influence upon the trade of the entire country in its route. Great facilities are open for its construction. The absence of any serious impediments in the water courses, the level character of the country, the profusion of materials, and immense amount of productions without present means of transportation, make this a noble and va luable scheme of internal improvement. It is melancholy to think that any merely local interest should stand in the way of this magnificent work; that citizens of Alabama should doubt about giving this scheme the most earnest support, in the fear that it may operate injuriously to this or that little village; as if measures of the magnitude of this should not be considered paramount to all other considerations. When merchants shall be treated with confidence, and planters with justice, and the seaboard and the mountain valleys brought into more close communion, agriculture and commerce must establish a friendly and permanent covenant. If Mobile has seen disastrous times; if her trade has declined; if her real estate has depreciated in value, and the produce of the country has lain unsold in her ware-houses; these things are less owing to the imprudence or bad faith of her people, than to the hostility of their state government,-which, instead of furnishing her merchants with a sound currency, with a means of regulating exchanges, with such measures as encourage the concentration of capital, and, by restrictions upon high rates of interest, induce the investment of money in business; by promoting associations of individuals in banking, insurance, and other commercial companies, has counteracted and opposed them, held up her merchants to reproach, induced dissensions, and retarded always the efforts of private enterprize.

East of Montgomery, in Macon county, stretches a remarkable ridge, known as Chunnenuggee, which means "high lands." The prairie spreads itself to the foot of this ridge, which, for nearly a mile in breadth, and sixteen in length, rises and divides the smaller streams of the Tallapoosa from those of the Conecuh river. It is a high mountainous bluff of fine white sandy soil, covered with lofty pines and spreading oaks, and from the sides of which gush forth most abundant springs of cool, clear water. Here, wealth has her abode; and the rich proprietors of the adjacent lands, the Powells, the Stewarts, the CaVOL. XVI.-NO. 31.

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rys, and others, have here formed one of the most elegant and accomplished societies to be found in Alabama. Here, harmony, hospitality, friendship and benevolence, unite the community in bonds, which even emulation to excel in these virtues never weakens. And here, retired from the more unpleasant and less healthful plantations, they have their residences-the homes of as finished and highly cultivated families as it ever was the fortune of any neighborhood to mingle. Without ostentation, modest, blameless, pious and charitable,-without the ills of discontent, or the evils of ambition,-without envying each other the possession or the dispensation of the noblest virtues and duties of life, they pass their days, devoting themselves to the generous task-if what confers upon them so much pleasure may be called a task-of ministering to the wants and enjoyments of each other, and of strangers; of displaying the rites of hospitality and friendship, with ease of manners, and with frankness of demeanor, which leave the visitor always under the impression that he has obliged them by his visit. Here, all the graces which follow such a state of civilization, flourish. Beautifully cultivated gardens, filled with summer houses, and clustering vines, and variegated flowers, attest the taste of woman's hand; and tables groaning under abundance, and embellished with elegance, show that refinement and education are not inconsistent with household duties. The visitor who lingers at one of these homes for a few days, will, amidst the highest comforts physically enjoyed, feel not the less feasted with a conversation as full of gaiety as of intellect and learning.

Near this region lived Milly Francis, the Pocahontas of Alabama-an Indian woman of great beauty of person, of virtuous and noble disposition, who, under very self-denying and dangerous circumstances, saved the life of a white man, whose offers to marry her she rejected with scornreplying, that she saved his life from humanity, and not that she might obtain a husband. When he assured her that he would marry and support her, she said she knew there could be no respect displayed towards her in the white settlements, and none for him among the Indians; that the love which grew out of gratitude only, among persons of different nations, was not lasting; and she did not desire to be deserted--the inevitable result of such incongruous matches. In 1826 she married an Indian, Mox

cy, who was shot. She cultivated then a small farm, and by her own labor supported her mother and three or four children. In 1836 she went with her tribe to Arkansas.

A few miles east of the Alabama river, in Baldwin county, lay the ruins of Fort Mimms, the scene of a dreadful massacre, on the 29th Aug., 1813. Fort Mimms was so named after a person whose dwelling it enclosed, and was the refuge of two hundred and seventy-five persons, of whom one hundred and sixty were military, and the balance old men, women and children, part, friendly Indians and part, white settlers. Among the friendly Indians was Dixon Bailey, one of the most courageous of the chiefs, who fought bravely at the battle of Burnt Corn, and Peggy Bailey, his sister, who subsequently rendered faithful service to the whites. Major Beasley commanded at this fort, and, if the relations which have reached us are to be relied on, he possessed more bravery than discretion. About this time the daring Weatherford began to display his character. He was the son of an itinerant pedlar, by a full blood Seminole Indian woman. In person he was tall, straight and handsomely proportioned, with keen black eyes, prominent, thin and elegant nose. He was eloquent and courageous, but sordid and revengeful. Associated with Tecumseh and Elliott, who met him at Eccanakhaw, or Holy Town, in counsel, he procured arms at Pensacola, and commenced those depredations which so long made his name terrible in the neighboring settlements. He appeared before Fort Mimms with fifteen. hundred warriors. A negro of Jack Weatherford discovered them, and gave the alarm. Major Beasley, disbelieving the report, had the negro whipped, and took no precautions. The gate of the fort was left open, and an Indian crept up and shot the sentinel. This was the signal for a general charge. Major Beasley rushed to the gate, and, in the act of closing it, was shot down. The whole Indian force entered, and the slaughter commenced. Of the whole garrison, but seventeen escaped. The contest lasted but fifteen minutes. Beasley was repeatedly wounded, and fell at last with his eye on the enemy, striking at them to the last. Every officer was killed at the gate. One lieutenant shot down, was taken up by two women, and, in the act of being carried off by them, was killed by another ball. The women and children now took to the

