boro, Ala. In 1876 he joined the North Mississippi conference of the Methodist church, and served the churches at Oxford, Winona, and Aberdeen. In 1886 he became vice-president of Whitworth college at Brookhaven, which position he held until 1890. In 1887 the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Centenary college, La., and in 1897 the degree of LL. D. by Wofford college, S. C. While Dr. Murrah was connected with Whitworth college, he was married to Beulah Fitzhugh, daughter of President L. T. Fitzhugh, of Whitworth college, later president of Belhaven college at Jackson. When Millsaps college was established at Jackson, Dr. Murrah was elected president, which position he still holds, having refused several offers to go elsewhere. Dr. Murrah is considered one of the most successful college presidents in the South, and is a representative of his church at all the important councils, both in his country and abroad. In 1898 he declined the position of secretary of education of the Methodist church.

Murry, a post-hamlet of Tate county, 7 miles northwest of Senatobia, the county seat. Coldwater is its nearest banking town. It has a store, a church, and a cotton gin. Population in 1900, 37.

Music, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Smith county, 4 miles north of Mount Olive, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., and the nearest railroad and banking town.

Mussacunna, a postoffice of De Soto county.

Myles, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Copiah county, about 22 miles from Hazlehurst, the county seat. It is a station on the Natchez-Jackson branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 9 miles by rail south of Utica, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 31.

Myrick, a post-hamlet of Jones county, 13 miles northeast of Ellisville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.

Myrleville, a post-hamlet of Yazoo county, 12 miles southeast of Yazoo City. The population in 1906 was about 30.

Myrtle (Old). An early settlement in Tippah, now Union county. It was situated 2 miles south of the station of the same name, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham railroad. From an incident, which happened in the year 1857, at which time one Moses Parker was teaching school at this place, it was long called by the name of "Candy Hill." After the War of 1861-1865, it became a posttown and was given the name of Myrtle. Its business moved to the new town of Myrtle, after the building of the railroad, and the old settlement is now known as Avenell, a tiny settlement of about 20 inhabitants, with a postoffice and store. (See Union county.)

Myrtle, an incorporated post-village in the northwestern part of Union county, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R., 8 miles northwest of New Albany, the county seat. It was named because of the abundance of myrtle trees in the vicinity. It has a money order postoffice, express office, and a bank, the Bank of Myrtle, established in 1904 with a capital of $10,000. Population in 1900, 165.

Nabers, Benjamin D., native of Tennessee, moved to Hickory Flat, Miss., where he held several local offices; was elected to the 32d congress as a Unionist, and served 1851-53; was the unsuccessful Whig candidate in 1853; moved back to Tennessee, where he was a presidential elector on the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860. Nanachehaw, or Allen Station, a postoffice in the southern part of Warren county, on the Big Black river, and on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 18 miles south of Vicksburg. Population in 1900, 23.

Nancy, a postoffice of Clarke county, 12 miles southwest of Quitman, the county seat.

Nannye, a post-hamlet in the extreme southwestern part of Copiah county, 24 miles from Hazlehurst, the county seat. It has an excellent high school.

Napier, a postoffice of Jones county, 10 miles southwest of Ellisville, the county seat.

Napoleon, a hamlet in the southwestern part of Hancock county, on the Pearl river, 5 miles north of Pearlington, the nearest banking town. The postoffice has been discontinued, and mail now goes to Huxford.

Narvaez, Panfilo de. The ill-starred expedition of Narvaez in 1527 concerns us inasmuch as it is thought that he may have traversed the Mississippi coast line, and possibly made occasional landings thereon, in his efforts to escape from Florida to Mexico. With the remnants of his little band of 300 men, he reached the coast at a bay which Narvaez styled Bahia de Cavallos on the 31st of July, 1528. Here he set to work to build boats in which to escape from the inhospitable shores. Biedma in his narrative of De Soto's expedition says: "We recognized the spot on which he had built his smithy, and saw a great quantity of horses' bones scattered about." This point is believed to be the site of the present town of St. Marks on Apalachee bay. Here he embarked the miserable remnant of his troops, on September 22, 1528, in five frail boats and coasted west for thirty days, landing occasionally to obtain food and water, and meeting with fierce opposition from the natives of the coast. On October 31 they came to a "broad river pouring into the Gulf such a volume of water that it freshened the brine so that they were able to drink it; but the current was too strong for their clumsy craft. The boat commanded by Narvaez was lost and never heard of." Another boat was wrecked at the same point and the three others were thrown on the coast of western Louisiana or eastern Texas. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the treasurer of the expedition, and three others, were the sole survivors, and finally, after years of wandering, reached the town of San Miguel in Sinaloa, April, 1536. The broad river of fresh water is supposedly the Mississippi.

