atre of the military operations I am about to relate, and which could not be perfectly understood without these preliminary observations.

The detachment, composed as I have observed, repaired in the night of the 21st December to the post assigned, the fishermen's village, consisting of twelve very large cabins, capable of containing from two hundred to three hundred men, and constructed with stakes, thatched and inclosed with palmetto leaves, on a tongue of land on the left bank of bayou Bienvenu. In these cabins lived about thirty or forty fishermen, almost all Spaniards or Portuguese. From lake Borgne, which being shallow and in their vicinity, afforded them an advantageous fishing ground, they used to convey their fish in pirogues (periaguas) to the extremity of the canal of La Ronde's and Villeré's plantations, from which place it was transported in wagons to town. The owners of those plantations Messrs. Villeré, Lacoste and La Ronde, permitted those fishermen to enjoy the gratuitous use of their canals, and constantly afforded relief to such of those wretches as happened to fall sick; and it will soon appear that in return for the beneficence of those gentlemen, the wretches sold the lives and fortunes of their benefactors.

I have not been able to discover the names of all those fishermen, to consign them to execration and infamy, as I here do the following few who have come to my knowledge.

These are well known to have aided the British in disembarking their troops, serving as pilots on board their vessels and boats, and acting as spies for them from the period of their arrival on our coast, It was their practice, when they came to town to sell their fish, to get all the information they could, for the purpose of carrying it to the English, when they went out to fish in lake Borgne. On the 20th of December, the day preceding the arrival of the detachment at the village, the British captain Peddie had come disguised, accompanied by the three first named of these fishermen, as far as the bank of the Mississippi, and had even tasted its water. It was from his report, after having thus examined the country, that the enemy determined to penetrate by Vil. leré's canal, whose banks at the time afforded firm footing from the landing place in the prairie to the river.

When the detachment arrived at the village, they found only one fisherman, and him sick, all the others having gone the day before, under the pretence of fishing, to serve as pilots to the British barges. A few men were immediately sent into the lake to discover whether the enemy were already arrived, and on their return, a sentinel was posted at some distance in advance of the last cabin, for the rest of the night.

On the 22d by break of day a reconnoitring party of three men was again sent two miles into the lake, and during that whole day, fresh parties were sent out every two hours, to discover whether the enemy were approaching. Towards evening, three men in a pirogue arrived from Chef-Menteur, who had traversed part of the lake without seeing any enemy. That night a sentinel was again posted in advance of the cabins.

AFFAIR OF THE 23d DECEMBER.

SOME time after midnight, the sentinel having heard a noise, called his comrades, who all instantly seized their arms. By the last gleams of the setting moon, they perceived five barges full of men, with some pieces of artillery, ascending the bayou; on which, thinking it would be imprudent to fire, considering the great disproportion of numbers, they retired for concealment behind a cabin. As soon as the five barges had passed this cabin, a party determined to attempt to escape by the lake, and give information of the arrival of the enemy.. With this view, seven men of the detachment had already got into the boat, when one of the barges having perceived them, gave the alarm to the four others, who all made for the boat and became masters of it, before it could be got ready to push off. Only four of those in the boat had time to land, and the remaining three were taken, as were two others on shore; so that of the whole detachment, only four escaped, who ran in different directions into the prairies; and of these four, three

individuals, after having wandered a whole day in the prairies, where the height of the grass hindered them from seeing any way to get out of them, happened to fall into the hands of the enemy, at the very village from which they had fled. One alone, Mr. A. Rey, more persevering, or perhaps more fortunate, after three days of uncommon fatigue, hardships and perils, over trembling prairies, bayous, lagoons, and through cane brakes, arrived at the post of Bertoniere on the road leading from Gentilly to Chef-Menteur.

The enemy having made prisoners of all these men, shut them up in the cabin which they used as their quarters, and placed a guard at the door. What further corroborates the evidence of the communication of the fishermen with the British, is the precaution that had been taken by the only one of them that was at the village with the detachment on the arrival of the enemy, to shut up in a cabin, that same evening, all the dogs in the village, who had kept up an incessant barking, during all the preceding night. But this is not all: the British, through a mistake, shut up one of the fishermen with the detachment, on the morning of the 23d. This man seeing a British officer passing by the cabin, called to him, and on discovering himself to him as one of those whom he had frequently seen aboard British vessels, he was immediately set at liberty.

About an hour afterwards, Mr. Ducros, a native of Louisiana, was taken from among the prisoners in the cabin, and put on board a boat in which was captain Spencer of the navy, with a colonel of infan

try. The boat proceeded to the lake, in which, when they had advanced about a mile, they met the rest of the first division, consisting of about three thousand men in eighty boats. That division was composed of the light brigade formed of the 85th and 95th regiments, captain Lane's rocketeers, one hundred men of the engineer corps, and the 4th regiment, all un. der the command of colonel Thornton.

Captain Spencer announced his prisoner to gene. ral Keane and admiral Cochrane, as one of those taken at the village. The admiral then inquired of Mr. Ducros, what might be the number of the American forces in the city and environs. The answer he received was, that there were from twelve to fifteen thousand men in the city, and from three to four at the English Turn. The admiral then ordered captain Spencer to proceed with all speed with the advanced guard, and to effect a landing at the point agreed on. The division proceeded accordingly, and when it arrived at the village, admiral Cochrane with several other offi cers, went on shore, and the division, under the command of general Keane, proceeded up the bayou, The admiral and the other officers put again to all the prisoners, the questions they had asked Mr. Ducros, and received from all nearly the same answer in consequence of a conversation the evening before, in which they had made the number of troops already arrived, or hourly expected at New Orleans, to amount to eighteen thousand men.

The division arrived at the extremity of Villeré's canal by four in the morning, and soon effected a landing, being almost wholly composed of light