ing of the river into suds.

At length there were signs that we were drifting out of the wilderness,
and one morning we came in sight of a rich plantation with its dark
orange trees and fields of indigo, with its wide-galleried manor-house in
a grove. And as we drifted we heard the negroes chanting at their work,
the plaintive cadence of the strange song adding to the mystery of the
scene. Here in truth was a new world, a land of peaceful customs, green
and moist. The soft-toned bells of it seemed an expression of its
life,--so far removed from our own striving and fighting existence in
Kentucky. Here and there, between plantations, a belfry could be seen
above the cluster of the little white village planted in the green; and
when we went ashore amongst these simple French people they treated us
with such gentle civility and kindness that we would fain have lingered
there. The river had become a vast yellow lake, and often as we drifted
of an evening the wail of a slave dance and monotonous beating of a
tom-tom would float to us over the water.

At last, late one afternoon, we came in sight of that strange city which
had filled our thoughts for many days.

CHAPTER XI

THE STRANGE CITY

Nick and I stood by the mast on the forward part of the cabin, staring at
the distant, low-lying city, while Xavier sought for the entrance to the
eddy which here runs along the shore. If you did not gain this entrance,
--so he explained,--you were carried by a swift current below New Orleans
and might by no means get back save by the hiring of a crew. Xavier,
however, was not to be caught thus, and presently we were gliding quietly
along the eastern bank, or levee, which held back the river from the
lowlands. Then, as we looked, the levee became an esplanade shaded by
rows of willows, and through them we caught sight of the upper galleries
and low, curving roofs of the city itself. There, cried Xavier, was the
Governor's house on the corner, where the great Miro lived, and beyond it
the house of the Intendant; and then, gliding into an open space between
the keel boats along the bank, stared at by a score of boatmen and idlers
from above, we came to the end of our long journey. No sooner had we
made fast than we were boarded by a shabby customs officer who, when he
had seen our passports, bowed politely and invited us to land. We leaped
ashore, gained the gravelled walk on the levee, and looked about us.

Squalidity first met o