LETTER XLI. New Orleans-particulars of this important city, and its environs-New Madrid, an intended city on an excellent and salubrious situation. New Orleans, Lat. 30. 2. North. I HAVE at length arrived at this very important and flourishing city, the interesting particulars of which I shall communicate according as they strike my attention during my stay. It is the capital of Louisiana, a country of immense extent, bounded by the Mississippi, East; by the Gulph of Mexico, South; by New Mexico, West; and runs indefinitely North. By refering to the Maps, to my own experience, and examining the position of Louisiana, it appears that the lower part projects considerably into the sea. It has in all probability been formed by the sediment brought down by the current, and deposited on the flat coast. There is, therefore, on the East but a very narrow slip along the bank of the river from the sea to the Iberville. The land is not generally susceptible of cultivation more than a mile back from the river; the rest is low and swampy to the lakes and the sea, and abounds with cypress, which is often cut down, and sawed by mills that are worked by artificial streams from the Mississippi in the time of floods, which often continue five months in the year. What I observe of the East equally applies to the West side of the river. The soil and situation are nearly After leaving the bank of the same. the river there is an immense swamp intersected by creeks and lakes, extending to the high land of Atacapas, and occupying a space of forty leagues. In a country such as this, on the East bank of the Mississippi, one hundred miles from the Balize, is seated the city of New Orleans. It extends nearly a mile along the river, from the gate of France, on the south, to that of Chapitaulas above, and is a little more than one-third of a mile in breadth from the river to the rampart; but there is an extensive suburb on the upper side. The houses in front of the town, and for a square backwards, are mostly of brick, covered with slate or tile;—the remainder are of wood, covered with shingles. They run cross each other at right angles, and are thirty-two French feet wide. The squares between the intersections of the streets have a front of three hundred French feet. There is in the middle of the front of the city, a square, or place des armes, facing which the church and town-house are built. There are about fifteen hundred houses in the city and suburbs. The population may be estimated at fifteen thousand, including the garrison and Africans. It was fortified in 1793, but the works being originally defective could not be defended, and are now in ruins. The powder-magazine is on the opposite bank of the river. In the city there are twelve public structures. The church, town-house, jail, convent, bank, theatre, and governor's palace, would, in any country, be esteemed large and handsome buildings. The front, or side next the river, is open, and is secured from the inundations by a raised bank, called the levée, which extends from fifteen miles below the city to fifty miles above it, forming a good road all the way. The city is considerably under the level of high water, in consequence of which, and the swampy nature of the ground on which it is built, there can be no subterraneous building. Where they have been attempted they have uniformly fallen in and filled with water. Most of the houses have open galleries, and gardens abounding with flowering shrubs and rich bearing orange-trees. These give the city a cool and lively appearance, and convey to my mind very pleasurable sensations, after a voyage so destitute of the comforts and elegancies of life as I lately experienced. Immediately behind the city is a canal, about a mile and a half long, called the Canal of Carondelet, which communicates with a creek called the Bayeau St. Jean, flowing into Lake Pontchartrain. At the head of the Bayeau is a handsome village, and at the mouth, about eight miles from the city, is the |