’We were detained a few days, and during that time our friend went to a little village in the neighborhood and saw the negro advertised (a negro in our possession), and a description of the two men of whom he had been purchased, and giving his suspicions of the men.  It was rather squally times, but any port in a storm:  we took the negro that night on the bank of a creek which runs by the farm of our friend, and Crenshaw shot him through the head.  We took out his entrails and sunk him in the creek.

’He had sold the other negro the third time on Arkansaw River for upwards of five hundred dollars; and then stole him and delivered him into the hand of his friend, who conducted him to a swamp, and veiled the tragic scene, and got the last gleanings and sacred pledge of secrecy; as a game of that kind will not do unless it ends in a mystery to all but the fraternity.  He sold the negro, first and last, for nearly two thousand dollars, and then put him for ever out of the reach of all pursuers; and they can never graze him unless they can find the negro; and that they cannot do, for his carcass has fed many a tortoise and catfish before this time, and the frogs have sung this many a long day to the silent repose of his skeleton.’

We were approaching Memphis, in front of which city, and witnessed by its people, was fought the most famous of the river battles of the Civil War.  Two men whom I had served under, in my river days, took part in that fight:  Mr. Bixby, head pilot of the Union fleet, and Montgomery, Commodore of the Confederate fleet.  Both saw a great deal of active service during the war, and achieved high reputations for pluck and capacity.

As we neared Memphis, we began to cast about for an excuse to stay with the ‘Gold Dust’ to the end of her course—­Vicksburg.  We were so pleasantly situated, that we did not wish to make a change.  I had an errand of considerable importance to do at Napoleon, Arkansas, but perhaps I could manage it without quitting the ‘Gold Dust.’  I said as much; so we decided to stick to present quarters.

The boat was to tarry at Memphis till ten the next morning.  It is a beautiful city, nobly situated on a commanding bluff overlooking the river.  The streets are straight and spacious, though not paved in a way to incite distempered admiration.  No, the admiration must be reserved for the town’s sewerage system, which is called perfect; a recent reform, however, for it was just the other way, up to a few years ago—­a reform resulting from the lesson taught by a desolating visitation of the yellow-fever.  In those awful days the people were swept off by hundreds, by thousands; and so great was the reduction caused by flight and by death together, that the population was diminished three-fourths, and so remained for a time.  Business stood nearly still, and the streets bore an empty Sunday aspect.

Here is a picture of Memphis, at that disastrous time, drawn by a German tourist who seems to have been an eye-witness of the scenes which he describes.  It is from Chapter vii, of his book, just published, in Leipzig, ’Mississippi-Fahrten, von Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg.’—­