90 LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. [CHAP. XXVI. 



On going down from the cabin to the lower deck, I found 

 a slave-dealer with sixteen negroes to sell, most of them Vir 

 ginians. I heard him decline an offer of 500 dollars for one of 

 them, a price which he said he could have got for the man be 

 fore he left his own state. 



Next morning at daylight we found ourselves in Louisiana. 

 We had already entered the large lagoon, called Lake Pontchar- 

 train, by a narrow passage, and, having skirted its southern 

 shore, had reached a point six miles north of New Orleans. 

 Here we disembarked, and entered the cars of a railway built on 

 piles, which conveyed us in less than an hour to the great city, 

 passing over swamps in which the tall cypress, hung with Span 

 ish moss, was flourishing, and below it numerous shrubs just 

 bursting into leaf. In many gardens of the suburbs, the almond 

 and peach trees were in full blossom. In some places the blue- 

 leaved palmetto, and the leaves of a species of iris (Iris cuprea), 

 were very abundant. We saw a tavern called the &quot; Elysian 

 Fields Coffee House,&quot; and some others with French inscriptions. 

 There were also many houses with porte-cocheres, high roofs, 

 and volets, and many lamps suspended from ropes attached to 

 tall posts on each side of the road, as in the French capital. 

 We might indeed have fancied that we were approaching Paris, 

 but for the negroes and mulattoes. and the large verandahs remind 

 ing us that the windows required protection from the sun s heat. 



It was a pleasure to hear the French language spoken, and to 

 have our thoughts recalled to the most civilized parts of Europe 

 by the aspect of a city, forming so great a contrast to the innu 

 merable new towns we had lately beheld. The foreign appear 

 ance, moreover, of the inhabitants, made me feel thankful that 

 it was possible to roam freely and without hindrance over so 

 large a continent, no bureaus for examining and signing of 

 passports, no fortifications, no drawbridges, no closing of gates at 

 a fixed hour in the evening, no waiting till they are opened in 

 the morning, no custom-houses separating one state from another, 

 no overhauling of baggage by gens d armes for the octroi ; and yet 

 as perfect a feeling of personal security as I ever felt in Germany 

 or France. 



