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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Louisiana, by Le Page Du Pratz
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: The History of Louisiana
+       Or Of The Western Parts Of Virginia And Carolina: Containing
+       A Description Of The Countries That Lie On Both Sides Of
+       The River Missisippi
+
+Author: Le Page Du Pratz
+
+Posting Date: February 13, 2015 [EBook #9153]
+Release Date: October, 2005
+First Posted: September 8, 2003
+Last Updated: March 14, 2015
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stan Goodman and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA,
+OR OF THE WESTERN PARTS
+OF VIRGINIA AND CAROLINA:
+
+Containing a DESCRIPTION
+of the Countries
+that lie on both Sides
+of the River Missisippi:
+
+With an ACCOUNT of the
+SETTLEMENTS,
+INHABITANTS,
+SOIL,
+CLIMATE,
+AND
+PRODUCTS.
+
+Translated from the FRENCH
+Of M. LE PAGE Du PRATZ;
+
+With some Notes and Observations
+relating to our Colonies.
+
+
+
+
+Foreword
+
+Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz was a Dutchman, as his birth in Holland
+about 1695 apparently proves. He died in 1775, just where available
+records do not tell us, but the probabilities are that he died in
+France, for it is said he entered the French Army, serving with the
+Dragoons, and saw service in Germany. While there is some speculation
+about all the foregoing, there can be no speculation about the
+statement that on May 25, 1718 he left La Rochelle, France, in one of
+three ships bound for a place called Louisiana.
+
+For M. Le Page tells us about this in a three-volume work he wrote
+called, Histoire de la Louisiane, recognized as the authority to be
+consulted by all who have written on the early history of New Orleans
+and the Louisiana province.
+
+Le Page, who arrived in Louisiana August 25, 1718, three months after
+leaving La Rochelle, spent four months at Dauphin Island before he and
+his men made their way to Bayou St. John where he set up a plantation.
+He had at last reached New Orleans, which he correctly states,
+"existed only in name," and had to occupy an old lodge once used by an
+Acolapissa Indian. The young settler, he was only about 23 at the
+time, after arranging his shelter tells us: "A few days afterwards I
+purchased from a neighbour a native female slave, so as to have a
+woman to cook for us. My slave and I could not speak each other's
+language; but I made myself understood by means of signs." This slave,
+a girl of the Chitimacha tribe, remained with Le Page for years, and
+one draws the inference that she was possessed of a vigorous
+personality, and was not devoid of charm or bravery. Le Page writes
+that when frightened by an alligator approaching his camp fire, he ran
+to the lodge for his gun. However, the Indian girl calmly picked up a
+stick and hammered the 'gator so lustily on its nose that it
+retreated. As Le Page arrived with his gun, ready to shoot "the
+monster," he tells us: "She began to smile, and said many things which
+I did not comprehend, but she made me understand by signs, that there
+was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast."
+
+It is unfortunate, for the purpose of sociological study, that this
+Indian girl appears so infrequently in the many accounts Le Page has
+left us in his highly interesting studies of early Louisiana and its
+original inhabitants. He does not even tell us the Indian girl's name.
+
+We are told that after living on the banks of Bayou St. John for about
+two years, he left for the bluff lands of the Natchez country. His
+Indian girl decided she would go with him, as she had relatives there.
+Hearing of her plan, her old father offered to buy her back from Le
+Page. The Chitimacha girl, however, refused to leave her master,
+whereupon, the Indian father performed a rite of his tribe, which made
+her the ward of the white man--a simple ceremony of joining hands.
+
+Le Page spent eight years among the Natchez and what he wrote about
+them--their lives, their customs, their ceremonials--has been
+acknowledged to be the best and most accurate accounts we have of
+these original inhabitants of Louisiana. He has left us, in his
+splendid history, much information on the other Indian tribes of the
+lower Mississippi River country.
+
+Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz tells us he spent sixteen years in
+Louisiana before returning to France in 1734. They were years well
+spent--to judge by what he wrote.
+
+As it was written and published in the French language, Le Page's
+history proved in many instances to be a tantalizing casket of
+historical treasure that could not be opened by those who had not
+mastered French. The original edition, published in Paris in 1758, a
+score of years after the author landed in New Orleans, was followed in
+1763 by a two-volume edition in English, and eleven years later in
+1774, by a one-volume edition in English, entitled: "The History of
+Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina." The
+texts in the English editions are identical.
+
+Fortunately, early historians who could not read the French edition,
+were now able to read M. Le Page's accounts of his adventures in the
+New World. Unfortunately, especially for present day historians, the
+English editions have become increasingly rare--many libraries do not
+have them on their shelves. Therefore, the present re-publication
+fills a long-felt want.
+
+The English translation, with its added matter, is reproduced exactly
+as it was printed for T. Becket to be sold in his shop at the corner
+of the Adelphi in the Strand, London, 1774. Errors of grammar and
+spelling are not corrected. The only change is the modernizing of the
+old _s_'s which look like _f_'s.
+
+The present edition is really two works in one, for the English
+translation did not include any of the original edition's many
+illustrations. The London books did have two folding maps, one of the
+Louisiana province, the other of the country about the mouths of the
+Mississippi River. Not only are these maps reproduced in the present
+work, but in addition, all the other illustrations, including the rare
+map of New Orleans, appearing in the original French edition, are
+included. These quaint engravings of the birds, the beasts, the
+flowers, the shrubs, the trees, fish, the deer and buffalo hunts, and
+the habits and customs of the Natchez Indians, add much to the value
+of the present re-publication. I have captioned them with present-day
+names of the flora and fauna.
+
+STANLEY CLISBY ARTHUR.
+
+(_Mr. Arthur is a naturalist, historian and writer, and
+executive-director of the Louisiana State Museum.--J. S. W.
+Harmanson, Publisher_.)
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  Preface
+
+  BOOK I.
+    The Transactions of the French in Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Of the first Discovery and Settlement of Louisiana
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the Spaniards
+      at the Assinaïs. His second Journey to Mexico, and Return
+      from thence
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the West-India Company
+      to Louisiana. Arrival and Stay at Cape François.  Arrival
+      at the Isle Dauphine. Description of that Island
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the
+      Places he passed through, as far as New Orleans
+
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      The Author put in Possession of his Territory.  His
+      Resolution to go and settle among the Natchez
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      The Voyage of the Author to Biloxi. Description of that
+      Place. Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two
+      Copper Mines. His Return to the Natchez
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      First War with the Natchez. Cause of the War
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      The Governor surprized the Natchez with seven hundred
+      Men. Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The
+      Author sends upwards of three hundred Simples to the
+      Company
+
+    CHAP. IX.
+      French Settlements, or Posts. Post at Mobile.  The Mouths
+      of the Missisippi. The Situation and Description of New
+      Orleans
+
+    CHAP. X.
+      The Voyages of the French to the Missouris, Canzas, and
+      Padoucas. The Settlements they in vain attempted to make
+      in those Countries; with a Description of an extraordinary
+      Phaenomenon
+
+    CHAP. XI.
+      The War with the Chitimachas. The Conspiracy of the Negroes
+      against the French. Their Execution
+
+    CHAP. XII.
+      The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the French in 1729.
+      Extirpation of the Natchez in 1730
+
+    CHAP. XIII.
+      The War with the Chicasaws. The first Expedition by the
+      River Mobile. The second by the River Missisippi. The War
+      with the Chactaws terminated by the Prudence of M. de
+      Vaudreuil
+
+    CHAP. XIV.
+      Reflections on what gives Occasion to Wars in Louisiana.
+      The Means of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the
+      Manner of coming off with Advantage and little Expence in
+      them
+
+    CHAP. XV.
+      Pensacola taken by Surprize by the French. Retaken by the
+      Spaniards. Again retaken by the French, and demolished
+
+  BOOK II.
+    Of the Country and its Products.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its climate
+
+      Description of the Lower Louisiana, and the Mouths of the
+      Missisippi.
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      The Author's journey in Louisiana, from the Natchez to the
+      River St. Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      The Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the
+      Coast.
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Quality of the Lands above the Fork.  A Quarry of Stone
+      for building.  High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility.
+      West Coast: West Lands: Saltpetre
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      Quality of the Lands of the Red River. Posts of
+      Nachitoches. A Silver Mine. Lands of the Black River
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      A Brook of salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River
+      of the Arkansas. Red-veined Marble: Slate: Plaster.
+      Hunting the Buffalo. The dry Sand-banks in the Missisippi
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      The Lands of the River St. Francis. Mine of Marameg, and
+      other Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone, resembling
+      Porphyry. Lands of the Missouri. The Lands North of the
+      Wabache. The Lands of the Illinois. De La Mothe's Mine,
+      and other Mines
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering,
+      and manufacturing the Commodities that are proper
+      Articles of Commerce. Of the Culture of Maiz, Rice, and
+      other Fruits of the Country. Of the Silk Worm
+
+    CHAP. IX.
+      Of Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, and Saffron
+
+    CHAP. X.
+      Of the Commerce that is, and may be carried on in
+      Louisiana. Of the Commodities which that Province
+      may furnish in Return for those of Europe. Of the
+      Commerce of Louisiana with the Isles
+
+    CHAP. XI.
+      Of the Commerce with the Spaniards. The Commodities
+      they bring to the Colony, if there is a Demand for
+      them. Of such as may be given in Return, and may suit
+      them. Reflections on the Commerce of this Province,
+      and the great Advantages which the State and
+      particular Persons may derive therefrom
+
+    Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana,
+    by M. Dumont.
+
+      I.   Of Tobacco, with the Way of cultivating and curing it
+
+      II.  Of the Way of making Indigo
+
+      III. Of Tar; the Way of making it; and of making it into
+           pitch
+
+      IV.  Of the Mines of Louisiana
+
+    Extract from a late French Writer, concerning the Importance
+    of Louisiana to France
+
+  BOOK III.
+    The Natural History of Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Of Corn and Pulse
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      Of the Fruit Trees of Louisiana
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      Of Forest Trees
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Of Shrubs and Excrescences
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      Of Creeping Plants
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      Of the Quadrupedes
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      Of Birds and flying Insects
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      Of Fishes and Shell-Fish
+
+  BOOK IV.
+    Of the Natives of Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      The Origin of the Americans
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      An Account of the several Nations of Louisiana
+
+
+      SECT. I.
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the Missisippi
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the Missisippi
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      A Description of the Natives of Louisiana; of their
+      Manners and Customs, particularly those of the Natchez:
+      Of their Language, their Religion, Ceremonies, Rulers,
+      or Suns, Feasts, Marriages, &c
+
+      SECT. I.
+        A Description of the Natives; the different Employments
+        of the two Sexes; and their Manner of bringing up their
+        Children
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Language, Government, Religion, Ceremonies, and
+        Feasts of the Natives
+
+      SECT. III.
+        Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks
+
+      SECT. IV.
+        Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious
+        Ceremonies of the People of Louisiana
+
+      SECT. V.
+        Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives
+
+      SECT. VI.
+        Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their
+        Meals and Fastings
+
+      SECT. VII.
+        Of the Indian Art of War
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Of the Negroes of Louisiana
+
+      SECT. I.
+        Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distempers, and the
+        Manner of curing them
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Manner of governing the Negroes
+
+  INDEX
+
+  List of Illustrations
+
+    Indian in Summer Time
+    Indian in Winter Time
+    Indian Woman and Daughter
+    Plan of New Orleans, 1720
+    Beaver, Beaver lodge, Beaver dam
+    Indians of the North Leaving in the Winter with their
+    Families for a Hunt
+    Indigo
+    Cotton and Rice on the Stalk
+    Appalachean Beans. Sweet Potatoes
+    Watermelon
+    Pawpaw. Blue Whortle-berry
+    Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber
+    Cypress
+    Magnolia
+    Sassafras
+    Myrtle Wax Tree. Vinegar Tree
+    Poplar ("Cotton Tree")
+    Black Oak
+    Linden or Bass Tree
+    Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree
+    Cassine or Yapon. Tooth-ache Tree or Prickly Ash
+    Passion Thorn or Honey Locust. Bearded Creeper
+    Palmetto
+    Bramble, Sarsaparilla
+    Rattlesnake Herb
+    Red Dye Plant. Flat Root
+    Panther or Catamount. Bison or Buffalo
+
+    Indian Deer Hunt
+    Wild Cat. Opossum. Skunk
+    Alligator. Rattle Snake. Green Snake
+    Pelican. Wood Stock
+    Flying Squirrel. Roseate Spoonbill. Snowy Heron
+    White Ibis. Tobacco Worm. Cock Roach
+    Cat Fish. Gar Fish. Spoonbill Catfish
+    Indian Buffalo Hunt on Foot
+    Dance of the Natchez Indians
+    Burial of the Stung Serpent
+    Bringing the Pipe of Peace
+    Torture of Prisoners. Plan of Fort
+
+
+
+
+{i}
+
+PREFACE
+
+The History of Louisiana, which we here present to the public, was
+wrote by a planter of sixteen years experience in that country, who
+had likewise the advantage of being overseer or director of the public
+plantations, both when they belonged to the company, and afterwards
+when they fell to the crown; by which means he had the best
+opportunities of knowing the nature of the soil and climate, and what
+they produce, or what improvements they are likely to admit of; a
+thing in which this nation is, without doubt, highly concerned and
+interested. And when our author published this history in 1758, he had
+likewise the advantage, not only of the accounts of F. Charlevoix, and
+others, but of the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published at Paris
+in 1753, by Mr. Dumont, an officer who resided two-and-twenty years in
+the country, and was personally concerned and acquainted with many of
+the transactions in it; from whom we have extracted some passages, to
+render this account more complete.
+
+But whatever opportunities our author had of gaining a knowledge of
+his subject, it must be owned, that he made his accounts of it very
+perplexed. By endeavoring to take in every thing, he descends to many
+trifles; and by dwelling too long on a subject, he comes to render it
+obscure, by being prolix in things which hardly relate to what he
+treats of. He interrupts the thread of his discourse with private
+anecdotes, long harangues, and tedious narrations, which have little
+or no relation to the subject, and are of much less consequence to the
+reader. The want of method and order throughout the whole work is
+still more apparent; and that, joined to these digressions, renders
+his accounts, however just and interesting, so tedious and irksome to
+read, and at the same time so indistinct, that few seem to have reaped
+the benefit of them. For these reasons it was necessary to methodize
+the whole work; to abridge some parts of it; and to leave out many
+things that appear to be trifling. This we have endeavored to do in
+the translation, by reducing the whole work to four general heads or
+books; and {ii} by bringing the several subjects treated of, the
+accounts of which lie scattered up and down in different parts of the
+original, under these their proper heads; so that the connection
+between them, and the accounts of any one subject, may more easily
+appear.
+
+This, it is presumed, will appear to be a subject of no small
+consequence and importance to this nation, especially at this time.
+The countries here treated of, have not only by right always belonged
+to Great-Britain, but part of them is now acknowledged to it by the
+former usurpers: and it is to be hoped, that the nation may now reap
+some advantages from those countries, on which it has expended so many
+millions; which there is no more likely way to do, than by making them
+better known in the first place, and by learning from the experience
+of others, what they do or are likely to produce, that may turn to
+account to the nation.
+
+It has been generally suspected, that this nation has suffered much,
+from the want of a due knowledge of her dominions in America, which we
+should endeavor to prevent for the future. If that may be said of any
+part of America, it certainly may of those countries, which have been
+called by the French Louisiana. They have not only included under that
+name all the western parts of Virginia and Carolina; and thereby
+imagined, that they had, from this nominal title, a just right to
+those antient dominions of the crown of Britain: but what is of worse
+consequence perhaps, they have equally deceived and imposed upon many,
+by the extravagant hopes and unreasonable expectations they had formed
+to themselves, of the vast advantages they were to reap from those
+countries, as soon as they had usurped them; which when they came to
+be disappointed in, they ran from one extreme to another, and
+condemned the country as good for nothing, because it did not answer
+the extravagant hopes they had conceived of it; and we seem to be
+misled by their prejudices, and to be drawn into mistakes by their
+artifice or folly. Because the Missisippi scheme failed in 1719, every
+other reasonable scheme of improving that country, and of reaping any
+advantage from it, must do the same. It is to wipe off these
+prejudices, that the following account of these countries, which
+appears to be both {iii} just and reasonable, and agreeable to every
+thing we know of America, may be the more necessary.
+
+We have been long ago told by F. Charlevoix, from whence it is, that
+many people have formed a contemptible opinion of this country that
+lies on and about the Missisippi. They are misled, says he, by the
+relations of some seafaring people, and others, who are no manner of
+judges of such things, and have never seen any part of the country but
+the coast side, about Mobile, and the mouths of the Mississippi; which
+our author here tells us is as dismal to appearance, the only thing
+those people are capable of judging of, as the interior parts of the
+country, which they never saw, are delightful, fruitful, and inviting.
+They tell us, besides, that the country is unhealthful; because there
+happens to be a marsh at the mouth of the Missisippi, (and what river
+is there without one?) which they imagine must be unhealthful, rather
+than that they know it to be so; not considering, that all the coast
+both of North and South America is the same; and not knowing, that the
+whole continent, above this single part on the coast, is the most
+likely, from its situation, and has been found by all the experience
+that has been had of it, to be the most healthy part of all North
+America in the same climates, as will abundantly appear from the
+following and all other accounts.
+
+To give a general view of those countries, we should consider them as
+they are naturally divided into four parts; 1. The sea coast; 2. The
+Lower Louisiana, or western part of Carolina; 3. The Upper Louisiana,
+or western part of Virginia; and 4, the river Missisippi.
+
+I. The sea coast is the same with all the rest of the coast of North
+America to the southward of New York, and indeed from thence to Mexico,
+as far as we are acquainted with it. It is all a low flat sandy beach,
+and the soil for some twenty or thirty miles distance from the shore,
+more or less, is all a _pine barren_, as it is called, or a sandy
+desart; with few or no good ports or harbours on the coast, especially
+in all those southern parts of America, from Chesapeak bay to Mexico.
+But however barren this coast is in other respects, it is entirely
+covered with tall pines, which afford great store of pitch, tar, and
+turpentine. {iv} These pines likewise make good masts for ships; which I
+have known to last for twenty odd years, when it is well known, that our
+common masts of New England white pine will often decay in three or four
+years. These masts were of that kind that is called the pitch pine, and
+lightwood pine; of which I knew a ship built that ran for sixteen years,
+when her planks of this pine were as sound and rather harder than at
+first, although her oak timbers were rotten. The cypress, of which there
+is such plenty in the swamps on this coast, is reckoned to be equally
+serviceable, if not more so, both for masts (of which it would afford
+the largest of any tree that we know), and for ship building. And ships
+might be built of both these timbers for half the price perhaps of any
+others, both on account of the vast plenty of them, and of their being
+so easily worked.
+
+In most parts of these coasts likewise, especially about the
+Missisippi, there is great plenty of cedars and ever-green oaks; which
+make the best ships of any that are built in North America. And we
+suspect it is of these cedars and the American cypress, that the
+Spaniards build their ships of war at the Havanna. Of these there is
+the greatest plenty, immediately; to the westward of the mouth of the
+Missisippi where "large vessels can go to the lake of the Chetimachas,
+and nothing hinders them to go and cut the finest oaks in the world,
+with which all that coast is covered;" [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. N.
+France, Tom. III. p. 444.] which, moreover, is a sure sign of a very
+good, instead of a bad soil; and accordingly we see the French have
+settled their tobacco plantations thereabouts. It is not without
+reason then, that our author tells us, the largest navies might be
+built in that country at a very small expence.
+
+From this it appears, that even the sea coast, barren as it is, from
+which the whole country has been so much depreciated, is not without
+its advantages, and those peculiarly adapted to a trading and maritime
+nation. Had these sandy desarts indeed been in such a climate as
+Canada, they would have been of as little value, as many would make
+them here. It might be difficult indeed to settle colonies merely for
+these or any other {v} productions of those poor lands: but to the
+westward of the Missisippi, the coast is much more fruitful all along
+the bay of Mexico; being watered with a great number of rivers, the
+banks of which are very fertile, and are covered with forests of the
+tallest oaks, &c. as far as to New Mexico, a thing not to be seen any
+where else on these coasts. The coast alone will supply all the
+products of North America, and is as convenient to navigation as any
+part of it, without going nigh the Missisippi; so that it is with good
+reason our author says, "That country promises great riches to such as
+shall inhabit it, from the excellent quality of its lands," [Footnote:
+See p. 163.] in such a climate.
+
+These are the productions of the dry (we cannot call them high)
+grounds: the swamps, with which this coast abounds, are still more
+fruitful, and abundantly compensate the avidity and barrenness of the
+soil around them. They bear rice in such plenty, especially the marsh
+about New Orleans, "That the inhabitants reap the greatest advantage
+from it, and reckon it the manna of the land." [Footnote: _Dumont_,
+I. 15.] It was such marshes on the Nile, in the same climate, that were
+the granary of the Roman empire. And from a few such marshes in
+Carolina, not to be compared to those on the Missisippi, either in
+extent or fertility, Britain receives at least two or three hundred
+thousand pounds a year, and might vend twice that value of their
+products.
+
+But however barren or noxious these low lands on the sea coast may be,
+they extend but a little way about the Missisippi, not above thirty or
+forty miles in a straight line, on the east side of that river, and
+about twice as far on the west side; in which last, the lands are, in
+recompence, much more fruitful. To follow the course of the river
+indeed, which runs very obliquely south-east and north-west, as well
+as crooked, they reckon it eighty-two leagues from the mouth of the
+river to the Cut-Point, where the high lands begin.
+
+II. By the Lower Louisiana, our author means only the Delta of the
+Missisippi, or the drowned lands made by the overflowing of the river.
+But we may more properly give {vi} that appellation to the whole
+country, from the low and flat sea coast above described, to the
+mountains, which begin about the latitude 35°, a little above the
+river St. Francis; that is, five degrees of latitude, or three hundred
+and fifty statute miles from the coast; which they reckon to be six
+hundred and sixty miles up the Missisippi. About that latitude a
+continued ridge of mountains runs westward from the Apalachean
+mountains nigh to the banks of the Missisippi, which are thereabouts
+very high, at what we have called the Chicasaw Cliffs. Opposite to
+these on the west side of the Missisippi, the country is mountainous,
+and continues to be so here and there, as far as we have any accounts
+of it, westward to the mountains of New Mexico; which run in a chain
+of continued ridges from north to south, and are reckoned to divide
+that country from Louisiana, about 900 miles west from the Missisippi.
