Impressions Respecting New Orleans: Diary & Sketches 1818–1820 9780231884167

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Introduction
Book One: Journal of a Voyage from Baltimore to New Orleans December 17, 1818–January 11, 1819
Book Two: First Appearance of New Orleans to a Stranger January 12, 1819–January 25, 1819
Book Four: New Orleans Notes February 16, 1819–February 26, 1819
Book Five: More New Orleans Notes February 27, 1819–March 9, 1819
Book Six: Recollections, etc. March 9, 1819–April 4, 1819
Book Seven: More New Orleans Notes April 4, 1819–October 7, 1819
Book Eight: To Philadelphia by Sea and Return Overland to New Orleans October 7, 1819–August 20, 1820
Appendices
Appendix A: Report on the Lighthouse at Frank's Island & on the Balize, May 8th 1819, by B. H. B. Latrobe, Esq.
Appendix B: Letter of Julia Latrobe to Her Brother, Cadet J. H. B. Latrobe, Military Academy, West Point, New York
Appendix C: Letter of Mrs. B. H. B. Latrobe to Mrs. Catherine Smith
Appendix D: Letter of Mrs. B. H. B. Latrobe to General Robert Goodloe Harper
Index

Citation preview

IMPRESSIONS RESPECTING NEW

ORLEANS

BENJAMIN

Portrait

HENRY

Attributed

BONEVAL

L A T R O B E

to Charles Wilhon

Peale

IMPRESSIONS RESPECTING

(ST^EW © R L E A N S BT

Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe DIARY 18

EDITED INTRODUCTION

SKETCHES

1 8 - 1 8 2 0

WITH AN AND NOTES

BT

Samuel Wilson, Jr.

NEW

YORK

19 5 1

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

PRESS

COPYRIGHT 1 9 5 1 , COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN, CANADA, AND INDIA BY GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON, TORONTO, AND BOMBAY MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To the Memory of Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe II

CONTENTS

Introduction

xi

Book One: Journal of a Voyage from Baltimore to New Orleans December 17, 1818—January 11, 1819

S

Book Two: First Appearance of New Orleans to a Stranger January 12, 1819—January 25, 1819

21

Book Three: [^Missing]] Book Four: New Orleans Notes February 16, 1819—February 26, 1819

37

Book Five: More New Orleans Notes February 27, 1819—March 9, 1819

67

Book Six: Recollections, etc. March 9, 1819—April 4, 1819

89

Book Seven: More New Orleans Notes April 4, 1819—October 7, 1819

117

Book Eight: To Philadelphia by Sea and Return Overland to New Orleans October 7, 1819—August 20, 1820

145

Appendices

167

Appendix A: Report on the Lighthouse at Frank's Island & on the Balize, May 8th 1819, by B. H. B. Latrobe, Esq. 169 Appendix B: Letter of Julia Latrobe to Her Brother, Cadet J. H. B. Latrobe, Military Academy, West Point, New York 174

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Appendix C: Letter of Mrs. B. H. B. Latrobe to Mrs. Catherine Smith

178

Appendix D: Letter of Mrs. B. H. B. Latrobe to General Robert Goodloe Harper 183 Index

187

ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe, attributed to Charles Willson Peale, in the possession of Mrs. Ferdinand C. Latrobe Frontispiece View of the Balize

12

Market Folks

22

View from the Window of My Chamber at Tremoulet's Hotel

50

Rudderfish and Flower

68

Madame Plantou's Peace of Ghent, 1814, from an engraving in the Library of Congress

102

Funeral Bill of Jean Baptiste Thierry, 1815

164

Sketches Begun on board the Brig

after page 166

CLIO

The Balize

Sketch of the Lighthouse Foundations

The Brig Clio

The Cabildo and the Cathedral

Two Heads, Sketched on the Brig Appearance of the Sky, after Sunset Character of the Sky & Sea during the Gale

Group of Unidentified Buildings (Sugar Mill?) Track Charts of the Clio

The Hole in the Wall

On the Road from Chambersburg to Bedford

Entrance of the Mississippi

Washington, Pennsylvania

Battleground at New Orleans: a Fence along the Line

Wheeling

Battleground from the Banks of the Mississippi

Rocks near Marietta

Market Woman

Maysville

Marietta Below Shipping Port, Kentucky

INTRODUCTION

of Louisiana by the United States, in 1 8 0 3 , was soon followed by an influx of ambitious and energetic Americans from the North and the East. These new possessors of the former French and Spanish colony found in New Orleans a rather sleepy provincial town which had grown little in its more than three quarters of a century of existence. Its potentialities as the great outlet of the Mississippi Valley were, however, apparent, and the arrival of the first steamboat, in January, 1812, assured it a commercial importance equal to that of any of the great Atlantic cities. The ensuing phenomenal growth of New Orleans was interrupted briefly by the events of the War of 1812; Jackson's brilliant victory in 1815 served to emphasize the importance of the city, which entered a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity that was to last until the Civil War. It was therefore at a particularly significant epoch in her history that Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe, the architect, set sail for New Orleans from Baltimore in 1818. The journals which he kept during his voyage and his subsequent residence in the city furnish a most important picture of this interesting period. In addition, they contain many significant commentaries on the philosophical and moral questions of the day by one well qualified to speak, for Latrobe occupied an outstanding position in American life, being intimately associated professionally and socially with the leaders of the political, economic, and cultural affairs of the nation. As his descriptive writings reflect the changes taking place in the life of a city, so do his philosophical writings reflect the changes in thought from the revolutionary rationalism of the late eighteenth century to the revivalism of the nineteenth. T H E PURCHASE

Latrobe, generally acknowledged as the founder of the professional practice of architecture in the United States, was an Englishman by birth. He was born in Yorkshire on May 1, 1166, the youngest son of the Reverend Benjamin Latrobe, a Moravian clergyman (said to have been born in what is now New York State), and Anna Margaret Antes, of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Regarding his name he once wrote: "My family name is Boneval, although I am called, as was my father and as are my brothers, by a titular name derived from a Marquisate in France held by my great grandfather in Languedoc, that of La Trobe."

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His education was begun in his native England, but during the American Revolution he was sent to Germany by his American-born parents, and at the Moravian School at Barby, Saxony, and at the University of Leipzig, his training was completed. His interest in engineering seems to have been as great as his interest in architecture, and having studied for a time under the eminent hydraulic engineer Riedel, in Germany, he entered the office of John Smeaton, civil engineer, on his return to England in 1786. His architectural training was afterwards obtained in the office of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, great nephew of the diarist and father of the architect C. R. Cockerell. Possessing extraordinary natural talents, Latrobe, after several years of training under Smeaton and Cockerell, began his own practice; he soon established a reputation in London. In 1791 he married Lydia Sellon, by whom he had two children, a son, Henry Sellon Boneval Latrobe, who became one of the outstanding architects of New Orleans, and a daughter, Lydia. Later Lydia was married to Nicholas I. Roosevelt, who brought the first steamboat down the Mississippi to New Orleans in 1811-12. The untimely death of his wife, in 1793, caused a great change in Latrobe's life, and after three years he decided to give up his practice in England and emigrate to the United States; he arrived at Norfolk on March 20, 1796. His remarkable personality immediately won him influential friends in the land of his adoption, and he was soon engaged in architectural work in Norfolk and Richmond. In 1799 he moved to Philadelphia, where he had been commissioned to install the waterworks; during the same year he designed the Bank of Pennsylvania, one of his finest buildings. On May 1, 1800, he married Mary Elisabeth Hazlehurst, and on her insistence his two children came over from England, arriving in October, 1800. Three children were born of this second marriage, Julia, Benjamin, Jr., and John Hazlehurst Boneval. In 1803, with his reputation firmly established, he was appointed by Thomas Jefferson as Surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States and charged with the completion of the Capitol at Washington. It was while serving in this capacity that Latrobe had his first contacts with the newly purchased territory of Louisiana. On March 26, 1804, Congress authorized the construction of a lighthouse at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Latrobe was directed by Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare plans for the structure. Utilizing the knowledge acquired from his association with John Smeaton, who had built the famed Eddystone and Spurnhead lighthouses, he designed a stone tower eighty feet high. At the base was to be the keeper's house of brick and the whole was an excellent and typical Latrobe

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design. The tower was to be erected on a foundation of wooden piles and on an inverted brick dome, provided a site suitable for such a structure could be found. Despite his efforts to consummate this project, Latrobe was thwarted by difficulties which he was never able to overcome. Frustration seems to have pursued him in all his Louisiana ventures—frustration, indeed, plagued his entire professional career. Because of the stipulation in the Congressional act authorizing the lighthouse that it should be built by contract, it was impossible to proceed as he had first proposed, having the stonework fabricated at Philadelphia and the foundation separately contracted for at New Orleans. The project was finally abandoned; it was not resumed until after the war of 1812, when his son Henry was commissioned to prepare a new design for the structure. The first work of Latrobe to be actually executed in Louisiana was the customhouse at New Orleans, which he designed in 1807. In order that the building might be as much as possible adapted to the climate, he asked the opinion of Daniel Clark, territorial delegate to Congress, before letting the contract. His knowledge of soil conditions was no doubt obtained from his pupil Lewis de Mun, whom he had sent to survey the coast and select the site for the lighthouse, and who was then in New Orleans. The plans were transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury on April 28, 1807, and on the same day a contract was entered into with Robert Alexander, of Washington, for the erection of the building for $19,000. Alexander, who had been contractor for Latrobe's Washington Navy Yard, after securing materials and having much of the stonework and millwork fabricated in the East, removed with his family to New Orleans, where he arrived on May 7, 1808; he completed the building the following year. The customhouse was no doubt the first structure of the new Greek revival style in New Orleans. It was a small simple edifice; the exterior was of Philadelphia brick laid in Flemish bond and having stone trim—a combination of materials recalling buildings of that period in Virginia and quite foreign to anything that had been seen in New Orleans. The basement story was arcaded and vaulted, and above, in the center of the principal façade, was a recessed porch with two freestone columns. In the brick walls flanking the porch were arched windows. The main cornice was of wood, and the hipped roof was covered with wood shingles. Many of the refinements which Latrobe would have liked to include were necessarily omitted because of the small appropriation allowed. However, in transmitting the drawings to Gallatin, Latrobe wrote:

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I . . . have no doubt, but that if the mode of construction exhibited in the drawings be carefully adopted and executed, that the building will be firm and permanent, notwithstanding the defective foundation on which it is to be erected . . . and the work will be most perfectly adapted for the business for which it is intended. Despite these expectations, the building proved to be neither firm nor permanent, nor was it long adequate in size for the rapidly increasing commerce of the port. By 1813 the customhouse was in need of extensive repairs, and the estimated cost was so great that it was considered inexpedient to apply to Congress for an appropriation during the period of the war. By 1817 the building was in a ruinous state, and in 1819 a plan for a new structure on the same site was prepared by Benjamin Buisson, a New Orleans architect. T h e following year a contract for its erection was awarded to M a j o r Joseph Jenkins, of Boston. T h e cause of the failure of Latrobe's building was due in part to the use of the soft local brick, with Philadelphia brick only as a facing— contrary to the specifications—but no doubt also in large measure to Latrobe's rejection of the use of logs in the foundation, as was then generally the practice in N e w Orleans. When preparing the plans, he discussed this problem at some length with Gallatin and finally stated, " m y opinion is against the logging because I do not think its use equal to its expense, & because also I think it cannot be secured sufficiently from rot and decay." Because of this structural failure the building probably exerted little direct influence on the architecture of N e w Orleans, which was still being done in the traditional manner of the French and the Spanish colonists. Arsène Lacarrière Latour and Hyacinthe Laclotte, architects from Paris, were the popular architects of the day, and their excellent buildings, such as the L e Monnier house, at Royal and St. Peter streets, were entirely suited to the tastes of the still predominantly French population of N e w Orleans. T h e city was not yet ready to break with its French tradition. T h e newly arrived Americans, however, were eager for improvements, and felt especially the need of an adequate water supply. A t the request of Governor Claiborne, Thomas Jefferson mentioned the subject to Latrobe while at Richmond during Burr's trial. Latrobe, who was there as a witness, had installed the waterworks in Philadelphia, in 1799, and was regarded as the proper person to undertake a similar project at N e w Orleans. By 1809 Latrobe was in communication with Governor Claiborne and seemed assured of the exclusive privilege of supplying the city with water. For this purpose he associated with Robert Alexander, who was then erecting the customhouse. Jointly they petitioned the Territorial Legislature for a franchise, expecting

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to furnish water to two thousand houses at twenty dollars each per year. The strong feelings between the French and the American elements in Louisiana, however, caused the defeat of the proposition in 1809. The following year Claiborne called upon Latrobe, while on a visit to Washington, and encouraged him to make another application. He also suggested that the opposition of the French element might be overcome by sending Latrobe's son Henry, who besides having a French name had had a French education under the Sulpicians at Baltimore and spoke the language fluently. Already an attempt had been made by others to secure the franchise, and on May 10, 1809, the City Council went so far as to adopt a resolution authorizing Louis Gleise, of New York, to establish a watersupply system for New Orleans. Although Latrobe referred to him as a "madman without character or ability to carry on the project," within three weeks he had obtained fifteen hundred subscriptions at ten dollars each. Nothing came of the Gleise project, and Latrobe resolved to follow Governor Claiborne's advice by sending his son Henry to New Orleans. At this time he also made sketches for a monument for the grave of Claiborne's first wife, Eliza Lewis, and made arrangements for its execution. He then designed a monument for the Governor's second wife, Clarisse Duralde, which was made at Philadelphia and erected by Henry Latrobe on her grave in the St. Louis cemetery shortly after his arrival in New Orleans in 1811. Henry's success before the City Council was almost miraculous, and on April 27, 1811, an ordinance was approved "to grant the Sieur Benjamin Henry Latrobe and his associates the exclusive privilege to supply the City of New Orleans and its faubourgs with water by means of one or several steam pumps." In these successful negotiations Robert Alexander had no part, and when he objected, Latrobe wrote: Mr. Rob't Alexander Washington, July 27th, 1811 New Orleans Sir. My son Henry arrived here on the 22d instant from New Orleans, after a passage of 39 days. He delivered to me on his arrival a letter from you d. June 10th of which I returned you herewith a copy, because from the very great evidence of hate which appears on the face of it, I cannot believe that you took the time necessary to make one. 1. In this letter you accuse me of a premeditated design to injure you. You assert 2. That you had advanced to my son more money than you were indebted to me in gratitude or in fact. You accuse me 3. Of having treated you in a shameful manner.

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4. And eventually you call upon me to do justice to your injured feelings 5. You twice informed me that Mr. Cassin is your attorney, and from the style in which he has acted as your attorney, it is easy to guess in what style you have given him his commission. All this is very unjust and very unpleasant. Not content with doing me injustice yourself, you have involved me in a quarrel with your agent, whom you desire to settle accounts with me without furnishing him with any means whatever of so doing, either in accounts or money. But had you been only commonly just to me in this business nothing of this sort could have occurred. Things are indeed in a situation in which I see no possibility of returning to our former footing, & we are too distant from each other to make it of any importance to our daily comfort whether we do so or not. But after having given you very sufficient proof of my sincere regard during bright years, I cannot sit down quietly under such charges as you made against me, without endeavoring to refute them. This I will not do by invective, but by a simple statement of facts. The idea of supplying the city of N. Orleans with water was first suggested to me by a French Gentleman from thence to whom I was exhibiting my works in Philadelphia, and who then wished me to enter into a project for that purpose. But I dismissed the subject from my mind until it was renewed by a conversation with Mr. Jefferson, while you were in New Orleans building the Customhouse. On your return, we seriously entered into a partnership for accomplishing the work. The duties of each of us were determinate & equal. For my knowledge of the project, for my design, for my labor & responsibility in executing all the Works here, procuring workmen, sending them out, in fact, for everything, but the superintendence of the building, & the attention necessary to procure the Charter. You engaged to procure the Charter on terms drawn up by myself. For the business you undertook in directing the works, you were to receive a salary of 1000$ pr. annum, increasing as they produced a better income. I do not complain of this distribution of services and compensation between us. If the original project can be realized, I should now close with you at once. I need not repeat that you failed in your application. There certainly was an end of our partnership had I been inclined to close it. Gleise of New York applied immediately afterwards and obtained a grant from the Corporation. Of this you did not inform me. I heard it from various quarters and did not believe it. When Governor Claiborne arrived, I received the first clear account of the matter, and I should have given up the whole scheme as vain, had not another gentleman of the first respectability in N. Orleans entered more into detail with me as to the cause of your failure. He stated to me that altho you were considered as the first Builder in the city, & altho your character was unimpeachable, and you were highly respected by everybody, yet that there were circumstances which would forever operate against your success in any application you might make. The first of these was, that as the Council consisted of 5 Frenchmen to one American, your

INTRODUCTION

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not speaking French fluently deprived you of the means of explanation & persuasion with the majority. He stated that you had irretrievably offended the Corporation by applying to the Legislature for leave to dig up their streets &c &c, and he remarked that there is a jealousy between those bodies that is extreme. He mentioned that there was a French intrigue, which would always defeat the application of an American. He also stated many other reasons not one of which implicated the respectability of your character for he knew you & respected you himself. All these reasons together made me resolve to send my Son Henry to N.O. Young as he was, I depended on his perfect knowledge of French, on the French manners which his education at a French college enabled him to assume when he chose, & as an additional trifle, I thought his French name would not be against him. I took care to instruct him fully in the plan, & sent him off with all the recommendations I could collect for him. My instructions to Henry were that he should apply to you on his arrival, but 2 days before he set off, several Gentlemen from N. Orleans who were here, entered warmly into the scheme, and suggested a project, in which I was to take the whole upon myself for !4 of the clear income. I state it to you, merely as a fact, that a condition prescribed was that you should not be concerned. This I resisted, & it was no part of the agreement, but on the contrary you were to conduct the works, & share every profit that could be thrown in your way. Henry departed; but without his or my knowledge till long after, a third party arose in Washington, which through the treachery of one of the concerned, obtained possession of copies of all my papers, & who very nearly defeated me altogether in order to step into my place. The opposition of the Mayor and of Mr. Morgan arose from this quarter. The success of my Son after what I discovered was almost miraculous. I will now put the question to you or any other calm reasoner, whether there existed any kind of a partnership between us in any one of the proceedings after you had failed before the legislature. If there was, & you will state it, depend upon it I will sacrifice every advantage I have gained to justice to you. It has cost me in my son's expenses & everything attending the application 1500$. If you have any claim on the score of assistance or expenditure, or if as you say I have injured you (by which you mean, I presume, that had I not interfered, you could have obtained the privilege yourself) I am ready to make compensation, and I refer the matter to any man of character you please. As to our account, by your account of Sept'r 30? 1809 brought up to this day you owe me still 105?, by my statement you owe me 378$. On money matters I shall not quarrel with you. Otherwise, I should speak of the manner in which you notice the note on which I & Mr. Cassin are endorsers in which case you left us both in the lurch. I cannot close this letter without regretting that on a business, in which you were certainly not excluded by any act of mine, whatever may have passed between you & my Son—you

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should write to me in terms so personally offensive. Look back over the whole of our acquaintance & ask yourself whether I have ever failed to prove my professions by my conduct. If severe language could settle the matter it is a very cheap weapon; for nothing is so easy as invective. You have however shut my mouth, as to any propositions that I might make, for you treat the offer of transacting the business of the company as an insult. Yours &c &c B. H. Latrobe. A short time later Alexander died in New Orleans, and Henry returned there, bringing with him the monument for Claiborne's first wife and also the plans for the building intended to house the steam engine for the waterworks. On December 24, 1811, Latrobe wrote to the Council that in a few days my son Henry will sail from New York, fully prepared to take the necessary measures to construct the building.—It is my intention to erect a building which shall be as ornamental to your city, as the nature of its object will admit, and of which my son will present you a view, which I respectfully offer to your acceptance. Being perfectly satisfied with the terms of my engagement, and highly honored by the manner which you have granted it, I have every inducement to preserve in New Orleans whatever honorable character I have acquired at Philadelphia or Washington. The building, quite similar in character to the Center Square Pumphouse of the Philadelphia waterworks, was intended to be erected upon a site adjacent to the customhouse, but Congress refused to grant the city a clear title to the land. This caused a delay until a new site was selected near the market on Ursuline and Levee streets, where the building was completed in 1813. Following this initial delay an almost incredible chain of misfortunes ensued, including war, flood, and fire, finally culminating in the greatest personal tragedy to Latrobe, the death of his son Henry of yellow fever, on September 3, 1817. This tragic sequence of events is recounted in a letter of October 13, 1817. To the Honorable the Mayor and the Councils of the City of New Orleans Gentlemen: The death of my Son, Henry S. B. Latrobe, of which I have been apprized only ten days ago, has overwhelmed me with distress; and very much disqualified me from addressing you in the manner which the gravity and importance of my business, and the very honorable station which you fill, might render strictly proper. If therefore I solicit your indulgence in dispensing even with the form of a memorial to you, and in permitting that sorrow, which

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overwhelms so many of you, and in which I so deeply share, to procure for me a compassionate, and a favorable hearing, I hope my solicitation will not be in vain. The object of this letter is to request that you will be pleased to permit me to complete my contract for the supply of your City with water. I have appointed John Rodgers Esq. to act on my part, and to bind me fully to such conditions as may appear to you necessary to insure my compliance with the contract before, or after the period which shall be fixed. The course which the business has taken is known to you. But I will beg leave to recapitulate concisely the leading facts, all of which may be judicially proved, and which by their inevitable consequence have delayed the completion of the works, and made my total ruin, or my moderate ease of fortune depend upon your compliance with my request. In the year 1811, you granted me the ordinance, which enabled me to proceed to measures necessary to supply your City with Water. I received it in July 1811, but the very site on which the works were to be erected, was dependant on an Act of Congress relinquishing any possible right of the United States to the ground. However, I relied on the liberality of Congress, and applied by your permission to that honorable body. The ground was not granted, and this delay, as well as the change of the location of the Engine House was greatly injurious to me. But I proceeded with my works and had already sent to New Orleans men, parts of the machinery when war was declared in 1812. It became then impossible to send out the remainder of my works, and they were lost to me, as well as the expense of all my preparations. This loss exceeded Ten thousand Dollars, and it was a loss not only of money, but of the confidence of my friends, who would otherwise have assisted me. Under the circumstances you were pleased to grant me an extension of time of two years: and as it was not possible to send any machinery from the Atlantic ports, I removed with my family to Pittsburgh, where I formed a connexion which appeared to ensure the completion of the works from thence. The death of Mr. Fulton put an end to these expectations, but I still had another resource, and an engine furnished by Messrs. Evans, Rogers and Stackhouse, was ready to be sent to New Orleans when the disastrous events of the war, and the evident dangers which threatened your City enduced these Gentlemen to decline the risk of sending the Engine to your port, least it should, with all the property in the Engine house and machinery which I possessed there be lost by the occupation of the enemy. They gave me notice of their determination by a letter which I transmitted to you,1 and a further indulgence till Aug'st, 1816 was allowed me. 1

This letter in the private collection of Samuel Wilson, Jr., is as follows: "B. H. Latrobe esq'r "Sir "The present situation of New Orleans and the doubt whether it will be prudent to risk the safety of the engine and machinery necessary to water that city has induced us to decline for the present com-

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The victory of the 8th of Jan'y, 1 8 1 5 , and the subsequent peace, revived my courage, and made me forget my losses and disappointments, and being called by the Government of the United States to the restoration of the Capitol, I returned to Washington in July 1 8 1 5 , and immediately made arrangements for the construction of a Steam Engine, and all the rest of the necessary machinery with Robert McQueen & Co. of New Y o r k , men of the finest reputation and ability in their line. These essential machines were to have been ready to ship so as to have been in New Orleans in March or April 1 8 1 6 . But it will be recollected that the winter was excessively severe, and notwithstanding all my exertions, the Engine could not be got to Sea until the 2 of June. Before that day the news of the Crevasse which had inundated the City had arrived, and M r . Noble, the Engineer after putting the engine on board, and providing everything for its erection, infected with the panics that pervaded the Atlantic States, and which saw in the inundation the certainty of an unhealthy autumn, and danger of sickness and death to every stranger, refused to accompany her. I immediately applied to two others, Ellis, and Criddle, both of them men, who had been long employed by me,—but both refused to risk their lives in the undertaking. While I was endeavoring to provide otherwise for the emergency, I received a letter from my Son, that security for the performance of the Contract was expected within eight days. When I received his letter that period had long ago expired, and as the arrival of the machinery which was ready in New Y o r k could not but be uncertain, he had not thought it prudent to give the security. Relying on that indulgence in your honorable body which I had before experienced—I immediately transmitted to my Son a Memorial, stating to you all train of unavoidable and unforeseen circumstances which had postponed the completion of the works until that moment, and solicitating a few additional months, on the plea that the most expensive parts of the works the Engine house and the Engine was actually complete and on the spot. This Memorial with the letters and Instructions accompanying it, appear to have arrived, while my Son was engaged in the Survey of the Coast as a Commissioner of the United States with Commodore Patterson and M r . Duplessis, for the purpose of fixing upon the site of a Light house. He returned to New Orleans on the 26th day of September 1 8 1 6 , and on the 28th the fire that laid so great a portion of your City in ashes, ruined his fairest prospects of professional success, and as far as my funds were influenced by his pecuniary ability and credit, did me most essential injury. For some months after this event, I did not receive from my Son, any letters which at all relieved my anxiety, nor do I yet know whether my memorial was presented to pleting such work for that establishment as may be wanted. We think it best to defer it till the fate of that section of the Union is decided and the uncertainty of money transactions at an end. We hope you will on consideration see it your interest to abandon it at least for a short time. Very respectfully Pittsburgh 15 December 1814 The Pittsburgh Steam Engine Co. By Geo. Evans"

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your honorable body. But I have learned from his correspondence that he had not succeeded in removing those difficulties which had arisen from your want of confidence in the ultimate completion of the works. I have now arrived at a period in the history of my exertions to comply with an engagement to which, in spite of the most unusual train of disappointments, I have exerted myself to adhere, till my whole fortune and comfort in advanced life depends upon a few months of perseverance; a period the most affecting of all, the death of a Son so deserving of my love and confidence, and of whom I can say nothing that you do not know; for he had become your fellow citizen, and had shared your labors, your danger, and your glory; and had he lived, I do not doubt that his riper Talents would have been an ornament to the State in which he had spent his youth, and acquired his experience. At this period, I most respectfully solicit of you that you will grant me a further term in which I may send out and put up, the machinery prepared in New York and Philadelphia, and which for more than 12 months has awaited the favorable term of your sentiments towards me: It is my intention, as soon as the President of the United States can grant me the permission, personally to appear before you and to see that the works are completed. Mr. Rodgers in the mean time will await your decision. When I shall have the honor to be present, I have not the most distant doubt but that in a few months, before the autumn of 1818 shall be closed, to procure for you such a supply of water, as shall remove many of the evils, of which its deficiency may be the cause. I have the honor to be with the sentiments of the truest Esteem & Respect Your obedient Servant B. Henry B. Latrobe Capitol U.S. Washington City Oct. 13, 1817 The death of Henry Latrobe at the early age of twenty-four was indeed a tragic loss, not only to his family but also to American architecture, for in the few years of his residence in New Orleans he had achieved successes which promised to give him a position to rival or even exceed that of his father. On first arriving at New Orleans, he associated himself with Lacarriere Latour and with him probably built the house of Jean Baptiste Thierry, editor of the Louisiana Courier, in 1814. This house (721 Governor Nicholls Street) has a most unusual porch, with low segmental arches supported by simple Greek Doric columns, almost as certainly the work of Latrobe as the typical New Orleans plan of the rest of the house is the work of Latour. Thierry died in 1815, and among the court records of his succession, the names of Latrobe and Latour appear several times, evidence of their connection with the building of the house.

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In 1815-16 young Latrobe erected the building for the Charity Hospital as well as two elegant houses for Bernard Marigny. The latter were demolished about 1910, when the Civil Courthouse was erected on Chartres Street. In 1816 he also prepared the design for the great lighthouse at the mouth of the Mississippi, and in the same year he constructed the building for Davis' ballroom, which was unfortunately destroyed by fire when nearly completed. Among his other works were houses for Honoré Landreaux, Mr. Mossy, Madame Chabaud, Duncan Kenner, and Richard Butler. The wings which Butler added to Ormond Plantation near Destrehan are also probably the work of Henry Latrobe, for they were built between 1811 and 1819, and their mass and detail indicate that they must have been done by one familiar with Pennsylvania work. After receiving the news of his son's death, the elder Latrobe terminated his affairs in Washington and prepared to come to New Orleans to complete his contract, the City Council having voted to grant him a further extension. It is his account of this journey and of his stay in New Orleans that are the subjects of his writings here presented. Besides designing the Claiborne monuments and the customhouse previously referred to, Latrobe did considerable work in the development of sugar houses and machinery before coming to New Orleans. After his arrival he also engaged in other business besides his waterworks, designing a hoist for Vincent Nolte's warehouse and preparing a plan for the decoration of the public square, including a fountain in its center. On July 17, 1819, he purchased a house from Louis St. Blancard in the faubourg Clouet, about a mile below the city. Then, after a brief return to Baltimore to complete his work on the Cathedral and Exchange there, he brought his family to live in New Orleans. With him came his wife, their daughter Julia, and their son Benjamin, Jr., their other son, John H. B. Latrobe, being then a cadet at West Point. Their new home occupied a beautiful site above Clouet Street, facing south across the Mississippi, whence there is an excellent view of the city at the bend in the river. From here he could see his new central clock tower rising above the cathedral, and as his waterworks neared completion, his design was selected by the directors of the Louisiana State Bank for their new building. He seemed at last to be assured of the success for which he had made so many sacrifices. The design for the bank proved to be Latrobe's last work. Before it could be erected and before the cathedral tower or the waterworks were completed, he was stricken by yellow fever, which had again become epidemic, and died on September 3, 1820, the

INTRODUCTION

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anniversary of his son's death. He was buried the following day in the Protestant Burial Ground. There is no monument to mark the spot, and the location is now unknown. After his death the waterworks were taken over by the city, and they were finally completed about 1822. The plant continued to operate until about 1840, but proved to be inadequate to supply the needs of the rapidly growing city. On April l, 1833, therefore, the State Legislature approved an act to incorporate the Commercial Bank of New Orleans, "the chief object of which said Company is to be the conveying of water from the river into the City of New Orleans and its faubourgs, and into the houses of its inhabitants." Under the provisions of the Act the city was permitted to continue the operation of Latrobe's waterworks, the water being used principally for streetcleaning purposes. The engineer for this new project was Albert Stein, who had erected similar works in Cincinnati, Richmond, Lynchburg, and Nashville. Latrobe's family never realized anything from the waterworks, and soon after his death they returned to Baltimore, declining to accept the succession, but taking with them most of his furniture and library. Thus the enterprise to which Latrobe had devoted so much of his energies and all of his fortune failed entirely to realize his objective, which was to re-establish his fortune and provide for the future of his family. The original manuscripts of Latrobe's journal, together with his sketches, are in the collection of the late Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe II, of Baltimore, a great grandson of Benjamin H. B. Latrobe, and are now in the possession of his widow, who has granted permission for their publication. Parts of these New Orleans journals, together with other writings of Latrobe, were published in 1905, under the title The Journal of Latrobe, by D. Appleton and Company, New York; they contain some errors and omit many of the most interesting passages. The present work presents the original manuscripts in their entirety, with only such slight regularization of punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and so forth, as is usual in transposing a typical early nineteenth-century manuscript into printed form. The manuscript consists of seven small copy books, containing from forty to sixty-five pages each. An eighth book, number three in the series, is unfortunately missing from the F. C. Latrobe collection and could not be located elsewhere. This lost book contained entries made between January 25 and February 16, 1819. Evidence that it was written is contained in a letter which Latrobe wrote to his wife on February 12, 1819, in which he said "I have filled three books with remarks which I shall send you by the first Baltimore vessel." Several of the books contained general headings or were indexed by Latrobe. These

XXIV

INTRODUCTION

headings and index listings have been used to supply the subheadings in the text. In cases where such headings were not provided by Latrobe, they have been supplied by the editor and are so indicated (by brackets). The subdivision of the text into seven chapters corresponds to the arrangement of the manuscript in the seven copy books. The pen sketches inserted in the text are placed as nearly as possible where they occur in the original and are reproduced at approximately their original size. The other sketches in pen, pencil, wash, and water color are reproduced from Latrobe's sketch books. The two letters contained in this introduction are from the polygraph copies in the Latrobe letter books in the family collection in Baltimore. Quotations from Latrobe's letters contained in the footnotes are from the same letter books unless otherwise noted. Mrs. Gamble Latrobe, of Wilmington, Delaware, has an important collection of letters written by Latrobe and his wife from New Orleans and has generously permitted their use in the footnotes and in the appendix. These letters are of particular significance, because Latrobe's letter books, so carefully kept during the years from 1803 through 1817, are not known to exist for the years 1818, 1819, and 1820, the years in which his New Orleans journeys occurred. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the assistance and encouragement of Mrs. Ferdinand C. Latrobe and Miss Ellen Elizabeth Latrobe and also to Mr. Richard Koch, architect, who as director of the Historic American Buildings Survey, in Louisiana, first attracted my interest to the work of Latrobe in New Orleans. Valuable information used in the preparation of the notes was obtained with the assistance of Miss Marguerite D. Renshaw, of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library of Tulane University, and Miss Josie Cerf, of the Louisiana State Library in New Orleans. Both libraries contain important Latrobe documents. The assistance of Miss Mona Christie in the preparation of the manuscript is much appreciated, as also are the criticisms and the suggestions of Professor Talbot Hamlin, of the School of Architecture of Columbia University, and Professor Buford L. Pickens, of the School of Architecture of Tulane University. Samuel Wilson, Jr. New Orleans, Louisiana August 22, 1950

IMPRESSIONS RESPECTING NEW

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BOOK

ONE

J O U R N A L OF A V O Y A G E FROM B A L T I M O R E TO N E W

ORLEANS

December 17, 1818—January 11, 1819

1818. Dec. 21. On board the brig Clio, Captain Wynne, Master, Charles Zimmer, mate. Lat. 35° 17'. Passengers: 1. Gibbon, merchant, of Petersburg, Virginia. 2. Sam'l Wilson, an English mercantile agent. 3. Burton, shipbuilder of N e w Orleans, returning home. 4. Dr. Day, with a dozen black men, women, & children g o i n g to establish himself on the Red river & become cotton planter. 5. Reis, a y o u n g man, clerk to somebody on the Red river. 6. Elias McMillan, Engine keeper, to take charge of the engine of the waterworks. 1 1818. Dec. 17. Left Baltimore at 20 minutes before 1 o'clock, with a strong N W wind, passed North point at V* p. 2 o'clock. At 3, ofFMagotty the wind chopped round 1

The machinery for Latrobe's New Orleans waterworks had been prepared at Baltimore, but the steam engine, being too large to be taken on board the "Clio," was left on the wharf to be sent by a later vessel. On May 4, 1818, Latrobe wrote to the mayor and council of New Orleans regarding the waterworks and mentioned McMillan. He said: "The person whose duty it will be to attend the Engine, and to reside in the Engine house, will follow, with the Mill and all the Machinery for boring the Pipes; and as soon as the Engine is put up, he will be employed in that service.—The person who will attend the Steam engine is E. McMillan."—From manuscript in Howard-Tilton Memorial Library of Tulane University. McMillan proved to be unsatisfactory and was dismissed; Latrobe wrote on May 8, 1819: "McMillan has for some time been sick in consequence of drinking. I shall bring him back with me, he being utterly unfit to manage such a concern as this; not but that he is scrupulously honest and capable, and while in Baltimore generally very sober. But he is not sufficiently so, to be intrusted with the supply of such a city as this with water." Manuscript in the collection of Mrs. Gamble Latrobe.

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to the SW, & died away. Cast anchor. At sunrise, 18th. The wind fresh from the N. West. A very fine day, fair & fresh wind. Got the cabin into order, & arranged our domestic hours of breakfast, dinner, & supper. Dec. 19, about 1 A.M. cast anchor off Old Point Comfort to wait for a boat to take off the pilot. At sunrise weighed anchor. Wind at N V2 E. All hands sick. Brought up, myself, much bile, which cleared me in a few minutes of a headache that had tormented me for a week. As the wind encreased and it began to snow, our pilot thought it best to return, & by 12 we were at anchor in Mobjack bay. In the afternoon the weather cleared up, but no boat coming off at our signal being made, we lay quiet till next morning the 20th. I was very sick all day. Sunday, the 20th. At sunrise weighed anchor, with a fine NW Wind; discharged the Pilot at 10 o'clock. At 12 off Cape Henry; at sunset out of sight of land. Monday, 21st. A fine NW breeze all night. At sunrise the water was still green, but large smooth patches to the SE indicated the Eddy of the Gulph stream. At 7 passed in a few minutes from soundings into blue water. A heavy swell, which made the Brig roll intolerably & prevents my writing with convenience. At 12 fell in with the first Gulph weed; an exquisitely fine day. Lat. 35° 17'. The wind from NW to NNE very light. Two schooners in sight bound northward. Tuesday 22, about 2 o'clock A.M. a perfect calm. The wind then shifted to SW. Remarkably smooth sea without swell. At 8 a very large shoal of porpoises played for an hour about the ship, & left her, steering their course to the S. West. Little or no Gulph weed this morning. Cloudy. At 12 o'clock, Lat. 34° SO', having steered chiefly SE & SE by S since morning. Wind encreasing from the SW. In the evening a gale. I have often heard that a Shoal of porpoises round a ship indicates an approaching gale, and their direction to the point toward which they leave the ship to be that from which the storm will blow. In this instance the case was certainly so, for towards night the violence of the wind encreased to a gale. A very turbulent disagreeable night. No sleep. Wednesday 23d. The Gale greatly encreased, & a heavy Sea. The wind hauling more [to] the West enabled us under close reefed topsails to lay nearer our course. Seasick again. Kept my birth. Lat. 34° 6'. A heavy storm at night, with thunder & lightning,

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& exceedingly heavy squalls occasionally; much & heavy rain. Laid the brig to, under mainstay sail, & close reefed trysail, all night. A tremendous sea running (for as the Captain had seldom seen a heavier, I may call it so). The brig rode it out, like a duck. Thursday 24th. The wind during the night had got round to the North NW & N. The sea still as high as ever & the Wind not abated; but being quite favorable, the brig was put before it, & scudded under close reefed main topsail & close reefed foresail. Got on deck, & sat on the taffrail, from whence the motion of the brig through the most awful sea I ever beheld or imagined, at the rate of 9 or 10 knots, appeared the most wonderful effect of human art, & indeed of human courage, that can be imagined. The Vessel is a most admirable sea boat, & skips over these mountainous waves without appearing to labor in the least. Lat. 33° 6'. Several birds of a species unknown to anyone on board were flying near the water at no great distance from the ship during great part of the morning. Outer edge of the wing dark brown. Pennons light ash color. Back dark brown. Could not distinguish the legs & bill. Scudding all day. Squally & occasional rain. Continued scudding all night when the wind moderating a little, made more sail. Friday 25th. Christmas day. Wind strong from the NNW. Got up more sail, gradually set topgallant, royal, & foretopmast studding sail. All the passengers shaved & dressed in honour of the day. Much Gulph weed. Lat. 30° 13'. Long, by dead reckoning, 74° 14'. I think we are more to the Eastward. The weather is now delightful, wind gentle, & as I judge by my feelings, temperature about 10°. Our party is so good humored, from the Captain to the second Mate, that the day was spent very pleasantly, & the passengers remained on deck untill 11 o'clock at night. A heavy dew reminded us of the necessity of retiring. Saturday 26th. Still wind from the West. Very little Gulph weed. Latitude 27° 50'. Delightful weather. The prospect of a longer passage than usual renders our life rather monotonous, in spite of the most delightful weather & great good humor among us all. A magnificent sunset. The sky of Italy is deservedly celebrated. The peculiarity & brilliancy of this sky is not altogether peculiar to Italy, for in all latitudes near to or upon the Ocean, a similar sky prevails. It is a sky inimitable by the pencil.

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Sunday 27th. A general shave & clean shirts. The Captain's birthday; celebrated by hot rolls at breakfast, a hog killed, apple pies for dinner, & a great variety of similar demonstrations of Satisfaction. All these things are important in a sea voyage, & scatter flowers over the monotonous surface of so barren an existence. Latitude at noon 26° 36'. Wind still NW to West. The conversation is as multifarious as the habits & professions of the company; slave dealers, steamboats, tobacco, sea voyages, New Orleans & its manners, inhabitants, police, Mississippi, shipbuilding, &c &c. Mr. W. is the least informed of the company. He appears to be a sort of English agent, a most good humored creature, and less opiniative than could be expected from his confined education & knowledge. He pointedly dislikes the Government of his country, & sees clearly enough in what particulars America possesses superior advantages, both for the acquisition of wealth and on account of more generally diffused knowledge among the Mass of the people. On this subject he one day discoursed very largely, & gave many instances within his own knowledge of the ignorance of the lower orders of the English respecting America & other foreign countries. After all were in their births, McMillan & he continued their conversations from their beds across the cabin. McMillan, who as a sailor has been several times in the East Indies & twice in China, was giving an account of the peculiar customs of the Chinese, & the difficulty of obtaining admission into their cities. Mr. Wilson observed that he should, of all things, like to be admitted to see the buildings of the city of China, that he knew that foreigners could get into the suburbs of the city of China, which he believed was called Canton, but not into the city itself. It was with great difficulty, & much to the entertainment of his silent auditors, that McMillan explained to him that China is not a city, but an extensive empire, of which Canton is a trading port, into the suburbs of which only foreigners could have access. Wilson persisted, & McMillan explained & exemplified for an hour. But I believe without convincing Wilson that China is not a walled town, for he suddenly recollected to have somewhere heard of the Wall of China, & nobody could be so absurd as to believe that a country could be walled. In truth no greater proof of the want of a knowledge of the true state of foreign countries among the English in general could be adduced than this very conversation with Wilson, unless it were the conduct of the English Ministry & of their generals during the late war. Monday 28th. At 12 at night the wind changed to the N by W & enabled us to steer due West for the Bahamas. I got up at the first dawn &, remaining on deck till the sun rose, contemplated the magnificent star spangled heavens, with feelings that are

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not to be excited by any theological discussion, & which, founded on an exhibition of the power & benevolence of God that always exists, & is not in the remotest degree dependent on opinion, must leave a permanent, habitual, & highly devotional impression on the heart. The gradual gilding of light clouds along the horizon preceded the glorious rise of the sun from the ocean. The encreased knowledge of the construction of our solar system, & of the general laws that govern the motions of the heavenly bodies, will forever prevent the revival of a religion in which the Sun is considered as the living God of the world, to be adored as such, & propitiated by prayers & offerings. But surely no error deserves more indulgence, or is more natural, than the adoration of this glorious luminary as the God of our Life & of our enjoyments. A trace of this idea remains in all the Churches of Christendom excepting those having their origin more or less in the reformation by Calvin & his followers. The situation of Catholic, Greek, & Church of England, as well as Lutheran, altars in the East of the Church, & the consequent direction of the faces of worshippers to that point, is a vestige of the original religion of all uncivilized nations. The Gulph weed is today in great plenty & large islands. Formerly I have examined & made an accurate drawing of it.2 I do not recollect whether I have, in my description, observed that every bunch has a stem from which the whole appears to have originally proceeded. But this stem is, in all the instances which 1 have examined, apparently decayed, brittle, black & often covered with the ^ ^ cells of some coral insect, which marks of age & decay extend "wZs*^0 forward towards the vigorous parts of the plant, & include the numerous berries which are either the flower, fruit or floats of the plant, for they are all hollow. All the leaves, as well as berries are covered with small stipulae, which in the more decayed leaves & berries are extended to the length of sometimes half an inch & are quite white & transparent, ., rtfrlZjUjii forbidding the idea that they are the flower or fructification, for they assume the form of the irregularly jagged or serrated leaves themselves. A bucket full of this weed was the harbor of many small red crabs. I have never met with any seamen who had seen the Gulph weed growing on any shore. It is said to be met with only at sea, and in whatever manner new & detached plants originate, whether the stalk which I have described was originally attached to 1

This drawing, in color, was made on Jan. SO, 1796, when Latrobe was en route to America on board the Brig Eliza. It is in the F. C. Latrobe collection.

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some other substance, or is only a fragment from another bunch, it certainly does not seem to be the means of nutriment to the plant when detached, for nothing can be less vigorous or evidently more in a state of decay than this part of the plant; while beyond it, the leaves & berries assume the most luxuriant appearance, & many leaves swim upright above water. Therefore it may be concluded that the plant does & was designed to draw its nutriment in a floating state from the sea water itself; and as none of the works of our Creator are without an object, it probably affords food & shelter to many living beings which philosophic curiosity has not yet discovered. Latitude at noon 25° 56'. About 8 o'clock discovered land from the main top to the South, being the Island Ethera (Eleuthera), & at 12 o'clock the Island of Abaco appeared to the West. A brig in sight on our weather quarter. Very light wind, & exquisitely fine weather. The Island of Abaco has not anything like mountains but appears to consist of rolling hills, similar in character to the English downs, bounded by a perpendicular shore of rocks, those nearest to the water whiter, & those above black & craggy. Few trees appeared on the hills, but towards evening a lower wooded point stretched along to the West. Abaco wants water, as do all these islands, & is not permanently inhabited. Towards sunset we had entered the straight between Abaco & Eleuthera, called Ethera, & Thera, & I took a sketch® of the irregular opening through the rocky point of the island, called the Hole in the Wall. Detached from this point is a bold rock, opposite exactly to it, from which is a most extraordinary projection of the same stratum which forms the roof of the arch of the Hole, pointed to a similar projection from the point, which leads to a belief that they are the remains of another arch formerly connecting the point with the detached rock. It seems as if the stratum forming the roof or arch of the hole is of a harder material than the strata beneath, which giving way to the violence of the sea, leaves the upper rock suspended. Although there was almost a perfect calm, the sea broke with great violence against this island, rising in foam to the highth [s/c], as it appeared from the deck, of 50 or 60 feet. There is the appearance of a castle on the ridge, said to be an old fort. Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1818. A most delightful morning, but nearly calm at Sunrise. Wind still Westerly. Saw a turtle asleep on the water, but being close hauled & under some way, & the Captain below, did not attempt to lower the boat. Lost a bucket overboard, an important event. About 10, made land ahead—the Berry Islands. Lat. at noon 25° 42'. The wind directly contrary rendered it probable that we should be obliged to cast anchor, in which case the Captain made preparations to gratify my curiosity by land* See illustration in the section following page 186.

