, Mayor of the city of Louisville, do hereby 
 certify, that 1 am personally acquainted with nearly all of 
 the gentlemen who have certified to the correctness of the 
 great Panorama of the Mississippi river, painted by Mr. John 
 Banvard ; and certify further, that they are all practical navi- 
 gators of the Mississippi river, and are gentlemen of veracity, 
 and are entitled to full credit as such. 
 
 FRED. A. KAYE, MAYOR.
 
 pinions of tljc 
 
 The painting, its wild beginning, its difficult pro- 
 gress, and final triumphant completion, stands alone 
 in the annals of the art, as a marvellous monument of 
 the patience, daring ambition, and genius of Ameri- 
 can character. Boston llei aid. 
 
 A masterpiece, both in design and execution : it is 
 an honor alike to the persevering artist, and (he coun- 
 try of his birth. Boston Post. 
 
 Language cannot exaggerate the comparative mer- 
 its of this great ivork of art. It needs only to be seen 
 to satisfy that it cannot be fully appreciated. Boston ; 
 Olive Branch. 
 
 It is from the beginning to the end, one of the mo?-t 
 living, charming things, that ever came from the hands 
 of man. Boston Atlas. 
 
 In magnitude and grandeur this painting has no 
 equal on the face of the globe. Boston Times. 
 
 This painting now stands the greatest and proudest 
 work of art in the world. Louisville Coutier. 
 
 We can only say that too much cannot be said in 
 praise of this wonderful picture, and all the praise it 
 receives is justly deserved. Louisville Journal.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF BANVARD'S PANORAMA OF THE