"We entered the Mississippi on the morning of the 14th,
and on the night of the 15th came to anchor on a sand
bar, about ten miles above the Little Prairie - - half
past 2 o'clock in the morning of the 16th, we were
aroused from our slumbers by a violent shaking of the
boat - - there were three barges and two keels in
company, all effected the same way. The alarm was
considerable, and various opinions as to the cause were
suggested, all found to be erroneous: but after the
second shock, which occurred in 15 minutes after the
first, it was unanimously admitted to be an earthquake.
With most awful feelings we watched till morning in
trembling anxiety, supposing all was over with us. We
weighed anchor early in the morning, and in a few
minutes after we started there came on in quick
successions, two other shocks, more violent than the
former. It was then daylight, and we could plainly
perceive the effect it had on shore. The bank of the
river gave way in all directions, and came tumbling into
the water; the trees were more agitated than I ever
before saw them in the severest weather and many of them
from the shock they received broke off near the ground,
as well as many more torn up by the roots. We considered
ourselves more secure on the water, than we should be on
land, of course we proceeded down the river. As we
progressed the effects of the shock as before described,
were observed in every part of the banks of the
Mississippi. In some places five, ten and fifteen acres
have sunk down in a body, even the Chickesaw Bluffs,
which we have passed, did not escape; one or two of them
have fallen in considerably.
The inhabitants of the Little Prarie and its
neighborhood all deserted their homes, and retired back
to the hills or swamps. The only brick chimney in that
place was entirely demolished by the shocks. I have not
yet heard that any lives were lost, or accident of
consequence happened. I have been twice on shore since
the first shock, and then but a very short time, as I
thought it unsafe, for the ground is cracked and torn to
pieces in such a way as made it truly alarming; indeed
some of the Islands in the river that contained from one
to two hundred acres of land have been nearly all sunk,
and not one yet that I have seen but is cracked from one
end to the other, and has lost some part of it.
There has been in all forty-one shocks, some of them
have been very light; the first one took place at half
past 2 on the morning of the 16th, the last one at
eleven o'clock this morning, (20th) since I commenced
writing this letter. The last one I think was not as
severe as some of the former, but it lasted longer than
any of the preceding; I think it continued nearly a
minute and an half. Exclusive of the shocks that were
made sensible to us on the water, there have been, I am
inclined to believe, many others, as we frequently heard
a rumbling noise at a distance when no shock was to us
perceptible. I am the more inclined to believe these
were shocks from having heard the same kind of rumbling
with the shock that affected us. There is one
circumstance that has occurred, which if I had not seen
with my own eyes, I could hardly have believed; which
is, the rising of the trees that lie in the bed of the
river. I believe that every tree that has been deposited
in the bed of the river since Noah's flood, now stands
erect out of the water; some of these I saw myself
during one of the hardest shocks rise up eight or ten
feet out of water. The navigation has been rendered
extremely difficult in many places in consequence of the
snags being so extremely thick. From the long
continuance and frequency of these shocks, it is
extremely uncertain when they will cease, and if they
have been as heavy at New Orleans as we have felt them,
the consequences must be dreadful indeed; and I am
fearful when I arrive at Natchez to hear that the whole
city of Orleans is entirely demolished, and perhaps
sunk.
Immediately after the first shock and those which took
place after daylight, the whole atmosphere was
impregnated with a surphurous smell."
