18 AMERICAN PREACHER. respectable merchants, lawyers, and physicians among them, attracted to a place where it only takes five years to realize an independence, though at the imminent risk of losing one's life by the fatal disease. Horace enquires "Quid brevi fortes jaculamur ævo Multa? quid terras alio calentes "Why do we, whose vigour is so transitory, aim at too much? Why do we change our own for climates heated by another sun ?" The police regulations are excellent in New Orleans. Some time ago it was a lurking-place for desperate assassins, and though there were two murders committed during my sojourn, yet, in general, one may walk the streets in safety at all hours. On Sunday I attended church, and heard a Presbyterian clergyman deliver an excellent sermon on charity or benevolence, the want of which in the States, he said, causes such backbiting and libelling. He complained of the desperate hurrying after wealth, which characterised the white population, when half of the institutions of the country languished for want of funds; and though he said he could not trust himself with politics, yet he gave his sentiments plainly enough on a recent occurrence at Washington, where the President disagreed with the Foreign Ministers whose wives very properly refused to associate with the lady of an American functionary of SLAVE INSURRECTION. 19 questionable character. The discourse was extempore, and I was surprised at the undaunted manner in which the preacher (whose bread depended on the caprice of his congregation) lashed the vices of his hearers. I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of a philosophical lady, Miss Carroll, in whose book-store I passed many an hour pleasantly and profitably. A native of Ireland, and most respectably connected, she was early imbued with a desire to visit the Utopia of the West, the United States, a land, according to her youthful fancy, beyond compare for civil, political, and religious liberty. Declining assistance from her friends, she had supported herself in various cities of the Union by millinery; and now she tries books, not so much with a view of realizing an independence, as by means of them introducing her to acquaintances, whose god is not Mammon. About this time, the beginning of September, there was an alarm of a slave insurrection at New Orleans; hand-bills of an inflammatory nature were found, telling the slaves to rise and massacre the whites; that Hannibal was a negro, and why should not they also get great leaders among their number to lead them on to revenge? that in the eye of God all men were equal; that they ought instantly to rouse themselves, break their chains, and not leave one white slave proprietor alive; and, in short, that they ought to retaliate by murder for the bondage in which they were held. 20 AMERICAN INFANTRY. Several stand of arms, some said three hundred, were also found in a coloured man's house; and the affair looked so serious, that five hundred of the citizens were under arms every night, and the mayor solicited a detachment of four companies of regulars from the nearest garrison. I was introduced to the officer who commanded them, and went to the barracks to see how they carried on their "Peace campaigns." The officers were very sensible and gentlemanly, but their manner was more reserved than is usual among our people; and though we were near a scene of (to them) great exultation, the defeat of some thousands of our Peninsular heroes by entrenched American riflemen, yet they made not the slightest allusion to it; and there was no vain boasting on their part, but a delicate reserve, when I introduced the subject, and expressed a wish to visit the unfortunate field. The uniform of the officers and men was a blue coatee with white buttons, lace on the cuff and collar, and wings on the shoulders; the men on duty were not particularly well set up, but the Americans in general have a lounging air about them. The barrack-rooms were clean, and the kits neatly arranged; but I was surprised to see that, in the hot climate of Louisiana, the American soldiers slept two in a bed. Their bed-stands were wooden frames, which could easily be taken to pieces, and had upper and lower berths. There are VISIT TO THE BATTLE-GROUND. 21 no iron bedsteads yet in the States, and consequently their men are far from being so comfortable as ours in this respect. In the barracksquare I observed the punishment of hard labour with a clog and chain attached to, the foot of the culprit; and I understood that flogging and solitary confinement were often resorted to, though free and independent American soldiers being flogged seemed rather strange, but there are few genuine Americans in the army. Next morning a quiet and intelligent young man, Lieutenant Page, United States army, called on me in a very gay carriage, and we drove to the Battle Ground. Three miles below New Orleans we came to an open plain, on which sugar-cane had just been cut, and with a few trees scattered over it. This extended in length to the south as far as the eye could reach, and in breadth about a mile between the deep river and an impenetrable swamp filled with cypress trees; beyond which again, but hidden from view, were Lakes Borgne and Pont Chartrain, communicating with the sea and with one another, and affording a back approach to the wealthy city, independent of the river. We alighted at some houses surrounded with trees and gardens, near the river; and my companion said, "Here commenced the American breastwork, extending across the plain between the river and the swamp, and this house was the head-quarters of General Jackson." 22 GRAVES OF THE SLAIN. The line of defence was seen quite distinct, though part of the embankment had been levelled, and in it were found a great number of shotshell and bullets. I got some relics from a negroboy. There were also the remains of the American bastions, and the weedy ditch. In the centre of the field were the large holes into which the dead were thrown promiscuously; and I need hardly say, that over this spot the maize waved luxuriantly. The scene was one of silence and repose, and nought was heard but the rippling of the eddies of the river as it swept past the Levee at the rate of four miles an hour. How different was all this sixteen years before! Bearing in recollection the spirited account of the short campaign before New Orleans, by that master of description the author of "The Subaltern," there was no difficulty in tracing the operations of our troops in December 1814 and January 1815. The British having defeated the American gun-boats on Lake Borgne, advanced through the cypress swamp; they encamped previous to advancing to assail the city, when the Americans made a desperate but unsuccessful night attack; and then followed the series of affairs until the 8th of January, when the gallant Packenham led on his seven thousand brave spirits to the lines, and made abortive but reiterated attempts to storm them without ladders, he to whom they were intrusted |