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Natchez 19 July 46
Dr Col
I have just returned from Magnolia. Cox is doing better than I expected, he has had a hard time of it, & been very much pushed with the grass & rain. Considering the time when he set in, & the state of the crop then, I think he has done as well as he could I cautioned him thoroughly about the discipline of the negroes, & think there will be no further difficulty. he is industrious & close in his attention. The crop is backward, & the stand very bad. no ripe of open cotton yet. You will make about 1/2 crop of cotton, & perhaps even enough to do the place, with an abundance of fodder. The extent of cotton depends now, I think on the length of the season, if the fall is late it will be good. Otherwise very indifferent.
I shall go back in about two weeks, & will then give you a further account, also of Karnac, where I have not been yet.
Fellow is absent, & Stacy has been very sick, so that I can find out nothing about that business, I understood you they were the persons you depended on, & must therefore wait till they can be consulted.
The bagging for Magnolia, & the negro clothing arrived, but no rope, or thread & buttons. I have also received my bagging, rope &c for Forest Hill & Pine Mount.
If you know where Armfield is, I wish you would write to him, & ask him to be good enough to get me a carriage driver, if he falls in with one of the kind I wrote about the last time he was North. He will understand it.
I went up with Henry Turner, & he introduced the subject of his affairs with you. He appears to be satisfied, on the whole, with your course, & appeared to desire to be on the best of terms with you. He had got the idea that you had been very hostile, & had even intended to attack him. I explained
to him the feelings that had influenced you, & the very great uneasiness & anxiety you had laboured under while the debt was doubtful; & he appeared to agree with me that you were not wrong in being somewhat vexed at the state of the case. He said he never intended to evade the payment, but could not meet the demand at once, & thought you should have consulted him before suing. If I an not mistaken he entertains good feeling for you, & wishes to be on good terms, & intends to do right. He does not like the levy law, but appears willing to submit if Davis & others do not resist.
Old Uncle Jo Dunbar died on the 15th. The corn [?] is very healthy, & the weather has been generally cool & rainy; to day is as comfortable in the way of heat, as an April day. Yours as ever James F Boyd PS) Hudson wants some buck wheat seed, for his bees. Please send him say 1/2 peck to care, E F Moreland, Fort=Arkansas, or to me here JFB
R.C. Ballard Esqr Louisville Ky