ART. I. LETTERS FROM THE GULF STATES. NUMBER ONE, . VI. THE MOTHER'S LAST PRAYER, VII. THE REign of the PEOPLE. Concluded, IX. THE LOVER'S INVOCATION. BY MRS. JAMES HALL, XIV. LINES WRITTEN TWENTY YEARS AFTER MARRIAGE, XVII. A WEEK WITH LAFITTE, THE PIRATE OF THE GULF, ....... XIX. MORNING LIFE. BY AN OLD CONTRIBUTOR, LITERARY NOTICES: 1. TWENTY YEARS OF THE LIFE OF AN ACTOR, 2 LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS OF ENGLAND, 3. SPARK'S LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, 4. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAGIC AND MIRACLES, 5. SARGENT'S SONG OF THE SEA, AND OTHER POEMS, EDITOR'S TABLE: 1. EXTRAORDINARY ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERIES IN THE EAST, 2. CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. MOTH, . 3. SILENT BUT ELOQUENT COMPANIONS: 'LIBRI VETERES,' 4. GOSSIP WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS, 1. THE 'LO THERE!' SIDE OF THE SHAKER CONTROVERSY STATEMENT OF THE 5. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS, MUSIC, ETC., 290 NOTICE. COUNTRY SUBSCRIBERS who are in arrears should recollect to make returns for what we send them. Remittances to be made to JOHN ALLEN, 139 Nassau-street, New-York. MR. T. P. WILLIAMS is our Agent to receive the names of Subscribers in the West and South. terested in the circulation of this facilitating his designs. Editors and others kindly inMagazine, will oblige us by O. D. DAVIS and JOHN STOUGHTON, Jr., are canvassing for subscribers to this work in the state of New-York. Entered, according to the act of Congress, in the year 1847, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. To a northern traveller the first appearance of Savannah varies but little from that of northern cities of a corresponding size. The streets are somewhat wider, the smaller private dwellings have a more frequent display of vine-covered porticoes and piazzas, and it seems rather strange to see the chimnies all standing outside the buildings; but yet the public houses, the churches and the residences. of the wealthier citizens are so like those of Hartford or Worcester that he hardly realizes that he has left the land of the Puritans. The climate of Savannah is always mild, and this New-Year's is as free from frost as a sunny May-day in Massachusetts. The present winter is as yet warm and dry, and cloaks and overcoats have scarcely made their first appearance. This however is unusual. Stormy days, with their damp and chilly atmosphere, often occur for several weeks in succession, and when the weather does become tranquil, the roads, instead of presenting a bright pathway of snow, are impassable from mud and water. The winters of the northern states are indeed fierce and stern, and bear heavily on those of feeble health and slender frame; but were the sturdy farmer of NewEngland compelled for a single season to draw homeward through mud and mire his firewood and his lumber, you must guarantee him many a bright and beautiful day to induce him to exchange climates. The China is the favorite shade-tree of this and many of the southern towns. It has a rich and dark green foliage, which is never disturbed by vermin, and remains the latest of the season. In almost every yard there are also seen the sycamore, the Spanish mulberry and the mimosa. Of vines, the white and yellow jasmine, the woodbine, and the bamboo are the most frequent. They grow in the forests, and on the alluvial bottoms, oyertopping the wild shrubbery, and hanging in waving festoons over the creeks and rivers. In the season of blossoms they form one of the most beautiful features of southern scenery. The peach is the most abundant of the fruit trees of Georgia. It was cultivated by the Indians. It excels in variety, but not in flavor, those of New-Jersey. The fig and pomegranate are excellent fruit, and are easily raised. On the low-lands of the south the apple and pear never flourish. For three seasons they are very thrifty; blossom, bear an indifferent fruit, and decay during the fourth. On the northern declivities of the Cherokee hills, however, there are some good orchards, with summer apples ripening in June and the winter in October. The lemon and orange are mentioned in our geographies as fruits peculiar to, and abundant in this and the adjacent States. It is true that these fruits are found in a few of the lower border counties, but they are dwarfish and unpalatable. In no part of the Union, save the peninsula of Florida, and the newly acquired provinces of New Leon and Tamaulipas, are the lemon and orange brought to a state of perfection. The population of Savannah is about fourteen thousand, more than half of whom are negroes. The present or Christmas week is the holiday time of the slaves; their annual and only period of relaxation and freedom. Early on Christmas morning they come in crowds from the neighboring rice plantations with a few shillings each, which are speedily exchanged for trinkets, confectionary and whiskey. Occasionally one more considerate than the rest will purchase shoes or some article of clothing. They manifest a great buoyancy of spirits, and are full of talk and laughter. During this week they are allowed to traffic for themselves, and visit their acquaintances; privileges of which they avail themselves to the utmost of their ability. Toward sun-down they begin to disperse, and after dark scarcely one is to be seen, the city authorities forbidding them to be out after nine. They pass the night in singing and dancing; the favorite amusements of the negro. The next morning a smaller crowd collects together; for some have hired themselves to their masters, or to other citizens; and thus the number diminishes from day to day, till the night before New-Year's, when all return to commence their annual labor. To a descendant of the Pilgrims, the existence of slavery, in its most lenient and favorable form, must appear unnatural and forbidding. Not that he regards the slave as overburthened with toil, or destitute of suitable food and clothing; these and all other physical comforts he usually possesses in abundance. But the system is inconsistent with his views of equal rights and universal freedom; sentiments which he has cherished from his earliest years, and which he can never abandon. There are two classes of agriculturalists in this country who possess a sort of natural monopoly; the advantage of receiving an unusual profit in proportion to the labor employed and the capital invested. They are the rice-planters of Georgia and South Carolina and the sugar-planters of Louisiana. Nine-tenths of all the rice consumed in, or exported from the United States, is raised on the sea-coast and islands between Cape Fear and the northern boundary of Florida. This species of grain can only be raised with profit on wet and marshy ground; and to insure a certain and abundant crop the soil must be kept in a uniform state of moisture. It is only that portion of the coast and the islands which is overflowed by the tides that is capable of this, a quantity quite limited in its extent. A mound is thrown up on the edge of the shore high enough to prevent the overflowing of the tides. The lowlands are then intersected with canals, opening through the mounds to the ocean. A gate closes each of these openings, which is only raised during the dry summer season, when the rice fields are irrigated by allowing the salt water to pass through the gateways and overspread the surface. The expense of preparing these lands for culture is nearly fifty dollars to the acre. The grain is sown in March and is gathered the first of October. The cultivation of rice is attended with more exposure than that of cotton, and is far more unhealthy. It is very profitable, and some of the large planters realize an annual income of ten thousand dollars. During the summer months they reside with their families among the highlands, and remain on their plantations only in the winter season. Savannah, which is the oldest town in the state, was founded by OGLETHORPE, one hundred and fourteen years ago. In the Revolution it was the scene of several sanguinary conflicts, and was for some time in the possession of the British troops. Here fell the gallant PULASKI, to whose memory a beautiful monument is erected in the public square. Both the bar and the pulpit of Savannah are noted for their ability. The Hon. J. M. Berrien, and Judge Wayne, of the Supreme Court, reside here. Among the most noted literary men of the city are the Hon. R. M. Charlton, one of the ablest contributors of the KNICKERBOCKER, and Col. H. R. Jackson, now commanding the Georgia regiment in Mexico. Your readers will admire with me the following impromptu lines by the latter, written by camp-light, near Camargo, last September: WHERE Rio Grande's turbid waves The muffled drum with measured tone As though they had not closed their race O, Rio Bravo! when in war |