especially those who were jet black. Some of the Creoles also, both of French and Spanish extraction, like many natives of the South of Europe, were very dark.'"

The hotels of New Orleans are among the largest in the country, and are well kept. The principal are the St. Charles, the St. Louis, the St. James, and the City Hotel. There are 3 Theatres, and 2 Opera Houses in the city. They are well supported—especially the Opera Houses and the Orleans Theatre, at the last of which the performances are in the French language.

New Orleans is the commercial metropolis of the South, and the most important cotton market in the Union. It is admirably situated for commerce. It lies within 100 miles of the mouth of the Mississippi, and 2000 miles from the Falls of St. Anthony. All the immense trade of the Mississippi and its tributaries can be brought to the city without reshipment. Thus New Orleans is the natural gateway, through which pours the commerce of the entire Mississippi Valley. The river in front of the city is deep enough for the largest vessels, but the bar at the mouth of the river will not admit vessels drawing over 18 feet of water. The Levee, or steamboat landing, is one of the most interesting places in the city, and is thoroughly indicative of its immense trade. It extends along the river shore for about 4 miles, and has an average breadth of 100 feet. Here may be seen every description of craft navigating the Mississippi and the adjacent waters. At one portion are hundreds of flat boats drawn up on the land, some filled with hay, corn, potatoes, butter, cheese, apples, and cider, and some with horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, etc. The levee here is piled up with flour, pork, and all sorts of agricultural produce in the greatest profusion. Beyond this is the steamboat landing, where as many as 1200 steamers may be seen in the busy season, discharging and receiving freight. The levee at this point is covered with immense piles of cotton in bales, and steamers are constantly arriving from, and departing for all parts of the Mississippi Valley. Above and below the steamer landing are dense lines of steamships and sailing vessels, in rows two and three deep, bringing the products of every country, and carrying away the products of the great valley.

The whole of the commerce of the city, however, is not carried on upon the levee. The railways bring enormous quantities of produce into New Orleans, and the trade which comes by way of Lake Pontchartrain is important. The lake is connected with New Orleans by means of a railway and a canal. This canal terminates in a spacious

basin near the centre of the city. This basin is always filled with sloops, schooners, and other vessels engaged in the trade with the ports. on the Gulf coast to the eastward.

The river trade of New Orleans is immense, and its foreign and coasting trades are in proportion. The war for the time destroyed both, but they are now reviving. In 1860, the year before the civil war, there were received at New Orleans 2,255,458 bales of cotton, and in the same year 2,214,315 bales were exported. In the same year $185,211,254 worth of Southern and Western produce were received. The separate products were valued as follows: cotton, $109,389,228; sugar, $18,190,880; molasses, $6,250,335; tobacco, $8,717,485; other products, $42,663,326. In the same year the exports of the city were valued at $108,293,567, and the imports at $22,920,849. During the year ending June 30, 1860, the entrances at the port of New Orleans amounted to 2052 vessels, with a tonnage of 1,212,029; and the clearances to 2235 vessels, with a tonnage of 1,248,526. During the year ending August 31, 1860, the arrivals of steamboats were 3566, and of flatboats 831. These figures show the trade of the city in its palmiest days.

During the year ending September 1, 1870, there were received at New Orleans 1,208,000 bales of cotton, valued at $120,000,000; 57,956 bbls. of rice; produce from the interior to the amount of $200,000,000; and manufactured articles from the Northern States to the amount of $50,000,000. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1870, the foreign exports of New Orleans amounted to $107,657,042, and the imports to $14,993,754. The entire value of the commerce of the city for the same year was more than $500,000,000. The exports coastwise amounted to nearly $60,000,000. In the same year 4406 vessels were entered and cleared at the Custom House, with an aggregate tonnage of 3,126,319 tons. The arrivals of steamboats were 3650, with an aggregate tonnage of 3,000,000 tons. In the same year 2 large cotton mills were in operation in the city, also a number of factories engaged in making oil from cotton seed.

One of the greatest drawbacks to the prosperity of New Orleans is the unhealthiness of the city and the region in which it is situated. During the first 70 or 80 years after its settlement it was regarded as eminently healthful. Since its transfer to the American Government it has been repeatedly ravaged by yellow fever. Apart from this disease, the city is regarded as thoroughly healthful, and the natives and acclimated residents compare favorably with those of any

other large city in respect of health and longevity. According to some writers, yellow fever made its first appearance with the arrival of the Spaniards in 1769; according to others, it did not appear until 1796. Previous to this it had appeared in Europe and in the more northern cities of North America. In 1819, '22, '29, '33, '35, '37, '39, '41, '43, '47, '53, and '58, it raged with fearful violence. In 1853, between May 26th and October 22d, 8500 persons are said to have died of the fever. The greatest mortality was on the 22d of August, when 283 persons died. During the summer season large numbers of persons leave the city, and trade is very dull.

