These flats, though destined for but a single voyage, sometimes do not reach their port,--seldom without more or less of danger,--and never without infinite toil' They usually carry but three or four hands. Their form and gravity render them very unmanageable. Lying flat and dead in the water, with square timbers below their bottom planks, they often run on a sandbank with a strong head-way, and bury their timbers in the soil. To get them afloat again is a great labour. Sometimes they run upon a "snag," and are instantly swallowed up with all their crew and all their cargo. Sometimes a steamer runs into one of them, and produces a catastrophe equally fatal to both. But all the toils, and dangers, and exposures connected with the long and perilous voyage of a flat boat, do not appear to the passer-by. As you cut along by the power of steam, the flat boat seems anything but a place of toil or care. One of the hands scrapes a violin, while the others dance. Affectionate greetings, or rude defiances, or trials of wit, or proffers of love to the girls on shore, or saucy messages pass between them and the spectators along the bank, or on the steam-boat. Yet, knowing the dangers to which they were really exposed, the sight of them often brought to my remembrance an appropriate verse of Dr. Watts:-- "Your streams were floating me along Down to the gulf of black despair; And, whilst I listened to your song, Your streams had e'en conveyed me there." These boats, however, do not venture to travel by night; consequently, at any good landing-place on the Mississippi, you may see towards evening a large number of them assembled. They have come from regions thousands of miles apart. They have never met before,--they will probably never meet again. The fleet of flats covers, perhaps, a surface of several acres. "Fowls are fluttering over the roofs as invariable appendages. The piercing note of the chanticleer is heard. The cattle low. The horses trample as in their stables. The swine scream, and fight with each other. The turkeys jobble. The dogs of a hundred regions become acquainted. The boatmen travel about from boat to boat, to make inquiries and form acquaintances." It is a world in miniature. LETTER XIII. Voyage up the Mississippi (continued)--Grand Gulph and Big Black River--Snags--"I belong to myself, Sir"--Vicksburg and Lynch Law--A Man Overboard--"Drove of Horses, Mules, and Niggers"--Character of Fellow-Passengers--The Sabbath--Disobedience to Conscience.