blockhouse, and attempted a defence. But the flames soon despatched what the rifle and the tomahawk had failed to reach. Of the seventeen who escaped, two-thirds were wounded, and these only were saved by the sagacity and kindness of a friendly Indian in disguise, who, pretending to pursue and kill them, favored their flight. The miserable remnant, with minds harrassed by the terrible reflections of friends and kindred left behind, pursued their way towards Mount Vernon. They were stopped by the river, but at night Peggy Bailey swam it, and brought over the flat. The same service she repeated at the Tombeckbee. A few days after, Dixon Bailey was found dead, with his youngest son in his arms.

The Alabama river, between Mobile and Claiborne, was the scene of the celebrated canoe fight in which Col. Dale, Jeremiah Anstil, and another, whose name we regret not being able to commemorate, so gallantly participated. These three persons, in canoes, in the middle of the river, held a long and nobly-contested fight with seven Indians, which ended in the defeat and death of the latter. Col. Dale is long since dead, but Mr. Anstil yet lives in the city of Mobile. Col. Dale, at the time we last saw him, was a large and noble-looking man. He was not more brave than magnanimous; and, had he lived in the age of chivalry, would have been among the first of those to whom are the pages of history appropriated, for honorable and valorous achievements.

Mr. Anstil is a finely formed person. His face carries with it the proofs of courage; and his life and character have given long and prominent evidence, that, with a brave heart, he unites a generous and frank disposition. The particulars of the canoe fight are thus related by this gentleman. Anstil, Dale, Smith, Creagh, and a few others, belonged to a party of seventy-two men, commanded by Dale and Jones. All the party, except Anstil, Dale, Smith, Brady, and a free negro, had passed to the west bank of the river. These were engaged in roasting potatoes, when a signal was given from the west bank that the Indians were surrounding them. A party approached them by land, and a canoe with eleven descended the river to intercept them. Austil and his squad fired upon the latter, which they returned without effect. In the act of climbing up the bank, Anstil was tripped up by his heavy buckskin

leggins, and rolled into the river, some six feet from a party of two Indians, who had swum from the canoe to the bank. One of these, Smith fired upon and killed. While fired upon by a party concealed in the cane, and in the canoe, Dale proposed to enter the small boat which had been sent over for his party, and board the canoe. Dale, Anstil, Smith, and the free negro, slipped down some ten feet to the river, and entered their boat. They approached the Indian canoe, the negro paddling. Dale's and Anstil's guns missed fire, as they were wet from jumping down into the river The chief rose up, and, looking at Dale, said, Big Sam, now we have it." At that moment, Anstil and the chief exchanged blows with their guns. At this juncture, he received blows from Dale and Smith, under which he fell dead. Anstil then killed another Indian, who, while he had been fighting with the chief, had approached and dealt heavy blows upon him. Dale then leaped into the canoe. An Indian here struck Anstil with his war club, and he fell athwart the two boats. Another Indian, in the act of dispatching him, was knocked down by Dale and Smith. The other assailant of Anstil was encountered by Smith, and fell overboard. He presently re-appeared, and, by another blow, was sent to the bottom. Dale and Anstil then threw the others into the river, Smith and the negro holding the two boats together. No fewer than two hundred and eighty Indians beset this heroic little band; and yet, amidst these encounters, hand to hand, and amidst showers of balls, they escaped to the fort. This canoe fight took place not far below Claiborne, near Dixon Bailey's farm, and near Capt. Henshaw's place.

Prominent among the public men of this part of the State, lately deceased, is James Dellet. He was for a long time a member of the Legislature, and lately a Representative in Congress. Mr. Dellet removed to Alabama at an early period-perhaps very soon after it was made a Statefrom Columbia, South-Carolina, at the College of which he graduated. To industry he joined a frankness of character, which eminently distinguished him. He was, upon occasions, when deeply excited, among the most eloquent speakers we have ever heard. His friendship was sincere without profession, and ardent without display. A man of greater integrity, and of less care for popularity, never lived. The offices given to him were the reward paid his talents