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ing. The wind, however, hauled gradually round to the Northward, & enabled us by sunset to weather the most western of the Berry Islands called Stirrup Key at the distance of about 3 miles. These Islands have the same downlike character with Abaco, a few trees & shrubs appear, but they are uninhabited. They afford an admirable refuge for the bucaneers [j;c ]of the present day, where ships of all nations may be securely plundered. About midnight we steered SW & entered upon the bank, in about 15 feet water, which gradually shoaled to 13' 6 in. We had in the course of the day passed two shoals exactly of the same character of bottom with this bank, but not extending in width more than 3 or 4 ships' lengths. The appearance of the Water over this bottom is a pale blue like Soap suds. The bottom very distinctly visible. The Lead brings up a compact, but very friable, stony substance, of which all these islands, or rather heaps of rocks, are composed, being the stone of which filtering vessels are made. Wednesday, 30th Dec. Running over the bank in 13 ft. water, no land in sight on the horizon. The trade wind has made its first appearance & favors us much. The beauty of the sea across this bank in color & motion is indescribable. It is of a silvery very pale green approaching to the blue of a summer sky. The immense extent of the shallow water which nowhere, excepting on the edges, exceeds 3 fathom in depth, & seldom 2%, prevents any great swell even in a brisk gale, & the ship under a moderate breeze, makes most rapid way through it. Through this beautiful medium the white, prefectly level bottom is clearly seen, seldom spotted with any other color. Not a fish is said to be met with on these banks, & indeed so perfectly barren of seaweed, or any other covering of the rock is their whole extent, that to the fish they must be what the deserts of Africa are to man. Lat. At noon 24° 56'. The Rocky Islands and detached rocks called by the Spaniards Los Membres & by the English Sailors, the lost Members, in sight to leeward. We passed within a few miles of them. They are perpendicular rocks on which the sea breaks most violently, even under a light wind. One of our black passengers, Tom, a negro belonging to the notorious slave dealer Anderson, died this morning. He had been, with another who came also sick aboard, sometime before his being sent off, in jail. He was most faithfully attended by our humane Captain & Dr. Day, & everything done for his recovery that the confined room in the vessel permitted. He had a mother and sisters on board, who treated him with very little kindness, & he would probably have recovered had they taken better care of him. As soon as we were off the bank, about 3 o'clock P.M., his Body was committed to the Sea. I read the Episcopal burial service on the occasion, every person

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on board attending. This man had cost Anderson 800$ & his passage 30$ more. He was a light mulatto, & was expected to fetch 1,000$ to 1,200 in Louisiana. It appears to me, whatever may be said of the difficulty of supressing the internal Slave trade, without infringing on the rights of private property, as long as these men are considered as articles of legal traffick, that it certainly ought not to be aided by the Government, or its Officers. But this is certainly done, while the public jail is permitted to be a place of deposit for this sort of Goods, until they can be shipped. There is another man on board, half Indian, half Negro, who came out of the same depot, the public jail of Baltimore, at the same time with Tom, also sick, &, what is more noisome on board, absolutely eaten up with vermin. The only rags he possesses are those that were on his back on his being shipped. Captain Wynne, whose humanity to these poor wretches has been very active, & who has personally attended to their wants, had him stripped & wrapped up in a blanket; his rags were then towed overboard. But I doubt whether the vermin will be expelled from them. The other colored people, who belong to Dr. Day & Mr. Burton, on board, & who are well clad, & seem very respectable & orderly in their way, will neither approach nor assist this poor wretch, & had it not been for the Captain's attention, he would have starved, for they gave him nothing to eat for two days. About 2 o'clock we quitted this beautiful bank, deepened first our water to 10 fathoms, & then in a moment launched on to the deep blue & turbulent Gulph stream. The wind was just as we could have wished, favorable & strong being ENE. The vessel from her steady, & almost imperceptible motion on the bank soon became very uneasy, & some of the passengers were again very sea sick. As to myself, excepting for the first day or two, I have not suffered from this most distressing sickness, but have enjoyed most perfect health. The wind continued strong all night from the same quarter. Thursday, Dec. 31st. At sunrise it rained a little & as is usual over the Gulph was squally. The current had set us in the night 58 miles to the ENE, as will be seen by my course upon the Chart, 4 & as soon as it was light, we saw Cayo Largo, on the Coast of Florida 12 miles distant, bearing North, & the horizon bounded by the long string of wooded islands & keys, which skirt the mainland of Florida. Our course was parallel to these islands under very favorable wind. Lat. 24° 35' at noon. The long string of islands, & sand banks, & rocks that extend from the South point of Florida Westward in a pretty straight line, have bold blue water along their southern 4

See illustration in the section following p. 186.

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edge, & seem with Cuba to form the mouth of the funnel by which the water accumulated in the Gulph of Mexico is guided into the straight [¿¿:] between Florida & the Bahama shoals. This stream of warm water is certainly of immense importance to the climate of the Western part of Europe, & gives to it the temperature which renders the same degree of latitude in Europe productive of oranges, lemons, & grapes, while the opposite coast of America is scarcely habitable on account of its long & cold winters, & fierce & tardy summers. But the navigation of the Gulph stream is extremely unpleasant. The difference of the temperature of the water & of the air, at least at this season, is probably the cause of the perpetual gusts & squalls, that torment the voyage, & the frequent opposition of wind & stream, creates a short & chopping sea, that tosses a vessel, especially a small one, like a chip. The plant called Gulph weed is certainly very improperly named. Since entering the passage of the Bahamas, called the providence Channel, I have seen very little of it, & none in a vigorous & healthy state, & in the Gulph stream itself none; for I do not think that a few red & decayed bunches of weed that floated near the ship were plants of the same kind with the proper Gulph weed. Our Captain is of the same opinion, never having seen the Gulph weed inside of the Gulph, in any quantity at least. About 3 o'clock, we were quite becalmed within 2 miles of the shore, altho' in deep blue water. The brig, however, slowly but perceptibly approached it, & we prepared to anchor, when a very slight breeze enabled us to get off & gradually encreased to a fair breeze which continued all night. Jan'y 1,1819. A fair breeze of 6 V2 knots. Still skirting the Coast. About 12 lost sight of the Marquis Key, the last of these Islets which lie to the East of the Passage of 20 miles which admits a good navigation to the North. At 4 o'clock, saw the dry Tortugas, the last of this range on our weather bow, having since 10 o'clock passed over a great Shoal of green water, on which there is, however, from 40 to 60 fathom. This being New Year's day, an extraordinary exertion to furnish our dinner table, & a boiled turkey marked the day, which like all the rest was spent in great good humor. An accidental string of clouds obscured the sun, so that we had no observation of Latitude. The wind continued fair, & the weather very fine, & by sunset we had the last long Island of the dry Tortugas abeam. The most eastern of these islands is wooded, the second has trees on the Eastern half, on the others there appears to be only low shrubs. The most western is a long low sand beach, covered with a thin line of vegetation.

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At 7 the Captain changed his course to NW direct for the Balize6 with fine breeze at East. At midnight it fell calm, & soon after a storm accompanied with thunder & lightning, arose which raised a heavy sea & rendered the motion of the brig very disagreeable. Towards morning it rained violently. But the wind continuing fair we had all Sails set which the vessel has, royals, & all steering sails. Jan'y 2 1819. The wind being East, the swell very heavy, & our course NW, directly in the trough of the sea, the motion is more unpleasant than it has yet been. The water has again the dark blue color of the ocean. No observation. The weather has been squally all the afternoon with frequent & heavy rain. About 5 o'clock after a heavy squall the favorable wind which we had hitherto enjoyed shifted to the N & by E, & obliged us to steer to the West under close reefed topsails & trysail: A bird, apparently a Gralla, after flying for an hour about the ship, came on board & was easily caught. I rescued it from the merciless negroes, & put it into the Jolly boat astern, where it remained till next morning & then left, us taking its course Southward! Jan'y 3d. A most disagreeable night, steering close hauled to the Westward, a high sea, & the brig laboring much. Wind N & by W. Steering due West the whole day. Lat. by observation 26° 22', made by some current probably 20 miles more northing than by the Log. Jan'y 4. A beautiful cool day. Lat. 26° SO', being 8 miles north of our reckoning. Wind still N by W. Course due West. Jan'y 5, 1819. Wind still NW by N, course West. Cloudy & calm, no observation at noon. In the afternoon the wind changed to N & NE, & E, & enabled us to steer due North until Jan'y 6th. at noon when finding our Lat. to be 28° SO', we steered NW with a very fresh breeze. The last 2 or S days have been so monotonous & unvaried by any occurence [wic] whatever that a week more such would make us all melancholy. Towards evening, the appearance of many vessels on the horizon & of a change of colour in the water induced the Captain to believe himself carried to the West, as well as to the North by a current, & he changed his course to due West. At dusk we cast * The Balize ( Buoy or Beacon) at the mouth of the Mississippi River was first established by Adrien de Pauger, French engineer, in the spring of 1721. It was located on a small island at the entrance to the southeast pass, and a considerable settlement developed, which had to be abandoned near the end of the French régime, due to sinking of the island. It was re-established farther up the pass, at its junction with the northeast pass. The old pass, later known as Balize Bayou, gradually filled up and has now disappeared.

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January, 1819

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anchor in 9 fathoms of water. The wind increased, and the current keeping the ship in the trough of sea, the brig rolled much worse than in the gale of the 24th of Dec. No pilot obeyed our signal till 12 o'clock, when we got under weigh, & after taking a long trip to the SSE, we crossed the bar under press of sail in a few minutes. That which is properly the bar is said to be not more than 100 feet in width, & between the breakers not more than V* of a mile wide. All round are the embryos of islands, consisting first of single logs sticking in the mud, then of several which have adhered, being lodged against each other by the current, & covered more or less with black mud. Those that are further advanced present banks of mud to view, & at last reeds begin to show themselves, growing here & there upon the mud banks. After passing the bar, the water assumes the character of a river, bounded on each side by a margin of reeds apparently growing in the water, among which low shrubs & willows 15 to 20 feet high form higher tufts; a mile from this mouth of the river lies the Balize,8 an assemblage of mean wooden buildings among which rise two framed towers, serving the pilots as lookouts or observatories, from which to descry vessels at sea. The Abigail, bound to Liverpool, a brig to the Havanna, a bomb ketch, & smaller vessels in the stream, began to give to the dreary prospects some interest: when the custom house officer, Captain Lake, & a naval officer, came on board to examine the 1

A legislative report published in De Bow's Commercial Review for May, 1847, contained the following remarks concerning the Balize: " . . .from the existence of the state as a portion of the Confederacy, up to the year 1837, the pilot service was negligently performed and more especially were the persons engaged in it, as a body, a desperate, worthless, reckless class of men. The Balize, during that period, was a scene of barbarous strife and drunken debauch. "Your Committee have been informed by witnesses of unblemished character, who have resided at the Balize both before and after the passage of the act of 1837, that anterior to that law it was a mere mud bank, whose natural loathsomeness was made more intolerable by the beastly scenes enacted there. Riots and brawls were daily exhibitions, and low revelry and debauches the pastime of the night. It was a place dangerous to visit; the savageness of man invested the desolation of nature with appalling attributes. The Balize is located upon the margin of the Mississippi, a short distance above the NorthEast Pass; in front the river flows sullenly; all around is a prairie overgrown with the rank luxuriance of the tropics; the waters of the Gulf in daily tides cover the face of the earth round about, many miles; there is not a tree, nor a mound, nor a monument of any sort, unless placed there by the hand of man, to relieve a monotony that oppresses the beholder. The land itself is but a recent acquisition from the ocean wrenched thence by the great father of rivers. This dreary and inhospitable vision, was the first that greeted the stranger approaching our shores from the seaward; and it is appalling to reflect, that the character of the people who dwelt there, and held appointments from the State was yet more savage than the scene that surrounded them, and impressed the mind with ideas of our national quality, as gloomy as the opinions such a spectacle might inspire of the natural features of our country." After the passage of the Pilot law of 1837, the Balize became a model community of 300 to 350 inhabitants. A hurricane about 1865 did extensive damage, and the Balize was abandoned. The pilot stations are now established at Pilottown, near the head of the passes, and at Burwood and Port Eads, near the entrances to Southwest and South Passes, respectively.

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1819

ship's papers, & see that the negroes corresponded with the Manifest. During this time we lay to off the Balize, & by that means, together with delay of the pilot, lost a fair wind which would after passing beyond the next point have carried us to Plaquemine, & further. As it is we are now at anchor, wind ahead, & no hopes of moving till the wind changes. January 7th. At daylight found ourselves aground, the water having fallen 3 feet in the course of the night. All hands busy in hauling the brig into deep water till 12 o'clock. We laid [wc] quiet all day, the wind being directly ahead. The Captain went ashore & shot a rice bird, & a gull. The latter was eaten by the negroes, the other is a very good sort of an eatable. Both were so soon dispatched that I could not examine them distinctly. But the gull is not the European, or the Atlantic gull. From the very considerable fall of the water during the night, it is very evident that altho' the current is constantly fresh & downward, the tide of the Gulph of Mexico has a very considerable influence upon the level of the water in the Mississippi, for on the 8th, in the morning the water was S feet lower than on the evening of the 7th, when it had risen to the level at which it stood on the evening of the 6th. The quantity of fresh water which comes down the Mississippi maintains its freshness & its color & its current many miles beyond its several mouths. We found this to be the case ten miles from the shore. The surface dipped up with care in a bucket was indeed a little & only a little brackish, but its color differed in no perceptible degree from that of the river, namely, a dirty yellow. The ship turned up in her wake the blue water of the ocean, on the lee side. Upon the breakers on each side of the channel of the bar, the water was quite yellow. Immediately within the bar the water was quite fresh. Jan'y 8th, 1819. The wind at daylight being a little more favorable, we got under way & proceeded one mile to the bend at which the SE, South & SW passes meet. The former, at which we entered, is the only one now used by large vessels, and whatever may be the facility of entering into the others in respect to the depth of water, the strong westerly current which passes their mouths, renders the access from the Eastward by far the most practicable. The Captain, on anchoring, or rather fastening, the brig to the shore, went out again with his gun & brought in a white crane, a beautiful bird of the sort, well depicted in Wilson's Ornithology. His Craw was crammed with small fish & mud. The negroes made a feast of him. In the afternoon, the Captain, Dr. Day, Mr. Wilson, & myself, rowed to the narrow island which separates the South from the S West passage. It is so elevated above the

January, 1819

BALTIMORE

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15

marshes or prairies which have bounded the river hitherto, that part of it appears never to have been overflowed. The margin is covered with the willow of this country, further in are elms of indifferent growth, and ash, persimmons, Myrtus cerifera, & other trees, that in their leafless state, I did not recognize. On a knoll a little more raised grew a Cluster of Palmettos (Latinia). A very rich rambling vine was vigorously growing, as well as a large spreading thistle, and some yellow asters were in full bloom. The water in high freshet finds its way through the willow growth, & several bayous, or water courses, in which there is now no current, were choked with the most enormous logs I ever saw, which proved so far convenient, that it enabled us to ramble all over the North end of the island without difficulty, furnishing everywhere bridges over the miry places. This island abounds with deer, racoons, hares, & probably other wild animals, the tracks & dung of which were everywhere met with. The greatest difficulty we found in getting along was from a climbing plant now out of leaf; but the rambling & extremely flexible stem appeared to be that of the Rhus toxicadendron. We returned thro' a thick fog wetting our clothes almost as much as a moderate rain. This sort of weather has more or less prevailed since our entrance into the Mississippi & is, I am told, the bad winter weather of this climate. Jan'y 9th, 1819. At daylight the wind, tho' very light, was favorable. The wet fog continued. We soon got under way & proceeded up the river, first thro' the wide bay from which the several passes to the SE, S, & SW find their way into the Gulph of Mexico, then thro' a margin of reeds on both sides of the river about a mile wide. Presently large trees present themselves thinly scattered on the West bank upon a narrow margin of more elevated ground. Higher up, the land on both sides rises to the highth of 3 or 4 feet above the water, & is covered with a growth of willows & other woods, none of it very large, on both sides. Pass a L' outre (The pass of the Otter) opens on the left bank. This growth continues to Fort Plaquemine7 (Persimmon) or Fort St. Philip, bombarded by the British during the late war, & successfully defended by Col. Overton. This fort commands a long reach of the Mississippi, being placed at the angle of a short & quick bend. It is well placed, as experience has proved, but must be a miserable, muskito [i/c] plagued residence. The walled parts are of brick, & the batteries en barbette. The officers quarters appear to be outside of the 7

Originally Fort San Felipe of Plaquemine, established about 1786, during the Spanish Regime on the east bank of the river. On January 9, 1815, British bomb vessels opened fire in an attempt to pass the fort and relieve their troops at New Orleans. After unsuccessfully bombarding the fort for more than a week, the British gave up the attempt and retired, whereupon the defeated land forces below New Orleans withdrew to their ships and departed.

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fort, low & buried in undergrowth. An unfinished, elevated frame, which has remained unfinished for 2 years, I am told, is the only elevated part of the work. The British bombs lay behind a tongue of land on the West side of the river out of sight of the fort, & from thence threw shells into the fort which sunk many feet into the mud & did no execution. The current in the river is so strong that no fleet intended to cooperate with an army ashore could possibly be depended upon. For it is utterly impracticable to carry up a ship unless with a perfectly favorable wind. In fact, every detail of the history of the war is a detail of folly on both sides, unsuccessful on the part of our enemies, & successful on ours. After passing Plaquemine, low & mean houses, the residences of planters appear occasionally on both sides of the river. Orange trees in the open air, formed a short vista on the west bank, the first I have seen. About 10 miles above Plaquemine, at a turn of the river, the wind, which had been scanty all day, veered so as to be right ahead, & we came to an anchor close in shore on the West side, where we found two ships & a brig in the same predicament with ourselves, at anchor. There is the commencement on the East bank of the Grand prairie, an expanse of low ground covered with reeds. In several places this morning, on going a few feet up the shrouds, the Gulph of Mexico was seen extending to the horizon beyond the narrow strip of land that confines the Mississippi to its present course. Wherever the land is a little more elevated than ordinary, the Palmetto grows along the margin in great abundance. It is not easy to assign a cause for the present course of the Mississippi, altho' there is certainly an invincible necessity in the physical circumstances that belong to this mighty stream, which confines it to its present bed & forbids it to form any other. A Bayou or water course passes immediately from the Mississippi thro' a narrow part of the Grand prairie into the ocean opposite to the islands called Chandeleurs. As the river was very low when we passed this bayou, which is not more than 6 or 7 feet wide at the bottom, & the tide was probably at flood, the water of the ocean rushed rapidly thro' it into the river. But Captain Wynne who has passed it frequently when the river was at its highth, says that it then discharges itself thro' this vent into the ocean with such force & in such a body that its roar may be heard above a mile off. Now the difference of level between this point & the tide at the S East pass, and at the point in which the bayou enters the tide water must be the same. But the fall in the latter case is 30 times greater than in the former, the distance being in the one case one mile & in the other at least 30. It is not easy to conceive therefore why the river should

January, 1819

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not wear down a deep bed for itself in the course of the bayou & quit its present channel entirely. The planters in the lower parts of the river are cultivators of rice. A large capital is required for the cultivation of sugar & cotton. The sugar plantations do not begin until within 50 miles of N. Orleans. The first on a large scale is Johnson's,8 formerly a pilot at the Balize, now a very rich man, as his large house of two stories of brick, with a portico on each front, & his solid & extensive sugar works prove. All the other houses which I observed were of one story, low, and having a portico or piazza either all round (which is the old French style of building), or on each front. There are generally some orange trees growing about every house, sometimes forming a vista from the road to the door, sometimes planted in quincunx like an orchard. The larger plantations have a regular street of negro houses near the dwelling, many of them looking commodious & comfortable, with a belfry in the center to call them to work. I saw an overseer directed [file] the repair of the levee with a long whip in his hand. The Creole French have the reputation of working their slaves very hard, & feeding them very badly; the Americans are said to treat & feed them well. The wind continuing fair, we reached the English turn about sunset, outsailing every vessel we could see. There were 4 ships & 4 brigs at the turn. This English turn9 (Tourne Anglaise) is said to derive its name from an attack against New Orleans by an English force which ascended the Mississippi & were obliged to turn back. For the wind which will carry a vessel to this turn becomes directly contrary in the very first reach, & without a leading wind, it is utterly impossible to ascend against the current of the river, & to beat up is impracticable on account of the strong current. It is here usual for vessels to track, or haul the vessel up to the bottom of the bend (from the turn), from whence the same wind that carried them thus far will take them to New Orleans. • Johnson's plantation, known as "Magnolia," is located on the west bank of the river about a mile below West Pointe a la Hache. It is said to have been established by two sea captains, Bradish and Johnson, about 1780. Johnson (William M.) was officially appointed pilot by Governor W. C. C. Claiborne, on April 10, 1805, was acting Postmaster at the Balize in 1808, and on October 15, 1808, was appointed Justice of the Peace in Plaquemine Parish. • "When Bienville, under the orders of his brother Iberville was descending the Mississippi early in September, 1699, he met a British Corvette of twelve guns under the command of Captain Banks about eighteen miles below the present site of New Orleans. Bienville convinced Captain Banks that the French were in possession of the river and induced him to withdraw. The point at which the English vessel turned has ever since been known as English Turn (le detour a l'Anglais)."—Mississippi Provincial Archives, II, 256, collected, edited and translated by Rowland and Sanders.

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All our passengers & negroes here volunteered to track, & about 1 in the morning we were able to set sail again. A thick fog enveloped every thing soon after. I went to bed, & at sunrise we were in front of the city without being able to see it. We therefore cast anchor in 40 fathoms of water. The river is at this time low, and the banks which at the mouth did not appear more than a foot above the water at high water, are 10 or 12 feet high, or higher, at the present moment. This could be seen on the West or South bank, but so thick a fog enveloped the city that the ear alone could ascertain its existence. London is heard indeed at 7 or 8 miles distance, in the incessant low rumbling of coaches & other carriages. On the arrival of a stranger in the Delaware an incessant crash of drays meets his ear. But on arrival at New Orleans in the morning, a sound more strange than any that is heard anywhere else in the world astonishes him. It is a more incessant, loud, rapid, & various gabble of tongues of all tones than was ever heard at Babel. It is more to be compared to the sounds that issue from an extensive marsh, the residence of a million or two of frogs, from bull frogs up to whistlers, than to anything else. It proceeded from the market & levee, opposite to which we had cast anchor, & which, before we went ashore, was in a moment, by the sudden disappearance of the fog laid open to our view. New Orleans has at first sight a very imposing, and handsome appearance, beyond any other city in the United States in which I have yet been. During my residence here I shall have ample opportunity of describing what is to be here seen, & thus ends my journal.

January, 1819

BALTIMORE

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19

The conduct of Captain Wynne during the voyage was such, as to induce the passengers to sign the following publication in the Chronicle10 Jan'y 11th, 1819. The passengers who have arrived in New Orleans on board the brig Clio, u from Baltimore would do great injustice to their own feelings, as well as to the merit of Captain Ed'd Wynne did they not thus publicly acknowledge their obligations to his skill & kindness during the voyage, a skill to which the shortness of their passage of 18 days from the Chesapeake to the Balize is in a great measure to be attributed, & a kindness which rendered their voyage more like a visit to a friend, than a confinement on board of a vessel at sea. Those of them who have been before at sea cannot refrain from bearing testimony to the very unusual safety, dryness & swiftness of the Clio, & to the excellent accommodations of the cabin. Signed B. Henry B. Latrobe Edward Day James Gibbons Samuel Wilson Wm. Ries Elias McMillan Wm. Burton 10 The Chronicle was a newspaper published in New Orleans in 1818-19, although no copies of it are now known to exist. In a letter to William Miller, dated New Orleans, December 10, 1818, Richard Claiborne states, "1 published my Essay on Steam Navigation in the Chronicle here."—Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXIV, 742. 11 The Louisiana Gazette for Tuesday, January 12, 1819, carried the following item under "Ship News Custom House Jan. 11," "Entered-Brig Clio, Wynne, Baltimore; sundries to M'Lanahan & Boart [Bogart] Wilkins and Linton, Graffith and Nicholas, J. Wilson, J. C. Wilkins & Co., P. Kumble, B. Chew, W. D. Wild, Lunmore to order and the Captain." The Gazette for Friday, January 29, 1819, carried the following advertisement: "For Baltimore T o sail positively on Sunday Slst inst. The Packet Brig Clio Captain Wynne: for freight of 100 bales or the bulk thereof, or for passage, apply on board opposite Conti St. or to M'Lanahan & Bogart Jan. 25"

BOOK

FIRST

TTVO

APPEARANCE

OF N E W

ORLEANS

TO A S T R A N G E R January 12, 1819—January 25, 1819

DISJECTA

MEMBRA

New Orleans, January 12th, 1819. T h e s t r a n g e & loud noise h e a r d t h r o u g h the fog, on board t h e Clio, proceeding f r o m the voices of the m a r k e t people & their customers was n o t m o r e e x t r a o r d i n a r y t h a n the appearance of these noisy folks w h e n the f o g cleared a w a y , & w e landed. E v e r y t h i n g had an odd look. F o r 25 y e a r s I have been a traveler only between N e w Y o r k & Richmond, & I confess that I felt myself in some d e g r e e , again a Cockney, for it was impossible n o t t o stare at a s i g h t wholly n e w even to one w h o has traveled much in E u r o p e & America.

The first remarkable appearance was that of the Market boats, differing in form & equipment from anything that floats on the Atlantic side of our country (see sketch book). We landed among the queer boats, some of which carried the tricolored flag of Napoleon, at the foot of a wooden flight of steps opposite to the center of the public square, which were badly fixed to the ragged Bank. On the upper step of the flight sat a couple of Choctaw Indian women & a stark naked Indian girl, apparently 12 years old, with a monstrously swelled belly. At the top of the flight we arrived on the levee extending along the front of the city. It is a wide bank of earth, level on the top to the width of perhaps 50 feet, & thence sloping gradually, in a very easy descent to the footway or banquet at the houses, a distance of about 150 to 200 feet from the edge of the levee. This foot way is about 5 feet below the level of the levee, of course 4 feet below the surface of the water in the river at the time of the inundation, which rises within one foot, sometimes less, of the top of the levee.

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Along the levee, as far as the eye could reach to the West & to the market house1 to the East were ranged two rows of market people, some having stalls or tables with a tilt or awning of canvass, but the majority having their wares lying on the ground, perhaps on a piece of canvass, or a parcel of Palmetto leaves. The articles to be sold were not more various than the sellers. White men and women, & of all hues of brown, & of all classes of faces, from round Yankees, to grisly & lean Spaniards, black negroes & negresses, filthy Indians half naked, mulattoes, curly & straight-haired, quarteroons of all shades, long haired & frizzled, the women dressed in the most flaring yellow & scarlet gowns, the men capped & hatted. Their wares consisted of as many kinds as their faces. Innumerable wild ducks, oysters, poultry of all kinds, fish, bananas, piles of oranges, sugar cane, sweet & Irish potatoes, corn in the Ear & husked, apples, carrots & all sorts of other roots, eggs, trinkets, tin ware, dry goods, in fact of more & odder things to be sold in that manner & place, than I can enumerate. The market was full of wretched beef & other butchers meat, & some excellent & large fish. I cannot suppose that my eye took in less than 500 sellers & buyers, all of whom appeared to strain their voices, to exceed each other in loudness. A little further along the levee on the margin of a heap of bricks, was a book-seller whose stocks of books, English & French, cut no mean appearance. Among others there was a well-bound collection of pamphlets printed during the American war, forming ten octavos volumes, which I must get my friend Th. Robertson 2 of Congress, if here, to buy. New Orleans, J any 13th. I was so amused by the market of yesterday that I spent half an hour or more in it, walking from one end of the levee to the other, as far as it was occupied by the market people. 1

The meat market, extending along the levee between St. Ann and Dumaine streets, was erected in 1813 by the contractors Gurlie and Guillot from the designs of J. Tanesse, city surveyor. It was a fine open arcaded structure, with a low-pitched tile roof, later recovered with a more steeply pitched slate roof. Latrobe's son John H. B. Latrobe described the market in 1834 as "a building of excellent proportions formed by colonnades of square piers and arches." Norman, in his New Orleans and Environs (1846), attributes the design to J. Piernas and remarks that "from its favorable location and neat simplicity of architecture, lit] is a striking object to those who approach the city by water." In 1936-38 it was extensively remodeled, and a colonnade was added along the side, the arcades being closed in, thus destroying the original character of the building. * Thomas (Wm.) Boiling Robertson, born in Prince George County, Va., in 1773. Governor Claiborne appointed him attorney general of the Territory of Orleans, and in 1807 he became Territorial Secretary. He was appointed Commissioner of Land Claims in 1808, opposed Claiborne for the governership in 1812, was elected Representative to Congress in 1812, and served until 1818, when he resigned. In 1820 he was elected third governor of Louisiana. He married Leila, daughter of Fulwar Skipwith, and died at White Sulphur Springs, Va., November 5, 1828.—Alc^e Fortier, Louisiana, 1914, Biographical Edition, Vol. II.

January,

1819

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23

The public square,3 which is open to the river, has an admirable general effect, & is infinitely superior to anything in our Atlantic cities as a water view of the city. This square extends along the river about feet, and is feet deep. The whole of the side parallel to the river is occupied by the Cathedral in the center & by two symmetrical buildings on each side. That to the West is called the Principal, & contains the public offices & council chamber of the city. That on the East is called the Presbytery, being the property of the Church. It is divided into 7 stores & dwellings above, which are rented and produce a large revenue.

[TREMOULET'S

HOTEL]

At the South West corner of the square is a building of excellent effect. The lower story & entresol are rented by storekeepers; the upper story is an hotel, Tremoulet's,4 at which I have taken up my quarters. The rest of this West side of the square & the whole of the East side is built up in very mean stores covered with most villainous roofs of tile, partly white, partly red & black, with narrow galleries in the second story, the posts of which are mere unpainted sticks; but they let at an enormous rent. The square itself is neglected, the fences ragged, & in many places open. Part of it is let for a depot of firewood, paving stones are heaped up in it, and along the whole of the side next the river is a row of mean booths in which dry goods are sold, by yellow, black, & white women, who dispose, I am told, of incredible quantities of slops & other articles fit for sailors & boatmen, to those sort of customers. Thus a square, ' The public square, or Place d'Armes, was renamed Jackson Square in 1856, in honor of the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. Clark Mills's equestrian statue of the general, a replica of the one in Lafayette Square, in Washington, and the one on the grounds of the Tennessee Capitol at Nashville, was erected at that time. The view of the river has for many years been obstructed by a row of unsightly sheds along the wharf. The St. Louis Cathedral, erected in 1795, had a central tower added by Latrobe in 1820, and the entire building was extensively remodeled by the architect de Pouilly about 1850. In 1847 mansard roofs were added to the Cabildo(The Principal) and the Presbytère, two buildings now occupied by the Louisiana State Museum. 4 This house was built in 1811 by Madame Castillon. The architects were Arsène Lacarrière Latour and Hyacinth Laclotte, the contractors Claude Gurlie and Joseph Guillot, the cost $62,000. The contract and specifications dated April 18, 1811, are preserved in the notarial records of Michel de Armas. The house was extensively damaged on February i, 1828, by a disastrous fire which destroyed the old French Government House at the corner of Decatur and Toulouse streets. It was, however, immediately rebuilt by Gurlie and Guillot, in accordance with plans by François Correjolles, architect. At the same time, the owner, Baron Joseph Xavier Celestin Delfau de Pontalba, son-in-law of Madame Castillon, restored all his other buildings along St. Peter and St. Anne Streets, facing the Place d'Armes. The total cost of the work amounted to $57,000 according to the contract passed March 10, 1828, before the notary Louis T. Caire.

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January, 1819

which might be made the handsomest in America, is really rather a nuisance than otherwise. January 14th, 1819. Tremoulet, who keeps this house, was, I am told, formerly a Cook, an excellent station from which to rise to the dignity of the master of a large hotel. He has lived here under the Spanish, French, & American Governments, & prefers the former. He has lost three large fortunes made in this place by his hotels, and is now poor & old. He & Madame Tremoulet, however, are the most vigorous & cheerful & generous old people imaginable. The causes of Tremoulet's failures have been the bank, & his generous disposition. When the American Government took possession, the bank soon offered facilities to commerce that had not before existed. Tremoulet, altho' he did not meddle with commerce, aided those who did, by endorsements. Nothing, to a man unused to the terrible consequences of becoming security for others, with no other countersecurity but their honesty or success, seems so pleasant as to be able to assist a friend & perhaps make his fortune, by writing his name across the back of a slip of paper. That caution is, indeed, lulled to sleep, which would be awake, if the security were given in the shape of a bond or lien upon a estate, because a man who endorses a note for another, while he himself does not require the aid of a bank, naturally conceives that the loss of credit attending the nonpayment of the note by the drawer is a coercion operating in his favor, & tends to render him more certain that he will not be called upon to pay it, but that the drawer will make any sacrifice rather than have the note protested. Tremoulet, from having built & owned the two largest hotels in the city, is now the tenant of Madame Castillon,6 to whom the stores in the public square belong. His house is by far the filthiest which I have ever inhabited, but my room is kept clean by an excellent servant whom I have bribed to attend to me particularly. The growing Americanism of this city is strongly evidenced by the circumstance that Tremoulet's is the only French boarding house in the city, that it is unfashionable, & when he removes, for he is going to the Havanna, there will be no other opened. My object in preferring this house is to re-acquire a facility in speaking French, a facility which I have lost by 30 years disuse of that language. Whether my object will be answered, I am doubtful, for the company is exceedingly mixed & daily changing, and some ' Madame Castillon was Marie Louise de la Ronde, daughter of Pierre Denis de la Ronde. At the age of sixteen she married the sixty-year-old Don Andres Almonester y Roxas, builder of the Cathedral and perhaps the wealthiest man in Louisiana. Their daughter Micaela, who married the Baron de Pontalba, built the buildings flanking Jackson Square, which still bear her name and the Almonester-Pontalba monogram. After the death of Don Andres, his widow married Jean-Baptiste Castillon, French Consul, a man much younger than she, and died in France in 1827.

The proportions of this plan are not correct, the house being longer from N. to S. than from East to West, but the subdivision is correct.

26

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January, 1819

courage is required to venture to converse with strangers in a language imperfectly spoken. Another obstacle exists in the excessive rapidity with which they speak, & a greater, in their all speaking at once, & excessively loud. Some (& among them Tremoulet himself) occasionally strike up a song, in which the others join. In fact the noise & gabble is so incessant that Tremoulet, seeing me look with astonishment & a smile at the vociferous party, thought some sort of an apology necessary, and said: "Voyez vous, nous autres Français sont un peu bruyans." It must, indeed, be acknowledged that the party at this house is not exactly that which would constitute the best society anywhere, storekeepers, planters, some of Lallemand's 6 ruined party from the Trinity River. But they are all decent men, & two or three of them seem to be men of excellent information, & polished manners. The construction of the house, & of two or three others which I have seen, is entirely French. A lower story divided into & let as stores; an entresol in which the shopkeepers live, or which is let to other families. Then a handsome range of apartments surrounding a court of 30 by 24 feet. The appearance externally of the house is very good, & if the whole square were thus built up, it would be one of the handsomest in any country. In the interior, the court gives light to all the stories, but is reserved only for the use of the principal story & is entered by a porte cochere. Part of the entresol is also appropriated to the use of the hotel, which thus becomes very roomy & commodious. I asked Tremoulet, whether as his house is much frequented, whether he could not find it his interest to remain here where he is known & respected, & where in the same line he had already made two fortunes. He answered with a shrug, "Chacun n'aime point ce Gouvernement," & then told me a romantic story that must for the present be deferred, but which proves that gratitude has not entirely disappeared from the surface of the earth, & that he will probably succeed better in Cuba. " W H A T

Is

VIRTUE,

WHAT

Is

VICE?"

T H E MORAL C R E E D O F M A R E C H A L R I C H E L I E U

Jan'y 18th, 1819. Whether religion or philosophy be called upon to decide the question so often asked, "What is virtue, what is vice?" By what universal standard shall 8

General Charles Antoine François Lallemand, born at Metz, France, June 23, 1774. He took part in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. After the fall of Napoleon he came to America, arriving in Boston in 1817. In 1818 he and his brother Henry set up a colony of French refugees near Galveston called "Le Champ d' Asile." This settlement being soon after destroyed by a Spanish force from San Antonio, he returned to New Orleans. After the revolution of 1830 he returned to France, where he died March 9, 1839. Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XX, 619ff.; XXII, 747.)

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this question be tried, on which not only nations, & ages have disputed with & differed from each other, but on which Christians, referring the decision not to reason, but to an unalterable & written code, wrangle & fight with each other. The solution of the question seems to me very easy, & altho' when thus resolved, ample room is still left for discussion, and the nature of virtue & vice, & the character of particular actions & conduct with reference to their morality must at last depend greatly on the arrangements of society & therefore may admit of a latitude of opinion, still both religion & philosophy agree that the solution is just. Virtue is that character of an action which produces either immediate pleasure, which is not necessarily succeeded by ultimate pain, or immediate pain, which is necessarily succeeded by ultimate happiness. Vice is that, which produces immediate pain, of which pleasure is not the possible consequence or effect, or which produces immediate pleasure, of which pain is the necessary consequence. These reflections, I do not pretend to be new. In a religious point of view there is as little doubt of their correctness as in a philosophical sense. All our religious selfdenial, from the abstinence from common gratifications up to martyrdom, have no object whatever but the crown of glory which is to be their reward hereafter. Of the object of philosophical virtue no doubt is entertained. The philosopher (even the philosopher who confines his views to this life) sacrifices the pleasures of Bacchus & Venus, the enthusiasm of the gaming table & of the raceground, to the enjoyment of vigorous & permanent health, & to the enjoyment, during a long life, of temperate & never-cloying gratifications. He is benevolent, patriotic, eager in the pursuit of knowledge, a good husband & father, a kind master, because reason & experience have pointed out the effect of these virtues & of knowledge to produce happiness. Would there be a pious Christian in the world, if instead of the joys of heaven decreed from all eternity to the faithful their rewards were proclaimed to be only doubtful? It is unnecessary to enlarge on the subject. In fact these reflections were suggested by the perusal of the memoirs written by himself of that most notorious, that greatest of all villains the famous Maréchal de Richelieu.7 I do not call this man a villain of the first class because he has violated in the pursuit of pleasure by the seduction of every beautiful woman with whom he had acquaintance, the laws of God & man; but I would try him up on two counts only: 1. misery he has 'Louis François Armand Duplessis de Richelieu, Marshal of France, born March IS, 1696, Duc de Fransac; died August 8, 1788; "truely the man of his century; in him were united all its refined corruption and all its brilliant qualities" ( Marchand, Biographie universelle, Vol. XXXV.) His memoirs were published in Paris, in 1790, under the title, Mémoires du Maréchal de Richelieu, pour servir à l'histoire des cours de Louis XIV, de la minorité et du règne de Louis XV.

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spread far & wide, & 2. The system to which he has reduced the part of produced misery which he has unblushingly laid down & maintained in a work, the plausibility, the seductive style, & the enticing pictures of which have in my opinion not a little contributed to render the higher orders of monarchical France, dissolute on principle; & altho' I consider & have always considered the mass of the French nation to have been the most virtuous in Europe, yet its character throughout Europe has for more than a century been that which would unavoidably be stamped upon it by such writers & such men as the Maréchal de Richelieu. It is difficulty to imagine a more villainous train of conduct, of perfidy, of cruelty, & of the basest hypocrisy, then is jocularly detailed by the Maréchal in his account of his amour with Madame Michelin. A beautiful young woman, the wife of a respectable upholsterer is hunted out for him by his valet. Her husband is fond of her, kind to excess, able to gratify all her domestic wishes, but older than she, & a tradesman in manners & ideas, & probably of a cold temperament. He discovers that she is pious & attends her church daily; he attends Mass also, hires a room in her neighborhood, at first places himself near her in Church, bows, at last seizes the opportunity of a singular occurence [$/c] in Church to speak to her. The acquaintance thus begun is kept up. The contrast of his person & manners with that of her husband is exhibited; he calls at the warehouse, orders furniture for his apartment, insinuates himself into her affections, procures her an interview with a Duchess, whom he has previously seduced, & her husband receives large orders from her. At last under pretense of giving further orders at his apartment, he entices her thither, & there in spite of her entreaties, her misery, her tears & her resistance, he effects his diabolical purpose. That he had before endeavored to weaken her moral principles & ridiculed her religion he confesses, & in fact if he did not tell the story himself & with an air of triumph in the success of his pursuit, it might be supposed to have been drawn up by an advocate before a court, engaged to interest the feelings & provoke the indignation of a jury against him. The misery she suffers is most admirably described; her infidelity to her husband, her breach of every religious duty, rouse her conscience to agony. But he appears again before her, & in spite of all her endeavers to resist the influence of her senses & of her affections, she is again & again guilty. In the mean time he lays a train of seduction against Mad. Michelin's friend, a young widow, who lived in the same house & succeeds without much difficulty. He appoints a meeting with both the same night. Accidentally Mad. Michi. finds him in her friend's chamber. Over the rest of the misery of this disgusting affair, however entertaining the relating it in detail appears to have been to the writer, a veil must be drawn. Mad. Michelin becomes melancholy, loses

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her beauty & health, her husband becomes miserable & complains to Richelieu himself of his sufferings on acc't of his wife. At last she dies, imploring her husband's foregiveness with her last breath, for a crime, of the commission of which he remains to the end ignorant. After her death Richelieu meets him; he pours out his sorrows into the bosom of the villain who has caused them. M. le Duc, says he, speaking of his wife, Voyez ce que c'est que de nous! Comme la maladie nous ôte tout jugement! Cette pauvre femme, qui etoit la douceur, la vertu même, m'a demandé pardon avant de mourir, comme si elle m'eut offensé! Richelieu adds, "J'aurois pu m'amuser de sa bonhommie si j'avois été moins agité" &c—& he goes on to say (226) Je passai cette soirée assez tristement, mais je savois déjà qu'il n'eut pas prudent de se concentrer dans sa douleur et j'allai chez la Duchesse [whom he had before seduced] ou je trouvai Goutaellet. Il ne fut question que du voyage de la princesse [whom he was then besieging & afterwards seduced] et le plaisir d'entendre parler d'elle me rendit bientôt ma belle humeur. Such conduct as this might indeed be expected from a man whose principles are concentrated in the following extract. In justifying the gratification of passion at the expense of every virtuous woman who can be seduced or conquered, a momentary thought on the misery produced to the victim of misplaced affection occurs. After attempting to prove that inconstancy is the law of nature, that the laws of society create that a crime, which nature dictates &c, he proceeds, D'ailleurs cette inconstance qui parôit si cruelle a l'objet abandonné qui le fait plaindre de ceux qu' attendrissent des larmes qu'ils lui voyent répandres germoit sans doute au fond du cœur de l'infortunée, qui nous attendrit. Il a été prévenu; voila tout! Il mets enfait, que quelque mois de plus au moins font la seule difference entre l'infidele, et l'abandonné; l'un eut fait ce qu'il accuse l'autre d'avoir executé; il n'a seulement que daté de primauté. C'est ce qui fait, qu'un homme bien pénétré de ces principes, ne se laisse jamais prévenir, et doit se mettre ce premier a couvert de toute humiliation [&c&c.]. This moral creed is in fact contained in these words (244): L'homme qui ne vit pas pour lui seul, est tôt ou tard la dupe de ses sentimens, on peut aimer d'autres, mais il est bien juste de se preferer a tout. Telle est depuis long tems ma façon de penser et d'agir, et, belle amie, je m'en trouve fort bien. Yet this scoundrel lived honored, & loved by half the beauties of France, & retained his health & vigor to a very great age. Whether his pleasure compensated his internal chagrin was known only to himself.

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RICHELIEU]

January 19th, 1819. T h e political creed of Maréchal Richelieu, though perfectly well adapted to the actual state of France in the reign of Louis X V , is stated with the same impudent candor with which he has laid down his moral system. A f t e r stating, with very little respect for his father's memory, that such had been the m i s - m a n a g e m e n t of his father in respect to the family estate that had it not been for entailed (substitutions) part of it he would have inherited very little, he goes to show what is very evident, that the splendor of noble families can never be kept up, but by entails, conferring on the first born an estate in perpetual succession, sufficient to support a g r e a t n a m e with dignity. H e goes on: "Si son nom &c—(translated "while his name inspires respect, his fortune astonishes, dazzles, & gives bread to a number of wretches, anxious to humble themselves before him. The younger sons are not to be pitied neither. They find among the Knights of Malta, or in the Church, situations which sometimes enable them to cut a better figure than the head of the house. The favors of the King, too, which can always be obtained by those who know how to pay court properly to men in power, & especially to their mistresses, are a great resource for them; & none but fools are ignorant how to take advantage of the events that are always turning up at court. When you are hampered, (embarrassé) with daughters, make them abbesses, "every woman is fond of power." You will tell me that perhaps they have no call to a religious life. I answer that an abbess has liberty enough to relax the vigor of his [we] vows: and can always find means to quiet the desires that revolt against them. You cannot persuade me that such a woman is to be pitied. I know several of them who are charming, & that know as well as I do that arrangements ( accomodemens) may be made with heaven. Those who do not avail themselves of them, have none to blame but themselves. "Rich nobles are essential to the splendor of the throne." They form the chain that descends from the King to the people. They obey their Master & from him receive the power to impose obedience upon their inferiors in their turn. The people must be kept down, & great fortunes are one of the best means of keeping them down. As long therefore as France exists, so long entails must be maintained as a fundamental law of the realm [&c.]. T h e letter of Louis the X V to the Maréchal d. Versailles, the 11th July, 175S, of that miserable king, of whom Richelieu, M a d . Pompadour, & all the correspondents of Richelieu, male & female, complain, that he hated business & left everything to his ministers, is worth translating entire, as a commentary on the preceding. As they say that you take some interest about the parlement, I am not sorry to find an occasion to tell you my mode of thinking, as I have gathered it from what I have seen, what I have known, & what I have read.

