\n-\n
\nSt. Mary’s Seminary, Barrens, Mo., July 24th 1860\n
\n-\n
\nRev. and esteemed confrere\n
\nGratia D.N. sit semper noblisum\n
\n-\n
\nIn my last long letter, which, by the by, I see you have published in the annals of the Congregation, I made no mention of our two houses of N. Orleans, because I thought that a letter of mine to a very dear and respected confrere of the Mother House, would be communicated to you, in which I gave very full details of the foundation and personnel of these two flourishing establishments. As it appears you have not received my information regarding them, allow me now, though late, to supply the omission, for I assure you, Rev. and very dear Confrere, I would not ignore their existence, nor by any means disown most worthy confreres laboring so zealously and successfully in that trying field, or by my silence withhold from the knowledge of the community the edifying and fruitful labors of our devoted confreres in the Southern extremity of our vast Province. I must then, as in my former letter, beg you to accompany me in one of my visits to Louisiana, it is towards the end of Autumn, probably about the 1st of November, for we dare not venture South until the first frost has effaced all vestiges of the yellow fever, which annually either in epidemic or sporadic form pays a visit to N. Orleans and during the prevalence of this fell disease it is almost certain death for the unacclimated stranger to breathe the infested atmosphere. We will embark at St. Louis, for although we might wait at St. Mary’s landing for a steamer bound for N. Orleans, still the delay there is very tedious and unpleasant and of uncertain duration as the large boats, that ply between St. Louis & N. Orleans, they are the largest on the Mississippi river, are oftentimes unwilling to land for…
"}]}],"thumbnail":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/16bf2ef2-c9b7-4d6d-9c72-b5b86a781b18/full/500,500/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","height":500,"width":500}},{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_2","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"CMC0565_02_008_001_p040","height":5177,"width":4339,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/a5d7d526-ada5-44cf-91ae-7579cc756398/full/full/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/tif","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/a5d7d526-ada5-44cf-91ae-7579cc756398","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","tiles":[{"width":2048,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4]}]},"height":5177,"width":4339},"on":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_2","metadata":[{"label":"Transcriptions","value":"…way passengers, so that I generally prefer when I visit the South, to go up to St. Louis, where I have a choice of boats and a hospitable home where I can comfortably await the precise time of departure. Our boat selected, passage taken & birth [sic] secured we are sure to be on board at the appointed time and whilst the boat’s crew are making busy preparations to be off rolling in the last of the freights, hurrying on some lagging passengers and their baggage, coiling on the deck the large chains and hawsers that firmly moored us to the shore and hauling the last planks we will have time to look around and examine our magnificent steamer, a regular floating palace. Its length of keel is (300) three hundred feet with a hold capable of containing fifteen hundred tons of freight. On the lower deck are six immense boilers beneath which blaze six roaring fires fed by as many swarthy firemen and here is generated that mighty power, Steam, which applied by a powerful double engine situated in the rear of the boilers propels two huge wheels, one at either side and this gives motion and apparent life to this huge and heavy hulk deeply laden with a valuable cargo and richly freighted with human life, so that truthfully of her it may be said, “She walks the waters like a thing of life.” The engines are of high pressure with cylinders and piston working horizontally and two faithful engines are constantly day and night on watch to regulate the stupendous force of that mighty agent which man’s inventive genius has known how to tame and bring under perfect control, and aloud to the different voices of the overhanging bells, which in well understood tones speak the orders of the Pilot above, to stop the engines or reverse the wheel or slacken the speed as circumstances may require. Abaft the engines and between the wheelhouses is an extensive dark and gloomy space generally more or less densely crowded…"}]}],"thumbnail":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/a5d7d526-ada5-44cf-91ae-7579cc756398/full/500,500/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","height":500,"width":500}},{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_3","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"CMC0565_02_008_001_p041","height":5099,"width":4057,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/965f66ce-cc5c-4665-b2f8-f95f0e4f757f/full/full/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/tif","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/965f66ce-cc5c-4665-b2f8-f95f0e4f757f","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","tiles":[{"width":2048,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4]}]},"height":5099,"width":4057},"on":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_3","metadata":[{"label":"Transcriptions","value":"…the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. But