Page 177 (1/2)

We passed on steadily to the northward until reat headith one propellor th, raising, a faint blue looular geological forhts known as "islands", that bound the head of this great bay

Here the land, springing out of the levelreefs, hundreds of feet above the sea

level On the erow ancient and mossy forest trees, as well

as much half-tropic brake in the lower levels Here are wide and rich

acres also, owned as hereditary fees by old proud families, part of

whose wealth comes from their plantations, part from their bay

fisheries, and ular uplifts above the great alluvial plain As of right, here

grow mansion homes, and here is lived life as nearly feudal and as

wholly dignified and cultured as any in any land Ignorant of the

banal word "aristocracy," here, uncounting wealth, unsearching of self

and uncritical of others, siht ar northern scraels

weep for the latter in the co, planter, entleht ht to mean Always, before now, I had approached

his home with joy, as that of an old friend There, I kneould

find horses, guns, dogs, good sport and a simple welco all the cousins of Jean

Lafitte, Monsieur Edouard Hereabouts ran the old causeway by which

the wagon reached the "iht inland

from his schooners hid in the marshes far below Here, too, as is well

known in all the state, was the burying-ground of Jean Lafitte's

treasure-chests: for, though the old adventurer sold silks and

tobaccos and sugars very cheap to the planters and traders, he