oes
and coloured people, and was pretty good. The Governor was also
at the ball, and introduced me to several gentlemen, among
others, a Frenchman, General Garrigues de Flaugeac, who, having
emigrated here from St. Domingo, had married, and given the world
some very handsome daughters. Several of the French families here
settled, and indeed, the most respectable, were emigrants from
that island, who wait for the indemnification due to them, but
without any great hopes of receiving it.

* * * * *

At the masked balls, each paid a dollar for admission. As I
visited it for the second time, I observed, however, many present
by free tickets, and I was told that the company was very much
mixed. The unmasked ladies belonging to good society, sat in the
recesses of the windows, which were higher than the saloon, and
furnished with galleries. There were some masks in character, but
none worthy of remark. Two quarrels took place, which commenced
in the ball-room with blows, and terminated in the vestibule,
with pocket-pistols and kicking, without any interruption from
the police.

On the same evening, what was called a quadroon ball took place.
A quadroon is the child of a mestize mother and a white father,
as a mestize is the child of a mulatto mother and a white father.
The quadroons are almost entirely white: from their skin no one
would detect their origin; nay many of them have as fair a
complexion as many of the haughty Creole females. Such of them as
frequent these balls are free. Formerly they were known by their
black hair and eyes, but at present there are completely fair
quadroon males and females. Still, however, the strongest
prejudice reigns against them on account of their black blood,
and the white ladies maintain, or affect to maintain, the most
violent aversion towards them. Marriage between the white and
coloured population is forbidden by the law of the state. As the
quadroons on their part regard the negroes and mulattoes with
contempt, and will not mix with them, so nothing remains for them
but to be friends, as it is termed, of the white men. The female
quadroon looks upon such an engagement as a matrimonial contract,
though it goes no farther than a formal contract by which the
"friend