Past the mouth of the Muddy River above Hanging Dog Island on the afternoon of March 21, the travelers approached a feature known as the Grand Tower and, near it, the Devil's Bake Oven. Maximilian described the tower as an isolated, drumlike formation between sixty and eighty feet high. Of the Devil's Bake Oven he wrote, "On the right bank just opposite ... there are three or four very strange rocks full of fissures and ravines... . The front one is called the Devil's Bake Oven. ... At the Bake Oven stands a nice farm house.... (Mr.

In his later account of Bodmer's stay at Natchez, Maximilian mentioned that he made a study of Choctaws at an encampment on the Mississippi approximately a mile upstream from the town. The study is dated February 2. Bodmer left Natchez four days later aboard the steamer Cavalier and arrived back at Mount Vernon on the Ohio on or before February I 5. The exact date of Bodmer's return to New Harmony is not clearly noted in Maximilian's journal.

The steamer continued upriver past Herculaneum on the afternoon of March 23. Maximilian noted in his journal that above Herculaneum Bodmer made a quick sketch of an island in the river. That afternoon, beyond the mouth of Pear Creek, the passengers glimpsed Jefferson Barracks, where the celebrated leader of the recent Black Hawk War was being held prisoner by the U.S. government. In the evening the steamer tied up near the old settlement of Cahokia on the Illinois side of the river opposite St. Louis.

Bodmer made a sketch of Shot Tower Rock below the settlement of Herculaneum at about noon on March 23. Maximilian observed, "Here in a leveled-off inlet the small village Herculaneum lies, with small grey wooden houses, of which some have been painted white.... By the miserable huts one can see some elegant ladies moving on the beach, their veils fluttering most romantically in the wind! On the limestone hills to the left stands a shot tower on the edge of the rock (see Mr. Bodmer's sketch)."

Around noon of March 22, the steamer passed the mouth of the Kaskaskia River below the site of the old French trading settlement of that name situated on the Illinois side of the river. That afternoon it reached the village of Ste. Genevieve. Maximilian described the approach to this village in his journal, commenting, "In front to the right, the river, because of its bend, seems to go through a narrow opening (see Mr. Bodmer's sketch)....The steamboat Arg’äεs overtook us near Ste. Genevieve.... It passed us and we landed."

Reaching Natchez again on or before January 28, Bodmer decided to stop here a few days. Maximilian later wrote that Bodmer stayed at Natchez eight days and saw there many Choctaw Indians. He also mentioned that Bodmer made a drawing of "an old Cherokee, who didn't want this business at first, but later complied immediately when sketches had been shown to him." This study of a Cherokee named Tsholocha, possibly the one the Prince mentioned, was made at Natchez on January 29.

The vessel continued upriver on the morning of March 23. Beyond Fort Chartres Island, site of an old French settlement about ten miles above Ste. Genevieve, it approached the villages of Selma and Herculaneum. In his journal Maximilian described the curious rock formations observed along this stretch of the Mississippi and mentioned in passing the shot tower near Selma sketched by Bodmer around eleven o'clock.

At Baton Rouge, Bodmer noted the arrivals and departures of numerous steamboats. He sketched at least two of these, the Lioness and the Delphine. In his subsequent report to Maximilian, he mentioned that a great many flatboats were to be seen on the river, but that keelboats, common before the advent of steam-powered craft, were becoming increasingly scarce on the lower Mississippi.

While at Baton Rouge on the return voyage from New Orleans, Bodmer visited the U.S. military post located on the river above the city. According to Bodmer, the master of ordnance wanted to buy his view of the barracks, but Bodmer declined to part with it.

Above New Orleans on January 22, the Arkansas passed numerous riverside settlements. Bodmer later recalled that "in most instances, the dwellings of the settlers are scarcely a rifle shot's distance from the riverbank." This group of sketches, made in the vicinity of a sugar plantation according to its inscription, is dated the day of Bodmer's departure from New Orleans. The property in question seems to be delineated at the middle left. Dim figures possibly representing Indians appear at the center.