We glided steadily down the river in the usual privacy—­steamboat or other moving thing seldom seen.  Scenery as always:  stretch upon stretch of almost unbroken forest, on both sides of the river; soundless solitude.  Here and there a cabin or two, standing in small openings on the gray and grassless banks—­cabins which had formerly stood a quarter or half-mile farther to the front, and gradually been pulled farther and farther back as the shores caved in.  As at Pilcher’s Point, for instance, where the cabins had been moved back three hundred yards in three months, so we were told; but the caving banks had already caught up with them, and they were being conveyed rearward once more.

Napoleon had but small opinion of Greenville, Mississippi, in the old times; but behold, Napoleon is gone to the cat-fishes, and here is Greenville full of life and activity, and making a considerable flourish in the Valley; having three thousand inhabitants, it is said, and doing a gross trade of $2,500,000 annually.  A growing town.

There was much talk on the boat about the Calhoun Land Company, an enterprise which is expected to work wholesome results.  Colonel Calhoun, a grandson of the statesman, went to Boston and formed a syndicate which purchased a large tract of land on the river, in Chicot County, Arkansas—­some ten thousand acres—­for cotton-growing.  The purpose is to work on a cash basis:  buy at first hands, and handle their own product; supply their negro laborers with provisions and necessaries at a trifling profit, say 8 or 10 per cent.; furnish them comfortable quarters, etc., and encourage them to save money and remain on the place.  If this proves a financial success, as seems quite certain, they propose to establish a banking-house in Greenville, and lend money at an unburdensome rate of interest—­6 per cent. is spoken of.

The trouble heretofore has been—­I am quoting remarks of planters and steamboatmen—­that the planters, although owning the land, were without cash capital; had to hypothecate both land and crop to carry on the business.  Consequently, the commission dealer who furnishes the money takes some risk and demands big interest—­usually 10 per cent., and 2{half} per cent. for negotiating the loan.  The planter has also to buy his supplies through the same dealer, paying commissions and profits.  Then when he ships his crop, the dealer adds his commissions, insurance, etc.  So, taking it by and large, and first and last, the dealer’s share of that crop is about 25 per cent.’{footnote [’But what can the State do where the people are under subjection to rates of interest ranging from 18 to 30 per cent., and are also under the necessity of purchasing their crops in advance even of planting, at these rates, for the privilege of purchasing all their supplies at 100 per cent. profit?’—­Edward Atkinson.]}