nish capital of Louisiana, and which was not yet half like
an American town. The bulk of its population was still French Creole and
African; but among the Americans there was at least one man who already
knew something of Andrew Jackson, and who was to know a great deal more.
The leader of the New Orleans bar, and the most active of all the
citizens in making ready for the enemy, was no other than that Edward
Livingston, who, with Duane and Burr, had been friendly to the Tennessee
Congressman eighteen years before at Philadelphia. He invited the new
commander to his house, where Mrs. Livingston, a social leader in the
town, soon discovered that the Indian fighter knew perfectly well how to
deport himself in a drawing-room.

IV

NEW ORLEANS

A glance at the map will give the reader some idea of the doubts that
must have beset Jackson concerning the point at which the enemy would
probably attack New Orleans. The island on which the city stands was
accessible from the sea by at least three general routes. The British
might approach by the Mississippi River, which flows by the city on the
west, or over Lake Pontchartrain, which stretches out to the north, or
over Lake Borgne, from the southeast. Jackson first inspected Fort St.
Philip, sixty miles below, on the river; besides the fort, there were,
for river defences, the schooner Carolina and the sloop Louisiana. His
next move was to Lake Pontchartrain, and he was still in that quarter
when news came that the enemy had chosen the third route and was
already on Lake Borgne. The British found there six American gun-boats,
which were all destroyed or taken after a brief but gallant struggle.
That was December 14, and New Orleans was not yet in any good posture of
defence. The most natural route from the lake to the immediate
neighborhood of the city was up the Bayou Bienvenu, which led to the
southern end of a level plain bounded on the west by the river and on
the east by a dense cypress swamp. At the northern end of the plain lay
New Orleans, and the distance was but six or seven miles; the plain was
in most places about a mile wide. Between the head of the bayou and the
city there was not a fort or even a line of intrenchments. For this
state of things Jackson has not escaped blame from military critics.

But if illness or any other cause had robbed him of his usual energy,
the news of the disaster on Lake Borgne was the signal for a change in
him and in the sit