+
+This is one entire level champaign country; the part of which that
+lies west of the Missisippi is 900 miles (of sixty to a degree) by
+300, and contains 270,000 square miles, as much as both France and
+Spain put together. This country lies in the latitude of those
+fruitful regions of Barbary, Syria, Persia, India, and the middle of
+China, and is alone sufficient to supply the world with all the
+products of North America. It is very fertile in every thing, both in
+lands and metals, by all the accounts we have of it; and is watered by
+several large navigable rivers, that spread over the whole country
+from the Missisippi to New Mexico; besides several smaller rivers on
+the coast west of the Missisippi, that fall into the bay of Mexico; of
+which we have no good accounts, if it be not that Mr. Coxe tells us of
+one, the river of the Cenis, which, he says, "is broad, deep, and
+navigable almost to its heads, which chiefly proceed from the ridge of
+hills that separate this province from New Mexico," [Footnote:
+Description of Carolina, p. 37] and runs through the rich and
+fertile country on the coast above mentioned.
+
+The western part of this country is more fertile, says our author,
+than that on the east side of the Missisippi; in which part, however,
+says he, the lands are very fertile, with a rich {vii} black mould
+three feet deep in the hills, and much deeper in the bottoms, with a
+strong clayey foundation. Reeds and canes even grow upon the hill
+sides; which, with the oaks, walnuts, tulip-trees, &c. are a sure sign
+of a good and rich soil. And all along the Missisippi on both sides,
+Dumont tells, "The lands, which are all free from inundations, are
+excellent for culture, particularly those about Baton Rouge,
+Cut-Point, Arkansas, Natchez, and Yasous, which produce Indian corn,
+tobacco, indigo, &c. and all kinds of provisions and esculent plants,
+with little or no care or labour, and almost without culture; the soil
+being in all those places a black mould of an excellent quality."
+[Footnote: Memoires, I. 16.]
+
+These accounts are confirmed by our own people, who were sent by the
+government of Virginia in 1742, to view these the western parts of
+that province; and although they only went down the Ohio and
+Missisippi to New Orleans, they reported, that "they saw more good
+land on the Missisippi, and its many large branches, than they judge
+is in all the English colonies, as far as they are inhabited;" as
+appears from the report of that government to the board of trade.
+
+What makes this fertile country more eligible and valuable, is, that
+it appears both from its situation, and from the experience the French
+have had of it, [Footnote: See p. 120, 121.] to be by far the most
+healthful of any in all these southern parts of North America; a thing
+of the last consequence in settling colonies, especially in those
+southern parts of America, which are in general very unhealthful. All
+the sea coasts of our colonies, to the southward of Chesapeak bay, or
+even of New-York, are low and flat, marshy and swampy, and very
+unhealthful on that account and those on and about the bay of Mexico,
+and in Florida, are withal excessively hot and intemperate, so that
+white people are unfit for labour in them; by which all our southern
+colonies, which alone promise to be of any great advantage to the
+nation, are so thin of people, that we have but 25,000 white people in
+all South Carolina. [Footnote: Description of South Carolina. by----,
+p. 30.] But those lands on the Missisippi are, on {viii} the
+contrary, high, dry, hilly, and in some places mountainous at no great
+distance from the river, besides the ridges of the Apalachean
+mountains above mentioned, that lie to the northward of them; which
+must greatly refresh and cool the air all over the country, especially
+in comparison of what it is on the low and flat, sandy and parched sea
+coasts of our present colonies. These high lands begin immediately
+above the Delta, or drowned lands, at the mouth of the Missisippi;
+above which the banks of that river are from one hundred to two
+hundred feet high, without any marshes about them; and continue such
+for nine hundred miles to the river Ohio, especially on the east side
+of the river. [Footnote: See p. 158]
+
+Such a situation on rich and fertile lands in that climate, and on a
+navigable river, must appear to be of the utmost consequence. It is only
+from the rich lands on the river sides (which indeed are the only lands
+that can generally be called rich in all countries, and especially in
+North America), that this nation reaps any thing of value from all the
+colonies it has in that part of the world. But "rich lands on river
+sides in hot climates are extremely unhealthful," says a very good judge,
+[Footnote: _Arbuthnot_ on Air. _App_.] and we have often found to our
+cost. How ought we then to value such rich and healthful countries on
+the Missisippi? As much surely as some would depreciate and vilify them.
+It may be observed, that all the countries in America are only populous
+in the inland parts, and generally at a distance from navigation; as the
+sea coasts both of North and South America are generally low, damp,
+excessively hot, and unhealthful; at least in all the southern parts,
+from which alone we can expect any considerable returns. Instances of
+this may be seen in the adjacent provinces of Mexico, New Mexico, Terra
+Firma, Peru, Quito, etc. and far more in our southern colonies, which
+never became populous, till the people removed to the inland parts, at a
+distance from the sea. This we are in a manner prevented to do in our
+colonies, by the mountains which surround us, and confine us to the
+coast; whereas on the Missisippi the whole continent is open to them,
+and they have, besides, this healthy {ix} situation on the lower parts
+of that river, at a small distance from the sea.
+
+If those things are duly considered, it will appear, that they who are
+possessed of the Missisippi, will in time command that continent; and
+that we shall be confined on the sea coasts of our colonies, to that
+unhealthful situation, which many would persuade us is so much to be
+dreaded on the Missisippi. It is by this means that we have so very few
+people in all our southern colonies; and have not been able to get in
+one hundred years above twenty-five thousand people in South Carolina;
+when the French has not less than eighty or ninety thousand in Canada,
+besides ten or twelve thousand on the Missisippi, to oppose to them. The
+low and drowned lands, indeed, about the mouth of the Missisippi must no
+doubt be more or less unhealthful; but they are far from being so very
+pernicious as many represent them. The waters there are fresh, which we
+know, by manifold experience in America, are much less prejudicial to
+health than the offensive fetid marshes, that are to be found every
+where else on the salt waters. Accordingly we are credibly informed,
+that some of the inhabitants of New Orleans say, they never enjoyed
+better health even in France; and for that reason they invite their
+countrymen, in their letters to them, we are told, to come and partake
+of the salutary benefits of that delightful country. The clearing,
+draining, and cultivating of those low lands, must make a very great
+change upon them, from the accounts we have had of them in their rude
+and uncultivated state.
+
+III. The Upper Louisiana we call that part of the continent, which
+lies to the northward of the mountains above mentioned in latitude
+35°. This country is in many places hilly and mountainous for which
+reason we cannot expect it to be so fertile as the plains below it.
+But those hills on the west side of the Missisippi are generally
+suspected to contain mines, as well as the mountains of New Mexico, of
+which they are a continuation. But the fertile plains of Louisiana are
+perhaps more valuable than all the mines of Mexico; which there would
+be no doubt of, if they were duly cultivated. They will breed and
+maintain ten times as many people, and supply them with {x} many more
+necessaries, and articles of trade and navigation, than the richest
+mines of Peru.
+
+The most important place in this country, and perhaps in all North
+America, is at the Forks of the Missisippi, where the Ohio falls into
+that river; which, like another ocean, is the general receptacle of
+all the rivers that water the interior parts of that vast continent.
+Here those large and navigable rivers, the Ohio, river of the
+Cherokees, Wabache, Illinois, Missouri, and Missisippi, besides many
+others, which spread over that whole continent, from the Apalachean
+mountains to the mountains of New Mexico, upwards of one thousand
+miles, both north, south, east, and west, all meet together at this
+spot; and that in the best climate, and one of the most fruitful
+countries of any in all that part of the world, in the latitude 37°,
+the latitude of the Capes of Virginia, and of Santa Fe, the capital of
+New Mexico. By that means there is a convenient navigation to this
+place from our present settlements to New Mexico; and from all the
+inland parts of North America, farther than we are acquainted with it:
+and all the natives of that continent, those old friends and allies of
+the French, have by that means a free and ready access to this place;
+nigh to which the French formed a settlement, to secure their interest
+on the frontiers of all our southern colonies. In short this place is
+the centre of that vast continent, and of all the nations in it, and
+seems to be intended by nature to command them both; for which reason
+it ought no longer to be neglected by Britain. As soon as we pass the
+Apalachean mountains, this seems to be the most proper place to settle
+at; and was pitched upon for that purpose, by those who were the best
+acquainted with those countries, and the proper places of making
+settlements in them, of any we know. And if the settlements at this
+place had been made, as they were proposed, about twenty years ago,
+they might have prevented, or at least frustrated, the late attempts
+to wrest that country, and the territories of the Ohio, out of the
+hands of the English; and they may do the same again.
+
+But many will tell us, that those inland parts of North America will
+be of no use to Britain, on account of their distance {xi} from the
+sea, and inconvenience to navigation. That indeed might be said of the
+parts which lie immediately beyond the mountains, as the country of
+the Cherokees, and Ohio Indians about Pitsburg, the only countries
+thereabouts that we can extend our settlements to; which are so
+inconvenient to navigation, that nothing can be brought from them
+across the mountains, at least none of those gross commodities, which
+are the staple of North America; and they are as inconvenient to have
+any thing carried from them, nigh two thousand miles, down the river
+Ohio, and then by the Missisippi. For that reason those countries,
+which we look upon to be the most convenient, are the most
+inconvenient to us of any, although they join upon our present
+settlements. It is for these reasons, that the first settlements we
+make beyond the mountains, that is, beyond those we are now possessed
+of, should be upon the Missisippi, as we have said, convenient to the
+navigation of that river; and in time those new settlements may come
+to join to our present plantations; and we may by that means reap the
+benefit of all those inland parts of North America, by means of the
+navigation of the Missisippi, which will be secured by this post at
+the Forks. If that is not done, we cannot see how any of those inland
+parts of America, and the territories of the Ohio, which were the
+great objects of the present war, can ever be of any use to Britain,
+as the inhabitants of all those countries can otherwise have little or
+no correspondence with it.
+
+IV. This famous river, the Missisippi, is navigable upwards of two
+thousand miles, to the falls of St. Anthony in latitude 45°, the only
+fall we know in it, which is 16 degrees of latitude above its mouth;
+and even above that fall, our author tells us, there is thirty fathom
+of water in the river, with a proportionate breadth. About one
+thousand miles from its mouth it receives the river Ohio, which is
+navigable one thousand miles farther, some say one thousand five
+hundred, nigh to its source, not far from Lake Ontario in New York; in
+all which space there is but one fall or rapide in the Ohio, and that
+navigable both up and down, at least in canoes. This fall is three
+hundred miles from the Missisippi, and one thousand three hundred from
+the sea, with five fathom of water up to {xii} it. The other large
+branches of the Ohio, the river of the Cherokees, and the Wabache,
+afford a like navigation, from lake Erie in the north to the Cherokees
+in the south, and from thence to the bay of Mexico, by the Missisippi:
+not to mention the great river Missouri, which runs to the north-west
+parts of New Mexico, much farther than we have any good accounts of
+that continent. From this it appears, that the Missouri affords the
+most extensive navigation of any river we know; so that it may justly
+be compared to an inland sea, which spreads over nine tenths of all
+the continent of North America; all which the French pretended to lay
+claim to, for no other reason but because they were possessed of a
+paltry settlement at the mouth of this river.
+
+If those things are considered, the importance of the navigation of
+the Missisippi, and of a port at the mouth of it, will abundantly
+appear. Whatever that navigation is, good or bad, it is the only one
+for all the interior parts of North America, which are as large as a
+great part of Europe; no part of which can be of any service to
+Britain, without the navigation of the Missisippi, and settlements
+upon it. It is not without reason then, that we say, whoever are
+possessed of this river, and of the vast tracts of fertile lands upon
+it, must in time command that continent, and the trade of it, as well
+as all the natives in it, by the supplies which this navigation will
+enable them to furnish those people. By those means, if the French, or
+any others, are left in possession of the Missisippi, while we neglect
+it, they must command all that continent beyond the Apalachean
+mountains, and disturb our settlements much more than ever they did,
+or were able to do; the very thing they engaged in this war to
+accomplish, and we to prevent.
+
+The Missisippi indeed is rapid for twelve hundred miles, as far as to
+the Missouri, which makes it difficult to go up the river by water.
+For that reason the French have been used to quit the Missisippi at
+the river St. Francis, from which they have a nigher way to the Forks
+of the Missisippi by land. But however difficult it may be to ascend
+the river, it is, notwithstanding often done; and its rapidity
+facilitates a descent upon it, and a ready conveyance for those gross
+commodities, which {xiii} are the chief staple of North America, from
+the most remote places of the continent above mentioned: and as for
+lighter European goods, they are more easily carried by land, as our
+Indian traders do, over great part of the continent, on their horses,
+of which this country abounds with great plenty.
+
+The worst part of the navigation, as well as of the country, is
+reckoned to be at the mouth of the river; which, however, our author
+tells us, is from seventeen to eighteen feet deep, and will admit
+ships of five hundred tons, the largest generally used in the
+plantation trade. And even this navigation might be easily mended, not
+only by clearing the river of a narrow bar in the passes, which our
+author, Charlevoix, and others, think might be easily done; but
+likewise by means of a bay described by Mr. Coxe, from the actual
+survey of his people, lying to the westward of the south pass of the
+river; which, he says, has from twenty-five to six fathom water in it,
+close to the shore, and not above a mile from the Missisippi, above
+all the shoals and difficult passes in it, and where the river has one
+hundred feet of water. By cutting through that one mile then, it would
+appear that a port might be made there for ships of any burden; the
+importance of which is evident, from its commanding all the inland
+parts of North America on one side, and the pass from Mexico on the
+other; so as to be preferable in these respects even to the Havanna;
+not to mention that it is fresh water, and free from worms, which
+destroy all the ships in those parts.
+
+And as for the navigation from the Missisippi to Europe, our author
+shews that voyage may be performed in six weeks; which is as short a
+time as our ships generally take to go to and from our colonies. They
+go to the Missisippi with the trade winds, and return with the
+currents.
+
+It would lead us beyond the bounds of a preface, to shew the many
+advantages of those lands on the Missisippi to Britain, or the
+necessity of possessing them. That would require a treatise by itself,
+of which we can only give a few abstracts in this place. For this
+purpose we should compare those lands with our present colonies; and
+should be well informed of the quantity and condition of the lands we
+already possess, before {xiv} we can form any just judgement of what
+may be farther proper or requisite.
+
+Our present possessions in North America between the sea and the
+mountains appear, from many surveys and actual mensurations, as well
+as from all the maps and other accounts we have of them, to be at a
+medium about three degrees of longitude, or one hundred and forty
+miles broad, in a straight line; and they extend from Georgia, in
+latitude 32°, to the bay of Fundi, in latitude 45° (which is much
+farther both north and south, than the lands appear to be of any great
+value); which makes 13 degrees difference of latitude, or 780 miles:
+this length multiplied by the breadth 140, makes 109,200 square
+miles., This is not above as much land as is contained in Britain and
+Ireland; which, by Templeman's Survey, make 105,634 square miles.
+Instead of being as large as a great part of Europe then, as we are
+commonly told, all the lands we possess in North America, between the
+sea and mountains, do not amount to much more than these two islands.
+This appears farther, from the particular surveys of each of our
+colonies, as well as from this general estimate of the whole.
+
+Of these lands which we thus possess, both the northern and southern
+parts are very poor and barren, and produce little or nothing, at
+least for Britain. It is only in our middle plantations, Virginia,
+Maryland, and Carolina, that the lands produce any staple commodity
+for Britain, or that appear to be fit for that purpose. In short, it
+is only the more rich and fertile lands on and about Chesapeak bay,
+with a few swamps in Carolina, like the lands on the Missisippi, that
+turn to any great account to this nation in all North America, or that
+are ever likely to do it. This makes the quantity of lands that
+produce any staple commodity for Britain in North America incredibly
+small, and vastly less than what is commonly imagined. It is reckoned,
+that there are more such lands in Virginia, than in all the rest of
+our colonies; and yet it appeared from the public records, about
+twenty-five years ago, that there was not above as much land patented
+in that colony, which is at the same time the oldest of any in all
+North America, than is in the county of Yorkshire, in England, to-wit,
+{xv} 4684 square miles; although the country was then settled to the
+mountains.
+
+If we examine all our other colonies, there will appear to be as great
+a scarcity and want of good lands in them, at least to answer the
+great end of colonies, the making of a staple commodity for Britain.
+In short, our colonies are already settled to the mountains, and have
+no lands, either to extend their settlements, as they increase and
+multiply; to keep up their plantations of staple commodities for
+Britain; or to enlarge the British dominions by the number of
+foreigners that remove to them; till they pass those mountains, and
+settle on the Missisippi.
+
+This scarcity of land in our colonies proceeds from the mountains,
+with which they are surrounded, and by which they are confined to this
+narrow tract, and a low vale, along the sea side. The breadth of the
+continent from the Atlantic ocean to the Missisippi, appears to be
+about 600 miles (of 60 to a degree) of which there is about 140 at a
+medium, or 150 at most, that lies between the sea and mountains: and
+there is such another, and rather more fertile tract of level and
+improveable lands, about the same breadth, between the western parts
+of those mountains and the Missisippi: so that the mountainous country
+which lies between these two, is equal to them both, and makes one
+half of all the lands between the Missisippi and Atlantic ocean; if we
+except a small tract of a level champaign country upon the heads of
+the Ohio, which is possessed by the Six Nations, and their dependents.
+These mountainous and barren desarts, which lie immediately beyond our
+present settlements, are not only unfit for culture themselves, and so
+inconvenient to navigation, whether to the ocean, or to the
+Missisippi, that little or no use can be made of them; but they
+likewise preclude us from any access to those more fertile lands that
+lie beyond them, which would otherwise have been occupied long ago,
+but never can be settled, so at least as to turn to any account to
+Britain, without the possession and navigation of the Missisippi;
+which is, as it were, the sea of all the inland parts of North America
+beyond the Apalachean mountains, without which those inland parts of
+that continent can never turn to any account to this nation.
+
+{xvi} It is this our situation in North America, that renders all that
+continent beyond our present settlements of little or no use, at least
+to Britain; and makes the possession of the Missisippi absolutely
+necessary to reap the benefit of it. We possess but a fourth part of
+the continent between that river and the ocean; and but a tenth part
+of what lies east of Mexico; and can never enjoy any great advantages
+from any more of it, till we settle on the Missisippi.
+
+How necessary such settlements on the Missisippi may be, will farther
+appear from what we possess on this side of it. The lands in North
+America are in general but very poor or barren; and if any of them are
+more fertile, the soil is light and shallow, and soon worn out with
+culture. It is only the virgin fertility of fresh lands, such as those
+on the Missisippi, that makes the lands in North America appear to be
+fruitful, or that renders them of any great value to this nation. But
+such lands in our colonies, that have hitherto produced their staple
+commodities for Britain, are now exhausted and worn out, and we meet
+with none such on this side of the Missisippi. But when their lands
+are worn out, neither the value of their commodities, nor the
+circumstances of the planters, will admit of manuring them, at least
+to any great advantage to this nation.
+
+The staple commodities of North America are so gross and bulky, and of
+so small value, that it generally takes one half of them to pay the
+freight and other charges in sending them to Britain; so that unless
+our planters have some advantage in making them, such as cheap, rich,
+and fresh lands, they never can make any; their returns to Britain are
+then neglected, and the trade is gained by others who have these
+advantages; such as those who may be possessed of the Missisippi, or
+by the Germans, Russians, Turks, &c. who have plenty of lands, and
+labour cheap: by which means they make more of our staple of North
+America, tobacco, than we do ourselves; while we cannot make their
+staple of hemp, flax, iron, pot-ash, &c. By that means our people are
+obliged to interfere with their mother country, for want of the use of
+those lands of which there is such plenty in North America, to produce
+these commodities that are so much wanted from thence.
+
+{xvii} The consequences of this may be much more prejudicial to this
+nation, than is commonly apprehended. This trade of North America,
+whatever may be the income from it, consists in those gross and bulky
+commodities that are the chief and principal sources of navigation;
+which maintain whole countries to make them, whole fleets to transport
+them, and numbers of people to manufacture them at home; on which
+accounts this trade is more profitable to a nation, than the mines of
+Mexico or Peru. If we compare this with other branches of trade, as
+the sugar trade, or even the fishery, it will appear to be by far the
+most profitable to the nation, whatever those others may be to a few
+individuals. We set a great value on the fishery, in which we do not
+employ a third part of the seamen that we do in the plantation trade
+of North America; and the same may be said of the sugar trade. The
+tobacco trade alone employs more seamen in Britain, than either the
+fishery, or sugar trade; [Footnote: By the best accounts we have, there
+were 4000 seamen employed in the tobacco trade, in the year 1733, when
+the inspection on tobacco passed into a law; and we may perhaps reckon
+them now 4500, although some reckon them less.
+
+By the same accounts, taken by the custom-house officers, it appeared,
+that the number of British ships employed in all America, including
+the fishery, were 1400, with 17,000 seamen; besides 9000 or 10,000
+seamen belonging to North-America, who are all ready to enter into the
+service of Britain on, any emergency or encouragement.
+
+Of these there were but 4000 seamen employed in the fishery from
+Britain; and about as many, or 3600, in the sugar trade.
+
+The French, on the other hand, employ upwards of 20,000 seamen in the
+fishery, and many more than we do in the sugar trade.
+
+In short, the plantation trade of North America is to Britain, what
+the fishery is to France, the great nursery of seamen, which may be
+much improved. It is for this reason that we have always thought this
+nation ought, for its safety, to enjoy an exclusive right to the one
+or the other of these at least.] and brings in more money to the
+nation than all the products of America perhaps put together.
+
+But those gross commodities that afford these sources of navigation,
+however valuable they may be to the public, and to this nation in
+particular, are far from being so to individuals: they are cheap, and
+of small value, either to make, or to trade {xviii} in them; and for
+that reason they are neglected by private people, who never think of
+making them, unless the public takes care to give them all due
+encouragement, and to set them about those employments; for which
+purpose good and proper lands, such as those on the Missisippi, are
+absolutely necessary, without which nothing can be done.
+
+The many advantages of such lands that produce a staple for Britain,
+in North America, are not to be told. The whole interest of the nation
+in those colonies depends upon them, if not the colonies themselves.
+Such lands alone enable the colonies to take their manufactures and
+other necessaries from Britain, to the mutual advantage of both. And
+how necessary that may be will appear from the state of those colonies
+in North America, which do not make, one with another, as much as is
+sufficient to supply them only with the necessary article of
+cloathing; not to mention the many other things they want and take
+from Britain; and even how they pay for that is more than any man can
+tell. In short, it would appear that our colonies in North America
+cannot subsist much longer, if at all, in a state of dependence for
+all their manufactures and other necessaries, unless they are provided
+with other lands that may enable them to purchase them; and where they
+will find any such lands, but upon the Missisippi, is more than we can
+tell. When their lands are worn out, are poor and barren, or in an
+improper climate or situation, or that they will produce nothing to
+send to Britain, such lands can only be converted into corn and
+pasture grounds; and the people in our colonies are thereby
+necessarily obliged, for a bare subsistence, to interfere with
+Britain, not only in manufactures, but in the very produce of their
+lands.
