Part 16

I took the hint thus disinterestedly given, and walked forward, passing over one of the primitive bridges common in this section of the country, where swamps and watercourses are frequent; these are commonly overlaid also, as far as may be necessary, by a back-wood railway; that is, by trunks of trees packed closely side by side, over which the machine is dragged at a trot: in Canada this sort of road is termed a corduroy.

Half an hour's start of our mail, whose pace was not over five or six miles per hour, enabled me to prolong my walk as far as I chose, and I enjoyed my freedom greatly; the perfect solitude of the scene; the absence of all trace of man, excepting the one narrow and seemingly interminable track, whose unvarying line might be traced as far as eye could reach; not a sound could be heard, only the low sighing of the breeze as it swept over the ocean of graceful pines whose spiry heads appeared to kiss the sky. In ten minutes after quitting the log-hut where the coach rested, I was in fact plunged in a solitude as complete as it was beguiling.

If you by any chance turned about to look back upon the line you had trod, or muse upon the scene, the only remembrance of your true course was the sun; and indeed more than once, as time wore on, did I halt struck with a sudden apprehension that I might have turned upon my steps, and it required some moments of consideration to reassure me. At length, seating myself upon a fallen pine within the shadow of a tall magnolia, I resolved to abide with patience the coming up of the coach.

Resting here, strange fancies connected with the forest and its savage denizens came thronging upon my mind. Here, within a very few years, the Choctaw alone had wandered, and the only path was the scarce traceable line leading to the village of his tribe. Where are these hunters now? gone swiftly away, borne like autumn's leaves, upon the irrepressible flood of enterprise and intelligence which is taming the wilderness with a rapidity Europe has yet no adequate appreciation of. The hunter and his prey have alike been scattered or rooted wholly out; the forest still remains to witness for their existence, and, although assailed in every quarter, the woodman's axe ringing from east to west, from north to south, it yet appears to defy the activity of its assailants.

So rapid is vegetation in this climate, so prompt is Nature to repair any waste in this favoured domain of hers, that even where places have been completely bared by the axe or by the whirlwind, a very few years of repose clothes them once more, a luxuriant growth of forest, vigorous and healthful, spreads rapidly over the waste, asserting its ancient claim, and eagerly repossessing itself of its heritage.

We reached Portersville at four o'clock, having been just six hours coming thirty-two miles: here we found the Government steamer, the Watchman, and five passengers, who had left Mobile on the 31st ultimo. They had been detained here two days, living in a log-house; their only amusement watching the ducks and snipe whirling in search of fresh feeding-ground over the dreary waters of Lac Pontchartrain.

Over a long fragile pier, carried far into the lake on piles, and breached in fifty places, we gained the deck of the Watchman, and in five minutes after were heading towards the setting sun, whose rays, brilliant though they were, failed to invest with cheerfulness this desolate, half-drowned land.

I walked to and fro upon the ample deck of the vessel until my limbs were fatigued and my eyes sick of the eternal sameness of the scene; and then sought my berth, a very comfortable one, where I lay till roused next morning with the intelligence that we were before the railroad.

Jan. 3rd.--On landing, we found the six o'clock train had just departed; we were afforded therefore half an hour to look about us. Here is a very large hotel, during the summer much frequented by the citizens of New Orleans, the offices connected with the railroad depot, three or four little stores, together with a small range of dirty huts, including two or three cut-throat-looking sheds, bearing inscribed over the entrance, in large, ill-assorted characters, the word Tire; which immediately under is translated, for the benefit of country gentlemen, into "Shutting Galery." These little indications serve to remind the stranger that he is now in the land of the "duello," where each "captain of compliments" is reputed for "the very butcher of a silk button," and "fights as you sing prick-song,--rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom."

In little more than half an hour the cars returned from the city, and in about thirty minutes we were whirled under the covered depot, where I was fortunate enough to get a hackney-coach, in which I proceeded at once to Mr. H----n's house in Rue Bourgogne, where I was received by his nephews with a heartiness of welcome that made me in one moment feel that I was at home.

The whole of this day was cloudy and cold; a good deal of rain had fallen during the night, and consequently the streets were nearly impassable for carriages: the side-walks were, however, very well kept; and I took a short stroll about the American quarter, finding on my return that already, with the prompt courtesy which distinguishes this country, several gentlemen had left cards of compliment and invitation.

Sunday, 4th.--A lovely day. Mr. B----e having planned a ride as far as the lake, I saw after breakfast three or four good-looking horses arrive, caparisoned with showy, coloured, housings and demi-pique Spanish saddles: shortly after, their masters appeared, and off we pushed through mud knee-deep; we soon gained the shell road however, and found it as good as the streets of Mobile, hard, smooth, and binding as lime. It is a pity, as this material is to be procured in abundance, that it is not more generally applied: paving the streets with heavy stones, which soon sink deep in the alluvial soil, is, I fear, likely, without vast outlay, to prove labour lost; besides that these have to be imported from the North or from England, not a pebble existing here over the whole surface of the country.

