which I had heard so much.  I leisurely approached the large establishment, breathing an atmosphere laden with the fragrance of roses and orange-blossoms, which seemed to grow sweeter with every step.  Finding an old negro, I sent my card to his master, with the request for information in regard to the Bayou Manchac.  The young proprietor soon appeared with the “Report of the Secretary of War,” 27th Congress, 3d session, page 21.  December 30, 1842.  This pamphlet informed me that the bayou was filled up at its mouth by order of the government, in answer to a petition from the planters of the lower country along the bayou and Amite River, to prevent the overflow of their cane-fields during freshets in the Mississippi River.  We walked to a shallow depression near the house.  It was dry, and carpeted with short grass.  “This,” said Mr. Walker, “is the Bayou Manchac which D’Iberville descended in his boat after having explored the Mississippi probably as far as Red River.  The bed of the bayou is now fifteen feet above the present stage of water in the Mississippi.”  A field-hand was then called, who was said to be the best geographer in those parts, white or black.

“Tell this gentleman what you know of the Bayou Manchac,” said Mr. Walker, addressing the negro.

“Well, sah!” the darky replied, “I jus hab looked at yer boat.  Four ob us can hf him ober de levee, an’ put him on de cart.  Den wees mus done cart him fourteen miles ’long de Bayou Manchac to get to whar de warter is plenty fur him to float in.  Dar is some places nearer dan dat, ’bout twelve miles off whar dar is some warter, but de warter am in little spots, an’ den you go on furder, an’ dar is no warter fur de boat.  Den all de way dar is trees dat falls across de bayou.  Boss, you mus go all de fourteen miles to get to de warter, sure sartin.”

Mr. Walker informed me that for fourteen miles down the bayou the fall was six feet to the mile.  At that distance from the Mississippi, sloop navigation commenced at a point called Hampton’s Landing, from which it was about six miles to the Amite River.  The Amite River was navigated by light-draught vessels from Lake Pontchartrain.  The region about the Amite River possesses rich bottom-lands, and many of the descendants of the original French settlers of Louisiana own plantations along its banks.

Mr. Walker then pointed to a long point of land some miles down the river, upon which the fertile fields of a plantation lay like patches of bright green velvet in the morning sun, and said:  “Below that point a neighbor of mine found one of your northern boatmen dying in his boat.  He rowed all the way from Philadelphia on a bet, and if he had reached New Orleans would have won his five thousand dollars, but he died when only ninety-five miles from the city, and was buried by Adonis Le Blanc on that plantation.”