+
+By this we may perceive the absurdity of the popular outcry, that we
+have already _land enough_, and more than we can make use of in North
+America. They who may be of that opinion should shew us, where that
+land is to be found, and what it will produce, that may turn to any
+account to the nation. Those people derive their opinion from what
+they see in Europe, where the quantity of land that we possess in
+North America, will, no doubt, maintain a greater number of people
+than we have there. But they should consider, that those people in
+{xix} Europe are not maintained by the planting of a bare raw
+commodity, with such immense charges upon it, but by farming,
+manufactures, trade, and commerce; which they will soon reduce our
+colonies to, who would confine them to their present settlements,
+between the sea coast and the mountains that surround them.
+
+Some of our colonies perhaps may imagine they cannot subsist without
+these employments; which indeed would appear to be the case in their
+present state: but that seems to be as contrary to their true
+interest, as it is to their condition of British colonies. They have
+neither skill, materials, nor any other conveniences to make
+manufactures; whereas their lands require only culture to produce a
+staple commodity, providing they are possessed of such as are fit for
+that purpose. Manufactures are the produce of labour, which is both
+scarce and dear among them; whereas lands are, or may, and should be
+made, both cheap and in plenty; by which they may always reap much
+greater profits from the one than the other. That is, moreover, a
+certain pledge for the allegiance and dependance of the colonies; and
+at the same time makes their dependance to become their interest. It
+has been found by frequent experience, that the making of a staple
+commodity for Britain, is more profitable than manufactures, providing
+they have good lands to work.
+
+It were to be wished indeed, that we could support our interest in
+America, and those sources of navigation, by countries that were more
+convenient to it, than those on the Missisippi. But that, we fear, is
+not to be done, however it may be desired. We wish we could say as much
+of the lands in Florida, and on the bay of Mexico, as of those on the
+Missisippi: but they are not to be compared to these, by all accounts,
+however convenient they may be in other respects to navigation. In all
+those southern and maritime parts of that continent the lands are in
+general but very poor and mean, being little more than _pine barrens_,
+or _sandy desarts_. The climate is at the same time so intemperate, that
+white people are in a great measure unfit for labour in it, as much as
+they are in the islands; this obliges them to make use of slaves, which
+are now become so dear, that it is to be doubted, whether all the
+produce {xx} of those lands will enable the proprietors of them to
+purchase slaves, or any other labourers; without which they can turn to
+little or no account to the nation, and those countries can support but
+very few people, if it were only to protect and defend them.
+
+The most convenient part of those countries seems to be about Mobile
+and Pensacola; which are, as it were, an entrepot between our present
+settlements and the Missisippi, and safe station for our ships. But it
+is a pity that the lands about them are the most barren, and the
+climate the most intemperate, by all accounts, of any perhaps in all
+America. [Footnote: See page 49, 111, &c. _Charlevoix_ Hist. N. France,
+Tom. III. 484. _Laval, infra_, &c.] And our author tells us, the lands
+are not much better even on the river of Mobile; which is but a very
+inconsiderable one. But the great inconvenience of those countries
+proceeds from the number of Indians in them; which will make it very
+difficult to settle any profitable plantations among them, especially
+in the inland parts that are more fertile; whereas the Missisippi is
+free from Indians for 1000 miles. It was but in the year 1715, that
+those Indians overran all the colony of Carolina, even to
+Charles-Town; by which the French got possession of that country, and
+of the Missisippi; both which they had just before, in June 1713,
+dispossessed us of.
+
+If we turn our eyes again to the lands in our northern colonies, it is
+to be feared we can expect much less from them. There is an
+inconvenience attending them, with regard to any improvements on them
+for Britain, which is not to be remedied. The climate is so severe,
+and the winters so long, that the people are obliged to spend that
+time in providing the necessaries of life, which should be employed in
+profitable colonies, on the making of some staple commodity, and
+returns to Britain. They are obliged to feed their creatures for five
+or six months in the year, which employs their time in summer, and
+takes up the best of their lands, such as they are, which should
+produce their staple commodities, to provide for themselves and their
+stocks against winter. For that reason the people in all our northern
+colonies are necessarily obliged to become farmers, {xxi} to make corn
+and provisions, instead of planters, who make a staple commodity for
+Britain; and thereby interfere with their mother country in the most
+material and essential of all employments to a nation, agriculture.
+
+In short, neither the soil nor climate will admit of any improvements
+for Britain, in any of those northern colonies. If they would produce
+any thing of that kind, it must be hemp; which never could be made in
+them to any advantage, as appears from many trials of it in New
+England. [Footnote: See _Douglas's_ Hist. N. America. _Elliot's_
+Improvements on New England, &c.] The great dependance of those
+northern colonies is upon the supplies of lumber and provisions which
+they send to the islands. But as they increase and multiply, their
+woods are cut down, lumber becomes scarce and dear, and the number of
+people inhances the value of land, and of every thing it produces,
+especially provisions.
+
+If this is the case of those northern colonies on the sea coast, what
+can we expect from the inland parts; in which the soil is not only
+more barren, and the climate more severe, but they are, with all these
+disadvantages, so inconvenient to navigation, both on account of their
+distance, and of the many falls and currents in the river St.
+Lawrence, that it is to be feared those inland parts of our northern
+colonies will never produce any thing for Britain, more than a few
+furrs; which they will do much better in the hands of the natives,
+than in ours. These our northern colonies, however, are very populous,
+and increase and multiply very fast. There are above a million of
+people in them, who can make but very little upon their lands for
+themselves, and still less for their mother country. For these reasons
+it is presumed, it would be an advantage to them, as well as to the
+whole nation, to remove their spare people, who want lands, to those
+vacant lands in the southern parts of the continent, which turn to so
+much greater account than any that they are possessed of. There they
+may have the necessaries of life in the greatest plenty; their stocks
+maintain themselves the whole year round, with little or no cost or
+labour; "by which means many people have a thousand head {xxii} of
+cattle, and for one man to have two hundred, is very common, with
+other stock in proportion." [Footnote: Description of South Carolina, p.
+68.] This enables them to bestow their whole labour, both in summer
+and winter, on the making of some staple commodity for Britain,
+getting lumber and provisions for the islands, &c. which both enriches
+them and the whole nation. That is much better, surely, than to perish
+in winter for want of cloathing, which they must do unless they make
+it; and to excite those grudges and jealousies, which must ever
+subsist between them and their mother country in their present state,
+and grow so much the worse, the longer they continue in it.
+
+The many advantages that would ensue from the peopling of those
+southern parts of the continent from our northern colonies, are hardly
+to be told. We might thereby people and secure those countries, and
+reap the profits of them, without any loss of people; which are not to
+be spared for that purpose in Britain, or any other of her dominions.
+This is the great use and advantage that may be made of the expulsion
+of the French from those northern parts of America. They have hitherto
+obliged us to strengthen those northern colonies, and have confined
+the people in them to towns and townships, in which their labour could
+turn to no great account, either to themselves or to the nation, by
+which we have, in a great measure, loss the labour of one half of the
+people in our colonies. But as they are now free from any danger on
+their borders, they may extend their settlements with safety, disperse
+themselves on plantations, and cultivate those lands that may turn to
+some account, both to them and to the whole nation. In short, they may
+now make some staple commodity for Britain; on which the interest of
+the colonies, and of the nation in them, chiefly depends; and which we
+can never expect from those colonies in their present situation.
+
+What those commodities are, that we might get from those southern
+parts of North America, will appear from the following accounts; which
+we have not room here to consider more particularly. We need only
+mention hemp, flax, and silk, those great articles and necessary
+materials of manufactures; for which alone this nation pays at least a
+million and an half {xxiii} a-year, if not two millions, and could
+never get them from all the colonies we have. Cotton and indigo are
+equally useful. Not to mention copper, iron, potash, &c. which, with
+hemp, flax, and silk, make the great balance of trade against the
+nation, and drain it of its treasure; when we might have those
+commodities from our colonies for manufactures, and both supply
+ourselves and others with them. Wine, oil, raisins, and currants, &c.
+those products of France and Spain, on which Britain expends so much
+of her treasure, to enrich her enemies, might likewise be had from
+those her own dominions. Britain might thereby cut off those resources
+of her enemies; secure her colonies for the future; and prevent such
+calamities of war, by cultivating those more laudable arts of peace:
+which will be the more necessary, as these are the only advantages the
+nation can expect, for the many millions that have been expended on
+America.
+
+_A Description of the Harbour of_ PENSACOLA.
+
+As the harbour of Pensacola will appear to be a considerable
+acquisition to Britain, it may be some satisfaction to give the
+following account of it, from F. Laval, royal professor of
+mathematics, and master of the marine academy at Toulon; who was sent
+to Louisiana, on purpose to make observations, in 1719; and had the
+accounts of the officers who took Pensacola at that time, and surveyed
+the place.
+
+"The colonies of Pensacola, and of Dauphin-Island, are at present on
+the decline, the inhabitants having removed to settle at Mobile and
+Biloxi, or at New-Orleans, where the lands are much better; for at the
+first the soil is chiefly sand, mixed with little earth. The land,
+however, is covered with woods of pines, firs, and oaks; which make
+good trees, as well as at Ship-Island. The road of Pensacola is the
+only good port thereabouts for large ships, and Ship-Island for small
+ones, where vessels that draw from thirteen to fourteen feet water,
+may ride in safety, under the island, in fifteen feet, and a good
+holding ground; as well as in the other ports, which are all only open
+roads, exposed to the south, and from west to east.
+
+"Pensacola is in north-latitude 30° 25'; and is the only road in the
+bay of Mexico, in which ships can be safe from all {xxiv} winds. It is
+land-locked on every side, and will hold a great number of ships,
+which have very good anchorage in it, in a good holding ground of soft
+sand, and from twenty-five to thirty-four feet of water. You will find
+not less than twenty-one feet of water on the barr, which is at the
+entrance into the road, providing you keep in the deepest part of the
+channel. Before a ship enters the harbour, she should bring the fort
+of Pensacola to bear between north and north 1/4 east, and keep that
+course till she is west or west 1/4 south, from the fort on the island
+of St. Rose, that is, till that fort bears east, and east 1/4 north.
+Then she must bear away a little to the land on the west side, keeping
+about mid-way between that and the island, to avoid a bank on this
+last, which runs out to some distance west-north-west from the point
+of the island.
+
+"If there are any breakers on the ledge of rocks, which lie to the
+westward of the barr, as often happens; if there is any wind, that may
+serve for a mark to ships, which steer along that ledge, at the
+distance of a good musket-shot, as they enter upon the barr; then keep
+the course above mentioned. Sometimes the currents set very strong out
+of the road, which you should take care of, less they should carry you
+upon these rocks.
+
+"As there is but half a foot rising (_levèe_) on the barr of Pensacola,
+every ship of war, if it be not in a storm, may depend upon nineteen
+(perhaps twenty) feet of water, to go into the harbour, as there are
+twenty-one feet on the barr. Ships that draw twenty feet must be towed
+in. By this we see, that ships of sixty guns may go into this harbour:
+and even seventy gun ships, the largest requisite in that country in
+time of war, if they were built flat-bottomed, like the Dutch ships,
+might pass every where in that harbour.
+
+"In 1719 Pensacola was taken by Mr. Champmelin, in the Hercules man of
+war, of sixty-four guns, but carried only fifty-six; in company with
+the Mars, pierced for sixty guns, but had in only fifty-four; and the
+Triton, pierced for fifty-four guns, but carried only fifty; with two
+frigates of thirty-six and twenty guns. [Footnote: The admiral was on
+board of the Hercules, which drew twenty-one feet of water, and there
+were but twenty-two feet into the harbour in the highest tides; so
+that they despaired of carrying in this ship. But an old Canadian,
+named Crimeau, a man of experience, who was perfectly acquainted with
+that coast, boasted of being able to do it, and succeeded; for which
+he was the next year honoured with letters of noblesse. _Dumont_ (an
+officer there at that time) 11.22.
+
+But _Bellin_, from the charts of the admiralty, makes but twenty feet of
+water on the barr of Pensacola. The difference may arise from the
+tides, which are very irregular and uncertain on all that coast,
+according to the winds; never rising above three feet, sometimes much
+less. In twenty-four hours the tide ebbs in the harbour for eighteen
+or nineteen hours, and flows five or six. _Laval_.]
+
+{xxv} "This road is subject to one inconvenience; several rivers fall
+into it, which occasion strong currents, and make boats or canoes, as
+they pass backwards and forwards, apt to run a-ground; but as the
+bottom is all sand, they are not apt to founder. On the other hand
+there is a great advantage in this road; it is free from worms, which
+never breed in fresh water, so that vessels are never worm-eaten in
+it."
+
+But F. Charlevoix seems to contradict this last circumstance: "The bay
+of Pensacola would be a pretty good port, (says he) if the worms did
+not eat the vessels in it, and if there was a little more water in the
+entrance into it; for the Hercules, commanded by Mr. Champmelin,
+touched upon it." It is not so certain then, that this harbour is
+altogether free from worms; although it may not be so subject to them,
+as other places in those climes, from the many small fresh water
+rivers that fall into this bay, which may have been the occasion of
+these accounts, that are seemingly contradictory.
+
+In such a place ships might at least be preserved from worms, in all
+likelihood, by paying their bottoms with aloes, or mixing it with
+their other stuff. That has been found to prevent the biting of these
+worms; and might be had in plenty on the spot. Many kinds of aloes
+would grow on the barren sandy lands about Pensacola, and in Florida,
+which is the proper soil for them; and would be a good improvement for
+those lands, which will hardly bear any thing else to advantage,
+whatever use is made of it.
+
+Having room in this place, we may fill it up with an answer to a
+common objection against Louisiana; which is, {xxvi} that this country
+is never likely to turn to any account, because the French have made
+so little of it.
+
+But that objection, however common, will appear to proceed only from
+the ignorance of those who make it. No country can produce any thing
+without labourers; which, it is certain, the French have never had in
+Louisiana, in any numbers at least, sufficient to make it turn to any
+greater account than it has hitherto done. The reason of this appears
+not to be owing to the country, but to their proceedings and
+misconduct in it. Out of the many thousand people who were contracted
+for by the grantees, to be sent to Louisiana in 1719, there were but
+eight hundred sent, we see; and of these the greatest part were ruined
+by their idle schemes, which made them and others abandon the country
+entirely. The few again who remained in it were cut off by an Indian
+massacre in 1729, which broke up the only promising settlements they
+had in the country, those of the Natchez, and Yasous, which were never
+afterwards reinstated. Instead of encouraging the colony in such
+misfortunes, the minister, Cardinal Fleuri, either from a spirit of
+oeconomy, or because it might be contrary to some other of his views,
+withdrew his protection from it, gave up the public plantations, and
+must thereby, no doubt, have very much discouraged others. By these
+means they have had few or no people in Louisiana, but such as were
+condemned to be sent to it for their crimes, women of ill fame,
+deserted soldiers, insolvent debtors, and galley-slaves, _forçats_, as
+they call them; "who, looking on the country only as a place of exile,
+were disheartened at every thing in it; and had no regard for the
+progress of a colony, of which they were only members by compulsion,
+and neither knew nor considered its advantages to the state. It is
+from such people that many have their accounts of this country; and
+throw the blame of all miscarriages in it upon the country, when they
+are only owing to the incapacity and negligence of those who were
+instructed to settle it." [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. New France, Tom.
+III. p. 447.]
+
+{1}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+_The Transactions of the_ French _in_ LOUISIANA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Of the first Discovery and Settlement of_ LOUISIANA.
+
+
+After the Spaniards came to have settlements on the Great Antilles, it
+was not long before they attempted to make discoveries on the coasts
+of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1520, Lucas Vasquez de Aillon landed on the
+continent to the north of that Gulf, being favourably received by the
+people of that country, who made him presents in gold, pearls, and
+plated silver. This favourable reception made him return thither four
+years after; but the natives having changed their friendly sentiments
+towards him, killed two hundred of his men, and obliged him to retire.
+
+In 1528, Pamphilo Nesunez [Footnote: Narvaez.] landed also on that
+coast, receiving from the first nations he met in his way, presents
+made in gold; which, by signs, they made him to understand, came from
+the Apalachean mountains, in the country which at this day goes under
+the name of Florida: and thither he attempted to go, undertaking a
+hazardous journey of twenty-five days. In this march he was so often
+attacked by the new people he continually discovered, and lost so many
+of his men, as only to think of re-embarking with the few that were
+left, {2} happy to have himself escaped the dangers which his
+imprudence had exposed him to.
+
+The relation published by the Historian of Dominico [Footnote:
+Ferdinando.] Soto, who in 1539 landed in the Bay of St. Esprit, is so
+romantic, and so constantly contradicted by all who have travelled
+that country, that far from giving credit to it, we ought rather to
+suppose his enterprize had no success; as no traces of it have
+remained, any more than of those that went before. The inutility of
+these attempts proved no manner of discouragement to the Spaniards.
+After the discovery of Florida, it was with a jealous eye they saw the
+French settle there in 1564, under René de Laudonniere, sent thither
+by the Admiral de Coligni, where he built Fort Carolin; the ruins of
+which are still to be seen above the Fort of Pensacola. [Footnote: This
+intended settlement of Admiral Coligni was on the east coast of
+Florida, about St. Augustin, instead of Pensacola. De Laet is of
+opinion, that their Fort Carolin was the same with St. Augustin.]
+There the Spaniards some time after attacked them, and forcing them to
+capitulate, cruelly murdered them, without any regard had to the
+treaty concluded between them. As France was at that time involved in
+the calamities of a religious war, this act of barbarity had remained
+unresented, had not a single man of Mont Marfan, named Dominique de
+Gourges, attempted, in the name of the nation, to take vengeance
+thereof. In 1567, having fitted out a vessel, and sailed for Florida,
+he took three forts built by the Spaniards; and after killing many of
+them in the several attacks he made, hanged the rest: and having
+settled there a new post, [Footnote: He abandoned the country without
+making any settlement; nor have the French ever had any settlement in
+it from that day to this. See Laudonniere. Hakluyt, &c.] returned to
+France. But the disorders of the state having prevented the
+maintaining that post, the Spaniards soon after retook possession of
+the country, where they remain to this day.
+
+From that time the French seemed to have dropped all thoughts of that
+coast, or of attempting any discoveries therein; when the wars in
+Canada with the natives afforded them the {3} knowledge of the vast
+country they are possessed of at this day. In one of these wars a
+Recollet, or Franciscan Friar, name F. Hennepin, was taken and carried
+to the Illinois. As he had some skill in surgery, he proved
+serviceable to that people, and was also kindly treated by them: and
+being at full liberty, he travelled over the country, following for a
+considerable time the banks of the river St. Louis, or Missisipi,
+without being able to proceed to its mouth. However, he failed not to
+take possession of that country, in the name of Louis XIV., calling it
+Louisiana. Providence having facilitated his return to Canada, he gave
+the most advantageous account of all he had seen; and after his return
+to France, drew up a relation thereof, dedicated to M. Colbert.
+
+The account he gave of Louisiana failed not to produce its good
+effects. Me de la Salle, equally famous for his misfortunes and his
+courage, undertook to traverse these unknown countries quite to the
+sea. In Jan. 1679 he set out from Quebec with a large detachment, and
+being come among the Illinois, there built the first fort France ever
+had in that country, calling it Crevecæur; and there he left a good
+garrison under the command of the Chevalier de Tonti. From thence he
+went down the river St. Louis, quite to its mouth; which, as has been
+said, is in the Gulf of Mexico; and having made observations, and
+taken the elevation in the best manner he could, returned by the same
+way to Quebec, from whence he passed over to France.
+
+After giving the particulars of his journey to M. Colbert, that great
+minister, who knew of what importance it was to the state to make sure
+of so fine and extensive a country, scrupled not to allow him a ship and
+a small frigate, in order to find out, by the way of the gulf of Mexico,
+the mouth of the river St. Louis. He set sail in 1685: but his
+observations, doubtless, not having had all the justness requisite,
+after arriving in the gulf, he got beyond the river, and running too far
+westward, entered the bay of St. Bernard: and some misunderstanding
+happening between him and the officers of the vessels, he debarqued with
+the men under his command, and having settled a post in that place,
+undertook to go by land in quest of {4} the great river. But after a
+march of several days, some of his people, irritated on account of the
+fatigue he exposed them to, availing themselves of an opportunity, when
+separated from the rest of his men, basely assassinated him. The
+soldiers, though deprived of their commander, still continued their
+route, and, after crossing many rivers, arrived at length at the
+Arkansas, where they unexpectedly found a French post lately settled.
+The Chevalier de Tonti was gone down from the fort of the Illinois,
+quite to the mouth of the river, about the time he judged M. de la Salle
+might have arrived by sea; and not finding him, was gone up again, in
+order to return to his post. And in his way entering the river of the
+Arkansas, quite to the village of that nation, with whom he made an
+alliance, some of his people insisted, they might be allowed to settle
+there; which was agreed to, he leaving ten of them in that place; and
+this small cantonment maintained its ground, not only because from time
+to time encreased by some Canadians, who came down this river; but above
+all, because those who formed it had the prudent precaution to live in
+peace with the natives, and treat as legitimate the children they had by
+the daughters of the Arkansas, with whom they matched out of necessity.
+
+The report of the pleasantness of Louisiana spreading through Canada,
+many Frenchmen of that country repaired to settle there, dispersing
+themselves at pleasure along the river St. Louis, especially towards
+its mouth, and even in some islands on the coast, and on the river
+Mobile, which lies nearer Canada. The facility of the commerce with
+St. Domingo was, undoubtedly, what invited them to the neighbourbood
+of the sea, though the interior parts of the country be in all
+respects far preferable. However, these scattered settlements,
+incapable to maintain their ground of themselves, and too distant to
+be able to afford mutual assistance, neither warranted the possession
+of this country, nor could they be called a taking of possession.
+Louisiana remained in this neglected state, till M. d'Hiberville, Chef
+d' Escadre, having discovered, in 1698, the mouths of the river St.
+Louis, and being nominated Governor General of that vast country,
+carried thither the first colony in 1699. As he was a native of
+Canada, the colony almost entirely consisted of Canadians, among whom
+M. de Luchereau, {5} uncle of Madam d'Hiberville, particularly
+distinguished himself.
+
+The settlement was made on the river Mobile, with all the facility
+that could be wished; but its progress proved slow: for these first
+inhabitants had no other advantage above the natives, as to the
+necessaries of life, but what their own industry, joined to some rude
+tools, to give the plainest forms to timbers, afforded them.
+
+The war which Louis IV, had at that time to maintain, and the pressing
+necessities of the state, continually engrossed the attention of the
+ministry, nor allowed them time to think of Louisiana. What was then
+thought most advisable, was to make a grant of it to some rich person;
+who, finding it his interest to improve that country, would, at the
+same time that he promoted his own interest, promote that of the
+state. Louisiana was thus ceded to M. Crozat. And it is to be
+presumed, had M. d'Hiberville lived longer, the colony would have made
+considerable progress: but that illustrious sea-officer, whose
+authority was considerable, dying at the Havannah, in 1701 (after
+which this settlement was deserted) a long time must intervene before
+a new Governor could arrive from France. The person pitched upon to
+fill that post, was M. de la Motte Cadillac, who arrived in that
+country in June 1713.
