May 17th. Got under way at five o’clock, A. M., and steamed along very slowly, owing to our burning bituminous coal, of which we had taken a little. At about noon we were obliged to anchor to get up steam, and as usual a boat put off to the nearest house for officers’ stores. Happening to anchor in an eddy, we were in imminent danger of being dashed on the levee. At another time, when we anchored in seventy fathoms of water, the ship continued to whirl round and round until we again weighed. We were soon under way again, and having substituted anthracite coal for the other, had no further difficulty. The banks were lined with cotton, and the river was so high that the levee was seldom visible; private dwellings were partly submerged, and in many instances all that could be seen of buildings was their roofs peering out of the water, and reminding one of the late style of rams; in fact, the river was said to be higher than before known for thirty years.
We frequently came upon portions of the river which seemed to terminate the great stream, and surrounded it on all sides with earth and trees; at such a place we arrived near sunset, and anchored for the night, though not until we had discovered that the stream continued. A boat went ashore for fresh meat, and returned about one o’clock, A. M., with a slaughtered bull and some mutton, for which, as usual, we paid gold.