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The parlement has at all times opposed its kings & its regents, and has chosen me, whom everybody knows to love peace, to say things to me that it never dared to say to any of the sovereigns my predecessors. I was willing to be patient last year: to which you Mr. Richelieu, have been both an eye and an ear witness, without its have appeared out of doors, that this was my intention; but about that I don't care. But could you have seen the inside of me, you would have found me very different. [I suppose from patient.] I do not attribute to the first president what he has said to me, because he could hardly do [say] otherwise; but who has the merit [the blame] of it? Pushed to the utmost as I am, I can no longer delay making my parlement know that I am their absolute Master; that my absolute power comes from God, & that to him only I owe an account on the day on which he shall take me from this world. Either I am King & master or the parlement is. Nobody will yield, & yet it is necessary that somebody should bend. I have no desire to destroy the parlement, but would reduce it to the just limits for which it was instituted [the King does not write very correctly]. Therefore either the Parlement or I must yield. For my part, I shall employ on this occasion all the power which God has given into my hands, & would shed my blood willingly. If the Parlement will ask my pardon, and obey my orders, with great joy will I give back the power which I have confided to them. But after all the incartades which I have seen, I shall never suffer myself to be put by them into the same embarrassment again. The first President being the Chief which I have given to the Parlement with great satisfaction, I shall [see him] receive him as the bearer of the submission of my Parlement, & of the orders which I have to give him for execution. I have been made to condescend to many things which I now regret the more because they were then very little to my taste. I will hear nothing until they have made their submission, and I shall have had the most certain proof of it. Nor do I like better the authority of the priests in as far as they pass their mystical bounds. I want to be rendered to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's. For Caesar holds only of God what is Caesar's, but he will never give way to any being upon the French territory. You may communicate this to whom you please, being written not for you alone; you may therefore make what use cf it you think proper. I do riot sign it neither. You know my hand well enough to be sure that it comes from me; but I would do it with great pleasure, s'il le falloit d'une autre couleur [which last expression I do not well understand]. Kings and Princes, whatever other merit they may have, do not appear to excell in epistolary composition. The Duke of Cumberland's correspondence with Lady Grosvenor, & that of the Duke of York with Mrs. Clarke, would form no unworthy pendants to this letter of Louis the XV. Frederic II was an honorable exception of modern times, but there are few Royal pens that can be mended.

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ORLEANS]

New Orleans, January 22d, 1819. What is the state of society in New Orleans? is one of many questions which I am required to answer by a friend who seems not to be aware that this question is equivalent to that of Hamlet to Polonius, He might as well ask, What is the shape of a cloud? The state of society at any time here is puzzling. There are in fact three societies here: 1. the French, 2. the American, & 3. the mixed. The French society is not exactly what it was at the change of government, & the American is not strictly what it is in the Atlantic cities. The opportunities of growing rich by more active, extensive, & intelligent modes of agriculture & commerce has [j/c] diminished the hospitality, destroyed the leisure, & added more selfishness to the character of the Creoles. The Americans, coming hither to make money, & considering their residence as temporary, are doubly active in availing themselves of the enlarged opportunities of becoming wealthy which the place offers. On the whole, the state of society is similar to that of every city rapidly rising into wealth, & doing so much & such fast-increasing business that no man can be said to have a moment's leisure. Their business is to make money. They are in an eternal bustle. Their limbs, their heads, & their hearts move to that sole object. Cotton & tobacco, buying & selling, and all the rest of the occupation of a money-making community fills [j/c] their time, & gives [j/c] the habit of their minds. The post, which comes in & goes out three times a week, renders those days, more than the others, days of oppressive exertion. I have been received with great hospitality, have dined out almost every day, but the time of a late dinner and a short sitting after it have been the only periods during which I could make any acquaintance with the Gentlemen of the place. As it is now the Carnival,8 every evening is closed with a ball, or a play, or a concert. 9 1 have been to two of each. • Carnival, the season of festivities immediately preceding the season of fasting and penance, Lent. As celebrated in Latin countries, the New Orleans carnival season begins on Twelfth Night and reaches its climax with the well-known celebration of Mardi Gras Day, the day before Ash Wednesday. Comus, the oldest Carnival organization in New Orleans today, did not hold its first parade and ball until 1857. • On January 18, 1819, the following advertisement of a concert and ball appeared in the Louisiana Courier: "Orleans Ball Room On Monday the 18th instant (For the benefit of Mrs. & Miss Labat) A Grand Concert Vocal and Instrumental Followed by a Ball "Distribution 1. An Overture—full orchestra. 2. A Sonata and Rondo for the Forte Piano executed by Miss Constance Labat. 3. A Duett "The charm of voice" sung by Miss Constance Labat & Mr. Rochefort.

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To entitle a stranger to describe the character of a society, more is required than to have looked at it superficially, & through the medium of habits acquired elsewhere. More than a superficial use of the senses is even required to ascertain facts of which the senses are the only judges. The great fault of travelers, I was going to say, especially of English travelers, because we Americans have suffered most by their false accounts of our country, is to impose first impressions upon themselves and the public for the actual state of things. To determine upon the relative moral or political character of a community requires more time, more talent, & a more philosophical investigation of the history of its habits, & of those causes of them over which no control can be exercised, than traveling bookmakers possess or can command. It would therefore be very impertinent in me, after 10 days residence only, to call anything, which I may put into these brochures, by a name more decided, than my impressions respecting New Orleans. My impression then, as to the surface of female society is, that there are collected in New Orleans, at a ball of female faces, below the age of 24 or 25, more correct & beautiful features, more faces & figures for the sculptor, than I ever recollect to have seen together in the same number. A few of them are perfect, & a great majority are far above the mere agreeable. I have said faces for the sculptor, nor altogether for the painter, for the Lilies have banished the roses. The Anglican slang of a painted French woman does not apply here. A few American Ladies, not long resident here, had rosy cheeks, & very few. The French & Creoles, are universally of good healthy color, fair, but the cheeks are of the color of the forehead. At a bal paré10 the number of brunettes was small, & my attention being alive to the subject, I could not see one face that had 4. An Air of Mozart variated by Ries, executed on the Forte Piano by Miss Ursule Labat. 5. A grand Ariett from the "Lottery ticket," sung by Miss Constance Labat. 6. Variations on the Forte Piano, executed by Madam Labat. To begin at half past seven o'clock precisely Admittance $ l. "N. B. Tickets may be had before the Concert at Mr. Davis's, at Masero's Coffee House and at Mad. Labat's, in Mr. Landreaux's house, Bourbon between St. Ann and Orleans Streets. Madam Labat avails herself of this opportunity to advertise for sale a beautiful Forte piano by one of the best London makers, which may be seen at her said dwelling, Bourbon street." Mr. Honoré Landreaux's house at the corner of Bourbon and Orleans, adjoining the theater, was built by Henry Latrobe in 1817. 10 The Louisiana Courier, on January 20 and 22, 1819, carried the following: "Orleans Ball Room On Monday the 25th Jan. Inst. (For Mr. Bertus's Benefit) A Grand Ball (Grand Bal Paré) T o be preceded by A Children's Ball (Grand Bal d'Enfans) The Hand Bills will give the particulars of the Ball"

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the slightest tinge of rouge. There was a face and a head, the beautiful hair of which was decorated with a single white rose, surmounting a figure exquisitely formed & moving with perfect grace, belonging to some young Lady apparently of 18, whom I am glad I do not know, but which was as perfect in all respects as anything I have ever seen in or out of Marble. The dancing of the Ladies was what is to be expected of French women; that of the Gentlemen, what Lord Chesterfield would have called, too good for Gentlemen. I hope & believe that we Americans have qualities which make up for our deficiency in dancing, a deficiency which marked those young Americans that were upon the floor. Davis's ballroom11 is not a well-proportioned room, & its character is that of an "Amas de petitesses." But altogether the building is a much better set of apartments for the purpose of public amusement than is to be found elsewhere. I have never been in a public assembly altogether better conducted. No confusion, no embarrassment as to the sets having, in their turn a right to occupy the floor, no bustle of managers, no obtrusive solicitors of public attention. Altogether the impression was highly favorable. The only nuisance was a tall, illdressed black, in the music gallery, who played the tambourin standing up, & in a forced & vile voice called the figures as they changed. But custom has drowned his voice. January 25th, 1819. The French population in Louisiana is said to be only 20,000; in the city not above 5 or 6,000. The increase is of Americans. Some French have come hither since the return of the Bourbons; but they did not find themselves at home; some joined Gen'l Lallemand in his settlement on Trinity river, & a few remained so as sensibly to increase the French population. The accession, if worth mentioning, did not exceed the emigration which has taken place of those who did not like the American Government, or had amassed fortunes, & have returned to France or settled in the West India Islands. Since the breaking up of Lallemand's colony, a few have returned to New Orleans, but so few that they are not a perceptible quantity, even in the comparatively small French community. 11

Davis's ballroom, adjoining the Orleans Theater, in Orleans Street, was originally designed and built by Latrobe's son Henry for John Davis and Jean Phelippon. On September 28, 1816, when the building was nearing completion, it was set on fire, presumably by incendiaries, and destroyed, together with a large area in the heart of the city. The Louisiana Courier in an article about the fire on September SO, 1816, said: "The Orleans Theater and Mr. Davis's Ball room were two buildings which greatly contributed to the ornament of the city and the neighborhood of which gave to that part of the city a great value of which it is now deprived." Henry Latrobe suffered heavy financial loss, and the Ball room and theater were rebuilt by others, the contract for the bricklaying and the plastering being let to William Brand on February 17, 1817 (Notarial Acts of M. De Armas).

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On the other hand, Americans are pouring in daily, not in families, but in large bodies. In a few years therefore, this will be an American town. What is good & bad in the French manners, & opinions must give way, & the American notions of right & wrong, of convenience & inconvenience will take their place. When this period arrives, it would be folly to say that things are better or worse than they now are. They will be changed, but they will be changed into that which is more agreeable to the new population than what now exists. But a man who fancies that he has seen the world on more sides than one cannot help wishing that a mean, an average character, of society may grow out of the intermixture of the French & American manners. Such a consummation is perhaps to be more devoutly wished than hoped for. There is a lady, and, I am told a leading one among the Americans, who can speak French well, but is determined never to condescend to speak to the French ladies in their language, altho' in New York she prided herself on her knowing that language. Many of the leading Gentlemen, when not talking of tobacco or cotton, find it very amusing to abuse & ridicule French morals, French manners, & French houses. In truth there is evidently growing up a party spirit, which in time will give success to the views of the Americans, & everything French will in 50 years disappear. Even the miserable patois of the Creoles will be heard only in the cypress swamps. At present, the most prominent, & to the Americans, the most offensive feature of French habits, is the manner in which they spend Sunday. For about 10 years the recoil of the French revolutionary principles has made religious profession fashionable, especially in England, from whence our American public mind always, more or less, receives its tone. The holy alliance, of Greek, Roman, Lutheran, & Calvinistic sovereigns, who before the battle of Waterloo, most piously consigned each other, as far as religious belief went, to eternal damnation, has given authority of high effect to this fashion. For my part, the effect of this impious farce upon my own mind is to make me retire, with the more humility into my own heart & seek there a temple, unprofaned by external dictation. Sunday in New Orleans is distinguished only, 1., by the flags that are hoisted on all the ships, 2., by the attendance at Church (the Cathedral) of all the beautiful girls in the place, & of 2 or 300 quateroons, negroes, and mulattoes, & perhaps of 100 white males to hear high Mass, during which the two bells of the Cathedral are jingling, 3., by the shutting up of the majority of the shops & warehouses kept by the Americans, & 4, By the firing of the guns of most of the young gentlemen in the neighboring swamps, to whom Sunday affords leisure for field sports. 5. The Presbyterian,

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Episcopal, & Methodist churches are also open on that day, & are attended by a large majority of the ladies of their respective congregations. In other respects no difference between Sunday & any other day exists. The shops are open, as well as the theater & the ball room, & in the city at least, "Sunday shines no holiday" to slaves & hirelings. In how far the intermarriage of Americans with French girls will produce a less rigid observance of the gloom of an English Sunday it is impossible to foresee. For some time an effect will be produced; for I have spent Sunday in a family in which a ci-devant Quaker, and a Presbyterian, who have married two sisters, joined in a very agreeable dance after a little concert. But the pulpit, now filled very ably by the Presbyterian clergyman, Mr. Learned, 12 & the Episcopal Mr. Hull, 13 directs its principal energy against this pretended profanation of the Sabbath, & with the countenance of the American majority, perseverance will at last prevail, & Sundays will become as gloomy & ennuyant as elsewhere among us. 13

The Reverend Sylvester Lamed, a graduate of Princeton, arrived in New Orleans January 22, 1818, and died August 31, 1820, in the same epidemic of yellow fever in which Latrobe died a few days later. In 1834-35 the First Presbyterian Church erected a building facing Lafayette Square, and "in the court in front a neat obelisk has been erected as a monument to the memory of the Rev. Sylvester Lamed, first Presbyterian pastor of this city, who died at the early age of 24, much and deservedly regretted" (Norman, New Orleans and Environs, 1845). On August SO, 1820, in a note to his wife, Latrobe wrote: "I went as far as Dr. Leamed's who continues ill, under mercurial treatment. I fear we may lose him." —Manuscript in the collection of Mrs. Gamble Latrobe. 13 The Reverend James Foster Hull, D.D., LL.D., a native of Belfast, Ireland, and for eighteen years rector of Christ Church, bom May 15, 1776; died June 6, 1833. At first a Presbyterian minister, he was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1816, and remained as rector of Christ Church until his death. He is buried in the Girod Street Cemetery.

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NOTES February 16, 1819—February 26, 1819

SMALL

IMPORTANCE

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HUMAN

CONCERNS

New Orleans. Feb'y 16, 1819. Human life appears to the young as objects seen through the small end of a telescope present themselves, large & clear of obstruction; but to those further advanced in their career, & especially to the aged, as objects are seen thro' the reversed telescope, small & crowded together. When young we think that there is no end to the time before us; when old we look back on the past as the duration of a moment. To the young everything appears of great importance; to the aged nothing seems of any importance at all. When mottoes were in fashion, a young college friend, very prematurely, for he was only 18—but then he was disappointed in love—changed his family motto of "In excelsa nitimur," to "Rien n imforte." How much anything imports it has always been the business of rational philosophy to enquire. Not one step has been advanced in the enquiry since the Hindoo Shastras were composed. All happiness is stated to consist in action. But those oldest of moralists say "Since all things are uncertain, repose thyself." "It is better to walk than to run; it is better to stand still than to walk; it is better to sit than to stand; it is better to lie down than to sit; it is better to sleep than to wake; it is better to die than to sleep." There is a climax for you! If a man's head, & of course his pen, gets into a little confusion on this subject, his pen & his head are exactly in the condition in which the heads & pens of all thinkers & writers thereon have been from time immemorial. And after all, the importance or nonimportance of actions & opinion is, like all other matters, relative only: relative to the individual, or to the family, or to the nations; and that relation again modified by time &

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circumstances. A matter is of importance only as it affects the actual enjoyment, or pleasure, or happiness, or virtue, or glory, or wealth, or, if you please you may use any other synonimous [sic] terms, all implying permanent or temporary pleasure, of the individual or family, or nation. Now opinion & fashion decide so much on the question of pleasure—by the bye the French expression of bien être, which may be very clumsily translated, well being in English, is a better one than pleasure—that the question of importance becomes as vague, and the importance itself as uncertain & variable & temporary, as opinion & fashion itself. To a Spaniard, now, it is of immense importance that he should be a Catholic & not a Freemason, not that the things of themselves are worthy of a moment's consideration, except as regards his bien être. If a Catholic, he may quietly enjoy all he possesses in any way most satisfactory to himself; if a Freemason, he may become practically acquainted with the proceedings of the holy brotherhood, have his nails torn out, his fingers disjointed, and an artificial paralysis infused into his whole system for the rest of his life. But this requires no elucidation, for as Gulliver states it, Nations have thought it of importance to ascertain by bloody wars, & the expenditure of millions, whether "it is better to kiss a post or to throw it into the fire; whether it is a vice or a virtue to whistle." As to my own opinion, I have long considered very few things to be of any great importance. Those few are of the class that either promote or destroy internal peace of mind, or render personal comfort more or less easily obtained. The opinion of others enters largely into the question of the satisfaction felt in one's mind with oneself. The latter question is one of business, & is too tangible to require a single word to be said upon it. But even the sources & the means of selfsatisfaction are variable, & depend on the construction of the mind of each individual. Most rational men feel it to be of importance that their dress should not attract particular notice by its extravagance of fashionable cut, or by its defiance of all fashion. And yet there are others, I think they are called dandies, formerly bucks & petit maîtres, who subject themselves to pain & ridicule to attract notice to their dress & yet find, on settling accounts between their painful & pleasureable [JZ'C] sensations, a balance in favor of the latter. How wonderfully the whole course of human affairs would be changed if everything were considered as of no importance that has not an operative effect—an effect not dependent on changeable opinion or fashion of any sort, either of religion, politics or manners—on the internal peace of the mind. When the Rev'd Mr. Ingles of Baltimore & some of the younger of his Presbyterian congregation procured an organ to be

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placed in his church, a great number of his most respectable hearers left him, thinking it of immense importance that the Deity should be addressed in the nasal song of the Clerk, accompanied by the nasal choir of the Ladies below (for the men seldom join the psalm)—unmollified, & unsustained by the innocent tones of an organ. In Pittsburg [iic] the Rev'd Mr. Heron introduced into his Presbyterian Church the chaste & elegant version of psalms by Dr. Watts. Many of his flock did not think that they could be saved (for what other purpose did they go to church at all) unless the Psalms done into English by Nalrum Brady & Tate were chanted, & they actually separated, & at an expense of 25000$ built a church in which the old Psalmody was preserved in all its doggerel majesty. And these folks call themselves Christians, when Christ has said "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart & with all thy might & with all thy strength, & thy neighbor as thy self. In this is all the Law & the prophets."

SAMPLERS

WORKED

BY

CHILDREN

New Orleans, Feb'y 17th, 1819. A Lady showed me today a Sampler worked by her daughter of 8 years old. a b e d , &c, 1 2 3 4 5, ABCD, & so on, and at the end, that most affecting address of Christ, Suffer little Children to come unto me, &c, &c. The Sampler was so well worked & the stitches so well counted, & so little drawn, that of the sort of thing it was really worthy of admiration, & accordingly I did admire it. Still more I admired the sentiment that dictated the choice of the text & the kind hearts of the mother & child that glistened in their eyes while I praised the work & the choice of the text & kissed the child. I was almost tempted to kiss the good & sensible mother. The carricature [s/c] of Gillray, incomparably as it displays the ridiculous, in the folly of vulgar parents, who expose to remark the boarding school accomplishments of a fat, stupid daughter, and among others the talents exhibited in her sampler, has not been able to quench in me the sympathy which I think every good man must feel with parents who publicly exhibit the kindness & pride of their hearts, while they annoy their friends in this way. As to Samplers, they are necessary steps in the ascent of a semstress to the pinnacle of her profession. They must all learn to mark, & by some means these samplers, like a thesis in a Medical college, are the regular & orderly mode of exhibiting the talent of the young aspirante. My own girls have all worked samplers, & my sympathy with the exhibition by others of their Girls' samplers shall be accounted for by my writing, as well as I can recollect them, the

40

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verses which I wrote for my daughter Julia's 1 sampler, & which being a very hasty production would not have remained, probably, on my mind, had they not been productive of infinite pleasure to myself in the manner in which they were received by her mother. Watched by her Mother's glistening eye Her needle Julia plied, Uncounted flew the moments by, As grew her Sampler's pride.

S. Those little hands with infant art That wove each lettered row,— While her bright eyes, & playful heart, Still gladdened o'er the Show;—

With rainbow colors spruce & gay Slow march'd in formal state The square toed figures long array Like knights of ancient date.

4. When age shall dim that mother's eye, And all but Love is fled, Then shall those hands, with riper joy, Strew roses o'er her bed.

STYLE

OF B U I L D I N G

IN

NEW

ORLEANS

New Orleans Feby. 19th, 1819. I begin to understand the town a little, as a collection of houses; and a curious town it is. It would be worth while, & if I can find time I will try to do something of the sort, to make a series of drawings representing the city as it now is, for it would be a safe wager than in 100 years not a vestige will remain of the buildings as they now stand, excepting perhaps of a few public buildings & of houses built since the American acquisition of the country. The three most prominent buildings in the city are the Cathedral, the Principal, and the Presbytère. They form the N West side of the Place d'Armes. The Cathedral occupies the center; the two others are perfectly symmetrical in their exterior, the Principal to the South, the Presbytère to the North of the Church. Altho' in detail these buildings are as bad as they well can be, their symmetry, & the good proportions and strong relief of the façades of the two latter, & the solid mass of the former produce an admirable effect when seen from the river or the levee. The construction of these buildings is curious. The foundations are laid about six inches below the natural surface; that is, the turf is shaved off, and logs being then laid level along this shallow trench, very solid piers & thick walls of brick are immediately built upon the logs. The Cathedral is bound together by numerous iron cramps, which appear externally in S and other forms; but I do not think that they were very necessary, the settlement of buildings here being very equal in general, & 1

Julia Latrobe, daughter of B. H. Latrobe and his second wife, Mary Elisabeth Hazlehurst, born July 17, 1804, and died unmarried, March 3, 1890(J. E. Semmes, J. H. B. Latrtàe and His Times, 1917). She accompanied her parents to New Orleans in 1820, returning to Baltimore after her father's death.

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a few if any cramps appear on the outside of the t w o other buildings. T h e S E corner of the Principal, however, has not settled as much as the rest of the front: for tho' no crack appears, the horizontal mouldings are swayed down at least 4 inches towards the N E . T h e corner that has not settled, as I was informed by the Mayor, was built upon the foundation of an old wall, 2 from which circumstance it would appear that the earth once pressed down by considerable w e i g h t does not afterwards admit of further condensation. In d i g g i n g the foundation of m y boring m i l l 3 1 found the ground hardest at the very surface, & almost a quicksand on the N W side, where the foundation of the old building obliged me to dig deeper. These three buildings are in fact the best looking in N e w Orleans at present. T h e hospital 4 is a good design by my son. T h e new Orleans Theatre, 6 joined to Davis's assembly rooms, is a thing that has not a striking effect. It is tame, but otherwise not a bad composition. T h e old Theatre of St. Philip 6 has an unfinished front, which ' T h e site of the Cabildo (or Principal) was formerly occupied by the French Corps de Garde of the Place d'Armes, at the corner of Chartres and St. Peter Streets, and by the civil and military prison adjoining it and next to the church. Both buildings were of brick, the prisons being erected in 1730, according to a plan ( No. 84) in the Ministère des Colonies in Paris. Their construction is minutely described in the "Inventory of Buildings Belonging to the French Government in New Orleans, July 25, 1767 (Paris Archives, Col. C-13A-45 f. 131 ). These buildings were destroyed in the fire of 1788. * As the water from Latrobe's waterworks was to be distributed through wooden pipes, it was necessary to erect a boring mill to bore the cypress logs for this use. In the Louisiana Courier of March 24, 1819, Latrobe inserted an advertisement for yellow pine and cypress logs for use of the waterworks. 4 The Charity Hospital occupied the square facing Canal Street between Baronne Street and University Place (then Philippa Street), and was erected by Henry Latrobe in 1815. Work on the Hospital was in progress at the time of his death in 1817, possibly the erection of the two detached wings which were added to the original structure. When the Charity Hospital moved to its present site on Tulane Avenue, in 1832, the old buildings on Canal Street were remodeled for use as the State House by Owen Evens, contractor, according to the plans of Charles F. Zimpel, Deputy City Surveyor, at a cost of $8400. A drawing of this building appears on Zimpel's well-known map of New Orleans of 1834. * The original Orleans Theater erected by Latour and Laclotte, in 1813, was destroyed in the fire of 1816. It was rebuilt somewhat on the same plan, at a cost of about $180,000, John Davis being the owner. It is illustrated in Norman, New Orleans and Environs ( 1845), and described as follows (p. 177): "The lower story is of the Roman Doric order, certainly not a pure specimen. The upper is what may be called the Corinthian composite. The interior and scenic arrangements of the house are excellent for seeing and hearing, having a pit or parquette, quite elevated and commodious, with grated boxes at the side for persons in mourning; two tiers of boxes, and one of galleries above; the whole being of such a form as to afford the greatest accommodation to the spectators." The site, Orleans Street between Royal and Bourbon, is now occupied by the negro Convent of the Holy Family. 4 The St. Philip Theatre stood on St. Philip Street between Bourbon and Royal, on a site now occupied by the St. Philip Public School. A drawing of the theater appears among the marginal sketches in the map of New Orleans published by J. Tanesse, city surveyor, in 1817. The date of the building is given as 1810.

42

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if compleat [iic] would be rather pretty. After a longer residence I shall be better qualified to speak of the private houses. But this much I may say, that altho' the sort of house built here by the French is not the best specimen of French arrangement, yet it is infinitely, in my opinion, superior to that arrangement which we have inherited from the English. But so inveterate is habit that the merchants from the old United States, who are daily gaining ground on the manners, the habits, the opinions, & the domestic arrangements of the French, have already begun to introduce the detestable, lop-sided, London house, in which a common passage & stairs acts as a common sewer to all the necessities of the dwelling & renders it impossible to preserve a temperature within the house materially different from that of the atmosphere, as the coughs, colds, & consumptions of our Eastern cities amply testify. With the English arrangement, the red brick fronts are also gaining ground, & the suburb St. Mary, 7 the American suburb, already exhibits the flat, dull, dingy character of Market Street, in Philadelphia, or Baltimore street, instead of the motley & picturesque effect of the stuccoed French buildings of the city. We shall introduce many grand & profitable improvements, but they will take the place of much elegance, ease, & some convenience. New Orleans, Feb'y 20th, 1819. Last Sunday my friend Mr. Nolte 8 took me down to the famous Battle Ground, about 6 miles below the city. He was a Volunteer in Plauche's Battlion (see Latour's history of the War in Louisiana9) & was in all the actions from the 23d Dec'r to the 8th of Jan'y, 1815. I could not therefore have a better 7

The suburb St. Mary, or the Faubourg Ste. Marie, was the American section of New Orleans, occupying the area up river from Canal Street, which during the French period had been the Jesuit Plantation. It was originally laid out in streets in 1788 by Mme Bertrand Gravier (Dona Maria J. Delhonde), who called it "Ville Gravier." In 1796, after her death, the streets were extended by her husband, who renamed the suburb "Ste. Marie" in her memory (Francis P. Burns, "The Graviers and the Faubourg Ste. Marie," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXII, 397). 8 Vincent Nolte, merchant, born in Leghorn in 1779, first came to New Orleans in 1806. The account of his life there and his part in the battle of New Orleans is contained in his Fifty Tears in Both Hemispheres; or, Reminiscences of the Life of a Former Merchant (1854). It was on this book that Hervey Allen's novel Anthony Adverse was based. 9 Major A. Lacarriere Latour, Historical Memoires of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-15, with an Atlas, Philadelphia, John Conrad & Co., 1816. Latrobe's son Henry was closely associated with Latour in New Orleans. In a letter to his son dated September 18, 1815, Latrobe mentions meeting Latour in Baltimore, "a little sharp looking Frenchman—going to Philadelphia about his work on the campaign." In another letter, dated Washington, May 3, 1816, he wrote, "Yesterday your friend Major Latour spent part of the evening with us. He has in his exterior all the evidence of his many amiable and valuable qualities which you have credited to him.—I fear Latour has not made out well with his book. I am trying to sell as many as I can for him."

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Cicerone, & he kindly took the trouble to explain everything that remained to be explained after the numerous descriptions & drawings that the importance of the events has given to the public.

FIELD

OF T H E

BATTLE

OF J A N U A R Y

8,

1815

The battle of the 8th terminated the campaign, but the attack of the British immediately on Landing decided its ultimate event. This is generally known & believed. The retreat of General [Jackson] to the Lines at which the battle of the 8th was fought was a most judicious measure & worthy of Hannibal. These lines, or rather this Line, is now visible only as the somewhat elevated bank of a narrow canal from the Mississippi to the swamp. On the Mississippi itself was constructed, very injudiciously, a redoubt, the same which was actually entered by the British, and in which Major Rennie10 fell. The redoubt was placed injudiciously, because its advanced position covered the British from the fire of the line. Close to the river, & separated only by the levee & road, is the old fashioned, but otherwise handsome, garden & house of Mr. Montgomery. 11 The garden, which I think covers not less than 4 acres, is laid out in square walks & flower beds in the old French style. It is entirely enclosed by a thick hedge of orange trees, which have been suffered to run up to 15 or 16 feet high on the flanks & rear, but which are shorn down to the highth [MC] of 4 or 5 feet along the road. The Walks are bordered by very large myrtles cut into the shape of large hay cocks, about 10

Vincent N o l t e , in his Fifty Tears in Both Hemispheres ( p . 2 2 0 ) , g i v e s t h e f o l l o w i n g r e g a r d i n g t h e British M a j o r Rennie: " P a k e n h a m d e t e r m i n e d t o attack with t h r e e c o l u m n s ; of which t h e smallest, of 8 0 0 m e n , w a s c o m m a n d e d by M a j o r Rennie, and was to m a k e a d e m o n s t r a t i o n only a g a i n s t t h e r e d o u b t facing t h e British left w i n g T h e r e d o u b t u p o n t h e h i g h w a y o n t h e r i g h t s h o r e w a s first reached by t h e little division c o m m a n d e d by M a j o r Rennie, w h o was the first to m o u n t it, s w o r d in h a n d , and as h e s h o u t e d , " C o m e , m y b o y s , the d a y is o u r s ! " he was pierced by t h r e e bullets, and m e t t h e d e a t h of a b r a v e g e n t l e m a n . It w a s a b o u t half past 8, A.M." In John L o w , History of the War{\%\5), this incident is illustrated in the frontispiece. L o w says ( p . 273) " T w o British officers and o n e F r e n c h e n g i n e e r , of t h e n a m e of Rennie, w h o had gained t h e s u m m i t of the A m e r i c a n p a r a p e t , w e r e killed, w o u n d e d o r m a d e p r i s o n e r s . ( T h e e n g i n e e r and one colonel was k i l l e d . ) " 11 W i l l i a m W . M o n t g o m e r y , N e w O r l e a n s m e r c h a n t of the f i r m of M c N e a l and M o n t g o m e r y at t h e t i m e of t h e t r a n s f e r of Louisiana f r o m Spain, commissioned 1 st L i e u t e n a n t and a d j u t a n t of t h e E i g h t h R e g i m e n t of t h e O r l e a n s T e r r i t o r i a l M i l i t i a , N o v e m b e r 27, 1805 (Territorial Papers of the U.S. ed. by C . E . C a r t e r , W a s h i n g t o n , 1 9 4 0 , — I X , 336.) According t o Vincent N o l t e , h e f o u g h t in the B a t t l e of N e w O r l e a n s in " a c o m p a n y of v o l u n t e e r riflemen u n d e r t h e c o m m a n d of a M r . Beale—principally m a d e u p of A m e r i c a n s f r o m the N o r t h e r n S t a t e s — i t n u m b e r e d a m o n g its r a n k s — M e s s r s M o n t g o m e r y and T o u r o , still living and k n o w n as wealthy and respectable m e r c h a n t s . "

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1819

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8 feet high & as much in diameter. There are so many of them, and they are so exactly equal in size & form that the effect is curious if not elegant. The house itself is one of the usual French plantation houses of the first class &, I think, by far the best kind of house for the climate, namely, a mansion surrounded entirely by a portico or gallery of two stories. The roof is enormous, however. In this house General Jackson had his headquarters.12 In order to build the redoubt, the corner of the garden was cut off, and part of the orange hedge still grows, in a very decayed state, within the lines of the redoubt. The road has been turned round it. Mr. Montgomery intends restoring his garden to its former state, when the ruins of this work will entirely disappear. A canal, serving at the time of high water to lead the water of the Mississippi to the swamp in the rear, & to drive a mill, prepared the ditch of the lines, & to make them defencible [m'c] it was only necessary to raise the bank on the West side, which was done. But it hardly ever deserved the name of a military work. The battery D, as well as the others, was strengthened & indeed built, by laying down a mass of Bales of Cotton,13 u

At the time of the Battle of New Orleans this house was the plantation home of Jean Edmond Macarty. On April 30, 1817, Montgomery bought the plantation from "Jean Noel Destrehan, an heir of the late Jean Edmond Macarty, his grandson—a plantation situated around a league and a quarter below New Orleans—with the establishments upon it consisting of a new master's house, and some other edifices in bad condition" (Acts of Michel de Armas, New Orleans Court House). Jackson having established his headquarters in the house, it naturally became a target for the British fire. Vincent Nolte says of this: "It could not long remain unknown to the English that Jackson had his headquarters in Macarty's house, but the shots they directed against it did very little damage. The house was still standing in the year 1838, when I visited it and saw the cannon-balls still embedded in its walls, where the owners had, in their enthusiasm, caused them to be gilt, in the year 1822." An excellent view of this house with its garden and the redoubt appears in Hyacinthe Laclotte's well-known engraving of the Battle of New Orleans. An article appearing in Harper's for January, 1865, also shows a sketch of the house, which was still standing at that time. The site is now occupied by the Chalmette Slip with its wharves and warehouses. The Historical Sketch Book and Guide to New Orleans (1885), p. 177, says: "The headquarters of General Jackson during the battle of New Orleans was the residence of Wm. M. Montgomery, a rich merchant who possessed a suburban villa just below the city. From the Montgomery House, General Jackson moved to the old Marigny Mansion on Victory (now Chartres) street.—The house has since been destroyed by fire." w Much of this cotton (250 bales) was the property of Vincent Nolte, who sought compensation for its loss, W. W. Montgomery being one of the commissioners in the settlement of the claim.

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covering them with earth, piling others upon them, & thus producing perhaps a much better work than harder materials could have supplied. When the campaign was at an end, the bales were taken up, & in the place of the battery is now a pond & a gap in the line. This ditch & something of a bank extending from the river road to the swamp will probably remain for many years, because the ditch serves as a plantation drain. But the soluble quality of the earth & the exceedingly heavy rains of the climate would otherwise, in a few years, destroy every vestige of a work which saved the city & the whole country of the delta from conquest. The field of battle is itself a level uninterrupted plain without cover or defence of any kind, immediately in front of the Line, on which it was necessary to sacrifice a great number of men before the Line could be approached. The event is known, & will live as long as the American history shall be read. MODE

OF K E E P I N G

SUNDAY

REASONINGS

IN

NEW

ORLEANS

AND

THEREON

Feb'y 21st, 1819. There is much to be said on both sides.

A bill was moved, I think, in the last session of the Legislature to put down the practice of dancing & shop keeping prevailing here on Sunday. I am not quite sure of the fact, though I have heard it stated, but if the attempt was made, it did not succeed. Perhaps my early education on the Continent of Europe has still an influence over my opinions, but certainly, had I been in the Legislature, I should have voted against the law to prohibit recreation of any sort on Sunday, on principle. If gambling is a recreation, it is also a vice; that is, it produces certain & inevitable misery to the winner as well as to the loser, & certain injury to their families and to the community at large. The more effectually, therefore, that sort of recreation be put down, & the sooner, so much the better, not on Sunday only, but on all days. I was also of opinion that the shop keeping ought to be put down, independently of any religious motive, because it forces those who have no interest in the sales, that is the hired people & apprentices, to labor & deprives them of the priviledge of divine worship or of recreation, if you please, which every other individual, & probably their masters themselves, enjoy once in seven days. But my opinion is altered after being better informed, principally by conversation with Mr. Tho's Urquhart, 14 one of the old 14

Concerning Thomas Urquhart, Governor Claiborne wrote to James Madison on March 4, 1810:

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inhabitants & most sensible men of this place. The slaves are by no means obliged to work anywhere in this state on Sunday, as has been stated & is believed in the Eastern states by many, excepting in the sugar boiling season, & when the river rises, on the levee to prevent danger from inundation. They do indeed work at other seasons by the desire, perhaps by the order, of their masters; but it is understood, I believe it is a law* (which I will endeavor to ascertain), that if they do work, they shall be paid for their labor, both in boiling sugar on Sunday & for every other kind of work. *(It is so, see page 54.) In the neighborhood of N. Orleans, the land is valuable for the cultivation of sugar, & there is so little of it that were it not for the vegetables & fowls & small marketing of all sorts raised by the negro slaves, the city would starve. To the negroes it is not labor, but frolic & recreation to come to market. They have only Sunday on which day to sell their truck. If more good than evil grows out of the license to these wretches to come to town & earn some comfort, some decent clothing, or even some finery for their families, by the sale of their articles—if the town is fed, & the negro slave clothed, thereby—it would be difficult to show how the prohibition of the practice, & its consequence would be compensated by the forced idleness of these people throughout the week, as well as their idleness or forced attendance at church on Sunday (if indeed it could be, which it cannot be, forced). I have often listened to the Puritan doctrine on the subject of Sunday with astonishment, in as far as it prohibits, as sin (a word of very elastic meaning) every innocent act satisfactory to the human heart, as constituted by our Creator, on one day in the week, which it allows on every other; & to the justification of this rigor by the ten commandments, & the example of the early Christians. All that the second commandment directs is contained in these words: "Six days shalt thou labor, & on the seventh (not on the first) thou shalt do no manner of work, neither thou, &c." Now recreation is certainly not herein forbidden, neither walking, nor dancing, nor music, nor any other act that gives innocent pleasure, & to which forced labor, either of servant or an animal, is not required. In the country in which the Sabbath was in"Mr. Thomas Urquhart resides in New Orleans;—He is a well informed Merchant in high credit, and enjoying an independent fortune;—He is president of the Louisiana Bank, and of the New Orleans Insurance Company; he is also a member of the House of Representatives of the Territory and is now and has been for the last three years, Speaker of that branch of the Legislature. Mr. Urquhart supports a most amiable Character in private life and discharges with great fidelity the public trusts reposed in him" ( Territorial Papers of the U.S., ed. by C. E. Carter, Washington 1940, IX, 869).

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stituted, a more benevolent, a more just, & a more politic law could not have been established by the common father of master & slave. There the relation of slave to the master was infinitely more distant & more oppressive than with us. The master was master of the life, as well as of the labor of his servant. But there is no country, not even the countries in which this relation is wholly unknown to the laws, in which the difference of rank & of wealth does not put the labor of the poor at the disposal of the rich. It is therefore a wise & a benevolent institution that says to power: "thus far shalt thou go, & no further." But shall the slave, released from the constraint of his master be told: "You are not compelled to work, but you shall not play—you shall listen for six days to the sound of the tabor and pipe issuing from your master's mansion, & see at a distance when you return to your hovel the blaze of his festivity, & through his windows gape at the dance & the revel without sharing it, but on the seventh you shall go to church for an hour or two, & the rest of the day you shall sit idle by force, "for every step in the dance is a step towards hell fire. It is no sin for your master to spend, during six days, the product of the sweat of your brow on musicians & gardners & coachmen & footmen & all the other means of innocent pleasure which the most pious allow themselves, but for you to do the little dancing, & playing at foot ball, or cricket that you can do on the seventh, is a crying Sin." It will be hard to find this doctrine in the second commandment; still less will it be found that at the risk of real injury to themselves & to the city which their Labor during the week tends to supply with food they are forbidden to indulge the useful recreation of going to Market. If then they may, without sin, go to market, they may without Sin (for it is no manner of work to them) buy what they want in the city. But it will be said, "if the Slaves find this an allowable recreation, it is certainly work to the Shop keepers." Granted. But no discussion of this point is necessary, for it is an exception expressly made by Christ—& admitted by Praise God Barebones & his comrades—that works of Charity & necessity may be innocently performed on the Sabbath. Can any thing be stronger than the words in which the license is granted & by which it is made so general as to admit of most extensive latitude. It will certainly take in the Supply of Slaves with articles earned during the week & essential to the little comfort which their condition allows them. These words are "The Sabbath was made for Man not Man for the Sabbath." Another question is not easily answered. As the English & Scotch mode of keeping Sunday is defended by the 2d Commandment, how comes it that Christians generally

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49

have taken the liberty to keep the 1st & not the 7th day holy? Because, say they, it is the day of the resurrection, and this was the practise of the early Christians. But the commandment is very positive, as to the 7th day, & reasons are given why the 7th & no other shall be the day. Of this opinion are the 7 th day Baptists, of New Jersey, as my father-in-law 15 knows well to his cost, for John Ayres, one of his tenants, never would do a stroke of work on Saturday, let the pressure during the harvest be what it would, & on Sunday none of the men would work, & his solitary labor was worth nothing. These men were consistent pietists, but the smallness of their number subjected them to great inconveniences. This long dissertation has been suggested by my accidentally stumbling upon the assembly of negroes which I am told every Sunday afternoon meets on the Common in the rear of the city. My object was to take a walk with Mr. Coulter 16 on the bank of the Canal Carondelet as far as the Bayou St. John. In going up St. Peters Street & approaching the common I heard a most extraordinary noise, which I supposed to proceed from some horse mill, the horses trampling on a wooden floor. I found, however, on emerging from the houses onto the Common, that it proceeded from a crowd of 5 or 600 persons assembled in an open space or public square. 17 I went to the spot & crowded near enough to see the performance. All those who were engaged in the business seemed to be blacks. I did not observe a dozen yellow faces. They were formed into circular groupes [i/c] in the midst of four of which, which I examined (but there were more of them), was a ring, the largest not 10 feet in diameter. In the first were two women dancing. They held each a coarse handkerchief extended by the corners in their hands, & set to each other in a miserably dull & slow figure, hardly moving their feet or bodies. The music consisted of two drums and a stringed instrument. An old man sat astride of a cylindrical drum about a foot in diameter, & 14

Isaac Hazlehurst, of Philadelphia, business partner of Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution. Latrobe described his father-in-law in a letter of November 15, 1817, as "one of the first merchants, and most respectable men on this side of the Atlantic." 16 Andrew S. Coulter preceded Latrobe to New Orleans from Baltimore, in May, 1818, to set up the engines of the waterworks. In a letter to the Mayor of New Orleans, May 4, 1818, Latrobe described him as "an Engineer of unexceptionable character and experience." He remained in charge of the waterworks after Latrobe's death. 17 Now Beauregard Square, formerly the site of Fort St. Ferdinand, afterwards known as Congo Square. It is described in Paxton's Directory of 1822 (p. 40) as follows: "The Circus public square is planted with trees, and inclosed, and is very noted on account of its being the place where the Congo, and other negroes dance, carouse and debauch on the Sabbath, to the great injury of the morals of the rising generation; it is a foolish custom, that elicits the ridicule of most respectable persons who visit the city."

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beat it with incredible quickness with the edge of his hand & fingers. The other drum was an open staved thing held between the knees & beaten in the same manner. They made an incredible noise. The most curious instrument, however, was a stringed instrument which no doubt was imported from Africa. On the top of the finger board was the rude figure of a man in a sitting posture, & two pegs behind him to which the strings were fastened. The body was a calabash. It was played upon by a very little old man, apparently 80 or 90 years old. The women squalled out a burthen to the playing at intervals, consisting of two notes, as the negroes, working in our cities, respond to the song of their leader. Most of the circles contained the same sort of dancers. One was larger, in which a ring of a dozen women walked, by way of dancing, round the music in the center. But the instruments were of a different construction. One, which from the color of the wood

February, 1819

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NOTES

51

seemed new, consisted of a block cut into something of the form of a cricket bat with a long & deep mortice down the center. This thing made a considerable noise, being beaten lustily on the side by a short stick. In the same orchestra was a square drum, looking like a stool, which made an abominably loud noise; also a calabash with a round hole in it, the hole studded with brass nails, which was beaten by a woman with two short sticks. A man sung [j/ic] an uncouth song to the dancing which I suppose was in some African language, for it was not French, & the women screamed a detestable burthen on one single note. The allowed amusements of Sunday —/q> have, it seems, perpetuated here those of Africa among its — — T ~ ~ f inhabitants. I have never seen anything more brutally { J h — ^ ) savage, and at the same time dull & stupid, than this whole exhibition. Continuing my walk about a mile along the canal, & returning after Sunset near the same spot, the noise was still heard. There was not the least disorder among the crowd, nor do I learn on enquiry, that these weekly meetings of the negroes have ever produced any mischief.

PROFESSIONAL

PECULIARITIES

New Orleans, Feb'y 22d, 1819. Every profession has its follies; and it is impossible, & indeed would often be injurious to the interests of the community, to amputate the follies of professional practice & leave nothing but the naked skin of fact & common sense. In cutting off a wen or a wart the patient might bleed to death. The follies of the practice of the law are innumerable; none appear more glaring to unprofessional men, none have excited greater irritation in the profane who pay for nursing them, & to none does the simile I have used apply more aptly. Therefore all attempts to suppress the latitude & technicality of pleading have failed, because many of these follies grow upon the vital part, the freedom of discussion in the defence of right. The following paragraph from the New York evening post appeared to me a most singular instance of the excess of folly in legal pleading. The case of Abraham Whistelo, in which Dr. Mitchill was also a witness, was not nearly so remarkable. As no explanation is given of the point in question, I must suppose that the expression in the law by which spermaceti & train Oil is described is Fish Oil. Dr. Mitchill may have remarked that whales belong to the class of mammalia—having two breasts, at which they suckle their young above the stomach; a classification by which Linnaeus has

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brought together the mail, the ape, the monkey, the bat, the seal, the sealion, & the whales. But surely the jury, the bar, the judge, the plaintiff, & the defendants knew as well before as after the trial what was meant by fish oil. Law intelligence—At the last Mayor's Court came on for trial the case of Maurice, inspector of oil, vs. Judd, a vender [j«r], which, strange as it may seem, turned on the question whether a whale is a fish? [sic] T o support the negative, the learned Dr. Mitchill was sworn, and a number of persons not so learned: while, on the other side, a number of witnesses, equally respectable, testified that they had always been accustomed, during their whole lives, to consider every inhabitant of the great deep, and which could not live on land, as fishes, and the whale among the rest. It consumed nearly three days in settling the question; all the sellers of oil being one way of swearing, and all the buyers another; and perhaps the jury might have been puzzled until this time, had not the learned Dr. Mitchell [j/c] unfortunately quoted the first chapter of Genesis in support of his opinion. The doctor remarked, that it is there said, that "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly:" from which he inferred that the whale was a separate creation from fishes. This put the other side upon the same track; who found a text in the old testament, which states, that "Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights," and in the new, that "Jonah was three days in the whale's belly." Putting the two together, they proved that a whale was a fish, according to scripture authority. Besides, they said that the doctor's text, if it proved anything in the case, would prove too much, for it would equally prove that a whale was not a "living creature." 18 Finally the jury by their verdict decided that a whale is a fish. Sir Joseph Banks, we are told by the facetious Peter Pindar, once made an experiment to satisfy himself whether fleas were not lobsters, by boiling them to see if they would turn red, but the result disappointing his expectations, he is made by the poet to exclaim, peevishly, "Fleas are not lobsters, d—n their souls." A report of this funny trial is preparing by Mr. Sampson, one of the counsel for the plaintiff and will shortly appear. New Orleans, Feb'y 24th, 1819. In the remarks which I have hitherto made on this city and its inhabitants, I have stated impressions only. T h e outside of all society is more or less painted & gilded, & every stranger, I mean every sensible & good humored stranger, is more apt to receive favorable than unfavorable impressions of what he sees in civilized society, on his first introduction. Weil sich das Aug am Kleid der Dinge stosst.—Haller "The Eye penetrates not below the Dress of Things." 11

This is certainly a non sequitur. [Note by Latrobe.]

