Part 22 (1/2)
Not long after our arrival, ent to the sugar-ro-quarter The mill, in which the cylinders lie horizontally, is set in ine of twelve horse-power, made in Liverpool by Faucett The juice fro-house, in which there are ten kettles Mr Andry directs himself all the operations, and while the ine He has the reputation of being very severe to his negroes Whether this imputation be just or not, I could not decide, but twelve years ago an insurrection of the slaves broke out at his habitation, in which one of his brothers was murdered, and his father received three severe wounds with an axe The garden here was not well kept Scientific gardeners are very difficult to be procured here Sorants, ere sold to defray the price of their passage There were several gardeners a them These men very soon extricated themselves from their dependent situation, and part of them established themselves; but the rest fell a sacrifice to the noxious climate As the term of their service was liive thearden was surrounded by a thick hedge of orange trees, and contained e trees, myrtles, jasmines, &c We returned to the left bank about eleven o'clock at night, and our carriage conveyed us through the beautiful, ht, back to New Orleans in an hour
In the American theatre, ”Der Freischutz” was presented under the title of the ”Black Huntsman of Bohemia” This drama, so universally known and admired, and which has followed enius, (since detached pieces of it were sung and played in almost all companies,) I had never yet witnessed Detere, I therefore went to the theatre The orchestra was very weak and badly filled, hardly any of the perfor; I was told that the handsoed or entirely oood, I found the boxes and galleries thronged In the pit there were but few spectators, and these consisted of sailors and countrymen from Kentucky, who made the the finest pieces of lish theatres, and frohbours in the boxes did not refrain The theatre is newly erected, and is arranged not untastefully It contains, besides the pit and parquet, three rows of galleries as the French theatre; the boxes are only divided by low balustrades, so that you look out as if froallery is destined for the reception of coloured spectators, aallery the as, and has a very tasteful girandole I remained but for a short ti treat of it, but one particular scene, which roused hest manner, on the 22d of March, I cannot suffer to pass in silence There was a young Virginian fe-house, employed as a chaular individual A French early, for water to wash
As the water was not instantly brought to hiirl, who just then had some other occupation in hand He struck her immediately with the fist, in the face, so that the blood ran from her forehead The poor creature, roused by this unht the Frenchman by the throat He screamed for help, but no one would interfere The fellow then ran to his rooned to leave the house But when our landlady, Madam Herries, was inforraced herself by having twenty-six lashes inflicted upon the poor girl with a cow-hide, and refined upon her cruelty so ro slave, aited in the house, to count off the lashes upon her[II-10]
[Footnote II-10: This Frenchman, a merchant's clerk from Montpelier, was not satisfied with this: he went to the police, lodged a coirl, had her arrested by two constables, and whipped again by theret that I did not take a note of this raceful conduct its ressively on the rise: the level of the water already higher than the land It still brought down great quantities of drift timber with it It was said, that about three days before, an uncoht upon a tree that had been fished out It was killed by a stroke of an axe, and had eighteen rattles on its tail From this it was concluded that extraordinary inundations had taken place in the upper countries
In order to pay my farewell visit to Mr and Madam Andry, I crossed the Mississippi river in a little boat, and it occupied ht bank It required a quarter of an hour alone to pass through the drift wood, which had collected on the shore We were compelled, nevertheless, to direct our course parallel with the bank, for if we had attained the reat force In addition to this, we experienced a real equinoctial te comfortable I hired a horse upon the opposite bank, and rode in less than an hour to Mr Andry's habitation, ten allop or canter, which is upon the whole not fatiguing, and carries you speedily The stor of it, and reached the habitation just at the right ti, under a beautiful clear sky The road ran partly on the levee, partly along side of it The land is chiefly cane-fields
I caar plantations, from which canals were made in the cypress woods behind the fields, and thence to the Lake Barataria These canals are intended principally for the carriage of wood The young sprouts of the sugar cane roes were ee over the river was shorter this evening than in the , it lasted an half hour
