LETTER XIII.

Voyage up the Mississippi (continued)--Grand Gulph and Big Black
River--Snags--"I belong to myself, Sir"--Vicksburg and Lynch Law--A Man
Overboard--"Drove of Horses, Mules, and Niggers"--Character of
Fellow-Passengers--The Sabbath--Disobedience to Conscience.


We came on the 12th of February to the Grand Gulph and "Big Black
River." The former is situated at the base of a bold and solitary
"bluff." Here, a few years ago, "a negro man was condemned by the _mob_
to be _burned alive over a slow fire_, which was put into execution,
for murdering a black woman and her master Mr. Green, a respectable
citizen of that place, who attempted to save her from the clutches of
this monster." Such is the newspaper version of the affair. Had the
real truth been stated, it would have appeared that this Green was the
"_monster_," who had seduced the wretched negro's wife!

The "Big Black River" is not so very "big" after all. It is extremely
narrow, although navigable for some hundreds of miles.

Besides the danger of explosion--which, I apprehend, arises from
"racing" and carelessness more than from any other cause--steam-boats
on the "father of waters" are exposed to "snags." These snags are
trunks of large trees that have become fastened in the bed of the
river, and are often found lying against the stream at angles of from
30 to 40 degrees. As the river varies much with regard to the quantity