In 1870 the population of New Orleans was 191,322, and is made up of native Americans, persons of foreign descent called Creoles, foreigners, and negroes and persons of African descent. "Those who would form a just estimate of the social character and appearance of the Creole population of the city, should visit the opera in the height of the season. The French Creole ladies, many of them descended from Norman ancestors, and of pure, unmixed blood, are very handsome. They are usually attired in Parisian fashion, not over-dressed, nor so thinly clad as are the generality of American women—their luxuriant hair, tastefully arranged, fastened with ornamental pins, and adorned with a colored ribbon or a single flower. The word 'creole' is used in Louisiana to express a native-born

American, whether black or white, descended from old-world parents, for they would not call the aboriginal Indians Creoles. It never means persons of mixed breed; and the French or Spanish Creoles in New Orleans would shrink as much as a New Englander from intermarriage with one tainted, in the slightest degree, with African blood. The frequent alliances of the Creoles, or Louisianians, of French extraction, with lawyers and merchants from the Northern States, help to cement the ties which are every day binding more firmly together the distant parts of the Union. Both races may be improved by such connection, for the manners of the Creole ladies. are, for the most part, more refined; and many a Louisianian might justly have felt indignant if he could have overheard a conceited young bachelor from the North telling me how much they were preferred by the fair sex to the hard-drinking, gambling, horse-racing, cock-fighting, and tobacco-chewing Southerners.' If the Creoles have less depth of character, and are less striving and ambitious than the New Englanders, it must be no slight source of happiness to the former to be so content with present advantages. They seem to feel, far more than the Anglo-Saxons, that if riches be worth the winning they are also worth enjoying. The quadroons, or the offspring of the whites and mulattoes, sit in an upper tier of boxes appropriated to them. When they are rich, they hold a peculiar and very equivocal position in society. As children they have often been sent to Paris for their education, and, being as capable of improvement as any whites, return with refined manners, and not unfrequently with more cultivated minds than the majority of those from whose society they are shut out. By the tyranny of caste they are driven, therefore, to form among themselves a select and exclusive set. Among other stories illustrating their social relation to the whites, we are told that a young man of the dominant race fell in love with a beautiful quadroon girl, who was so light-colored as to be scarcely distinguishable from one of pure breed. He found that, in order to render the marriage legal, he was required to swear that he himself had negro blood in his veins; and, that he might conscientiously take the oath, he let some of the blood of his betrothed into his veins with a lancet. The romance of this doubtful tale was greatly diminished, although I fear that my inclination to believe in its truth was equally enhanced, when the additional circumstance was related, that the young lady was rich.' The foregoing sketch of society and social life in New Orleans, I need hardly remind my reader, was penned

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long before the late rebellion had so changed the aspect of every thing throughout the South. The visitor will, however, be surprised as well as delighted at the extent to which the manners and customs of the old régime' are still perpetuated among the descendants of the early settlers in the Crescent City."

Many of the European customs are still observed in New Orleans. "The holiday season, which includes Christmas and New Year's Day, says the writer quoted above, "is the best time to visit the city. No place on the broad continent presents such numerous and varied attractions at this festive season, and stolid, indeed, must be the stranger who is not impressed with his experiences. The distinguished author from whom we have so largely quoted, thus writes of the Carnival and the ceremonies of Mardi Gras: 'It was quite a novel and refreshing sight to see a whole population giving up their minds for a short season to amusement. There was a grand procession parading the streets, almost every one dressed in the most grotesque attire, troops of them on horseback, some in open carriages, with bands of music, and in a variety of costumes- -some as Indians, with feathers on their heads, and one, a jolly fat man, as Mardi Gras himself. All wore masks, and here and there in the crowd, or stationed in a balcony above, we saw persons armed with bags of flour, which they showered down copiously on any one who seemed particularly proud of his attire. The strangeness of the scene was not a little heightened by the blending of negroes, quadroons, and mulattoes in the crowd; and we were amused by observing the ludicrous surprise, mixed with contempt, of several unmasked, stiff, grave Anglo-Americans from the North, who were witnessing for the first time what seemed to them so much mummery and tomfoolery. One wagoner, coming out of a cross street in his working dress, drove his team of horses and vehicle, heavily laden with cotton-bales, right through the procession, causing a long interruption. The crowd seemed determined to allow nothing to disturb their good humor; but although many of the wealthy Protestant citizens take part in the ceremony, this rude intrusion struck me as a kind of foreshadowing of coming events, emblematic of the violent shock which the invasion of the Anglo-Americans is about to give to the old régime of Louisiana. A gentleman told me that, being last year in Rome, he had not seen so many masks at the Carnival there; and, in spite of the increase of Protestants, he thought there had been quite as much "flour and fun" this year as usual. The proportion, however, of strict Romanists is not so great as formerly, and to-mor