Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-02-16

made what is termed s' crevasse" about six 1 miles above, and overfowed the greater DOT. l tion ofthe town should the same thing occur again, the march of the whole place towards the Balize will be much more rapid than a. greeable. The parable of the house built up- cn the sand is literally true, in more than one respect, when applied here.
 1 New-Orleans is better lighted than any of our cities, by means of large lamps with re- | Electors hung in the centre of the streets, at every corner in addition to which it has often 1 been iccd that in warm attitudes the moon and the stars appear to stand out from their 1 magnificent canopy and to shine with a more intense and vived light There are few pub lie buildings ofany note the Catholic Cathe- dral is massive structure, but the humidity of the atmosphere discolers every thing white, and gives an appearance of great antiquity to modernworks. The interior work of the Ca thedral is more solid, than that in the Catholic Church at Baltimore, but its decorations arc not so beautiful.
 The most interesting and amusing resort is the market-housc, in the morning. It is un- doubtedly the spot where Babel stood, and about which there has been so much uncer- tainty. Here are Blacks, Whites, and Vel lows English, Irish, Scotch, French, Spanish, Swiss and Italians Chickasaws, Choctaws, Ottowaws, and all sorts of Aboriginal and An glo Americans; male and females, buying and selling, ,&each speaking his own mothertongue. Black women handling the cleaver with the dexterity of professed butchers; Quartre- unes, with their clean bandanna head-dresses, and a basket of edibies above, steering through the moving mass with the skill of pilots a. meng snags and sawyers; Girls, preparing, over fire of sticks, hot gumbo, of which the negroes partake upon the spot Squaws, each a papoose and load ofbaskets upon her back; i; Men with the dignifed stride of Macready, and blanket fit for Damon in the highest flight of his insanity; Europeans, pedlng every thing that has name, from paper Of pins upwards Slaves or conVicts bound to their labor, each with heavy chain from his ansae to his girdle Fish spread upon palm leaves on the ground, in one place, and the heads of slaughtered cattle piled in another. Everl variety of the dog species,
 Mastif, greyhound, mongrel grim,
 Hound or Spaniel, brach or lynn,
 Or bohtail tike, trnndel tail,
 coursing, yelling, barking and biting. The on- ly distinguishable articulate sounds in this Ba- bel are "un picallion," 0he name by which the siX-and-a-quarter cent piece is known in "the farther West'') "bit, bit," "piastre, |" and some ether denominations of the "root of evil. " Through this heterogeneous mass moves the guard, with his arms akimbo, his sword by his side, apparently as much engaged in his meditations as if he were in the midst of a prairie. In few hours the purchases are made, the wants of the population apparently supplied, and silence takes the place of all this racket and confusion.
 The census gives the city nearly 50,000 in- habitants but it is not mentioned in the papers what proportion are blacks. It must be con siderably more than half. In square com prising most of the business, and therefore the greater portion of those who have neither fla miles nor servants, the total population, ac- cordng to the official return, is, in round num- bers, 2e,0o0 of which 12,o00 are whites, 5000 slaves, and 5000 free blacks There is fraction of about 700, to be divided among the three classes. When the return from the country shall be completed, the whites will appear in frightful minority. On planta- tons where there are not more than five or six adult whites, will be found 300 and 4O0ne- groes. These negroes are generally, at least so far as l had opportunity fer observation, well fed, clothed and housed, and the planters seen to feel and probably do feel, as secure as those from Maryland or Kentucky. Wheth- CT they are actually So or not is problem, and the whole subject is one, which isnot plea sant to contemplate, and in which our inter- ference is both useless and impertinent The planters of this state are so surrounded with many perils ofa natural or physical character, that they have little time to contemplate those of a moral or political nature. The females, especially the children of the natives, marry in very early life they are considered at the age of maturity when they have been tanned by fourteen suns, and at nineteen the damses are " well round the corner" The boys live chiefly at home and learn to make sugar and manage the plantation. It is perhaps a sin gular fact that the males are not in general, so long lived as the females, especially on the banks Of the river.
 The only thing worn by the females here, which bears any relationship to the ribbons and flower shops worn on the heads of the Northern ladies, are the bushel baskets which the negro wenches tote about their thick skulls, and in which they carry about bar rel of -four in the manufactured state. The French ladies promenade during the warm af- ternoons with parasol, ;lnd nothing but thin veil upon their heads-an unfortunate fashion # they are in search of compliments or hus- bands, but very rational and comfortable one, let them seek what they will. Many of the Quatre-une girls need not surrender their pretensons to beauty, to any of the donnas of Spanish or Italian extraction.
 
 HENRy'S COMMENTARIES.