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Smollet received from Sterne the name of Smellfungus, and this name has descended as a sort of inheritance to the whole class of travelers who find everything bad & detestable that does not accord with the habits of the community in which they grew up & with their own. England, the native soil of so much genius, & so much reason, has also been most prolific of this sort of travelers, of these Smellfungi. I think the German, & many of the French travelers are generally candid, & often are led by their philosophizing temper into the opposite extreme. I have hitherto seemed more to commend than to condemn the state of things and the characters of individuals here, and indeed the numerous civilities I have received must have met a very ungrateful return had my impressions been unfavorable. But every medal has two sides.

TREATMENT

OF S L A V E S

IN

NEW

ORLEANS

The general character of the masters & mistresses of slaves in this city and neighborhood is, that the Americans treat & feed & cloth[e] their slaves well, but that the Creoles are in all these respects comparatively cruel to these unfortunate people. In going into Davis's ballroom, & looking round the brilliant circle of Ladies, it is impossible to imagine that any one of the fair, mild, & somewhat languid faces, could express any feeling but of kindness & humanity. And yet several, I had almost said many, of these soft beauties handle themselves the cowskin, with a sort of savage pleasure, & those soft eyes can look on the tortures of their slaves, inflicted by their orders, with satisfaction, & cooly prescribe the dose of infliction, the measure of which shall stop short of the life of their property. Mrs. Tremoulet—why should I conceal the name of such a termagant?—is one of those notorious for their cruelty. She is a small mild faced creature, who weeps over the absence of her daughter now with her husband in France. She has several servants; one a Mulatto woman—by far the best house servant I know of her sex—famous also as a semstress & for her good temper, so much so, that she can at any time be sold for 2,000 dollars, & Mrs. Tremoulet actually asks 3,000. Independently of her duty in a large boarding house, in waiting, & making beds, she is expected to make two shirts a day (& night) for the benefit of her mistresses private purse. In six weeks I have never seen in her conduct the smallest fault; she is modest, obliging, & incredibly active. A few days ago she failed (because it was impossible) to make the bed of a stranger at the hour prescribed. In consequence of this fault Mrs. Tremoulet had her stripped quite naked, tied to a bed post, & she herself, in presence of her daughter, Mrs. Turpin (the mother of three beautiful Children), whipped her with a Cowskin

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till she bled. Mrs. Turpin then observed, "Maman, vous êtes trop bonne; pourquoi prenez vous la peine de la fouetter vous même, appeliez donc Guillaume." William was called & made to whip her till she fainted. This scene made a noise in the house, & the blood betrayed it. Poor Sophy is ill, & constantly crying. I shall leave the house as soon as convenient to me. Madam Lanusse is another of these Hellcats. Her husband is a very amiable man, president of the Bank of Louisiana, whom she had driven to seek a divorce, but the matter has been compromised lately. She did actually whip a negress to death, and treated another so cruelly that she died a short time afterwards. Mr. Nott, a principal merchant of this place, stated the facts to the Grand jury, but it was hushed up, from respect to her husband. Mrs. Kennedy, my landlady, a sensible Irish woman, saw through the fence preparations making by Madam Conrad to punish several of her negroes. A ladder was brought & laid down, & a naked man tied upon it; she was so shocked that she left her house for several hours, & did not return till she supposed the execution was over. The first wife of Bernard Marigny was a beast of the same kind. A Gentleman whom I will not name saw her stand by some years ago while a naked woman was tied up on a ladder by her orders, to undergo the punishment of the whip. He immediately turned about & departed. At the ball on Washington's birthday, the 22d, the idea of these things destroyed all the pleasure I should otherwise have felt in seeing the brilliant assemblage of as many beautiful faces and forms as I ever saw collected in one room, all pale, languid, & mild. I fancied that I saw a cowskin in every pretty hand gracefully waved in the dance; and admired the comparative awkwardness of look & motion of my countrywomen, whose arms had never been rendered pliant by the exercise of the whip upon the bound & screaming slave. Whatever therefore this community may lose in taste & elegance, & exterior suavity, & acquire of serious & awkward bluntness, & commercial stiffness—may the change be as rapid as possible, if at the same time active humanity is introduced into the deplorable system of slavery which I fear must long, perhaps forever, prevail in this state. New Orleans, Feb'y 25th, 1819. In the remarks which I made on the 21st respecting the manner in which Sunday is observed by the black population, I stated that I was not certain whether Sunday was legally their own, or whether as Cowper says or sings "Sunday shines no holiday to them."

February,

1819

NEW THE

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NOTES

55

CODE

I therefore have consulted Martin's Digest19 & find that in what is called the Black Code the first article runs thus, Sec p. 608, June 7th, 1806. l.I. The inhabitants shall leave to their Slaves the free enjoyment of Sundays, & shall pay them for their labor on said days, fVhen they will employ them, at the rate of 50 cents. Provided, that the present section shall not be construed so as to extend to slaves employed as servants, carriage drivers, hospital waiters, or to those employed in carrying provisions to market. This is a curious section. "When they will employ them," in the French law (for all laws are published in English & French) stands, lorsqu'ils les emploiront, which means when they do employ them, so that in French the power of employment is in the master. But how is the Slave to obtain his money? By complaint to a justice against a master who can whip him all the week within an inch of his life? I doubt therefore much whether the masters are—all of them—conscientiously obedient to the law. As to the exception of house servants, that is at least as fair as it is for white hired domestics, whose service is equally obligatory on Sunday as during the week, & may be considered as compensated by easier & more respectable labor, & better food & clothing. But the exception of slaves carrying provisions into the market is less easily accounted for, unless the frolic (which they really consider it to be) and what they can purloin may be considered as a compensation. Then succeeds a provision of food & clothing extending to those who work, as well as to the sick & disabled, which I am told is ample, and to the latter (Section VI) spiritual & temporal assistance is to be given under a penalty of 25 dollars for each neglect. Section 6 is curious, as it prohibits the commutation of food & clothing for freedom to work for themselves, on the ground, I suppose, that they may not always get work, especially at the time when the master has least for them to do himself. The law regulates further the hours of labor, prohibits the separation of mothers & children under 10 years old, or of any child which a disabled parent may chuse [$/c] to retain, from 19

Section I of the Black Code is found in both French and English, in A General Digest of the Acts of the Legislature of the Late Territory of Orleans and of the State of Louisiana, and the Ordinances of the Governor under the Territorial Government: by Francois Xavier Martin, One of the Judges of the Supreme Court Published under a Resolve of the Legislature, New Orleans, printed by Peter K. Wagner, 1816, I, 608.

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such parent; 10 & upon the whole has every feature of humanity of which the detestable system seems susceptible. 28. All free colored persons are to carry a certificate of a judge of the peace that they are free, all others without a permission [Sec.?] 30, are held to be runaways, unless they can account for themselves by such permission; & all runaways delivered to a gaol are to be kept to hard labor & advertised, & provided with food, clothing, houseroom & medical attendance &c. But if a slave without a permission be arrested by any white person beyond the place of his habitual labor, he shall receive 20 lashes from the person arresting him, and be sent back to his master, who shall pay 1 Dollar for his trouble. This is an abominable section, for it does not leave it optional with the person arresting him to whip him or not. Now if it had been enacted that he should be sent back to his master, who might inflict the punishment at his option, there would have been at least some consistency in the thing. But as it is, the person who is not injured, & who will take the trouble for the sake of the dollar, will probably be a regular beast of a negro trader, & it is 100 to one but that the slave will receive an additional whipping from his master. Section 40. is so curious that I cannot help transcribing it. Free people of color ought never to insult or strike white people nor presume to think themselves equal to the white, but on the contrary they ought to yield to them on every occasion, & never speak to, or answer them but with respect, under penalty of imprisonment according to the nature of the offence. There is a law to regulate moral feeling!! The criminal part of the code is also much more just & humane than I expected, & 40

Section VI of the Black Code (p. 610) states: "No inhabitant shall be discharged from the obligation of feeding his slaves, by permitting them, instead of feeding them, to work certain days in the week for their own account, under the penalty of five and twenty dollars for every offence."—The code continues: "7. VII. As for the hours of work and of rest, which are to be assigned to slaves in summer and winter, the old usages of the territory shall be adhered to, to wit: The slaves shall be allowed half an hour for breakfast, during the whole year, from the first day of May to the first day of November, they shall be allowed two hours for dinner, and from the first day of November to the first day of May, one hour and a half for dinner: Provided however, that the owners who will themselves take the trouble of causing to be prepared the meals of their slaves, be and they are hereby authorized to abridge by half an hour per day the time fixed for their rest. "8. VIII. If at a public sale of slaves, there happen to be some who be disabled through old age or otherwise, and who have children, such slaves shall not be sold but with such of his or her children whom she or he may think proper to go with. "9. IX. Every person is expressly prohibited from selling separately from their mothers, the children who shall not have attained the full age of ten years."

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differs from that respecting whites only in substituting a jury of 3 to 5 persons—& those probably slave masters—for a jury of 12 equals.—Sect. 55. The life of a slave wilfully killed by his master or mistress is rated at from 200 to 500 dollars, and cruel punishments are forbidden with the express exception of "flogging or striking with a

whip, leather thong, switch or small stick, or putting in irons, or confining said slave," which it seems are not cruel punishments in the eye of this law. On the whole, the law is a very humane law, much more so than I had at all conceived; & as its Gallic idiom, & the provision of the 80th paragraph, p. 670, provides that in respect to the 27th section the French text shall govern, it is very evident that no American can claim the merit of it, except in debate. It does honor to the State. It must always, in judging of its provisions, be observed that it is a law to maintain a forced state of things, and therefore it cannot be expected to find in it any provision inconsistent with a rigorous enforcement of the state of slavery. The law found that system established, and its object is to remove from it all unnecessary & unjust suffering, & if conscientiously complied with by the Master, the Slave could only complain that he is a Slave. But no law of this kind can be fully inforced; the slave cannot possibly be acquainted with all its provisions in his favor, so as to enable him to appeal to it for his protection; & if he fully understood them, the very clause that prohibits his absence from the plantation without a permission from his Master, forecloses his appeal, independently of the power of inflicting the punishments not considered as cruel by the 55th Section. If what Goldsmith says in his Traveller, Of all the evils mortal men endure, How small the number Laws can cause or cure, be true among free & equal citizens, how much truer must it be among Masters & Slaves, with whom the appeal to them is almost entirely on one side. In respect to slaves committed to jail in New Orleans, & employed in the public work, I cannot say that they are hard worked. The clanking of their chains, which being fixed round the ankle are brought up along the leg and fastened to the waist, is a distressing sound. From 50 to 100 are always about the streets or the levee under an overseer or two, who carry a long whip with a short handle. I have observed black fellows without chains directing them, & having the same sort of whip in their hands. They are now employed in leveling the dirt in the unpaved & cut up streets, in making stages from the levee to the ships in the harbor, & other works of mere labor, about all which they seem to go very much at their leisure. One morning, while attending the Council at the Principal, or town house, I was

NEW

58

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NOTES

February, 1819

excessively annoyed for nearly an h o u r by h e a r i n g successive cracks of a whip, each followed by a scream, and as t h e t o n e of the screams varied, I p r e s u m e it was a day of execution at t h e jail, which is behind the Principal.

CHANGE NEW

OF C H A R A C T E R ORLEANS

IN

WHICH

MANNERS

Is

GRADUALLY

AND

RELIGIOUS

TAKING

PLACE

IN

CEREMONIES

Feb'y 26th, 1819. T h e change which is gradually taking place in the character of this city is n o t very rapid compared with the march of society on the continent generally. But to the old inhabitants it m u s t appear e x t r a o r d i n a r y enough. M u c h of w h a t w a s daily practice has entirely disappeared never to r e t u r n : for instance, the military parade of the I n t e n d a n t , and all the ceremony that belonged to the G o v e r n m e n t of a city in which the people w e r e only an appendage to the M a g i s t r a c y . T h e G o v e r n o r of the State is certainly the head of a much m o r e important & powerful community than the Spanish a u t h o r i t y ever r e i g n e d over. But the difference of respect with which the f o r m e r is t r e a t e d compared with the submission shown to the latter whenever he appeared, is in an inverse ratio entirely. I observed a r e m a r k a b l e instance of t h e democratic character of the citizens at the magnificant ball given at Davis's, on W a s h i n g t o n ' s birthday. T h e r e w e r e about 300 G e n t l e m e n present, & probably 4 0 0 Ladies. W h e n supper w a s r e a d y , old M r . F o r t i e r , 2 1 an old Creole of about 70, with the spirits & m a n n e r s of a boy of 17, who is a sort of self-elected m a s t e r of the ceremonies, not only at all balls, but at all private parties to which he is invited, stopped the dancing

& called out, "Ily a cinquante converts, cinquante Dames au souper, au souper, au souper!!" A b o u t 100, h o w e v e r , sat d o w n , & the G e n t l e m e n stood behind their chairs; another & a n o t h e r set succeeded. T h e third set did not fill the table, & the G e n t l e m e n sat d o w n to it as fast as they could. T h e G o v e r n o r Villere, 2 2 the Chief J u d g e U.S. Circuit C o u r t , Hall,23 a G e n e r a l Officer w h o m I do not know, C o m m o d o r e Patterson, 2 4 & 11

"Colonel Michel Fortier, Sr., 1750-1819, merchant, planter, ship-owner, soldier, public official, Captain in Spanish Army under Bernardo de Galvez, 1779-81, during American Revolution. Member of first City Council appointed by Colonial Prefect Laussat in 1803. One of the financial guarantors and subscribers to fund for the defense of New Orleans under General Andrew Jackson" (from inscription under portrait by Salazar in Cabildo, New Orleans). 22 Jacques Philippe Roy de Villere (1761-1830), second governor of the state of Louisiana, elected in 1816 to succeed W. C. C. Claiborne. It was on his plantation that the first British troops landed in 1814. 23 Dominic A. Hall, of South Carolina, appointed by Thomas Jefferson, December 11,1804, as Judge of the District Court of the Orleans District. It was he who imposed a fine of $1,000 on Andrew Jackson on charges of interfering with civil authority by continuing martial law in New Orleans after the end of the war. 24 Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, as captain, led a naval attack on the pirates of Barataria in 1814

February, 1819

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NOTES

59

the Mayor of Orleans25 were shown to the head of the table by the managers. But all the places were occupied by young men, not one of whom would give way. I happened to be amongst them & immediately rose, offering my place to the Governor & giving a hint to my neighbors. They looked round, but not a man of them followed my example, & as I vacated only one place & did not sit down again, it was soon filled by somebody else. The Catholic religion formerly was the only one permitted, and was carried on with all the pomp and ceremony of a Spanish establishment. The host was carried to the sick in great parade, & all those whom it encountered knelt devoutly till it had passed. All that is now over; & I understand that the procession of the host through the streets has not been seen here for several years. When the American Government took possession of New Orleans, it found here a Bishop26 who was in full possession of all the ecclesiastical power belonging to his rank, & of a considerable share of civil authority. He did not remain here, but went to the Havanna where I am told he now resides. A vicar was appointed (I do not know by what authority), & the famous Abbé Dubourg27 was the man. There is here an old Spanish Monk, Father Anthony,28 whose influence amongst the Catholics, is unbounded. He did not like this new Vicar. Abbé Dubourg, whose ambition is equal to his talents, & both are of the first magnitude, exerted himself to maintain his and commanded the navy at the Battle of New Orleans, erecting batteries on the west bank of the river and, according to Governor Claiborne, "gloriously contributed to our successes." 26 Augustin Macarty, mayor of New Orleans from 1815 to 1820. Latrobe carried on a considerable correspondence with Macarty in connection with his waterworks project. 2t Actually, the diocese of Louisiana was without a bishop at the time of its transfer to the United States, in 1803. Its first bishop was Luis Penalver y Cardenas (1749-1819), a native of Havana, appointed December 18, 1793. He arrived in Louisiana in 1795 and served until 1801, when he was appointed bishop of Guatemala, leaving the Louisiana see vacant. He finally retired to Havana, where he died July 17, 1819 (Roger Baudier, Catholic Church in Louisiana, 1939, p. 223). 27 Abbé Guillaume Dubourg (1766-1833), a native of Santo Domingo, appointed Administrator Apostolic by Archbishop Carroll, of Baltimore, on August 18, 1812. In 1805 Louisiana had been temporarily placed under the supervision of the bishop of Baltimore. Latrobe had known the abbé in Baltimore and sent his son Henry to St. Mary College. On November 15, 1817, he wrote, "Such was the arrangement and discipline of this school that while the Abbé Dubourg remained President, no institution with which I have been ever acquainted, deserved the high reputation it obtained, more fully, and notwithstanding the public prejudice against its religious character, it rose to unrivaled eminence." On September 24, 1815, William Dubourg was consecrated as second bishop of Louisiana. He resigned in 1826, retired to France, and died as archbishop of Besançon, in 1833 (Ibid.). 28 Father Francis Antonio Ildefonso Moreno y Arze de Sedella (1748-1829), a native of Granada, Spain. A Capuchin priest, he arrived in New Orleans in January, 1781, and was expelled by Governor Miro in 1790. He returned to Louisiana with Bishop Penalver in July, 1795. He was one of the most controversial characters in Louisiana history.

60

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NOTES

February, 1819

authority. He twice entered the pulpit. But as soon as his voice was heard, a party in the Church was seized with the most violent colds; they sneezed, coughed, spit and (as decency required) rubbed out their spittle on the floor with their feet. They sat in fact so uneasily on their benches, that they were obliged to be in perpetual motion, & did not recover anything like tranquillity until the Abbé had finished his sermon. The conduct of Father Antoine, in fact, was such that Archbishop Carrol 2 ' suspended him, & I think Archbishop Mareschal 30 has been obliged to do the same. He made his submission, & was restored. Abbé Dubourg acquired a temporary éclat on the 8th of January, 31 when he collected all the Ladies in the Church & performed high Mass, while the men were fighting at the lines. The subsequent parade, & a flaming Oration à la française, kept him up for some time, and he then went to Italy and France. The Pope consecrated him Bishop of Orleans, & he returned; but Father Anthony remained refractory, & yet refuses to acknowledge his authority, no regular deposition or abdication of the Spanish Bishop having taken place. The Catholic Church here, therefore, is in a kind of schismatic state. All matters of ceremony & faith are, I presume, as elsewhere; but the authority of the holy father at Rome appears to be disavowed in the person of the Bishop he has consecrated & sent out. In the meantime Bishop Dubourg, with the collection of priests, ornaments, & money, which he has collected & begged in Europe, & which amounts to 40 of the former, & a very large sum of the latter, has established himself at St. Louis, where he is about to build his Cathedral. In speaking on this subject to Archbishop Mareschal at Baltimore, he seemed very rationally to think it best to let the schism die with Father Anthony. Altho' the procession of the host no longer parades the streets, the parade of funerals is still a thing which is peculiar to New Orleans alone among all the American cities. I have twice met, accidentally, a funeral. They were both of colored people, for the coffin was carried by men of that race, & none but negroes & quateroons followed 28

John Carroll ( 1735-1815), a brother of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a native of Maryland and first bishop of the hierarchy of the United States. Père Antoine was suspended in 1807 by Bishop Carroll, the cathedral was interdicted, and the chapel of the Ursulines became the only ecclesiastically recognized parish church. A full account of this episode is contained in Baudier, "The Catholic Church in Louisiana." 10 Ambrose Maréchal ( 1764^1828) succeeded Archbishop Neale as third archbishop of Baltimore, being consecrated on December 14, 1817. He was a native of Ingres, France. " On January 8, 1815, during the Battle of New Orleans, Abbé Dubourg and the women of the city prayed for victory before the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the chapel of the Ursulines. Since that time a mass of thanksgiving has been sung annually in the Ursulines' chapel on January 8. After the battle Jackson was received with great pomp in the Cathedral, where the Te Deum was sung.

February, 1819

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it. First marched a man in a military uniform with a drawn sword. Then came three boys in surplusses [wie], with pointed caps, two carrying staves with candelabras in the form of urns on the top, & the third in the center a large silver Cross. At some distance behind came Father Anthony & another priest, who seemed very merry at the ceremony of yesterday & were engaged in loud & cheerful conversation. At some distance further came the coffin. It was carried by four well dressed black men, & to it were attached 6 j white ribbands about 2 yards in length, the ends of which were held by 6 colored girls very well dressed in white, with long veils. A crowd of colored people followed confusedly, filling the street across, many of whom carried candles lighted. I stood upon a step till the whole had passed & counted 69 candles. About a month ago I attended high Mass at the Cathedral. All the usual motions were made, I think, in greater profusion, indeed, than ordinary, & the common service performed in the common way. But what was unusual was the procession of the host round the Church; the Mostranza (literally the showbox, Latin pix, from which the exclamation please the pigs (pix) is derived) was a very fine affair indeed, and an embroidered Canopy was carried over it upon 6 silver staves, held by 6 very respectable looking men. One of my motives for going to the Cathedral was the hope of hearing good & affecting church music. In this I was most sadly disappointed. There is no organ; at least the miserable organ which they have was not played. The voices, half a dozen at least of them, that chanted the service were the loudest & most unmusical that I ever heard in a church. Their loudness was terrific, of one of them particularly; & as they chanted in unison & in the most villainous taste imaginable, something between a metrical melody & a free recitative, it is not easy to conceive anything more diabolical.

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The congregation consisted of at least 4/5th women, of which number one half at least were colored. For many years I have not seen candles offered at the Altars, but at each of the side Altars there were half a dozen candles stuck upon the steps by old colored women, who seemed exceedingly devout. At Baltimore, 34 the metropolis of American Catholicism, the stage of the Mass performing within the church is no longer announced to those who do not attend there. But here the pious Catholic confined to his bed at home can follow the congregation in the church thro' the whole exhibition. The bell is kept at work, as a Signal, & when the host is elevated, it rings a peal that is heard all over the city. Father Anthony is said to be near 80. He looks indeed so. He has a long sharp face with a acquiline nose, & a grey beard long & thin, which has once been red.

CAPITALS

OF

STATES

It has occurred in at least three of the U. States, already—and the same causes will produce the same effect in more of them—that the capital of the State, as to commerce, business, & influence, is not the capital as to the Government. In Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; in Maryland, Baltimore; in Ohio, Cincinnati (I might mention the ports indeed [in] the states of N. & S. Carolina) are not the seats of the government. The members seem to dislike traveling for themselves & for their constituents, and the center of the state is made an artificial point in which the Legislature meets, with all the inconvenience which must be consequence of the wants of any other motive but to share their parsimonious expenditure, to the settlement of a numerous population. Such towns therefore are composed principally of taverns & boarding houses, which are almost deserted the moment the Legislature breaks up. Their keepers must, of 32

The cathedral of Baltimore is one of Latrobe's best-known designs. The drawings for this building, made originally in 1805, are now in the possession of the archbishop of Baltimore, having been presented in memory of the late Cardinal Gibbons by Ferdinand C. Latrobe II. On July 7, 1806, the cornerstone of the cathedral was laid by Bishop Carroll, and after the war of 1812 work was resumed on the building by Archbishop Maréchal, who consecrated it on May 31, 1821.

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course, make the most of the harvest while it lasts. T o inconvenient lodging, indifferent boarding, the want of polished society, bad markets, and miserable shops are added extravagant charges. The want of the means of amusement in decent Society produces necessarily a resort to the Gaming table, & in the dissipated the want of means of concealment in the indulgence of their passions creates shamelessness in vice; & the lowest vulgarity becomes familiar. The habits of the Society, as it necessarily is modeled by the circumstances that the majority consists of the Legislators themselves, are not favorable to easy, polite, & guarded intercourse with neighbors at home. The subjects discussed in the Legislative halls, under correction of the Chair, continue to be the principal themes of conversation out of doors. If they there are debated upon, they are quarreled about at the tavern, & a spirit of dispute is engendered, which becomes habitual. Of the bad effect of this sort of life the lawyers who meet at the courts in a great measure partake, and I could instance many of our great men who would have been greater in private life, had they not been corrupted at Dover, in Delaware (an instance which I had forgotten), and at other artificial towns of the same character, but above all, at the enormous baby of a town, Washington. I was reminded of Dover by the recollection of Bayard, one of the first men which our country has produced; a man, who with every qualification of head & heart to honor & to decorate private intercourse, & with a constitution to last to an extraordinary old age, was reduced by residing great part of the year at the taverns in Dover, & other county towns, & afterwards at Washington, to a mere public man, to whom a bottle & a pack of cards during many a night were habitual & almost necessary amusements, and who died of the effects of dissipation. As to Washington, on a great scale—never did a town exist more ingeniously contrived to be inconvenient, tiresome, expensive, soul corrupting, temper destroying, & detestable. At Count Pahlen's 33 once, the excessive inconvenience of a residence in Washington was the subject of conversation. In winter a crowded assemblage of persons without a common interest, without habits of friendship or previous acquaintance, soured by debate and half ruined by expense, meeting at stifling evening parties, after traveling through the cold, & overset perhaps in dismal roads; in summer a solitude, dusty, hot, without means of amusement in the field, on the water, or at home. I compared it to a turtle or terrapin, with the difference that the period of its torpidity was summer, not winter.

33

Count Pahlen was the Russian ambassador at Washington in 1810. His calling card (from the collection of Mrs. Gamble Latrobe), in French, gives his title as Count Nicolas de Pahlen Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias.

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Gentlemen [said Count Pahlen at last] I find Washington by far the most convenient place in which I ever resided. Everywhere else, when the season of Society is over it is the fashion, & indeed necessary, to devote days of trouble & inconvenience to your removal into the country, and before you are settled there, you are in every possible way deranged. The same again occurs in the Autumn when you return to town, and thus you lose two or three weeks of comfortable existence in every year; but in Washington, when the season is over, the town moves away & leaves you in the country; & when you are tired of solitude towards winter, the town comes back again, & gives you the crowd, for which you were sighing. At the removal of the seat of the Pennsylvania government to Lancaster from Philadelphia after having been for many years the subject of debate, and somewhat angry exertion by the members of the western part of the State, I asked Mr. Snyder, who was then Speaker of the House of Representatives, what possible motive had operated to produce the change. I observed that Philadelphia was the market of most of the western members, at which their annual produce was sold & their purchases made; that they therefore had, (all of them nearly), business to transact in Philadelphia, & necessarily had to go thither in the course of each winter; that the Lancaster turnpike road brought Philadelphia within eight or ten hours ride of that place, & the mere distance, therefore, which the Members had to travel could be no great object, when balanced against the inconvenience, in every possible point of view, which they must suffer at Lancaster; especially as the Law of removal designated Lancaster as only the temporary seat of Legislation, & of course prevented the improvements which its permanence might naturally produce. "All this," said he, "is very true, but to let you into a secret on the subject, we found that we could not trust our hearts against our bellies." In other words, the influence of Philadelphia by means of those attentions to the Members, which the interested & the polite found it prudent or agreeable to pay, & of which good dinners may have been as operative as any other, gave to Philadelphia, or was supposed to give to Philadelphia, an undue influence over the whole state, & assuredly, however jocularly Mr. Snyder may have expressed himself, that consideration, the jealousy of Philadelphia, was the principal motive of the removal. A jealousy 34 now prevails in Pennsylvania & Maryland, of their capital, very injurious to the state at large. All this has been suggested by a conversation with Mr. Merian, Speaker of the Senate of this State, on [the] subject of a removal of the Seat of Government from hence 14

This jealousy was fostered by David Mitchell, a vulgar man who had however a powerful mind, & an unbounded influence with the western Members. Another motive different from patriotism operated with him & many of them. 1 once heard him say in the house, at Lancaster, "That he did not care if a Wall 50 feet high were built round Philadelphia, for Baltimore was his market." [Latrobe's note.]

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to Baton Rouge. 3 4 E v e r y motive of health & centrality exists for the change, but from what I understand respecting Baton Rouge, the inconvenience as respects markets, lodgings, & society would there be tenfold greater than it was to the Pennsylvania Legislature in removing to Lancaster. " The state capital was moved from New Orleans to Donaldsonville in 1830-31 and to Baton Rouge in 1849. Norman, in his New Orleans and Environs (1845), p. 92, remarks, "the late convention provides that the Legislature shall not hold its sessions hereafter within sixty miles of New Orleans. It is doubtless intended that the public servants shall do more work and less eating, drinking and carousing, than they have heretofore done."

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SOIL

9,

1819

CONDITIONS

New Orleans Feb'y 27th, 1819. Argentum et aurum, propitii, an irati, dii negaverint, dubito.—Tacit. Germania, V. T h e mineralogist is completely baffled in this country. Mud, mud, mud. T h e doubt of Tacitus, however, whether the gods had denied silver & gold in mercy or in anger has no place here. The situation is such that gold & silver must find its way hither, let it come from whence it may. It is a pity, as to the mere expense of building, that this is a floating city, floating below the surface of the water on a bed of mud. In digging the trench for my suction pipe, a pick could with difficulty penetrate the crust of the road, so exceedingly hard is the clay or mud of which after three or four days dry weather it is compacted. But two feet, six inches, below the surface the blunt handle of the pick could easily be pushed down up to the blade, and the water followed it when drawn out. The foundations 1 of my boring mill are laid in the water, one foot below the grassy surface, & 4 feet above the water in the river as it then stood. I do not know at all what would be found on boring deep, nor can I find anyone who has tried it, but probably vegetable matter mixed with alluvium, sandy, clayey, & mixed. It is very singular, however, that this mass of soft stuff does not appear to permit the heavy piers, that are everywhere built upon 1

Latrobe's first experience with New Orleans soil and foundation conditions was in connection with the customhouse, which he designed in 1807, while Surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States. Although log footings were recommended to him, Latrobe's specifications for this building call for spread footings of brick.

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it, to sink gradually & constantly down. They certainly stay where they are first placed, though you may thrust a pole 20 feet into the foundation. My Engine house 2 stands on a double platform of logs under the whole house. It is very heavy. The boiler houses have their walls laid upon plank, and yet the walls of each are equally ranged now, as at first, altho' the former building is exceedingly heavy & twice as high as the latter—that is, neither of them have settled, or they have settled equally. T h e gradual growth of this soil is not so entirely explained by observing the manner in which it gradually rises out of the sea. It is true that the manner in which the mud islands now scattered about the bar are growing, is evident. But the old islands, if I may call them so, Garden Island, Frank's Island, upon which the lighthouse is now building, & Royal Island, the island formerly chosen for that purpose & bored by Mr. De Mun, 3 these old islands consist of a hard blue clay from the surface to the depth of 45 feet, without any vegetable indications, unless the clay itself & its blue color may be considered, by way of hypothesis, to be all that remains of the clay & carbon composing the gi-devant vegetables. Now the soil on which New Orleans stands—as far as my information goes—(& from the digging which I have done at the Engine house, it appears to be correct), is of an entirely different structure. The upper surface, indeed, is a marsh mud, extremely slippery as soon as wet, with a small mixture of sand, & below this surface are decayed vegetables, water at 3 feet, & as I am told by others, abounding in large logs, or in large vacancies, apparently occupied formerly by logs which have rotted. Such a soil was to be expected to be the result of the gradual accumulation of the deposition of the river, & of the logs & trees which in astonishing quantities & of immense size are constantly descending the stream at every fresh. But the islands I speak of have no such loose strata as occur immediately below the surface in New Orleans & the whole neighborhood. The hypothesis-makers have here a fine field before them, & if it is not large enough, they may take in the 1

The engine house of Latrobe's waterworks was situated at the corner of Ursuline and Levee streets, on a site later occupied by part of the French market, now a vacant paved area. Work on the first building was begun in 1812 and completed in 1813. A drawing of this octagonal tower with classic portico appears in the Tanesse map. Additional wings were later constructed, for on March 20, 1819, in a letter to Mayor Macarty, Latrobe referred to "the buildings lately and formerly erected." ' Garden Island and Royal Island located at the mouth of the Mississippi between South and South East Passes, and Frank's Island located at the entrance to North East Pass, were surveyed and examined by Lewis de Mun in 1806. He was appointed for the purpose by Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, who wrote him May 15, 1806, in a letter in "care of Mr. Latrobe, Phila.," as follows: "As the erection of a lighthouse at the mouth of the Mississippi is already authorized by law, you will be pleased to examine the island to ascertain the quality of the soil on which it must be located. For this purpose Mr. Latrobe has been requested to procure the usual bearing instruments, which he will deliver to you" (American State Papers, Commerce £s? Navigation, 1, 839).

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Island of Belisle4 to the west of the mouths of the Mississippi, which is a high bluff surrounded by marsh, many hundred miles from any elevated country whatever. On entering the Mississippi, the prospect is dismal enough. Muddy water, at first full of black specks & lines along the horizon; as you approach them you see that they are black half rotten logs sticking up. Further on, several are found together, some perpendicular, many horizontal, presently a few reeds are found growing on them— then they form patches of reeds edged with black logs, and at last they form a log margin to the river overgrown with a continued wall of reeds, above seven foot high. As you proceed, a few scrubby trees are seen on the edge of the river, all back being still reeds. The tree growth becomes gradually thicker, till at last large trees appear, and beyond them reeds & scrubbly growth. Further up the margin of trees is wider, & then cultivation begins. Now this description accounts well enough for the actual state of the soil of New Orleans; But I want to know how the outer islands apparently belonging to the same formation have acquired their consistency. [WINTER

WEATHER]

Feb'y 27th, 1819. Last night, after a most delightful day, was extremely boisterous, and it continues so today. A violent continued wind, with occasional squalls more violent, & excessive rain. Since I have been here, rather more than six weeks, the weather has been exquisitely fine, & if this is the climate, a more delicious one is not to be found in Italy. It has occasionally rained violently, but this is the first day of continued bad weather (8 o'clock). The thermometer has been at 42, & everybody has complained of excessive cold. Fires are occasionally comfortable, & today very much so, more because it is damp than because it is cold. Every winter, however, is not so agreeable. Last winter it once snowed sufficiently to give time to prepare a rough sleigh, & to drive about a little, but the snow vanished in less than 24 hours. The rest of the winter was intolerably wet. It rained almost every day for two months, and the unpaved streets were in such a condition that water was sold in the streets at 25 cents a bucket, & the carriage of cotton & tobacco was incredibly high. That winter, however, was as unusually severe, as the present has been unusually mild. There is generally, I am informed, a day or two of slight frost, & much rain. But on the whole the winter climate must be, to such a constitution as mine, infinitely 4

Belle Isle, situated west of the Atchafalaya River, near its mouth. Similar formations are found all along the Louisiana coast, notably Avery Island and Weeks Island, south of New Iberia. These are not actually islands at all, but elevated lands in the midst of the flat coastal swamp.

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preferable to the capriciously severe climate of any of the Eastern states North of S. Carolina. [INDIFFERENTISM]

Feb'y 28, 1819. I remember when I was about 16, being extremely moved by the eloquence of a sort of polemical sermon preached by a clergyman whose name I have forgotten, in the Lutheran Church, at Nimtoch, in Silesia.81 was upon a visit to Count von Pfeil, civil Governor (Ober Landshauptman[n]), of Upper Silesia. What merit the sermon actually had I will not pretend to say, but it suited my ideas of eloquence at that time, & I came out of church fully convinced that all the doctrines damned as heresies by Catholicisms, combined with all those called heresies by Calvinism & by Lutherism, were innocent & in some degree meritorious, because they were zealous modes of faith compared with the heresy of modern times (that is, of the year 1783) Indifferentism: "Der Seelverderbende Indifferentismus." The preacher proved that to entertain the most erroneous belief was at all events a proof of earnestness about Salvation, but that to be indifferent as to any mode of faith, was the sure way to perdition. That he who sits still & takes no road at all can never arrive at his journey's end, while he who sets out upon his journey, tho' he may miss his way, stands a chance of being put into the right road; his object, to get to the end, will stimulate to enquiry, & enquiry may produce a right direction. Having become at that age already very much of an Indifferentist, having seen & lived among Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics, & Moravians, and found good & bad men & violent zealots among them all, & having formed a sort of sentimental intimacy with a certain ex-Jesuit, a Baron von Kalkreuth, at Neisse, an external Catholic, but a confirmed Deist, & of course a rational Indifferentist, I thought myself impregnable to any teacher who should assert that it was of any importance in the eye of the Deity which of two doctrines, both incomprehensible by the human understanding, his creature professed to believe. But I was so staggered by this sermon that until his arguments yielded to time & amusement I really was quite unhappy. I have been led to this recollection by looking over the pages which I have written in this city & which bear really a strong character of Indifferentism, and thus far it appears to me that every reasonable & benevolent man must be an Indifferentist, as to believe that sincerity is of more importance in religion than a perfect knowledge of polemics, and a decided preference of a particular creed. ' Latrobe was educated in Germany, and resided for some time in Silesia during that period. He completed his studies at the University of Leipzig in 1785.

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And yet, so strangely is the human mind, as well as the human body, constituted that habit governs both, to an extent which would not be believed if daily and hourly experience did not prove it. One of the most learned (by name as well as by study), pious, & eloquent of the Presbyterian clergy, who is established here, & for whom a large church is now building,* was asked by a friend of mine how he did? T o this common question he answered, "Sick! my friend, sick unto death! Not, indeed, bodily, for in that respect I am well; but sick in my very soul, at the guilt of this city." He then went on to state: the Sabbath breaking guilt, as being the crying Sin of New Orleans. Now little does Father Antoine feel sick on this account, whose whole life is employed in the unwearied mummery of masses, confessions, funerals, & baptism, & in the private Offices imposed upon Priests; & who attends a family concert on Sunday evening & never dreams of the necessity of imposing a pennance on the sinner who keeps an open shop or goes to the theatre on Sunday. There are in the New Testament two prayers independently of the Lord's prayer, which ought to silence all polemists of every sect, for they were both accepted. "Lord I believe! help thou my unbelief," & "Lord have mercy upon me a sinner!" A s to the Lord's prayer, it is singular that we Christians have cut so many throats t reciprocally, about doctrines & prayers, & creeds, when in this divine composition there is not a doctrinal point, unless it be that of entire dependance upon our Father in heaven; of the most resigned humility; & of the most unlimited forbearance with each other. I know of no Church that professes the true Christian indifferentism in the pulpit excepting the American Episcopal Church. For though the 39 Articles are adopted as a sort of Creed, & the Liturgy teaches a limited system of Orthodoxy, it is understood, 6 openly avowed from the Episcopal pulpit alone that no mode of Christian faith has a damning effect upon its believers; a doctrine which though not so coarsely expressed, is pretty roundly asserted by all the other Sects with which I am acquainted. I therefore in professing myself a member of that Church, claim connection with it chiefly on account of the liberality of its practice. And yet when I wrote the Hymn for the dedication of St. Johns7 one of the clergy maintained that its tendency was deistical, disguised under Biblical phraseology—that it was too liberal, that it threw * This church, located on St. Charles Street, between Gravier and Union streets, later became the First Congregational Church. It is illustrated and described in Gibson, New Orleans Guide and Directory, 1838, p. 308, as "an edifice of brick in the plain Gothic style of architecture. Its corner stone was laid January 1819 and it was finished and consecrated during the same year, William Brand being the architect, at an expense including the cost of the land, of f70,000. Rev. Sylvester Lamed was the first pastor, but did not survive the epidemic of the year following (1820). The pulpit is now filled by one whose talents, learning and eloquence, do not, certainly, discredit the sacred order: the Rev. Theodore Clapp." 7 St. John's Episcopal Church, Washington, located on Lafayette Square, opposite the White House,

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obloquy upon our red brethren, and betrayed British feelings. In fact, that it was the composition of an Indifferentist, and especially that it did not contain a single expression peculiarly Christian, but might have been sung in a Mahomedan Mosque. It has been published in all the newspapers, but I am not certain that I have preserved a single copy of it. I therefore transcribe it from memory. Tune, the Catholic hymn called in the New England books Hotham. 1. God of power, God of Love! 4. Where the arrow's vengefull flight, Sex, nor age, nor childhood spar'd, Earth thy footstool heaven thy throne,— Fraud was skill, and pow'r was right From the realms of bliss above, There thy Gospel's voice is heard! Bow thine ear in mercy down! Heard alas! Too oft in vain! Thou who dwell'st in endless space Still with mild, prevailing force, Fill the house we now prepare Spreads its love-diffusing reign, With thy presence & thy grace! Nor shall aught impede its course. Hear oh hear thy people's pray'r! 5. When the hostile firebrand's flash 2. Vainly human pow'r essays, Reddened, late, the midnight air Vainly toils the artists skill, And the falling Column's crash Worthily a shrine to raise Drown'd the shriek of wild despair Which Thy Majesty may fill. Thou, whose nod the Storms obey8 But where in Thy sacred name Midst the wreck of blazing domes, Two or three assembled are, Bad'st the foe his fury stay, They may thy sure promise claim And respect our private homes. Thou wilt hear their humble pray'r. For these wonders of thy grace 6. 3. Once where o'er this favor'd land, See us bow the grateful knee, Savage wilds, & darkness spread, And in this thy holy place, Fostered now by thy kind hand Consecrate ourselves to thee. Cheerful dwellings rear their head; And when in this Temple's bound Where once frown'd the tangled wood, To thy Altar we repair, Fertile fields & meadows smile; Breathe thy healing presence round, Where the stake of torture stood, Hear! oh hear thy people's prayer. Rises now thy Church's pile. The Church was consecrated Dec. 27th 1816 designed by L a t r o b e in 1816. John H . B. L a t r o b e w r o t e of this church: " M y f a t h e r designed St. J o h n ' s Church, W a s h i n g t o n , which was really a beautiful little t h i n g in its d a y , b e f o r e s o m e dull fellow m a d e a R o m a n C r o s s o u t of a G r e e k o n e , and stuck o n a stupid, nondescript p o r t i c o and an a b o m i n a b l e p r e t e x t for a t o w e r " (J. E . S e m m e s , John H. B. Latrobe and His Times, N o r m a n , R e m i n g t o n C o . , Baltimore, 1917, p. 58). * T h e British b u r n t the Capital A u g ' s t 24th, 1814. T h e y w e r e induced t o leave t h e city in a g r e a t h u r r y o n the 25 in consequence of a t r e m e n d o u s hurricane, by which they i m a g i n e d their fleet in the P a t o w m a c [JIC] to h a v e suffered, as it did n o t appear. [Note by Latrobe.]

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March 1st, 1819. They are building here a Presbyterian Church. One of the wonders of our age & government is the application for a donation from the gi-devant Spanish Cabildo, the city council.* It was debated on Saturday, & will I believe end in a loan. These heretics would have been burned a few years ago, & would run some risk now, had Ferdinand the Beloved still possession of the place. [VISIT

TO

THE

BATTLEFIELD]

My friend Mr. Nolte was so good a fortnight ago to take me down in his carriage to the field of battle of the 8th of January. That battle is of all the battles of the age one of the most remarkable. On the 23d of December, 1814, the British had landed 3,500 of the best disciplined veterans in the world, & were attacked in the evening by less than 1,000 raw Militia under General Jackson, while at supper. They were reinforced continually by new arrivals from the fleet. This night affair enabled them to take some prisoners, for all was confusion, but it also puzzled them as to the number of our troops. They were also fired upon by the Caroline Sloop of War; & altho' they could, had they had any good information as to the numbers of their enemy & the nature of the troops, have despised the resistance they met with & marched the next day into the city, they were so disconcerted & deranged in their plans & expectations that they allowed us time to retreat behind a line which was so defended on the 8th of January as to defeat their whole enterprize, & give to less than 4,000 troops a most signal & sanguinary victory of 15,000 of the best troops that ever took the field. In fact, the battle of the eighth of Jan'y was won on the 23d of Dec'r. Mr. Nolte was in every action during the campaign, & not only contributed with others by his bravery, but by 123 bales10 of cotton to defend the line. The batteries • According to the Records of the City Council, Mayor Macarty opposed the loan of $5,000 which the First Presbyterian Church requested, because of the city's other financial obligations, among which he listed "Mr. Latrobe's undertaking to supply the whole city with water." He added, "I sincerely desire everything which may contribute to the welfare as well as to the embellishments of the city, but I do not understand, I say it regretfully, that the city can, considering the circumstances, help at present the church in question without going into debt." Despite the mayor's objections, the loan was granted by the council. Latrobe was probably present at the session on Saturday, February 27, when this matter was debated, as the ordinance for his waterworks was then before the council, since it was adopted on March 4, 1819. 10 In his book Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres, Nolte states that 250 bales of his cotton were used in the fortifications. He had paid 10 cents for this cotton two years before, but Jackson insisted he be paid at the depressed price as of the day of the battle, although the price afterwards rose to 16 cents. Jackson would not listen to his explanation, and Nolte says, "I saw that argument was useless with so stiffnecked a man—there remained nothing but to say, "Well, General, I did not expect such injustice at your hands."

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were built of bales of cotton,—perhaps the best material in the World for the purpose. The British used Sugar hogsheads for the same purpose. 200 bales were employed, of which the above number belonged to Mr. Nolte. The characteristic meanness of our Government occasioned him to have very great trouble in getting any kind of remuneration of this sacrifice of his property to the public defense. The excessive wet of the season & of the earth occasioned the bales to be greatly damaged. There are innumerable anecdotes in circulation which would be worth recording, & which will be in a few years lost. One, which proves the effect of the panic with which the unerring aim of our riflemen had struck the British officers, is this. After the British began to retreat, an officer remained behind alone. A Tenessean [J/C] took aim at him, and at the same time called to him to come in rather than suffer himself to be shot. After some hesitation he did actually come in as a prisoner, and on coming up, the rifleman shook him heartily by the hand & told him that he should be very sorry to have shot so clever a fellow as he appeared to be. A British officer called upon me in 1817 at Washington with an introduction from Mr. Caton. 1 1 1 carried him to all that I thought worth seeing & at last to the Capitol. 12 He expressed his regret at its destruction, and I naturally hoped that it would be many years before we should again have to regret the consequences of a war with his country. "That it will," said he, "for we shall take good care how we go to war again with a nation of Sharpshooters." The river has gained considerably upon the shore at the left end of the line, & part of the ground on which the redoubt stood is no longer in existence. I have taken two very accurate views of the situation as it now appears. ["OUR

RED

BRETHREN"]

New Orleans March 3d, 1819. 30 years ago it was the fashion in England to speak of the negroes as of our black Brethren. It was part of the machinery used for a most 11

Richard Caton, an Englishman who came to Baltimore in 1785, married the eldest daughter of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, in 1786; died May 19, 184«, at the age of 83. John H. B. Latrobe once wrote: "with the Carroll and Caton families my father and mother had been very intimate in the lifetime of the former. Mr. Caton's house, where Mr. Carroll passed his winters, was the resort of the best society in Baltimore, and the house that all distinguished foreigners sought when they visited the city" (Semmes; John H. B. Latrobe and His Times, Norman, Remington, Baltimore, Co., 1917, p. 106). 12 Latrobe is, perhaps, best known for his work on the Capitol at Washington. He was appointed in 1815 to rebuild it, after its destruction by the British, and resigned in November, 1817.

