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DIRECT FOREIGN TRADE OF THE BOOTH.
Suppose he had been sent to South America instead of to South Carolina, it would have still been the same to him ; but how different to the country ! There would in that case have been a transfer of the place of servitude, as before; but, according to the anti-slavery tenets of fanaticism, a curse the less would have remained upon the country.
This subject opens to the imagination a vista ; in it the valley of the Amazon is seen as the safety-valve of the South, and this line of steamers as a strand, at least, in the cord which is to lift that valve whenever the pressure of this institution, be that when it may, shall become too powerful upon the machinery of our great Ship of State.
As in the breaking away of the storm, a streak of clear sky is welcomed by the mariner whose ship has been endangered by the elements, so this Amazonian vista is to us. It is the first and the only streak of light to our mind?s eye, that the future throws upon the final question of slavery in this country.
Every steamship has her safety-valve ; but every steamship is not obliged to use it always. It is there in case of necessity. So with the valley of the Amazon: we need not go there ourselves, nor send our slaves there immediately ; but it is well to have the ability to go or to send, in case it may become expedient so to do.
This line of steamers, by the commercial ties which it will establish, by the business relations which it will beget, by the frequent intercourse which it will bring about between the valley of the Amazon and the Southern States, will accomplish all these great results, and more, too.
The subject is immense?its magnitude oppresses us. We commend it to the serious consideration of our merchants and statesmen ; and in so doing, we venture, though with diffidence, to ask the question : will not one or more of the states most concerned in the successful issue of the enterprise, give it encouragement 1
ART. Ill?THE STATE OF ALABAMA.*
EARLY BRITISH AND AMERICAN HISTORY OF ALAD AMA?CRF.EK WARS
OF GENERAL JACKSON-----TERRITORIAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT, ETC.
Having treated in sufficient detail of the aboriginal and early French history of Alabama, we pass to that period which opens tho second volume of Mr. Pickett, and which marks the advent of the British power in the state.
At the conclusion of the long and bloody wars in Europe, and with the adoption of the pacification of Paris in 17G3, France had divested herself of her whole North American interests. The western bank of the Mississippi, from its month to its source, but including the island of New-Orleans on the other bank, passed into the hands of Spain ; whilst Great Britain succeeded to Canada, all of the terri-
* History of Alabama, and incidentally of Mississippi and Georgia, by A. J. Pickett, 2 ?ols. Charleston, 1831.
THE STATE OF ALABAMA.
itories east of the Mississippi as far south as the Bayou Iberville, together with Florida. The whole of Alabama and Mississippi, and that portion of Louisiana north of a line drawn through the Bayou Iberville?the Amite, Lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the sea, and east of the Mississippi River, bc.came thus a British possession, 'known until 1781 as West Florida and the province of Illinois. Alabama was divided on the parallel of 32? 28' between West Florida and Illinois, in nearly equal divisions; and Montgomery and Wetumpka, which are but fifteen miles apart, were in different jurisdictions. The Florida portion only was then in European occupation, having Pensacola as its seat of government .George Johnson, the first English Governor, organized the govern-'ment, garrisoned the fort at Mobile and that of Toulouse up the Coosa ; but the government was purely military. Its earliest history ' was marked by great sufferings among the English inhabitants of Mobile, who died in great numbers from habits of intemperance, ex-
fosure, and a contagious disease introduced by one of the regiments, 'rom these disasters the French residents were spared. They lived a regular and abstemious life?refrained from spirituous liquors in summer, confined themselves to spring water, and for a large part spent the sickly months upon their plantations on the Tensaw and Mobile rivers, which were very healthy. Many of them lived to a great old age. The Chevalier de Lucere had a plantation on the ?first island below tho confluence of the Tombigby and the Alabama. ?Other islands on the Tensaw and Mobile were cultivated by the French and English, who spent their summers among the hills, and engaged in the product of tar. Lower down than Lucere?s plantation, were those of Campbell, Stewart, Andry, McGillivray, Favre, Chas-tang, Strother and Narbone. Five miles lower still was the site of an old French fort, and eleven miles lower, the plantation of Mr.
? Lezars, which had once belonged to the French Intendant of Mobile.
The exports of Mobile in 1772 were indigo, raw hides, corn, fine cattle, tallow, rice, pitch, bear?s oil, tar, tobacco, squared timber, indigo seed, myrtle wax, cedar posts and planks, salted wild beef, pecan nuts, cypress and pine boards, plank of various woods, shingles, dried salt fish, scantling, sassafras, cancs, staves and heading, hoops, oranges, and peltry. Cotton was cultivated in small quantities; and a machine in use for separating it from the seed, is thus described by Capt. Roman, (one of them was used by Mr. Crebs, the alleged inventor, who suspended canvass bags between pine trees, and packed in his cotton by treading down to the extent of 300
? pounds.)
?It is a strong frame of four studs, each about four feet high, and joined above and below by strong transverse pieces. Across this are placed two round welt-polished spindles, having a small groove through their whole length, and by means of treadles are put in opposite motions. The workman sits behind the frame, with a thin board before him, upon which is placed the cotton, thinly spread, which the rollers receive. The lint goes through the rollers, and the seed falls down in a separate pile. The French population have much improved upon this plan, by a large wheel, which