+
+The colony had but a scanty measure of commodities, and money scarcer
+yet: it was rather in a state of languor, than of vigorous activity,
+in one of the finest countries in the world; because impossible for it
+to do the laborious works, and make the first advances, always
+requisite in the best lands.
+
+The Spaniards, for a long time, considered Louisiana as a property
+justly theirs, because it constitutes the greatest Part of Florida,
+which they first discovered. The pains the French were at then to
+settle there, roused their jealousy, to form the design of cramping
+us, by settling at the Assinaïs, a nation not very distant from the
+Nactchitoches, whither some Frenchmen had penetrated. There the
+Spaniards met with no small difficulty to form that settlement, and
+being at a loss how to accomplish it, one F. Ydalgo, a Franciscan
+Friar, took it in his head to write to the French, to beg their
+assistance in {6} settling a mission among the Assinaïs. He sent three
+different copies of his letter hap-hazard three different ways to our
+settlements, hoping one of them at least might fall into the hands of
+the French.
+
+Nor was he disappointed in his hope, one of them, from one post to
+another, and from hand to hand, falling into the hands of M. de la
+Motte. That General, incessantly taken up with the concerns of the
+colony, and the means of relieving it, was not apprized of the designs
+of the Spaniards in that letter; could only see therein a sure and
+short method to remedy the present evils, by favouring the Spaniards,
+and making a treaty of commerce with them, which might procure to the
+colony what it was in want of, and what the Spaniards abounded with,
+namely, horses, cattle, and money: He therefore communicated that
+letter to M. de St. Denis, to whom he proposed to undertake a journey
+by land to Mexico.
+
+M. de St. Denis, for the fourteen years he was in Louisiana, had made
+several excursions up and down the country; and having a general
+knowledge of all the languages of the different nations which inhabit
+it, gained the love and esteem of these people, so far as to be
+acknowledged their Grand Chief.
+
+This gentleman, in other respects a man of courage, prudence, and
+resolution, was then the fittest person M. de la Motte could have
+pitched upon, to put his design in execution.
+
+How fatiguing soever the enterprize was, M. de St. Denis undertook it
+with pleasure, and set out with twenty-five men. This small company
+would have made some figure, had it continued entire; but some of them
+dropped M. de St. Denis by the way, and many of them remained among
+the Nactchitoches, to whose country he was come. He was therefore
+obliged to set out from that place, accompanied only by ten men, with
+whom he traversed upwards of an hundred and fifty leagues in a country
+entirely depopulated, having on his route met with no nation, till he
+came to the Presidio, or fortress of St. John Baptist, on the Rio
+(river) del Norte, in New Mexico.
+
+The Governor of this fort was Don Diego Raimond, an officer advanced
+in years, who favourbly received M. de St. {7} Denis, on acquainting
+him, that the motive to his journey was F. Ydalgo's letter, and that
+he had orders to repair to Mexico. But as the Spaniards do not readily
+allow strangers to travel through the countries of their dominion in
+America, for fear the view of these fine countries should inspire
+notions, the consequences of which might be greatly prejudicial to
+them, D. Diego did not chuse to permit M. de St. Denis to continue his
+route, without the previous consent of the Viceroy. It was therefore
+necessary to dispatch a courier to Mexico, and to wait his return.
+
+The courier, impatiently longed for, arrived at length, with the
+permission granted by the Duke of Linarez, Viceroy of Mexico. Upon
+which M. de St. Denis set out directly, and arrived at Mexico, June 5,
+1715. The Viceroy had naturally an affection to France; M. de St.
+Denis was therefore favourably received, saving some precautions,
+which the Duke thought proper to take, not to give any disgust to some
+officers of justice who were about him.
+
+The affair was soon dispatched; the Duke of Linarez having promised to
+make a treaty of commerce, as soon as the Spaniards should be settled
+at the Assinaïs; which M. de St. Denis undertook to do, upon his
+return to Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the_ Spaniards _at the_
+Assinaïs. _His Second Journey to_ Mexico, _and Return from thence_.
+
+
+M. De St. Denis soon returned to the fort of St. John Baptist; after
+which he resolved to form the caravan, which was to be settled at the
+Assinaïs; at whose head M. de St. Denis put himself, and happily
+conducted it to the place appointed. And then having, in quality of
+Grand Chief, assembled the nation of the Assinaïs, he exhorted them to
+receive and use the Spaniards well. The veneration which that people
+had for him, made them submit to his will in all things; and thus the
+promise he had made to the Duke of Linarez was faithfully fulfilled.
+
+{8} The Assinaïs are fifty leagues distant from the Nactchitoches. The
+Spaniards, finding themselves still at too great a distance from us,
+availed themselves of that first settlement, in order to form a second
+among the Adaies, a nation which is ten leagues from our post of the
+Nactchitoches: whereby they confine us on the west within the
+neighbourhood of the river St. Louis; and from that time it was not
+their fault, that they had not cramped us to the north, as I shall
+mention in its place.
+
+To this anecdote of their history I shall, in a word or two, add that
+of their settlement at Pensacola, on the coast of Florida, three
+months after M. d'Hiberville had carried the first inhabitants to
+Louisiana, that country having continued to be inhabited by Europeans,
+ever since the garrison left there by Dominique de Gourges; which
+either perished, or deserted, for want of being supported.[Footnote:
+They returned to France. See p. 3.]
+
+To return to M. de la Motte and M. de St. Denis: the former, ever
+attentive to the project of having a treaty of commerce concluded with
+the Spaniards, and pleased with the success of M. de St. Denis's
+journey to Mexico, proposed his return thither again, not doubting but
+the Duke of Linarez would be as good as his word, as the French had
+already been. M. de St. Denis, ever ready to obey, accepted the
+commission of his General. But this second journey was not to be
+undertaken as the first; it was proper to carry some goods, in order
+to execute that treaty, as soon as it should be concluded, and to
+indemnify himself for the expences he was to be at. Though the
+store-houses of M. Crozat were full, it was no easy matter to get the
+goods. The factors refused to give any on credit; nay, refused M. de
+la Motte's security; and there was no money to be had to pay them. The
+Governor was therefore obliged to form a company of the most
+responsible men of the colony: and to this company only the factors
+determined to advance the goods. This expedient was far from being
+agreeable to M. de St. Denis, who opened his mind to M. de la Motte on
+that head, and told him, that some or all of his partners would
+accompany the goods they had engaged to be security for; and that,
+although it was absolutely necessary the effects should appear to be
+his {9} property alone, they would not fail to discover they
+themselves were the proprietors; which would be sufficient to cause
+their confiscation, the commerce between the two nations not being
+open. M. de la Motte saw the solidity of these reasons; but the
+impossibility of acting otherwise constrained him to supersede them:
+and, as M. de St. Denis had foreseen, it accordingly happened.
+
+He set out from Mobile, August 13, 1716, escorted, as he all along
+apprehended, by some of those concerned; and being come to the
+Assinaïs, he there passed the winter. On the 19th of March, the year
+following, setting out on his journey, he soon arrived at the Presidio
+of St. John Baptist. M. de St. Denis declared these goods to be his
+own property, in order to obviate their confiscation, which was
+otherwise unavoidable; and wanted to shew some acts of bounty and
+generosity, in order to gain the friendship of the Spaniards. But the
+untractableness, the avarice, and indiscretion of the parties
+concerned, broke through all his measures; and to prevent the entire
+disconcerting of them, he hastened his departure for Mexico, where he
+arrived May 14, 1717. The Duke of Linarez was yet there, but sick, and
+on his death-bed. M. de St. Denis had, however, time to see him, who
+knew him again: and that Nobleman took care to have him recommended to
+the Viceroy his successor; namely, the Marquis of Balero, a man as
+much against the French as the Duke was for them.
+
+M. de St. Denis did not long solicit the Marquis of Balero for
+concluding the treaty of commerce; he soon had other business to mind.
+F. Olivarez, who, on the representation of P. Ydalgo, as a person of a
+jealous, turbulent, and dangerous disposition, had been excluded from
+the mission to the Assinaïs, being then at the court of the Viceroy,
+saw with an evil eye the Person who had settled F. Ydalgo in that
+mission, and resolved to be avenged on him for the vexation caused by
+that disappointment. He joined himself to an officer, named Don Martin
+de Alaron, a person peculiarly protected by the Marquis of Balero: and
+they succeeded so well with that nobleman that in the time M. de St.
+Denis least expected, he found himself arrested, and clapt in a
+dungeon; from which he was not discharged {10} till December 20 of
+this year, by an order of the Sovereign Council of Mexico, to which he
+found means to present several petitions. The Viceroy, constrained to
+enlarge him, allotted the town for his place of confinement.
+
+The business of the treaty of commerce being now at an end, M. de St.
+Denis's attention was only engaged how to make the most of the goods,
+of which Don Diego Raymond had sent as large a quantity as he could,
+to the town of Mexico; where they were seized by D. Martin de Alaron,
+as contraband; he being one of the emissaries of his protector,
+appointed to persecute such strangers as did not dearly purchase the
+permission to sell their goods. M. de St. Denis could make only enough
+of his pillaged and damaged effects just to defray certain expences of
+suit, which, in a country that abounds with nothing else but gold and
+silver, are enormous.
+
+Our prisoner having nothing further to engross his attention in
+Mexico, but the safety of his person, seriously bethought himself how
+to secure it; as he had ever just grounds to apprehend some bad
+treatment at the bands of his three avowed enemies. Having therefore
+planned the means of his flight, on September 25, 1718, as the night
+came on, he quitted Mexico, and placing himself in ambush at a certain
+distance from the town, waited till his good fortune should afford the
+means of travelling otherwise than on foot. About nine at night, a
+horseman, well-mounted, cast up. To rush of a sudden upon him,
+dismount him, mount his horse, turn the bridle, and set up a gallop,
+was the work of a moment only for St. Denis. He rode on at a good pace
+till day, then quitted the common road, to repose him: a precaution he
+observed all along, till he came near to the Presidio of St. John
+Baptist. From thence he continued his journey on foot; and at length,
+on April 2, 1719, arrived at the French colony, where he found
+considerable alterations.
+
+From the departure of M. de St. Denis from Mexico, to his return
+again, almost three years had elapsed. In that long time, the grant of
+Louisiana was transferred from M. Crozat to the West India Company; M.
+de la Motte Cadillac was dead, and M. de Biainville, brother to M.
+d'Hiberville, succeeded as {11} governor general. The capital place of
+the colony was no longer at Mobile, nor even at Old Biloxi, whither it
+had been removed: New Orleans, now begun to be built, was become the
+capital of the country, whither he repaired to give M. de Biainville
+an account of his journey; after which he retired to his settlement.
+The king afterwards conferred upon him the cross of St. Louis, in
+acknowledgement and recompence of his services.
+
+The West India Company, building great hopes of commerce on Louisiana,
+made efforts to people that country, sufficient to accomplish their
+end. Thither, for the first time, they sent, in 1718, a colony of
+eight hundred: men some of which settled at New Orleans, others formed
+the settlements of the Natchez. It was with this embarkation I passed
+over to Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the_ West India Company _to_
+Louisiana. _Arrival and Stay at _Cape François. _Arrival at_ Isle
+Dauphine. _Description of that Island_.
+
+
+The embarkation was made at Rochelle on three different vessels, on
+one of which I embarked. For the first days of our voyage we had the
+wind contrary, but no high sea. On the eighth the wind turned more
+favourable. I observed nothing interesting till we came to the Tropick
+of Cancer, where the ceremony of baptizing was performed on those who
+had never been a voyage: after passing the Tropick, the Commodore
+steered too much to the south, our captain observed. In effect, after
+several days sailing, we were obliged to bear off to the north: we
+afterwards discovered the isle of St. Juan de Porto Rico, which
+belongs to the Spaniards. Losing sight of that, we discovered the
+island of St. Domingo; and a little after, as we bore on, we saw the
+Grange, which is a rock, overtopping the steep coast, which is almost
+perpendicular to the edge of the water. This rock, seen at a distance,
+seems to have the figure of a grange, or barn. A few hours after we
+{12} arrived at Cape François, distant from that rock only twelve
+leagues.
+
+We were two months in this passage to Cape François; both on account
+of the contrary winds, we had on setting out, and of the calms, which
+are frequent in those seas: our vessel, besides, being clumsy and
+heavy, had some difficulty to keep up with the others; which, not to
+leave us behind, carried only their four greater sails, while we had
+out between seventeen and eighteen.
+
+It is in those seas we meet with the Tradewinds; which though weak, a
+great deal of way might be made, did they blow constantly, because
+their course is from east to west without varying: storms are never
+observed in these seas, but the calms often prove a great hindrance;
+and then it is necessary to wait some days, till a _grain_, or squall,
+brings back the wind: a _grain_ is a small spot seen in the air, which
+spreads very fast, and forms a cloud, that gives a wind, which is
+brisk at first, but not lasting, though enough to make way with.
+Nothing besides remarkable is here seen, but the chace of the
+_flying-fish_ by the Bonitas.
+
+The Bonita is a fish, which is sometimes two feet long; extremely fond
+of the _flying-fish_; which is the reason it always keeps to the places
+where these fish are found: its flesh is extremely delicate and of a
+good flavour.
+
+The _flying-fish_ is of the length of a herring, but rounder. From its
+sides, instead of fins, issue out two wings, each about four inches in
+length, by two in breadth at the extremity; they fold together and
+open out like a fan, and are round at the end; consisting of a very
+fine membrane, pierced with a vast many little holes, which keep the
+water, when the fish is out of it: in order to avoid the pursuit of
+the Bonita, it darts into the air, spreads out its wings, goes
+straight on, without being able to turn to the right or left; which is
+the reason, that as soon as the toilets, or little sheets of water,
+which fill up the small holes of its wings, are dried up, it falls
+down again; and the same Bonita, which pursued it in the water, still
+following it with his eye in the air, catches it when fallen into the
+water; it sometimes falls on board ships. The Bonita, in his turn,
+{13} becomes the prey of the seamen, by means of little puppets, in
+the form of _flying-fish_, which it swallows, and by that means is
+taken.
+
+We stayed fifteen days at Cape François, to take in wood and water,
+and to refresh. It is situate on the north part of the island of St.
+Domingo, which part the French are in possession of, as the Spaniards
+are of the other. The fruits and sweet-meats of the country are
+excellent, but the meat good for nothing, hard, dry, and tough. This
+country being scorched, grass is very scarce, and animals therein
+languish and droop. Six weeks before our arrival, fifteen hundred
+persons died of an epidemic distemper, called the Siam distemper.
+
+We sailed from Cape François, with the same wind, and the finest
+weather imaginable. We then passed between the islands of Tortuga and
+St. Domingo, where we espied Port de Paix, which is over-against
+Tortuga: we afterwards found ourselves between the extremities of St.
+Domingo and Cuba which belongs to the Spaniards: we then steered along
+the south coast of this last, leaving to the left Jamaica, and the
+great and little Kayemans, which are subject to the English. We at
+length quitted Cuba at Cape Anthony, steering for Louisiana a north
+west course. We espied land in coming towards it, but so flat, though
+distant but a league from us, that we had great difficulty to
+distinguish it, though we had then but four fathom water. We put out
+the boat to examine the land, which we found to be Candlemas island
+(la Chandeleur.) We directly set sail for the island of Massacre,
+since called Isle Dauphine, situated three leagues to the south of
+that continent, which forms the Gulf of Mexico to the north, at about
+27° 35' North latitude, and 288° of longitude. A little after we
+discovered the Isle Dauphine, and cast anchor before the harbour, in
+the road, because the harbour itself was choaked up. To make this
+passage we took three months, and arrived only August 25th. We had a
+prosperous voyage all along, and the more so, as no one died, or was
+even dangerously ill the whole time, for which we caused _Te Deum_
+solemnly to be sung.
+
+We were then put on shore with all our effects. The company had
+undertaken to transport us with our servants and {14} effects, at
+their expence, and to lodge, maintain and convey us to our several
+concessions, or grants.
+
+This gulf abounds with delicious fish; as the _sarde_ (pilchard) red
+fish, cod, sturgeon, ringed thornback, and many other sorts, the best
+in their kind. The _sarde_ is a large fish; its flesh is delicate, and
+of a fine flavour, the scales grey, and of a moderate size. The red
+fish is so called, from its red scales, of the size of a crown piece.
+The cod, fished for on this coast, is of the middling sort, and very
+delicate. The thornback is the same as in France. Before we quit this
+island, it will not, perhaps, be improper to mention some things about
+it.
+
+The Isle Massacre was so called by the first Frenchman who landed
+there, because on the shore of this island they found a small rising
+ground, or eminence, which appeared the more extraordinary in an
+island altogether flat, and seemingly formed only by the sand, thrown
+in by some high gusts of wind. As the whole coast of the gulf is very
+flat, and along the continent lies a chain of such islands, which seem
+to be mutually joined by their points, and to form a line parallel
+with the continent, this small eminence appeared to them
+extraordinary: it was more narrowly examined, and in different parts
+thereof they found dead mens bones, just appearing above the little
+earth that covered them. Then their curiosity led them to rake off the
+earth in several places; but finding nothing underneath, but a heap of
+bones, they cried out with horror, _Ah! what a Massacre!_ They
+afterwards understood by the natives, who are at no great distance
+off, that a nation adjoining to that island, being at war with another
+much more powerful, was constrained to quit the continent, which is
+only three leagues off, and to remove to this island, there to live in
+peace the rest of their days; but that their enemies, justly confiding
+in their superiority, pursued them to this their feeble retreat, and
+entirely destroyed them; and after raising this inhuman trophy of
+their victorious barbarity, retired again. I myself saw this fatal
+monument, which made me imagine this unhappy nation must have been
+even numerous toward its period, as only the bones of their warriors,
+and aged men must have lain there, their custom being to make slaves
+of their {15} young people. Such is the origin of the first name of
+this island, which, on our arrival, was changed to that of Isle
+Dauphine: an act of prudence, it should-seem, to discontinue an
+appellation, so odious, of a place that was the cradle of the colony;
+as Mobile was its birth-place.
+
+This island is very flat, and all a white sand, as are all the others,
+and the coast in like manner. Its length is about seven leagues from
+east to west; its breadth a short league from south to north,
+especially to the east, where the settlement was made, on account of
+the harbour which was at the south end of the island, and choaked up
+by a high sea, a little before our arrival: this east end runs to a
+point. It is tolerably well stored with pine; but so dry and parched,
+on account of its crystal sand, as that no greens or pulse can grow
+therein, and beasts are pinched and hard put to it for sustenance.
+
+In the mean time, M. de Biainville, commandant general for the company
+in this colony, was gone to mark out the spot on which the capital was
+to be built, namely, one of the banks of the river Missisippi, where
+at present stands the city of New Orleans, so called in honour of the
+duke of Orleans, then regent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the Places he
+passed through, as far as_ New Orleans.
+
+
+The time of my departure, so much wished for, came at length. I set
+out with my hired servants, all my effects, and a letter for M.
+Paillou, major general at New Orleans, who commanded there in the
+absence of M. de Biainville. We coasted along the continent, and came
+to lie in the mouth of the river of the Pasca-Ogoulas; so called,
+because near its mouth, and to the east of a bay of the same name,
+dwells a nation, called Pasca-Ogoulas, which denotes the Nation of
+Bread. Here it may be remarked, that in the province of Louisiana, the
+appellation of several people terminates in the word Ogoula, which
+signifies _nation_; and that most of the rivers derive their names from
+the nations which dwell on {16} their banks. We then passed in view of
+Biloxi, where formerly was a petty nation of that name; then in view
+of the bay of St. Louis, leaving to the left successively Isle
+Dauphine, Isle a Corne, (Horne-island,) Isle aux Vaisseaux,
+(Ship-island,) and Isle aux Chats, (Cat-island).
+
+I have already described Isle Dauphine, let us now proceed to the
+three following. Horn-island is very flat and tolerably wooded, about
+six leagues in length, narrowed to a point to the west side. I know
+not whether it was for this reason, or on account of the number of
+horned cattle upon it, that it received this name; but it is certain,
+that the first Canadians, who settled on Isle Dauphine, had put most
+of their cattle, in great numbers, there; whereby they came to grow
+rich even when they slept. These cattle not requiring any attendance,
+or other care, in this island, came to multiply in such a manner, that
+the owners made great profits of them on our arrival in the colony.
+
+Proceeding still westward, we meet Ship-island; so called, because
+there is a small harbour, in which vessels at different times have put
+in for shelter. But as the island is distant four leagues from the
+coast, and that this coast is so flat, that boats cannot approach
+nearer than half a league, this harbour comes to be entirely useless.
+This island may be about five leagues in length, and a large league in
+breadth at the west point. Near that point to the north is the
+harbour, facing the continent; towards the east end it may be half a
+league in breadth: it is sufficiently wooded, and inhabited only by
+rats, which swarm there.
+
+At two leagues distance, going still westward, we meet Cat-island; so
+called, because at the time it was discovered, great numbers of cats
+were found upon it. This island is very small, not above half a league
+in diameter. The forests are over-run with underwood: a circumstance
+which, doubtless, determined M. de Biainville to put in some hogs to
+breed; which multiplied to such numbers, that, in 1722, going to hunt
+them, no other creatures were to be seen; and it was judged, that in
+time they must have devoured each other. It was found they had
+destroyed the cats.
+
+{17} All these islands are very flat, and have the same bottom of
+white sand; the woods, especially of the three first, consist of pine;
+they are almost all at the same distance from the continent, the coast
+of which is equally sandy.
+
+After passing the bay of St. Louis, of which I have spoken, we enter
+the two channels which lead to Lake Pontchartrain, called at present
+the Lake St. Louis: of these channels, one is named the Great, the
+other the Little; and they are about two leagues in length, and formed
+by a chain of islets, or little isles, between the continent and
+Cockle-island. The great channel is to the south.
+
+We lay at the end of the channels in Cockle-island; so called, because
+almost entirely formed of the shells named Coquilles des Palourdes, in
+the sea-ports, without a mixture of any others. This isle lies before
+the mouth of the Lake St. Louis to the east, and leaves at its two
+extremities two outlets to the lake; the one, by which we entered,
+which is the channel just mentioned; the other, by the Lake Borgne.
+The lake, moreover, at the other end westward, communicates, by a
+channel, with the Lake Maurepas; and may be about ten leagues in
+length from east to west, and seven in breadth. Several rivers, in
+their course southward, fall into it. To the south of the lake is a
+great creek (Bayouc, a stream of dead water, with little or no
+observable current) called Bayouc St. Jean; it comes close to New
+Orleans, and falls into this lake at Grass Point (Pointe aux Herbes)
+which projects a great way into the lake, at two leagues distance from
+Cockle-island. We passed near that Point, which is nothing but a
+quagmire. From thence we proceeded to the Bayouc Choupic, so
+denominated from a fish of that name, and three leagues from the
+Pointe aux Herbes. The many rivulets, which discharge themselves into
+this lake, make its waters almost fresh, though it communicates with
+the sea: and on this account it abounds not only with sea fish but
+with fresh water fish, some of which, particularly carp, would appear
+to be of a monstrous size in France.
