USA > Mississippi > Adams County > Natchez > Historical sketch of the Natchez, or District of Natchez, in the state of Mississippi; from 1763 to 1798 > Part 3
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Lake fisheries form a staple article of provisions at all the fake ports. The principal kinds are White But to return to fish ; a gentleman, who has good means of judging, estimates the quantity put up for market upon the lake in 1837 at 12,000 barrels, and of these he judges 7000 barrels were brought from Lake Superior. At nine dollars the barrel, which may be taken as a fair price, the whole would amount to $108,000. sich and Mackinaw trout. The latter, a delicious fish, resembles the Salmon trout, and are possibly the same. They vary in size, from five pounds or under, to fifty or sixty pounds in weight. Beside, these, are pike, pickerel, and different kinds of bass, the cisquet or cisquevet of Lake Superior, a fine fish, like the mackerel in appearance and flavour, but lar- If any cotemporary upon the Lake has the means, we shall be glad to see a fuller and more minute ac- court of the fisheries than this-which is such as ger , and the muscolonge, also a delicious tish, weigh- ing sometimes fifty or sixty pounds. The casque! is scarcely known in market, as they are caught only | our imperfect information on the subject cnables us in Lake Superiour, and few have been put up. Thel to give,
Cleveland Herald and Gazette.
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Nor yet were these the only misfortunes of the country ; the Spanish officers, urged, it is said, by M'Intosh, loaded the people with various exactions and oppressions. This course of things on the part of the government, as usual drove the Holstons, father and sons, (from the frontier of whom the river Holston, in Tennessee, is said to have derived its name,) together with three men of the name of Smith, into the woods, where they set the provincial government at defiance. Indians would not attack their companions and friends ; and white men could not find them. So for fear of the party uniting itself to the predatory gangs on the river, which infested the navigation, the government invited the malcon- tents back to their homes in peace.
But the Spaniards now found out, that Colonel Anthony Hutchins had taken an active part in the late insurrection. Immediate means of severity were adopted against him and his estate ; they com- pelled him to flee, and after many difficulties, in evading Indians, he got to Georgia and thence to England. Colonel Hutchins afterward returned and raised a worthy and esteemed family in the neighbourhood of Natchez, the seat of his persecu- tion, where they still reside.
THE LAKE FISHERIES.
Few persons except those engaged in or connected with the business, are aware of the extent and value of the Lake fisheries. They are a source of pro- duction which ought not to be overlooked, in esti- mating the resources of the country bordering upon the lakes. There are no published statisticks of this trade, so far as we know, nor any records, from which the quantities of fish put up for market can be accurately estimated. Estimates only can be given, and these may be more or less correct, according to the accuracy of the information on which they are based.
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refresh themselves by riding or walking about in it. which they do in great numbers. Formerly this diversion of paddling in the water, used to be pro- tracted through the night, accompanied by musick and refreshments, but in consequence of the disor- ยท ders which sometimes arose, the water has for many years been drawn off at dark."
As the name and genius of an artist are naturally associated with his works, it may not be uninterest- ing to take a glance at the biography of Bernini. He was born at Naples in 1598, and during his childhood discovered marks of that genius which so much distinguished him afterward. At the tender age of eight years, he executed a head in marble equal in symmetry and finish to the productions of many professed sculptors. This induced his parents, aided by influential friends, to place him under the. care of Ladrona, an artist of some eminence at Florence. Bernini was not long in outstripping his tutor, and at the age of eighteen he executed an Apollo and Daphne in so superiour a style, that it was believed he would yet rival the best masters of the ancient Grecian school. But this was one of the best productions of his life, it being so near per- fection, that it seemed scarcely perceptible of im- provement. His fame soon spread throughout Europe, and it having reached England, Charles I. sent him three portraits of himself in different positions, paint- ed by Van Dyck, and desired Bernini to execute a bust therefrom. The sculptor finished the commis- sion to admiration, and so delighted was the English monarch with the bust, that he drew a ring from his finger worth six thousand crowns, and sent it to the sculptor that it might " adorn the hand that could achieve such wonders."
Bernini died at Rome, at the age of eighty-two years, having won for himself a great amount of wealth and honours. Like Michael Angelo, he was at once a sculptor, painter and architect, and his contemporaries placed him upon the same elevation with that great man. He was patronised by Popes Urban VIII., Alexander VII., and Innocent X. ; and was invited to France by Louis XIV. Rome still exhibits many of his works in sculpture and archi- lecture. B. J. L.
