The Land Pirates; or, The League of Devil's Island

The Land Pirates: The League of Devil's Island, a Tale of the Mississippi By Captain Mayne Reid, this adventure serial begins with a narrator's arrival in New Orleans and eventual journey on horseback through Tennessee. After visiting the Tennessee State Penitentiary, he meets and befriends a young planter who reveals they shared a steamboat voyage and introduces him to Cornelia Woodley, a woman both admired. The planter invites the narrator to his father's cotton plantation, which he describes as situated on a creek feeding into Duck River. The narrative details plantation economics: a hundred fifty bales annually, flat-boat transport via waterways to the Mississippi, and labor arrangements utilizing enslaved workers. Chapters discuss the notorious river pirate Murrell held in the penitentiary, the commercial infrastructure of the Mississippi Valley, and the narrator's decision to travel overland rather than by steamboat to observe the interior country. The story establishes a framework combining travel adventure with American frontier crime and agricultural commerce.