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and residents. I am glad to learn, that the public gambling houses have recently been put down by laws imposing heavy fines upon the keepers of them. Not a year since, they were in full operation in every street, and as public as the cafés and hotels.

One word here in regard to slavery, as it exists, and as it has impressed me in my present journey. Judging from my experience, and the information I have obtained and it has not been inconsiderable — I am fully of opinion, that in most of the states, their owners are to be pitied rather than the slaves. In some of the states, they cannot be made profitable; in others, where cotton, rice, and sugar are raised, they are profitable; but generally speaking, they are the happiest beings in the world. The negro of the South literally takes no thought for the morrow, what he shall eat, what he shall drink, or wherewithal he shall be clothed. The slave who has a good master, is well fed and clothed, is not required to perform more than two-thirds as much work as a day-laborer at the North, and is in nowise burdened with that care and anxiety about how he shall provide for his wife and family, which the latter feels. Beside, on plantations they are generally allowed to cultivate a little ground, the avails of which they appropriate to the purchase of some little comforts, luxuries, or finery, as they please. In short, they are generally happy and if this be doubted, by those who have never visited the South and South-west, let them journey hitherward, and hear the negroes singing at their work-regaling their humble fancies with some such intellectual bijou as

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Let a northern doubter do this, and I promise him he will change his opinions, as I have. But let me finish my brief outline of this wonder

ful city.

New-Orleans is not, after all, half so bad a place as it is 'cracked up to be. To be sure, day before yesterday, a pirate confined in the 'Calaboose,' who was to have been hung on that day for murder, anticipated the sentence of the law, by stabbing himself with a long knife, which had been secretly conveyed to him; one or two nights since, two individuals got into a brawl in the hotel (Bishop's) at which I am staying, and a pistol was fired by one of them, but happily without injury; and to-day I have witnessed a regular fight between some sailors on the Levée. Yet there is no need of one's getting into these scrapes here, any more than in New-York. For myself, I walk the streets day and night as unconcernedly as in New-York. At eight in the evening, the gens d'arms are summoned to their stations, by the report of cannon, with swords by their sides, and muskets and bayonets in their hands; and as good order prevails as could be expected in a place where there are so many of the lower classes of all nations congregated sailors, boatmen, and negroes. The latter are not suffered to be abroad after eight o'clock, P. M., without a pass,' or permit.

The health of New-Orleans is continually improving. The French and Spanish part of the city has quite an antique appearance: the buildings are low, with projecting balconies and roofs; but there are very many handsome and extensive blocks of stores and dwellings: ma

of the banks are fine edifices; and they are now erecting many buildings of the most superb description; among them are, a new hotel, rivalling Astor's in size and architecture Caldwell's new theatre two Exchanges and a branch of the United States Mint. calculate the destiny of this mighty western mart!

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MARCH 17. This morning I took passage on board a vessel bound to Havana, that was lying in the stream opposite the city, waiting for the steam-boat (which was to convey her to the Balize,) to make up her 'tow.' It chanced to be the Whale,' the same that towed the observing author of the South-west' over the same waters. While we were tarrying, a regular fracas occurred in the cabin of a brig that was rounding to, between two rival news-collectors, which resulted in a legitimate knock-down fight between them; until at last they got on the Levée, and some gens d'arms removed the refractory subjects to the 'Calaboose.'

We made a handsome display, as we swung round, and headed down the river our proud steamer puffing and blowing, with seven vessels, comprising all the different classes, in tow,' and the smoke from her furnaces rolling thick and black high among the white sails and rigging. I ascended to the main-top, to survey the ever-varying scene. We passed the battle-ground, and during the day, numerous sugar plantations, with their charming villa-like residences, surrounded by magnolias, china, orange, and pomegranate trees, with a cluster of twenty or thirty neat white cottages, called 'quarters,' on one side, and in the rear the immense sugar-house, and large out-buildings. As our gallant thing of life' swept onward, leading her majestic fleet, and spreading a path of surge around and behind her, we encountered an enormous tree, more than a hundred feet long, that looked as if it had been on a journey of a thousand miles; doubtless it had. At the Balize, we joined a fleet of vessels of every possible description, and from every quarter of the world some waiting fair seaward winds, others for wind or steam up the river, and others again aground, tarrying for high water, before they could move in any direction - and withal revenue cutters, news and pilot-boats skipping to and fro among them. It was a scene to be long remembered.

