382 Captain Alexander's Journey in America. 



Orleans. The hurricane of the 10th of August had swept from 

 the S. E. across Barbadoes, the Island of Cuba, and New Or- 

 leans. We felt it severely at Havannah ; four vessels were wrecked 

 in the noble harbour itself, and I found at New Orleans thirty 

 vessels driven on shore, and great damage done to the houses. 

 On the 25th of August we had another hurricane at New Orleans, 

 which laid the whole city under water, from the bursting of the 

 banks of Lake Portcharlaim behind it, and more vessels were 

 driven on shore, and many lives lost ; fishermen with their 

 boats swept away, boats upset, &c. 



Truly it is most wretched to be domiciled in New Orleans 

 during the months of August and September. Nothing is to be 

 seen in the melancholy streets of the " Wet Grave" (as it is 

 termed), in these months, but hearses, coffins, and coloured 

 people ; all the whites who can, flee in July, to avoid the season 

 of yellow-fever ; the city is consequently a desert. I was com- 

 pelled to remain a fortnight in it before I could move up the ri- 

 ver. The soil of New Orleans is so swampy, that, in digging a 

 grave, at the depth of 1 8 inches below the surface water rises ; 

 coffins are therefore sunk by boring holes in the bottom of 

 them, and a couple of black men stand on them, and away they 

 go under water. Those who are particular, and dislike drown- 

 ing after death, have ovens of brick built on the surface of the 

 ground, 7 feet by 4, in which they are properly baked by the 

 heat of the sun. It is said that at least 600 of the Irish, who 

 come down to Louisiana from Charleston, New York, &c. in 

 search of work, die annually of yellow-fever at New Orleans. 



You are perhaps aware, that, on the banks of the Mississippi, 

 the elevated ground is more unhealthy than the river's bank itself; 

 the miasma seem to collect about elevations, and they are therefore 

 avoided by old residents. The banks are higher generally than the 

 country for some distance behind them ; so that, at the commence- 

 ment of the annual inundation, the river flows in three channels. 

 After a while it rolls on in one individual and vast torrent, sweep- 

 ing through the trees, and carrying many with it, with masses of 

 the bank. The banks of the Mississippi are thinly settled, from 

 their instability. The squatters retain their flat-bottomed boats 

 always made fast near their log-hut, to escape with their cattle and 

 sheep in case of accidents. 1 was very glad to ascend the Father 

 of Rivers, and leave New Orleans. We progressed for eight days 



