6i 
small house, where the secretary of the Spanish governor for¬ 
merly had his office. 
In a magazine belonging to the state, there are still several ar¬ 
ticles which belonged to the former navy-yard, and which, here¬ 
after, are to be sent to Pensacola. Among these, I remarked 
brass and iron cannon of various calibres, and from different 
countries, English, Spanish, and French. There were some an¬ 
cient ones among the French, with beautiful ornaments and in¬ 
scriptions. On one was, “ ultima ratio regum;” on others, the 
darling “liberty egalite These pieces were found in the 
trifling fortifications that formerly surrounded the city, when the 
United States took possession of Louisiana, in 1803. 
During the last of January, it rained uncommonly hard and 
steady. The streets became bottomless: holes formed in them, 
where carriages and carts were in constant peril of upsetting. At 
first it was cold; while the rain continued, there followed such an 
oppressive heat, that it was feared an earthquake was about to 
take place: it thundered and lightened also very heavily. 
At the masked balls, each paid a dollar for admission. As I 
visited it for the second time, I observed, however, many present 
by free tickets, and I was told that the company was very much 
mixed. The unmasked ladies belonging to good society, sat in 
the recesses of the windows, which were higher than the saloon, 
and furnished with galleries. There were some masks in cha¬ 
racter, but none worthy of remark. Two quarrels took place, 
which commenced in the ball-room with blows, and terminated 
in the vestibule, with pocket-pistols and kicking, without any in¬ 
terruption from the police. 
On the same evening, what was called a quadroon ball took 
place. A quadroon is the child of a mestizo, mother and a white 
father, as a mestizo is the child of a mula tto mother and a white 
father. The quadroons are almost entirely white: from their 
skin no one would detect their origin; nay many of them have 
as fair a complexion as many of the haughty creole females. 
Such of them as frequent these balls are free. Formerly they 
were known by their black hair and eyes, but at present there 
are completely fair quadroon males and females. Still, however, 
the strongest prejudice reigns against them on account of their 
black blood, and the white ladies maintain, or affect to main¬ 
tain, the most violent aversion towards them. Marriage between 
the white and coloured population is forbidden by the law of the 
state. As the quadroons on their part regard the negroes and 
mulattoes with contempt, and will not mix with them, so no¬ 
thing remains for them but to be the friends, as it is termed, of 
the white men. The female quadroon looks upon such an en¬ 
gagement as a matrimonial contract, though it goes no farther 