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE NATCHEZ, OR DISTRICT OF NATCHEZ, IN THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI; FROM 1753 TO 1793. BY MANN BUTLER. (Continued from last No.)
Y MAGAZINE.
the Big Black, by some Indians. These ferocious inroads of savage warfare, which stain our frontier story so deeply with blood, were happily more un- common in the Southwest, at the period of our re- marks, and even subsequently, than on any other portion of our borders. The year 1782 was render- ed particularly miserable, by the general failure of the crops ; there was, moreover, a dreadful hydro- phobia, which prevailed among the foxes, almost to their extirpation. Many cattle bitten by them died ; but fortunately no human beings among the whites ; although some Indians were said to have perished by this most agonizing phrensy. The spring of 1783 brought Col. James Green,* an emigrant from 'T'en- nessee. This gentleman had a short engagement with the Indians, at the Suck, in the Tennessee river ; but gallantly repelled them with his swivels. The scarcity of grain in the Natchez, compelled Col. Green to procure supplies for his family from the French planters on the river coast. This gen- tleman had the misfortune to render himself odious to the Spanish government, by acting as a commis- sioner for the state of Georgia, to demand the de- livery of that portion of her chartered and treaty limits lying north of the 31st degree of north latitude. Such a bold part for a Spanish subject, or at least a resident under the Spanish government, excited un- appeasable suspicion ; which only waited for the first decent pretext, to wrcak vengeance on the American spirit of Col. Green. The demand of Georgia was, as might reasonably be expected, laughed at by the Spaniards though civily declined. Georgia has, at all times, been too distinguished by flaming pretensions and acts of singular, if not ty- rannical temerity. Her daring commissioner was confined by the Spanish government, and shortly after died.
Some time in 1782 the first two flat boats, loaded with flour, and owned by persons of the name of Tomlinson and Hyzen, arrived from the upper wa- ters, at Natchez. The cargo consisting of eight hundred or one thousand barrels, was all bought by the government at $40 per barrel.
The monotony of provincial existence was now broken by the amusement of horse racing, intro- duced by the Tennesseans into the district. These races were run, or in jocky phrase came off, al St. Catharine's Creek, in the neighbourhood of Natchez. So keen was the passion for the sport, that females, as well as males, attended these backwoods or scrub races, quite as eagerly as the fashionables of more refined times, parade on the course to witness the feats of Arabian fleetness. Nor was the suspicion absent, that the retail of spiritnous liquors, at these races, was participated in by the Spanish command- ant. The military guard always attended these templing scenes of publick enjoyment, for the prov- ident purpose of committing any disturbers of the peace of his Catholick Majesty, 10 the calaloose. Matters went on smoothly with an idle people ; they had no motive to work beyond the easy supply of immediate necessaries. When these were obtained by the light labour necessary, in a fruitful soil and a genial climate, what but lethargy or violence was to be expected in an energetick people of high capa-
THIS season witnessed a calamity, which rarely attended the white settlements in Natchez ; it was a massacre of a party of whites, thirty in number, on [ father to Abram A. Green, Esq., of Grand Gulf, MI:ss.
* Father to Mrs. Matilda Carpenter, of Port Chitwan, and grand-
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THE FAMIL
tance of several yards from the summit, is a well some eighty or ninety feet in depth ; the water of which would be agreeable enough were not the pres- ence of sulphur, in some of its modifications, so palpable. This well penetrates the heart of the mound, yet, from its depth, cannot reach lower than the level of the surrounding plain. I learned, upon inquiry, that when this well was excavated, several fragments of pottery, or decayed ears of corn, and other articles, were thrown up from a depth of sixty- five feet ; proof incontestable of the artificial struc- ture of the mound. The associations, when drink- ing the water of this well, united with its peculiar flavour, are not of the most exquisite character, when we reflect that the precions fluid has probably filtrated, part of it, at least, through the contents of a sepulchre. The present proprietor is about making a transfer, I was informed, of the whole tract to a gentleman of St. Louis, who intends establishing here a house of entertainment. If this design is carried into effect, the drive to this place will be the : most delightful in the vicinity of the city.
Monk Mound has derived its name and much of its notoriety from the circumstance that, in the early part of the present century, for a number of years, it
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