Litchfield enquirer., 1833-05-09
From Steuoart's Three yea,s in North America" ]"
 NEW-ORLEANS.

New Orleans is situated on the eastern
 bank of the Mississippi, about 100 miles
 from the mouth of the river, on ground
 perfectly flat; and as there are few stee-
 pies, it makes no striking appearance.-
 The whole city is built in the form of a
 paralIelogram, composed of six complete squares called fauxbourgs, which are rap-
 idly increasing. The streets in the old
 city are hardly 40 feet wide. The cathe-
 dral is at the head of a square it is an old
 building, with four towers and massive
 walls, ornamented with figures of saints in
 the nicaes. It is the only public building at all imposing. Public institutions, altho'
 numerous, are built in an unPretending style. There arc very few churches in reference to the population, which is now approaching 10 5O,OOO persons. The
 French Theatre is in the city, and the American one in the suburbs. The houses are chiefly of brick, many of them stucco- ed externally of a white or yellow color.- The doors of many of the houses in the narrow streets open at once into the street itself. The doors are often left open dur ing the day, and curt"ins substituted. The river here, which is above halfa mile broad, is confined by bank of earth or gravel called the levee, which is very requisite, as the streets of New Orleans are few feet lower than the river, so that in walking through them, the hulls of large vessels in the river appear to a passenger land really are) much higher than the pavement on which he is walking. The tide is hardly perceptible at New Orleans. The water of the river is very muddy, but when filter ed is considered wholesome.
 The situation of New O rleans is admira- ble for commercial city. A forest of masts is seen along the levee and the ships, the bank of the river being steep, are easily approached and their cargoes delivered or put on board by means of large wooden platforms. There is no occasion for wharves or piers. The extent of boat navigation from New O Orleans into the in- terior, is greater than that enjoyed by any other city, exceeding 20, 900 miles in length.
 The internal water communication is not only the Mississippi and the other great rivers to the north, but 10 the east as far as Florida, and to the lower parts of Loui- slana. by means of numerous lakes and land-locked seas. There are sometimes 1900 fiat boats lying at the sides of the lc- wee at time; and frequently, at the same moment, 5000 or 5000 boatmen. Steam- boats are arriving every hour. have seen 50 steamboats at one point. No city con- ta'ns greater variety of population. In- habitants from every State in the Union, and from every country in Europe, mixed with the Creoles, and all the shades of the colored population, form an astonishing contrast of manners, languages and com- plexion. Cotton and sugar are the great articles of exportation. The value of the export is said to be nearly 25 millions of dollars. MT. Flint says, '' A hundred miles from the mouth of the Mississippi, and something more than thousand from the mouth of the Ohio, just below sharp point of the river, is situated, on its east bank, the city of New Orleans, the great com mercial capital of the Mississippi valley The position for commercial city is un- rivalled by any one in the world. At proper distance from the gulf of Mexico on the banks of n stream which may be said almost to water a world--but little distance from Lake Ponchartrain, and con- nected with it by navigable canal-the immense alluvion contiguous to it-pene- trated in all directions either by bayous (that is, sluggish creeks or rivers,) formed by nature, or canals costing little more trouble iu the making than ditchcs steam boats visiting it from fifty different shores the immediate agriculture of its own state, the richest in America, and as rich as any in the world, with the con- tinually increasing agriculture of the upper country-its position far exceeds N. York itself It has one dreary drawback-the insalubrity of its situation. Could the im- mense swamps between it and the bluffs (the high grounds) be drained, and the im- provements commenced in the city he com pleted-in short, could the atmosphere be- come dry one, it would soon leave the greatest cities in the Union behind. Great efforts are making towards this result. Un- happily. when the dogAstar rises upon its sky, the yellow fever is but too sure to come in its train. Notwithstanding the an- nual, or at least, the triennial visits of this pestilence-although its bosom sweeps of multitudes of the uDacclimated poor, and compels the rich to fly; notwithstanding the terror that is every where associated with the name of the city, it is rapidly ad- vancing in population. The Americans come hither from all the States. Their s-A Iii