Dr Herman showed me, at my farewell visit to hiator, which he had shot on the lake Barataria The teeth of this reptile are indeed very long, but they do not appear to be fixed fired them periodically; for in the cavities of several teeth, which had appeared to leave no roots, you see young teeth pushi+ng forth
Below the under jaw, the alligator has two little glands, which have a strong odour ofthem up in that state for several years, yet still they iator perhaps may avail himself of this substance to benumb the fish which come within his reach, and then s them[II-11]
[Footnote II-11: [Nonsense]--TRANS]
Bishop Dubourg, who my residence in this place, received ical works, many books of science and belles lettres I remarked a perfect set of the French _Encyclopedie_, and complimented the bishop upon it, and expressed my surprise that he should have been able to purchase this work so complete in this country The worthy man related with a sh Flanders in 1816 and 1817, in colio, he forhter, well known for their bigotry The latter, a great adreat scruples on account of keeping in her library the Encyclopedie, in which so s were contained in opposition to the church She inquired of hi book into the fire? He hi observed that the as co, and told her that if she would co prejudicial In this manner he saved this expensive work from destruction, and thereby enriched his own library
CHAPTER XX
_Travels up the Mississippi from New Orleans to St Louis, and to St Charles, on the Missouri_
After a stay of nine weeks, I at length left New Orleans, on the 26th of March, with the s towards its inhabitants, who had received me in a friendly and affectionate reeable to et what the families of Messrs Grymes, Urquhart and Andry, did for my benefit, and hat cordiality and true hospitality they acted towards ny has, however, merited the most from my hands, and since he has it in prospect to leave America, and settle himself in Europe, I trust yet once ratitude to him otherwise than by words The real creoles are, upon the whole, a wareneration, and the people hom I was least pleased here, were the Aht only by the desire of accu wealth The Germans in Louisiana, unhappily rank behind even the Irish They are uished for their morality, and very different from their countrymen in Pennsylvania, who, on account of their moral and industrious characters, are universally respected, and are worthy of this high regard
SinceNew Orleans, I had travelled the distance of four thousand two hundred and seventy-five English ned to go froh the states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to Pittsburgh, thence through Pennsylvania by Philadelphia to New York Here I proposed, with God's help, to embark for Liverpool, in the , I repaired from the Levee on board the steam-boat Phoenix, bound for St Louis, and iht steam-boats ascended the river on the sae and had proportionately a too powerful and dangerous high pressure engine This communicated to the vessel such a violent shock, that it was hardly possible to write Mr
Huygens was still reat satisfaction, a new and very welcouer, the son of a banker in Paris, who the western states on his return to Europe The reers, only three in number, were inhabitants of St Genevieve, not far from St Louis, in the state of Missouri The day was very beautiful; the city, as well as the extensive suburb of St Marie, afforded a very picturesque view What a pity that the shores are so very low It is hard to deterradually stand farther apart, until they are confounded with the sugar plantations, of which we observed a good many on both banks of the river, and so houses The banks are highly cultivated, behind the fields, however, the cypress woods are seen to coine, and we had to lie by for repairs, about three hours We heard roes were allowed to amuse themselves on this first day of the Easter holy-days So ine was frequently stopped, to prevent the buckets of the wheels fro trunks of trees
Our accommodations consisted of a cabin with sixteen births; behind this were two ladies cabins, of which, as there were no ladies on board, we took possession, so that we reatest possible distance froine We met three steam-boats, and several keel and flat boats, which were laden with cotton, meal in barrels, bacon, haht without receiving any da trunks of trees The next day the dwellings were ar-cane fields about theood condition The banks on both sides we found reen-leaved trees, such as ash and poplar took their place At first the shore was very low, and we could observe froh stage of it the surrounding country must be overflowed Towards e, which lies upon a height, and may contain about twelve hundred inhabitants It was the first toe had noticed In passing, I reh, and good looking, which are inhabited during the suarrison of New