78 
it was asserted that it would keep there till winter. I examined 
the construction of this building. A coffer, made of strong thick 
planks, and some forty feet in height, is provided with a small 
opening under the roof. Through this opening the ice is thrown 
in, and again taken out for use. About the coffer there is carried 
a brick wall, and the vacant space between the wall and the 
planks of the coffer, which is about two feet, is filled up with a 
mixture of shavings and saw-dust, which resists the influence of 
the exterior warm atmosphere. 
A great quantity of drift timber was floating on the river, even 
huge trees. Negroes were busied in small canoes in collecting 
it, as it serves the residents on the Levee for fire-wood. The 
largest part of it, however, is driven into the Gulf of Mexico, 
strikes the gulf stream, is again carried into the Atlantic ocean, 
and driven upon the shores of Iceland and Greenland, where it 
serves to warm the miserable inhabitants of those inhospitable 
countries. 
On the 17th of March, I accompanied Commodore Jolly to the 
criminal court, before which he was cited. The cause thereof 
was as follows:—The year previous, a Colombian corvette had 
arrived at New Orleans, from which several sailors deserted. One 
of these sailors, an Indian, native of Maracaybo, had hired him¬ 
self as a servant at a Spanish grog-shop, and came on board the 
Pichincha, Commodore Jolly’s brig, to visit his old comrades, 
and to induce several to desert. He was recognised as a deserter, 
and as such arrested. The Spaniard, with whom the sailor Ra¬ 
mirez had served, laid his complaint before the criminal court, 
and the commodore was cited to appear. The Spaniard had em¬ 
ployed two lawyers, a Frenchman, named Canonge, and an old 
Spaniard, Rodriguez, who defended the cause of the sailor, and 
laboured to prove the commodore’s proceedings to be illegal. 
The pleading of the Frenchman was full of common place and 
far-fetched haranguing. Mr. Rodriguez explained his arguments 
more logically, though by his Spanish accent he excited great 
merriment among the audience. The commodore had no counsel, 
wherefore a Mr. Morel was assigned to him as such, who, as he 
had no time for preparation, requested the postponement of the 
cause to the following day. This request was granted. 
On the next day, we again visited the criminal court. I was 
apprized that several Spaniards had combined, and promised five 
hundred dollars for the setting Ramirez at liberty. They had 
employed a Mr. Davezac as their third advocate. The officers, 
some petty officers, and one seaman, of the two brigs, were heard 
as witnesses. These proved in the fullest manner, that the sailor 
had deserted from the corvette Ourika last year. The Spaniards pro¬ 
duced opposing witnesses. These contradicted each other so vilely 
