We passed up to the head of the avenue, where men and women were employed in cutting up the light fire-wood which they had brought from the country on their heads, and in binding it into small bundles for sale.

Here we paused a moment and looked down upon the busy multitude below.

The whole street was a moving mass.

There were broad Panama hats, and gaudy turbans, and uncovered heads, and heads laden with water pots, and boxes, and baskets, and trays--all moving and mingling in seemingly inextricable confusion.

There could not have been less than fifteen hundred people congregated in that street--all, or nearly all, emancipated slaves.