+
+We entered this Creek Choupic: at the entrance of which is a fort at
+present. We went up this creek for the space of a league, and landed
+at a place where formerly stood the village {18} of the natives, who
+are called Cola-Pissas, an appellation corrupted by the French, the
+true name of that nation being Aquelou-Pissas, that is, _the nation of
+men that hear and see_. From this place to New Orleans, and the river
+Missisippi, on which that capital is built, the distance is only a
+league.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_The Author put in Possession of his Territory. His Resolution to go
+and settle among the_ Natchez.
+
+
+Being arrived at the Creek Choupic the Sicur Lavigne, a Canadian, lodged
+me in a cabin of the Aquelou-Pissas, whose village he had bought. He
+gave others to my workmen for their lodging; and we were all happy to
+find, upon our arrival, that we were under shelter, in a place that was
+uninhabited. A few days after my arrival I bought an Indian female slave
+of one of the inhabitants, in order to have a person who could dress our
+victuals, as I perceived the inhabitants did all they could to entice
+away our labourers, and to gain them by fair promises. As for my slave
+and me, we did not understand one another's language; but I made myself
+to be understood by signs, which these natives comprehend very easily:
+she was of the nation of the Chitimachas, with whom the French had been
+at war for some years.
+
+I went to view a spot on St. John's Creek, about half a league distant
+from the place where the capital was to be founded, which was yet only
+marked out by a hut, covered with palmetto-leaves, and which the
+commandant had caused to be built for his own lodging; and after him
+for M. Paillou, whom he left commandant of that post. I had chosen
+that place preferably to any others, with a view to dispose more
+easily of my goods and provisions, and that I might not have them to
+transport to a great distance. I told M. Paillou of my choice, who
+came and put me in possession, in the name of the West-India company.
+
+I built a hut upon my settlement, about forty yards from the creek of
+St. John, till I could build my house, and lodging {19} for my people.
+As my hut was composed of very combustible materials, I caused a fire
+to be made at a distance, about half way from the creek, to avoid
+accidents: which occasioned an adventure, that put me in mind of the
+prejudices they have in Europe, from the relations that are commonly
+current. The account I am going to give of it, may have upon those who
+think as I did then, the same effect that it had upon me.
+
+It was almost night, when my slave perceived, within two yards of the
+fire, a young alligator, five feet long, which beheld the fire without
+moving. I was in the garden hard by, when she made me repeated signs
+to come to her; I ran with speed, and upon my arrival she shewed me
+the crocodile, without speaking to me; the little time that I examined
+it, I could see, its eyes were so fixed on the fire, that all our
+motions could not take them off. I ran to my cabin to look for my gun,
+as I am a pretty good marksman: but what was my surprize, when I came
+out, and saw the girl with a great stick in her hand attacking the
+monster! Seeing me arrive, she began to smile, and said many things,
+which I did not comprehend. But she made me understand, by signs, that
+there was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast; for the stick
+she shewed me was sufficient for the purpose.
+
+The next day the former master of my slave came to ask me for some
+salad-plants; for I was the only one who had any garden-stuff, having
+taken care to preserve the seeds I had brought over with me. As he
+understood the language of the natives, I begged him to ask the girl,
+why she had killed the alligator so rashly. He began to laugh, and
+told me, that all new comers were afraid of those creatures, although
+they have no reason to be so: and that I ought not to be surprized at
+what the girl had done, because her nation inhabited the borders of a
+lake, which was full of those creatures; that the children, when they
+saw the young ones come on land, pursued them, and killed them, by the
+assistance of the people of the cabin, who made good cheer of them.
+
+I was pleased with my habitation, and I had good reasons, which I have
+already related, to make me prefer it to others; notwithstanding I had
+room to believe, that the situation was {20} none of the healthiest,
+the country about it being very damp. But this cause of an unwholesome
+air does not exist at present, since they have cleared the ground, and
+made a bank before the town. The quality of that land is very good,
+for what I had sown came up very well. Having found in the spring some
+peach-stones which began to sprout, I planted them; and the following
+autumn they had made shoots, four feet high, with branches in
+proportion.
+
+Notwithstanding these advantages, I took a resolution to quit this
+settlement, in order to make another one, about a hundred leagues
+higher up; and I shall give the reasons, which, in my opinion, will
+appear sufficient to have made me take that step.
+
+My surgeon came to take his leave of me, letting me know, he could be
+of no service to me, near such a town as was forming; where there was
+a much abler surgeon than himself; and that they had talked to him so
+favourably of the post of the Natchez, that he was very desirous to go
+there, and the more so, as that place, being unprovided with a
+surgeon, might be more to his advantage. To satisfy me of the truth of
+what he told me, he went immediately and brought one of the old
+inhabitants, of whom I had bought my slave, who confirmed the account
+he had given me of the fineness of the country of the Natchez. The
+account of the old man, joined to many other advantages, to be found
+there, had made him think of abandoning the place where we were, to
+settle there; and he reckoned to be abundantly repaid for it in a
+little time.
+
+My slave heard the discourse that I have related, and as she began to
+understand French, and I the language of the country, she addressed
+herself to me thus: "Thou art going, then, to that country; the sky is
+much finer there; game is in much greater plenty; and as I have
+relations, who retired there in the war which we had with the French,
+they will bring us every thing we want: they tell me that country is
+very fine, that they live well in it, and to a good old age."
+
+Two days afterwards I told M. Hubert what I had heard of the country
+of the Natchez. He made answer, that he was {21} so persuaded of the
+goodness of that part of the country, that he was making ready to go
+there himself, to take up his grant, and to establish a large
+settlement for the company: and, continued he, "I shall be very glad,
+if you do the same: we shall be Company to one another, and you will
+unquestionably do your business better there than here."
+
+[Illustration: _Indian in summer time_]
+
+This determined me to follow his advice: I quitted my settlement, and
+took lodgings in the town, till I should find an {22} opportunity to
+depart, and receive some negroes whom I expected in a short time.
+[Footnote: Chap. VIII.] My stay at New Orleans appeared long, before I
+heard of the arrival of the negroes. Some days after the news of their
+arrival, M. Hubert brought me two good ones, which had fallen to me by
+lot. One was a young negro about twenty, with his wife of the same
+age; which cost me both together 1320 livres, or L. sterling.
+
+Two days after that I set off with them alone in a pettyaugre (a large
+canoe,) because I was told we should make much better speed in such a
+vessel, than in the boats that went with us; and that I had only to
+take powder and ball with me, to provide my whole company with game
+sufficient to maintain us; for which purpose it was necessary to make
+use of a paddle, instead of oars, which make too much noise for the
+game. I had a barrel of powder, with fifteen pounds of shot, which I
+thought would be sufficient for the voyage: but I found by experience,
+that this was not sufficient for the vast plenty of game that is to be
+met with upon that river, without ever going out of your way. I had
+not gone above twenty-eight leagues, to the grant of M. Paris du
+Vernai, when I was obliged to borrow of him fifteen pounds of shot
+more. Upon this I took care of my ammunition, and shot nothing but
+what was fit for our provision; such as wild ducks, summer ducks,
+teal, and saw-bills. Among the rest I killed a carancro, wild geese,
+cranes, and flamingo's; I likewise often killed young alligators; the
+tail of which was a feast for the slaves, as well as for the French
+and Canadian rowers.
+
+Among other things I cannot omit to give an account of a monstrous
+large alligator I killed with a musquet ball, as it lay upon the bank,
+about ten feet above the edge of the water. We measured it, and found
+it to be nineteen feet long, its head three feet and a half long,
+above two feet nine inches broad, and the other parts in proportion:
+at the belly it was two feet two inches thick; and it infected the
+whole air with the odor of musk. M. Mehane told me, he had killed one
+twenty-two feet long.
+
+{23} After several days navigation, we arrived at Tonicas on Christmas
+eve; where we heard mass from M. d' Avion, of the foreign missions,
+with whom we passed the rest of the holy days, on account of the good
+reception and kind invitation he gave us. I asked him, if his great
+zeal for the salvation of the natives was attended with any success;
+he answered me, that notwithstanding the profound respect the people
+shewed him, it was with the greatest difficulty he could get leave to
+baptize a few children at the point of death; that those of an
+advanced age excused themselves from embracing our holy religion
+because they are too old, say they, to accustom themselves to rules,
+that are so difficult to be observed; that the chief, who had killed
+the physician, that attended his only son in a distemper of which he
+died, had taken a resolution to fast every Friday while he lived, in
+remorse for his inhumanity with which he had been so sharply
+reproached by him. This grand chief attended both morning and evening
+prayers; the women and children likewise assisted regularly at them;
+but the men, who did not come very often, took more pleasure in
+ringing the bell. In other respects, they did not suffer this zealous
+pastor to want for any thing, but furnished him with whatever he
+desired.
+
+We were yet twenty-five leagues to the end of our journey to the
+Natchez, and we left the Tonicas, where we saw nothing interesting, if
+it were not several steep hills, which stand together; among which
+there is one that they name the White Hill, because they find in it
+several veins of an earth, that is white, greasy, and very fine, with
+which I have seen very good potters ware made. On the same hill there
+are veins of ochre, of which the Natchez had just taken some to stain
+their earthen Ware, which looked well enough; when it was besmeared
+with ochre, it became red on burning.
+
+At last we arrived at the Natchez, after a voyage of twenty-four
+leagues; and we put on shore at a landing-place, which is at the foot
+of a hill two hundred feet high, upon the top of which Fort Rosalie
+[Footnote: Fort Rosalie, in the country of the Natchez, was at first
+pitched upon for the metropolis of this colony. But though it be
+necessary to begin by a settlement near the sea; yet if ever Louisiana
+comes to be in a flourishing condition, as it may very well be, it
+appears to me, that the capital of it cannot be better situated than
+in this place. It is not subject to inundations of the river; the air
+is pure; the country very extensive; the land fit for every thing, and
+well watered; it is not at too great a distance from the sea, and
+nothing hinders vessels to go up to it. In fine, it is within reach of
+every place intended to be settled. Charlevoix, Hist. de la N. France,
+III. 415.
+
+This is on the east side of the Missisippi, and appears to be the
+first post on that river which we ought to secure.] is built,
+surrounded only with pallisadoes. {24} About the middle of the hill
+stands the magazine, nigh to some houses of the inhabitants, who are
+settled there, because the ascent is not so steep in that place; and
+it is for the same reason that the magazine is built there. When you
+are upon the top of this hill, you discover the whole country, which
+is an extensive beautiful plain, with several little hills
+interspersed here and there, upon which the inhabitants have built and
+made their settlements. The prospect of it is charming.
+
+On our arrival at the Natchez I was very well received by M. Loire de
+Flaucourt, storekeeper of this post, who regaled us with the game that
+abounds in this place; and after two days I hired a house near the
+fort, for M. Hubert and his family, on their arrival, till he could
+build upon his own plantation. He likewise desired me to choose two
+convenient parcels of land, whereon to settle two considerable
+plantations, one for the company, and the other for himself. I went to
+them in two or three days after my arrival, with an old inhabitant for
+my guide, and to shew me the proper places, and at the same time to
+choose a spot of ground for myself; this last I pitched upon the first
+day, because it is more easy to choose for one's self than for others.
+
+I found upon the main road that leads from the chief village of the
+Natchez to the fort, about an hundred paces from this last, a cabin of
+the natives upon the road side, surrounded with a spot of cleared
+ground, the whole of which I bought by means of an interpreter. I made
+this purchase with the more pleasure, as I had upon the spot,
+wherewithal to lodge me and my people, with all my effects: the
+cleared ground was about six acres, which would form a garden and a
+plantation for {25} tobacco, which was then the only commodity
+cultivated by the inhabitants. I had water convenient for my house,
+and all my land was very good. On one side stood a rising ground with
+a gentle declivity, covered with a thick field of canes, which always
+grow upon the rich lands; behind that was a great meadow, and on the
+other side was a forest of white walnuts (Hiecories) of nigh fifty
+acres, covered with grass knee deep. All this piece of ground was in
+general good, and contained about four hundred acres of a measure
+greater than that of Paris: the soil is black and light.
+
+The other two pieces of land, which M. Hubert had ordered me to look
+for, I took up on the border of the little river of the Natchez, each
+of them half a league from the great village of that nation, and a
+league from the fort; and my plantation stood between these two and
+the fort, bounding the two others. After this I took up my lodging
+upon my own plantation, in the hut I had bought of the Indian, and put
+my people in another, which they built for themselves at the side of
+mine; so that I was lodged pretty much like our wood-cutters in
+France, when they are at work in the woods.
+
+As soon as I was put in possession of my habitation, I went with an
+interpreter to see the other fields, which the Indians had cleared
+upon my land, and bought them all, except one, which an Indian would
+never sell to me: it was situated very convenient for me, I had a mind
+for it, and would have given him a good price; but I could never make
+him agree to my proposals. He gave me to understand, that without
+selling it, he would give it up to me, as soon as I should clear my
+ground to his; and that while he stayed on his own ground near me, I
+should always find him ready to serve me, and that he would go
+a-hunting and fishing for me. This answer satisfied me, because I must
+have had twenty negroes, before I could have been able to have reached
+him; they assured me likewise, that he was an honest man; and far from
+having any occasion to complain of him as a neighbour, his stay there
+was extremely serviceable to me.
+
+I had not been settled at the Natchez six months, when I found a pain
+in my thigh, which, however, did not hinder me {26} to go about my
+business. I consulted our surgeon about it, who caused me to be
+bleeded; on which the humour fell upon the other thigh, and fixed
+there with such violence, that I could not walk without extreme pain.
+I consulted the physicians and surgeons of New Orleans, who advised me
+to use aromatic baths; and if they proved of no service, I must go to
+France, to drink the waters, and to bathe in them. This answer
+satisfied me so much the less, as I was neither certain of my cure by
+that means, nor would my present situation allow me to go to France.
+This cruel distemper, I believe, proceeded from the rains, with which
+I was wet, during our whole voyage; and might be some effects of the
+fatigues I had undergone in war, during several campaigns I had made
+in Germany.
+
+As I could not go out of my hut, several neighbours were so good as to
+come and see me, and every day we were no less than twelve at table
+from the time of our arrival, which was on the fifth of January, 1720.
+Among the rest F. de Ville, who waited there, in his journey to the
+Illinois, till the ice, which began to come down from the north, was
+gone. His conversation afforded me great satisfaction in my
+confinement, and allayed the vexation I was under from my two negroes
+being run away. In the mean time my distemper did not abate, which
+made me resolve to apply to one of the Indian conjurers, who are both
+surgeons, divines, and sorcerers; and who told me he would cure me by
+sucking the place where I felt my pain. He made several scarifications
+upon the part with a sharp flint, each of them about as large as the
+prick of a lancet, and in such a form, that he could suck them all at
+once, which gave me extreme pain for the space of half an hour. The
+next day I found myself a little better, and walked about into my
+field, where they advised me to put myself in the hands of some of the
+Natchez, who, they said, did surprising cures, of which they told me
+many instances, confirmed by creditable people. In such a situation a
+man will do any thing for a cure, especially as the remedy, which they
+told me of, was very simple: it was only a poultice, which they put
+upon the part affected, and in eight days time I was able to walk to
+the fort, finding myself perfectly cured, as I have felt no return of
+my pain since that {27} time. This was, without doubt, a great
+satisfaction to a young man, who found himself otherwise in good
+health, but had been confined to the house for four months and a half,
+without being able to go out a moment; and gave me as much joy as I
+could well have, after the loss of a good negro, who died of a
+defluxion on the breast, which he catched by running away into the
+woods, where his youth and want of experience made him believe he
+might live without the toils of slavery; but being found by the
+Tonicas, constant friends of the French, who live about twenty leagues
+from the Nàtchez, they carried him to their village, where he and
+his wife were given to a Frenchman, for whom they worked, and by that
+means got their livelihood; till M. de Montplaisir sent them home to
+me.
+
+This M. de Montplaisir, one of the most agreeable gentlemen in the
+colony, was sent by the company from Clerac in Gascony, to manage
+their plantation at the Natchez, to make tobacco upon it, and to shew
+the people the way of cultivating and curing it; the company having
+learned, that this place produced excellent tobacco, and that the
+people of Clerac were perfectly well acquainted with the culture and
+way of managing it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_The Voyage of the Author to_ Biloxi. _Description of that Place.
+Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two Coppermines. His Return
+to the Natchez._
+
+
+<b>The</b> second year after my settling among the Natchez, I went to
+New Orleans, as I was desirous to sell my goods and commodities
+myself, instead of selling them to the travelling pedlars, who often
+require too great a profit for their pains. Another reason that made
+me undertake this voyage, was to send my letters to France myself,
+which I was certainly informed, were generally intercepted.
+
+Before my departure, I went to the commandant of the fort, and asked
+him whether he had any letters for the government. I was not on very
+good terms of friendship with this commandant of the Natchez, who
+endeavoured to pay his court {28} to the governor, at the expence of
+others. I knew he had letters for M. de Biainville, although he told
+me he had none, which made me get a certificate from the commissary
+general of this refusal to my demand; and at the same time the
+commissary begged me to carry down a servant of the company, and gave
+me an order to pay for his maintenance. As I made no great haste, but
+stopt to see my friends, in my going down the river, the commandant
+had time to send his letters, and to write to the governor, that I
+refused to take them. As soon as I arrived at Biloxi, this occasioned
+M. de Biainville to tell me, with some coldness, that I refused to
+charge myself with his letters. Upon this I shewed him the certificate
+of the commissary general; to which he could give no other answer,
+than by telling me, that at least I could not deny, that I had brought
+away by stealth a servant of the company. Upon this I shewed him the
+other certificate of the commissary general, by which he desired the
+directors to reimburse me the charges of bringing down this servant,
+who was of no use to him above; which put the governor in a very bad
+humour.
+
+Upon my arrival at New Orleans I was informed, that there were several
+grantees arrived at New Biloxi. I thought fit then to go thither, both
+to sell my goods, and to get sure conveyance for my letters to France.
+Here I was invited to sup with M. d'Artaguette, king's lieutenant, who
+usually invited all the grantees, as well as myself. I there found
+several of the grantees, who were all my friends; and among us we made
+out a sure conveyance for our letters to France, of which we
+afterwards made use.
+
+Biloxi is situate opposite to Ship-Island, and four leagues from it.
+But I never could guess the reason, why the principal settlement was
+made at this place, nor why the capital should be built at it; as
+nothing could be more repugnant to good sense; vessels not being able
+to come within four leagues of it; but what was worse, nothing could
+be brought from them, but by changing the boats three different times,
+from a smaller size to another still smaller; after which they had to
+go upwards of an hundred paces with small carts through the water to
+unload the least boats. But what ought still to have {29} been a
+greater discouragement against making a settlement at Biloxi, was,
+that the land is the most barren of any to be found thereabouts; being
+nothing but a fine sand, as white and shining as snow, on which no
+kind of greens can be raised; besides, the being extremely incommoded
+with rats, which swarm there in the sand, and at that time ate even
+the very stocks of the guns, the famine being there so very great,
+that more than five hundred people died of hunger; bread being very
+dear, and flesh-meat still more rare. There was nothing in plenty but
+fish, with which this place abounds.
+
+This scarcity proceeded from the arrival of several grantees all at
+once; so as to have neither provisions, nor boats to transport them to
+the places of their destination, as the company had obliged themselves
+to do. The great plenty of oysters, found upon the coast, saved the
+lives of some of them, although obliged to wade almost up to their
+thighs for them, a gun-shot from the shore. If this food nourished
+several of them, it threw numbers into sickness; which was still more
+heightened by the long time they were obliged to be in the water.
+
+The grants were those of M. Law, who was to have fifteen hundred men,
+consisting of Germans, Provençals, &c. to form the settlement.
+His land being marked out at the Arkansas, consisted of four leagues
+square, and was erected into a duchy, with accoutrements for a company
+of dragoons, and merchandize for more than a million of livres. M.
+Levans, who was a trustee of it, had his chaise to visit the different
+posts of the grant. But M. Law soon after becoming bankrupt, the
+company seized on all the effects and merchandise; and but a few of
+those who engaged in the service of that grant, remained at the
+Arkansas; they were afterwards all dispersed and set at liberty. The
+Germans almost to a man settled eight leagues above, and to the west
+of the capital. This grant ruined near a thousand persons at L'Orient
+before their embarkation, and above two hundred at Biloxi; not to
+mention those who came out at the same time with me in 1718. All this
+distress, of which I was a witness at Biloxi, determined me to make an
+excursion a few leagues on the coast, in order to pass some days {30}
+with a friend, who received me with pleasure. We mounted horse to
+visit the interior part of the country a few leagues from the sea. I
+found the fields pleasant enough, but less fertile than along the
+Missisippi; as they have some resemblance of the neighbouring coast,
+which has scarce any other plants but pines, that run a great way, and
+some red and white cedars.
+
+When we came to the plain, I carefully searched every spot that I
+thought worth my attention. In consequence of the search I found two
+mines of copper, whose metal plainly appeared above ground. They stood
+about half a league asunder. We may justly conclude that they are very
+rich, as they thus disclose themselves on the surface of the earth.
+
+When I had made a sufficient excursion, and judged I could find
+nothing further to satisfy my curiosity, I returned to Biloxi, where I
+found two boats of the company, just preparing to depart for New
+Orleans, and a large pettyaugre, which belonged to F. Charlevoix the
+jesuit, whose name is well known in the republic of letters: with him
+I returned to New Orleans.
+
+Some time after my return from New Orleans to the Natchez, towards the
+month of March 1722, a phaenomenon happened, which frightened the
+whole province. Every morning, for eight days running, a hollow noise,
+somewhat loud, was heard to reach from the sea to the Illinois; which
+arose from the west. In the afternoon it was heard to descend from the
+east, and that with an incredible quickness; and though the noise
+seemed to bear on the water, yet without agitating it, or discovering
+any more wind on the river than before. This frightful noise was only
+the prelude of a most violent tempest. The hurricane, the most furious
+ever felt in the province, lasted three days. As it arose from the
+south-west and north-east, it reached all the settlements which were
+along the Missisippi; and was felt for some leagues more or less
+strong, in proportion to the greater or less distance: but in the
+places, where the force or height of the hurricane passed, it
+overturned every thing in its way, which was an extent of a large
+quarter of a league broad; so that one would take it for {31} an
+avenue made on purpose, the place where it passed being entirely laid
+flat, whilst every thing stood upright on each side. The largest trees
+were torn up by the roots, and their branches broken to pieces and
+laid flat to the earth, as were also the reeds of the woods. In the
+meadows, the grass itself, which was then but six inches high, and
+which is very fine, could not escape, but was trampled, faded, and
+laid quite flat to the earth.
