e back-lands of plantations on the river, the value of which
would be increased enormously by the improvements in front of them. So
he eagerly pounced upon all the lands in the neighborhood of the towns
and villages in the State. One of the most brilliant of his feats in
this sphere was the completion of his lines of circumvallation around
the city of New-Orleans. For many years he pursued this object with the
greatest ardor and intensity. Commencing at the upper end of the city,
he stole gradually around through the swamps, purchasing large belts of
land, until at last, a few years before his death, meeting one of his
old friends in the street, he slapped him on the shoulder, and with his
face full of enthusiasm and joy,--exclaimed: 'Congratulate me, my
friend; I have achieved the greatest victory of my life. I have drawn my
lines around the city, and now entirely embrace it in my arms--all for
the glory of God and the good of my race.'

During all this eager pursuit of acres there was never any manifestation
of selfishness or of the ordinary repulsive characteristics of grasping
avarice. It is true, he was exacting, punctual, and opinionated. He
pursued his own course in all matters, but there was no misanthropy or
harshness in his manner or deportment. He rarely gave for charitable or
other purposes, for the reason that he would never sell any property he
acquired, because he said it was not his; that he was only the steward
or agent of God for certain great designs. His agency, however, did not
include a power to sell. Hence he could not be induced by any offer or
consideration to alienate any property he had once acquired. Abstemious
to a fault, withholding himself from all the enjoyments and associations
of the world, he devoted his time to the care of his large estate, to
the suits in which such acquisitions constantly involved him, working
for seventeen hours out of the twenty-four, the greater part of which
labor consisted in writing the necessary documents relating to his
titles, in corresponding with his lawyers and overseers. For the fifty
years of his residence in New-Orleans, he never left the State, and
rarely, if ever, passed beyond the limits of the corporation. It was
well known that he was entirely wrapped up in some grand scheme of
charity, the nature of which, however, was only known to a few lawyers,
with whom he consulted in regard to the legality of his proposed
dispositions, though none of them k