all this time we are under way and already many miles below St. Louis, however at this season of the year the water is low and until we reach the mouth of the Ohio we cannot use a great head of steam. The frequent tinkling of the little bells beneath our cabin floor, which the pilot telegraphs his orders to the engineer, the heaving of the sounding lead in front, the occasional jar occasioned by the hard rubbing of the keel against the bottom and the hasty ring to reverse the engine disturb somewhat our first night’s repose, but still we have managed to get a very refreshing sleep and as morning dawns we find ourselves passing Cape Girardeau which is one hundred and fifty miles below St. Louis and this distance we have travelled since 5 o’clock the previous evening. Here we land to take on board a few hundred barrels of flour and lime, for there are here four large flouring mills and a sample of mammoth lime kilns, and levee an extensive export of flour and lime from this point, the city itself containing in all not more than 5000 inhabitants has received the proud title of the “Marble city” from the extensive quarries of very fine grained limestone which abound in the vicinity. We have had barely time to salute our good confreres of St. Vincent’s College when the signal bell is tolled and we must away. Our college, now the Provincial grand Seminaire presents a beautiful appearance from the river, situated on a terraced eminence, the main building fronting the river, a neat tower or belfry at the southern end joining the main building with a new wing forty feet front, by eighty deep. Waving a salute to our confreres from the hurricane deck we received a similar sign of recognition and still we stood admiring the beauty of the location and the inscrutable ways of Providence, that slowly perhaps but always surely accomplishes his own designs. Forty miles below Cape Girardeau the Ohio empties into the Mississippi and from this down there is never a lack of water for even the largest boats, and from this point until we near the city the scenery is mountainous and…"}]}],"thumbnail":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/965f66ce-cc5c-4665-b2f8-f95f0e4f757f/full/500,500/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","height":500,"width":500}},{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_4","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"CMC0565_02_008_001_p042","height":5143,"width":4159,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/584a7e96-1276-429f-972f-bbf50c9044c1/full/full/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/tif","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/584a7e96-1276-429f-972f-bbf50c9044c1","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","tiles":[{"width":2048,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4]}]},"height":5143,"width":4159},"on":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_4","metadata":[{"label":"Transcriptions","value":"...uninteresting. Above the junction the scenery is varied and pleasing especially on the Missouri side, there are bold high bluffs, precipitous cliffs, and vast perpendicular rocks bearing evidence, and at an immense height, of the action of mighty waters at some long gone by period, when the whole valley of the Mississippi from the lakes to the Gulf was submerged perhaps by an immense extent. Cairo situated at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers two hundreds miles below St. Louis is the terminus of the great Illinois coastal railroad and a port of call for all the boats trading on these two rivers. The geographical position would seem to destine it for a place of great importance in a commercial point of view and hence great efforts and immense outlays of money have at different periods been made to realize its apparent destiny, but unavailingly and it can never be more than a point of reshipment, the lowness of the land and its liability to inundation being insurmountable obstacles to its aggrandizement. Leaving Cairo we have Missouri still on our right hand, and on our left Kentucky, the chief products and articles of export in the states bordering on the Mississippi down to the latitude are wheat, Indian corn, tobacco, and hemp. Only a narrow strip of Kentucky is laved by the Mississippi and we consequently soon find our left bank to be the state of Tennessee, near whose Southern extremity the city of Memphis situated on a high bluff bank already a considerable place is rapidly advancing in population and commercial importance. It has a triweekly line of packets trading with St. Louis and I believe a daily line to N. Orleans, besides several railroads running North and South bring the rich produce of the interior to her doors. It is in the diocese of Nashville has a large Catholic population and two churches attended respectively by English and German Congregations. The immense pile of Cotton bales on the levee show at once that we have reached the cotton growing region, and through this state and the state of Mississippi that follows it on the left and Arkansas next