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admirable purpose, the accomplishment of which, the abolition of the slave trade, does honor to the American nation which began & to the English that completed it; and which almost atones for the hypocrisy which has covered the political views of the great powers in putting down this abominable traffic with the cloak of religion & humanity. In like manner, the cant of our Red brethren has been made the watchword of the improvement of the condition of the North American Indians. If their being called our Red brethren were of use in civilizing them, in restraining the cruel encroachments of our frontier settlers upon their hunting grounds and the more specious & regular purchases of their lands by our Government, I would agree that they should be our brethren, & the squaws our red sisters. But while the force of natural events tends to extirpate them in spite of all the talismanic names we may use, & of the efforts of honest agents & missionaries to civilize and convert them, I would rather not be too forward in claiming kindred with nations, themselves, at no very distant period, usurpers of the soil, and with whom I have a family quarrel on account of the most diabolically cruel murder of a part of my mother's family at Wyoming; 1 3 a nation whose anatomical, as well as mental, structure differs so widely from my own. And lest this should appear a onesided feeling, I may assert that it is the feeling of the most sensible among the Indians, and was particularly so of Tecumseh, the greatest man whom within the range of certain history these nations have produced. Louis de Mun, formerly of St. Louis, knew Tecumseh well, & has often related to me conversations he has had with him, in many of which he particularly expressed his indignation at the terms used in our treaties, by which they are called our brethren, & the President U.S. their father. Then pointing to the color of his skin, he would ask, "Is there a drop of white blood in this flesh? Did a white woman ever breed me a brother, or a white man have an Indian Son? I foresee our extirpation, but we will fight you as long as we exist." As far as the rights of humanity go, they are common to men of all races. They go further; the animals that surround us have the same claim to our kindness. Enemies in war, friends in peace. In this view, I claim brotherhood with my horned and maned brethren, & think it equally a crime to inflict upon them the slightest unnecessary pang. But the march of white Society, which tends inevitably to their extirpation, cannot be controlled by the cant of Brotherhood, for it is the will of a higher power, M

Latrobe's mother was Anna Margaret Antes, daughter of Henry Antes and Christina Dewees, Moravian refugees from the Palatinate settled near Germantown, Penn. The Moravians also settled in the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania, where a massacre by the Indians occurred on October 15, 1763, an incident of the French and Indian War. (Edwin McMinn, A German Hero of the Colonial Times of Pennsylvania, or the Life and Times of Henry Antes, Moorestown, N. J., 1886.)

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that power which we vaguely call Nature, but for which the name of God is both more distinct & more reverential. It is that power that has made the ox our food, & the elephant our slave, & which has so ordered it that for a few thousand half sensitive Savages, many millions of at least equally happy & virtuous whites shall enjoy the blessings that this vast continent yields. But independently of any philosophic view of the subject, no one can look at the Indians that stroll about the streets of New Orleans, men, women, & children, & willingly claim relationship with them, otherwise than as children of the same omnipotent & beneficent father, who has filled the universe with life & being. These Indians who crawl about New Orleans are of the Choctaw tribe, & are a sort of outcasts, the fag end of the tribe, the selvage, the intermediate existence between annihilation & savage vigor. These sort of people appear to have existed here & made the city their camp before the surrender of the country to the United States, altho', as I am informed, they are much deteriorated in appearance & morals since the American whiskey arrived along with the American Government. I dined today at Mr. Boiling Robertson's, late Member of Congress from this district, a man too well known for his integrity & ability as a public man to require any further mention than of his name. Captain Walsh, formerly under the Spanish Government chief naval officer, Judge Hall, Mr. Dick, District Attorney General, Col. Winston, of Natchez, & two other Gentlemen constituted one of the most intelligent & pleasant parties I have been in, in this city. Part of the time was occupied by conversation respecting the Indians, & the remarks I have made and the facts I shall relate were either suggested or confirmed on this occasion. The Indians strolling about New Orleans are generally extremely dirty & disgusting in their appearance. In the morning men are seen half clothed carrying a rifle & having strings of birds, squirrels, perhaps a raccoon or opossum, often ducks, which they either sell to the hucksters in the market or hawk about the streets. Later in the day they appear, some of them painted, with feathers in their hair, wrapt up in blankets of different degrees of dirtiness; the women, equipped in strings of beads, brass wire rings about their arms—of which I once counted 18 on each arm of a woman, covering it from the elbow to the wrist. Some of them have a child at their back, naked. I saw a few days ago a girl apparently 8 years old, walking by the side of her mother, quite naked. Towards noon men & women have sold their game or skins, have bought whiskey, & are hocksy, that is, half, or quite drunk. They stroll about quietly, & interrupt no one, & in fact their dirty appearance, long black greasy hair, & savage faces are the worst parts of them.

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These people, with all that is disgusting in their appearance, their idleness, & their drunkenness, are not without negative, if not positive, virtues. They are most scrupulously honest. No theft of any kind whatsoever has ever been charged to them, & their women are most scrupulously chaste. They are so little the subject of complaint that the laws seem to take no notice whatsoever of them, for as, "where there is no law, there can be no transgression," so where there is no transgression, the law must be wholly inoperative. And so little does the law interfere with them, that of the few laws, or customs rather, which they have, they are permitted the full execution of practice, without interruption. (Mr. Dick, Judge Hall, & Mr. Robertson) As late as 4 or 5 years ago, for some crime, which was not known or remembered, they condemned one of their tribe to death. The criminal (as was his duty), surrendered himself. The death to be inflicted upon him was I think both cruel & inconvenient. He came to the Market place, laid his head upon a block, & his companions took up brickbats, stones, or whatever they could find, & pelted him till he was dead. No notice was taken of all this; & certainly it was prudent to let them take their course. (Captain Walsh) About 28 years ago under the Spanish Gover[n]m't an Indian killed another. He surrendered himself & was to be shot in the place where is now the Canal Marigny. He came to the spot with great courage, painted & dressed for the Solemnity. But when the moment arrived that was to terminate his life, his heart failed him, & he begged off. The Indians were enraged, declared he was not worthy to die. They stripped him stark naked, tore his blanket & every other part of his apparel to shreds, & distributed it among them, and ordered him to run. He did not wait, but took to his heels. Captain Walsh asked them the meaning of the ceremony of the tearing his clothes. The answer was, that he was a Hen, & not a Cock. (Colonel Winston) Three years ago, in a drunken frolic at Natchez, an Indian* killed another. He immediately surrendered himself, & was shot by the tribe at Natchez, the police suffering the matter to take its course. This man appears to have been the Cock & not a Hen.

But the most remarkable story which I have ever heard, & which the annals of this or any other nation can perhaps produce, was related by Captain Walsh, very circumstantially, & as he says, has been published. It deserves to be related with scrupulous correctness, & I have therefore postponed the narration until I shall have an opportunity of hearing it again, & collecting the names of all those who witnessed its details. March 4th, 1819. *I wrote down the above details yesterday night after my return home, as they remained on my memory. In a conversation this morning with Captain

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Walsh, he entered into more particulars on the subject. Having yesterday very cursorily mentioned the affair of the Indian who was to be shot in the Canal Marigny, 14 he related it this morning more at large. The exact facts were these. The Indian who turned out not to be a Cock, but a hen, in a drunken bout was caught in the fact of improper intercourse with the wife of another. The husband took up the rum bottle & fractured his scull, but as there was still life in him, he was taken to the hospital, & after some time cured. His encounter with the husband was therefore more in the nature of a duel than in consequence of any custom that called for blood. They met, & then the meeting ended as is related above. The coward lived a rambling life a long time after, but never dared to come into the city among the Indians. The rags distributed among the Indians were kept as proofs of his cowardice, to be exhibited in case he should ever make his appearance. He was, as are all the Indians of this neighborhood, a Choctaw. The other story is that of a mother who surrendered herself to die in the place of her Son, was accepted, and actually shot within a mile of Capt. Walsh's house. He has politely promised me a copy of all the original memorandums made at the time & on the Spot, with all the names of the witnesses. March 6th, 1819. It is often said that as we grow older we become more hard-hearted, & wear out the fine & benevolent feelings of Youth. That this is the fact cannot be denied, but if it were differently stated, it would not be less true, & would perhaps be explained as well as stated. As we grow older, we grow wiser; that is, we find that many of the benevolent feelings of youth are feelings which the objects on which they are bestowed could not possibly excite if they were not viewed in a false light & presumed to be different from what they are. These feelings, then, belong not so much to the objects as to the minds & hearts in which they grow. As we grow older, we know by experience the cut & color of the cloaks that are worn to hide every species of imposture. To the young they are new, & no fact respecting human nature is more verified by its uniform occurence [mc], than that no one will avail himself of any experience but his own. If this is the case in the common course of society, in which the false appearances which excite benevolent feeling in the young are of daily occurrence & daily detection, where these feelings operate in respect to individuals that are before our eyes, & whose conduct & circumstances we may daily watch & investigate, what must it be in 14

The Canal Marigny was dug by Bernard Marigny down the center of what is now Elysian Fields Avenue for the operation of a mill and as a drainage canal. It was sold by him to the city in 1821.

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respect to nations at a distance, whose manners & vices & virtues we know only from books & those books compiled from hearsay, and very often with a view to create or uphold a particular system of philosophy. I remember the time when I was over head & ears in love with Man in a state of nature.—By the bye, I never heard of any fine theory spun together in behalf of Woman in a state of nature. Social compacts were my hobbies, the American revolution (I ask its pardon, for it deserves better company) was a sort of dawn of the golden age, & the French revolution the Golden Age itself. I should be ashamed to confess all this if I had not had a thousand companions in my kaleidoscopic amusement, & those generally men of ardent, benevolent, & well informed minds, & excellent hearts. Alas! experience has destroyed the illusion, the kalei[do]scope is broken, and all the tinsel of scenery that glittered so delightfully is tarnished & turned to raggedness. A dozen years residence at the republican court of Washington has assisted wonderfully the advance of riper years. Chateaubriand—the disgrace of eloquence & of talents—& many others have founded their systems of human virtue in its most perfect and amiable state on the florid descriptions of travelers, of the manners, customs, courage, honesty & independent spirit of our North American Indians, of whom, by the bye, the Choctaws are a very favorable specimen. We hear daily among ourselves, & from people who have lived among them, most high-flown encomiums upon our red brethren & the most indignant expressions on the subject of the aggressions of our frontier settlers against the innocent savages & the systematic frauds committed by our Government in treaties for their lands. I have therefore lately been pretty inquisitive on their subject, and adding all that I have read in books from father Hennepin16 down to Wm. Darby, Esq., 16 to what I have heard in conversation respecting them, I have almost established an opinion as to their value in a moral & political point of view, in my own mind. The virtues which the social compact makers are unanimous in attributing to Man in a state of nature—that is, to our N. American savages—are: Courage Hospitality Love of truth Love of freedom " F a t h e r Louis Hennepin, Description de la Louisiane, Paris, 1684. " W i l l i a m Darby, A Geographical Description of the State of Louisiana—Together York, James Olmstead, 1817.

with a Map,

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The Choctaws have credit for two others: Chastity Honesty On the debit side stands, & I believe with the consent of these gentlemen. Ferocity Cruelty—to their captives Idleness—& generally theft 111 treatment of their women Without going further, I should conceive the account to be pretty nearly balanced. The courage of a Savage is a very different kind of courage from that of a civilized being. I do not know that they have ever exhibited courage in the open attack of an enemy or in resistance when attacked in the open field. But they undoubtedly stand first on the list in respect to fortitude under privation & under the most cruel tortures. But in this respect, they must admit many individuals of other nations to a participation of their merit. Their superiority consists in the virtue being national, in its being generally possessed by every individual, & that those who shrink under tortures are exceptions. Now the force of education, & the power of opinion, has produced martyrs in every country, to whose fortitude nothing that the Indians have exhibited at the stake is superior. But the mass of most other nations have given up their opinions generally to force, & the martyrs form the exception. The Jews, however, may be considered as national martyrs. Hospitality exists everywhere, where food cannot be bought or sold. A good market in the neighborhood always puts an end to it. The Choctaws who live on the roads, from Natchez to Nashville, for instance, though they will not hold your horse or fetch his food for you, that being beneath the dignity of freemen, take good care that you shall not depart without paying for it. I do not think it worth while to follow up the argument. But unpopular & unfeeling as the orator would be held that would defend the anti-Indian side of the question, I think that it might be triumphantly maintained that the sum of human happiness would be greater in the same space if the Indians did not exist & the country were peopled by a civilized nation, and that there would also be a greater sum of moral good & less odious vice among the latter than among ten tribes of the former. I am not now speaking of Mexicans, Peruvians, or Otaheiteans, but of our scalping, woman & child murdering North American Indians.

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FAITH]

March 7th 1819. [Clipping} . . . hop of LandafF. (March 13, . . . Knight, &c. than by [this] German. The book is systematical, and on that account may be of use as an elementary book; but I have not the same notion of the utility of elementary books in theology which many persons entertain. Elementary books in geometry, algebra, &c. exhibit to us an indissoluble concatenation of intuitive, or demonstrated truths; but elementary books in theology give us a concatenation, perhaps, but it is more frequently a concatenation of conjectures than of truths. Let any man fill his head with a persuasion, that he understands what is meant by the image of God; that Adam had original righteousness; that he was a foedral head, &c., and it will not be easy to enumerate the series of truths (conjectures they ought to be called, and absolute errors they may be,) which will follow as legitimate corollaries from such assumed principles. . . . are the catechisms of the [Lutheran] church, of the English . . . of the Scotch church, and [many o]ther churches, but a set of [opinjions which men of different [sects,] capacities, educations, prejudices] have fabricated (sometimes [perhaps] anvil of sincerity, oftenr on . . . ignorance, interest, or hy[pocris]y,) from the divine materials [furni]shed by the Bible? And can [any] man of an enlarged charity [beli]eve, that his salvation will ulti[m]ately depend on a concurrence in opinion with any of these niceties, which the several sects of Christians have assumed as essentially necessary for a Christian man's belief? Oh, no! Christianity is not a speculative business. One good act performed from a principle of obedience to the declared will of God, will be of more service to every individual, than all the speculative theology of St. Augustin, or Anastatius Freylinghansen [Frelinghausen]. All the subjects it treats of have been handled with great precision by Curcellaenus, Turretin, Episcopius, Limborch, and a great many other foreign divines; and very distinctly, though not systematically, by our own. This want of system in our writers may have given this German book a great estimation in the judgment of her Majesty, in preference to those of our own country, which it cannot be expected she should be much acquainted with. COURSE OF EDUCATION. The virtuous education of our offspring, and especially of an offspring which by its rank may influence the morals of a country, is one of the most important duties of life. The happiness or misery, not merely of an individual, but of the world, depends upon the good or . . .17 I picked up this scrap among a bundle of loose papers & cannot tell of what periodical work (from the manner of printing in the columns) it is a part. But I am sorry that the whole is not in my possession. It seems to be a sort of confession of faith of that 17

The words and parts of words within square brackets were supplied by Latrobe.

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most amiable and learned Prelate, Doctor Watson. But such rational, pious, & liberal doctrines as these brought him into disgrace, & I recollect his telling my father in 1787 a few months before he (my father) died, that he never expected any other See than that of Landaff—to which he mentioned some objections—hinting mildly that he was not as great a favorite at court as my father thought: and I think I have heard that he had asked for the See of St. Asaph's & it was refused him, altho' he was in point of the Etiquette of Seniority entitled to it. It would indeed be a monstrous belief that happiness after this life could depend on any decision of the Doctors of the Sorbonne, Louvain, Salamanca, or even of Oxford. [CEMETERIES]

New Orleans, March 8th 1819.1 walked today to the burial grounds 18 on the Northwest side of the town. There is an enclosure—for the Catholic Church—of about 300 feet square; & immediately adjoining is the burial place of the Protestants, of about equal dimensions. The Catholic tombs are of a very different character from those of our Eastern & Northern cities. They are of bricks, much larger than necessary to enclose a single coffin, & plaistered [«£] over, so as to have a very solid & permanent appearance. They are of these and many other shapes of similar character covering each

À-

J,

I

!

an area of 7 or 8 feet long & 4 or 5 feet wide, & being from 5 to 7 feet high. They are crowded close together, without any particular attention to aspect. The range of the sides of the area is SW & NE & N W & SE. It appeared to me possible that the confusion might arise from the different degrees of importance which the friends or priests might attach to the East & West position of the Tomb, a position which was once considered as essential in the construction of a church, as well as in the placing of a tomb and is a surviving remnant of Eastern worship which still hangs about our religious practice, after being disavowed by our creeds. I was once told by a Catholic 18

The Old St. Louis Cemetery (No. l ) , now located on Basin Street, between Bienville and Conti, covered a somewhat larger area in 1819. The area of the Protestant cemetery has been reduced to a fraction of its former size by the cutting through of St. Claude Street (Treme). It was no doubt here that Latrobe was buried, but no trace of his grave has been found.

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priest that the position of the coffin, with the feet to the East & the head to the West, was of the first importance, because that at the Resurrection Christ would appear in the East, & if they were placed otherwise they would rise with their backs towards Him. Without intending to place this subject in a ludicrous light, I mention this opinion as a strong proof that the Worship of the Sun rising in the East, has strongly impregnated the religious practices of the Christian Church; & assuredly, of all false Worship, none appears to me more natural & pardonable than that of the rising Sun. In one corner of the Catholic burying ground are two sets of Catacombs, of three stories each, roughly built, & occupying much more room than is necessary. Many of

the Catacombs were occupied, but not in regular succession, & the mouths of some were filled up with marble slabs having inscriptions. But more were bricked up & plaistered [i/cj without any indication of the person's name who occupies it. Of the tombs, there are very few that are furnished with any inscription whatever. The few that are, record only the name & the date of the birth & death of the deceased, with a very few exceptions. One of the catacombs had this simple epitaph on L.M.M. Villouet, aged 20 years: Qui, qui tu sois, respecte ce monument dernier asile d'une fille bonne et vertueuse. More needed not to be said. The Protestant burying ground has tombs of much the same construction, but a little varied in character, and they are all ranged parallel to the sides of the enclosure. The monument of the wife, child, & brother-in-law of Governor Claiborne19 is the 18

Regarding the tomb of the first Mrs. Claiborne, Latrobe wrote to Governor Claiborne from Washington on September 17, 1811: "It is now so nearly finished, that I may venture to promise it by the next vessel to New Orleans. Mr. Franzoni has bestowed upon it his best talents, and the group of figures in Basso relievo are exquisitely sculptured in Marble. The block of the monument is of Freestone. The inscriptions are exactly what you desired. I am well convinced that when you see the tomb you will forgive the delay which has been productive of a performance, on view of which all your feelings of affection and regret will receive solace . . . —My son Henry would be best able to direct the erection of the Monument." This monument still stands, but the sculpture is badly eroded. Guiseppe Franzoni was one of the Italian sculptors brought over by Latrobe to work on the Capitol at Washington in 1806.

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most conspicuous, & has a panel enriched with very good sculpture. A female lies on a bed with her child lying across her body, both apparently just departed. A winged figure, pointing upward, holds over her head the crown of immortality. At the foot of the bed kneels the husband in an attitude of extreme grief. The execution is very good, & it is less injured than might have been expected from its exposure in an open burial place. The Governor's rank is indicated by the fasces at the head of the bedstead. There were two or three graves opened & expecting their tenants: 8 or 9 inches below the surface they were filled with water, & were not three feet deep. Thus, all persons are here buried in the water. The surface of the burying ground must now be 7 or 8 feet below the level of the Mississippi, which has still 5 or 6 feet to rise before it attains its usual highest level. The ground was everywhere perforated by the crawfish—the amphibious lobster (écrevisse). I have, indeed, seen them in their usual attitude of defiance in the gutters of the streets. The French are fond of them, & make excellent and handsome soup 20 of them, their scarlet shells being filled with forced meat & served up in the tureen. But the Americans, with true English Antigallican prejudice, disdain this species of the Cancer, altho' we delight in crabs & lobsters, the food of which we all know to be in the last degree disgusting. They pretend that the sellers of this fish collect them principally in the Church Yards, which is not, I believe, true—and in fact impossible, considering the quantity that are sold. We are all slaves, nationally & individually, of habit. Our minds & our bodies are equally fashioned by education, and altho' the original dispositions of individuals give specific variety to character, the general sentiment, like the general manners, modes of living & cooking, of sitting & standing & walking can only be slowly changed, by the gradual substitution of a new habit for the old. In nothing does habit & general & long-continued practice guide a community more despotically than in the disposal of the bodies of the dead. The Persees [JIC] in Hindostán expose them in the open air to be devoured by vultures, & judge of the happiness or misery of the departed soul by their attack upon the right or left eye. The rich Hindoos burn, & poor throw them into the river to be devoured by alligators or fish. We bury them as food for worms & crawfish. At sea we deliver them to the sharks, crabs & lobsters. Those who can afford it enclose them in leaden & stone coffins, as if jealous of the appetites of the vermin to whom they might give nourishment; while the ancient Egyptians, & the European princes & nobles embalm the bones & fleshy K

This soup, crawfish bisque, is still one of New Orleans' favorite Creole dishes.

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parts, & leave the bowels to shift for themselves in leaden boxes. In many places in Sicily & Italy & Malta the bodies are preserved by drying. The Greeks & Romans committed them to the flames. Of all these modes of getting rid of the dead body, the latter is, after all, productive of the least annoyance, & most completely avoids that accumulation which we find so very inconvenient & which inevitably attends our mode of burial. I do not recollect to have met in any author ancient or modern, with any account of the manner & the reasons of the change in the usual mode of disposing of the dead, after the promulgation of Christianity & of the substitution of the grave for the funeral pile. 81 But it seems to have naturally grown out of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body—of the very body which the soul inhabited in this state of our existence. The dissipation of all its parts by the action of fire appeared so near an approach to annihilation, that it was, I presume, the natural consequences of the new doctrine that the body, after death, should be as well preserved in the ground as possible. "The graves shall give up their dead." Besides, the early Christians were of opinion that the day of judgment & the resurrection of the body would take place during the existence of the first or second generation after Christ, an opinion which appears to have been that of St. Paul. "We shall not all die, but we shall be all changed," and tho' this text is explained away, as well as that of Christ, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass away, before these things come to pass," yet those who are not polemical theologians have a right to take them in their natural sense. The whole event of the resurrection of the natural body must be the work of omnipotence; & it cannot, therefore, be of any importance whether the particles of which it consists be dissipated by fire or by any other mode of dissolution. In either mode the individuality is destroyed, and a new synthesis must take place. I cannot therefore help wishing that the burning of bodies had continued the practice of Christians, on many accounts. The health of cities, the convenience as respects public squares & building grounds, are greatly involved in this practice. At the Cathedral of Baltimore, and in fact in most great cities, the existence of grave yards has been found a serious nuisance. The great operation at Paris, in removing the dead from the cemetery of St. Innocent, is an astonishing instance of the expensive efforts that have been found necessary to get rid of them, an operation that none but French11

Cremation was never practiced by the Jews, and it is from them and not from pagan customs that most Christian customs are derived. "The Legislation of the Church in forbidding cremation rests on strong motives; for cremation in the majority of cases today is knit up with circumstances that make of it a public profession of irreligion and materialism; [but] there is nothing directly opposed to any dogma of the Church in the practice of Cremation" (William Devlin, in Catholic Encyclopedia, IV, 481).

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men could have conceived or executed. But there are other reasons for which I would give a preference to the Greek & Roman practice. Those who have lost friends, especially of a different sex from themselves, & have hearts to feel, need not be told that whatever philosophical indifference may have existed respecting the fate of their own bodies after death, those of their friends become infinitely dear to them, & that no display of their affection is considered too extravagant or too expensive to be indulged & executed. But if habit did not reconcile us to everything, how inconcistent with the delicate enthusiasm of a husband respecting the body of his wife & child does it not seem to put it into a hole full of stagnant water about three feet deep, to be there devoured by crawfish, as is done unavoidable [JIC] in New Orleans, or to place it in a Catacomb, where the worms may dispose of it. Now if the body were burnt and the ashes separately retained, which may easily be done by many methods, besides the expensive one of sheets of asbestos (if they ever were used), the space occupied would be so small and the remains so entirely inoffensive to any sense that all objections, public & private, would vanish, which render the preservation of what is left behind of those we loved, so difficult, expensive, & in most cases impossible. And if the Urns that enclose the ashes of our departed friends were placed in our view, the delightful sentiment of posthumous affection would be longer kept alive, & its moral effect be stronger & more beneficial. I have a confused recollection of the account given to me by Mr. Foster, the British Minister, of the discovery of the tomb of Aspasia. Within the monument was a large marble urn or vase, exquisitely sculptured, with decorations of cheerful import. Within this outer vase was found an urn of bronze of small size, but of the most exquisite workmanship, containing the ashes of that extraordinary woman, who, to the talents and acquirements of the Baroness de Stael, added a most refined & graceful taste and exquisite beauty, altho' her moral character, judged on the most latitudinarian of Athenian libertinism, must always be an object of disgust. Upon the ashes, which only partly filled the urn, lay a wreath of gold, the most perfect effort of art, a wreath composed of a sprig of laurel and of one of myrtle. There is some difference between such a monument to departed worth, & the death's heads & cross bones of our Church Yards.

[THE

FAILURE

OF

M R .

ROUQUETTE]

New Orleans, March 9th, 1819. The city is in great agitation on account of several failures of merchants and the apprehension of more. But the principal failure, if it can

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be called by a name that does not necessarily imply dishonest conduct or intention, is that of a Mr. Rocquet" stated to be to the amount of 200,000 dollars. I do not know how the debtor & creditor of his concern would have stood had he been an honest man, & had perhaps stopped payment for want of funds. But the fact is that he has absconded under circumstances of extraordinary criminality. About 10 years ago, I understand that he made his first appearance in this city. He was then a gambler, if not by profession, at all events by practice. Having, however, some address, he married Madem. [Cousin],23 set up as a merchant, & did very extensive business. Within the last 10 days or a fortnight he has borrowed money of all who would lend it [to] him, from smaller sums to thousands; he has sold below market price a cargo consigned to him by a friend, and sugars to a great amount, of which he was in possession in the course of his commerce; & having obtained notes of hand for the amount, by discounting them at usurious abatements, he obtained from the Spanish Consul a passport under a feigned name & disappeared, leaving his family to shift for themselves & carrying with him, as it is said, about 160,000 dollars. It would not have been worth while to have noted this particular fraud had not a singular circumstance occurred, which proves at the same time that he was a very deliberate & a very miserable villain. It was stated by Mr. Guerlin, but he did not mention the name of the Cashier. Rocquet called upon the cashier of one of the banks to receive some money, & said, on getting it, as if urged by an involuntary impulse: "Sir, I am the greatest of Scoundrels (Brigands) I have treated my best friends shamefully, et je ne sçais pas, où cacher ma tête." He disappeared the same day. "Thus conscience makes cowards of us all." 22

Dominique Rouquette, father of the Louisiana poet, the Abbé Rouquette. His house still stands on Royal Street, between Latrobe's Louisiana State Bank and the Louisiana Bank (the Patio Royal). 28 This name is inserted in the manuscript in pencil by a different hand. Dominique Rouquette was married to Louise Cousin.

BOOK

SIX

RECOLLECTIONS, March

ETC.

9, 1819—April 4, 1819

New Orleans, March 9th, 1819. There has been here on a commercial agency a M r . McKenzie, born a Scotchman, but become by long residence in Spain & employment in a military capacity in the Spanish service almost a Spaniard. He is an amiable, honorable, & well-informed man, especially upon Spanish subjects. He is a zealous freemason—a circumstance rather extraordinary, considering the extreme severity with which freemasons are persecuted at present by the Inquisition since the return of Ferdinand the beloved. He informs me that notwithstanding the extreme rigor of the inquisitors, their innumerable spies, & the danger attendant upon their meetings, still many lodges exist, & are frequented by the most eminent & elevated characters in the kingdom. They do not, however, escape occasional discovery, & altho' I regret that I could not obtain the precise information as to the details of the facts, which would have given a greater appearance of truth to the relation; yet the character of M r . Mackenzie, remarkable for extreme simplicity, & I had almost said dryness, & poverty of imagination, left no doubt on my mind as to the principal statement, which he, indeed, asserted and repeated with all the confidence belonging to a thorough conviction & knowledge of its truth. LEY,

GRANDMASTER

FORTITUDE

IN

OF

BEARING

MASONS, PAIN,

OF

TORTURED THE

BY

INDIAN,

THE A

INQUISITION

USELESS

—

VIRTUE

It appears, then, that in the course of last year, 1818, the Grandmaster of the order, a certain Don Ley (he could not remember his Christian name) was betrayed, put into the Inquisition, & tortured. T h a t his brethren contrived by a bribe of 5,000 dollars to his jailer, to effect his escape. T h e jailer escaped with him, and both are now at Montpelier, in France, where M r . Ley is endeavoring to recover some share of health. By the tortures he has undergone, all his fingers have been broken or dis-

90

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

March, 1819

located, so that his hands are useless & the rest of his body is racked in a manner that renders his existance miserable. Mr. McKenzie states that Mr. Ley is the author of several valuable works. But literature did not seem to have engaged so much of his attention as to induce him to know or remember their subjects or titles. Of the main fact, however, he was very positive, & without subjecting him to severe inquisition I contrived to lead him often to speak of the suffering of Mr. Ley, which he always did as of a thing well known to him & to his brethren. Here then is an instance of fortitude of which an Indian might be more easily supposed capable, because from his birth he is taught to consider the calm endurance of pain as his highest virtue. A Freemason, however, who suffers on the rack, & yet retains his fortitude—a man delicately brought up, not even inured to labor, & whose habits of thinking have never fortified his mind against the effect of severe bodily torment—has certainly infinitely more merit in bearing the ingenious cruelties of the holy brotherhood than any Indian who suffers at the stake. Besides, an Indian captive has nothing for it but to Suffer. He cannot escape. A reward, that of Indian fame, a miserable one indeed, is before him if he suffers like a hero. If he flinches his memory is forever disgraced. Death is the end of his sufferings at all events. But the Freemason may not only put an end to his tortures in a moment by betraying his trust—as a Christian martyr might have done by throwing a little incense on the altar—but he suffers no public disgrace by so doing, because he may escape detection. As to the virtue of patient endurance, I am willing to agree that it is one of the highest order when it is a sacrifice made by an individual to the safety of a community & to the cause of truth & humanity. I would erect a statue to such a man as Ley. But of what possible use is the heroism of the Indian to any one of his or any other tribe? T o himself it is an injury, because immediate death follows his complaining & shortens his pain. All the Doctors of Louvain & Oxford would be puzzled to prove that that can be a virtue which cannot by any possibility produce either pleasure or good. We want a dictionary of these sort of words that shall, like the chemical nomenclature, explain by the composition of the term the composition of the thing. Now as in chemistry oxygen is the prime acidifying principle, so in morals self should hold the same rank. It would require some study & time for arrangement & extensive experiment on the effect of verbal composition to compose such a nomenclature; but I think with some wit & much knowledge of the human heart it might be effected. For instance: the principle on which some men make their fortune might be called—indeed, the man himself might be called—a selfite of avarice; or a moderate usurer, a self at of avarice; & some mere money lenders might be selfurets.

March, 1819

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

91

A man who scrapes together money to eat & drink it might be called an avarite, or avuret of belly; or a rake, such as the Duke of Richelieu, a hyperselfurated [J/C] selfite [JJ'C] of venereal rascality. The glory of many a hero would be the selfat of slaughter, & the patriotism of a statesman the selfite of hypocrisy. Much charity would properly stand as the selfite of ostentation, & gravity as the selfuret of ignorance. Ferdinand the beloved might be set down as a selfuretted [i/c] dupite of superstition, & myself as a selfuratted [szc] amusite of scribble. PRIVILEGED

CHARACTERS:

FORTIER

New Orleans, March 10th, '19. There are in every society privileged characters who violate all the received forms of good breeding, & often of common decency with impunity; and whose bluntness, rudeness, or ribaldry is suffered & often admired because it is theirs. Such a privileged character is old Mr. Fortier. He is one of the oldest merchants here & has a capital store & house upon the levee. He claims to be 72 years old, but in spirits, noise, & style of conduct is always the youngest man in company. He is an honest, good tempered & friendly man, rich & respected, both on account of his wealth & his integrity. In those traits of character he has no privilege beyond many others; but his prerogative consists in his being a licenced blackguard, a man permitted to utter any inde[ce]ncy he pleases in any company without giving offence, to take the command of every table at which he dines, & to govern every public assembly, as principal if not sole manager, at which he happens to be present. He has on these occasions the most good-humored confidence, & having a strong voice, of which he is not sparing, he at once steps into his office of director without hesitation or apology. I have dined in his company several times. His age and character entitled him to the seat on the right of his host, from whence he took a view of the table & especially of the bottle, & directed all that was to be done, sung, or said. The effect of all this was inoffensive & pleasant enough among gentlemen; but I really thought he exceeded the authority allowed him when at a dinner at Mr. McCarty's 1 (a rich planter 6 or 7 1

Macarty's plantation, located in the present Carrollton section of N e w Orleans, was the scene of a disastrous crevasse on M a y 6, 1 8 1 6 , as a result of which almost the entire city was inundated. Henry Latrobe was among the engineers called upon to assist in closing the crevasse, and the ship "Louisiana" was sunk in the gap in a vain attempt to stop the flood. T h e waters did not entirely recede until June 10. On hearing of this calamity Latrobe prepared a lengthy essay " O n the Means of Preventing, Meeting, and Repairing the Calamities Occasioned by Inundations," based on the papers of the German engineers Riedel and Eytelwein. This essay, illustrated with several drawings in color, was sent to the mayor of N e w Orleans and is now among the records preserved in the Cabildo. This crevasse caused Latrobe considerable difficulty in connection with his contract for the waterworks.

RECOLLECTIONS,

92

&c.

March, 1819

miles above the city) he introduced a Piedmontese—whom I have since heard about the streets with his hurdy gurdy—to the great annoyance of the whole company. This man sung [«c] & whistled & ground his hurdy gurdy for more than half an hour. He had a wooden face & a wooden body, for there appeared neither expression nor movement in either. His whistling was good of the sort of thing, & his imitations of birds excellent. But altogether the appearance of this man was a great intrusion on a very respectable company of sensible men; & what rendered this thing worse was a collection made for him by order of Mr. Fortier, who sent a servant round with a plate, calling out as it passed, "Quatre escalins (four shillings or half a dollar) mes amis! Quatre escalins!" Everybody, of course, gave, & those who had not half dollars were obliged to put in dollars. Mr. McCarty could not interfere with Fortier's office, but looked as if he would rather have given the fellow one hundred dollars to have gone about his business. The style of Mr. Fortier's expression may be judged by the following fact. I was close to him at a ball, when he stept up to a very handsome young Lady, whom I do not know, & said, "Fautre! Mademoiselle, vous êtes bougrement jolie ce soir!"

INVOLUNTARY U.

S.

CONFESSION

SENATOR

ON T H E

OF G U I L T

QUESTION

OF R O U Q U E T T E

OF T H E

BRITISH

AND

OF

A

TREATY

March 11th, 1819. The confession of Rouquette to one of the cashiers, "that he was a scoundrel" before he was suspected & the day before he absconded, reminds me of an anecdote told to me by Mr. Langdon, of New Hampshire, than a Senator in Congress in the year 1798. There were present Wm. McClure, the geologist, Simon Snyder, afterwards governor of Pennsylvania, Dr. Scandella, & Mr. Alexander McClure. It is well known that (the appropriations for) the British treaty of 1794 (were) was carried with great difficulty through Congress, & I believe (it was sanctioned in) ! through the Senate by only one vote. In fact it was carried chiefly by the weight of General Washington's character, his opinion being well known to have been in favor of it. When the question was taken upon it in the Senate, Mr. Langdon sat next to a Senator who was supposed to have made up his mind against the treaty & not to have been backward in giving his opinion to that effect. Mr. Langdon did not name him, nor cculd he be asked to do so. * The words in parentheses are inserted and the words in italic are scratched out or altered in the manuscript in a different hand, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe.

RECOLLECTIONS,

March, 1819

&c.

93

When the names were called and it came to the turn of this Senator to vote, he hesitated, & then said, "A-A-A-Aye," & immediately afterwards uttered in a sort of half whisper the words, "I was never such a damned rascal in all my life." This was a thought only, but Mr. Langdon distinctly heard it. "Of what the heart is full the mouth speaketh."

MODE

OF

BUILDING

GREAT

IN

ANTIQUITY

N E W OF

ORLEANS; THE

SORT

PUBLIC OF

TILES

BUILDINGS; USED

New Orleans, March 12th, 1819. In the year 1788, in March, there was a fire3 which destroyed most of the houses in this city. The Principal, or town house, the Parish Church, & the Presbytère have been built since that event and are, of course, none of them old buildings. The Parish Church stood formerly on the site of the town house & was built of wood. 4 The present church was not erected till 6 years after the fire, namely, in 1794. The principal was built in 1795, & the Presbytère in 1813.6 The taste of the church, which is often called the Cathedral, is by far the worst of the three. The walls are very thick & solid, and the whole church, with its towers, is tied together with many iron bars, the anchors of which deface the outside. It stands firmly, and I do not discover any yielding in any part of it. The towers are hexagons, always a bad architectural polygon. The cornices of the towers do not range with those of the front. The chief entrance is decorated by two stories of % brick columns each ' "On Good Friday, March 21, 1788, at 1 :SO in the afternoon, candles on an altar in the home of Don Vincente José Nunez, treasurer, on Chartres Street started a fire which rapidly spread—within a few hours 856 houses had been consumed, including most of the business section of the city, the finest residences, the presbytery of the Capuchins, the Cabildo building, the guardhouse, the Arsenal, the public prison and—the St. Louis Parish Church" (Baudier, The Catholic Church in Louisiana, p. 205). * The original parish church was designed in 1724 by Adrian de Pauger, French military engineer who laid out the city in 1721. Itstood on the site of the present cathedral. It was of "briqueté entre poteaux" construction; that is, the spaces between the heavy timbers of the wall were filled in with brick. The exterior was covered with wide boards. This church was probably substantially rebuilt during the Spanish regime, as at the time of the transfer of Louisiana to Spain the church was in such dilapidated condition that services were being held in one of the Government warehouses on Dumaine Street. * The Parish Church, the Cabildo, or Principal, and the Presbytère were all begun about 1794^-95 by Don Andres Almonaster y Roxas. At the time of the death of Don Almonaster, on April 20, 1798, the Presbytère was unfinished, and work was halted when the walls had reached only the second floor level. It was temporarily roofed over and rented, and it was not until 181S that it was finally completed by the church wardens. For many years it was occupied by the city courts, and now it houses the natural history exhibits of the Louisiana state museum. Though generally similar to the Cabildo, the details of the Presbytère, particularly in the iron work, are not nearly so well executed.

94

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

March, 1819

(story being) very nearly of the same highth [i/c] of the order commonly called Tuscan 6 the upper (order) 8 is converted into a sort of Doric, by having triglyphs in the frieze. T h e whole façade, as well as every part of the exterior of the church, is stuccoed with a stucco that seems not very firm & which is extremely discoloured. I presume, therefore, that it contains an abundance of gypsum. T h e interior of the church 7 is in a still worse taste. Four massy brick & stuccoed columns sustain an architrave on each side, & divide the church into a nave & two side aisles. The nave extends beyond the side aisles about 30 feet, & forms there a sanctuary. A semi[cir]cular arch covers the entrance of the sanctuary. It is of the whole width of the nave. T h e altar stands back about 10 feet. The floor of the sanctuary is raised about 2 feet, and around it at the highth of about 15 feet is a gallery, so that this part of the church has a tolerable effect. But the whole is a miserable affair. At each end of the side aisles are altars, & side doors into the street. Before these altars, candles, placed there chiefly by colored women, are generally found burning on the steps, & a few straggling colored votaries are seen kneeling: a fast decaying remnant of the old Catholic zeal. T h e exterior of the church in the rear and flanks has a character of solidity which produces a pleasant effect upon the eye of an artist. It is extremely discolored, & looks venerable beyond its years, which are only 25. There is only a very narrow area inclosed in the rear of the church, so that whatever may be the growth of the city & the encreased wealth of its inhabitants of the Catholic religion, the church cannot be enlarged. It is about 80 by 120 French feet. At present it is not filled, and the congregation always consisted when I was present of a majority of colored people, & of the white 3A at least were women. T h e town house & Presbytère, the façades of which are exactly alike, are not bad designs en masse, but are bad in detail & execution. The lower story consists of a wide arcade and ranges of rooms behind it; the upper story of a wide gallery, covering also a range of Offices. It is an excellent building for the climate & would be a good one if judiciously warmed for one more northerly. T h e effect of the front at a distance is imposing, & the deep recesses & bold dimen• The words in parentheses are inserted in the manuscript in a different hand, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe. 7 Thomas Ash ( Travels in America, p. 336), who visited New Orleans in November, 1806, described the Church as follows: "The Church is a very large structure, built of brick and plastered and painted in front, to give it the appearance of marble. "The altar is magnificent for the western world and is adorned with paintings and sculpture of considerable taste.—Queen Esther, fainting away in the presence of Ahasueras is fine; for though she is lost to sense, and in a swoon, her majesty and beauty still remain."

March, 1819 /

RECOLLECTIONS,

/.Q^Çyé

•

I I

&c.

95

h\

r

f — C-aJr* ~| ! f;

sions of the arches give it a light as well as magnificent appearance. The Presbytère is divided below into stores or shops, and the upper story is occupied, as dwellings, by various persons & families. The two sides of the square to the NE & SW, excepting the SE angle formerly occupied by Mr. Tremoulet & now by Mr. Day as a hotel, consist of ranges of shops with one story above & a high ill-proportioned roof covered with Italian tiles. [These were under the French government the barracks.] 8 There is a continued balcony along 8

This comment may have been inserted in the manuscript by J. H. B. Latrobe after his visit to New

96

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

March, 1819

the second story, from which slender wooden posts support the projecting eaves of the roof. Nothing can have a meaner, dirtier, and ill-formed effect than these buildings. They would look shabby in Wapping or in the Fauxbourg St. Marcelle. The hotel at the comer was formerly an exception, but since Mr. Day, from some caprice or ill advice, has painted it black, il se marie assez bien avec les autres. The tiles,' which I have called Italian because they are very generally used in Italy, have been the covering of houses & temples for the space of at least 2,300 years, for they are seen on the most ancient medals, paintings, & basso relievos, in buildings represented upon them, and they have given rise to very beautiful Architectural decorations.

They form, in fact, a most excellent tight roof, but, as they are here used, very far from a handsome one. Another kind of tiles is also in use in many parts of Europe, & were before the general use of slate very common in England, which are I believe of a date equally ancient with the former. They are called in England Dutch pantiles.

These (two sorts of) 10 tiles, I have no doubt, gave the idea of the beautiful margins of the cornice of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, commonly called the Lanthorn Orleans in 1834. Large brick barrack buildings similar to the old Ursuline Convent and designed by the same architect-engineer, Ignace François Broutin, were erected on both sides of the square by the French in 1734. Due to failure of their foundations and rotting of the timbers in their walls, these buildings collapsed in part and were ordered demolished in 1759. The buildings here referred to may have incorporated some small sections of the old barracks, but this is doubtful. The buildings at the corner of St. Anne and Decatur streets were built by Hilaire Boutte for the widow Almonaster in 1803, and the following year the same contractor erected buildings for her at the corner of St. Anne and Chartres streets at a cost of $35,500. These structures, and those on the St. Peter Street side of the square were restored by her son-in-law, the Baron de Pontalba, in 1828. Boutte had also built the house now occupied by the Little Theatre, at the corner of the square, for Pontalba's father, in 1796. • Buildings with steeply pitched hipped roofs, such as the old Ursuline convent and the barracks, were generally roofed with a small flat tile of the type still to be seen on a few old New Orleans buildings, notably the Girod House at Chartres and St. Louis Streets and the Delord-Sarpy house on Howard Avenue. 10 Inserted in a different hand, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe.

March, 1819

RECOLLECTIONS,

97

&c.

of Demosthenes, at Athens. The work of Dutens, 11 on the Arts, claimed unjustly by the moderns as their discoveries, but which were known to the ancients, is rendered less valuable than it might be by pretensions on behalf of the ancients which are badly supported & cannot be fairly maintained; but many other just claims are omitted in that work, which have the most solid foundations. There is in every nation two sets of literary advocates who take opposite sides in questions relative to the national merits (of ancient & modern times and of foreign & domestic manners & improvements) 12 both of which fail of the success they would deserve, by attempting to prove too much; and what is singular, those who decry their own country or their own age assert & argue as zealously as those who find nothing but what is excellent in the land & the epoch in which they were born. Caesar, for instance, & Tacitus, in describing the Britons & Germans as Barbarians little superior to our Red Brethren & their country as overrun with forests (have, I think, violated truth in favor of Roman superiority, for they) 13 have at the same time detailed facts respecting their arts & their Government entirely inconsistent with the state of savage life which he (they) depicts, & thus (they) 14 destroy their own credibility.

PROTESTANT

EPISCOPAL

CHURCH;

THE

REVEREND

MR.

HULL

March 14th, 1819. In the year 1816 a Protestant Episcopal Church 15 was built here at the corner of Bourbon & Esplanade streets. It is a plain octagon without any archi11 Louis Dutens, Recherches sur l'origine des découvertes attribuées aux modernes; oü, L'On demontre que nos plus célebres philosophes ont prisé la plupart de leurs connoissances dans les ouvrages des anciens. Paris, Vve Duchesne 1766. 2 tomes en 1 vol. 12 The word "national" scratched out and the words in parenthesis inserted, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe. 13 Inserted, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe. 14 Changes made in the manuscript, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe. 14 The original building for Christ Church at the corner of Bourbon and Canal Streets (then sometimes known as Esplanade) has been described by another critic as "an octagon edifice, with a cupola, in bad taste." It was probably designed and built by Henry Latrobe, for at a meeting of the vestry on June 4, 1815, a committee was "requested to obtain an estimate of Mr. Latrobe for building said church," and on June 18, 1815, another committee was appointed "to examine into the plans and proposals submitted to the vestry and to make a final contract for the building of the church on such terms & conditions as they may deem most advisable." (Vestry Minutes f.90) Owing to construction defects, extensive repairs were necessary in 1818. These repairs must have been under way at the time of

RECOLLECTIONS,

98

&c.

