Maximilian's report of Bodmer's trip to New Orleans includes few exact references to dates. Fort Adams, located about midway between Natchez and Baton Rouge, was sighted on the afternoon of the same day that the Homer stopped at Natchez for fuel. The steamer passed the mouth of the Red River during the night, and early the following morning arrived at Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital city. That afternoon, either January 10 or 11, it anchored for the night a few miles above New Orleans.

The city of Natchez, where the Homer stopped for an hour to take on wood, was later described by Bodmer as "a bad and dirty place, notorious on account of its gamblers and disorderly women." The climatic change experienced downriver from Memphis made a distinct impression on the young Swiss artist, who afterward reported to Maximilian that "we came in two days from total winter into the most beautiful spring!" On the return voyage during the latter part of January, Bodmer spent approximately eight days at Natchez.

Bodmer made a quick sketch of a steamer on the Mississippi from the deck of the Homer near the mouth of the Arkansas River. Curiously, the boat is not mentioned in the title, which was derived from a partial inscription on the sketch itself. Even more curious is the head of a man, apparently a slave, seen in profile at the extreme upper right of the drawing. Bodmer later mentioned to Maximilian that in New Orleans he had seen a packet of slaves bound for Mobile, Alabama, but aside from this sketch he made no studies of blacks.

Rising in Colorado and flowing through the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, the Arkansas River enters the Mississippi from the west, roughly halfway between the modern cities of Memphis, Tennessee, and Natchez, Mississippi. Maximilian reported in his journal that the Arkansas empties into the Mississippi at such an angle amid sandbanks and islands that "one does not even notice the river mouth."

En route to New Orleans in January, Bodmer passed many small settlements on the banks of the Mississippi. Many of these have since disappeared. According to Maximilian's account of Bodmer's voyage, one of the first towns of any size located below the mouth of the Ohio was Columbia, not found on modern maps of the river. Bodmer produced a watercolor sketch of the so-called Iron Banks in this vicinity. Maximilian reported that "Columbia has 20-24 houses."

A restless and meandering river, the Mississippi has changed its course many times in the years since Bodmer traveled it. Along its winding channel are numerous old bends that at one time were part of the main course of the river but are now cut off from it. Thus it is difficult to place some of Bodmer's views of the Mississippi without the aid of a dated inscription or other identification.

Maximilian described the area near the mouth of the Ohio in March as "a monotonous land with high forest." He noted the presence of numerous snags in the water and in commenting upon the difficulties of river travel observed that "here one may navigate by daylight only, as the water level is too low."

Bodmer sketched various types of vessels on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers during his voyage to New Orleans in January, 1833. His detailed small study of a keelboat on the Ohio depicts one of the more common craft used at that time for transporting river cargo. Keelboats, flatboats, sailboats, and canoes were in use on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers throughout the first half of the nineteenth century.

Just after midnight on January 3, 1833, the Misssissippi steamer Homer arrived at Mount Vernon. Bodmer embarked upon it the following morning for New Orleans. During the next several weeks, he produced numerous studies of the scenery and settlements along the lower Ohio and Mississippi. Most of these are reproduced here for the first time. Bodmer's undated sketch of the Homer may have been made at any one of the stops along the course of his travels downriver.