w the
city. That this last might be found useful in an attack, was
proved by the landing affected by our army at that point; but
what is the consequence? The invaders arrive upon a piece of
ground, where the most consummate generalship will be of little
If the defenders can but retard their progress--which, by
crowding the Mississippi with armed vessels, may very easily be
done, the labour of a few days will cover the narrow neck with
entrenchments; whilst the opposite bank remaining in their hands,
can at all times gall their enemy with a close and deadly
cannonade. Of wood, as I have already said, or broken ground
which might conceal an advance, there exists not a particle.
Every movement of the assailants must, therefore, be made under
their eyes; and as one flank of their army will be defended by a
morass, and the other by the river, they may bid defiance to all
attempts at turning.

Such are the advantages of New Orleans; and now it is only fair
that I should state its disadvantages: these are owing solely the
climate. From the swamps with which it is surrounded, there
arise, during the summer months, exhalations extremely fatal to
the health of its inhabitants. For some months of the year,
indeed, so deadly are the effects of the atmosphere, that the
garrison is withdrawn, and most of the families retire from their
houses to more genial spots, leaving the town as much deserted as
if it had been visited by a pestilence. Yet, in spite of these
cautions, agues and intermittent fevers abound here at all times.
Nor is it wonderful that the case should be so; for independent
of the vile air which the vicinity of so many putrid swamps
occasions, this country is more liable than perhaps any other to
sudden and severe changes of temperature. A night of keen frost
sufficiently powerful to produce ice a quarter of an inch in
thickness, frequently follows a day of intense heat; whilst heavy
rains and bright sunshine often succeed each other several times
in the course of a few hours. But these changes, as may
supposed, occur only during the winter; the summer being one
continued series of intolerable heat and deadly fog.

LAKE BORGNE.

Of all these circumstances the conductors of the present
expedition were not ignorant. To reduce the forts which command
the navigation of the river was regarded as a task too difficult
to be attempted; and for any ships to pass without their
reduction seemed impossible. Trusti