"Near the large river bottoms [of Texas] which are ANNUALLY OVERFLOWED, a sickly region may be marked out, where intermittents [fever] frequently prevail. Even here you never find the malignant fevers which characterize the vicinity of the Mississippi and other southern rivers after inundation."

The fevers of the Mississippi, and most other "southern rivers," are intermittents, bilious, congestive, and fever and ague. These, according to our gentle shepherdess of " Sibyl leaves," do not exist in her adopted country; which she thus accounts for: "The reason of this [the non-existence of sickness] is found in the fact that no miasmatic marshes or stagnant pools remain to mark the overflow, as is the case with the rivers in the south of the United States." But mark the next paragraph. "In the vicinity of the forests," alluding again to Texas, "as is usual, sickness prevails to some extent. It is thought that the moss, which we call Spanish moss,* and use for stuffing mattresses, indicates an unhealthy region, and this is found frequently in the woodlands, especially on the live oak. But, on the other hand, the forests of Texas are generally distinguished by an almost total absence of underwood, [which happens to be impenetrable on the Trinity, Buffalo Bayou, Caney Creek, and Brazos bottoms] presenting frequently a smooth verdant

* The moss, which is purely an atmospheric production, is to be found in all parts of Texas, as every traveller can testify.

turf for miles. The climate, in such regions, though subject to FEVERS, is far more healthy than the lower parts of Louisiana."

This certainly carries a mouthful of consolation with it; but before we have time to breathe, our gentle shepherdess informs us, that "another cause of disease is to be found in the water, being chiefly THAT OF THE RIVERS AND CREEKS, which are used for ALL PURPOSES." But mark the consolation she gives on this point: This, however, is a temporary evil, and, if prolonged, will be so unnecessarily; for, although springs do not abound in some parts, especially near the coast, yet water of the very best quality may be had from wells of moderate depth."

66

This is true; "water may be had from wells of moderate depth," but this water is produced by the drainage of the surface strata of the earth, which, according to our author's own account, is more or less impregnated with nitre or salt; but the singular flavour of the well-water in that country I do not attribute to the existence of either the one or the other, but solely to the gross mucilage of the partially decomposed vegetable matter with which the waters become impregnated on the surface of the earth, and carry with them through the surface strata to the substratum, where water can always be found.

With one or two more of Mrs. Holley's" Sibyl leaves," and I have done with the American speculators and romance.

After describing Texas, on the whole, as a shade

better than the lower parts of Louisiana, she states, (page 15), "The whole coast is possessed of a belt of prairie, about eight or ten miles wide. This prairie is destitute of timber, except narrow skirts on the margins of the rivers and creeks. Its distinguishing and happy peculiarity is, that, although rather low, and so extremely level, that the scope of the eye comprises an horizon of many miles; it is entirely free from marsh, so much so that, in most places, a loaded wagon may be driven to the beach without obstruction."

I am sorry to find such an erroneous statement as this recorded by a female pen-a statement that might lead an innocent family or party of strangers to undertake the risk even of crossing them, knowing, as Mrs. Holley must, that it is unfordable for two-thirds of the year, and that the attempt has frequently terminated in the loss of both life and property. But finally, she informs us, (page 45) that there are no stagnant pools or marshes in Texas, while, in the very next page, the following passage occurs :-" It is a remarkable fact, well worthy of notice, that stagnant lakes and pools of water [in Texas] are never covered with green slime, which in summer characterizes our [meaning Louisiana] ponds and stagnant streams."

These contradictions of Mrs. Holley are only equalled by those that occur in Mr. Kennedy's pages; but in the latter they are so ably and ingeniously interwoven with strained embellishments,

that it is almost impossible to detect the incongruities of this author, who

"For the satisfaction of a thought

No further harm,”

Vol. I. p. 73, says "If any part of Texas can be termed sickly, it is the narrow strip of country running parallel to the gulf, where, in the low and timbered bottoms, the rivers deposit the accumulations of their annual overflows."

"On the coast, especially near the large river bottoms, which are occasionally OVERFLOWED, the climate is similar to the neighbouring state of Louisiana, but with ample abatement of its injurious influences. The forests are free from the rank undergrowth of the woody districts of LOWER Louisiana, as the level region, generally, is from those putrid swamps, the exhalations from [the accumulations of the annual overflows] which, under the rays of a burning sun, poison the atmosphere, and produce sickness and death."

"In Texas, from river to river [which, according to Mr. Kennedy's map, comprehends but a very narrow space] the country is an open, mild acclivity; in Louisiana and Mississippi, from river to river, it is a compactly wooded level, retaining the waters of the annual inundations, which, acted upon by a dense vegetation and a powerful solar heat [both of which our author tells his reader will be found in Texas] generates noxious miasma, the

*Kennedy, page 65.

certain cause of malignant fevers. In the Low ALLUVIAL parts of Texas intermittent fevers frequently prevail; but to these visitations all new countries are subject, particularly where, by the clearing of the timbered land, the rays of the sun first break upon the vegetable deposit of ages. Intermittent fever, or "fever and ague, as it is vulgarly termed, is the general penalty attached to settlements in the bush, from the St. Lawrence to the Sabine."

Here Mr. Kennedy quaintly deposits the fever on the eastern boundary-line of Texas; but, fortunately for humanity, he says, in the same paragraph, "In the low alluvial parts of Texas," i. e. running parallel to the gulf, from the Sabine to Rio Grande, “intermittent fevers frequently prevail.”

But now I must beg to introduce a few of Mr. Kennedy's favourite authors, to show that "the pest of New Orleans and Vera Cruz," the "yellow fever," finds in Texas all the elements and advantages of position necessary for its periodical development.

"Dr. Smith remarks,* in a publication on the subject, that yellow fever requires generally for its development proximity to water, and an ardent sun, with, it may be added, a population more or LESS dense. At the time of its manifestation at Galveston strong easterly winds prevailed, with cloudy weather. Ten or twelve days after the appear

* Kennedy, page 78.