At five o'clock, met a large party at dinner at Mr. B----'s; Madame B----e, a lady of the country, doing the honours with that vivacity and grace which is said to distinguish the French creoles of New Orleans: the dinner was excellent, a mixture of English and French cooking, both good, and admirably served; whilst for wines, we had Chateau Margarot of 1825, with frozen champagne, and Madeira, such as can only be produced in this country. The dinner party, with the exception of a couple of creole French gentlemen, was composed of my own countrymen; and little was here to remind one of a strange land, save the plates of clear ice sparkling on the table, and the faces of ebony shining behind our chairs.

NEW ORLEANS.

AMERICAN THEATRE.

On Monday the 5th I attended rehearsal at the American Theatre, and was pleased to find it a large, well-proportioned house, with three rows of boxes, a pit, or parquette, as it is termed, subdivided as in the French Theatre: each seat is numbered, and, being taken at the box-office, is secured to the purchaser for any part of the evening. The company was a very tolerable one; and in the person of a nephew of Mr. W. Farren's, I found an adjunct of much importance to me--an excellent old man.

My next anxiety was about my audience, not its numbers, as I was assured every seat in the house was disposed of, and this as far as could be allowed, for every night I might perform; but I felt solicitous with respect to its character and composition, of which I had received very discouraging reports. I kept however my apprehensions to myself, resolved to do my best after my own fashion, and abide the result as I best might.

On Tuesday I made my debut; and never was man more agreeably surprised than myself when, after making my bow, I for the first time took a rapid survey of the aspect of the house: the parquette and dress-boxes were almost exclusively filled by ladies, coiffees with the taste which distinguishes Frenchwomen in every country, and which becomes peculiarly striking here, where are to be seen the finest heads of dark hair in the world; many wore bonnets of the latest Parisian fashion, and all were more dressed than it is usual to be at theatres in America. This attention to costume on the part of the ladies, added to their occupying the pit, obliges the gentlemen to adopt a correspondent neatness; and hence it occurs that, when the New Orleans theatre is attended by the belles of the city, it presents decidedly the most elegant-looking auditory of this country.

For myself, I found them in manner equal to their appearance; a greater degree of repose and gentility of demeanour I never remember to have noticed in any mixed assembly of any place. So much for report, which informed me I should find the American house here filled by noisy planters from the up-country and boisterous Mississippi boatmen. Let me however add, that my personal friends assure me a class of families attend my performances that is but rarely seen within this theatre, which the creoles do not usually patronize; and that this extreme decorum and exclusive appearance are assured by the places being all secured by families.

This may in some sort be true; but at most can only apply to the parquette, dress, and private boxes; the mixed population is still here; and, after nightly observation, rendered acute by interest and anxiety, I must assert that, taken generally, I do not desire to meet an audience whose behaviour more decidedly justifies the terms respectable and intelligent.

The least prolonged tumult of approbation even is stilled by a word to order: and when it is considered that here are assembled the wildest and rudest specimens of the Western population, men owning no control except the laws, and not viewing these over submissively, and who admit of no arbiter elegantiarum or standard of fine breeding, it confers infinite credit on their innate good feeling, and that sense of propriety which here forms the sole check on their naturally somewhat uproarious jollity.

Let me add, that my first engagement was for twelve nights, four nights per week; that I, on my return from Natchez, acted a like number, with equal patronage; and that on no one night was I afforded an occasion of making an exception to the opinion I have above honestly recorded, certainly with greater pleasure, because in asserting the truth I feel I am at the same time performing an act of justice.

FRENCH THEATRE.

The Opera, or French Theatre, which I visited several times, is an exceedingly well-appointed, handsome place, with a company very superior to the American one, and having its pieces altogether better mounted. It is to this house the creole families chiefly resort, as well indeed as the American ladies of the best class, most of whom are good French scholars; and within this salle on any Sunday evening may be seen eyes as bright and forms as delicately proportioned as in la belle France itself.

The building, whereof this theatre forms a part only, is a very extensive one, having as a part of its establishment a large ball-room, with supper-rooms attached; and, in addition to this, a variety of hells, where gambling nourishes in full practice, from the salon where the wealthy Creole plays his five-hundred-dollar coup, to the obscure den where roulette does its work, with a pace slower but as sure, at the rate of half-dollar stakes. I have looked in on these places during the performances, and never without finding them full.

Such establishments, ruinous and detestable under whatever guise or in whatsoever place they are permitted, become doubly dangerous when placed under the same roof and carried on in obvious connexion with what should be at all times an innocent recreation, and which ought and might be one of a refined and moral tendency.

The scenes of desperation and distress which gambling yearly gave rise to in this place amongst a people whose temperament is peculiarly excitable, coupled with a recent and terrible exposee, have at length roused the legislature of Louisiana to release themselves from the stigma of owing any portion of their revenue to a tax which legalised this worst species of robbery and assassination. This very session I had the gratification of seeing a bill brought into the House, and promptly carried through it, making gambling felony, and subjecting its followers to corresponding punishment.

The French Theatre will henceforward, I hope for ever, be freed from the disgrace which such an association necessarily reflected upon the drama and all concerned with it.