countries in the same parallel of latitude. The landing, where are a few houses immediately under the bluff, is particularly fatal to the crews of the Ohio and Kentucky boats, who happen to be delayed there during the sickly season.
Though Natchez is dignified with the name of a city, it is nevertheless but a small town. It is however a place of considerable importance in consequence of its being the principal emporium of the commerce of the territory, and of its having been so long the seat of government, under the French, English, and Spaniards, which caused all the lands in the vicinity to be cultivated and settled, while those more remote were neglected, though in general a much better soil. There is a Roman Catholick church, which is an old wooden building in decay, and there is a brick meeting-house for either Presbyterians or Anabaptists, I am not sure which. These, and an old hotel de ville, or court-house, are the only publick buildings the city boasts, except it be an old hospital, now fitting up as a theatre for a private dramatick society. Several of the houses are new and very good, mostly of wood, and I am informed many (more than half) have been added within the last four or five years. Fort Penmure,[206] on the edge of the bluff is now in ruins, but the situation, and the extent of the old ramparts, prove it to have been a post of considerable consequence. It effectually commands the river, without being commanded itself, and the view from it is very extensive, particularly over the flat swamps of Louisiana, on the opposite side of the Mississippi.
