The Ark of 1803: A Story of Louisiana Purchase Times

by C. A. Stephens

Doctor Lecassigne, who was a very genial, kind-hearted man, went into the cabin to see how Marion Royce and the other sick men were coming on, and his favorable report, especially of the captain, gave the utmost relief to the crew. He then showed them a better place to moor their craft, in a short canal which opened through the levee a little way below his house. A water-gate at the end of this little canal allowed a stream to flow from the level of the river down to a mill for grinding corn and sawing lumber. There were numbers of such mills along the levees, the millstreams flowing out of the river instead of into it, presenting the odd spectacle of creeks flowing backward from their mouths till their waters were lost in the swamps at a distance.

When Jimmy returned he was surprised and a little startled to learn that in his absence they had had Señor Morales for a visitor. The intendant had already returned to the city in his barge; but Doctor Lecassigne assured them that although the intendant was a somewhat choleric man and inclined to narrow political views, he would probably give them no farther trouble, particularly if they were to send him a present of a showy horse.

This overture they concluded, rather reluctantly, to make; and since Lewis and Moses had seen and spoken with the general, it was judged best that they should take one of their handsomest animals to his house in the city that very afternoon.

They set off, accordingly, leading a large bay horse—one of their very best. Meanwhile Doctor Buchat had arrived to see his long-expected mammoth bones, which proved even bigger than he had been told. But his disappointment that the skeleton was not complete was keen, and he was willing to pay but four hundred francs for what Marion Royce had brought.

The New Orleans of that day extended for about a mile along the river-front, and was surrounded on the back or land side by a ditch or moat, filled with water, and inside this ditch by a row of tall pickets, consisting of cypress logs driven into the earth close together. On this side, leading out into the back country, were two gates with drawbridges; on the levee by the water there was another gate, both above and below the town.

The people were chiefly French and negroes, with a small Spanish and American population, and the number of inhabitants is said to have been ten thousand.

At each gate there was a battery of cannon, and along the river-front were a number of larger guns, deemed very heavy ordnance for the times. Negro slaves did the work of stevedores along the levee. Several hundreds of them were constantly to be seen at the latter place, and when not at work the rival gangs beguiled the time dancing, singing, and sometimes fighting pitched battles. It was all very novel to Moses and Lewis—the palisades, the cannon, the drawbridges, the long rows of houses and the gay shops. But, although strangers, they experienced little difficulty in finding the intendant’s house. For, on mentioning his name to a group of young darkies, the latter, mightily pleased at sight of the horse, led the way there of their own accord.

Señor Morales was not at home, however, and they had to content themselves with giving the horse in charge of his equerries, with Captain Royce’s compliments. Their errand accomplished, it would have been better if they had returned at once; but they wished to see the town, and set off on a long tramp through the streets.

Even in 1803, with a population of only ten thousand, New Orleans was a gay and picturesque little city. Lewis and Moses found so much to see that the shades of evening surprised them while they were still wandering along the streets.

It was no more than a mile and a half along the levee to the ark, however. The boys continued on, peeping into the candle-lit cabarets, coffee-houses and verandas, where gaily attired people were talking, singing and playing.