Orleans, on account of their healthy situation Baton Rouge is one hundred and thirty-one miles distant from New Orleans, and owes its name to an ancient Indian trunk of a tree, which was so denominated by the first French settlers We did not stop here, but made our first halt after sunset, at Bayou Sara, one hundred and sixty-three miles froine Above Baton Rouge the banks were steep, especially the left Such solitary elevations are termed here bluffs The islands in the Mississippi are numbered as they occur from the junction of the Ohio down The last is No 97, we came this day up above No 94, and found all these inter of the sun, we had passed by at the mouth of the Bayou la Fourche, the little town of Donaldsonville, where as it is said, the seat of government of Louisiana will be established[II-12] We saw three large alligators lying on the shore sunning theht feet long The weather was fine the whole day
[Footnote II-12: [Our author has somehow been confused in his diary here: the enerally called seventy-five hty-one At any rate it is about half way between Bayou Sara or Point Coupee and the city of New Orleans; and of course the Duke must have passed Donaldsonville, which is at the junction of La Fourche with the Mississippi, in the e]--TRANS]
We did not lie by again in the evening, but went on through the night, and still received several blows fro novel; so on pieces of wood The river s The banks are every where woody, and for the most part so low, that froh freshes There were several high bluffs on the left bank, of which those called Loftus Heights, appear to be the most remarkable There is a small settlement there called Fort Adams, from a fort that formerly stood here Scattered, but considerable plantations, are situated on the shores The sugar plantations have ceased, and the cotton fields have taken their place We stopped at one of these plantations to take in wood; I embraced this opportunity to land, and look round about hbourhood of the plantation The soil appeared to be of a dark colour, and very productive The trees were chiefly of ash and poplar, of which one was sixteen feet in circumference Upon all the trees, wild vines branched aloft, partly frorew about here In the garden of the plantation, there stood a large bush of the chane rose, as it is called, which appeared very beautiful, as it was in full bloo of bees was carried on at this plantation The vegetation was as far advanced alht bank of the streas to Louisiana, the left side however, is in Mississippi Before we reached Fort Ada itself into the Mississippi two hundred and thirty-twothe following account of this river, which is given in the ”Western Navigator,” a hich is published with charts of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers: ”The Red river falls into the Mississippi a little to the south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude At its eneral breadth is between two hundred and fifty and three hundred yards The e of mountains eastward froree of north latitude It flows about one hundred miles in a north-eastern direction, unites itself with another broad branch coreat circuit towards the south-east, and follows this direction to the Mississippi for the distance of fifteen hundred miles The country about the lower half of the Red river is pretty well examined, and found equal to the other part of Louisiana in fertility, except about fifty miles from the Mississippi, which district is exposed to annual inundations The cotton and the tobacco raised about Natchitoches and at the Rapids, are of the best quality, and cohest prices Besides many small craft, the trade employs several steam-boats at Natchitoches The bed and shores of this river consists of clear red sand, ravel, the sa of the 29th March we reached Natchez, and made a stop of some hours, to repair a leaky boiler I e some letters of thanks to New Orleans This occupied so much of my time, that I was not able to look about in Natchez Several of our coularly and well built, and situated upon an eminence on the left bank of the river, removed a short mile back from it Upon the bank itself, are so and supplying the steam-boats, which mostly make this a station Back of these streets, rises a sand-hill, upon which the city stands, and a very laborious ascent through deep sand carries one there Natchez is two hundred and ninety-eight ht o'clock we proceeded: the banks were very low, and bluffs were to be seen only now and then on the left side Only one solitary plantation on a hill covered with grass appeared well cultivated It was situated upon a point called Petit gulf, where the river makes a remarkable bend, and is three hundred and forty miles from New Orleans Besides this, we took notice of several little plantations which are exposed to inundations, and have only wretched log-houses