FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

Letter 16.
New Orleans, March 3, 1809
[From Jean-Baptiste Florian to his wife, still in England]
Finally, after a long wait, my dearest one, I have just received a moment ago your letter
of last October 4, in which my dear and sweet children also each sent me a word. This
letter must have been at sea a long time, because it appears from the postmark that it did
not leave New York until February 7. I presume that you were late in mailing it in
London and that it didn’t leave until the November packet. Just eight days ago we
received here letters from London dated December 13, so you can judge how desolated I
was not to receive one from you. I hope that my letters don’t suffer the same delays. It is
for this reason that I have written to you from everywhere that I’ve stopped, and in
duplicate, so I flatter myself that you will receive some of them.
That which you tell me about the progress of Virginia [Virginia Josephine Florian (1767-
1881) his second daughter] and Eliza [Elizabeth Florian (1795—aft. 1831), his third
daughter] enchants me. Embrace them a thousand times very tenderly again for me, and
do the same to that little imp of Azelia [Azelia Felicte Florian (1797—1860), his fourth
daughter], to induce her to follow the good example of her sisters.
You are doing right to learn to paint on velvet. Learn also to paint on varnished tables
and wood boxes. All these talents will be very useful to you here for teaching. I have
told you in the preceding letters that there is every reason to hope to succeed in beginning
a school here. <strong>The</strong>se talents will be preciously received. Try also to brush up on the harp
and to know several pretty pieces very well to play before people. And let Laura improve
her singing and dancing, in order to teach in the school. All of this is lacking here. <strong>The</strong>re
are here some teachers of the kind and the ability of those in St. Malo, but everyone loves
[real] talent and wants it [here].
My trip to Atacapas has been delayed several days, Emmanuel having been confined to
his room by rheumatism. His agent was obliged to leave and I am minding the store. I
don’t know what effect the climate [here] will have on me in the future. Up to the
present I have been well and doing better than I ever would have thought. People don’t
believe that I [p 2] am 40 years old, and guess that I am only 25. You can thus judge that
I am in good shape. Really, the climate is delicious here at this season. During the ten
weeks that I have been here there haven’t been three bad days in succession, and good
weather lasts for entire weeks without interruption. I can compare it only to the month of
June in England and even in our country. People wear nauquin [nankin?—a thin, colored
cotton fabric]. In the evenings everyone sits by their doors or on the gallery. <strong>The</strong> moon
gleams in a sky without clouds or mists. <strong>The</strong>re is nothing to disturb the serenity.
We have been eating asparagus for 15 days, and if they [the inhabitants of New Orleans]
wanted to take the trouble to cultivate gardens, they would now have green peas and
strawberries. But you have no idea of the indolence and the negligence of the Creoles.
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