We met a merchant, Mr. Ogden, partner of Mr. William Nott, to whose house I had letters, who had the politeness to take charge of us, and assist us in our search for lodgings. We obtained tolerable quarters in the boarding house of Madame Herries, Rue de Chartres. The first person I encountered in this house, was Count Vidua, with whom I had become acquainted in New York, and who since had travelled through Canada, the western country, and down the Ohio and Mississippi.
My first excursion was to visit Mr. Grymes, who here inhabits a large, massive, and splendidly furnished house. I found only Mrs. Grymes at home, who after an exceedingly fatiguing journey arrived here, and in fourteen days after had given birth to a fine son. I found two elegantly arranged rooms prepared for me, but I did not accept this hospitable invitation. After some time Mr. Grymes came home, and accompanied me back to my lodgings. As our schooner had not yet arrived, we went to meet it and found it in the canal, a mile and a half from town, where two cotton boats blocked up the way. We had our baggage put into the skiff, and came with it into the basin, where the canal terminates.
In the evening we paid our visit to the governor of the state of Louisiana, Mr. Johnson, but did not find him at home. After this we went to several coffee-houses, where the lower class amused themselves, hearing a workman singing in Spanish, which he accompanied with the guitar. Mr. Grymes took me to the masked ball, which is held every evening during the carnival at the French theatre. The saloon in which they danced, was quite long, well planned, and adorned with large mirrors. Round it were three rows of benches amphitheatrically arranged. There were few masks, only a few dominos, none in character. Cotillions and waltzes were the dances performed. The dress of the ladies I observed to be very elegant, but understood that most of those dancing did not belong to the better class of society. There were several adjoining rooms open, in which there is a supper when subscription balls are given. In the ground floor of the building are rooms, in which pharo and roulette are played. These places were obscure, and resembled caverns: the company playing there appeared from their dress, not to be of the best description.
Next day, we made new acquaintances, and renewed some old ones. I remained in this city several weeks, for I was obliged to give up my plan of visiting Mexico, as no stranger was allowed to go to that country who was not a subject of such states as had recognized the new government. There were too many obstacles in my way, and therefore I determined to wait in New Orleans for the mild season, and then to ascend the Mississippi. The result was an extensive acquaintance, a succession of visits, a certain conformity in living, from which one cannot refrain yielding to in a city. No day passed over this winter which did not produce something pleasant or interesting, each day however, was nearly the same as its predecessors. Dinners, evening parties, plays, masquerades, and other amusements followed close on each other, and were interrupted only by the little circumstances which accompany life in this hemisphere, as well as in the other.
The cathedral in New Orleans is built in a dull and heavy style of architecture externally, with a gable on which a tower and two lateral cupolas are erected. The façade is so confused, that I cannot pretend to describe it. Within, the church resembles a village church in Flanders. The ceiling is of wood, the pillars which support it, and divide the nave into three aisles, are heavy, made of wood, covered with plaster: as well as the walls, they are constructed without taste. The three altars are distinguished by no remarkable ornament. Upon one of the side altars stands an ugly wax image of the virgin and child. Near the great altar is a throne for the bishop. On Sundays and holy-days, this cathedral is visited by the beau monde; except on these occasions, I found that most of the worshippers consisted only of blacks, and coloured people, the chief part of them females.
The sinking of the earth of the Levée is guarded against in a peculiar way. In Holland piles are driven in along the water for this purpose, and held together by wattling. After the dam is raised up, there are palisades of the same kind placed behind each other. Here the twigs of the palmetto are inserted in the ground close together, and their fan-like leaves form a wall, which prevents the earth from rolling down.
There are only two streets paved in the city; but all have brick side-walks. The paving stones are brought as ballast by the ships from the northern states, and sell here very high. Several side-walks are also laid with broad flag stones. In the carriage way of the streets there is a prodigious quantity of mud. After a rain it is difficult even for a carriage to pass; the walkers who wish to go from one side to the other, have a severe inconvenience before them; either they must make a long digression, to find some stones that are placed in the abyss, for the benefit of jumping over, or if they undertake to wade through, run a risk of sticking fast.
Sunday is not observed with the puritanic strictness in New Orleans, that it is in the north. The shops are open, and there is singing and guitar-playing in the streets. In New York, or Philadelphia, such proceedings would be regarded as outrageously indecent. On a Sunday we went for the first time, to the French theatre, in which a play was performed every Sunday and Thursday. The piece for this night, was the tragedy of Regulus, and two vaudevilles. The dramatic corps was merely tolerable, such as those of the small French provincial towns,[II.3] where they never presume to present tragedies, or comedies of the highest class. “Regulus” was murdered; Mr. Marchand and Madame Clozel, whose husband performed the comic parts very well in the vaudevilles, alone distinguished themselves. The saloon is not very large, but well ornamented; below is the pit and parquet, a row of boxes each for four persons, and before them a balcony. The boxes are not divided by walls, but only separated by a low partition, so that the ladies can exhibit themselves conveniently. Over the first row of boxes is a second, to which the free colored people resort, who are not admitted to any other part of the theatre, and above this row is the gallery, in which slaves may go, with the permission of their masters. Behind the boxes is a lobby, where the gentlemen who do not wish to sit in a box, stand, or walk about, where they can see over the boxes. The theatre was less attended, than we had supposed it would be; and it was said, that the great shock felt in the commercial world, on account of the bankruptcy of three of the most distinguished houses, in consequence of unfortunate speculations in cotton, and the failures in Liverpool, was the cause of this desertion.
The garrison consists of two companies of infantry, of the first and fourth regiments. This has been here since the last insurrection of the negroes, and has been continued, to overawe them. In case of a serious alarm, this would prove but of little service! and what security is there against such an alarm? In Chartres street, where we dwelt, there were two establishments, which constantly revolted my feelings, to wit: shops in which negroes were purchased and sold. These unfortunate beings, of both sexes, stood or sat the whole day, in these shops, or in front of them, to exhibit themselves, and wait for purchasers. The abomination is shocking, and the barbarity and indifference, produced by the custom in white men, is indescribable.[II.4]
There were subscription balls given in New Orleans, to which the managers had the politeness to invite us. These balls took place twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, at the French theatre, where the masquerade had been, which I mentioned before. None but good society were admitted to these subscription balls; the first that we attended was not crowded, however, the generality of the ladies present were very pretty, and had a very genteel French air. The dress was extremely elegant, and after the latest Paris fashion. The ladies danced, upon the whole, excellently, and did great honour to their French teachers. Dancing, and some instruction in music, is almost the whole education of the female creoles.