PREFACE.

IF every man's life were closely analyzed, accident, or what seems to be so to human apprehension, and what usually goes by that name, whatever it may really be, would be discovered to act a more conspicuous part and to possess a more controlling influence than preconception, and that volition which proceeds from long meditated design. My writing the history of Louisiana, from the expedition of De Soto in 1539, to the final and complete establishment of the Spanish government in 1769, after a spirited resistance from the French colonists, was owing to an accidental circumstance, which, in the shape of disease, drove me from a seat I had lately obtained in the Senate of the United States, but which, to my intense regret, I had not the good fortune to occupy. Travelling for health, not from free agency, but a slave to compulsion, I dwelt several years in France. In the peculiar state in which my mind

then was, if its attention had not been forcibly diverted from what it brooded over, the anguish under which it sickened, from many causes, would soon have not been endurable. I sought for a remedy: I looked into musty archives-I gathered materials—and subsequently became a historian, or rather a mere pretender to that

name.

Last year, as circumstance or accident would have it, I was invited by the managers of the People's Lyceum to deliver a Lecture before their Society. The invitation was flattering, but came in a most inopportune moment. The Legislature was then in session, and, as Secretary of State, my duties and my daily relations with the members of that honorable body were such as to allow me very little leisure. I could not decline, however, the honor conferred upon me; and with a mind engrossed by other subjects, and with a hurried pen, I wrote the first Lecture, which is now introduced to the reader as the leading one in this volume. It happened to give satisfaction: friends desired its publication their desire was complied with; and in the June and July numbers of De Bow's Commercial Review, the discourse which I had delivered before the People's Lyceum made its appearance. I attached

:

6. H.P.

so little importance to this trifling production, the offspring of an hour's thought, that I was greatly amazed at the encomium it elicited from newspapers, in which it was copied at length, in several parts of the United States.

What! said I to myself, am I an unnatural father, and has my child more merit than I imagined? As I was pondering upon this grave question, the last epidemic took possession of New Orleans by storm. If I ventured into the streets for exercise or occupation, I immediately suffered intolerable annoyance from the stinging darts of Apollo, through the ineffectual texture of my straw hat, and my eyes were greeted with nothing but the sight of dogs, physicians, and hearses. If I remained at home, seeking tranquillity under the protection of the household gods of celibacy, indiscreet visitors would come in, and talk of nothing else but of the dying and the dead. One day I got into a very sinful fit of passion, and summoning up my servant George to my august presence, I said to him, "George, you are a great rascal, are you not?" "Master, I do not know exactly," replied he, scratching his woolly head. "Well, I do know it, George, and I am pleased to give you that wholesome information. But no matter, I forgive you."

"Thank you, master." I deserve no thanks for what I can't help but stop, don't go yet; I have something more to say." "Master," quoth he, "I wish you would make haste, for the milk is on the fire, and I am afraid it will boil over." "Out upon the milk, man, and listen to me with all the might of your African ears." George took an attitude of mixed impatience and resignation, and I continued, with more marked emphasis in my tone, and with increased dignity in my gesticulation, "Did you not lately run away for two months, for what reasonable cause, God only knows; and did you not come back with the face of a whipped dog, telling me that you were satisfied with your experiment of that great blessing, freedom, and that you would not try it any more? Do not hang down your thick head, as if you meant to push it through that big chest of yours; but keep this in mind: if, for a whole week, you allow any human body to cross my threshold, I swear (and you know I always keep my word) that I'll kick you away to the abolitionists. Now vanish from my sight." What impression this order produced on this miserable slave, I do not know, but it was strictly executed.

After I had dismissed my sable attendant, I found myself in the same situation that many people frequently

find themselves in. I did not know what to do with myself. I had neither a wife nor children to quarrel with; and as to servants, I hate scolding them—I reserve that for their betters. As to my books, I thought I had the right to indulge towards them in any of the capricious whims of a lover, and I bent upon their tempting and friendly faces a scowling look of defiance. One thing was settled in my mind ;—I was determined to enjoy the luxury of laziness, and to be, for a while, an indolent, unthinking sort of animal, the good-fornothing child of a southern latitude. So, I thrust my hands into the pockets of my morning-gown, and lounged through every room in my house, staring curiously at every object, as if it had been new to my eyes.

For some time, I amused myself with my small gallery of paintings, and with a variety of trifles, which are the pickings of my travelling days. But alas! with some of them are connected painful recollections of the past; and, much to my regret, I discovered that my soul, which I thought I had buried ten fathoms deep in the abyss of matter, was beginning to predominate again in my mixed nature. I hastily turned my eyes from a contemplation, which had interfered with the much coveted ease of the brute; but, as fate would