+
+[Illustration: Indian in winter time]
+
+{32} The height of the hurricane passed at a league from my
+habitation; and yet my hose, which was built on piles, would have been
+overturned, had I not speedily propped it with a timber, with the
+great end in the earth, and nailed to the house with an iron hook
+seven or eight inches long. Several houses of our post were
+overturned. But it was happy for us in this colony, that the height of
+the hurricane passed not directly oer any post, but obliquely
+traversed the Missisippi, over a country intirely uninhabited. As this
+hurricane came from the south, it so swelled the sea, that the
+Missisippi flowed back against its current, so as to rise upwards of
+fifteen feet high.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_First War with the_ Natchez. _Cause of the War._
+
+
+In the same year, towards the end of summer, we had the first war with
+the Natchez. The French had settled at the Natchez, without any
+opposition from these people; so far from opposing them, they did them
+a great deal of service, and gave them very material assistance in
+procuring provisions; for those, who were sent by the West India
+Comany with the first fleet, had been detained at New Orleans. Had it
+not been for the natives, the people must have perished by famine and
+distress: for, how excellent soever a new country it may be, it must
+be cleared, grubbed up, and sown, and then at least we are to wait the
+first harvest, or crop. But during all that time people must live, and
+the company was well apprized of this, as they had send, witht he
+eight hundred men they had transported to Louisiana, provisions for
+three years. The grantees and planters, obliged _to treat_, or truck for
+provisions with the Natchez, in consequence of that saw their funds
+wasted, and themselves incapable of forming so considerable a
+settlement, without this trucking, as necessary, as it was frequent.
+
+However, some benefit resulted from this; namely that the Natchez,
+enticed by the facility of trucking for goods, before unknown to them,
+as fusils, gun-powder, lead, brandy, linen, cloths, and other like
+things, by means of an exchange of what they abounded with, came to be
+more and more attached {33} to the French; and would have continued
+very useful friends, had not the little satisfaction which the
+commandant of Fort Rosalie had given them, for the misbehavior of one
+of his soldiers, alienated their minds. This fort covered the
+settlement of the Natchez, and protected that of St. Catharine, which
+was on the banks of the rivulet of the Natchez; but botht he defence
+and protection it afforded were very inconsiderable; for this fort was
+only pallisadoed, open at six breaches, without a ditch, and with a
+very weak garrison. On the other hand, the houses of the inhabitants,
+though considerably numerous, were of themselves of no strength; and
+then the inhabitants, dispersed in the country, each amidst his field,
+far from affording mutual assistance, as they would had they been in a
+body, stood each of them, upon any accident, in need of the assistance
+of others.
+
+A young soldier of Fort Rosalie had given some credit to an old
+warrior of a village of the Natchez; which was that of the White
+Apple, each village having its peculiar name: the warrior, in return,
+was to give him some corn. Towards the beginning of the winter 1723,
+this soldier lodging near the fort, the old warrior came to see him;
+the soldier insisted on his corn; the native answered calmly, that the
+corn was not yet dry enough to shake out the grain; that besides, his
+wife had been ill, and that he would pay him as soon as possible. The
+young man, little satisfied with this answer, threatened to cudgel the
+old man: upon which, this last, who was in the soldier's hut,
+affronted at this threat, told him, he should turn out, and try who
+was the best man. On this challenge, the soldier, calling out murder,
+brings the guard to his assistance. The guard being come, the young
+fellow pressed them to fire upon the warrior, who was returning to his
+village at his usual pace; a soldier was imprudent enough to fire: the
+old man dropt down. The commandant was soon apprized of what happened,
+and came to the spot; where the witnesses, both French and Natchez,
+informed him of the fact. Both justice and prudence demanded to take
+an exemplary punishment of the soldier; but he got off with a
+reprimand. After this the natives made a litter, and carried off their
+warrior, who died the {34} following night of his wounds, though the
+fusil was only charged with great shot.
+
+Revenge is the predominant passion of the people in America: so that
+we ought not to be surprised, if the death of this old warrior raised
+his whole village against the French. The rest of the nation took no
+part at first in the quarrel.
+
+The first effect of the resentment of the Natchez fell upon a
+Frenchman named M. Guenot, whom they surprised returning from the fort
+to St. Catharine, and upon another inhabitant, whom they killed in his
+bed. Soon after they attacked, all in a body, the settlement of St.
+Catharine, and the other below Fort Rosalie. It was at this last I had
+fixed my abode: I therefore saw myself exposed, like many others, to
+pay with my goods, and perhaps my life, for the rashness of a soldier,
+and the too great indulgence of his captain. But as I was already
+acquainted with the character of the people we had to deal with, I
+despaired not to save both. I therefore barricadoed myself in my
+house, and having put myself in a posture of defence, when they came
+in the night, according to their custom, to surprise me, they durst
+not attack me.
+
+This first attempt, which I justly imagined was to be followed by
+another, if not by many such, made me resolve, as soon as day came, to
+retire under the fort, as all the inhabitants also did, and thither to
+carry all the provisions I had at my lodge. I could execute only half
+of my scheme. My slaves having begun to remove the best things, I was
+scarce arrived under the fort, but the commandant begged I might put
+myself at the head of the inhabitants, to go to succour St. Catharine.
+He had already sent thither all his garrison, reserving only five men
+to guard the fort; but this succour was not sufficient to relieve the
+settlement, which the natives in great numbers vigorously straitned.
+
+I departed without delay: we heard the firing at a distance, but the
+noise ceased as soon as I was come, and the natives appeared to have
+retired: they had, doubtless, discovered me on my march, and the sight
+of a reinforcement which I had brought with me, deceived them. The
+officer who commanded the detachment of the garrison, and whom I
+relieved, returned {35} to the fort with his men; and the command
+being thus devolved on me, I caused all the Negroes to be assembled,
+and ordered them to cut down all the bushes; which covering the
+country, favoured the approach of the enemy, quite to the doors of the
+houses of that Grant. This operation was performed without
+molestation, if you except a few shot, fired by the natives from the
+woods, where they lay concealed on the other side of the rivulet; for
+the plain round St. Catharine being entirely cleared of every thing
+that could screen them, they durst not shew themselves any more.
+
+However, the commandant of Fort Rosalie sent to treat with the _Stung
+Serpent_; in order to prevail with him to appease that part of his
+nation, and procure a peace. As that great warrior was our friend, he
+effectually laboured therein, and hostilities ceased. After I had
+passed twenty-four hours in St. Catharine, I was relieved by a new
+detachment from the inhabitants, whom, in my turn, I relieved next
+day. It was on this second guard, which I mounted, that the village we
+had been at war with sent me, by their deputies, the _calumet_ or _pipe
+of peace_. I at first had some thoughts of refusing it, knowing that
+this honour was due to the commandant of the fort; and it appeared to
+me a thing so much the more delicate to deprive him of it, as we were
+not upon very good terms with each other. However, the evident risk of
+giving occasion to protract the war, by refusing it, determined me to
+accept of it; after having, however, taken the advice of those about
+me; who all judged it proper to treat these people gently, to whom the
+commandant was become odious.
+
+I asked the deputies, what they would have? They answered, faultering,
+_Peace_. "Good, said I; but why bring you the Calumet of Peace to me? It
+is to the Chief of the Fort you are to carry it, if you wish to have a
+Peace." "Our orders" said they, "are to carry it first to you, if you
+choose to receive it by only smoking therein: after which we will
+carry it to the Chief of the Fort; but if you refuse receiving it, our
+orders are to return."
+
+Upon this I told them, that I agreed to smoke in their pipe, on
+condition they would carry it to the Chief of the Fort. {36} They then
+made me an harangue; to which I answered, that it were best to resume
+our former manner of living together, and that the French and the
+_Red-men_ should entirely forget what had passed. To conclude, that they
+had nothing further to do, but to go and carry the Pipe to the Chief
+of the Fort, and then go home and sleep in peace.
+
+This was the issue of the first war we had with the Natchez, which
+lasted only three or four days.
+
+The commerce, or truck, was set again on the same footing it had been
+before; and those who had suffered any damage, now thought only how
+they might best repair it. Some time after, the Major General arrived
+from New Orleans, being sent by the Governor of Louisiana to ratify
+the peace; which he did, and mutual sincerity was restored, and became
+as perfect as if there had never been any rupture between us.
+
+It had been much to be wished, that matters had remained on so good a
+footing. As we were placed in one of the best and finest countries of
+the world; were in strict connection with the natives, from whom we
+derived much knowledge of the nature of the productions of the
+country, and of the animals of all sorts, with which it abounds; and
+likewise reaped great advantage in our traffic for furs and
+provisions; and were aided by them in many laborious works, we wanted
+nothing but a profound peace, in order to form solid settlements,
+capable of making us lay aside all thoughts of Europe: but Providence
+had otherwise ordered.
+
+The winter which succeeded this war was so severe, that a colder was
+never remembered. The rain fell in icicles in such quantities as to
+astonish the oldest Natchez, to whom this great cold appeared new and
+uncommon.
+
+Towards the autumn of this year I saw a phaenomenon which struck the
+superstitious with great terror: it was in effect so extraordinary,
+that I never remember to have heard of any thing that either
+resembled, or even came up to it. I had just supped without doors, in
+order to enjoy the cool of the evening; my face was turned to the
+west, and I sat before my table to examine some planets which had
+already appeared. {37} I perceived a glimmering light, which made me
+raise my eyes; and immediately I saw, at the elevation of about 45
+degrees above the horizon, a light proceeding from the south, of the
+breadth of three inches, which went off to the north, always spreading
+itself as it moved, and made itself heard by a whizzing light like
+that of the largest sky-rocket. I judged by the eye that this light
+could not be above our atmosphere, and the whizzing noise which I
+heard confirmed me in that notion. {38} When it came in like manner to
+be about 45 degrees to the north above the horizon, it stopped short,
+and ceased enlargeing itself: in that place it appeared to be twenty
+inches broad; so that in its course, which had been very rapid, it
+formed the figure of a trumpet-marine, and left in its passage very
+lively sparks, shining brighter than those which fly from under a
+smith's hammer; but they were extinguished almost as fast as they were
+emitted.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian woman and daughter_ (on p. 37)]
+
+At the north elevation I just mentioned, there issued out with a great
+noise from the middle of the large end, a ball quite round, and all on
+fire: this ball was about six inches in diameter; it fell below the
+horizon to the north, and emitted, about twenty minutes after, a
+hollow, but very loud noise for the space of a minute, which appeared
+to come from a great distance. The light began to be weakened to the
+south, after emitting the ball, and at length disappeared, before the
+noise of the ball was heard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_The Governor surprized the_ Natchez _with seven hundred Men.
+Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The Author sends upwards of
+three hundred Simples to the Company._
+
+
+
+M. De Biainville, at the beginning of the winter which followed this
+phaenomenonived very privately at our quarter of the Natchez, his
+march having been communicated to none but the Commandant of this
+Post, who had orders to seize all the Natchez that should come to the
+Fort that day, to prevent the news of his arrival being carried to
+their country men. He brought with him, in regular troops, inhabitants
+and natives, who were our allies, to the number of seven hundred men.
+
+Orders were given that all our settlers at the Natchez should repair
+before his door at midnight at the latest: I went thither and mixed
+with the crowd, without making myself known.
+
+We arrived two hours before day at the settlement of St. Catharine.
+The Commandant having at length found me out, {39} ordered me, in the
+King's name, to put myself at the head of the settlers among the
+Natchez, and to take the command upon me; and these he ordered to pay
+the same obedience to me as to himself. We advanced with great silence
+towards the village of the Apple. It may be easily seen that all this
+precaution was taken in order to surprise our enemies, who ought so
+much the less to expect this act of hostility, as they had fairly made
+peace with us, and as M. Paillou, Major General, had come and ratified
+this peace in behalf of the Governor. We marched to the enemy and
+invested the first hut of the Natchez, which we found separate; the
+drums, in concert with the fifes, beat the charge; we fired upon the
+hut, in which were only three men and two women.
+
+From thence we afterwards moved on to the village, that is, several
+huts that stood together in a row. We halted at three of them that lay
+near each other, in which between twelve and fifteen Natchez had
+entrenched themselves. By our manner of proceeding one would have
+thought that we came only to view the huts. Full of indignation that
+none exerted himself to fall upon them, I took upon me with my men to
+go round and take the enemy in rear. They took to their heels, and I
+pursued; but we had need of the swiftness of deer to be able to come
+up with them. I came so near, however, that they threw away their
+cloaths, to run with the greater speed.
+
+I rejoined our people, and expected a reprimand for having forced the
+enemy without orders; though I had my excuse ready. But here I was
+mistaken; for I met with nothing but encomiums.
+
+This war, of which I shall give no further detail, lasted only four
+days. M. de Biainville demanded the head of an old mutinous Chief of
+this village; and the natives, in order to obtain a peace, delivered
+him up.
+
+I happened to live at some distance from the village of the Apple, and
+very seldom saw any of the people. Such as lived nearer had more
+frequent visits from them; but after this war, and the peace which
+followed upon it, I never saw one of them. My neighbours who lived
+nearer to them saw but a few of them, even a long time after the
+conclusion of the war. The {40} natives of the other villages came but
+very seldom among us; and indeed, if we could have done well without
+them, I could have wished to have been rid of them for ever. But we
+had neither a flesh nor a fish-market; therefore, without them, we
+must have taken up with what the poultry-yard and kitchen-garden
+furnished; which would have been extremely inconvenient.
+
+I one day stopped the Stung Serpent, who was passing without taking
+notice of any one. He was brother to the Great Sun, and Chief of the
+Warriors of the Natchez. I accordingly called to him, and said, "We
+were formerly friends, are we no longer so?" He answered, _Noco_; that
+is, I cannot tell. I replied, "You used to come to my house; at
+present you pass by. Have you forgot the way; or is my house
+disagreeable to you? As for me, my heart is always the same, both
+towards you and all my friends. I am not capable of changing, why then
+are you changed?"
+
+He took some time to answer, and seemed to be embarrassed by what I
+said to him. He never went to the fort, but when sent for the
+Commandant, who put me upon sounding him; in order to discover whether
+his people still retained any grudge.
+
+He at length broke silence, and told me, "he was ashamed to have been
+so long without seeing me; but I imagined," said he, "that you were
+displeased at our nation; because among all the French who were in the
+war, you were the only one that fell upon us." "You are in the wrong,"
+said I, "to think so. M. de Biainville being our War-chief, we are
+bound to obey him; in like manner as you, though a Sun, are obliged to
+kill, or cause to be killed, whomsoever your brother, the Great Sun
+orders to be put to death. Many other Frenchmen, besides me, sought an
+opportunity to attack your countrymen, in obedience to the orders of
+M. de Biainville; and several other Frenchmen fell upon the nearest
+hut, one of whom was killed by the first shot which the Natchez
+fired."
+
+He then said: "I did not approve, as you know, the war our people made
+upon the French to avenge the death of their {41} relation, seeing I
+made them carry the _pipe of peace_ to the French. This you well know,
+as you first smoked in the pipe yourself. Have the French two hearts, a
+good one today, and tomorrow a bad one? As for my brother and me, we
+have but one heart and one word. Tell me then, if thou art, as thou
+sayest, my true friend, what thou thinketh of all this, and shut thy
+mouth to every thing else. We know not what to think of the French, who,
+after having begun the war, granted a peace, and offered it of
+themselves; and then at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to
+be at peace, people come to kill us, without saying a word."
+
+"Why," continued he, with an air of displeasure, "did the French come
+into our country? We did not go to seek them: they asked for land of
+us, because their country was too little for all the men that were in
+it. We told them they might take land where they pleased, there was
+enough for them and for us; that it was good the same sun should
+enlighten us both, and that we would walk as friends in the same path;
+and that we would give them of our provisions, assist them to build,
+and to labour in their fields. We have done so; is not this true? What
+occasion then had we for Frenchmen? Before they came, did we not live
+better than we do, seeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn,
+our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what respect, then, had
+we occasion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which
+we used, were sufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white,
+blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo skins,
+which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankets for the winter,
+and mulberry-mantles for the summer; which indeed were not so
+beautiful; but our women were more laborious and less vain than they
+are now. In fine, before the arrival of the French, we lived like men
+who can be satisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are
+like slaves, who are not suffered to do as they please."
+
+To this unexpected discourse I know not what answer another would have
+made; but I frankly own, that if at my first address he seemed to be
+confused, I really was so in my turn. "My heart," said I to him,
+"better understands thy {42} reasons than my ears, though they are
+full of them; and though I have a tongue to answer, my ears have not
+heard the reasons of M. de Biainville, to tell them thee: but I know
+it was necessary to have the head he demanded, in order to a peace.
+When our Chiefs command us, we never require the reasons: I can say
+nothing else to thee. But to shew you that I am always your real
+friend, I have here a beautiful _pipe of peace_, which I wanted to carry
+to my own country. I know you have ordered all your warriors to kill
+some white eagles, in order to make one, because you have occasion for
+it. I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I
+reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure."
+
+I went to look for it, and I gave it him, telling him, that it was
+_without design;_ that is, according to them, from no interested motive.
+The natives put as great a value on a _pipe of peace_ as on a gun. Mine
+was adorned with tinsel and silver wire: so that in their estimation
+my pipe was worth two guns. He appeared to be extremely well pleased
+with it; put it up hastily in his case, squeezed my hand with a smile,
+and called me his true friend.
+
+The winter was now drawing to a close, and in a little time the
+natives were to bring us bear-oil to truck. I hoped that by his means
+I should have of the best preferably to any other; which was the only
+compensation I expected for my pipe. But I was agreeably disappointed.
+He sent me a deer-skin of bear-oil, so very large that a stout man
+could hardly carry it, and the bearer told me, that he sent it to me
+as his true friend, _without design_. This deer-skin contained
+thirty-one pots of the measure of the country, or sixty-two pints
+Paris measure.
+
+Three days after, the Great Sun, his brother, sent me another
+deer-skin of the same oil, to the quantity of forty pints. The
+commonest sort sold this year at twenty sols a pint, and I was sure
+mine was not of the worst kind.
+
+For some days a _fistula lacrymalis_ had come into my left eye, which
+discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger. I shewed it
+to M. St. Hilaire, an able surgeon, who {43} had practised for about
+twelve years in the Hôtel Dieu at Paris.
+
+He told me it was necessary to use the fire for it; and that,
+notwithstanding this operation, my sight would remain as good as ever,
+only my eye would be blood-shot: and that if I did not speedily set
+about the operation, the bone of the nose would become carious.
+
+These reasons gave me much uneasiness, as having both to fear and to
+suffer at the same time: however, after I had resolved to undergo the
+operation, the Grand Sun and his brother came one morning very early,
+with a man loaded with game, as a present for me.
+
+The Great Sun observed I had a swelling in my eye, and asked me what
+was the matter with it. I shewed it him, and told him, that in order
+to cure it, I must have fire put to it; but that I had some difficulty
+to comply, as I dreaded the consequences of such an operation. Without
+replying, or in the least apprizing me, he ordered the man who brought
+the game to go in quest of his physician, and tell him, he waited for
+him at my house. The messenger and physician made such dispatch, that
+this last came in an hour after. The Great Sun ordered him to look at
+my eye, and endeavour to cure me: after examining it, the physician
+said, he would undertake to cure me with simples and common water. I
+consented to this with so much the greater pleasure and readiness, as
+by this treatment I ran no manner of risque.
+
+That very evening the physician came with his simples, all pounded
+together, and making but a single ball, which he put with the water in
+a deep bason, he made me bend my head into it, so as the eye affected
+stood dipt quite open in the water. I continued to do so for eight or
+ten days, morning and evening; after which, without any other
+operation, I was perfectly cured, and never after had any return of
+the disorder.
+
+It is easy from this relation to understand what dextrous physicians
+the natives of Louisiana are. I have seen them perform surprising
+cures on Frenchmen; on two especially, who had put themselves under
+the hands of a French surgeon {44} settled at this post. Both patients
+were about to undergo the grand cure; and after having been under the
+hands of the surgeon for some time, their heads swelled to such a
+degree, that one of them made his escape, with as much agility as a
+criminal would from the hands of justice, when a favourable
+opportunity offers. He applied to a Natchez physician, who cured him
+in eight days: his comrade continuing still under the French surgeon,
+died under his hands three days after the escape of his companion,
+whom I saw three years after in a state of perfect health.
+
+In the war which I lately mentioned, the Grand Chief of the Tonicas,
+our allies, was wounded with a ball, which went through his cheek,
+came out under the jaw, again entered his body at the neck, and
+pierced through to the shoulder-blade, lodging at last between the
+flesh and the skin: the wound had its direction in this manner;
+because when he received it, he happened to be in a stooping posture,
+as were all his men, in order to fire. The French surgeon, under whose
+care he was, and who dressed him with great precaution, was an able
+man, and spared no pains in order to effect a cure. But the physicians
+of this Chief, who visited him every day, asked the Frenchman what
+time the cure would take? he answered, six weeks at least: they
+returned no answer, but went directly and made a litter; spoke to
+their Chief, and put him on it, carried him off, and treated him in
+their own manner, and in eight days affected a complete cure.
+
+These are facts well known in the colony. The physicians of the
+country have performed many other cures, which, if they were to be all
+related, would require a whole volume apart; but I have confined
+myself to the three above mentioned, in order to shew that disorders
+frequently accounted almost incurable, are, without any painful
+operation, and in a short time, cured by physicians, natives of
+Louisiana.
+
+The West India Company being informed that this province produces a
+great many simples, whose virtues, known by the natives, afforded so
+easy a cure to all sorts of distempers, ordered M. de la Chaise, who
+was sent from France in quality of Director General of this colony, to
+cause enquiry to be made {45} into the simples proper for physick and
+for dying, by means of some Frenchmen, who might perhaps be masters of
+the secrets of the natives. I was pointed out for this purpose to M.
+de la Chaise, who was but just arrived, and who wrote to me, desiring
+my assistance in this enquiry; which I gave him with pleasure, and in
+which I exerted myself to my utmost, because I well knew the Company
+continually aimed at what might be for the benefit of the colony.
+
+After I thought I had done in that respect, what might give
+satisfaction to the Company, I transplanted in earth, put into cane
+baskets, above three hundred simples, with their numbers, and a
+memorial, which gave a detail of their virtues, and taught the manner
+of using them. I afterwards understood that they were planted in a
+botanic garden made for the purpose, by order of the Company.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_French Settlements, or Posts. The Post at Mobile. The Mouths of the
+Missisippi. The Situation and Description of_ New Orleans.
