I now only waited a boat to convey me to New Orleans. I knew that I
should not have long to wait. The annual epidemic was on the decline,
and the season of business and pleasure in the "Crescent City" was about
commencing. Already the up-river steamers were afloat on all the
tributary streams of the mighty Mississippi, laden with the produce of
its almost limitless valley, and converging towards the great Southern
entrepot of American commerce. I might expect a "down-boat" every day,
or rather indeed every hour.