March, 1819

tectural merit of design or execution; but at the same time it has no offensive features. Mr. Hull is the established minister of this church. He is a man of good talents & of an exemplary character. His sermons are plain & useful discourses, well composed, never rising to energetic eloquence and never sinking below mediocrity of argument or style. His delivery has only one fault, without which it would be really excellent: he drops his voice at the close of every period to the lowest tone of its compass. It may be depicted something in this manner:

This is in fact not an uncommon trick, but I have seldom heard it of so inveterate a character as with Mr. Hull. There is a very good organ in the church, and an excellent organist. The part of the service which is usually chanted is accompanied by the organist, with excellent effect, and the musical part of the service forms a contrast to that of the Catholic Church (in New Orleans) 16 highly favorable to the Episcopal congregation. PERISHABLE

CONSTRUCTION

OF

THE

TOMBS

IN

GENERAL

USE

In the church yard is a monument erected to the memory of the late Governor & Senator W. C. C. Claiborne. 17 It is a miserable affair in taste & construction, & is already tumbling to pieces. The object of erecting monuments to the dead is assuredly to perpetuate the memory of their merits, or at least of their existence. But of all structures, the monuments usually put up in our church yards are the most ingeniously contrived to last as short a time as possible. In the first place, they are generally put down upon ground newly dug, commonly called made ground, and what is worse, Latrobe's visit, for they were completed by William Brand and Benjamin Fox in 1820. In 1835 a plan for a new church in the form of an Ionic Temple was approved, and the new building, designed by Gallier and Dakin, was completed the following year. In 1846 the church was sold to Judah Touro for use as a synagogue, and a new church in the Gothic style was erected by James Gallier at the corner of Canal and Dauphine streets. " Inserted possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe. 17 At the session of the City Council on May 15, 1819, a committee was appointed to examine "the present condition of the monument erected by the Corporation, to the memory of the late W. C. C. Claiborne." The monument being found in very bad condition, a plan for a new one was submitted. This being too expensive, a contract was made with " M r . Isnard, marble contractor," to repair the old one. These repairs were completed August 7, 1819, at a cost of $350, guaranteed for two years. The monument was evidently destroyed when Christ Church was rebuilt, in 1835-37.

March, 1819

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

99

this ground contains a hollow wooden coffin. As the coffin decays, the ground gives way; the slab, if horizontal, breaks; if perpendicular, it first leans over, & then falls and breaks. Another sort of monument is the close[d] tomb formed of slabs. These are torn to pieces by the (frost) ice in more northern countries; & (more) especially with us; (for) 18 our national oeconomy or poverty induces the stonecutters to make the slabs as thin as possible. The sinking of the ground operates soon, assisted by the frost, to their dilapidation. But as if ingenuity had been employed to invent a monument still more caduceous[sic], there has been of late a new fashion introduced. A thin slab is supported sometimes by 6 sometimes by only 4 balustres, or small stone or marble posts. Whenever I have been consulted about a monument to be placed in a church yard, I have advised the foundation to be laid in rough stone, level with the bottom of the grave, & brought up in two walls near to the surface & to be so arched as that any weight placed upon the arch cannot lose its position. The monument I always recommend to be made of as few blocks as possible, & those of as great weight as the form permits. Of this kind is the monument designed by me for Members of Congress who die in Washington and now adopted as marking their public character. The cube block at the top weighs about eight hundred weight.

ROUQUETTE

DROWNS

HIMSELF;

REFLECTIONS

ON

HIS

END

March 15th, 1819. Mr. Rouquette, who became bankrupt 19 about a fortnight ago, and who—by an apparently involuntary impulse—declared to the cashier of one of the 18

The word "ice" changed to "frost" and other words in parenthesis inserted in the manuscript, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe. 18 According to the records of the Parish Court of New Orleans, an order was issued on March 5, 1819, for the sequestration of all the property of Dominique Rouquette, "a fraudulent bankrupt." A meeting of the creditors was called for April 6 and announced in the Louisiana Courier of March 10. In the registers of the St. Louis Cathedral it is recorded: "In the year one thousand eight hundred nineteen, the sixteenth day of March has been inhumed in the cemetery of this Parish the body of Mr. Dominique Rouquette, son of Mr. Bernard and of Marianne St. Antonin, married to Louise Coussin, native of Florence, department of Gers in France, aged forty-seven years. in faith Marcel Borella, Priest."

100

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

March, 1819

banks that he was such a villain that he did not know "ou cacher sa tête," has drowned himself. His body was discovered on the shore this morning. On the evening on which he drowned himself a person was seen kneeling on the shore, with his hands placed together in the attitude of prayer, by a negro woman & slave, who immediately ran to inform her master of the circumstance. Before, however, any of the family could reach the spot, the person had disappeared. Mr. Rouquette's body being found near that place, between two Kentucky boats, renders it highly probable that the person who was kneeling there was that unfortunate man. I ought not to have called him unfortunate; because he seems to have been fully aware of his criminality, both in the actions that attended & probably brought on his commercial ruin & in the act of suicide. He is said to have been a most desperate and an unlucky Gambler. T o repair and hide his losses he appropriated to his own use the property of others, confided to him not only as a merchant, but as a friend, and (is said) 20 to have occasioned the ruin of several. A man who acts as he did is certainly a madman, but by no means of a very uncommon kind. Upon a less scale, there are many whom a dependence upon chance induced to go on in ruinous mercantile speculations, living in the meantime a life of misery, until their own ruin involves that of their connexions. But what is singular in Rouquette's case, besides the magnitude of his frauds, is his retaining a cowardly respect for public opinion, which alone could be the motive of his suicide, and also a sort of religious sense of his criminality. He seems to have evinced this by praying that the suicide, of all crimes against religion the least likely to be pardoned, might be pardoned. Now if his religion was that of any Christian sect, believing in the effect of a death bed repentance, he must have been very certain that the prayer of his ultimate supplication must be denied, however sincere his repentance might be while making it; for the act that followed it was of itself an irrevocable as well as a damning one—according even to the Catholic creed. There are no acts of pardon past, In the cold grave to which we haste, But darkness, death, and long despair, Reign in eternal silence there. Such is this human mind, of which we boast so much! RETAIL

TRADE

OF N E W

ORLEANS

BY

SLAVE

PEDLARS

March 16th, 1819. I happened this morning to be in the dry good store of Mrs. 20

Inserted, possibly by J. H. B. Latrobe.

March,

1819

RECOLLECTIONS,

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101

Herries, a lady who formerly as the wife of the rich banker Herries of Brussels, figured in the highest circles of fashion, & now—one of the many ruins of the French revolution—still exhibits in her manners & language the characters of former taste & elegance. At the same time she has had the good sense not to be ashamed of her present situation & employment, & is a most admirable & attentive shop woman,21 both to her customers & to her interest. While I was in the shop a mulatto man came in & asked for some shawls. Mrs. Herries produced some very elegant ones, which the man looked at with an apparent intention to buy, but said he had no money with him, but that if her woman was out with shawls & she called at the house, one would be bought & paid for. Mrs. Herries replied that her woman was not out that morning, but should go out; and the man went away. This circumstance induced me to make enquiries as to the details of a mode of retail trade which I had long observed & which had excited my curiosity. In every street during the whole day women, chiefly black women, are met, carrying baskets upon their heads calling at the doors of houses.22 These baskets contain assortments of dry goods, sometimes to appearance to a considerable amount. The shawls at Mrs. Herries's which the man looked at cost from 28 to 50 dollars each, and were many of them exceedingly handsome. These female pedlars are slaves belonging either to persons who keep dry good stores, or who are too poor to furnish a store with goods, but who buy as many at auction as will fill a couple of baskets, which baskets are their shop. I understand that the whole of the retail trade in dry goods was carried on in this way before the U. States got possession of the country. It was not then, nor is it now, the fashion for Ladies to go shopping. The Creole families stick still to the pedlars, & tho' many inducements are held out, by the better arrangement & exhibition of the shops, to the Ladies to buy, still—as in everything else—the old habit wears away very slowly. I am informed that it is a very unprofitable mode of dealing—that the infidelity of the pedlars, their ignorance or forgetfulness of prices at which they ought to sell, & the slow sales render it even less so than it might be. But it is continued by two circumstances—by the dependence of those who live by the labor of their slaves upon this traffic, by the necessity thus imposed upon the shop keepers to meet their petty rivals 21

Mrs. Trollope, in her Domestic Manners of the Americans, London, Whittaker, Treacher 8c Co., 1832, describes a similar shop in New Orleans kept by a Miss C., a milliner. "She was an English woman, and I was told that she possessed great intellectual endowments and much information—and that the society of this lady was highly valued by all persons of talent." 22 According to the "Black Code," it was only in New Orleans that slaves were permitted to act as peddlers, the law prescribing that goods sold by them must be carried in baskets on their heads.

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102

&c.

March,

1819

on the same ground. This retail trade is so far worthy of notice as it forms one of the characteristic features of this city at present. The existence of slavery brings with it many things which seem contradictory. Servants who are slaves are always treated with more familiarity than hirelings; probably because if you indulge & behave familiarly to a hireling you cannot, if he presume upon it, correct him as you can a slave, & make him feel his inferiority by corporal punishment. Therefore we find cruelty & confidence, cowhiding & caressing, perfectly in accord with one another among the Creoles of this place & their slaves. MASTERS

AND

MISTRESSES

SUPPORTED

BY

THEIR

SLAVES

There are poor Creole families, & individuals who live upon the labor of their slaves. Their fuel is collected by them wherever they can find it, & the house is kept either by the petty tra[f]fic above described or by some other species of industry of the slaves, in which the master or mistress takes no share. I have heard of mistresses who beat their slaves cruelly if they do not bring them a sufficient sum of money to enable them to keep the house, or fuel to warm them. I know also in my neighborhood an old decrepid woman who is maintained entirely by an old slave whom she formerly emancipated, but who, on her mistress getting old & helpless, returned to her & devoted her labor to her support. Judge Martin of this city, a severe miser & very rich, is said to be entirely maintained by his slaves, to a few of whom he has given the liberty to earn as much as they can for themselves, provided they kept a good table for him. MRS.

PLANTOU'S

ALLEGORICAL

PICTURE;

REMARKS

ON

ALLEGORIES

March 18th, 1819. I went this morning with Mr. Plantou to see his wife's picture of the treaty of Ghent. 23 It is an excellent painting in many points of view, & there 21

In the Louisiana Courier for January 20, 1819, the following advertisement appeared: "The Celebrated Painting By Madame Plantou Pupil of the famous Painter, David Which represents the Treaty of Ghent which terminated the late War between America and England "will this day be exhibited, and for a short time in the house of Mr. Girod, opposite Maspero's coffee house. "The picture is 12 feet long by 7 feet in height, and exhibits about 40 personages.

March, 1819

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103

are parts of it—separate figures & groupes—that have very extraordinary merit. But its inherent sin, especially in America, is its being an allegorical picture. When the mythology of antiquity was the substance of its religion, & the character & history of every deity was known to every individual of the nation, allegorical representations were a kind of written description of the subject represented, & might be generally understood. But since Hercules & Minerva & the rest of the deities are in fashion only as decorations of juvenile poetry, & are known by character only to those few who have had classical educations, an allegorical picture stands as much in need of an interpreter as an Indian talk. Mrs. Plantou has painted exceedingly well, but has judged very ill. In another respect also her American feeling has betrayed her into error. She has painted a picture of the largest size in oil, of course a picture calculated for duration, & forming an historical record, to represent evanescent feelings, the feelings of unexpected & of course riotous & unreasonable triumph. Brittania is represented as laying at the feet of America, who approaches in a triumphal car, her flag, her rudder (emblems of naval superiority), her laurels, & other symbols of victory & dominion. She kneels in the posture of an humble suppliant, while Hercules & Minerva threaten her with the club & the spear—all this is caricature. But the whole of this group excepting Hercules is admirably painted. The figure of Brittania is very graceful & well drawn, & the drapery has superior merit. The group on the right is also uncommonly well conceived & "The victory of New Orleans, the most brilliant, and next to the achievement of independence, the most important event in our history, has suggested the principal point of the interest of the piece. "Madame Plantou flatters herself that the inhabitants of this city, with whom, tho born in America, she claims a national connexion, and whose valor has inspired her pencil, will visit the exhibition of her painting, and subscribe to the print which is now finished. "Admittance 1 dollar—children half price." In the French version of the ad, the price of the print is given as 110.00. According to Fielding, Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, New York, 1945 (p. 284), Mrs. Plantou was "a portrait painter in oils and miniatures; also historical painter. She painted portraits in Washington, D.C. about 1820. In 1821 she moved to Philadelphia. Her portrait of Bishop Conwell painted in 1825, is well known from the engraving." In the Louisiana Courier for February 2, 1819, a Dr. Plantou advertises himself as a surgeon, occulist and dentist from Paris, and in the same issue is an ad stating that "Mr. Plantou, reader to the Paris Athaneum—will recite on Monday next at St. Philip Theatre—admittance one dollar for the boxes and pitt and 6 bitts for the gallery." At the session of the City Council of March 13, 1819, after reading a letter from Mr. Plantou, the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved that a framed engraving of the Treaty of Peace, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and Great Britain shall be purchased, and said engraving is to be placed in the Session Hall of the City Council of New Orleans, and that the sum of fifty dollars asked for this purpose by Mr. Plantou shall be paid to him by a warrant of the Mayor on the City Treasurer." A copy of this engraving is in the Library of Congress.

104

RECOLLECTIONS,

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March, 1819

executed. The whole picture does, indeed, infinite credit to the artist & to her country, for she is a Philadelphian. The great fault is the choice of the subject, for the signing or negotiation of a treaty, as a matter offact, can at best be but a collection of expressive likenesses of persons writing or conversing, & has nothing picturesque about it. Strength, fortitude, courage, & some good luck, on our side, were not wanting "to conquer the treaty," in the French fashionable phrase, and admirable talent was displayed in the negotiation. But these are not very well paintable. As to allegory generally it is a most difficult branch of the art of the painter & sculptor, & belongs rather to the poetical department. Yet sometimes the sculptor & painter have succeeded in rendering sentiment intelligible by the chisel & pencil. For instance, in the personification of peace, by Canova, where a pair of doves make their nest in a helmet. Some years ago Dr. Thornton 24 of Washington described, in a large company, the allegorical group which it was his intention as Commissioner of the city of Washington, to place in the center of the Capitol, around the statue of the general. "I would," said he, "place an immense rock of granite in the center of the dome. On the top of the rock should stand a beautiful female figure, to represent Eternity or Immortality. Around her neck, as a necklace, a serpent—the rattlesnake of our country—should be hung, with its tail in its mouth, the ancient & beautiful symbol of endless duration. At the foot of the rock another female figure stretching her hands upwards in the attitude of distressful entreaty should appear ready to climb the steep. Around her a group of children representing agriculture, the arts & sciences, should appear to join in the supplication of the female. This female is to personify time, or our present state of existence. Just ascending the rock, the noble figure of General Washington should appear to move upwards, invited by immortality; but also expressing some reluctance in leaving the children of his care. "There," said he, "Mr. Latrobe, is your requisite in such works of art; it would represent a matter of fact, a truth, for it would be the very picture of the General's sentiments, feelings, & expectations in departing this life: regret at leaving his people, but hoping & longing for an immortality of happiness & of fame. You yourself have not ingenuity sufficient to pervert its meaning, & all posterity would understand it." u

Dr. William Thornton (1759-1828), physician and amateur architect, whose design was selected in the competition for the capitol at Washington in 1789. In 1803, when Latrobe was appointed Surveyor of the Public Buildings, he was charged with the execution of Thornton's design. In his journal he wrote of it as follows: "To speak plainly the design was evidently the production of a man wholly ignorant of architecture, having brilliant ideas, but possessing neither the knowledge necessary for the execution nor the capacity to methodize and combine the various parts of a public work."

March, 1819

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105

T h e D o c t o r was so full of his subject that I was unwilling to d i s t u r b his good h u m o r . But I said that I t h o u g h t his g r o u p m i g h t tell a v e r y different s t o r y f r o m what h e intended. H e pressed m e so hard that at last I told h i m : t h a t s u p p o s i n g t h e n a m e & character of G e n e r a l W a s h i n g t o n to be f o r g o t t e n , or at least t h a t t h e g r o u p being found in the ruins of the Capitol, the learned antiquarians of 2 0 0 0 y e a r s hence w e r e assembled to decide its m e a n i n g . I t h o u g h t then that they would thus explain it. T h e r e is a beautiful w o m a n on the t o p of a d a n g e r o u s precipice, to which she invites a m a n , apparently well enough inclined to follow her. W h o is this woman? Certainly n o t a very g o o d sort of one, for she has a snake about h e r neck. T h e snake indicates assuredly her character, cold, cunning, & poisonous. She can r e p r e s e n t none but some celebrated courtisan of the day. But there is a n o t h e r w o m a n at the foot of the rock, m o d e s t & sorrowful, & surrounded by a family of small children. She is in a p o s t u r e of e n t r e a t y , and the man appears half-inclined to r e t u r n to her. She can be no o t h e r than his wife. W h a t an expressive g r o u p ! H o w admirable the a r t which has thus exposed the d a n g e r o u s precipice to which the beauty & the c u n n i n g of the a b a n doned would entice the virtuous, even to the desertion of a beautiful wife & the m o t h e r of a delightful g r o u p of children! I was g o i n g on, but the l a u g h t e r of the company & the impatience of the D o c t o r stopped my m o u t h . I had said e n o u g h , & w a s n o t easily forgiven.

MODE

OF

BUILDING

IN

N E W

ORLEANS:

PRIVATE

BUILDINGS

March 22d, 1819. N e w Orleans, beyond Royal street, t o w a r d s the s w a m p , retains its old character without variation. T h e houses are, with hardly a dozen exceptions a m o n g many hundred, one-story houses. T h e roofs are h i g h , covered w i t h tiles o r shingles, & project five feet over the footway, which is also five feet wide. T h e eaves therefore discharge the w a t e r into the g u t t e r s . T h e h i g h t h of the stories is hardly ten feet, the elevation above the p a v e m e n t not m o r e than a foot & a half; & therefore the eaves are n o t often m o r e than 8 feet f r o m the g r o u n d . H o w e v e r different this m o d e is f r o m the American m a n n e r of building, it has very g r e a t a d v a n t a g e s both with r e g a r d to the interior of the dwelling & to the street. In the s u m m e r the walls are perfectly shaded f r o m the sun & the house kept cool, while the p a s s e n g e r s are also shaded f r o m the sun & protected f r o m the rain. F r o m m y l o d g i n g s to M r . N o l t e ' s 2 8 is a distance [of] 650 feet independently of the crossing of t w o streets, & " On Feb. 12, 1819, Latrobe wrote to his wife: "Your kind question how I am lodged has been answered fully in my former letters. But as you are so kind as to think of my personal comfort you must

RECOLLECTIONS,

106

&c.

March, 1819

yet in the heaviest rains I can walk to his house perfectly dry excepting for about 200 feet in front of a dead Wall & some high houses in Thoulouse street. These one-storied houses are very simple in their plan. The two front rooms open into the street with French glass doors. Those on one side are the dining & drawing rooms, the others, chambers. 9 » ' \ i' t n l — — The front rooms, when inhabI ' ited by Americans, are the | j LiU U i J U c r family rooms, & the back mt rooms the chambers. We derive from the English the habit of desiring that every one of our rooms should be separately accessible, & we «»1 consider rooms that are thoroughfares as useless. The French & Continental Europeans generally live, I believe, as much to their own satisfaction in their houses as we do in ours, & employ the room they have to more advantage because they do not require so much space for passages. The comfort is a matter of habit. The offices are in the back buildings. In the Fauxbourg St. Mary & wherever the Americans build, they exhibit their flat brick fronts with a sufficient number of holes for light & entrance. The only French circumstance which they retain is the balcony in the upper story, which altho' generally too elevated for the protection of the passenger is still a means of shade as far as it goes. The French stucco the fronts of their buildings and often color them; the Americans exhibit their red staring brickwork, imbibing heat thro' the whole unshaded substance of the wall. The old English «^-passage house with the stairs at the end is also gaining ground & is taking place of the French porte-cochere, or corridor, which, carrying you quite thro' the house, leads to the staircase at the back, where it takes up no room from the apartments & is protected by a broad & convenient gallery. An American bricklayer, a very worthy man, consulted me as to a house he has built for himself on the London plan. I objected to many parts of his design as contrary to every principle of good architecture. He could not well answer my objections, & at last cut the argument short by exclaiming: "I have been at war with

E

fr-

know that within a day or two I have made a new arrangement, of which I gave you some notice. Mr. Nolte has taken a house for his foreign friends; below stairs James Kingston has his wine store; above are the lodging rooms, of which I have one about the size of our drawing room. There I have a very good French bed of 3 or 4 mattrasses [s/c] a blanket, good sheets, & a handsome quilt, 6 painted chairs, a drawing table which I have had made, a small mahogany pembroke table & a small chest of drawers which I have bought & charged to the Company. The room is a very agreeable one, 4 streets back from the river, and about 2 squares from Mr. Nolte's, where I always breakfast. The house is kept by an elderly Irish Lady, the widow of a British Officer, Mrs. Kennedy, whose manners are very agreeable. I have an excellent light for drawing, and altogether I do not wish to be better accommodated."

March, 1819

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

107

a r c h i t e c t u r e all m y life, & will c o n t i n u e so t o t h e e n d , having all New York in my

favor."

I h a v e n o d o u b t b u t t h a t t h e A m e r i c a n style will u l t i m a t e l y be t h a t of t h e w h o l e city, especially as c a r p e n t e r s f r o m t h e e a s t e r n b o r d e r of t h e u n i o n a r e t h e architects, & , of c o u r s e , w o r k o n in t h e i r old h a b i t s , f o r m e n a c c u s t o m e d t o t h e s e v e r y s o r t of h o u s e s . B u t a l t h o ' r o o m m a y be t h e r e b y g a i n e d , t h e c o n v e n i e n c e of t h e h o u s e s will by n o m e a n s be p r o m o t e d — n o r t h e h e a l t h of t h e city i m p r o v e d . T h e s t r e e t s a r e , in t h e city, all of t h e m 3 6 F r e n c h f e e t , a b o u t 3 8 ' - 6 " E n g l i s h , w i d e ; & t h e s q u a r e s (islets) 3 0 0 F r e n c h , o r a b o u t 3 2 0 E n g l i s h f e e t , s q u a r e . T h e old lots a r e 6 0 F r e n c h feet f r o n t by 120 d e e p . In t h e F a u x b o u r g St. M a r y t h e s t r e e t s a r e w i d e r , b u t in t h a t of M a r i g n y , 2 6 the s a m e as in t h e city. P r o v i s i o n is m a d e f o r s e v e r a l public s q u a r e s , an o r n a m e n t & convenience in which o u r o t h e r cities a r e m o s t r e m a r k a b l y deficient. I n this r e s p e c t N e w O r l e a n s will always m a i n t a i n its s u p e r i o r i t y .

[MR.

MARIGNY'S

PUN]

March 23d, 1819. F r e n c h p u n ( C a l e m b o u r g ) . M r . M a r i g n y h a s a r e p u t a t i o n f o r p u n n i n g , n o t equal t o t h a t of J u d g e P e t e r s e i t h e r f o r t h e q u a l i t y o r q u a n t i t y of his p u n s , b u t m a n y of t h e m a r e v e r y g o o d . A g e n t l e m a n w h o h a s a l a r g e w e n on his neck (loup[e\) w a s s u p p o s e d t o be t h e l o v e r of o n e of t h e C r e o l e ladies of this city—loup[e] m e a n s also a lens, o r c o n v e x r e a d i n g g l a s s . She r e c e i v e d , h o w e v e r , a f t e r s o m e t i m e t h e a d d r e s s e s of a n o t h e r w h o w o r e spectacles m o r e f a v o r a b l y . M a r i g n y t o o k occasion t o tell h e r " V o u s avez c h a n g é

votre loup[e] pour des Lunettes." MADAME

March 24th, 1819.

DE G E N L I S '

DRAMA

RECOLLECTIONS ( R E M I N I S C E N C E S ) .

OF

JOSEPH

T h e r e h a s been acted h e r e , s o m e

S u n d a y s a g o , M r s . G e n l i s sacred d r a m a of J o s e p h & his b r e t h r e n . T h e d r a m a itself, is like e v e r y t h i n g of M a d a m e de Genlis, a w o r k of m e r i t . She h a s g i v e n to J o s e p h t h e E g y p t i a n n a m e of 16

& by w a y of c o n t r a s t to his a m i a b l e & mild c h a r -

The faubourg Marigny occupied was the area roughly from Esplanade Avenue to Almonaster, formerly the plantation of Bernard Marigny. On November 18, 1806, before the notary Narcisse Broutin, an agreement was entered into between Marigny and Barthélémy Lafon, geographical engineer, by which the latter "obligates himself to lay out the faubourg Marigny according to the plan which has been drawn up for it by the Sieur Definiels under date of the Sixteenth March last." Lafon visited Latrobe in Washington in 1812 and authorized him to act as his agent in arranging a contract with the Navy Department for oak timbers from his Louisiana plantation. 27 Name omitted in manuscript.

108

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

March,

1819

acter, revenging itself upon his brothers by kindness, she has introduced a fictitious friend of Joseph, Phaesear, who, offended & injured by his brother, meditates his destruction to gratify his revengeful disposition. T h e example of Joseph at last conquers the anger of Phaesear, & he forgives his brother. I was not present at the performance here. But it reminds me of the performance of the same drama by the students of St. Mary's College 2 8 at Baltimore, when the character of Phasear was performed by my son John, then about 15 years old, to the satisfaction (as Archbishop Mareshal told me), & admiration of all present. I assisted him in writing an epilogue to the piece, by pronouncing which he gained considerable celebrity of that indulgent & shortlived kind which is granted to precocious school boys. As it exists now, I believe, only in my memory, I may as well commit it to paper before it vanishes even from thence. Epilogue to Madame Genlis Sacred drama of Joseph, pronounced by John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe, Aug't, 1818, at St. Marys College, Baltimore, in the character of Phasear. Now Phasear's occupations gone! By scenic play O'er fierce revenge, the power of virtues sway, T'was mine to act,—and on this annual stage, T o show mild reason's triumph over rage!— —Where first the mimic art received its birth And rais'd a shrine to morals & to mirth,— Whether far Eastward, where the tot'ring fair, Of China trail their plaited length of hair, Or where the fragrant Gales of India play, And fan the lazy Rajah's life away,— Or whether first,—a stage not much to brag on The stroller Thespis acted in a waggon, And taught the sapient Greeks to laugh or weep O'er the three Unities,—perhaps to sleep,— Imports but little, while this magic art, Charms to amend, and not corrupt the heart. Cheer'd by your smiles, we boys again,— With all our power have mimick'd men. Thanks for those smiles, but when at riper age, As real Men we tread lifes slippery stage, M

In a letter of November 15, 1817, addressed to his sister-in-law Miss Sellon, in England, Latrobe wrote, "I then sent him [Henry Latrobe] to St. Mary College (or University) at Baltimore. This seminary had been established by the emigrant priests of the College of St. Sulpice at Paris and was undoubtedly the first seminary of learning on this side of the Atlantic. No attempt being made to change the religion of Protestant students, the objection which might occur, on that score, had no foundation."

March, 1819

RECOLLECTIONS,

109

&c.

And act the various parts to us assign'd, Say, shall we then deserve that you'll be kind. Shall then the lawyer, blind to sordid self, Repress the head strong strife that brings the pelf, Disdain the fee that bribes the venal tongue And gilds with eloquence the orphan's wrong? Shall then the Merchants feverish thirst of gain, Nor honor check, nor piety restrain? Or shall fair commerce, o'er the prosp'rous land By him directed, wave her magic wand, The spell pervade the city & the farm, And distant nations bless the potent charm? Or if, perchance, by patriotic ardor led Some ventr'ous youth the up hill path shall trend; That climbs the steep, where blooms ambition's wreath, Where all above is bright, & hollow all beneath, Where flattery spreads her flowr'y snares, where lurks, Detraction base, & mincing envy works,— Shall he unmoved, pursue, with steady aim, His country's freedom, honor, & her fame? Enough!—'Twere vain to tell the various parts, The field, the ocean, letters, and the arts That honor, that protect, that wage the strife Of Freedom, or that polish human life,— Whatever role we play, when we have won Tour plaudits, we shall justly gain our own.

FRENCH

TRAGEDY;

NATIONAL

HABITS;

SCULPTURE;

DIFFERENCE

FRENCH

OF W A X W O R K

AND

RHYME

March 26th, 1819. Habit governs our preferences in everything so extensively, if not entirely, that it is a very presumptuous man indeed who undertakes to decide on the positive merit of any national practice in which morality is not concerned. The English writers of the most candid and enlightened minds have been more guilty of this presumption than those of any other nation, more especially when the question has been about any thing relative to France & Frenchmen. One of the most delightful of English writers, Goldsmith, has blotted his elegant pages with more illiberality towards the

110

RECOLLECTIONS,

(Sc.

March, 1819

French than any other respectable English author. All this is to be regretted, but national hatred & jealousy seems to be implanted in the very essence of the human mind & is considered by all governments to be so essential a machine in the management of a war, that it never will be corrected entirely, altho' I think, that since the American revolution somewhat more liberality prevails. But there are national sources of pleasure which are so entirely artificial that it is a fair subject of enquiry whether habit alone gives to them their fascination, whether they cannot be improved or corrected, and even whether they are not so far founded in error & prejudice as to require correction, for the benefit of the public taste generally. These thoughts were suggested some time ago by the French tragedy of Mahomet, at the performance of which I was present, & by the perusal of many of Moliére's comedies; & have been revived by stepping a few nights ago into the Theatre of St. Philip 29 & listening to a tolerably good English recitation by a Mr. Philips. March 28th, '19. Mr. Fulwar Skipwith, 30 who has resided many years in France, accompanied me, & I take it for granted that the declamation was very bad, for he, who is almost a Frenchman, declared that he could not understand one fourth part of it. I was happy if I could understand the general drift of what was going forward, being entirely out of the habit of hearing or speaking the French language. And yet I observed many, Ladies as well as gentlemen, who were much affected by the scene, " T h e following advertisement appeared in the Louisiana Courier for January 20, 1819: "St. Philip Theatre A Society of Amateurs will give On Wednesday the 20th Inst. (For the benefit of the Poor) A representation of Mahomet A Tragedy in 5 acts, by Voltaire to be followed by "Bruis & Palaprat, a comedy in one act and in verse, by Etienne. ". . . That society of Amateurs, whose object in giving that representation, is to contribute to the relief of the unfortunate, hope that the public of New Orleans, who were always distinguished by their Charity and Humanity, will concur with them in attaining the end they have in view. "Admittance:—Pitt $1; Boxes $1.50; Gallery $1. For hireing the boxes, apply to Mr. Lespiault, at the Theatre. Jan. 13." ,0 Fulwar Skipwith, born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, appointed U.S. consul in the French West Indies in 1790 by Geo. Washington, and in 1800 promoted by Thos. Jefferson to be Consul General to France. In 1809 he left France to settle in Louisiana, and on October 26, 1810, was elected governor of the short-lived West Florida Republic. He died in Louisiana in 1834. One of his daughters was the wife of Governor Thomas B. Robinson.

March, 1819

RECOLLECTIONS,

&c.

Ill

& the piece certainly commanded the most silent attention of the whole audience. So much has been said & written on the subject of the French rhymed plays that nothing new remains to be discovered. The ridiculous in them is equal to the unnatural. And yet, to this day, when a revolution has taken place in many very prominent habits of the whole world, Frenchmen still listen in rapture to the strings of declamation, impossible & absurd as they are, as representations of nature, which constitute the tragedies of their greatest as well as of their more moderate writers. The nasal terminations of the French words, & the latitude of rhyme which they allow themselves, (in turning over the Henriade I see "peutêtre" rhymed to "maître, connaître," &c &c) & the distinctness with which the actors impress the couplets upon the ear adds in French an effect of harshness to rhymed declamation which may be avoided in English & in German, in which languages a good declaimer can render the rhyme scarcely perceptible. Molière (as far as I may venture to judge after so long a disuse of the French language) has managed his rhymed speeches with great dexterity. But he is wonderfully loose in his rhyming, I think, which in comedy may be pardoned, & perhaps approved, as slackening considerably the fetters of the verse. Specimens of Molière's rhymes. Amphitryon:

La raison nous appelle notre zèle "Racontez moi, Sosie, un telle événement Je puis parler savanement. Scene II, Acte 1. Sous ce minois qui lui res semble Chassons de ces lieux se causeur Dont l'abord importun troubleroit la douceur Que nos amans goûtent ensemble These four are not rhymes; they are repetitions of the same sound, as are the following. Fils de Dame honnête berger Frère d'Arpage, mort en pays étranger Mari de Cléanthis la prude Dont l'humeur me fait enrager Further on, action is made to rhyme to question, sosie to fantaisie, sur les dents, to la de-da/ii, approffor to cacher. A thousand other examples may be quoted, in which the rhyme consists in the repetition of the same sound, in consonants as well as vowels —as les sommes, to des hommes.

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&c.

March, 1819

In George Dandin, & especially in L'Avare, Molière seems to rejoice & play with his liberty, like a spirited horse turned loose into a meadow from his harness. I have somewhere or other either read or imagined that that which disgusts & shocks us in waxwork, colored & dressed to the life, is that it exactly resembles living men & women, excepting in the principal evidence of life, motion. On a beautiful statue we look with delight, because we see in every thing belonging to it—in its color, its hardness—the evidence that it does not and cannot be anything but a representation of a living form; whereas, the nearer a figure in waxwork resembles a living individual, the more we are embarrassed by its presence while we are deceived to believe it alive, & the more shocked when we discover that it is really dead. Just such, I might suppose, would be the effect of a French tragedy on one who had never seen or heard any performance of the kind. The dress & scenery would first deceive him to believe that the scene is real, but the moment the actors open their mouths he would find that they come from another world, where emperors & executioners, kings, laquais, & ladies, talk, & make love & commit murder, & abuse one another in measured & rhymed language. On the other hand, when a story written in verse, even in dialogue, is read, the want of dresses & scenery & dramatic action has the same advantage which is possessed by the marble statue. Nothing resembling the business of the world in all its minute details is expected; the mind is left at liberty to admire the elegance of the poetry & the correctness of the rhyme & metre, & to be affected by the discription of events & feelings. It creates its own scenery around, just as it warms the cheeks of a marble Venus with blushes, her eyes with fire & color, & her skin with the hue & velvet of life. The statue gives you nothing but the form. The Waxwork pretends to give you the life, & the employment of life with the form, & you find nothing but death in the Masque of life. So the French tragedy pretends to represent real men & women, & you find a race you never heard before.

FAREWELL

TO

KENTUCKY

N. Orleans, March 30th, 1819. The difference between Kentucky & Paris, as to objects that strike the senses & occupy the mind, is so enormous that it would be difficult to find any two things more dissimilar. I am not exactly of Burke's opinion, that, "Vice, in losing all its grossness, loses half its evil," but if vice must exist, I would prefer that it should not be vice of a gross kind. Excepting in a few great towns, it must be acknowledged that grossness is too much the character of our citizens of the backwoods, both in their vices & in their general manners. But they are virtuous

March, 1819

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113

(always abating the article of whiskey) compared to the population of any great European city, where the manners & even the vices are all nicely polished. It is not therefore to be wondered at, if a European of polished manners, consciously & habitually avoiding every breach of bienseance himself, studying carefully to keep clear of offence or annoyance to his companions, & accustomed to all the attention to himself which he cheerfully bestows upon others—it is not to be wondered if he becomes disgusted with Kentucky, & quits it with satisfaction. If such a visitor, besides, understands & loves the arts, he will less regret an adieu to Nature, spoiled & disfigured, as it is in our young settlements, by the first rude attacks of agriculture upon her primitive magnificence. T h e following effusion is the production of a friend, fond of amusing himself by laughing at whatever appears to merit ridicule, but whose excellent heart & strong understanding are by far the most conspicuous parts of his character. Farewell to the Sweets of Kentucky Adieu ye western woods! Adieu ye scattered stumps. To sight & feeling known too well,—by knocks & thumps That breaks the horse's gait,—the fretted rider's back, & stretch the weary eye, on an eternal rack. Adieu ye lakes of mud,—adieu ye rows of logs, Where none can safely step, but acorn hunting hogs, That living grunt at you, and dead will strive again, In everlasting chops, their empire to maintain. Adieu ye country colts, tobacco chewing race, That know but every thing, except their proper place, Who greet the blazing hearth, with vacant stare & spit The never failing sign of some approaching wit. Who ease a full blown nose of all its juicy load By sending the contents the narrow finger road. Adieu! Forever then! Where nature's charms are wood And hogs are made alike Man's company & food. Where every vagabond your very couch may share Improve your appetite by belching o'er your fare,— Where breeding may be shown, by shaking dirty hands, And wisdom at full length, by talk of dirty Lands There I can't pitch my tent, enduring long enough Your mongrel Gentlemen whose Mighty heap of stuff For sense is made to pass, where patriots win the day

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April,

1819

By cursing poor John Pope, & doating upon clay I bid you long farewell, & giving good for evil I leave you to your pork, your whiskey, & the Devil.

Palm Sunday, April 4th, 1819. I had d e t e r m i n e d not again to g o to the Catholic Church, having been completely stunned by the m a n n e r in which the service is bawled f r o m behind the altar. But being told that t h e r e would be exhibited more than o r dinary magnificence in the ceremonies of this day, I w e n t about V2 eight o'clock & found the congregation collecting very fast. Only half the nave & half the aisles of the Church is pewed, & many of the ladies that w e r e g o i n g to Church w e r e followed by servants carrying chairs after t h e m , so t h a t about V3 of the congregation w e r e in pews, V3 seated upon chairs in the open spaces, & the rest standing. T h e Church was exceeding crowded, & calculating IV2 feet square to each individual, not less than 1,500 persons can have been present.

I was, however, disappointed. The Sanctuary had a vast quantity of green boughs piled up against one side, which had been blessed by the Priest & were to be distributed. This part of the ceremony I did not see, but many of the black & colored people, especially the boys, had palms as they are called, made of the young sprouts of the Palmetto which come up from the ground closed together. The leaf before it expands is of a pale yellow cast. The edges exposed to the air are dark green, so that when forcibly opened it has a very beautiful stripped [i/c] appearance. T h e middle part is then left straight, & the sides are turned down so as to make a thing of the shape below. Hundreds of these were carried about, some decorated with crosses fabricated from the same material; but most of the devotees were content with leaves of common trees. Formerly the host was carried round the square, followed by a procession of the congregation bearing palms, in imitation of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. But since the occupation of the city by the Americans, the processions have been prudently confined to the Church, not for fear of insult from the spectators, but because these heretics would not pull off their hats or kneel on its approach. There was nothing therefore more remarkable on the present than usual.

April,

1819

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115

The service was rendered extremely tedious by the exhibition of two priests who have lately arrived, & who chanted the lesson31 of the day, which is very long, by way of showing off their talents at this sort of recitation. One of them has the finest tenor I think I ever heard; he recited or chanted his part very slowly & with great musical taste. The other with a strong but harsh voice attempted to imitate him, but proved a very good foil. There is something very ridiculous in this thing. The Lesson is read, as the Psalms still are, without any regard to the connection or sense, in the Episcopal Church & chanted in the English Cathedral, verse & verse alternately, & the effect is often truly comical. The priest with the good tenor voice gave to such words as "Turn dixit Pilatus," the most admirable & expressive turns of melody, & chattered away upon one tone, if it happened to fall in with the chant, sentiments to which he might have adopted a very appropriate modulation. But the whole affair, if considered as the means of moral or religious improvement, or of procuring pardons for offences & paving the road to heaven, is so supremely ridiculous, that it is best to say nothing about it. " The Passion According to St. Matthew 26: 1-75; 27: 1-66. The Gospels have long been dramatized during Holy Week in this way by the Catholic Church. One deacon chants the narrative passages, another the words of Christ, another all the other speeches; the choir portrays all crowds and assemblies.

BOOK

SEVEN

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NOTES April 4, 1819—October 7, 1819

ABSURDITY

OF T H E

FRENCH

NUMERATION

New Orleans, April 4th, 1819. The first efforts of human ingenuity to accomplish its ends, I believe more particularly in mechanics & in calculation, are always complicated and circuitous; and although the maxim is true in respect to architecture, to litterary [MC] composition, to oratory, poetry, & even to manners & dress, it is perhaps in calculation still more true that simplicity is "the last & highest effort of art." These ideas were revived by an example of French numeration in the review of a work of Duclos, in the first volume of Chamfort's 1 works. It is not, indeed, an example of the truth of my position, but an instance of the disturbance which fashion gives to the regular course of nature, from the complicated to the simple. Speaking of the sum levied by the Pope upon France, he states that for five years it was un million huit cent soixante dix neuf mille huit cent quatre vingt dix sept livres. That is litterally [¿/c] translated into English. One million eight hundred & sixty & ten & nine thousand, eight hundred & four times twenty & ten & seven livres, or: 1.000.000 + (800 + 60 + 10 + 9) X 1000 + 800 + (20 X 4) + 10 + 7 = 1,879,897.—What an absurd affectation in the 19th century! & what a retrograde motion from simplicity! In the 12 & 1 Sth century, & for ought I know much later, when the words septante, octante, & nonante were good, that is fashionable French words, the sum would have been thus expressed: Un million huit cent septante neuf mille huit cent nonante sept livres. One million, eight hundred & seventy nine thousand eight hundred & ninety 1 Sebastien Roch Nicolas, called Chamfort. "Works of Chamfort, collected and published by one of his friends," Paris, Imprimerie des sciences et arts, 1795. Evidently a popular work of the day, as it is also mentioned by Vincent Nolte.

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seven. I wonder that the National Assembly, which entered so deeply into these sort of matters, did not correct the French numeration, & restore the good old words to their rights. I cannot conceive how the Greeks & still less how the Romans contrived to manage complicated calculations with their numeral letters. I never give myself such severe, & at the same time such useless trouble, as in endeavoring to master their method, on which I met with a treatise published in England within 20 years. The simple Hindoo numeration, introduced by the Arabs into Europe, & therefore called Arabic—as Hindoo architecture is called Gothic, or Saracenic—is an invention of the highest order of utility, & yet all its merit is its simplicity. (See in Darwin's Botanic Garden: Papyrus.) Such an invention in the age of Hercules, would have added another Deity to the motley crew of Olympus. In English there is a remnant of the ancient complicated numeration in the use of the words dozen & score. "The years of men are threescore & ten"—trois vingt dix. I observe that the English—thoroughbred AntiGallicans in philosophy as well as in war—instead of simplifying the division of the weights & measures & monies, have, with the aid of a dozen philosophers, rendered them, if possible, more complicated for common purposes than before; and Sir Humphry Davy is laboring hard in his department to set aside that monument of French talent, the French chemical nomenclature. But it will stand. There remains in German verbal numeration an irregularity in putting the units always before the tens, for instance in the above sum, they would say, Eine million, acht hundert und neun und siebenzig tausend acht hundert und sieben und neunzig. One million eight hundred & nine & seventy thousand eight hundred & seven & ninety; and indeed we retain in many instances this German method, seven & twenty, seven & thirty, & seven & forty, is not unusual in conversation, but disused in composition. In English & Italian, as far as I know, alone, the regular order of numeration is observed. [PIÈCES

JUSTIFICATIVES]

April 6th. Pieces justificatives, au sujet de bouts rhimés Français.—dédiées à Mon ami Nolte. De ce habil du vieil ambassadeur Que j'écoutois, vous en voyez la caisse Il m'est resté dans l'esprit, cher lecteur Je ne sais quoi dont il faut que je cause CHAMFORT

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2. Environné de Messieurs les infans D'un air dévot il dit ses patenôtres Il faut donner l'exemple à ses enfans CHAMFORT

CATHOLIC

CELEBRATION

OF

HOLY

WEEK

IN

N E W

ORLEANS

April 8th, 1819. The holy week is here celebrated with much less pomp than formerly, but still with many ceremonies that do not well accord with the simplicity of the American character, even of the Catholic religion in the old United States. The arrival of the Missouri 2 with my machinery has so occupied me that I have been unable to attend the Church as much as I wished. Every year clips off a little more of the old Spanish regime. T h e host is no longer carried in procession through the streets, and the public square before the Church is not any more the parade ground of the Clergy. The business is all done within the walls of the building. The altar has been during this whole week covered with a black drapery, without ornament. On Thursday, I went into the Church about 5 o'clock in the evening. A temporary piece of scenery was erected at the end of the south aisle, which covered the side altar at that place. The side altar at the north aisle was lighted up, and a priest was officiating. 3 T h e Church was excessively crowded, especially about the door & in the south aisle, & about 1,000 people were in the square fronting the Church, where, indeed, I had observed a great crowd the whole day. T h e decoration at the end of the south aisle consisted of a sort of gate, as below. It was made of boards, badly painted in imitation of marble. The steps were narrow & flat & not intended for use. 4 rows of candles & 5 of flower pots with very bad artificial flowers stood on the steps, and a row of candles on the ballustres [iic], so as altogether to look like what the children would call a very pretty baby house on a large scale. Within the arch was an altar covered with drapery & tinsel, & at each side of the altar stood a wax doll, about the size of a child of 5 or 6 years old, dressèd up in * The "Missouri" evidently arrived around March 20, 1819, for on that day the city council passed a resolution to authorize the mayor "to place the city workshop to be employed for the transportation of Mr. Latrobe's steam engine from the city Levee to the building where it will be housed. Be it understood that said Mr. Latrobe shall under no circumstances, employ the negroes composing said workshop aboard the ship where said steam engine [is], nor on the flying bridge [gangplank] of said ship." 1 On Holy Thursday in all Catholic churches the Blessed Sacrament is placed on one of the side altars, especially decorated with flowers, candles, etc., this altar being known as the Repository. Here the Host is adored throughout the day and night in commemoration of the Last Supper and of Christ's agony in the garden of Gethsemane.