to Missouri on the right and the Northern portion of Louisiana cotton is the staple product. Vicksburg and Natchez, the latter an episcopal see, are two flourishing towns in the state of Mississippi. At Napoleon, a small town in Arkansas, named doubtlessly from your great Napoleon, and situated about midway between St. Louis and N. Orleans, the Arkansas river empties its water into the Mississippi, the Arkansas is rather small at its mouth, runs through a rich cotton growing district and is manageable for small craft as far as Little Rock, the capital of the state and an episcopal See. About two hundred miles above N. Orleans…"}]}],"thumbnail":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/584a7e96-1276-429f-972f-bbf50c9044c1/full/500,500/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","height":500,"width":500}},{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_5","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"CMC0565_02_008_001_p043","height":5097,"width":3998,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/0b67952d-d33f-4a63-b943-1c611d7a4107/full/full/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/tif","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/0b67952d-d33f-4a63-b943-1c611d7a4107","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","tiles":[{"width":2048,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4]}]},"height":5097,"width":3998},"on":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_5","metadata":[{"label":"Transcriptions","value":"…the Red river pours its tributary waters into the Mississippi and opens to the N. Orleans market the wealthy produce of an extensive sugar and cotton region. About this point the sugar plantations commence and vast waving plains of ripe cane now attract the traveller’s view, and from the 1st of November to the month of February the sugar houses are in active operation and day and night during the rolling season or what they call, “Le raulaison,” the blazing fire must be kept up and the boiling kettles carefully attended. About fifty miles below the mouth of the Red river Baton Rouge, the capital of the state of Louisiana, is handsomely located on high ground and presents a very fine view from the river. There is here a large Catholic church; the capital and a state endowed Institution for the deaf & dumb are magnificent edifices. From this to New Orleans the scenery is diversified and delightful, the land is highly cultivated and divided into plantations of greater or less extent, mostly let out in sugar cane with a tract for Indian corn and garden vegetables sufficient for home-consumption, a strip of wood land, a grazing herd of cattle and a large rice field give variety to the otherwise monotonous nature of the land which is low and almost an unbroken level. The river even at its lowest stage is several feet above the level of the surrounding land and only by high and strangely built levees is the mass of the Father of waters now swollen by so many tributary streams prevented from submerging the country. In the commencement of Summer when the river is swollen by the Spring rains and the melting of the Winter’s snow in the mountains, the lowlands along the whole course of the river are frequently inundated and fearfully damaged but the South is especially imperiled and should the artificial embankments yield to the pressure and the undermining, wasting action of a very rapid current widespread and ruinous devastation is the consequence. I have travelled along the river when the water was lipping these embankments at places twelve and fifteen feet above the level of the adjacent land, when every wave of our steamer dashed across them, endangering their permanence and terrifying the inhabitants. About three years ago, a breach or as they term it a “crevasse” was made in the Levee above N. Orleans, which all the skill and ingenuity of men having at their command the appliances of modern art, the men and wealth of the country could not close, the pent up waters washed through the opened gorge with irresistible impetus and all attempts to check the rushing tide proved abortive until the high waters abated and the river sank to its natural level. Large plantations were thus ruined for years by the deposits of sand left on them and houses and barns and sugar mills and cattle were all indiscriminately carried off. In fact this region of country seems to have been settled a hundred years too soon, obstructed by those artificial banks, the rich and abundant deposits which the sweeping current of the Mississippi brings along with it might have rendered them unnecessary and secured the country from inundation. Leaving Baton Rouge on our left in a few hours we pass Donaldsonville on our right, 80 miles above N. Orleans. It is a small but neatly laid out village, we have as you know a house here with three good confreres, serving a large parish and tending to the spiritual want of a large slave population on several neighboring plantations. This house and its members