Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/279

Rh not observed the town, which is hidden by a low hill on the side from which we had approached it.

We were welcomed as though we were visitors from heaven. Thronging eagerly around us, the poor colonists besieged us with questions concerning the state of France and the various provinces in which they had been born. They embraced us affectionately, as brothers and as beloved comrades who had come to share the miseries and loneliness of their exile.

We walked with them towards New Orleans; but, as we drew near to it, we were surprised to discover that what had been hitherto cried up to us as a town of no mean proportions, was, in reality, nothing but a collection of a few wretched huts, inhabited by some five or six hundred persons. The Governor's residence was a little distinguished from the others by its superior height and situation. It stood within some earthwork fortifications, around which ran a wide ditch or intrenchment. We were first taken to pay our respects to him. He conferred with the Captain for some time in private, and then, advancing towards us, he carefully scanned the women who had come by our ship, one after another. There were thirty in all; for at Havre we had found another band of them