+
+
+The Settlement at Mobile was the first seat of the colony in this
+province. It was the residence of the Commandant General, the
+Commissary General, the Staff-officers, &c. As vessels could not enter
+the river Mobile, and there was a small harbour at Isle Dauphine, a
+settlement was made suited to the harbour, with a guardhouse for its
+security: so that these two settlements may be said to have made but
+one; both on account of their proximity, and necessary connection with
+each other. The settlement of Mobile, ten leagues, however, from its
+harbour, lies on the banks of the river of that name; and Isle
+Dauphine, over against the mouth of that river, is four leagues from
+the coast.
+
+Though the settlement of Mobile be the oldest, yet it is far from
+being the most considerable. Only some inhabitants remained there, the
+greatest part of the first inhabitants having left it, in order to
+settle on the river Missisippi, ever since New Orleans became the
+capital of the colony. That old post is the {46} ordinary residence of
+a King's Lieutenant, a Regulating Commissary, and a Treasurer. The
+fort, with four bastions, terraced and palisaded, has a garrison.
+
+This post is a check upon the nation of Choctaws, and cuts off the
+communication of the English with them; it protects the neighbouring
+nations, and keeps them in our alliance; in fine, it supports our
+peltry trade, which is considerable with the Choctaws and other
+nations. [Footnote: Fort Lewis at Mobile is built upon the river that
+bears the same name, which falls into the sea opposite to Dauphine
+island. The fort is about 15 or 16 leagues distant from that island;
+and is built of brick, fortified with four bastions, in the manner of
+Vauban, with half-moons, a covered way and glacis. There is a magazine
+in it, with barracks for the troops of the garrison, which is
+generally pretty numerous, and a flag for the commandant.
+
+I must own, I never could see for what reason this fort was built, or
+what could be the use of it. For although it is 120 leagues from the
+capital, to go down the river, yet it is from thence that they must
+have every thing that is necessary for the support of the garrison:
+and the soil is so bad, being nothing but sand, that it produces
+nothing but pines and firs, with a little pulse, which grows there but
+very indifferently: so that there are here but very few people. The
+only advantage of this place is, that the air is mild and healthful,
+and that it affords a traffick with the Spaniards who are near it. The
+winter is the most agreeable season, as it is mild, and affords plenty
+of game. But in summer the heats are excessive; and the inhabitants
+have nothing hardly to live upon but fish, which are pretty plentiful
+on the coast, and in the river. _Dumont_, II. 80.]
+
+The same reason which pointed out the necessity of this post, with
+respect to the Choctaws, also shewed the necessity of building a fort
+at Tombecbé, to check the English in their ambitious views on the side
+of the Chicasaws. That fort was built only since the war with the
+Chicasaws in 1736.
+
+Near the river Mobile stands the small settlement of the
+Pasca-Ogoulas; which consists only of a few Canadians, lovers of
+tranquillity, which they prefer to all the advantages they could reap
+from commerce. They content themselves with a frugal country life, and
+never go to New Orleans but for necessaries.
+
+From that settlement quite to New Orleans, by the way of Lake St.
+Louis, there is no post at present. Formerly, and {47} just before the
+building of the capital, there were the old and new Biloxi:
+settlements, which have deserved an oblivion as lasting as their
+duration was short.
+
+To proceed with order and perspicuity, we will go up the Missisippi
+from its mouth.
+
+Fort Balise is at the entrance of the Missisippi, in 29° degrees North
+Latitude, and 286° 30' of Longitude. This fort is built on an isle, at
+one of the mouths of the Missisippi. Tho' there are but seventeen feet
+water in the channel, I have seen vessels of five hundred ton enter
+into it. I know not why this entrance is left so neglected, as we are
+not in want of able engineers in France, in the hydraulic branch, a
+part of the mathematics to which I have most applyed myself. I know it
+is no easy matter so to deepen or hollow the channel of a bar, that it
+may never after need clearing, and that the expences run high: but my
+zeal for promoting the advantage of this colony having prompted me to
+make reflections on those passes, or entrances of the Missisippi, and
+being perfectly well acquainted both with the country and the nature
+of the soil, I dare flatter myself, I may be able to accomplish it, to
+the great benefit of the province, and acquit myself therein with
+honour, at a small charge, and in a manner not to need repetition.
+[Footnote: Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two
+other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered; one is
+called the Otter Pass, and the other the East Pass; and they assure
+me, it is only by this last Pass that ships now go up or down the
+river, they having entirely deserted the ancient middle pass. _Dumont,_
+I. 4.
+
+Many other bays and rivers, not known to our authors, lying along the
+bay of Mexico, to the westward of the Missisippi, are described by Mr.
+Coxe, in his account of Carolina, called by the French Louisiana.]
+
+I say, fort Balise is built upon an island; a circumstance, I imagine,
+sufficient to make it understood, that this fort is irregular; the
+figure and extent of this small island not admitting it to be
+otherwise.
+
+In going up the Missisippi, we meet with nothing remarkable before we
+come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the
+river takes a large compass; so that {48} the same wind, which was
+before fair, proves contrary in this elbow, or reach. For this reason
+it was thought proper to build two forts at that place, one on each
+side of the river, to check any attempts of strangers. These forts are
+more than sufficient to oppose the passage of an hundred sail; as
+ships can go up the river, only one after another, and can neither
+cast anchor, nor come on shore to moor.
+
+It will, perhaps, be thought extraordinary that ships cannot anchor in
+this place. I imagine the reader will be of my opinion, when I tell
+him, the bottom is only a soft mud, or ooze, almost entirely covered
+with dead trees, and this for upwards of an hundred leagues. As to
+putting on shore, it is equally impossible and needless to attempt it;
+because the place where these forts stand, is but a neck of land
+between the river and the marshes: now it is impossible for a shallop,
+or canoe, to come near to moor a vessel, in sight of a fort well
+guarded, or for an enemy to throw up a trench in a neck of land so
+soft. Besides, the situation of the two forts is such, that they may in
+a short time receive succours, both from the inhabitants, who are on
+the interior edge of the crescent, formed by the river, and from New
+Orleans, which is very near thereto.
+
+The distance from this place to the capital is reckoned six leagues by
+water, and the course nearly circular; the winding, or reach, having
+the figure of a C almost close. Both sides of the river are lined with
+houses, which afford a beautiful prospect to the eye; however, as this
+voyage is tedious by water, it is often performed on horseback by
+land.
+
+The great difficulties attending the going up the river under sail,
+particularly at the English Reach, for the reasons mentioned, put me
+upon devising a very simple and cheap machine, to make vessels go up
+with ease quite to New-Orleans. Ships are sometimes a month in the
+passage from Balise to the capital; whereas by my method they would
+not be eight days, even with a contrary wind; and thus ships would go
+four times quicker than by towing, or turning it. This machine might
+be deposited at Balise, and delivered to the vessel, in order to go up
+the current, and be returned again on its setting sail. It is besides
+proper to observe, that this machine would be no detriment {49} to the
+forts, as they would always have it in their power to stop the vessels
+of enemies, who might happen to use it.
+
+New Orleans, the capital of the colony, is situated to the East, on
+the banks of the Missisippi, in 30° of North Latitude. At my first
+arrival in Louisiana, it existed only in name; for on my landing I
+understood M. de Biainville, commandant general, was only gone to mark
+out the spot; whence he returned three days after our arrival at Isle
+Dauphine.
+
+He pitched upon this spot in preference to many others, more agreeable
+and commodious; but for that time this was a place proper enough:
+besides, it is not every man that can see so far as some others. As
+the principal settlement was then at Mobile, it was proper to have the
+capital fixed at a place from which there could be an easy
+communication with this post: and thus a better choice could not have
+been made, as the town being on the banks of the Missisippi, vessels,
+tho' of a thousand ton, may lay their sides close to the shore even at
+low water; or at most, need only lay a small bridge, with two of their
+yards, in order to load or unload, to roll barrels and bales, &c.
+without fatiguing the ship's crew. This town is only a league from St.
+John's creek, where passengers take water for Mobile, in going to
+which they pass Lake St. Louis, and from thence all along the coast; a
+communication which was necessary at that time.
+
+I should imagine, that if a town was at this day to be built in this
+province, a rising ground would be pitched upon, to avoid inundations;
+besides, the bottom should be sufficiently firm, for bearing grand
+stone edifices.
+
+Such as have been a good way in the country, without seeing stone, or
+the least pebble, in upwards of a hundred leagues extent, will doubtless
+say, such a proposition is impossible, as they never observed stone
+proper for building in the parts they travelled over. I might answer,
+and tell them, they have eyes, and see not. I narrowly considered the
+nature of this country, and found quarries in it; and if there were any
+in the colony I ought to find them, as my condition and profession of
+architect should have procured me the knowledge of {51} them. After
+giving the situation of the capital, it is proper I describe the order
+in which it is built.
+
+[Illustration: _Plan of New Orleans, 1720_ (on p. 50)]
+
+The place of arms is in the middle of that part of the town which
+faces the river; in the middle of the ground of the place of arms
+stands the parish church, called St. Louis, where the Capuchins
+officiate, whose house is to the left of the church. To the right
+stand the prison, or jail, and the guard-house: both sides of the
+place of arms are taken up by two bodies or rows of barracks. This
+place stands all open to the river.
+
+All the streets are laid out both in length and breadth by the line,
+and intersect and cross each other at right angles. The streets divide
+the town into sixty-six isles; eleven along the river lengthwise, or
+in front, and six in depth: each of those isles is fifty square
+toises, and each again divided into twelve emplacements, or
+compartments, for lodging as many families. The Intendant's house
+stands behind the barracks on the left; and the magazine, or
+warehouse-general behind the barracks on the right, on viewing the
+town from the river side. The Governor's house stands in the middle of
+that part of the town, from which we go from the place of arms to the
+habitation of the Jesuits, which is near the town. The house of the
+Ursulin Nuns is quite at the end of the town, to the right; as is also
+the hospital of the sick, of which the nuns have the inspection. What
+I have just described faces the river.
+
+On the banks of the river runs a causey, or mole, as well on the side
+of the town as on the opposite side, from the English Reach quite to
+the town, and about ten leagues beyond it; which makes about fifteen
+or sixteen leagues on each side the river; and which may be travelled
+in a coach or on horseback, on a bottom as smooth as a table.
+
+The greatest part of the houses is of brick; the rest are of timber
+and brick.
+
+The length of the causeys, I just mentioned, is sufficient to shew,
+that on these two sides of the Missisippi there are many habitations
+standing close together; each making a causey to secure his ground
+from inundations, which fail not to come every year with the spring:
+and at that time, if any ships {52} happen to be in the harbour of New
+Orleans, they speedily set sail; because the prodigious quantity of
+dead wood, or trees torn up by the roots, which the river brings down,
+would lodge before the ship, and break the stoutest cables.
+
+At the end of St. John's Creek, on the banks of the Lake St. Louis,
+there is a redoubt, and a guard to defend it.
+
+From this creek to the town, a part of its banks is inhabited by
+planters; in like manner as are the long banks of another creek: the
+habitations of this last go under the name of Gentilly.
+
+After these habitations, which are upon the Missisippi quite beyond
+the Cannes Brulées, Burnt Canes, we meet none till we come to the
+Oumas, a petty nation so called. This settlement is inconsiderable,
+tho' one of the oldest next to the capital. It lies on the east of the
+Missisippi.
+
+The Baton Rogue is also on the east side of the Missisippi, and
+distant twenty-six leagues from New Orleans: it was formerly the grant
+of M. Artaguette d'Iron: it is there we see the famouse cypress-tree
+of which a ship-carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+sixteen, the other of fourteen tons. Some one of the first
+adventurers, who landed in this quarter, happened to say, that tree
+would make a fine walking-stick, and as cypress is a red wood, it was
+afterwards called le Baton Rouge. Its height could never be measured,
+it rises so out of sight.
+
+Two leagues higher up than le Baton Rouge, was the Grant of M. Paris
+du Vernai. This settlement is called Bayou-Ogoulas, from a nation of
+that name, which formerly dwelt here. It is on the west side of the
+Missisippi, and twenty-eight leagues from New Orleans.
+
+At a league on this side of Pointe Coupée, are les Petits Ecores,
+(little Cliffs) where was the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres. At
+this grant were a director and under-director; but the surgeon found
+out the secret of remaining sole master. The place is very beautiful,
+especially behind les Petits Ecores, where we go up by a gentle
+ascent. Near these cliffs, a rivulet falls into the Missisippi, into
+which a spring discharges its waters, which so attract the buffalos,
+that they are very often {53} found on its banks. 'Tis a pity this
+ground was deserted; there was enough of it to make a very
+considerable grant: a good water-mill might be guilt on the brook I
+just mentioned.
+
+At forty leagues from New Orleans lies a la Pointe Coupée, so called,
+because the Missisippi made there an elbow or winding, and formed the
+figure of a circle, open only about an hundred and odd toises, thro'
+which it made itself a shorter way, and where all its water runs at
+present. This was not the work of nature alone: two travellers, coming
+down the Missisippi, were forced to stop short at this place, because
+they observed at a distance the surff, or waves, to be very high, the
+wind beating against the current, and the river being out, so that they
+durst not venture to proceed. Just by them passed a rivulet, caused by
+the inundation, which might be a foot deep, by four or five feet broad,
+more or less. One of the travellers, seeing himself without any thing to
+do, took his fusil and followed the course of this rivulet, in hopes of
+killing some game. He had not gone an hundred toises, before he was put
+into a very great surprize, on perceiving a great opening, as when one
+is just getting out of a thick forest. He continues to advance, sees a
+large extent of water, which he takes for a lake; but turning on his
+left, he espies les Petits Ecores, just mentioned, and by experience he
+knew, he must go ten leagues to get thither: Upon this he knew, these
+were the waters of the river. He runs to acquaint his companion: this
+last wants to be sure of it: certain as they are both of it, they
+resolve, that it was necessary to cut away the roots, which stood in the
+passage, and to level the more elevated places. They attempted at length
+to pass their pettyaugre through, by pushing it before them. They
+succeeded beyond their expectation; the water which came on, aided them
+as much by its weight as by its depth, which was increased by the
+obstacle it met in its way: and they saw themselves in a short time in
+the Missisippi, ten leagues lower down than they were an hour before; or
+than they would have been, if they had followed the bed of the river, as
+they were formerly constrained to do.
+
+This little labour of our travellers moved the earth; the roots being
+cut away in part, proved no longer an obstacle to {54} the course of
+the water; the slope or descent in this small passage was equal to
+that in the river for the ten leagues of the compass it took; in fine,
+nature, though feebly aided, performed the rest. The first time I went
+up the river, its entire body of water passed through this part; and
+though the channel was only made six years before, the old bed was
+almost filled with the ooze, which the river had there deposited; and
+I have seen trees growing there of an astonishing size, that one might
+wonder how they should come to be so large in so short a time.
+
+In this spot, which is called la Pointe Coupée, the Cut-point, was the
+Grant of M. de Meuse, at present one of the most considerable posts of
+the colony, with a fort, a garrison, and an officer to command there.
+The river is on each side lined with inhabitants, who make a great
+deal of tobacco. There an Inspector resides, who examines and receives
+it, in order to prevent the merchants being defrauded. The inhabitants
+of the west side have high lands behind them, which form a very fine
+country, as I have observed above.
+
+Twenty leagues above this Cut-point, and sixty leagues from New
+Orleans, we meet with the Red River. In an island formed by that
+river, stands a French post, with a fort, a garrison, its commandant
+and officers. The first inhabitants who settled there, were some
+soldiers of that post, discharged after their time of serving was
+expired, who set themselves to make tobacco in the island. But the
+fine sand, carried by the wind upon the leaves of the tobacco, made it
+of a bad quality, which obliged them to abandon the island and settle
+on the continent, where they found a good soil, on which they made
+better tobacco. This post is called the Nachitoches, from a nation of
+that name, settled in the neighbourhood. At this post M. de St. Denis
+commanded.
+
+Several inhabitants of Louisiana, allured thither by the hopes of making
+soon great fortunes, because distant only seven leagues from the
+Spaniards, imagined the abundant treasures of New Mexico would pour in
+upon them. But in this they happened to be mistaken; for the Spanish
+post, called the Adaïes less money in it than the poorest village in
+Europe: the Spaniards being ill clad, ill fed, and always ready to buy
+{55} goods of the French on credit: which may be said in general of all
+the Spaniards of New Mexico, amidst all their mines of gold and silver.
+This we are well informed of by our merchants, who have dealt with the
+Spaniards of this post, and found their habitations and way of living to
+be very mean, and more so than those of the French.
+
+From the confluence of this Red River, in going up the Missisippi, as
+we have hitherto done, we find, about thirty leagues higher up, the
+post of the Natchez.
+
+Let not the reader be displeased at my saying often, _nearly_, or _about
+so many leagues_: we can ascertain nothing justly as to the distances
+in a country where we travel only by water. Those who go up the
+Missisippi, having more trouble, and taking more time than those who
+go down, reckon the route more or less long, according to the time in
+which they make their voyage; besides, when the water is high, it
+covers passes, which often shorten the way a great deal.
+
+The Natchez are situate in about 32° odd minutes of north latitude,
+and 280° of longitude. The fort at this post stands two hundred feet
+perpendicular above low-water mark. From this fort the point of view
+extends west of the Missisippi quite to the horizon, that is, on the
+side opposite to that where the fort stands, though the west side be
+covered with woods, because the foot of the fort stands much higher
+than the trees. On the same side with the fort, the country holds at a
+pretty equal height, and declines only by a gentle and almost
+imperceptible slope, insensibly losing itself from one eminence to
+another.
+
+The nation which gave name to this post, inhabited this very place at
+a league from the landing-place on the Missisippi, and dwelt on the
+banks of a rivulet, which has only a course of four or five leagues to
+that river. All travellers who passed and stopped here, went to pay a
+visit to the natives, the Natchez. The distance of the league they
+went to them is through so fine and good a country, the natives
+themselves were so obliging and familiar, and the women so amiable,
+that all travellers failed not to make the greatest encomiums both on
+the country, and on the native inhabitants.
+
+{56} The just commendations bestowed upon them drew thither
+inhabitants in such numbers, as to determine the Company to give
+orders for building a fort there, as well to support the French
+already settled, and those who should afterwards come thither, as to
+be a check on that nation. The garrison consisted only of between
+thirty and forty men, a Captain, a Lieutenant, Under Lieutenant, and
+two Serjeants.
+
+The Company had there a warehouse for the supply of the inhabitants, who
+were daily increasing in spite of all the efforts of one of the
+principal Superiors, who put all imaginable obstacles in the way: and
+notwithstanding the progress this settlement made, and the encomiums
+bestowed upon it, and which it deserved, God in his providence gave it
+up to the rage of its enemies, in order to take vengeance of the sins
+committed there; for without mentioning those who escaped the general
+massacre, there perished of them upwards of five hundred.
+
+Forty leagues higher up than the Natchez, is the river Yasou. The
+Grant of M. le Blanc, Minister, or Secretary at War, was settled
+there, four leagues from the Missisippi, as you go up this little
+river. [Footnote: The village of the Indians (Yasous) is a league from
+this settlement; and on one side of it there is a hill, on which they
+pretend that the English formerly had a fort; accordingly there are
+still some traces of it to be seen. _Dumont_, II. 296.] There a fort
+stands, with a company of men, commanded by a Captain, a Lieutenant,
+Under-Lieutenant, and two Serjeants. This company, together with the
+servants, were in the pay of this Minister.
+
+This post was very advantageously situated, as well for the goodness
+of the air as the quality of the soil, like to that of the Natchez, as
+for the landing-place, which was very commodious, and for the commerce
+with the natives, if our people but knew how to gain and preserve
+their friendship. But the neighbourhood of the Chicasaws, ever fast
+friends of the English, and ever instigated by them to give us
+uneasiness, almost cut off any hopes of succeeding. This post was on
+these accounts threatened with utter ruin, sooner or later; as
+actually happened in 1722, by means of those wretched Chicasaws; {57}
+who came in the night and murdered the people in the settlements that
+were made by two serjeants out of the fort. But a boy who was scalped
+by them was cured, and escaped with life.
+
+Sixty miles higher up than the Yasouz, and at the distance of two
+hundred leagues from New Orleans, dwell the Arkansas, to the west of
+the Missisippi. At the entrance of the river which goes by the name of
+that nation, there is a small fort, which defends that post, which is
+the second of the colony in point of time.
+
+It is a great pity so good and fine a country is distant from the sea
+upwards of two hundred leagues. I cannot omit mentioning, that wheat
+thrives extremely well here, without our being obliged ever to manure
+the land; and I am so prepossessed in its favour, that I persuade
+myself the beauty of the climate has a great influence on the
+character of the inhabitants, who are at the same time very gentle and
+very brave. They have ever had an inviolable friendship for the
+French, uninfluenced thereto either by fear or views of interest; and
+live with the French near them as brethren rather than as neighbours.
+
+In going from the Arkansas to the Illinois, we meet with the river St.
+Francis, thirty leagues more to the north, and on the west side of the
+Missisippi. There a small fort has been built since my return to
+France. To the East of the Missisippi, but more to the north, we also
+meet, at about thirty leagues, the river Margot, near the steep banks
+of Prud'homme: there a fort was also built, called Assumption, for
+undertaking an expedition against the Chicasaws, who are nearly in the
+same latitude. These two forts, after that expedition, were entirely
+demolished by the French, because they were thought to be no longer
+necessary. It is, however, probable enough, that this fort Assumption
+would have been a check upon the Chicasaws, who are always roving in
+those parts. Besides, the steep banks of Prud'homme contain iron and
+pit-coal. On the other hand, the country is very beautiful, and of an
+excellent quality, abounding with plains and meadows, which favour the
+excursions of the Chicasaws, and which they will ever continue to make
+upon us, till we have the address to divert them from their commerce
+with the English.
+
+{58} We have no other French settlements to mention in Louisiana, but
+that of the Illinois; in which part of the colony we had the first
+fort. At present the French settlement here is on the banks of the
+Missisippi, near one of the villages of the Illinois. [Footnote: They
+have, or had formerly, other settlements hereabouts, at Kaskaskies,
+fort Chartres, Tamaroas, and on the river Marameg, on the west side of
+the Missisippi, where they found those mines that gave rise to the
+Missisippi scheme in 1719. In 1742, when John Howard, Sallee and
+others, were sent from Virginia to view those countries, they were
+made prisoners by the French; who came from a settlement they had on
+an island in the Missisippi, a little above the Ohio, where they made
+salt, lead, &c. and went from thence to New Orleans, in a fleet of
+boats and canoes, guarded by a large armed schooner. _Report of the
+Government of Virginia_.] That post is commanded by one of the
+principal officers; and M. de Bois-Briant, who was lieutenant of the
+king, has commanded at it.
+
+Many French inhabitants both from Canada and Europe live there at this
+day; but the Canadians make three-fourths at least. The Jesuits have
+the Cure there, with a fine habitation and a mill; in digging the
+foundation of which last, a quarry of orbicular flat stones was found,
+about two inches in diameter, of the shape of a buffoon's cap, with
+six sides, whose groove was set with small buttons of the size of the
+head of a minikin or small pin. Some of these stones were bigger, some
+smaller; between the stones which could not be joined, there was no
+earth found.