Nashville was an important shipping point for cotton and was located on the east side of the Tombigbee, a few miles from the southern line of Lowndes county, on what was formerly known as Young's bluff. It was named for Abner Nash, an early pioneer

of Eastern Lowndes, whose large and commodious residence near the place remained long after the merchants of the place had closed out their stocks and moved elsewhere. . . . The principal merchants were northern men, who became dissatisfied with the country, on account of the great overflow of the river in 1847, and sold out their stocks and moved away. There is now a public ferry at this point maintained by the county and known as Nashville Ferry, but the site of the town and the dwelling of Mr. Nash is now a cultivated field.

Nashville Convention. The Nashville convention was called by the Convention of 1849, (q. v.) at Jackson, Miss., to meet on the first Monday in June, 1850. It was proposed, said Gov. Foote in his inaugural address of 1852, "for the avowed purpose of consulting in a fraternal and patriotic spirit, for the general safety of the South, and the preservation of the Union from the dangers with which it was obviously menaced." The delegates chosen to represent Mississippi were: William L. Sharkey, A. M. Clayton, H. T. Ellett, G. T. Sturges, Joseph W. Matthews, T. J. Word, T. N. Waul, J. B. Cobb, H. C. Chambers, E. C. Wilkinson, George Winchester, D. H. Cooper; alternates, John I. Guion, A. Hutchinson, W. R. Cannon, J. T. Harrison, H. R. Miller, J. D. Bradford, Reuben Davis, Charles B. Shepherd, W. R. Hill, Patrick Sharkey, David Hurst, Henry Mounger.

The convention did not seem to meet with general approval. It was declared in congress that the efforts to get up meetings in Virginia to send delegates almost entirely failed. Comparatively few newspapers freely approved it. In Georgia less than 4,000 people in all took part in choosing delegates. At Nashville, a county convention refused to elect delegates. Alabama sent mod

erate men.

The

The convention met June 3, and Judge Sharkey was made president. The delegates from Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee were for a declaration in favor of preserving the Union. The minority from South Carolina, Texas and Mississippi, wanted a declaration for resistance. Judge Sharkey opposed extreme measures. resolutions, drawn up by John A. Campbell, of Alabama, were moderate. But later an address was adopted which denounced the compromise, and expressed Calhoun's conviction that no matter what was compromised, the diversity of interests compelled a constitutional amendment or separation.

The Nashville convention was re-assembled in November, 1850; none of the regular Mississippi delegates were present. John J. McRae and two others represented Mississippi, by appointment of Gov. Quitman.

It was resolved, "That we earnestly recommend to all parties in the slaveholding States to refuse to go into or countenance any National convention, whose object may be to nominate candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, under any party denomination whatever, until our constitutional rights are secured." Also that a congress or convention of the slave

holding States should be held, with twice as many delegates as the regular congressional delegations, "to deliberate and act with the view and intention of arresting farther aggression, and, if possible, of restoring the constitutional rights of the South, and if not, to provide for their future safety and independence." But the elections of 1851 in the South went strongly against the promoters of this movement. (See Const. Con. 1851.)

Nashville Indian Conference, 1792. Governor Gayoso had the Choctaws to a treaty at Natchez in 1792, and the chiefs had just returned home when the agents of Governor Blount, Anthony Forster and J. R. Robertson, came to invite them to a conference at Nashville, in August. Nearly all the Chickasaw chiefs, including "Chenambe, king of the Chickasaws," were present, but only about 110 Choctaws attended the congress, being dissuaded by Brassheart, a British trader in that nation. John Pitchlyn explained that he could lead the greater part of the Choctaws against the Indians of the Northwest or their old enemies, the Creeks, but they had neither arms nor ammunition and were very poor. They were compelled by circumstances to maintain an appearance of friendship with the Spanish, with whom they must trade. This was corroborated by Ben James, "a man of the first property and probity in the nation." General Pickens, who accompanied Blount, praised the two Mississippi nations that since they had taken the hand of the Americans at Senaca, "it has never been known that a Chickasaw or Choctaw has spilled the blood of an American. What makes the President and ourselves unhappy is, that it is with difficulty trade can be extended by the United States to your country." He asked that a trading house be permitted at the mouth of Bear Creek, as granted in the treaty of Hopewell. Piamingo, the Chickasaw warrior, was opposed to this on the ground that it would breed trouble. The boundaries were discussed, and guns presented to each of Piamingo's soldiers with St. Clair in 1791, and presents distributed. Particularly, the Indians were solemnly assured the Americans were not making war north of the Ohio for land, but to restore order.

Nason, a post-hamlet of Grenada county 7 miles southwest of Grenada the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has a public cotton gin.

Nat, a postoffice of Amite county, 8 miles northwest of Liberty, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.

Natchez. No city in the State can claim such a wealth of historic associations and traditions as the famous old city of Natchez. Its commanding situation, terminating in a high bluff overlooking for miles the great "Father of Waters," at once attracted the attention of the French, the first white settlers on the soil of Mississippi. Here, in 1716, Gov. Bienville caused to be erected and garrisoned old Fort Rosalie, having a two-fold purpose in mind, to hold in check the warlike nation of Natchez Indians, the primitive possessors of the soil of Natchez; and also to make of Rosalie a link in the chain of river outposts on the Mississippi, which should for