r yearly
pestilence sweeps off thousands of its inhabitants; and as water is
found but two feet below the surface, it fills each last receptacle of
the dead as soon as dug. Yet pestilential as is the clime, the scenery
is very beautiful. The stream, which is here a mile broad, rolls its
immense volume of water with calm dignity, in a bed above two hundred
feet deep, past this great commercial mart of the south. The banks on
either side are covered with sugar plantations, from the midst of which
rise numberless airy mansions of the wealthy owners, surrounded with
orange, banana, lime, and fig trees, with numberless other productions
of the tropics; while behind them can be seen the sugar-houses and the
cabins of the negroes, to remind one of the curse which hangs over the
land.

The city itself stands in the form of a half-moon on the banks of this
mighty stream, and before it are moored craft of every description--
backwood boats, keel boats, steamers and ships, brigs and schooners,
from every part of the world. I may remark that directly behind the
city is an impenetrable swamp, into which all the filth from the houses
is led, for the ground is lower than the surface of the Mississippi; and
then we cannot be surprised that plague and fever prevail to a terrific
extent.

As soon as I landed I set to work to try and discover the _Mary_, if she
was there, or to gain tidings of her should she have sailed, as, from
the length of time I had occupied in my journey, I was afraid might be
the case. I walked along the quays, examining every ship in the river,
and, after a long search, I was convinced that the _Mary_ was not there.
I next had recourse to the ship-brokers and ship-chandlers, but from
none of them could I gain any information. I then began to make
inquiries of the people I found lounging about the quays smoking, and
otherwise killing the time. At last I saw a man who stood lounging
against a post, with a cigar in his mouth and his arms folded, and who,
by the glance he cast at me, seemed to court inquiry.

He was, I remember well, a sallow-faced, gaunt fellow, with large
expressive eyes and black hair, which hung down from under his Panama
hat in ringlets, while a pair of gold rings adorned his ears. He had on
a nankeen jacket and large white trousers, with a rich silk sash round
his waist, in which was ostentatiously stuck a dagger, or rather a
Spanish knife, with a handsome silver hilt. I took him for