in Virginia, and against the extension of the James River and Kanawha Canal. Pleasants styled them "Mississippi Letters" and published them in the Whig, which he was editing, just under the Messenger. This remarkable "Winter Trip Down the Mississippi" is recorded in the January number of 1846.
When he reached home, nothing had been heard of him for more than three weeks and some of his friends were calling on his wife in a spirit of delicate condolence; but she was more hopeful than they. During this long absence, the Messenger had been under her charge; and Gustavus A. Myers and Dr. T. C. Reynolds had promised to render such assistance as might be requested.
January, 1846. After an unavoidable delay, the first number of Volume XII. appears, bearing "A few Words to our Patrons," dated January 14, 1846. The principles upon which the union of the two Magazines would be conducted are unmistakably declared. Among the books noticed are a collection of L. J. Cist's poems and Munford's "Homer." The editor once met Mr. Cist and his father in Cincinnati. The father, too, was a man of literary industry and a statistician. As to Munford's "Homer," the editor was, on every account, proud of it and greeted it most cordially. It was reviewed by Judge Beverly Tucker, in the Messenger, and splendidly, in