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scarlet & a profusion of tinsel. Each held a candle in its hand. I could not make out what all this represented, and nobody that I asked could inform me. On one side of the altar is a door: A. This door was shut up, and covered with a white muslin curtain, festooned round the arch & hanging down on each side. Within the niche was an image of the virgin, about 2 feet high, dressed in black velvet; her robe was drawn out on each side & fastened to the back of the niche so as to give the whole figure a triangular shape. A silver embroidered cross extended from her chin to her feet, & at each ear she had a large silver shell. The face appeared to be of wax. This figure stood upon two steps, upon an ordinary table covered with muslin, with a little tinsel about it, & 4 candles burning before it. Before these two altars a carpet was spread, upon the edge of which, at B, lay a crucifix, with a figure about 2 feet long & two tea-waiters. On the south side of the nave, near the principal door of the Church, was placed a common small table. Behind it was a long bench, on which sat an old grey headed man in a ordinary & rather mean dress, & upon the table stood a crucifix. The Cross was of black wood, the figure painted to represent flesh, with a grey drapery round the middle. This figure was admirably executed, but on this very account was a horrible object. The artist had represented his subject so naturally that nothing but habit could reconcile the eye to such an exhibition. The body hung as usual by nails through the palms of the hands. The sinews of the hands and arms were strained to the utmost, the fingers open, & the flesh swelled & puckered by the weight hanging to it. The body had fallen to the left side. All the pectoral muscles strained upwards; the head sinking into the cavity of the collar bones. The legs tending again to the right, & the feet, where nailed to the body of the cross, twisted upon the nails, & the wounds opening,

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the knees bending a little forward; in fact, so well had the artist studied his subject, & so naturally was the bloody & death-colored image painted, that nothing but habit could have reconciled the people to its use. This was the apparatus of the ceremony4 that was going on the whole day. The people, of whom % at least were colored, & of those a very large majority were women, in their best dresses, crowded down to the altar at the bottom of the south aisle, & after crossing themselves they kneeled down & kissed the hands, feet, & body of the crucifix which lay upon the carpet, & at the same time put a piece of money into the waiters, which when I saw them, were heaped with bits & kalfbits (escalins & pikiouns—(614 & 12>/2 cents) & among these many quarters & half-dollars, & some dollars. The same ceremony of kissing the image was going on near the entrance of the Church, where there was also a waiter filled with money. The business of the old man seemed to be twofold; to guard the money & to hold the crucifix steady. On each side of the other crucifix at the altar was a soldier in uniform, with his musket & bayonet fixed. They stood on the carpet, & a large crowd were kneeling around, praying, looking about at the new comers, & occasionally laughing & conversing together upon their knees. The earnestness & devotion with which the devotees kissed these images was very remarkable. Most of them kissed each of the hands & the feet, but many bestowed their kisses also upon the knees & breast, & repeated them several times. Several young women appeared to mix a sort of devotional passion with their kisses, & one woman, after getting near the door, turned back & kissed the image again most passionately, while tears were running down her cheeks. As to the contribution of money, it seemed to be optional, for I observed many who gave nothing. April 9th. I went, about 12 this morning, to the Church. The scenery at the end of the south aisle was removed, & they were sweeping the building. It was full of dust, & yet a large concourse were in it, & as many on the outside. The crucifix & the old man near the door were still there, & many men & women, all colored people, were still 4 T h e ceremony known as the "Adoration of the Cross" is conducted on Good Friday, when the crucifix, which has been covered with a purple cloth since Passion Sunday, is uncovered and placed on the floor before the altar, where the clergy and faithful kiss the corpus. This rite owes its origin to the custom prevailing in Jerusalem in the fourth century of venerating on Good Friday the wood of the true Cross, while the reproaches of Christ to his people were sung in Greek (Dom. Gaspar Lefebre, O.S.B., St. Andrew Daily Missal).

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performing the ceremony of kissing it, & the more substantial one of putting money into the waiters. Several women were there with small children, whose little mouths they put to the hands & feet of the image. Altho' the Catholic inhabitants of this city do business on Sunday as on any other day, yet on this day, Good Friday, even the notaries have (to my great injury) shut up their offices, & the police officer has summoned one of my carters, & threatened him with a fine of 50 dollars for hauling lime on this day.

RISE

OF T H E

MISSISSIPPI

RIVER

April 10th, on board the Alabama {steam, boat) for the Balize. The Mississippi has risen rapidly since the night of the 7th, & an amazing quantity of drift wood is floating on its surface. This morning it has an ash-colored appearance, & those who understand the subject say that it is the water of the Missouri that gives it this color. At the same time the stream is so rapid that I could not with ease keep pace with a log floating opposite to me in the river.

VISIT

TO

THE

LIGHTHOUSE

AND

BALIZE

April llth, Steamboat Alabama. My object in going down to the Balize & to Frank's Island, from whence I am now on my return, was to inspect by desire of the Government, U. States, the state of the work at the Lighthouse. 6 This building was designed by me some years ago while surveyor of the public buildings, U. States, & contracts invited for its erection. But as none were offered, the Mississippi remained without even a light until after the late War, when by the exertions of Mr. Chew, the present Collector of N. Orleans (than whom a more meritorious officer of Government does not exist), a light was put into the old lookout of the Spaniards at the Balize. Commissioners were also appointed to fix upon the site of the lighthouse, & they chose the situation of Frank's Island, in preference to that formerly selected by Mr. De Mun, who had been appointed for this object by Mr. Gallatin in the year 1810,8 & who chose 6 On March 26, 1804, Congress passed an act to erect a lighthouse at the mouth of the Mississippi, and Latrobe was directed by Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare the plans. The act specified that the structure should be erected by contract, which proved to be impossible. This caused repeated delays until the project was practically abandoned till after the war of 1812. * On May 15, 1806, Lewis de Mun was appointed to select the site for the lighthouse. Latrobe first suggested De Mun as clerk of the works for this project and wrote of him to Albert Gallatin on August

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Royal Island. The Commissioners were Comodore Patterson, my son Henry, & Mr. Duplessis7 the collector. But the latter did not go down to the spot. Com. Patterson has the professional merit of having certainly fixed upon the best situation for the light, & Henry of making the handsomest & best design8 for it that now exists for any lighthouse, always excepting that of Ed[d]ystone,9 & in point of magnificence & size the Cordouan.10 We left New Orleans on Saturday morning in the steamboat Alabama, engaged by the Collector for our conveyance, & reached the Balize in about 9 hours going, having stopped two hours by the way to take in wood & one hour in enquiries for wood & in landing Major Humphry at fort Plaquemine. We cast anchor at 12 at night off the Bayou at the Balize. In the night a tremendous storm of thunder, wind, & rain arose, 6 rendered our birth rather uneasy, but in the morning the weather moderated, & though it rained a little we went in the Revenue boat to the Island, about 10 miles to the East of the Balize. My report to the Collector states everything relative to the work.11 As to the island itself, it is one of half a dozen in this region that do not at all belong to it, & the origin of which cannot well be understood. Frank's Island, Royal Island, & Garden Island are three islands which rise from 5 to 7 feet above the highest neighboring marshes. They consist of a solid blue clay, perfectly impalpable, & two 13, 1805: "There is a most excellent young man in my office, a French Emigrant noble, the Chevalier De Mun who is far advanced in the knowledge of his profession, who would go thither as resident clerk of the works and upon whom implicit reliance might be had—at a moderate salary—his object would be experience." 7 Pierre Le Barbier Duplessis, collector of customs at New Orleans. 8 Henry S. Latrobe's design for the lighthouse, dated November 7, 1816, is in the files of the former Lighthouse Department in Washington. The building was a circular tower, with a circular colonnade around its base, the Greek Doric columns being quite widely spaced. The contract and specifications for its erection, dated January 20, 1818, are in the records of the U.S. Coast Guard in the National Archives. Unfortunately, the building collapsed when almost completed and was rebuilt by the same contractor, Winslow Lewis of Boston, in 1823. The colonnade, however, was not rebuilt. * Eddystone Lighthouse, located near the entrance to the English Channel, about fourteen miles from Plymouth, England, was erected by the engineer John Smeaton. Work was begun August 5, 1756, and the light first shown October 16, 1759. The structure was notable for its construction of interlocking stones. The tower was rebuilt in 1878-81. Latrobe received some of his training in civil engineering in the office of John Smeaton in 1788-89. 10 The tower of Cordouan is located on the coast of France at the mouth of the Gironde, not far from Bordeaux. It was begun in 1584, during the reign of Henry II, by Louis de Foix, architect, and completed under Henry IV, in 1610. It was extensively restored in 1720-27 by de Bitre, and is, perhaps, architecturally the world's most magnificent lighthouse. 11 See Appendix A, "Report on the Lighthouse at Frank's Island, & on the Balize, May 8, 1819," by Latrobe to the collector of customs at New Orleans.

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of them having been bored to the depth of 45 feet without any other materials being brought up, it is to be supposed that in this respect they are all alike. They appear to be the remains of some former land, which was deposited long before the formation of the present marshes & neighboring islands, the foundations of which latter appear to have been originally drift wood heaped up for ages, collecting other lesser floating bodies, creating eddies, & occasioning alluvial deposits around them, & by degrees, giving Soil to aquatic Vegetables. The first of these is always the gigantic rush, then the wild oats, afterwards the reeds, & ultimately the willow & wax myrtle. But all the latter factitious lands remain at the present day barely elevated above the highest water, while Frank's Island is a hummock never overflowed,12 highest in the center, & 5 or 6 feet perpendicular above the water at its edge, where it is washed & wasted by the surf. The whole Island being covered with temporary buildings & shops, brick yards & kilns, lumber & materials for the lighthouse, the foundation of which was already laid, I can say nothing of its natural vegetable productions, for they were all destroyed. But the workmen stated that they had caught many otters & racoons in traps. For the skins of the former five dollars each are obtained in New Orleans. About the island is abundance of fish, as poissons rouges, sheeps head, bar (rockfish or streaked bass) &c, oysters & eels, wild ducks in abundance, pelicans, eagles, hawks 6 cranes. On our return to the steamboat, we landed first at the Balize. A more wretched village, for it is a sort of a village, cannot be conceived. It consists of a tavern, a wretched habitation for the revenue officer U.S., & three or four other wooden buildings, belonging to the pilots, besides the blockhouse. The whole population consists of 90 men & 11 women, & an internal feud breaks up this little society into parties who are at war with each other. Lately all the pilots, whose competition was greatly advantageous to the public, have united, & the consequence is, that working only for their own convenience, & having the monopoly among them of the business, the ships are exceedingly neglected, & both in coming in & going out are most unjustifiably delayed, the Association keeping as few boats as possible & employing journeyman pilots, generally English sailors who have deserted their vessels. These men are, of course, neither very skillful nor very sober. One of the pilots keeps a tavern & a billiard room, which, it is supposed, absorbs the principal part of the wages of their 12

The lighthouse at Frank's Island was abandoned about 1855, when the light at Pass à l'Outre was established. The old tower still stands, but the island has completely disappeared, the base of the tower being surrounded by a heavy cane brake growing out of the water.

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underlings. There is, however, some useful industry here also. Two coasting vessels were here for repair, & several boats were building. April 13th. The village consists, as mentioned above, of two two-story wooden houses, habitations of pilots, a miserable one-story hovel, the floors of which are several inches under water when the wind blows high, a roomy one-story tavern with a billiard room attached to it, & the Spanish timber blockhouse, on which is a timber tower, in which the present light is kept. A wooden tower or lookout was built a year ago by the pilot, who keeps the tavern as a speculation on the Government, under the expectation that he would be appointed keeper of the light. But he was disappointed, for the Collector had the present tower repaired as part of a very strong & permanent building, considering its foundation. The miserable one-story hovel mentioned above is the property of the United States & is the residence of Captain Gardner, the boarding officer of the Customs. His salary is 3 dollars a day, or 1095 dollars per annum, to which the salary of the lightkeeper is added so as to make it altogether about 14 or 1500 dollars a year. He cannot, indeed, spend much in this exile, & has plenty of fish & oysters for taking them; but it is a severe punishment to his family thus to be confined on a marsh in the midst of ruffians, muskitoes, & aligators. The situation otherwise is admirably adapted to the purpose of boarding ships going in or The blockhouse is a building of squared logs, well adapted to defend itself against any force that is not provided with artillery; and it has repelled in the war of 1156-60

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a British boat attack. The walls are now full of bullet holes. The plan of the story below is a square with a port hole in each of the sides & eight holes for musketry. The upper story, which has a steep roof, is set diagonally upon the lower so that the assailants may be attacked from the projecting angles. The bayou in front is an excellent harbor for small craft & revenue boats, & passes thro' to the ocean. The pilots, distant from N. Orleans & from any habitable position (fort St. Philip being 25 miles above)—by connivance of the inspectors had formerly an admirable opportunity of smuggling, & making their fortunes. But Captain Gardner, after a terrible scuffle with them, has succeeded in putting down this traffic, although at the expense of making enemies of the population of the village. By degrees, however, his uniform conduct & firmness have conquered the good opinion of all, & he lives in tolerable quiet. In the hurricane of 1813 the water stood 5 feet in this house.

y Nw Orleans, April 14th, 1819. The voyage from N. Orleans to the Balize, 100 miles, was performed in the steamboat Alabama in about 9 hours going, with a strong current in the river. We returned at the rate of about 8V2 miles per hour against the same current, & during the first 12 hours, against a strong wind, & arrived at New Orleans at 12 at night on Monday. Vessels have been 60 days coming up, as an extreme case. 4 or 5 days is a very quick passage. The steam boat left N. Orleans on Saturday 11 o'clock, remaining 15 hours at the Balize, & returned on Monday night to N. Orleans at 12 o'clock—2V2 days. FRENCH

JURIES;

THEIR

BLUNDERS

If all the odd mistakes made by French juries since the cession of Louisiana were recorded, the collection would be very curious. The Creoles are now more than reconciled to the American jurisprudence & to the administration of justice by juries. At

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first they considered everything connected with American laws, & American courts with abhorrence, & many sold their property & emigrated rather than submit to the new regime. Very odd things still occur, among which the following is one of the oddest. I had often heard the story told in different ways, but the following is from the mouth of Mr. Miller himself. A merchant enclosed to Mr. William Miller, of Alexandria, on the rapids of the Red river, a note for collection. The note was not paid, & he therefore gave it to the Juge de paix for collection under the provisions of the law. The Judge of the Peace mislaid the note, or at all events did not levy the amount, & the note, when demanded by the proprietor, could not be found. He therefore brought suit ag'st the Judge for its amount, & the cause came on to be tried before the parish court. The proprietor, being the plaintiff, summoned Mr. Miller as a witness against the Juge to prove the delivery of the note to him. The whole case was fully heard, argued, & explained to the jury, who retired & brought in a verdict against William Miller the witness, condemning him to pay the debt & costs. The foreman being questioned by the bench as to the grounds on which they could possibly bring a verdict against a witness, said that he was by far better able to pay than any of the rest who were engaged in the Cause. Their verdict was, of course, set aside, & on a new trial justice would have been done had not the lost note been found & produced, which put an end to the suit. (Fast asleep while I wrote, & waked by nodding against my candle.)

A

SUNDAY

IN

NEW

ORLEANS

New Orleans, April 18th, 1819. Before I went to Church this morning, I had occasion to go to the upper end of the Fauxbourg St. Mary. A Sunday in New Orleans may be pretty well understood by recounting the various sights that occur in such a walk. For instance: After taking leave of two friends who accompanied me as far as the levee, & conversed on the relative merits of the different flags which were flying on board the numerous ships along the shore, I bought 3 oranges for a bit (12V2 cents) of a black woman, & watched the mooring of a market boat which carried the broad pendant of Napoleon. Out of the boat came ashore a basket of pecan nuts, 20 or 30 wild ducks of different sorts (rather too late in the season), a great quantity of carrots, & some sugar cane. The boat was principally loaded with corn. On the cabin was a coop well filled with poultry, & in it two black women in Madras turbans, & gowns striped with scarlet & yellow. Round their necks a plentiful assortment of bead necklaces; in fact

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they were in full dress. The man who seemed to be the owner was an old sunburnt Creole, slovenly in his whole appearance; & two old black men, in blanket frocks with pointed hoods (capots), were the navigators, & were carrying the cargo ashore with many a curse at being so late at market (10 o'clock). A little further on were three drunken Indians, who afforded sport to several boys that surrounded them. Then half a dozen Kentuckians, dirty, savage, & gigantic, who were selling a horse or two to a group of genteel looking men who spoke English. Being now arrived near the steam boats, every thing like business seemed suspended, & the levee was full of persons, well dressed, without any apparent object but to take the air. I left the levee & walked along the houses on the old levee. Here some sailors were buying, in a French shop, of a black shopwoman, slops, & trying on their pantaloons, she helping them. Many shops shut up, but some open & doing business. At last as the houses became thinner, I reached my destination, which was to call on a gentleman by appointment. I staid some time with him, during which we sat in the gallery & saw two ships come to at the levee, a very beautiful view. Returning, to avoid the dust, into Magazin Street, I called in passing at Mr. Brand's to enquire after Mrs. Brand,13 who is sick. I found him going to Church with some others. Passing Mr. Morgan's, 14 1 overtook another Church party. On the steps of a store, a little further on, lay two boatmen, drunk & half asleep, swearing in English at some boys who were teizing [j/c] them. Going along the Levee street, encountered a large group of colored gentlemen and ladies, who seemed to be about to separate. I stopped for a moment to listen to a pretty loud conversation, & found that a blackish sort of mulatto was discussing the merits of a new Priest who has a very fine voice. A cream colored lady differed from him, & gave the preference to one of the other priests, "qui a la voix si forte, et si haute, comme une cloche; mon Dieu, comme une cloche, si haute"; other opinions were given in Creole H

William Brand, master mason and building contractor. His house was on the lake side of Magazine Street, between Gravier and Poydras. He built many excellent buildings in the Vieux Carre, as well as in the Faubourg St. Mary. Among the best known is the Grima House at 820 St. Louis Street, which he built in 1831 for Samuel Hermann. In 1817 he was the contractor for the rebuilding of Davis' ballroom on Orleans Street, destroyed the previous year in the fire in which Henry Latrobe suffered heavy losses. 14 Benjamin Morgan, one of the principal merchants of New Orleans. He was a native American residing in New Orleans at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Of him Latrobe wrote to his son Herny on November 20,1815: "Mr. Brown considers it as peculiarly unfortunate that Mr. B. Morgan is so much your personal enemy. Is it impossible to get over this animosity without sacrifice of your self respect? I am informed that Mr. Morgan is at the head of the American interest. Now, I think that whatever preponderance the French interest may possess at present, the American must necessarily in a few years, gain the ascendancy."

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French, & were unintelligible to me. These folks then came from Church, &, by the bye, these singers, or musical reciters, had treated them to a chapter or two of Latin. The voice therefore was the only subject of discussion, for to them it was certainly Vox, et preterea nihil. It was now 11 o'clock, & I went myself to Mr. Hull's Church following many a group who were directing their steps thither also. The Church service just beginning, the prayers always excellent, the music more than tolerable, & the sermon very well composed & delivered. The Church was just full. I left the Church with the congregation. In Bourbon street, passed a cooper who was at work with some mulatto boys. He was scolding them in very good English. A little further along, passed a shoemaker's. The house had a door, & a wide window on each side of it. All were well open. Opposite to one window sat a broad faced dark mulatto on his bench. His |sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and he |sat with a very large draft board on his knees; & facing him on another shoemaker's bench, sat a good looking well dressed white man, apparently 18 or 19, with his hat on, who was playing at drafts with him. They seemed to be arguing, on terms of perfect equality, some knotty point of the game. Opposite to the open door stood a white woman with a gaudily dressed child, having a large hat & feathers on his head, in her arms. She looked as if much interested in the discussion. The other window discovered four boys, & an enormous man, all black, hard at work at their trade. At the corner of Bourbon & St. Louis stood a boy of about 15 or 16 years old with his fowling piece & hunting nett [i/c], & some gentlemen were examining its contents. It contained a mocking bird, a red bird (the Virginia nightingale), a heron (Indian hen), & a number of small martins. This shooting is the common sport of the young Creoles on Sunday, but it is to be regretted that the war should be carried on at this

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season, to destroy the melody of the woods, and interrupt the connubial happiness of birds that cannot be eaten. I turned down St. Louis street, & on coming near the French coffee house," I heard the blow of the cue, & the rebound of billiard balls upstairs. The coffee house was full. I came home then, & in a short time was called upon by 3 tall Kentuckians who came to make contracts for logs, & as they were to go up the river the next morning, I attended to their business which occupied me till dinner. I walked downstairs with them, & as I stood at the gate of the corridor, there passed a cabriolet, or chair, in which was a white man, & a bright quadroon woman holding an umbrella out of the chair, the head of which was up. A ragged black boy sat at their feet & drove, & a girl of 13 or 14 years old sat upon the trunk board behind. PROCLAMATION

[BY]

THE

MAYOR

OF N E W

ORLEANS

From the N. O. Chronicle. I have stuck the law annexed into the book as a curiosity. It is sufficiently intelligible no doubt, and as to its language it may serve as a very correct picture of the state of New Orleans at present, a jumble of French & American, very odd, but very easily explained. And yet, as the corporation do profess to publish their ordinances in French & English, they should assuredly take care that the language is at least not laughable. [Clipping] Those of our readers who are able to extract meaning from the following jumble of words may possibly be repaid their trouble. "For our simple selves" we say—from laws "in such queer fashion framed" Good Lord deliver us. Mayoralty of New Orleans. Whereas the ordinance concerning the security of public health, &c. ordains that—"Owners, tenants or keepers of houses, court yards, &c. within the city and the wards, the most inhabited in the suburbs, shall water or cause to be watered at least once every day, at six o'clock in the afternoon as far as the middle of the street, the part of said street before their houses, court yards, gardens, or other grounds; and they are forbidden to use for that purpose foul or corrupted water. It is also ordained that they shall sweep or cause to be swept regularly every day, the gutter of the banquette or foot way that lies before their respective premises, and to properly clean or cause to be cleaned the same, by throwing or causing to be thrown into it several buckets of clean water; as also sweep or cause to be scraped as often as is requisite, in order to remove the layer of earth that may have been there formed. And they 16

Probably Maspero's Exchange, still standing at the corner of Chartres and St. Louis streets.

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are forbidden to sweep, or otherwise convey, any mud or filth before any neighbor's premises; and the owners or inhabitants of corner houses or lots, shall alternately clean or cause to be cleaned within the hour aforesaid the gutter of the cross-bridge in the vicinity of their respective premises; each and all of these injunctions and prohibitions, under the penalties prescribed by the said ordinance. I have thought proper and useful to the public to renew them this warning. Aug. Macarty, Mayor.1* BILLS OF

EXCHANGE

New Orleans, April 23d, 1819. A few days ago I dined with a friend in the Fauxbourg St. Mary. He had invited gentlemen to meet me, two of whom were Lawyers, the others merchants. Before dinner was half over the late mercantile arrangement in the State of New York was mentioned, which fixes the rate of damages to which the drawers of bills of exchange shall be liable in case the bills are not duly paid. It seems that protested foreign bills of exchange, at least bills on England, have, by the custom of merchants, been liable to 20 p[er] cent damages, but no damages have been fixed on internal bills of exchange which are not duly honored, until the enactment of this regulation. It happened that a very wealthy & prominent merchant & one of the lawyers, took, in the discussion which ensued, one side of the question, & the other lawyer, backed by one or two merchants the other. The question was whether the European practice, or the American, in respect to bills of Exchange, was best calculated to remedy the mischief occasioned by the protest. Being neither merchant nor lawyer, I listened for a long time in silence, but not without great interest in a question which was in a great measure new to me, & upon which I did not know that any great difficulty of decision or difference of opinion could exist. For merchants, being the most gregarious of animals & seeking in all their transactions each for himself his own interest, are—as I always supposed—in a situation to discover that mode of doing business which is the most advantageous; & after having discovered it & subjected it to the experience of only a few Years, universally to adopt it. Now the business of Exchange is one of the most important of the occupations of merchants, one, upon which therefore, the best system would be assiduously studied, & soon generally introduced. It does not, however, appear that this is the case, but that the practice of Europe & America differ most materially. 18

This same advertisement appears in the Louisiana

Courier

for April 16, 1819.

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After a discussion, carried on with considerable warmness, during which I appeared to myself to have become tolerably master of the subject, the Master of the feast, who is not a merchant, put a stop to it & was whimsical enough to appeal to my decision as an auditor every way impartial. The merits of the question lie, as it appears to me, in a small compass. It appears that in Europe, If A in London draws upon B in Amsterdam a bill in favor of C at Paris, and B does not pay the bill at maturity (whether accepted or not), the bill is, of course, protested, and C the holder of the bill draws on A for the amount of the bill (the difference of exchange pro or con being added or deducted) and for all changes & interest—which bill he may either dispose of by sale, so as to produce the amount which the original bill would have produced, or may collect, or remit as he finds it most convenient. This is called redrawing. But between Europe & America the practice is otherwise. If A in London draws on B in New York in favor of C, & B does not pay the bill, it is sent back to A who is obliged to pay the amount of his draft with interest & protest, & 20 p[er] cent damages. The law of New York determines the rate of damages which shall be paid, upon the same principle, on internal bills of exchange. The question then is, not what is the custom of Merchants, altho' the dispute arose on that point, but what ought to be the custom of merchants. Or in other words, which of these two customs contributes best to prevent or lessen the injury & confusion which the protest of a bill of exchange must necessarily more or less produce. In order to decide this point, it appeared to me (as I stated it on the appeal) that the first enquiry ought to be this: In the protest of a bill of exchange an injury is suffered; an injury is inflicted by one or by two of the parties upon the third. Which then is the innocent party, who in justice should receive the most prompt as well as the most efficient redress, and upon whom ought the punishment (which in this case is pecuniary) to fall? The simplest case which can occur is when the bill on B is transmitted by A as a remittance to C. That is, money is due by B to A, and by A to C. A pays C by transferring to him the debt due by B. C, trusting to the responsibility of B, receives the bill as a part of his resources & predicates upon the forthcoming of the money when due, the obligations he himself undertakes to others. He is certainly in this case the innocent party. If B does not pay the bill, he is the party upon which the pernicious effect of this failure immediately operates. A may negotiate a delay, & if he lives at a great distance he gains time at least to make his arrangements. But C, not receiving

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the money upon which he depended to make good his own engagements, may become a bankrupt from that cause & no other, while B, who did not pay the bill (if accepted) only discovers that he was a bankrupt before. Now to consider the effect of the European mode of redrawing. If A is in credit (& if he is not then it is not of any consequence what is the custom among a cluster of bankrupts), if A is in credit, then if C redraws upon him, & sells the draft which in that case he always can do, charging him with the loss by exchange & protest, he (C) applies the proceeds of such redraft to the very purpose to which the money received of B would have been applied had he paid the bill, & A is in no more a situation than he would have been had he not drawn on B, by whom at all events he must lose the money he had in his hands. Besides, as the redraft will generally be at a number of days sight, A has time to provide for the redraft, whereas if the bill is sent back protested, & he does not immediately pay it, his credit is lost; whereas if he had had a short sight he might have provided for it. On the other hand, if C has no means of obtaining his money when he wants it (that is, when A's draft on B becomes due) & must lie out of it till the expiration of the time necessary to send back the bill & receive payment of A in some other way, he may be ruined, notwithstanding damages that A may be obliged to pay in addition to the amount of the bill. It may also happen that these damages may not amount to the difference of exchange, & thus not cover the loss suffered by C by an unfavorable exchange. I am well aware that the business of exchange is not always so simple (perhaps not often) as I have stated it. But the ground on which all bills of exchange are drawn is that which I have stated; & in all cases in which it is bona fide the foundation of an exchange transaction, the injury will be suffered immediately by C, who therefore ought to have immediate redress. In all other cases, where the business of drawing & redrawing is nothing but part of the machinery of fictitious credit, it is of little consequence by what means such credit is kept up. The assessment of damages can give no control whatever over the false credit created by drafts where there are no funds, & necessarily loses all efficacy when the course of Exchange balances the rate of damages. This difference of the two customs in favor of redrawing appears to me so clear, & the ingenious argument on the other side of the question appeared to me so futile— perhaps from my ignorance on the subject—that I cannot help feeling considerable astonishment that the latter should have outweighed the former in a community of such intelligent merchants as those of New York.

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1819

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CATHOLIC

NOTES

135

PENANCES

April 25th, 1819. Taking a peep into the Cathedral en passant this morning, I observed an old black woman, by herself before one of the altars on her knees, & her body bent to the earth. She had drawn away her cloaths [«'c] from under her in such a way as to kneel on the bare bricks, which are exceedingly rough & broken. She was much too old & ugly to be suspected of having incurred the penance she was suffering for any such sin as a younger penitent might have committed; & it would not be easy to imagine what actual & injurious breach of morality she had disclosed in the confessional, which could have deserved its infliction. Perhaps she had eaten a little meat in holy week or on Friday, or broken some other precept of mere discipline. Of the astonishing & rigorous despotism which religious opinions exercise over the imagination, not only of old black women, but of men otherwise of strong & cultivated minds, there is hardly any more curious example than that of the restrictions submitted to in respect to diet. If for the first time the Christian world were told that the Almighty Creator of the universe would doom to everlasting perdition, or even to purgatory, every one that should eat meat on particular days, but that he would except a very delicious kind of duck called a Mallard (Sarcelle), and also the eggs of all sorts of birds, from his prohibition,17 the preacher of such absurdity would be ranked with Richard Brothers & Jemima Wilkinson, or perhaps be sent to the Lunatic Hospital. And yet the force of example & general practice aids the inculcation of this belief by the Catholic priests, so as to make it as powerful in its effect upon the minds of all good Catholics as the plainest rule of common sense. Mr. Wilmer, the Episcopal clergyman of Alexandria, in Virginia, once told at my house a story, for the truth of which his character is a certain pledge. He was riding alone over the Aleghenny [i/c] mountains, when he was overtaken by a well dressed man on a good horse, who with the familiarity of our backwoodsmen proposed to join his company. The man seemed extremely grave, and his conversation was abrupt & unconnected. He had evidently something upon his mind which distressed him, & Mr. Wilmer at last asked him whether he had met with any misfortune that could be the occasion of his apparent melancholy. The man told him that that was actually the case. He said that he had rode that morning from a great distance. That he had left his home in the lower part of Maryland about 10 days before, & having 17

The Sarcelle which abounds in the neighborhood of New Orleans is a small duck, considered to be the most delicate of the many kinds which are brought to market. It has been decided to be Maigre, 8c is eaten on fast days, as fish & eggs are. [Note by Latrobe.]

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1819

much business to do before he could cross the Mountain, he had been almost always on horseback, & had not kept a very strict account of the days of the week; that on that day week, he had arrived, fatigued & hungry, at a tavern, where they were just sitting down to a most excellent dinner. That he was asked to join the dinner company, & totally forgetting that it was Friday, he had eaten a most plentiful dinner of all sorts of meat. That he had been extremely unhappy & miserable as soon as he had recollected the terrible sin which he had committed, but no priest resided near, to whom to confess & from whom to receive absolution. That he had traveled on, resolving never to be again similarly guilty, & had a few hours ago arrived at Cumberland, at the foot of the Alleghenny [J/C] mountains. His mind had been filled all the week with penitent ideas & pious resolutions not again to commit a similar breach of duty, & when he entered Cumberland he was fully aware of the sacrifice he had to make this day, Friday, of his appetite to his religious obligations. But alas! the enemy was all the while watching for his fall. He came into the dinner room fatigued, hungry, & his head full of the business he had to transact. He was accosted by an acquaintance, & entered into conversation. Never was his appetite keener, or a good solid dinner more welcome. He eat & eat [iic], & thought he never could have enough. At last he was satisfied; but scarcely had he swallowed the last morsel, before the recollection of the day rushed upon him, & he was the most miserable of men. He feared he never could be forgiven. Mr. Wilmer happened at that moment to open his great coat, & to exhibit his clerical dress under it. The man saw it. "Good God," cried he, "and you are a priest!" He slipped from his horse & kneeled down in the road. But Mr. Wilmer begged him to rise, told him he was a priest, but he was Protestant, or what he might call a heretic priest, & would prescribe to him no penance. The man got up again, half-comforted, half-ashamed; & during the rest of the journey Mr. Wilmer succeeded pretty well in persuading him that "To enjoy is to obey."

UNGREASED

CARTS

AT N E W

ORLEANS

May 3d, 1819. A very disagreeable circumstance is of daily occurrence in the neighborhood of the city & along the levee. It is the abominable squealing of ungreased cartwheels. With the unpleasant noise there are many ideas connected that render it still more unpleasant; the difficulty in dragging the carriage to which the oxen are unnecessarily subjected; the barbarous state of the commonest arts among the planters; and the thick ears & idleness of the savage slaves that drive. But in fact these

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ungreased & screaming cartwheels are neither an indication of idleness nor of ignorance, but are a legacy left to the country by the Spaniards, & they still scream in obedience to a positive law of the Spanish Government. Incredible as this may seem, it is true. I should have taken the whole relation for a hoax, had I not received it from Judge Hall, as well as from other sources. The case is this. There is no country so favorably situated as to the facility of smuggling as Louisiana. Innumerable bayous or creeks lead from the ocean to the back of the narrow strip of cultivatable land on each side of the Mississippi. Into these bayous the contraband goods can be easily brought; but they must be carried from the swamps in which they hide in wheel carriages, a distance of from one to two or three miles. If the wheels of the carts were greased, this part of the business might be carried on in perfect silence. Therefore it is ordered that all carts shall remain ungreased, & that they shall scream in order that they may give notice to the revenue officers of the illegal traffic that is going on, & thus become informers against their owners. A roundabout way, in more senses than one, this, of obtaining information. The greased carts, that is carts that did not scream, were liable to seizure. Such a revenue regulation is indeed worthy of the ingenuity of the Spanish Government. No other would have thought of it. The framers thereof did not know that a negro with a gallon of water at each wheel, gradually poured upon it, would as effectually prevent the wheel from screaming as if it were as well greased as possible; & that the cart might at any time be examined without betraying the smuggler.

FUNERAL

OF

A

BLACK

WOMAN

May 4th, 1819. In going home to my lodgings this evening about sunset, I encountered a crowd of at least 200 negroes, men and women, who were following a corpse to the cemetery. Of the women, one half at least carried candles, & as the evening began to be dark, the effect was very striking, for all the women & many of the men were dressed in pure white. The funerals are so numerous here, or rather occupy so much of every afternoon in consequence of their being, almost all of them, performed by the same set of priests, proceeding from the same parish Church, that they excite hardly any attention. But this was so numerously attended that I was tempted to follow it, & getting just in a line with the priests, I entered the church yard with them & placed myself close to the grave. The grave was about three feet deep, of which 18 inches were filled with water. It had been dug in a mass of earth & bones, which formed a little hillock by its side. 10 or 12 sculls were piled up upon the heap, which looked more

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like a heap of sticks, so numerous were the ribs & thigh bones that partly composed it. As soon as the priests, who were 5 in number, had entered the cemetery, preceded

the water. The priest began his prayers. In the mean[while] a great crowd of women pressed close to the grave, making very loud lamentations. At a particular passage the grave digger, who was a little, gray headed negro, naked, excepting as to a pair of ragged short breeches, threw a shovel full of earth upon the coffin: and at the same instant one of the negro women, who seemed more particularly affected, threw herself into the grave upon the Coffin, & partly fell into the water as the coffin swam to one side. T h e grave digger, with very little ceremony, thrust his shovel under her & then seized her with both hands round the throat & pulled her up while others took hold of her legs & arms, & she was presently removed. On the heap of bones stood a number of boys who then began to amuse themselves by throwing in the sculls, which made a loud report on the hollow coffin, & the whole became a sort of farce after the tragedy, the boys throwing about the legs & thighs & hunting up the sculls for balls to pelt each other. T h e noise & laughter was general by the time the service was over. T h e women near the grave each plucked up a little grass before they retired. I went out in the midst of the confusion, & asked one of the mourners in white, who was talking intelligible French to her companions, who the person was who seemed to be so much honored & lamented by her own color. She told me that she was a very old African (Congo) negress belonging to Madam Fitzgerald, and that most of those who followed her to the grave were her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, their husbands, wives, & connexions. I asked if her granddaughter who threw herself into the grave could possibly have felt such excessive distress at the death of an old women, who before her death was almost childish & was supposed to be above 100 years old, as to be tired of her own life. She shrugged her shoulders two or three times, & then said, "Je n'en s$ais rien, cela est une manière." This assemblage of negroes was an instance of the light in which the quadroons view themselves. There were none that I observed, but pitch black faces.

September, 1819

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ON B O A R D

NOTES THE

139

EMMA

Sept'r 27th, 1819, on board the Emma. The steam engine belonging to the waterworks having arrived & being landed about the 25th of April [March], my time began to be extremely occupied during the day, & prevented my devoting any part of it to the amusement of noting my observations. On the 5th of May I also quitted, with the whole family the lodgings I had occupied in Bourbon street, & moved to Madame Riviere's house at the corner of Bienville & Levee streets. The inconvenience of being obliged, though for a short time & the muskitoes, to admit another gentleman to occupy the same room with myself, & the habit of devoting most of my evenings on that account to my friends, deprived me of the hours I usual[ly] had employed in writing or reading. When I acquired the sole occupancy of my room about the middle of June, the muskitoes had begun to be very troublesome after sunset & rendered it disagreeable to write by candlelight. Thus, altho' all these circumstances need not of necessity have interrupted my usual occupation, they aided my natural indolence in doing so, & nothing, perhaps, but the intolerable ennui of one of the pleasantest & quietest sea voyages could have restored to me the little energy required to recommence these memorandums. 19. Left New Orleans Sunday Sept'r 19th, at 12 o'clock, in the Brig Emma, Capt'n Bartlett Shepard,—mate John Taylor, second do Jos'h Bossier; passengers—Tho's. Y. Spicer, Merch', New Orleans; Dr. Rob't Hodgson & BHB Latrobe.

20. Light winds, SE. 21, 22d do. Arrived at the Balize at 4 in the morning. Got a dunce of a pilot, who ran us aground on the bar about 9 o'clock, got off at 10 at night, 18 lay all night at anchor on the bar. During all this time the wind was fair & strong pro18

Latrobe evidently took advantage of this delay to visit Frank's Island and to inspect again the lighthouse, which had already begun to show dangerous signs of cracking. Beverly Chew, in a letter to Samuel Smith dated New Orleans, September 20, 1819, wrote: "Mr. Latrobe sailed yesterday for N.Y. & will I expect visit the island, and in that event, will communicate to you the true situation of the building." In his reply to the above, dated November 10, 1819, Smith wrote: "I have duly received your favor of the 20th of September, with the enclosed Report of Messrs. Hersey & Latrobe, respecting the settling of the Light House on Frank's Island. "Mr. Latrobe has since called upon me, and verbally assigned the causes of this effect. He says it, as well as the cracking of the partition walls, was naturally to be expected!—and that no material injury will be the result. Notwithstanding my respect for the great professional talents of this gentleman, I would recommend a very vigilant attention to the situation of the building and the taking of such steps as its preservation may demand. "It will be proper to withhold the payment of the balance of the amount stipulated for erecting the

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ceeded to sea, 23. Moderate & fair wind 24*h, 25th, 26th, 27th, Got a view of the land over Havanna. Steered NE. Wind N & Eastward, contrary, stood till 11 to the Southeast; tacked. 28th at 10 saw the islands on the Florida coast. Tacked to SE; continued to beat all the afternoon. Sept'r 28th, 1819. Sailed the whole day with a very light wind parallel to the islands & reefs on the Florida coast. Caught a bonetta with a line, & a shark (shovelnosed) with the grains, also a ruddetfish. These latter small fish are of the class of perch. They swarm under the brig's bottom, but though we persevered in angling, we got only one. They stay under the vessel, I believe for the sake of the shade, for the bottom of the brig being coppered affords them no food, & I have remarked that fish— dolphins, sharks, bonetta, albacores, that were frequent & almost constant attendants of the foul Ship Eliza, 19 in which I formerly sailed—very rarely came near either the Clio or the Emma, both coppered. The rudder fish, however, abound daily, & when any one strays out of the shades he flies back again on the sunny side of the vessel, while on the shady side they swim often at a distance; so that (if the motives of fish are of any consequence) the ludicrous lines, well known, may apply to the rudderfish. The Sun's perpendicular heat, Illumines the depth of the Sea The fish beginning to sweat Cry damn it how hot we shall be.

The bonetta is a mackarell [«c].—On the body of a shark was a sucker, a fish about 214 inches long (a very young one) blood red, fins transparent, an apparatus upon the head by which he fixed himself to everything he touched, the deck, a bottle of seawater into which he was put, &c. This apparatus exactly resembles that represented in prints on the top of the head of the Gymnotus Light House, until satisfactory evidence shall be given of the fidelity with which the contract shall have been executed. "I am very respectfully Sam Smith Commissioner of the Revenue "Beverly Chew Esq." w The ship "Eliza" was the vessel on which Latrobe made the voyage from England to the United States in 1796.

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electricus. T h e Gills extended to & met close to the chin, the lower jaw considerably longer than the upper. A tolerable sketch of him in my sketch book. MUSKITOES

AT N E W

ORLEANS

Brig Emma, Sept'r 29th, 1819. There is a charm in mountainous, barren countries, that has attached the inhabitants of all such countries, in all ages, to their home. Mountains & rocks are the theme of poetry, while little is said in praise of flat lands, let them have ever so much the advantages of fertility & convenience of locomotion. For, altho' the Dutch appear to have loved the marshes of Batavia & Surinam, & Communipace, on account of their resemblance to Holland, their preference has been a preference of calculation & habit, a sentiment without a spark of the enthusiasm felt by a Swiss. And yet there are circumstances of convenience belonging to flat countries, & of inconvenience inseparable from mountainous tracts, which render the former desireable [J/C] residences for the agriculturist, the lazy & rich that ride in their carriages, & those advanced in life who have left off climbing. Such a country is Louisiana. Its capacity to yield or to receive, by its unparalleled ease of communication with hotter & with colder climates, every necessary & every luxury of life that this earth produces, might make it one of the most delighful abodes of affluence, & elegance in the world were it not for the muskitoes. I say nothing of the yellow fever, because I believe that this calamity may be moderated, if not entirely eradicated, by a good medical police & under a better understanding of its origin & treatment than now prevails at New Orleans. But the pests inseparable from the locality of New Orleans which no human effort can extirpate are the muskitoes—the marangouins. A few are found, every warm day through out the year, but from June to the middle of October or beginning of November their swarms are incredible. This year 1819 is said to have been by far the most remarkable for muskitoes within the memory of man. Whether the extreme mildness of the winter of 1818-1819 or the constant rains of July, August, & the beginning of September have occasioned this, I will not pretend to decide; probably both have had much effect; the former by permitting the larvae to live, the latter by filling all hollows with water through out the city & country, & providing breeding places for them over the whole surface of the land. The muskitoes are so important a body of enemies that they furnish a considerable part of the conversation of every day & of every body; they regulate many family

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arrangements, they prescribe the employment & distribution of time, & most essentially affect the comfort & enjoyments of every individual in the country. T o observe them minutely therefore is natural enough to an inquisitive mind; & in a long confinement to my room, I have had ample opportunity of becoming acquainted with them. From January to the beginning of June the muskitoes (here always called marengouins) can well be borne. They are not very troublesome, appearing only in moderate numbers. From June, & especially from the beginning of July, till the weather becomes cold in Oct'r & November, they literally fill the air from sunset to sunrise, & in August & September they are troublesome even in the daytime. I have observed four distinct species of this insect in my chamber. Those that first made their appearance, were black, exactly, in their song, size, & every other respect, similar to the common muskitoe of our Eastern marshes. Then succeeded another kind, the legs of whom were ringed with white, like the tail of a racoon. Of this species there seemed to be a variety much less in size, but in all other respects exactly similar to the larger kind. The note of these spotted muskitoes is very similar to the first mentioned, but somewhat shriller. The third kind is a little larger than either of the others. They are of a shining black, gaunt, & have remarkably large eyes & long legs. Their note is shrill & loud, & their sting severe. The fourth kind are very small, ash colored, & have a whistling note easily distinguishable from the others. I have not seen the kind called ganinippers, said to be half an inch long & to be very poisonous. As soon as the sun sets the muskitoes appear in clouds & fill every room in the house, as well as the open air. Their noise is so loud as to startle a stranger to its daily recurrence. It fills the air, & there is a character of occasional depression & elevation in it, like that of a concert of frogs in a marsh. There may also be distinguished, I think, four or five leading voices that are occasionally swelled & intermitted; in fact the whole music has the effect of being performed by unanimous concert. This noise, & the activity of these pestiferous animals, lasts about an hour, when it abates & almost ceases. The buzzing may, however, be heard thro' the whole night, until daybreak, when the general outcry again begins, more loudly, I think, than in the evening, & continues till the sun has risen, when it ceases, & no more is heard, & little felt, till the approach of the night. There are other singular circumstances attending these animals. At sunset, a black hat appears to have particular attractions for them. If a group of men stand together on the levee, those who wear black hats are seen with a column of innumerable muskitoes ascending upwards above their hats; those in white hats are not so dis-

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tinguished. They appear to have a means of discovering their food at a distance. In the day time, if you throw yourself upon a bed or sit down, very few muskitoes, if any, surround you. But in a quarter of an hour, they appear to discover you, & presently attack you in increasing swarms. What becomes of them in the day time in houses I can hardly tell. But they appear to hide in every dark hole they can find, & especially in pitchers & vessels that contain moisture, into which they lay innumerable eggs. Pitchers of water that have passed thro' the drip stone, & appear as clear as chrystale [jzc] in the evening will be found to have a sediment in the bottom of the appearance of black mud. In a day, this mud assumes the character of sand, & in a day or two more the water is filled with the living larva of the muskitoe. Most of the muskitoes that infect the house are thus bred in the rainwater casks & wells, & when as (was the case in Philadelphia) 20 the city shall be supplied with water by pipes, the evil may probably be considerably lessened, at least, in the city. The numbers, the minuteness, & the activity of these enemies to repose render any warfare against them that is not merely defensive, impossible. But a defensive war is very practicable & may be in a great measure successful. The business of the greatest importance is to secure yourself against their attacks during sleep. The common muskitoe bar effects this most completely. It consists of curtains reaching from the tester nearly to the floor, which surround the bed in one piece, connected by a cover or top piece, so that the muskitoe bar is a kind of box without a bottom. The best kind of muskitoe bar, is furnished all round the top with rings. The rings slide as in a common set of curtains upon light iron rods on each side of the bed. Another pair of iron rods run thro' the rings at the head and foot of the tester & draw along the side rods, when the bar is collected or drawn up to the head or foot. If the bar be collected at the foot of the bed, all the muskitoes that have accidentally entered it can be easily destroyed or driven out every morning. It is easy to slip under the bar at night without admitting any, & there is an indescribably pleasant sense of security in hearing their clamor on the outside without the possibility of being annoyed by them. The bars are made either of coarse open canvass, French lino [5/c] (which are the best), silk, open & figured gauze (which are the most handsome), & most frequently of check muslin, which are, I believe, the cheapest. 21 10

In 1799 Latrobe was the engineer for the Philadelphia water works. The pump house in Centre Square, demolished in 1838, was similar in design to the one which he built at New Orleans. 11 Mosquito bars were important items in furnishing a New Orleans house. When the possessions of Henry Latrobe were sold at auction after his death, a "panelled linen mosquitoe-net" was bought by a Mr. Chardon for $26.

