were erected on its banks; and a sort of back entrance was afforded to the city for small vessels through lakes and lagoons at a comparatively short distance.  On one of these lakes, Lake Borgne, a flotilla of light gunboats was placed for defence, under the command of Lieutenant Jones, but on December 14th an overpowering force of small British vessels dispersed the American squadron, and on the twenty-second about fifteen hundred regulars, the picked men of the British army, fresh from European victories under Wellington, contrived to find their way unperceived through the swamps and lagoons to the belt of plantations between the river and the swamps, about nine miles below New Orleans.

When the news arrived of the loss of the gunboats, which made the enemy the masters of Lake Borgne, a panic spread over the city, for the forces of the enemy were greatly exaggerated.  But Jackson was equal to the emergency, though having but just arrived.  He coolly adopted the most vigorous measures, and restored confidence.  Times of confusion, difficulty, and danger were always his best opportunities.  He proclaimed martial law; he sent in all directions for reinforcements; he called upon the people to organize for defence; he released and enlisted the convicts, and accepted the proffered services of Jean Lafitte, the ex-"pirate”—­or, rather, smuggler—­of the Gulf, with two companies of his ex-buccaneers; he appealed to “the noble-hearted, generous, free men of color” to enlist, and the whole town was instantly transformed into a military camp.  Within a fortnight he had five thousand men, one-fifth regulars and the rest militia.  General Jackson’s address to his soldiers was spirited but inflated, encouraging and boastful, with a great patriotic ring, and, of course effective.  The population of the city was united in resolving to make a sturdy defence.

Had the British marched as soon as they landed, they probably would have taken the city, in the existing consternation.  But they waited for larger forces from their ships, which carried six thousand troops, and in their turn exaggerated the number of the defenders, which at the first were only about two thousand badly frightened men.  The delay was a godsend to the Americans, who now learned the strength of the enemy.

On the 23d—­as always, eager to be at his enemy, and moving with his characteristic energy—­Jackson sent a small force down to make a night attack on the British camp; also a schooner, heavily armed with cannon, to co-operate from the river.  It was a wild and inconsequent fight; but it checked the advance of the British, who now were still more impressed with the need of reinforcements; it aroused the confidence and fighting spirit of the Americans, and it enabled Jackson to take up a defensive line behind an old canal, extending across the plain from river to swamp, and gave him time to fortify it.  At once he raised a formidable barricade of mud and timber, and strengthened it with cotton-bales from the neighboring plantations.  The cotton, however, proved rather a nuisance than a help, as it took fire under the attack, and smoked, annoying the men.  The “fortifications of cotton-bales” were only a romance of the war.