Among the passengers on board, Mr. Courtenay recognized several of his friends, whom he directly invited into the mansion, while temporary sheds were erected for the others, till steamboat should pass and take them off.  So sudden had been the catastrophe, that no luggage of any kind had been saved, and several Englishmen, travelling to purchase cotton and minerals, suffered very serious loss.  As to the Americans themselves, though they complained very loudly, vowing they would bring an action against the river, the steamboats, against every boat, and every thing, for I don’t know how many millions of dollars, their losses were very trifling, as it is the custom for a man in the Western States to carry all his money in his pocket-book, and his pocket-book in his pocket; as to luggage, he never has any except a small valise, two feet long, in which are contained a shirt, two bosoms, three frills, a razor, and a brush, which may serve for his head, clothing, boots, and perhaps teeth.

It was amusing to hear all the complaints that were made and to enumerate the sums which were stated to have been lost; there was not one among the travellers, even among those who had taken a deck-passage, who had not lost from ten to fifty thousand dollars, with which he was going to purchase a cotton plantation, a steamboat, or a whole cargo of Havannah cigars.  What made it more ridculous was the facility with which everybody found a witness to certify his loss, “I had five thousand dollars,” one would say; “ask the general, he will tell you if it is true.”  “True, as I am an honest man,” would answer the general, “to wit, that I swapped with the judge my eastern notes for his southern ones.”

It would be impossible to explain to a sober Englishman the life that is led on, and the numerous tricks that are played in, a Mississippi steamboat.  One I will mention, which will serve as a sample.  An itinerant preacher, well known as a knave upon both banks, and the whole length of the river, used (before he was sent to the Penitentiary for picking pockets) to live comfortably in the steamboats without ever paying a farthing.  From St. Louis he would book for New Orleans, and the passage-money never being asked in the West but at the termination of the trip, the preacher would go on shore at Vicksburg, Natches, Bayou, Sarah, or any other such station in the way.  Then he would get on board any boat bound to the Ohio, book himself for Louisville, and step on shore at Memphis.  He had no luggage of any kind except a green cotton umbrella; but, in order to lull all suspicion, he contrived always to see the captain or the clerk in his office, and to ask them confidentially if they knew the man sleeping in the upper bed, if he was respectable, as he, the preacher, had in his trunks considerable sums intrusted to him by some societies.  The consequence was, that, believing him rich, the captain and officers would pay him a great deal of attention, inviting him to wine and