The city of Mobile, which is the oldest establishment in the state, is very advantageously situated for commerce, on a beautiful plain, elevated more than twenty feet above the general level of the water. This town had languished for a long time, under the despotism of the Spanish inquisition, and the wretched administration of the French government. It has often been devastated by the yellow fever. At present, all its wounds are healed; a few years of liberty have sufficed to render it prosperous. When the Americans took possession, it did not contain more than two hundred houses; at present, its population is more than 1800 souls. Formerly it scarcely exported four hundred bales of cotton; this year it has despatched upwards of sixty thousand.
The arrival of the steam-boat in the bay, was announced by discharges of artillery from Fort Conde; and when we reached the wharf at Mobile, the general found the committee of the corporation and all the population assembled to receive him. He was conducted to the centre of the town under a triumphal arch, the four corners of which were adorned with the flags of Mexico, the republics of South America and Greece. In the centre was that of the United States. Here he was complimented by Mr. Garrow in the name of the city, and in presence of the municipal body. He was then led to an immense hall, expressly constructed for his reception. He there found all the ladies, to whom he was presented by the governor; after which Mr. Webb addressed him in the name of the state. In his speech, the orator retraced with much truth, the debased situation into which despotism and ignorance had formerly plunged the city of Mobile, and the rich territory that surrounded it; he then painted the rapid and increasing progress that liberty and republican institutions had produced in the arts, in industry and commerce, which had now rendered these very spots rich and prosperous; he attributed this happy change to the glorious and triumphant exertions of the revolutionary patriots, whose courage and constancy had been sustained by the noble example of Lafayette; and he terminated by expressing his regret that the efforts of the French patriots had not resulted in consequences equally beneficial to their country.
In returning his thanks to the orator and the citizens of Alabama, the general took a rapid survey of the struggles for liberty in which he had borne so important a part, and concluded by expressing his deep conviction of the necessity of the closest and most intimate union among the states.
The inhabitants of Mobile, hoping that the general would pass some days with them, had made great preparations for entertainments to him, but the most part were rendered useless. Limited in his time, he was obliged to yield to the solicitations of the deputation from New Orleans, who pressed him to depart the next morning. Nevertheless he accepted a public dinner, a ball and a masonic celebration; after which we went on board the vessel which was to take him to New Orleans, to obtain a few hours of that repose, which a day filled with so many pleasant emotions had rendered absolutely necessary.
CHAPTER VII.
Departure from Mobile—Gulf of Mexico—Passage of the Balize—Landing at the entrenchments near New Orleans—Entrance into the city—Entertainments and Public Ceremonies—Battle of New Orleans.
The vessel on board of which we had retired, on leaving the ball, was the Natchez, an excellent and handsome steam-boat, sent by the city of New Orleans to transport the general from Mobile to the shores of the Mississippi. An experienced captain, Mr. Davis, commanded her; she had on board the Louisiania deputation, at the head of which was Mr. Duplantier, an old friend and companion in arms of the general. At the break of day, cannon were heard, at which signal we weighed anchor. The general stationed on the deck, received the farewell of the citizens who pressed in crowds to the shore, and testified their sorrow by expressive gestures and a gloomy silence. In half an hour, the city of Mobile disappeared from the horizon, which enlarged around us, and in a short time the smoke of the artillery, tinged by the rays of the rising sun, also became invisible. When night returned, it found us in the Gulf of Mexico.
To reach New Orleans, we might choose between two routes; either behind Dauphin, Horn, Dog, Ship, or Cat islands, traversing lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain, and disembarking a few miles in the rear of the city, or else boldly cross the gulf to the mouth of the Mississippi, pass the Balize and ascend the river. Our captain, confident of the solidity of his vessel, decided on the latter plan, which was not unattended with danger, but it gained us a whole day. We soon repented of his determination. A storm arose in a short time. The motion of the vessel became so disagreeable that we were obliged to lie down to avoid the sea sickness which attacked almost all of us. During the night, the wind greatly augmented, and the waves became so high, that several of them entering the ports, inundated the cabin and our beds. The noise of the wind, waves, and engine, with the creaking of the vessel, were so horrible, that we expected to founder every moment. At break of day I ascended to the deck, from whence I beheld the most imposing and awful spectacle; we arrived at the Balize. We could not avoid feeling a strong emotion at the sight of this magnificent river, whose rapid stream and prodigious breadth announced rather a conqueror than a tributary of the ocean. Its waves repelling, to a great distance, those of the sea, heaped on the low islands at its mouth, thousands of immense trunks of trees, which, after having flourished for ages under the polar circle, were now decaying under the burning sky of Mexico, and feeding a new vegetation with their remains. Enormous alligators of a sinister appearance and sluggish gait, attached to the floating trunks of trees, menaced the navigator, and seemed to dispute the entrance of the river with him. For a long time after we had entered the Mississippi we thought ourselves in another sea, so distant are its shores, and so tumultuous are its waves. It was not until after some hours that it became sufficiently narrow for us to perceive its muddy banks, or that the stream diminished in swiftness.
In the morning we passed fort Plaquemine, from which we were saluted with thirteen guns, and night again surprised us before we could perceive the walls of New Orleans. No variety in the vegetation is perceptible for sixty miles from the Balize. Hitherto nothing was to be seen but cypresses covered with the sombre tillandsia, called by the natives of the country, Spanish beard. This parasitic plant, which forms a long and dense drapery on the trees, has a more melancholy appearance, from its only growing in countries subject to the yellow fever. It is said to afford food to those animals which seek a shelter in the woods during the winter. The inhabitants of Louisiana employ it to stuff matrasses and cushions; for these purposes, after having washed it in an alkaline solution, they beat it till the husk is detached; when it is dry it has the appearance of long black hair. It is so durable as to be considered incorruptible. It is employed with success in building, mixed with mortar or tenacious earth.
About midnight, I went on deck for a short time; the night was dark, the sky charged with thick clouds, and the air filled with a hoarse noise. The batteries at New Orleans were then firing a salute of a hundred guns, to announce that the day on which the guest of the nation would arrive, was commencing.