£ 275 ) 



LETTER XXXI. 



Voyage from the Natchez to New Orleans. 

 Defcription of the Country and of feveral 

 Indian Villages, with that of the Capital of 

 Louifiana. 



New Orleans, January io, 1722, 



Madam, 



I am now at laft arrived at this famous city of 

 Nouvelle Orleans, New Orleans. Thofe who 

 have given it this name, mud have imagined 

 Orleans was of the feminine gender. But of what 

 confequence is this ? Cuftom, which is fuperior 

 to all the laws of grammar, has fixed it fo. 



This is the Brfl: city, which one of the greateft 

 rivers in the world has feen ereded on its banks. 

 If the eight hundred fine houfes and the five 

 parities, which our Mercury bellowed upon it two 

 years ago, are at prefent reduced to a hundred 

 barracks, placed in no very good order ; to a large 

 ware- houfe built of timber ; to two or three houfes 

 which would be no ornament to a village in France ; 



T 2 to 