Presently the breeze freshened, the vessel moved forth upon her oceanward way, and began to rear and plunge, as the land receded from our view; and I was soon glad to descend from my 'bad eminence' in the main top. We soon passed the distinctly-marked line between the yellow current of the King of Floods, and the green water of (as we supposed) the Gulf of Mexico, being well nigh as different in hue as possible. As I gazed upon the immense volume which the Mississippi pours to the Atlantic, those sublime lines of the poet came to my mind, and I felt the full force of his striking imagery:

"The mighty flood that rolls
Its torrent to the main,
Can ne'er recall its waters lost,
From that abyss again.
So days, and years, and time,
Descending down to night,

Can thenceforth never more return,
Back to the scenes of light.'

I was not a little surprised to find, when about a league beyond the first division to which I have alluded, another dividing line, quite as distinctly marked as the former a change from green to deep blue. We had crossed another of the numerous mouths of that mighty river, and were now in the genuine Gulf waters.

I shall pass over the incidents of my voyage, which were of no pleasant nature, since, for the greater distance, I was under the influence of that heart-destroying malady-sea-sickness. I was at last awakened one morning from a troubled slumber into which I had fallen, by the voice of the watch hailing us from Moro Castle, and in two or three hours we were snugly ensconced in comfortable apartments at a fine hotel in Havana. It was a holiday; the bells of the city were ringing; the flags from the shipping in port, and from all the eminences, were flouting the breeze.' The harbor of Havana is small, and strongly fortified. There are two British ships of war, their masts just above water, near the entrance. On our way to our hotel, we crossed the 'Plaza,' or public square. The Governor's house, and officers' of State, are on one side; on another the Intendant-General, or Master of the Port; and on a third, a superb monument to Columbus, standing on the very spot where the discoverer of the new world first erected his standard, and had mass performed. Behind it, stands a neat chapel, in which are kept the relics of the expedition-the records respecting, and the paintings illustrating and commemorating the event. In the Cathedral, I saw a marble tablet, with a finely sculptured head of Christoval Colon,' underneath which is an appropriate inscription in Spanish. The heart of the world-seeking Genoese,' which once throbbed with such glorious impulses, is buried beneath. A colossal statue of Ferdinand ornaments the centre of the square; the walks are broad and well flagged, and bordered with oranges, and other tropical fruits and I have attended the noble San Domingo Cathedral, surveyed its massive arches, lofty images, and gorgeous appointments, witnessed its imposing ceremonies, and listened to the inspiring music of its choirmusic, however, that is more like that of the opera-house, than sacred melody.

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This afternoon I have been to see the Ponta,' a fortress outside of the walls of the city, where more sublime sounds and sights met my eye and ear—'the sea and the waves roaring,' and the surf dashing wildly against the shore - objects of which I should never tire. There is no gayer scene about Havana, than the 'Paséo,' a pleasure road, a mile or so in length, outside the walls, lined with rows of palm, orange, bread-fruit, and payés - a sort of suburban Broadway, where all the beauty and fashion of the city are to be seen of a fine afternoon, flourishing in their volantés, or playing the pedestrian on the side-walks appropriated to that class of pleasure-seekers. At intervals, are cool fountains, and troops of soldiers, in handsome uniforms, their burnished arms glistening in the sun, who are in attendance for the purpose of keeping the volantés in single lines passing up on one side, and down on the other. A volanté is a vehicle something like our gigs; it has long shafts, and a negro boy, in long jack boots, rides the donkey that draws it. I may remark here, that the productions of the country are brought in, early in the morning, upon mules forty or fifty of them in a string- a rider only mounted upon the forward one, while

the head of each of the others is fastened by a rope to the tail of the one before him. Nothing can be more laughable than this assinine cavalcade, to the unaccustomed eye of a Northener. The oxen are invariably small, but fat and sturdy; and the yoke, instead of pressing against the shoulders, is lashed to their heads directly back of the horns. The Spaniards seem to think that the portion of the animal which is forward of the yoke is so much strength wasted!

