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EIGHT DAYS IN NEW-ORLEANS
IN FEBRUARY,
1847,
BY ALBERT J. PICKETT,
OF MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA.
NOTE.
The following Sketches of New-Orleans originally appeared in the
Alabama Journal of Montgomery. For the purpose of presenting them to
the perusal of his friends at a distance, the author has caused them
to be embodied in the present form.
These pages were written from the recollection of only a few days
sojourn in the Crescent City. The period allowed the author of
collecting information was very limited. It is also his first essay at
descriptive and historic writing. The author fondly indulges the hope
that these things will be taken into consideration by his charitable
friends, and will cause them to cast the veil of compassion over
imperfections.
MAY 18TH, 1847.
CHAPTER I.
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.--DESOTO'S
EXPEDITION,--HIS DEATH,--THE FATE OF HIS PARTY, ETC.
On a recent excursion to the Crescent City, I collected some facts
and statistics which are respectfully submitted to the public. In
attempting a description of this magnificent emporium of commerce,
as it exists at the present day, I will briefly allude to its early
history, commencing with the great "drain" of the western world, which
is destined to bear upon its turbid bosom half the commerce of the
American Union.
Three hundred and thirty years ago the noble Mississippi rolled its
waters to its ocean home in native silence and grandeur, hitherto seen
by no European eye, when suddenly one morning HERNANDEZ DE SOTO stood
upon its banks. How awfully sublime must have been the contemplations
of that man. He had discovered it a thousand miles from its mouth, two
thousand from its source. No one had ever seen its rise,--no one its
exit into the ocean. But it was reserved for the Governor of Cuba to
find it through a wilderness, at a place and under circumstances the
most thrilling and romantic. Four years previous to this discovery,
he embarked for Florida with an outfit of a thousand men, with arms,
munitions, priests and chains. His object, the conquest of a country
teeming with wealth and splendour, like that which his former Captain
found in the conquest of Peru. He penetrated Florida, Georgia and
Alabama, finding no gold--no splendid Montezuma--nothing but savages
breathing out an innocent and monotonous existence, inhabiting a
country in a state of nature alone. After hardships the most unheard
of, disappointments the most mortifying, the proud and enterprising De
Soto threw his troops into Mauville, a large town near the confluence
of the Bigby and Alabama. Here a most disastrous battle attended him,
for although he routed the enemy in the death of thousands, he lost
all his baggage and most of his horses. His fleet then lay at the bay
of Pensacola, awaiting his arrival, and by reaching it in a few
days he could have terminated his disastrous campaign. But the proud
Castilian was not to be subdued by misfortunes and disappointments.
He determined to find just such a country as he had constantly sought.
Fired with fresh intelligence of the magnificence of the people who
lived near the "Father of Waters," we find him pursuing his expedition
in a sun-set direction in company with his jaded, reduced and
dispirited force, with a fortitude and courage which none but a
Spaniard knows. He surmounted innumerable difficulties, which both
nature and man interposed to arrest his progress; and finally, through
a dense and almost endless forest, he suddenly gratified his vision
with the majestic Mississippi. Crossing over the great river, he
toiled in the prairies and swamps of Arkansas and Missouri, until
wants and vicissitudes of the most trying character impelled his
return. Arrived once more upon its virgin banks, his lofty spirit
fell, and brooding over his fallen fortunes, a fever terminated his
existence far from home, in the American wilds!
Just before he passed from life, he caused his officers to surround
his bed, appointed Luis de Muscoso his successor in command, and bid
them an affectionate farewell. He also had his soldiers introduced by
twenties, endeavored to cheer their drooping spirits, (who were now
inconsolable at the loss of their great leader,) exhorted them to keep
together, share each other's burthens, and endeavor to reach their
native country, which he was never to see. To conceal his body from
the brutalities of the natives, it was encased in an oaken trough, and
silently plunged in the middle of the channel, at the dark and gloomy
hour of midnight, and the muddy waters washed the bones of one of the
noblest sons of Spain![A] Thus was the Adelantado of Florida the first
to behold the Mississippi river; the first to close his eyes in death
upon it, and the first to find a grave in its deep and turbid channel.
[Footnote A: See "Monette's History of the Mississippi Valley," vol.
I., from pp. 16, to 64. This learned man and eloquent writer has
given a most interesting account of De Soto's expedition. His work is
recently published, and should be extensively read by the people of
the south-west particularly.]
Muscoso and his remaining troops, now annoyed by the natives, by
hunger and disease, built some vessels, and dropped down the river,
in the hopes of reaching Cuba. And three hundred and thirty years ago
these adventurers silently floated by the spot where New Orleans now
stands! No hand had ever felled a tree,--no civilized voice had ever
echoed among the forests of that place. But nature, eternal nature,
ruled supreme. The poor fellows went out at one of the mouths of the
river, and a tremendous tornado encountered and dispersed them. But
few lived to reach home.
The several journalists of that expedition describe the Mississippi
river of that day exactly as it is at present, in respect to several
things, "a river so broad that if a man stood still on the other side,
it could not be discerned whether he was a man or not. The channel
was very deep, the current strong, the water muddy and filled with
floating trees."
A long century was added to the age of the world before the
Mississippi river was beheld again by civilized man. Col. Woods, of
the Virginia colony next saw it, and crossed it. Marquette, in 1673,
started at its source, and came down as far as the Arkansas. The
Chevalier de la Salle, some years after this, commenced near its head
and descended to the gulf, with seventeen men. Having returned to
France, he fitted out an expedition, but his vessels were unable to
find the river. He made another voyage, but could not find its mouth.
Iberville was the first voyager that ever entered this river from the
ocean, and he erected a fort at Biloxi, near Mobile, in 1697.