and…"}]}],"thumbnail":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/0b67952d-d33f-4a63-b943-1c611d7a4107/full/500,500/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","height":500,"width":500}},{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_6","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"CMC0565_02_008_001_p044","height":5136,"width":4187,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/9fdaf975-b7c2-4b99-b4a8-87d13bf6c0a8/full/full/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/tif","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/9fdaf975-b7c2-4b99-b4a8-87d13bf6c0a8","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","tiles":[{"width":2048,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4]}]},"height":5136,"width":4187},"on":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/depaul/iiif/454727b7-e42c-412e-916e-9e31d2b7dc6d/canvas/_6","metadata":[{"label":"Transcriptions","value":"...varied occupations I noticed in my last letter, so that we will pass on after having left at the wharf a little note to apprise good Mr. Andrieux that we were on our way to the Southern Metropolis and that we would be happy to meet him there. The beauty of the landscape increases as we approach the city, the magnificent villas and lordly mansions of the wealthy planter surrounded by evergreens, magnolias, orange trees bending beneath the weight of golden fruit, and fig trees, a spacious and tastefully arranged pastime blooming with every variety of beautiful flowers, sweet scented shrubbery and rare indigenous and assorted plants spreads out before the mansion and through its graveled winding walks leads the delighted visitor to the hall door where he is always sure of a kind and gracious welcome from the proverbially hospitable, polite, and accomplished family of the Proprietor. At some distance from the main dwelling stands another house of humbler dimensions and less pretentious mien, though large, commodious, and comfortable and around this you will perhaps to your astonishment see grouped a small village of neat, whitewashed cottages all similar in form and size, here dwell the overseer and slaves. The latter on some plantations are very numerous and as a general thing they are well cared for, their physical wants abundantly supplied and indeed aside from all feelings of humanity and promptings of religion the interest of the owner requires him to preserve with care what he justly esteems his most valuable possessions. I am not the panegyrist of the institution of slavery, too many crying moral evils attach to it almost of necessity, especially when the masters are devoid of religious principles and strangers to the humanizing influences and supernaturalized views of the true faith, yet I have seen many happy, well reared, and religiously instructed slaves and have known many excellent and Christian masters and have often witnessed master and slave side by side at the holy table partaking of the Bread of life and I have celebrated the holy sacrifice in a neat little chapel created and furnished by the wealthy planter solely for the use of his slaves, when the chapel was crowned by the swarthy visaged sons of Africa and the venerable white haired patriarchal looking planter humbly, reverently, and piously served mass, and the motherly mistress of the house and her young and beautiful and accomplished daughters took their wanted place in the midst of the black domestics. The chapel with its cross crowned spire and large sugar house or refinery with huge towering chimney stacks constitute an appendage to many of the extensive and well ordered plantations which we pass along the coast, while the large parish church and some goodly edifices created for educational purposes enhance the interest of the scenery. Some twenty miles below Donaldsonville St. Michael’s, a superb and vast convent of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, rises up in grand proportions on the left bank of the river, some few years ago I visited it with deep interest and real pleasure, it is a highly and deservedly popular institution affording a finished education to from two to three hundred young Ladies from the city and surrounding country. The year after my visit, the chaplain, a respectable French clergyman, the Lady Superioress and twelve of her Sisters became victims of the yellow fever and were carried off within a few days by that fearful scourge of the South. The majority of the inhabitants of this country are French Creoles and French is the language almost universally spoken, the Priest here to be useful must know French, and with this language only will his services be appreciated and his labors productive of much fruit, so that you see some of our good Confreres of France could here at once enter on a career of usefulness and find themselves at home with a population with habits and customs little differing from their own and speaking their mother tongue. I have now trespassed on your time and patience by this long and I fear uninteresting description of my journey, I myself too feel tired of my long voyage for I have now been eight days on the river, which is the average time from St. Louis though the trip is sometimes made in five days and as we are already within sight of the great Southern emporium, we will, very dear and respected confrere, with your permission go at once to St. Joseph’s Church, and rest awhile with our dear confreres there who always meet us with a Brother’s hearty and affectionate welcome. \n\n-\n
\nYours &c,\n
\nS. V. Ryan\n
\n-\n
\nTo be continued\n
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