The governor of the island, to whom I had letters, and who has treated me with great attention and kindness, rules with as absolute sway as any crowned head, and fortunately for the country, he is fully competent to a proper discharge of the duties of the office which he holds being a man of extraordinary energy, integrity, and determination of purpose. He has within the space of two years effected an entire reformation in every department of the government, and in the public morals; and by his enlightened policy, backed by the immense military force under his control, he has converted a set of desperadoes into most orderly people. Probably no city in the world is under better police regulations than this very Havana, where formerly personal safety was out of the question. There is a standing army of about 15,000 well-disciplined troops. The population of the island is about 800,000, of whom about 300,000 are blacks; that of Havana, within and without the walls, is about 100,000. The exports amount to between seventy-five and eighty millions of dollars per annum, and consist chiefly of coffee, sugar, molasses, tobacco, and fruits. All the tropical trees, plants, and flowers flourish here, and there are some earthly paradises in this vicinity, of which I have visited the Bishop's Garden, Governor's country-house and garden a spot abounding with fountains, sculptures, marine grottoes, and every variety of tropical fruits and flowers. The houses of the city have no glass in them, but the windows are grated with strong bars, giving to the dwellings the aspect of a prison; and, what looks equally odd to a northern observer, the ladies wear no bonnets, but simply a veil. But enough for this present writing.' E.

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HANNAH DUSTAN.

'While they were yet, it may be, about an Hundred and Fifty Miles from the Indian Town, a little before break of Day, when the whole Crew was in a Dead Sleep, one of these Women took up a Resolution to imitate the Action of Jael upon Sisera; and being where she had not her own Life secured by any Law unto her, she thought she was not forbidden by any Law to take away the Life of the Murderers by whom her Child had been Butchered.' COTTON MATHER'S MAGNALIA.

SHORN of her stars, lone midnight broods

O'er winter's sullen sky,

Where through the broad New-England woods
The stormy blast sweeps by;

While from the mountain's jagged walls
The frost-heaved crag in thunder falls,
Far echoing to the night;
Startling the red fox in his den,
The roe-buck in the lowland glen
The cagle on the height.

Yet though no welkin beam the while
Lights up that gloomy scene,
Yon flickering watch-fire's blazing pile
Imparts a lurid sheen;

Where, couched around its genial glow,
Outstretched upon the sheeted snow,
Six forest chieftains lie;

Wrapped in the brown bear's shaggy fold,
Their long knives gleaming keen and cold,
As gleams the serpent's eye.

They heed not now the sullen scowl
Of skies so bleak and drear-

The owl's wild screech, the wolf's hoarse howl,
Fall noteless on their ear:

As there they sleep, toil-worn and grim,
With belted breast and scarry limb,

Red with the fresh scalp's flow;

Won when the white foe's roof-tree fell,
With fiery crash, and fiendish yell,
And shrieks of mortal wo.

And who is she, that shivering form,
So lorn and yet so fair,

Like some spent angel, whom the storm
Has forced to shelter there?

Faint, famished, worn, and ghastly pale,

Her dark locks waving in the gale,

She trembling stands dismayed,

Amid those fierce unfeeling men,
Like fawn that to the panther's den
In evil hour has strayed.

Erewhile she blessed the pilgrim's cot,
With love's sweet smile of joy;
The Eve of his lone exiled lot,
The mother of his boy:

So like his sire in form and air,
When fondly in her wreathed hair
He set the bridal rose;

But now, nor home nor kin to bless,
The captive of the merciless,

She treads the forest snows.

Still slept the ruffian band, nor stirred
Amid those flickering gleams,

Save when as broke some muttered word
Upon their startled dreams,

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