Along the river-front of the town, a situation wildly beautiful, I observed several dwellings of mansion-like proportions, and others of a similar character in progress. I should say, that nowhere in this South country have I yet seen a place which promises more of the prosperity increasing wealth can bestow than this; or one that, from all I learned, is more wanting in all that men usually consider most worth possessing,--personal security, reasonable comfort, and well-executed law. In place of these, affrays ending in blood are said to be frequent, apprehensions few, acquittal next to certain even in the event of trial, and the execution of a white man a thing unknown. In the midst of all this, be it understood, I do not consider that a traveller runs the least risk; robbery, or murder for the sake of mere plunder, never occurs; and to a stranger the rudest of these frontier spirits are usually exceedingly civil; but idleness, hot blood, and frequent stimulants make gambling or politics ready subjects for quarrels, and, as the parties always go armed, an affray is commonly fatal to some of those concerned. As the population steadily advances, these wild spirits melt away before it, some becoming good citizens, others clearing out before the onward march of civilization: their sway is therefore yearly decreasing in force within the States, their sphere becoming limited in proportion as persons interested in the support of law increase; already, each season, numbers seek freedom from restraint within the Mexican territory, where an infusion of such blood will be productive of strange events in Texas; and if this fine territory be not, within a very short period, rendered over-hot a berth for its Mexican proprietors, "coming events cast their shadows before" to very little purpose. TRAVELLING THROUGH THE CREEK-NATION. THE ALABAMA RIVER DOWN TO MOBILE. A little before midnight, my two New York _compagnons du voyage_ and myself took our seats in the mail for Montgomery, on the Alabama river. We found ourselves the sole occupants of the vehicle, and were congratulating each other on the chance, when we heard directions given to the driver to halt at Sodom, for the purpose of taking up a gentleman and his lady,--_Anglice_, a gambler and his mistress. It was dark as pitch and raining hard when we set out: a few minutes found us rumbling along the enclosed bridge, amidst the mingled roar of the rain, our wheels, and the neighbouring falls: the flood passing below us had in the course of the last ten hours risen nearly twenty feet; its rush was awful.