210 IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 



" Let it not be forgotten, that many of the primitive-look hig 

 transports lying at this point, have performed a drift of three 

 thousand miles; their cargoes discharged, they are immediately 

 disposed of to be broken up; their crews vt^orking their way 

 back on board the steamers, to return in the following year with 

 a vessel and a freight, both of which are at this time flourishing 

 in full vegetation in forest and in field. 



" The interest with which I looked upon these far travelled 

 barks, I dare hardly trust myself to declare or to describe ; they 

 told me of men and of their increase, who, only for the waters on 

 ■which they live, would be as little known and quite as unci- 

 vilized as the Indian, whose land they have redeemed from the 

 wild beast or more savage hunters, to bid it teem with abun- 

 dance, and to be a refuge and a home for millions to rejoice in.** 



HOSTS OF IRISH EMIGRANTS EMPLOYED ON THE 

 PUBLIC WORKS. 



" One of the greatest works now in progress here, (New Or- 

 leans) is the canal planned to connect Lac Pontchartrain with 

 the city. In the month of February, it was completed to within 

 three miles of the lake; and as it was a pleasant ride to the 

 point where the digging was in progress, I, two orthree times, 

 visited the scene, after its bearings had been explained by the 

 two intelligent persons under whose guidance I penetrated the 

 swamp. 



" I only wish that the wise men at home, who coolly charge 

 the present condition of Ireland upon the inherent laziness of her 

 population, could be transported to this spot, to look upon the 

 hundreds of fine fellows labouring here beneath the sun, that, at 

 this winter season, was at times insufferably fierce, and amidst a 

 pestilential swamp whose exhalations were foetid to a degree 

 scarcely endurable even for a few moments; wading amongst 

 stumps of trees, mid-deep in black mud, clearing the spaces 

 pumped out by powerful steam-engines; wheeling, digging, 

 . hewing, or bearing burdens it made one's shoulders ache to look 

 upon; exposed meantime to every change of temperature, in log 

 huts laid down in the very swamp, on a foundation of newly 

 felled trees, having the water lying stagnant between the floor- 

 logs, whose interstices, together with those of the side walls, are 

 open, pervious alike to sun, wind, or snow. Here they subsist 

 on the coarsest fare, holding life on a tenure as uncertain as does 

 the leader of a forlorn hope ; excluded from all the advantages 

 of civilization; often at the mercy of a hard contractor, who 



