CHAPTER TWO.
AN ADVENTURE AMONG THE CREOLES OF NEW ORLEANS.
In the "fall" of 1846 I found myself in the city of New Orleans, filling up one of those pauses that occur between the chapters of an eventful life--doing nothing.

I have said an _eventful_ life.

In the retrospect of ten years, I could not remember as many weeks spent in one place.

I had traversed the continent from north to south, and crossed it from sea to sea.

My foot had pressed the summits of the Andes, and climbed the Cordilleras of the Sierra Madre.