but _these_ are the result of a better policy. Ours are too large and
too expensive; these are rude, simple, and cheap, and yet answer the
purpose. Seeing slaves at work, I addressed several questions to one of
them relative to the cultivation and manufacture of sugar, and received
very sensible and even _polite_ answers.

By this time we had received an impression of the character of our
fellow-passengers. The mass of the "gentlemen" were rude and filthy
beyond expression. The promenade or gallery outside, which might be
very pleasant, was bespattered all over with vile expectoration. No
lady could venture there with safety. The men will persist in spitting
on the floor, when it would be quite as convenient to spit into the
water. Many of the names of places on the route ending in _ville_,--as
Donaldsonville, Francisville, Iberville, Nashville, &c.,--I could not
help asking if we had not many passengers from _Spitville_. But this
was not the worst feature in the character of our fellow-travellers,
who comprised gamblers, fighters, swearers, drunkards, "soul drivers,"
and everything base and bad. Of these, we had about fifty as cabin
passengers; but there were upwards of a hundred deck passengers
below--not above,--and they were ten times worse. Among men so much
resembling demons I had never before been. However, my wife being with
me, I had the _entrée_ of the ladies' cabin. This was the abode of
quiet and decency, there being but three other ladies besides. Of
these, one had her husband with her, a respectable farmer from
Pennsylvania, who shipped all his last year's produce in a flat boat,
came down in it with his wife, sold his cargo in New Orleans, bought
there what he might want during the year, and was now on his way home
again by steam. Another lady, who was from Philadelphia, had come all
the way to New Orleans in the hope of having a last glance of her
husband before he was ordered off to Mexico,--was just too late,--and