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T h e best defence d u r i n g t h e d a y a r e l i g h t b o o t s , l o o s e p a n t a l o o n s , & thin g l o v e s . T h e face s o o n b e c o m e s a c c u s t o m e d t o t h e m , & t h e y a r e also easily d r i v e n off. L a d i e s & g e n t l e m e n w h o s u f f e r t h e i r s t i n g s r a t h e r t h a n b e a r a little a d d i t i o n a l w a r m t h s u f f e r e x c e e d i n g l y a b o u t t h e ankles. B u t I k n o w C r e o l e l a d i e s w h o w i t h b a r e n e c k s & b o s o m s , & s h o r t p e t t i c o a t s p r e t e n d t o , o r actually d o , n o t p e r c e i v e t h e m , & in fact a p p e a r to suffer v e r y little f r o m t h e m . S e v e r a l of m y f r i e n d s , l a w y e r s , & o t h e r s t u d i o u s m e n , p u t u p in t h e i r offices a kind of safe, o r f r a m e c o v e r e d w i t h g a u z e , o r lino [i/c], l a r g e e n o u g h t o c o n t a i n a t a b l e & chair, & w r i t e till l a t e at n i g h t in p e r f e c t s e c u r i t y . T h e r e is r o o m to c a r r y this m o d e of security to m u c h g r e a t e r e x t e n t & to r e n d e r it applicable t o c o m p a n i e s , as well as t o a d o r n it w i t h e l e g a n c e . T h e w o r d m a r a n g o u i n s , t h o ' n o t , I believe, u s e d m u c h in E u r o p e , is found in the D i c t i o n a r y of t h e A c a d e m y , & I h a v e m e t w i t h it in B e a u m a r c h a i s ' p l a y of F i g a r o ' s marriage.

Brig Emma, Oct'r 7th, 1819. Off the capes of Virginia. F r o m the 2 9 t h of S e p t ' r t o this d a y , w e h a v e had u n i n t e r r u p t e d fine w e a t h e r , w i t h t h e w i n d b e t w e e n N o r t h & E a s t ; of c o u r s e w e h a v e b e e n close h a u l e d , w i t h only t h e e x c e p t i o n of a s i n g l e 12 h o u r s , (Oct. 3d) w h e n w e a d v a n c e d r a p i d l y w i t h a brisk w i n d a t S E . O n a p p r o a c h i n g C a p e H a t t e r a s , a h e a v y squall a r o s e f r o m t h e E a s t . It t h u n d e r e d , l i g h t e n e d , & r a i n e d f o r a b o u t an h o u r , w h e n t h e w i n d a g a i n s e t t l e d in the N E , w h e n c e it has b l o w n , occasionally i n t e r r u p t e d by s h o r t c a l m s , e v e r since.

BOOK

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October 7, 1819—August 20, 1820

YELLOW

FEVER

Brig Emma Oct'r 7th, 1819. Off the capes of Virginia. Medical practitioners have so differed & disputed with one another on the subject of the yellow fever, that the contest appears to give some right to the profane, the uninitiated, to maintain opinions of their own; & as in matters of theological dogmatism, to await the issue of the wrangling of doctors, before they put implicit faith in the tenets of either party. When I was in Philadelphia during the fevers of 1798 & 1799, which were both of comparatively moderate violence & duration (& to use one of the mystical phrases of a physician of New Orleans in a company of ladies) were sporadic, I had made up my mind that the fever was imported, & a legitimate descendant of the Bulam fever. The intimacy with which I was honored of Dr. Rush, who often urged strong reasons against the probability of importation, did not alter the conviction derived from other sources of information, & other reasonings of an opposite character. Having had myself, & seen many of my acquaintances labor under, very severe bilious fevers, I could not be made to comprehend that this disease, the autumnalfever, and the Yellow fever, of which so many cases came under my immediate observation, were the same, differing only in degrees of malignity. I have now resided in New Orleans from the commencement of this dreadful pestilence untill it had consumed or driven away the majority of those whom experience has proved to be most subject to it, the young strangers, & untill in the opinion of

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several physicians the number of cases had diminished for the same reason that a fire abates when most of the fuel is consumed. Early in July, or in the latter end of June, a vessel arrived from the Havanna in the river, on board of which, as it was reported to the Governor by his physician, there existed a suspicion of yellow fever. The old Quarantine Law having been repealed at the last session of the Legislature, & power given to the Governor to establish a quarantine whenever, in his opinion, danger of the importation of disease should exist, this vessel was immediately put under a quarantine of 20 days, & altho' it was publicly stated that no single person on board was sick, untill they became so from confinement on board, & several very respectable citizens were passengers, the quarantine was strictly enforced. Two sailors, however, were said to have reached the city from this vessel, one of whom died in the Fauxbourg Marigny & the other in the Fauxbourg St. Mary. From that time rumors of yellow fever cases became daily more frequent, & by the beginning of August it was a matter of notoriety that the disease did exist. Every notice, however, of the calamity was carefully kept out of the newspapers. I asked one of the editors from what motive this omission arose; his answer was, that the principal profit of a newspaper arising from advertisements, the merchants, their principal customers, had absolutely forbid the least notice of fever, under a threat that their custom should otherwise be withdrawn; thus sacrificing to commercial policy the lives of all those who, believing from the silence of the public papers that no danger existed, might come to the city. From the beginning of August to the 19th of Sept'r the deaths increased from 10 or 12 to 46 (the greatest number which I could ascertain with tolerable correctness) p[er] day. It was currently stated that on one day 53 had been buried, & it is not improbable. But no exact register is any where kept of deaths & burials, & uncertainty on this subject is inevitable on many accounts. Those buried by the Catholic church may be correctly known, for Catholics in general consider the funeral rites as necessary to the future state of the soul of the deceased; & the poorest blacks take care to bring the corpse to the church, to take advantage of the ceremony which may be performed for some richer person. But many others, not Catholics, are buried without the interference of any clergyman, in three cases to my own personal knowledge. Others buried by the Methodists, Presbyterian, or Episcopal ministry, render an inquiry very difficult & laborious, & neither my time nor my health permitted my entering into it as I wished. Early in July the cotton & tobacco crops of the upper country, constituting the principal materials of the commerce of New Orleans, have arrived, and by far the

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greatest part have been disposed of, either by shipment to Europe or to the Atlantic states. The new crops do not arrive untill the latter end of October, or beginning of November. The principal merchants therefore calculate their operations easily, so as to find themselves at leisure about the commencement of July. A very large proportion of the commercial community from October to July consists of strangers, who purchase or sell as agents or principals & leave the city when their business is concluded, so that, even if no disease or fear of disease existed, the population would at that time be annually diminished by 8,000 or 10,000 souls, just as it is at the close of the great fairs of Germany in the cities where they are held. Those permanent inhabitants of New Orleans who can afford it, & dread the fever, the solitude, & the ennui of the city during July, August, & Sept'r go to the Bay of St. Louis 1 or to other places of public resort at that period, & do not return untill the middle of October or beginning of November. In these respects New Orleans does not differ, excepting in degree, from the great cities south of New York on the Atlantic. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Norfolk & Richmond, & more especially Charleston & Savannah, have their sickly season during the same months. Bilious fevers are the common disorder, & the wealthy fly to the country. The locality of New Orleans may render the unhealthiness of the place more decided—but the strangers fever has been dreaded, & spoken of, long before New Orleans became an object of particular notice by falling into the possession of the U. States. But this I think is a specific & not a mere bilious fever. I am told by the physicians of the place, that no year passes in which cases of yellow fever do not occur, altho' in some years they are much rarer than in others. The year 18172 was remarkable as a year of great mortality, especially among the strangers. The late rise of the river & its uncommon heighth [j/c] even in the month of August, accumulated & detained in the city a very unusual number of boatmen & merchants or proprietors from the upper country, & consequently occasioned a later residence in the city of its commercial inhabitants. But in 1818 the cases were few; and it must be generally observed that physicians have a great propensity to call every case of fever, a case of yellow fever; if the patient recovers, the cure of that fatal disorder adds to the reputation of the physician; if he dies, his death detracts nothing 1

Bay St. Louis, on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, still a popular resort for the people of N e w Orleans. In the yellow fever epidemic of 1817, Henry S. Latrobe died, on September 3. An interesting and detailed account of this epidemic is contained in a pamphlet published in April, 1818, by J. C. de St. Romes, printer for the Medical Society, under the title Report Made to the Medical Society on the Yellow Fever Which Reigned in an Epidemic Manner during the Summer of 1817, Messrs. Gros and Gerardin. One of the cases described in this pamphlet might well have been that of young Latrobe. 1

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from his credit, because the majority of such cases are fatal. The public also, without fault of the physicians, take it for granted that every funeral is that of a yellow fever patient. I have had many opportunities of knowing correctly the symptoms of the disorder as they appear this year, & of the successful, as well as unsuccessful result of the treatment employed for its cure by different physicians. In the boarding house in which I lodged 4 cases occurred. All were cured. Most of my workmen were attacked with different degrees of violence. The sober lived; the drunken died with few exceptions. 1. Mr. Ritchie, a most respectable merchant & amiable man, was seized in the middle of the night with a chill with violent vomiting, of yellow, & green, & slimy matter. Pains in the head & back & limbs succeeded. For 7 & 8 days he continued, skin dry, feverish, pulse often slower than natural, often quicker, in the same irritable state of stomach unable to retain anything. Dr. Rice administered an emetic & a cathartic, I believe, the first day, but without apparent good effect. By the advice of Dr. Marshal, when all hope was lost, he was put into the cold bath. (The coldest water not below 55° Far.) From that time he began to improve, his stomach gradually retained some food, & in 10 or 12 days he could sit up & walk about the house. I left him very weak, but considered as quite out of danger. 2. Mr. Thorne complained suddenly at breakfast of pain in his head & back, but went to his business. At dinner he said he felt very unwell, & as he did not sleep in the house he asked Mrs. Kennedy (the Mistress of the house) to accommodate him with a bed. She had none unoccupied, but he laid down on a sofa, & as he complained of chilliness, he was wrapped up in a flannel dressing gown. He soon broke out into a violent perspiration so as to wet all his cloaths [j/c] through & through. He was then sent home, took a strong cathartic & emetic, & in 4 days was able to attend to his business. 3. Dr. Rice, lately arrived, & having the care of my sick workmen, in order to prepare himself, took without any particular complaint a mercurial cathartic, & I think disordered his health thereby, so as to render further medical treatment necessary. He attended Mr. Ritchie & his other patients, however, till he was seized with slight pain in the back & head, & a propensity to vomit. He was then obliged to keep to his bed, & continued much debilitated but without violent symptoms of any sort, & considered himself well when I left N. Orleans. 4. Marcia, a black slave, suddenly seized with pains in her limbs, back, & head, a dry skin, & most violent fever. Dr. Rodgers administered a strong cathartic & bled her. In 3 days her complaint vanished, leaving her only debilitated.

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Of my people, the following notices are correctly stated. 5. William Beck3 [RETURN

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Bedford, Pennsylvania. Jan'y 23d, 1820. A life at sea is hardly, with the most studious & in the fairest weather, a life of study. From my departure from N. Orleans to our approach to Sandy Hook the sea was never for 12 hours together so rough as to have rendered it unpleasant to write, draw, or read. And yet a sort of listlessness has always prevailed over my best resolutions to devote the lesiure & ease of any sea voyage I have ever made to my pen or to my books. And I am indeed not singular, for almost all my friends have at sea felt a similar kind of idleness. I have therefore suffered my train of remarks to be greatly interrupted, altho' I have met with many circumstances which at the time I have thought worthy of annotation. Even the anecdotes, some of them very singular & important, told by our very sensible Captain Shepherd, were often well worthy of being recovered. On the 8th of Oct'r (the wind having been uniformly from the N E for 10 days) it hauled to the SE. The fog became very thick, & in the evening it blew a hard gale. About midnight, while we were carrying on a close reefed main top & foresail, it suddenly fell came [calm]. The sea ran mountain high, we fell into the trough, & it was with difficulty that we made more sail, when in a moment it came round to the North West & blew harder than ever. We had then to take in sail as fast as we could, & steer close hauled to the NE. The sky cleared, & we saw Sandyhook light. The next day was spent in beating up to the light, & about 10 o'clock at night we got a pilot on board. At 3 we weathered the light, & at 4 cast anchor in the bay. Oct'r 10th, weighed anchor at 6 o'clock A.M., & at 11 came to off the Lazaretto, in the finest weather imaginable. Oct'r 11th, remained at Quarantine, & obtained leave to go to Phil'a; went the same evening to Elisabeth town; arrived in Philadelphia the 13th, and at home the 14th where I found my family well. From that time I employed myself diligently in winding up all my business, mak• The manuscript contains no further remarks on the cases of Latrobe's workmen; pages 13 through 20 are blank. On September 17, 1819, Latrobe submitted a report to the city council "respecting the workmen that have been employed at the waterworks." In it he lists "l. Men who have quitted this city to avoid the unhealthy season; 2. Men who have been sick and are convalescent but not able to work; 3, Men, now sick; 4. Men dead; 5. Men discharged or employed elsewhere; 6. Men now at work & to remain; 7. Men engaged since the 4th July & at work." TTie name of William Beck does not appear on this list. On October 21, 1820, however, the city council authorized a payment of $8.00 to William Beck, bricklayer, "for construction of the tower on St. Louis Church."

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ing drawings for every possible want of the Exchange & Cathedral, packing up, &c &c; I left Baltimore on a visit to my friends with all my family, & arrived at Cloverhill Dec'r 5th. Thence I went immediately to New York with my Son B. H. Arrived Dec'r 8th, & the 10th at Westpoint. 4 Brought down my son John & sent him to his mother at Cloverhill. Met at New York my daughter Lydia & her husband; 5 remained there till the 21st, on business of the N.O.W. Co., & returned to Cloverhill. Arrived in Phil'a the 23d, & staid there till the 27. Arrived in Baltimore 28th. Finished all my business, and on the 15th of January, set out on my journey Westward, intending to remain at Wheeling on the Ohio untill the river should break up & then proceed, in one of the steamboats which are waiting there, to New Orleans.

[JOURNEY

WESTWARD]

As the most comfortable, convenient, & cheap method of traveling with my family, I was advised by those of my friends who were best acquainted with the subject, I engaged a huge waggon as far as Wheeling, loaded it with my beds rolled & packed tight for sofas, & with all sorts of conveniences & stores, & having as I thought converted it into very comfortable traveling apartments for myself & servants, I left Baltimore about 11 o'clock. The weather was moderately cold, & we should have been well accommodated, but for one inconvenience. Our beds were so large that altho' rolled into the smallest compass possible, & tightly corded, they by degrees spread across the whole bed of the waggon, & deprived us of all means of sitting otherwise than with our legs extended at full length, a position most tiresome, considering that we were confined to it during the whole day. We submitted however as merrily as we could, & arrived about 7 at night at Reister's town. Our waggoner, a most civil brute, but after all a brute, drove his waggon into a good position for himself in a heap of snow at the side of a dung heap, under the end of a vile waggon tavern. The ladies had to alight in the snow, walk across the dung, & thence into a miserable room, where after long waiting we got as miserable a supper. Beds tolerable, as we had our own bed clothes. In the night our servant Johnson, who with our boy Frank 4

John H. B. Latrobe entered West Point as a cadet in September, 1818. He wrote: "An event of my West Point life was a visit which my father paid me, bringing with him my brother Ben. They remained a day or two, during which my father with his wonderful conversational powers, popularized himself with the Professors and those of my friends who were introduced to him" (John E. Semmes, John H. B. Latrobe and His Times, Baltimore, 1917, p. 83). ' Lydia Latrobe, daughter by his first marriage to Lydia Sellen. She married Nicholas I. Roosevelt and with him made the trip down the Mississippi on the steam boat "New Orleans" in 1811-12.

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& our dog Mars slept in the waggon, was alarmed by someone who, mounting on the wheel, attempted to get into the waggon. The dog alarmed the thief & he ran off before Johnson could get an opportunity of securing him, as he was prepared to do. In the morning Leitig, the waggoner, could tell us that that house was famous for having waggons robbed at it. Dec'r 16th, Sunday. A cold, raw, & very unpleasant day. After a miserable breakfast made up of the leavings of the supper, we again mounted our Waggon somewhat better arranged, at about 5 o'clock, were again driven into a heap of snow at the end of another miserable waggon tavern kept by a Mrs. Edwards. Johnson, who had walked part of the way, in attempting to mount the waggon while going, slipt, & his foot was run over by the wheel & greatly bruised. We alighted with difficulty & in bad humor. A half drunken blacksmith, hearing of Johnson's accident, undertook to be his surgeon. We got into another miserable house, somewhat better than the last, & had a clean supper. The blacksmith, who had as many cures of his own performing to boast as T. W. Dyott, made him a poultice & promised to inspect his patient the next day. In the night a tremendous storm arose (the same that has done so much damage on the coast), and we could not think of proceeding. Remained all day (the 17th) at Edwards. I had had for some time my old malady, the Hemicrania, which this day was insupportably painful. Jany 18th. Our waggoner being married to a young woman in the neighborhood (the cause probably of our being carried to so wretched a tavern) did not come till 11 o'clock. However, we got to Gettysburg at 4 o'clock, & got out at Lachell's excellent tavern, de[cided] to abandon the waggon & provide some other conveyance. The waggon proceeded with Mrs. Grunwald, our cook, & Johnson towards Chambersburg. Jan'y 19th. Remained at Gettysburg all the morning. I had another most excruciating paroxysm, as usual of 6 hours. An ox being roasted whole in the neighborhood, in order to celebrate the completion of the great Pennsylvania Western turnpike road, every sleigh & horse were engaged to the frolic excepting one sleigh, which I was obliged to engage at a high price (15$), to carry us to Chambersburg, 25 miles. We baited [izc] on the top of the South Mountain (blue ridge) & arrived at Chambersburg about sunset. The afternoon & ride very delightful. Alighted at Hettigs, where we found our friend Judge Smith of Lancaster. Having several important papers to draw

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up & being, moreover, severely again afflicted with my usual morning paroxysm, we remained here the whole day, being very kindly treated by our friends the Calhoun family, with whom we spent our evenings. Jan'y 21st. We left Chambersburg in another hired sleigh. A mild soft day, & almost warm on the SE side of the North mountain. Dined at Londontown, & passed over the mountain so as to arrive at McConnelstown about sunset. The difference of temperature on the N W side of the mountain was most disagreeable, & we arrived chilled through at Lindsay tavern, an indifferent house, which we left before breakfast on the 22d January. Breakfasted at a mean looking, but excellent house (Wilson's) at Licking Creek, dined at Bloodyrun, & arrived at Bedford at sunset. Dillen's house at Bedford is known to be one of the best in Pennsylvania. Remained here the 2Sd. Origin of the Name Bloodyrun When in the year 1757 General Braddock marched against the French and Indians from Virginia, with a view to the capture of Fort DuQuesne, General Stanwix approached the same point from Pennsylvania with a large convoy of cattle. Coming along the valley of the Juniata, he halted his cattle under a guard upon an open & rather level spot to the East of the run now called Bloodyrun, leaving with them a sufficient guard. At that time the borders of the river & run were overgrown with a thick underwood {"they were very thicketty"), in which Indians had concealed themselves. As soon as the convoy got into motion, & the first rank appeared crossing the run, the Indians fired & killed three men, who fell into the run. They were taken out by their comrades, after dispersing the Indians, & the appearance of the run gave it its present name. The usual account is that a very bloody battle was here fought in that war. But tho' a battle was fought about 8 or 9 miles distant from the run, none ever took place on that spot. (Mr. Tait, a old & highly respectable inhabitant of Bloodyrun.) Jan'y 24th, 1820. Having made an arrangement with Mr. Dillon, our host, we set off at 11 o'clock in his sleigh, got a most miserable & dirty snack at a house on the dry ridge, & arrived at Somerset about 7 o'clock. Weather fine & very cold. Jan'y 25th. Left Somerset after breakfast, & arrived at Mountpleasant at sunset. Captain Webster, at Somerset, keeps an excellent house. Mrs. Backhouse at Mountpleasant, a very clean, neat inn, & the civility of herself & daughter make amends for indifferent cooking.

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Jan'y 26th. We left Mountpleasant before breakfast & were dragged over very bad roads as far as the Youghhionny which we crossed on the ice, & breakfasted at a dirty hole of a tavern, styled the Toughionny hotel, kept by a certain Wilson. On the whole road from Baltimore to Somerset the snow was deep, & the sleighing excellent. From the Alleghenny mountain to the foot of the Ches[t]nut ridge it was still deeper. But from thence to the Youghioghenny [sic], little snow seems to have fallen, for the south sides of the hills were almost bare, especially on the road, & the sleighing was abominable. From the Youghioghenny [wir] westward, the sleighing was again good, the ground being well covered. Shortly before we arrived at the Monongahela, at Bridd's ferry, it began to snow, & before we could cross the river (on the ice) it snowed very hard, so that on arrival at Williamsport we were obliged to end our journey for the day, & alighted at Anderson's tavern at 3 o'clock. It snowed all the afternoon. Itinerary

Baltimore to Reistertown Edwards

16 22

Gettysburg 15 Chambersburg 25 McConnelstown . . . . 2 1 133 Bedford 34 Somerset 38 Mountpleasant . . . . 30 Williamsport 20 Washington 20 Wheeling

Jan'y . . . . . . . . Jan'y . . . . . . . .

15 th 16th 18th 19th 21st 22nd 24th 25th 26th 27th

241 32 273

Jan'y 27th. Left Williamsport early & arrived at Washington 6 (Morris's tavern, the Globe) at 11 o'clock, 20 miles, where we wait for the arrival of the waggon. COLLECTANEA

Washington, Jan'y 27th, 1819. BALTIMORE. The first brick house in Baltimore was built by Mr. Francis GofF who died a few years ago at Mercersburg, in the Cumberland Valley. His widow is at this day alive at McConnelstown. The growth of • Washington in western Pennsylvania, not far from Wheeling, West Virginia.

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Baltimore is a sort of miracle; that of McConnelstown is not less surprising. It is not found on Reading Howel's map of 1811, but in 1813 was nearly what it now is, when I was there (Mrs. GofF herself). It is another curious fact that M r s . Moale, the mother of Randall Moale, Att'y at Law, of Baltimore, was the first white female child born in Baltimore, & is at this day almost daily seen walking the streets in perfect health. APPLES. At Williamsport we met with enormous apples, 3 of nearly equal size promiscuously taken from a barrel, measuring each 33A inch diam. S'A in highth [izc], & 11 Vi in circumference. They were of excellent flavor, rather firm, & had small, thick, & few seeds. Sent 12 in a letter to Gen'l Harper. 7 Washington, January 31st, 1820. T h e weather continuing very severe, we hired rooms, & our waggon having arrived, we contrived to furnish them tolerably with our furniture & beds, the deficiency being kindly made up by our friends & relations, M r . Parker Campbell's & M r . Reede's family. Everything here is cheap compared with the price of necessaries in Baltimore, exclusive of imported articles. Baltimore

Washington

Fowls, p[er] pair . . . . . . .62Vi. to 75 cts. . . . . . . .25 cts. Turkeys . . . 1$25 to 2? . . . . 25 to 50. . . . . 50 to 62 Vi Geese Beef . . . .121/z p. lb . . . . S'/2 to 4 cts Mutton . . . .10 cts Hams . . . . 18 to 20 . . . . 10 cts. . . . .37'/ 2 . . . ,12'/2 Eggs Butter . . . . 37'/2 to 50 . . . . 12>/2 Flour . . . 6.50 bl to 7$ . . . 4.— Coals . . . . 50 cts. p. bushel . . . . . . .8 cts. Fire Wood, oak . . . . . . 4.50 p. cord . . . 2.50— hickory . . . 7. to 8.00 . . . 3.— Board & lodging . . . . . 12$ p. week . . . 2.50 to 3$ 6 $ to 7$ for students & young lawyers W. Ind. Sugar good . . . . 15 cts . . . .25.— ' Robert Goodloe Harper, General of the Third Division of the Maryland Militia, Senator from Maryland, son-in-law of Charles Carroll of Carroll ton and one of Latrobe's most intimate friends. After the death of his father, John H. B. Latrobe entered General Harper's office in Baltimore as a student of law. General Harper died in January, 1825.

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Feb'y 1st, 1820, Tuesday. Undertook to teach my children Italian, Latin, & drawing, regularly every morning; & continued until my departure on the 16th to Wheeling. Washington was about the year 1775 an Indian town, the residence of an Indian chief called old Catfish, of whose existence there is still evidence in the name of a small rivulet, which is a branch of Chartres creek (called vulgarly Shirtee) & runs along the south & west foot of the hill on which Washington is built. It is still called Catfish run, tho' I believe no Catfish ever were caught in it. The town is built upon a ridge, of which the sections are below. This hill is surrounded by hills much higher, so that on approaching the town, from the east especially, it appears to lie in a hollow.

It has about 2,500 inhabitants. The principal street occupies the bank of the ridge, on the highest point of which is the court house. The court house was built about 27 years ago, & is now a mean building, though at that time might have been beyond the general advance of art so far to the Westward. There is a college also, poor, & having more reputation as a place of education than beauty or convenience. A Presbyterian & Methodist Church are such plain buildings as you find everywhere. The U. States road from Washington to Brownsville is made, but the contractors have not done their work so as to be satisfactory. The first contractors are paid, however, & it is the subcontractors who suffer, their principals retaining the money due to them, untill their own contracts are passed. This is the way in which public business is done from motives of economy. Upon the whole, however, the road does honor to the nation & is a great work. From Alexandria, a small town just rising at the distance of 15 miles from Wheeling, the road descends into the Valley of Wheeling creek. The creek winds from [the] side of a very narrow glen, and the road crosses it

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many times on very handsome bridges, constructed much more with a view to appearance & at a much greater expense than with skill or judgment. One single arch would in all cases have given sufficient vent for the largest freshets. But the Superintendent Jopil Thompson, has conceived that 3 arches of smaller span would be more picturesque. This is the general design of most of them. They are all of hewn stone of a yellowish color, and add greatly to the beauty of the landscape. The town of Wheeling lies partly on the second bank of the Ohio, partly on the

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lower bank, which, however, is now (that the river has risen above a common level about 20 feet) 15 or 16 feet above the water. It lies on the north or upper side of the creek. T h e valley of the creek near its mouth is separated from the Ohio valley by the remains of the high land which forms the general face of the country all round. This remnant forms a very narrow ridge about 250 feet above the level of the water. At y f j - the road leaves the creek & rises gradually to where the rise begins to be about 41/2 degrees. From thence to the top of the hill the road continues at that angle and is laid out along the edge of the precipice. Great part of it is walled in freestone & limestone and I presume that the whole line must be soon thus cured, for it is now slipping down the slope so as to be in danger of becoming impassable. T h e rocks are blown away where it was necessary, & great masses are fallen down into the road since. Water trickles constantly into the road, & much expense must yet be incurred before all danger of its destruction is got over. There was a very excellent, much shorter, & cheaper line on which the road might have been carried. It would, indeed, have required two bridges, but it would have been, notwithstanding, much less expensive. Mr. Lane, the principal proprietor here, is now making a road on this line. However, local interest prevailed, & it was resolved by the Commissioners (Williams, Moore & 8 ) that the principal street of Wheeling should be part of the road. This could not be effected without carrying the road as laid down on the other side. Now had these gentlemen, or any one of them, possessed any skill as engineers, they might have accomplished their object at a very trifling expense. Between f j f & the road, in ascending, crosses the coal stratum. This stratum is 18 feet thick, including a small stratum of slate in the middle. A gallery of 100 yards would have brought them out on the Wheeling side of the ridge at / » / and saved 100 feet of ascent & descent in less than 2 miles, & the coal would have paid all the expense of the gallery, or nearly so, even if the proprietor had been allowed a share of the proceeds. T h e father of the present Mr. Lane was the first White settler on this spot in the year 1769. During the Revolutionary War, the few houses that were then erected, & were called a town, were burnt down by the British & Indians who besieged the fort in 1777. T h e history of that siege, which terminated by the enemy being driven off, is very remarkable, & a manuscript describing it in detail was shown to me by Col. Lane and perused during my stay at Wheeling. It was written by a Col. Swearingen & deserves publishing litteratim, as a singular document, exhibiting, more vividly than anything I have ever seen, the character & temper of these frontier heroes & * Name omitted in the manuscript.

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of the times. T h e fort was defended by, I think, only 19 men & by the women, & attacked by 350 British & Indians for 3 days successively, without effect. T h e women loaded the muskets, & the constant fire thus kept up, induced the enemy to believe the garrison to have been much more numerous than it was. Mrs. Lane commanded the women, & acted her part, both in loading & discharging the muskets, to admiration. In 1795 M r . John White, late President of the Wheeling bank, & one of the principal merchants here, settled in Wheeling. He told me that there were then only 5 hovels in the place. This was only 25 years ago, & there are now about 1,800 inhabitants. But such has been the emigration beyond, & from, as well as to, Wheeling, that Mr. White & M r . Lane, are the only two white men who remain of that date in the place. M r . Lane's family is German; the original name is Zahn. I left Washington Feb'y 17, & arrived in the evening with my family at Wheeling, put up at Simm's, a very indifferent & dirty house. Removed the 18th to Sprig's, a good civil house. Expenses as cheap as at Washington. Went Sunday, the 20th, on board the Columbus steamboat. Monday, 21st, at daylight proceeded down the Ohio, & arrived at 4 at Marietta. Walked in the evening ashore. Tuesday, 22d, on leaving shore, broke the shaft of one of our wheels, & are likely to be detained 2 days to repair. Marietta, Feb'y 22d, 1820. Wednesday 23d, on board the whole day. Thursday 24th, viewed the ancient fortifications at Marietta. In the evening walked ashore & rambled over the hills opposite to the boat. In the evening we had a very severe gale. A meteor, apparently about a foot in diameter, passed to the East of the boat, low, & as I thought, between the boat & the shore. Immediately after, the most excessive fall of rain & hail, accompanied with violent wind, which I ever remembered to have witnessed, followed, but did not continue above 2 or 3 minutes. The thunder & lightning continue[d] three or four hours & was followed by a beautifully clear & serene night. Got under way about 10 o'clock; continued steadily down the river all the day the 25th, & all night; & Friday the 26th, arrived at 4 o'clock at Maysville, formerly Limestone, in Kentucky. Limestone, or Maysville, Feb'y 26th, 1820. W e are likely to remain here three or 4 days. One of the boilers burst at Charleston, & must be repaired. T h e Captain, Luther Stevens, is still at Lexington & a cargo is to be taken on board. It rains, and we cannot go on shore, but are confined to such employment or amusement as we can find in our cabin.

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POINT

In hunting over my papers I find the following Verses Written at West Point. New York, Dec'r, 1819. The Highlands Where thro' the riven granite giant mass The briny tides of distant Ocean pass, And from the cloud cap't precipices brink Bold huntsmen view tall ships below, & shrink;— There once the Northern lakes, stretch'd far & wide, Dash'd their white surf against the Mountains' side. Deep in their bosom future cities slept,— And rolling waves the fertile vallies swept,— Till min'd thro' ages, by time's ceaseless toil, Small trickling rills first pierc'd the rocky soil, Soon down the steep, the foaming torrent pour'd And soon the cataract tremendous roar'd.— Years passed away & still the fell withstood The incumbent pressure of the falling flood. But whirling rocks bor'd deep the Mountain wall And frost & earthquakes labor'd at its fall. Then burst the granite bound! What tongue can tell The awful ruin which that day befell! Shook Alleghenny in its inmost caves, And far repell'd old ocean's briny waves;— Southward huge rocks, & woods, & soil were hurl'd And sunbeams gladdened a new northern world. 'Twas silent all! And o'er the fertile bed Of oozy lakes, the flowering prairie spread; Then soon the forrest from the Mountain's side Stept down, & choak'd with trees the meadow's pride. The Giant Mammoth long beneath their shade, The bear & elk, & reasoning beaver stray'd. E're the red Indian's well aim'd arrow flew, Or sturdy squaws propelled his bark canoe.

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How chang'd the scene! Where lakes stretch'd far & wide. Dash'd their white surf against the mountains side, Where torrents foam'd, & thund'ring cat'racts roar'd And deep the whirling stones the granite bored Where mountain rocks, & soil & forrests hurl'd, Far seaward, rais'd a new alluvial world,— Where prairies flower'd & forrests spread their shade, And mammoth, deer, & reasoning beaver stray'd. Where the red Indian's stake of torture stood, And bark canoes skimm'd o'er the glassy flood;— There crowded streets with busy merchants swarm, And gay abundance decks the freeman's farm. Thro' the cleft mountain, Ocean rolls her tides And the rich laden vessel safely glides. Blest Mountain! Long as fleecy clouds shall rest, And shed their moisture on the Eagles nest, Blest be each giddy highth, & pathless steep Each Air-hung thicket, trembling o'er the deep, For force & treachery assailed in vain The host of freeman, safe in thy domain Shelter'd by thee, there where their fathers fought Their sons, Caetera desunt.— [THE

ANTIQUITIES

OF

MARIETTA]

Maysville, Feb'y 29th, 1820. The antiquities of Marietta, so often described, & so accurately, by Harris in his tour, consist entirely of works in earth. I obtained a very correct survey of these works from Mr. Putnam, surveyor at this place. By what nation and at what period erected must forever remain, as is the case with the Druidical (so called) monuments in England, a subject of mere conjecture. If what Judge Fearing (whose politeness to me I acknowledge with many thanks) told me is true, & I believe there can be no doubt of it, the riddle is greatly embarrassed, beyond what the mere form, & extent, of the works occasion of difficulty. In one of the hillocks the silver plating on copper, of a sword belt & scabbard were found. The copper & iron had nearly disappeared, but the silver, & as he stated, indications of leather, remained.® s

I afterwards saw these remains at Cincinnati, & found them to agree exactly with Judge Fearing's description. [Note by Latrobe.]

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If these remains belonged to the nation that erected the works in earth, it would appear very singular that a people so far advanced in Art should have left nothing behind them of a more permanent material than mere earth. It is, however, possible that some adventurous Spaniard or Frenchman of the early discoverers, may have wandered among, or have been taken prisoner by the Indians, & buried in the mound in which these things were found, especially if he had become by adoption a warrier, or the sword may have been worn by an Indian, obtained either as a present or from a captive. All this supposes the mound to be of later date than the other works. Judge Fearing & Mr. Barber (late Member of Congress) both said that the rings on one of the largest trees growing upon the works themselves, had been counted by them, & found to be 500 & upwards. If each ring is the product of one year, its age must have [been] greater than the time elapsed since Europeans first landed on the Western continent. But I think some trees add two rings annually to their bulk. All I can add to what is already known of these works, amounts to nothing. The plan I have copied, shows their form & dimensions very accurately. There are, however, at Marietta more modern antiquities worthy of notice; the remains of the Indian ovens which are every where seen along the present shore of the Muskingum on its West side. Judge Fearing informed me that these ovens are exactly similar to those which he has seen used by the remnant of Nar[r]aganset & other Indians on the Eastern coast of Massachusets. These ovens are excavations in the ground, about 3 to 5 feet deep, & from 2 feet to 3 feet in diameter; their form is that of an egg. At the bottom of each are coals & ashes. Upon these lie stones of a different kind from any found in this neighborhood. They are capable of resisting considerable heat. Unfortunately, those I collected were put into a wrong boat, & I lost them. On the stones are often found (as I was told) bones of animals. These ovens appear on the bank which has caved in within a short time. There is about 18 inches of alluvium over them, so that even they cannot be of very recent date. We were detained 2 days at Marietta by the breaking of one of the main shafts of the waterwheels. On the 25 we left Marietta & arrived at Limestone or Maysville

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the 26th, about 11. Remained there mending the boiler untill the 2 Wednesday. A violent NW storm retarded our progress greatly, & at last, as if nothing but accidents could occur to our miserable boat, the engineer contrived to turn the cock which empties the boiler, & we were obliged to cast anchor, putt [wc] out the fire & remain all night of the 1 st in a terrible storm on the river till Friday March 3d, when we at last reached Cincinnati; Johnson began to cook March 6th; remained there until the 12th; proceeded & arrived at Louisville the 14th. The boat returned for freight to Kentucky river, & did not come back untill the 21st. In the meantime we remained at the hotel, Mr. Allen['s], a very well managed house. The 22d went on board at shipping port. In endeavoring to proceed on the 23 broke the shaft of the larboard wheel. 24 & 25 repairing; proceed evening of the 25th, 40 miles down the river, when all the wedges of the larboard wheel gave way. Lay by 12 hours repairing. 26th, Sunday noon, arrived at Shawneetown; remained till 8 P.M. 50 miles below, the wedges of the starboard wheel got loose. Lay by 12 hours again repairing. Entered the Mississippi Monday night at 11 o'clock, reached New Madrid by sunrise Tuesday the 28th. 10 Arrived at New Orleans, April 4th, 1820. [FINAL

REMARKS

ON

NEW

ORLEANS

AND

ITS

CATHEDRAL]

New Orleans, Aug't 10th, 1820. An accumulation of business has occupied every moment of my time since my arrival. From May 1st to this day the thermometer (Far.) has never fallen below 76 nor risen above 86 degrees. For many weeks together it stood at 78 in the morning & rose to 82 at noon. From July 1 st, to the 3d of Aug't, there were only 4 days on which there were not heavy showers, from 2, to 4 or 5 in the course of the day. The rest of the day tolerably fair, wind generally SE. Since then the weather has been clear & hot. The wind from SW to NW. Our thermometer hangs in a room through which the air passes freely, & into which the sun never penetrates. In the city the heat has always been 2 or 3 degrees higher. There have been several cases of black vomit, but no epidemic. The cases are very rare & scattering (sporadic), & many cured.11 10

See Appendix B, letter written by Latrobe's daughter Julia, April 1, 1820, describing the voyage; also Appendix C, letter written by Latrobe's wife describing their arrival at New Orleans. 11 On August 27, 1820, Latrobe, writing to Robert G. Harper in Baltimore, said: "There is no denying the fact at present that yellow fever exists in the city. How it got hither, or whether it is of domestic origin, cannot be ascertained, for there is no quarantine, no board of health, or any reuglation of police

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Aug. 14th. The wind changed to SE since yesterday. Thermometer at noon (lSth) 87Í4. Violent thunder & rain occasionally. In the course of my attendance upon the erection of the towers of the Cathedral,11 I have had a daily view of the ceremonies performed in the Church, & especially of those belonging to the funerals. There still remains here, in spite of the heretical apathy with which the ceremonies of the Church are stared at by strangers & neglected by the Catholic Creoles, much old-fashioned devotional practice among the women, & especially among the colored part of the congregation. Among these devotional practices, that of vowing & presenting lighted tapers at the Shrine of the Virgin, or of St. Francis, to whom the side altars are dedicated, & even at the foot of the great altar, is very conspicuous. A considerable revenue must arise from this source. I once counted 210 candles burning or extinct upon the pavement before the 3 altars, and on being observed by one of the choir boys (enfans du choeur), he told me that sometimes upwards of 400 candles have been offered in one morning. Now all these candles are bought of the Sacristan, who has a kind of manufactory of them in a little to counteract its ravages. The cases are comparatively with last year few and scattered, or sporadic, as our medical savants call it. In my next I will give a minute account of the facts that have fallen under my own eye. Of SO men in my employ, most of them drinking men, all but two have been sick: two have died drunk, all the rest are recovering, as I have engaged a physician to attend them immediately when attacked. If immediately blooded, they generally recover: but if 24 hours are lost, the fever ceases, vomiting without ceasing ensues, and death is almost inevitable. Two most valuable men have fallen victims. Peter V. Ogden(Burr's Ogden) one of the most excellent men in the city; and Wm. Sampson, son of Mr. Sampson, the lawyer of New York. Young Sampson inherited his father's wit, and humor, but his talents were of a higher order, and his taste in literature much purer. He had begun the publication of a paper, the Louisiana Advertiser, which tho' a little violent, and evidently the manufacture of a young man, in great haste to fill his columns, was undoubtedly the best edited paper in this city, and superior by far to most of those edited anywhere. The fever does not spread much." (Manuscript in the collection of Mrs. Gamble Latrobe.) n At the session of the city council on May 29, 1819, a special committee reported on the proposed new central tower for the Church of St. Louis. In this report it is stated "that the two committees have examined the two plans drawn by two architects of this city, one by Mr. Latrobe, and the other by Mr. Buisson, that it is a great pleasure for them to observe that in their opinion these two plans are a credit to the taste and talent of the two artists who have made them; however, as only one plan could be selected, the preference was given to Mr. Latrobe's for the reason that the steeple represented on his drawings harmonizes perfectly with the kind of architecture according to which the parish church was built.—they have secured Mr. Latrobe's pledge that he will make no bid for the contract and he would confine himself to direct and supervise the execution of the work in consideration of a commission of ten per cent on the price of the adjudication." At the meeting of the Council on July 24, 1819, because of difficulty in obtaining the proposals it was decided to award the contract for the tower to Latrobe. On May 28,1820, he wrote to Robert G. Harper: "My tower to the Cathedral is rising rapidly. It occasions surprise and is praised, but it is a comparatively trifling work." The work had not been completed at the time of Latrobe's death, September 3, 1820.

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court behind the Church. They are very slender dips, & are sold at 12V£ cents each. The 400 therefore brought 50$ & cannot I think have cost more than 10$. Besides, when they have burned to within two or three inches of the pavement, I have seen the boys busy in blowing them out. What remains is gathered up & returns [J/C] to the kettle to be made into more candles. A large revenue arises from the funerals of the dead, & from Masses for their souls. Mr. Girod 13 told me that the expense of burying one of his friends had exceeded 1,000 dollars, a great part of which had been paid to the Church. Some of the items of which he gave me an account, but which I have mislaid, were the following: 14 Tolling the great bells, 10$ Placing the coffin upon the highest stage in the Church. 10— Burning the six great Candles. 15— 28 smaller ones—7 The Curate's fee, Chanters—, Choir boys—, Sexton's— Using the silver candlestick & silver cross in the procession The service for the dead As the colored people are the most attached to their religion, the revenue derived from them for Masses for their dead is very considerable. Everyone who has lost a relation or friend, for whose condition after death he is anxious, buys, at the rate of a dollar each, a Mass for his soul. A good Catholic told me that if a dozen, more or less, of Masses are ordered by as many persons in one day, they are all said under one (as Dr. Franklin proposed saying grace over a barrel of herrings at once), the names of the persons whose souls are prayed for being all mentioned; & frequently this is performed by a proper addition to the common morning Mass. I have, however, been present at a Mass said for the soul of a Mrs. Musson, in which all the apparatus of a 13

Nicholas Girod, mayor of New Orleans 1812-15. His house at the corner of St. Louis and Chartres streets is among the finest houses of the period still remaining in New Orleans. In a contract for a house on Chartres Street between Henry Latrobe and Bernard Marigny, dated December 16, 1815, it is stated that "the balcony of the said house shall be in wrought iron, in the style of the one on the new house of Mr. Girod opposite the Exchange, as well as the consoles." 14 Among the papers of the succession of Jean Baptiste Thierry, editor of the Louisiana Courier, who died in 1815, there is a receipted bill for the funeral costs, a printed form in French, English, and Spanish listing the items here mentioned by Latrobe. The total amount, including cost of the grave, amounted to only $135.60.

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August, 1820

pompous funeral was exhibited, but without a coffin. The Church was filled with her friends, each of whom carried a lighted taper, and the service was long & loud. Father Anthony is a sensible & very benevolent man. His income as curé of the parish is said to be from 7 to 8000 dollars p[er] annum. He lives in a miserable hut in a corner of the street opposite to the rear of the Church (Orleans street). It has more the air of a Polish hermitage than of the principal parsonage of New Orleans. A range of very good houses accom[m]odate the inferior priests and officers of the Church. Father Anthony wears a coarse monks dark brown habit, tied round his waist with a thick cotton cord, & a very large broad bimmed black hat. His hair has the Capuchin tonsure, & his beard is long, forked, & reddish grey. He is the only priest who wears the monastic dress in the city. His benevolence is always active. He has an arrangement with a baker & butcher, on whom he distributes orders, in the shape of tickets, to the poor that apply to him. A poor Irish woman died with whom some of my people boarded. She had expressed a desire to be buried with the ceremonies of her Church, but her friends could not pay the ten dollars demanded. I wrote to Father Anthony begging him to diminish the fees as much as possible, and received for answer that if a dollar were paid to the Sexton he would pay the rest himself. When the new bell was ready to be put into the new tower, I wrote to him a letter in Latin to apprize him of the circumstance, in order that, if the rites of his Church required any notice of it, he might avail himself of the occasion & do what he thought necessary. He thanked me, & I had the bell brought within the Church. After high Mass, he arranged a procession to the bell & regularly baptized her by the name of Victoire, the name embossed upon her by the founder. T h e river is now lower than it was last year, & I have been obliged to stop my engine, and carry the suction pipe further, & deeper into the river. 16 The tide rises 18 inches once in 24 hours; now, at spring tides, at the rise of the moon.16 15

On August 26, 1820, the city council passed the following resolution: "On motion, Resolved that the request made to the Council by Mr. Latrobe is granted, and that consequently the Mayor is authorized to place at the disposal of said Mr. Latrobe the negroes from the chain-gang for three days in order to complete the necessary digging to place the pipes to connect the river and the waterworks." It was while supervising this work that Latrobe was stricken with yellow fever and died. "The Louisiana Courier for September 4,1820, announced: "Mr. H. B. H. Latrobe died yesterday at 4:00 o'clock P.M. leaving a numerous family to deplore the irreparable loss they have sustained." The Louisiana Gazette for Monday, September 11,1820, lists the name of H. B. Latrobe among "Interments in the Protestant Ground during the last week." See Appendix D, letter written by Latrobe's wife after his death.

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