When Louisiana was ceded to the United States, in 1803, Orleans was then entirely occupied by Creole-French and Spanish, consequently the majority of the habitations and public buildings, are in the French and Spanish style.  The cathedral, which presents a handsome facade of about seventy feet, the town-hall, and courts, occupy one side of the place d’armes,—­these, with the American theatre, the theatre d’Orleans, or French opera house, the hospital, and three or four churches, are the only public buildings in the city.  The houses are all flat-roofed, and those in the back streets and fauxbourgs are seldom more than one story high; the practice of building houses in this manner was pursued in order to avoid injury from tornadoes, which occasionally visit the valley of the Mississippi; latterly they have not been of frequent occurrence, although when they do arise, they are extremely violent.  The town of Urbana, in Ohio, this year (1830) has been nearly destroyed by a visitation of this nature.

Pharo-banks, roulette-tables, and gambling of all kinds, are publicly permitted; but the proprietor of each establishment pays a tax of 5000 dollars per annum.  The theatre d’Orleans on Sunday evenings, is generally crowded with beautiful French women.  Every night during the winter season there is a bal pare et masque, and occasionally “quadroon balls,” which are attended by the young men of the city and their cheres amies quadroons, who are decidedly the finest women in the country, being well formed, and graceful in their carriage.  The Louisianians are prohibited by law from marrying with quadroons, although this caste is free, and many of them have been educated in France, and are highly accomplished.

In the south, slavery exists in its most unqualified condition, wanting those milder modifications which serve to dress and decorate the person of this ugly fiend.  Here may be seen hundreds of animals of our own genus exposed in the public bazaars for sale, and examined with as much care, and precisely in the same manner, as we examine horses.  In some of the slave states the law prohibits the separation of families, but this prohibition is little attended to, as the slave has no possibility of coming in contact with any dispensers of justice but the magistrates of the state, who, being slave-holders themselves, instead of redressing his grievances, would be more likely to order him a lashing, for presuming to complain.  Many melancholy instances occur here, which clearly illustrate the evils of slavery and its demoralizing influence on the human character.  The arguments against slavery are deduced from self-evident propositions, and must carry conviction to every well organized mind; yet from their application being of too general a character, they seldom interest the feelings, and in the end leave less impression than the simple statement of a particular occurrence.  During my stay, a