56 
roulette are played. These places were obscure, and resembled 
caverns: the company playing there appeared from their dress, 
not to be of the best description. 
Next day, we made new acquaintances, and renewed some 
old ones. I remained in this city several weeks, for I was oblig¬ 
ed to give up my plan of visiting Mexico, as no stranger was al¬ 
lowed to go to that country who was not a subject of such states 
as had recognized the new government. There were too many 
obstacles in my way, and therefore I determined to wait in New 
Orleans for the mild season, and then to ascend the Mississippi. 
The result was an extensive acquaintance, a succession of visits, 
a certain conformity in living, from which one cannot refrain 
yielding to in a city. No day passed over this winte/which did 
not produce something pleasant or interesting, eac|i day how¬ 
ever, was nearly the same as its predecessors. Dinners, evening 
parties, plays, masquerades, and other amusements followed close 
on each other, and were interrupted only by the little circum¬ 
stances which accompany life in this hemisphere, as well as in 
the other. 
The cathedral in New Orleans is built in a dull and heavy 
style of architecture externally, with a gable on which a tower 
and two lateral cupolas are erected. The fagade is so confused, 
that I cannot pretend to describe it. Within, the church resem¬ 
bles a village church in Flanders. The ceiling is of wood, the pil¬ 
lars which support it, and divide the nave into three aisles, are 
heavy, made of wood, covered with plaster: as well as the walls, 
they are constructed without taste. The three altars are distin¬ 
guished by no remarkable ornament. Upon one of the side al¬ 
tars stands an ugly wax image of the virgin and child. Near the 1 
great altar is a throne for the bishop. On Sundays and holy-days, 
this cathedral is visited by the beau monde; except on these occa- i 
sions, I found that most of the worshippers consisted only of i 
blacks, and coloured people, the chief part of them females. 
The sinking of the earth of the Levee is guarded against in a 
peculiar way. In Holland piles are driven in along the water for 
this purpose, and held together by wattling. After the dam is 
raised up, there are palisades of the same kind placed behind 
each other. Here the twigs of the palmetto are inserted in the 
ground close together, and their fan-like leaves form a wall, 
which prevents the earth from rolling down. 
There are only two streets paved in the city; but all have brick 
side-walks. The paving stones are brought as ballast by the ships 
from the northern states, and sell here very high. Several side¬ 
walks are also laid with broad flag stones. In the carriage way 
of the streets there is a prodigious quantity of mud. After a 
rain it is difficult even for a carriage to pass; the walkers who 
