nd to spare. I was not convinced;
I had also some misgivings in regard to the weakness which he had
exhibited, amid danger and death, on the passage through the Caribbean
Sea; and I feared he had contracted a habit which would render any man
unfit for a situation involving great responsibilities, not only in
relation to property but also of life. Nevertheless, I gladly embraced
the opportunity to remain on board for a time. The brig would probably
be several weeks in port, and my future course could be guided by
circumstances.

The moral condition of New Orleans at this period the year 1816-1817
was deplorable. For vice and immorality, it doubtless bore away the
palm from every city in Christendom or heathen lands. Gaming houses, and
vile, disgusting receptacles of vice and infamy, were thickly scattered
over every part of the city. Midnight brawls and robberies were
frequent; and hard-fought fisticuff encounters, sometimes between two
individuals, and sometimes between two squads of half a dozen on-a-side,
were taking place on the levee, or in its neighborhood, almost every
hour in the day.

The population of the city was of the most heterogeneous character.
Frenchman and Spaniards, of all complexions, native-born citizens,
formed the basis. To them were added a thin sprinkling of Yankees,
mostly enterprising business men; and an influx of refugees,
adventurers, smugglers, pirates, gamblers, and desperate scoundrels from
all parts of the world. The large number of ships waiting for freight,
and constantly arriving, furnished a formidable body of sailors, many
of them old men-of-war's men, who, keeping themselves well primed with
whiskey, were always ready for a set-to, a riot, or a row. And if we add
to these the boatmen of the Mississippi, not only those who came down
the river in flatboats, but that numerous class, now extinct, of hardy,
powerful, reckless, quarrelsome fellows who managed the KEELBOATS, the
only craft that could stem the current of the Mississippi before the
introduction of steamboat navigation, it will be easily imagined that
vice struggled hard to exercise full and uncontrolled dominion over the
capital of Louisiana.

Ineffectual efforts were made to repress tumult and establish order.
The police regulations were in a wretched condition. The police officers
were more inclined to look after the blacks than the whites; and the
calaboose was filled every night with unfortunate darkies, who in a
hu