--Story of Mary Brown--The Flat Boats of the Mississippi.


On the 10th of February we passed a great many sugar estates on both
sides of the river, which would be agreeable objects but for the curse
of slavery. For who can look with pleasure upon the foul abodes of
lust, oppression, and cruelty? At the outer gate, in front of one of
these "patriarchal" establishments, was a small octagonal building
about 6 or 8 feet in mean diameter. The basement was of brick, pierced
by small air holes, barred with iron, at the height of about 8 feet
from the ground; and the upper part was of wood, terminating in a
pigeon-house. Making a short stay there to take in fire-wood, we
inquired into the use of the building; but all the answer we could get
was, that it was a "pigeon-house." The Baptist minister from Maine
asked a negro, who was helping to bring wood on board; and from him he
learned the real truth,--that it was a place of punishment and torture
for the oppressed slave. We have since ascertained that such buildings
are very common, and generally pass under the euphemistic name of
"pigeon-houses."

On the 11th of February--a fine frosty day--we came to Red River,
branching on our left in the direction of Texas, with which country it
forms an important means of communication. This river, even where it
pours its waters into the Mississippi, is not more than from 300 to 500
feet wide, and yet is navigable by steamers for about 1,200 miles. My
Baptist friend had recently been on a visit to Elder Wright, a planter
and a slave-holder on that river. This Wright was a New-England man,
had graduated at Yale College, and boasted that he was "a Northern man
with Southern feelings." He was called Elder Wright because he was a
preacher,--the Baptists here calling all preachers "elders." Now, this