of Pere la Chaise, the famous confessor of Louis XIV. The nephew was
royal commissary under Bienville, and one of the worthiest fathers of the
colony of Louisiana.--TRANSLATOR.
[8] In all likelihood described here as seen by the writer herself later,
on the journey.--TRANSLATOR.




III.

THE EMBARKATION.


You see, my dear child, at that time one post-office served for three
parishes: St. James, St. John the Baptist, and St. Charles. It was very
far from us, at the extremity of St. John the Baptist, and the mail came
there on the first of each month.

We had to pay--though the price was no object--fifty cents postage on a
letter. My father received several journals, mostly European. There was
only one paper, French and Spanish, published in New Orleans--"The
Gazette."[9] To send to the post-office was an affair of state. Our
father, you see, had not time to write; he was obliged to come to us
himself. But such journeys were a matter of course in those days.

"And above all things, my children," said my father, "don't have too much
baggage."

I should not have thought of rebelling; but Suzanne raised loud cries,