+
+The Canadians, who are numerous in Louisiana, are most of them at the
+Illinois. This climate, doubtless, agrees better with them, because
+nearer Canada than any other settlement of the colony. Besides, in
+coming from Canada, they always pass through this settlement; which
+makes them choose to continue here. They bring their wives with them,
+or marry the French or India women. The ladies even venture to make
+this long and painful voyage from Canada, in order to end their days in
+a country which the Canadians look upon as a terrestrial paradise
+[Footnote: It is this that has made the French undergo so many long and
+perilous voyages in North-America, upwards of two thousand miles,
+against currents, cataracts, and boisterous winds on the lakes, in
+order to get to this settlement of the Illinois, which is nigh to the
+Forks of the Missisippi, the most important place in all the inland
+parts of North-America, to which the French will sooner or later remove
+from Canada; and there erect another Montreal, that will be much more
+dangerous and prejudicial to us, than ever the other in Canada was.
+They will here be in the midst of all their old friends and allies, and
+much more convenient to carry on a trade with them, to spirit them up
+against the English, &c. than ever they were at Montreal. To this
+settlement, where they likewise are not without good hopes of finding
+mines, the French will for ever be removing, as long as any of them are
+left in Canada.]
+
+{59}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_The Voyages of the_ French _to the_ Missouris, Canzas, _and_ Padoucas.
+_The Settlements they in vain attempted to make in those Countries; with
+a Description of an extraordinary Phaenomenon._
+
+
+The Padoucas, who lie west by northwest of the Missouris, happened at
+that time to be at war with the neighbouring nations, the Canzas,
+Othouez, Aiaouez, Osages, Missouris, and Panimahas, all in amity with
+the French. To conciliate a peace between all these nations and the
+Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont sent to engage them, as being our allies, to
+accompany him on a journey to the Padoucas, in order to bring about a
+general pacification, and by that means to facilitate the traffick or
+truck between them and us, and conclude an alliance with the Padoucas.
+
+For this purpose M. de Bourgmont set out on the 3d of July, 1724, from
+Fort Orleans, which lies near the Missouris, a nation dwelling on the
+banks of the river of that name, in order to join that people, and
+then to proceed to the Canzas, where the general rendezvous of the
+several nations was appointed.
+
+M. de Bourgmont was accompanied by an hundred Missouris, commanded by
+their Grand Chief, and eight other Chiefs of war, and by sixty-four
+Osages, commanded by four Chiefs of war, besides a few Frenchmen. On
+the sixth he joined the Grand Chief, six other Chiefs of war, and
+several Warriors of the Canzas, who presented him the Pipe of Peace,
+{60} and performed the honours customary on such occasions, to the
+Missouris and Osages.
+
+On the 7th they passed through extensive meadows and woods, and
+arrived on the banks of the river Missouri, over against the village
+of the Canzas.
+
+On the 8th the French crossed the Missouri in a pettyaugre, the
+Indians on floats of cane, and the horses were swam over. They landed
+within a gun-shot of the Canzas, who flocked to receive them with the
+Pipe; their Grand Chief, in the name of the nation, assuring M. de
+Bourgmont that all their warriors would accompany him in his journey
+to the Padoucas, with protestations of friendship and fidelity,
+confirmed by smoking the Pipe. The same assurances were made him by
+the other Chiefs, who entertained him in their huts, and [Footnote: It
+is thus they express their joy and caresses, at the sight of a person
+they respect.] rubbed him over and his companions.
+
+On the 9th M. de Bourgmont dispatched five Missouris to acquaint the
+Othouez with his arrival at the Canzas. They returned on the 10th, and
+brought word that the Othouez promised to hunt for him and his
+Warriors, and to cause provisions to be dried for the journey; that
+their Chief would set out directly, in order to wait on M. de
+Bourgmont, and carry him the word of the whole nation.
+
+The Canzas continued to regale the French; brought them also great
+quantities of grapes, of which the French made a good wine.
+
+On the 24th of July, at six in the morning, this little army set out,
+consisting of three hundred Warriors, including the Chiefs of the
+Canzas, three hundred women, about five hundred young people, and at
+least three hundred dogs. The women carried considerable loads, to the
+astonishment of the French, unaccustomed to such a sight. The young
+women also were well loaded for their years; and the dogs were made to
+trail a part of the baggage, and that in the following manner: the
+back of the dog was covered with a skin, with its pile on, then the
+dog was girthed round, and his breast-leather put on; and {61} taking
+two poles of the thickness of one's arm, and twelve feet long, they
+fastened their two ends half a foot asunder, laying on the dog's
+saddle the thong that fastened the two poles; and to the poles they
+also fastened, behind the dog, a ring or hoop, lengthwise, on which
+they laid the load.
+
+On the 28th and 29th the army crossed several brooks and small rivers,
+passed through several meadows and thickets, meeting every where on
+their way a great deal of game.
+
+On the 30th M. de Bourgmont, finding himself very ill, was obliged to
+have a litter made, in order to be carried back to Fort Orleans till
+he should recover. Before his departure he gave orders about two
+Padouca slaves whom he had ransomed, and was to send before him to
+that nation, in order to ingratiate himself by this act of generosity.
+These he caused to be sent by one Gaillard, who was to tell their
+nation, that M. de Bourgmont, being fallen ill on his intended journey
+to their country, was obliged to return home; but that as soon as he
+got well again, he would resume his journey to their country, in order
+to procure a general peace between them and the other nations.
+
+On the evening of the same day arrived at the camp the Grand Chief of
+the Othouez: who acquainted M. de Bourgmont, that a great part of his
+Warriors waited for him on the road to the Padoucas, and that he came
+to receive his orders; but was sorry to find him ill.
+
+At length, on the 4th of August, M. de Bourgmont set out from the
+Canzas in a pettyaugre, and arrived the 5th at Fort Orleans.
+
+On the 6th of September, M. de Bourgmont, who was still at Fort
+Orleans, was informed of the arrival of the two Padouca slaves on the
+25th of August at their own nation; and that meeting on the way a body
+of Padouca hunters, a day's journey from their village, the Padouca
+slaves made the signal of their nation, by throwing their mantles
+thrice over their heads: that they spoke much in commendation of the
+generosity of M. de Bourgmont, who had ransomed them: told all he had
+done in order to a general pacification: in fine, extolled the French
+to such a degree, that their discourse, held in presence {62} of the
+Grand Chief and of the whole nation, diffused an universal joy that
+Gaillard told them, the flag they saw was the symbol of Peace, and the
+word of the Sovereign of the French: that in a little time the several
+nations would come to be like brethren, and have but one heart.
+
+The Grand Chief of the Padoucas was so well assured that the war was
+now at an end, that he dispatched twenty Padoucas with Gaillard to the
+Canzas, by whom they were extremely well received. The Padoucas, on
+their return home, related their good reception among the Canzas; and
+as a plain and real proof of the pacification meditated by the French,
+brought with them fifty of the Canzas and three of their women; who,
+in their turn, were received by the Padoucas with all possible marks
+of friendship.
+
+Though M. de Bourgmont was but just recovering of his illness; he,
+however, prepared for his departure, and on the 20th of September
+actually set out from Fort Orleans by water, and arrived at the Canzas
+on the 27th.
+
+Gaillard arrived on the 2nd of October at the camp of the Canzas, with
+three Chiefs of war, and three Warriors of the Padoucas, who were
+received by M. de Bourgmont with flag displayed, and other testimonies
+of civility, and had presents made them of several goods, proper for
+their use.
+
+On the 4th of October arrived at the Canzas the Grand Chief, and seven
+other Chiefs of war of the Othouez; and next day, very early, six
+Chiefs of war of the Aiaouez.
+
+M. de Bourgmant assembled all the Chiefs present, and setting them
+round a large fire made before his tent, rose up, and addressing
+himself to them, said, he was come to declare to them, in the name of
+his Sovereign, and of the Grand French Chief in the country, [Footnote:
+The Governor of Louisiana.] that it was the will of his Sovereign,
+they should all live in peace for the future, like brethren and
+friends, if they expected to enjoy his love and protection: and since,
+says he, you are here all assembled this day, it is good you conclude
+a peace, and all smoke in the same pipe.
+
+{63} The Chiefs of these different nations rose up to a man, and said
+with one consent, they were well satisfied to comply with his request;
+and instantly gave each other their pipes of peace.
+
+After an entertainment prepared for them, the Padoucas sung the songs,
+and danced the dances of peace; a kind of pantomimes, representing the
+innocent pleasures of peace.
+
+On the 6th of October, M. de Bourgmont caused three lots of goods to
+be made out; one for the Othouez, one for the Aiaouez, and one for the
+Panimahas, which last arrived in the mean time; and made them all
+smoke in the same pipe of peace.
+
+On the 8th M. de Bourgmont set out from the Canzas with all the
+baggage, and the flag displayed, at the head of the French and such
+Indians as he had pitched on to accompany him, in all forty persons.
+The goods intended for presents were loaded on horses. As they set out
+late, they travelled but five leagues, in which they crossed a small
+river and two brooks, in a fine country, with little wood.
+
+The same day Gaillard, Quenel, and two Padoucas were dispatched to
+acquaint their nation with the march of the French. That day they
+travelled ten leagues, crossed one river and two brooks.
+
+The 10th they made eight leagues, crossed two small rivers and three
+brooks. To their right and left they had several small hills, on which
+one could observe pieces of rock even with the ground. Along the
+rivers there is found a slate, and in the meadows, a reddish marble,
+standing out of the earth, one, two, and three feet; some pieces of it
+upwards of six feet in diameter.
+
+The 11th they passed over several brooks and a small river, and then
+the river of the Canzas, which had only three feet water. Further on,
+they found several brooks, issuing from the neighbouring little hills.
+The river of the Canzas runs directly from west to east, and falls
+into the Missouri; is very great in floods, because, according to the
+report of the Padoucas, it comes a great way off. The woods, which
+border this river, afford a retreat to numbers of buffaloes and other
+game. On the left were seen great eminences, with hanging rocks.
+
+{64} The 12th of October, the journey, as the preceding day, was
+extremely diversified by the variety of objects. They crossed eight
+brooks, beautiful meadows, covered with herds of elks and buffaloes.
+To the right the view was unbounded, but to the left small hills were
+seen at a distance, which from time to time presented the appearance
+of ancient castles.
+
+The 13th, on their march they saw the meadows covered almost entirely
+with buffaloes, elks and deer; so that one could scarce distinguish
+the different herds, so numerous and so intermixed they were. The same
+day they passed through a wood almost two leagues long, and a pretty
+rough ascent; a thing which seemed extraordinary, as till then they
+only met with little groves, the largest of which scarce contained an
+hundred trees, but straight as a cane; groves too small to afford a
+retreat to a quarter of the buffaloes and elks seen there.
+
+The 14th the march was retarded by ascents and descents; from which
+issued many springs of an extreme pure water, forming several brooks,
+whose waters uniting make little rivers that fall into the river of
+the Canzas: and doubtless it is this multitude of brooks which
+traverse and water these meadows, extending a great way out of sight,
+that invite those numerous herds of buffaloes.
+
+The 15th they crossed several brooks and two little rivers. It is
+chiefly on the banks of the waters that we find those enchanting
+groves, adorned with grass underneath, and so clear of underwood, that
+we may there hunt down the stag with ease.
+
+The 16th they continued to pass over a similar landscape, the beauties
+of which were never cloying. Besides the larger game, these groves
+afforded also a retreat to flocks of turkeys.
+
+The 17th they made very little way, because they wanted to get into
+the right road, from which they had strayed the two preceding days,
+which they at length recovered; and, at a small distance from their
+camp, saw an encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to have been
+quitted only about eight days before. This yielded them so much the
+more pleasure, as it shewed the nearness of that nation, which made
+them encamp, after having travelled only six leagues, in order {65} to
+make signals from that place, by setting fire to the parts of the
+meadows which the general fire had spared. In a little time after the
+signal was answered in the same manner; and confirmed by the arrival
+of two Frenchmen, who had orders given them to make the signals.
+
+On the 18th they met a little river of brackish water; on the banks of
+which they found another encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to
+have been abandoned but four days before: at half a league further on,
+a great smoke was seen to the west, at no great distance off, which
+was answered by setting fire to the parts of the meadows, untouched by
+the general fire.
+
+About half an hour after, the Padoucas were observed coming at full
+gallop with the flag which Gaillard had left them on his first journey
+to their country. M. de Bourgmont instantly ordered the French under
+arms, and at the head of his people thrice saluted these strangers
+with his flag, which they also returned thrice, by raising their
+mantles as many times over their heads.
+
+After this first ceremony, M. de Bourgmont made them all sit down and
+smoke in the Pipe of Peace. This action, being the seal of the peace,
+diffused a general joy, accompanied with loud acclamations.
+
+The Padoucas, after mounting the French and the Indians who
+accompanied them, on their horses, set out for their camp: and after a
+journey of three leagues, arrived at their encampment; but left a
+distance of a gun-shot between the two camps.
+
+The day after their arrival at the Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont caused
+the goods allotted for this nation to be unpacked, and the different
+species parcelled out, which he made them all presents of.[Footnote:
+Red and blue Limburgs, shirts, fusils, sabres, gun-powder, ball,
+musket-flints, gunscrews, mattocks, hatchets, looking-glasses, Flemish
+knives, wood cutters knives, clasp-knives, scissars, combs, bells,
+awls, needles, drinking glasses, brass-wire, boxes, rings, &c.]
+
+
+After which M. de Bourgmont sent for the Grand Chief and other Chiefs
+of the Padoucas, who came to the camp to the number of two hundred:
+and placing himself between them and {66} the goods thus parcelled and
+laid out to view, told them, he was sent by his Sovereign to carry
+them the word of peace, this flag, and these goods, and to exhort them
+to live as brethren with their neighbours the Panimahas, Aiaouez,
+Othouez, Canzas, Missouris, Osages, and Illinois, to traffick and
+truck freely together, and with the French.
+
+He at the same time gave the flag to the Grand Chief of the Padoucas,
+who received it with demonstrations of respect, and told him, I accept
+this flag, which you present to me on the part of your Sovereign: we
+rejoice at our having peace with all the nations you have mentioned;
+and promise in the name of our nation never to make war on any of your
+allies; but receive them, when they come among us, as our brethren; as
+we shall, in like manner, the French, and conduct them, when they want
+to go to the Spaniards, who are but twelve days journey from our
+village, and who truck with us in horses, of which they have such
+numbers, they know not what to do with them; also in bad hatchets of a
+soft iron, and some knives, whose points they break off, lest we
+should use them one day against themselves. You may command all my
+Warriors; I can furnish you with upwards of two thousand. In my own,
+and in the name of my whole nation, I entreat you to send some
+Frenchmen to trade with us; we can supply them with horses, which we
+truck with the Spaniards for buffalo-mantles, and with great
+quantities of furs.
+
+Before I quit the Padoucas, I shall give a summary of their manners;
+it may not, perhaps, be disagreeable to know in what respects they
+differ from other Indian nations.[Footnote: The Author should likewise
+have informed us of the fate of those intended settlements of the
+French, which Dumont tells us were destroyed, and all the French
+murdered by the Indians, particularly among the Missouris; which is
+confirmed below in book 11. ch. 7.]
+
+The Padoucas, who live at a distance from the Spaniards, cultivate no
+grain, and live only on hunting. But they are not to be considered as
+a wandering nation, tho' employed in hunting winter and summer; seeing
+they have large villages, consisting of a great number of cabins,
+which contain very numerous families: these are their permanent
+abodes; from which a {67} hundred hunters set out at a time with their
+horses, their bows, and a good stock of arrows. They go thus two or
+three days journey from home, where they find herds of buffaloes, the
+least of which consists of a hundred head. They load their horses with
+their baggage, tents and children, conducted by a man on horseback: by
+this means the men, women, and young people travel unencumbered and
+light, without being fatigued by the journey. When come to the
+hunting-spot, they encamp near a brook, where there is always wood;
+the horses they tie by one of their fore-feet with a string to a stake
+or bush.
+
+Next morning they each of them mount a horse, and proceed to the first
+herd, with the wind at their back, to the end the buffaloes may scent
+them, and take to flight, which they never fail to do, because they
+have a very quick scent. Then the hunters pursue them close at an easy
+gallop, and in a crescent, or half ring, till they hang out the tongue
+through fatigue, and can do no more than just walk: the hunters then
+dismount, point a dart at the extremity of the shoulder, and kill each
+of them one cow, sometimes more: for, as I said above, they never kill
+the males. Then they flay them, take out the entrails, and cut the
+carcasse in two; the head, feet, and entrails they leave to the wolves
+and other carnivorous animals: the skin they lay on the horse, and on
+that the flesh, which they carry home. Two days after they go out
+again; and then they bring home the meat stript from the bones; the
+women and young people dress it in the Indian fashion; while the men
+return for some days longer to hunt in the same manner. They carry
+home their dry provisions, and let their horses rest for three or four
+days: at the end of which, those who remained in the village, set out
+with the others to hunt in the like manner; which has made ignorant
+travellers affirm this people was a wandering nation.
+
+If they sow little or no maiz, they as little plant any citruis, never
+any tobacco; which last the Spaniards bring them in rolls, along with
+the horses they truck with them for buffalo-mantles.
+
+The nation of the Padoucas is very numerous, extends almost two
+hundred leagues, and they have villages quite close {68} to the
+Spaniards of New Mexico. They are acquainted with silver, and made the
+French understand they worked at the mines. The inhabitants of the
+villages at a distance from the Spaniards, have knives made of
+fire-stone, (_pierre de feu_,) of which they also make hatchets; the
+largest to fell middling and little trees with; the less, to flay and
+cut up the beasts they kill.
+
+These people are far from being savage, nor would it be a difficult
+matter to civilize them; a plain proof they have had long intercourse
+with the Spaniards. The few days the French stayed among them, they
+were become very familiar, and would fain have M. de Bourgmont leave
+some Frenchmen among them; especially they of the village at which the
+peace was concluded with the other nations. This village consisted of
+an hundred and forty huts, containing about eight hundred warriors,
+fifteen hundred women, and at least two thousand children, some
+Padoucas having four wives. When they are in want of horses, they
+train up great dogs to carry their baggage.
+
+The men for the most part wear breeches and stockings all of a piece,
+made of dressed skins, in the manner of the Spaniards: the women also
+wear petticoats and bodices all of a piece, adorning their waists with
+fringes of dressed skins.
+
+They are almost without any European goods among them, and have but a
+faint knowledge of them. They knew nothing of fire-arms before the
+arrival of M. de Bourgmont; were much frighted at them; and on hearing
+the report, quaked and bowed their heads.
+
+They generally go to war on horseback, and cover their horses with
+dressed leather, hanging down quite round, which secures them from
+darts. All we have hitherto remarked is peculiar to this people,
+besides the other usages they have in common with the nations of
+Louisiana.
+
+On the 22nd of October, M. de Bourginont set out from the Padoucas,
+and travelled only five leagues that day: the 23d, and the three
+following days, he travelled in all forty leagues: the 27th, six
+leagues: the 28th, eight leagues: the 29th, six leagues; and the 30th,
+as many: the 31st, he travelled only four leagues, and that day
+arrived within half a league of the Canzas. From the Padoucas to the
+Canzas, proceeding always {69} east, we may now very safely reckon
+sixty-five leagues and a half. The river of the Canzas is parallel to
+this route.
+
+On the 1st of November they all arrived on the banks of the Missouri.
+M. de Bourgmont embarked the 2d on a canoe of skins; and at length, on
+the 5th of November, arrived at Fort Orleans.
+
+I shall here subjoin the description of one of these canoes. They
+choose for the purpose branches of a white and supple wood, such as
+poplar; which are to form the ribs or curves, and are fastened on the
+outside with three poles, one at bottom and two on the sides, to form
+the keel; to these curves two other stouter poles are afterwards made
+fast, to form the gunnels; then they tighten these sides with cords,
+the length of which is in proportion to the intended breadth of the
+canoe: after which they tie fast the ends. When all the timbers are
+thus disposed, they sew on the skins, which they take care previously
+to soak a considerable time to render them manageable.
+
+From the account of this journey, extracted and abridged from M. de
+Bourgmont's Journal, we cannot fail to observe the care and attention
+necessary to be employed in such enterprizes; the prudence and policy
+requisite to manage the natives, and to behave with them in an affable
+manner.
+
+If we view these nations with an eye to commerce, what advantages
+might not be derived from them, as to furs? A commerce not only very
+lucrative, but capable of being carried on without any risque;
+especially if we would follow the plan I am to lay down under the
+article Commerce.
+
+The relation of this journey shews, moreover, that Louisiana maintains
+its good qualities throughout; and that the natives of North America
+derive their origin from the same country, since at bottom they all
+have the same manners and usages, as also the same manner of speaking
+and thinking.
+
+I, however, except the Natchez, and the people they call their
+brethren, who have preserved festivals and ceremonies, which clearly
+shew they have a far nobler origin. Besides, the richness of their
+language distinguishes them from all those other people that come from
+Tartary; whose language, on the {70} contrary, is very barren: but if
+they resemble the others in certain customs, they were constrained
+thereto from the ties of a common society with them, as in their wars,
+embassies, and in every thing that regards the common interests of
+these nations.
+
+Before I put an end to this chapter, I shall relate an extraordinary
+phænomenon which appeared in Louisiana.
+
+Towards the end of May 1726, the sun was then concealed for a whole
+day by large clouds, but very distinct one from another; they left but
+little void space between, to permit the view of the azure sky, and
+but in very few places: the whole day was very calm; in the evening
+especially these clouds were entirely joined; no sky was to be seen;
+but all the different configurations of the clouds were
+distinguishable: I observed they stood very high above the earth.
+
+The weather being so disposed, the sun was preparing to set. I saw him
+in the instant he touched the horizon, because there was a little
+clear space between that and the clouds. A little after, these clouds
+turned luminous, or reflected the light: the contour or outlines of
+most of them seemed to be bordered with gold, others but with a faint
+tincture thereof. It would be a very difficult matter to describe all
+the beauties which these different colourings presented to the view:
+but the whole together formed the finest prospect I ever beheld of the
+kind.
+
+I had my face turned to the east; and in the little time the sun
+formed this decoration, he proceeded to hide himself more and more;
+when sufficiently low, so that the shadow of the earth could appear on
+the convexity of the clouds, there was observed as if a veil,
+stretched north to south, had concealed or removed the light from off
+that part of the clouds which extended eastwards, and made them dark,
+without hindering their being perfectly well distinguished; so that
+all on the same line were partly luminous, partly dark.
+
+This very year I had a strong inclination to quit the post at the
+Natchez, where I had continued for eight years. I had taken that
+resolution, notwithstanding my attachment to that {71} settlement. I
+sold off my effects and went down to New Orleans, which I found
+greatly altered by being entirely built. I intended to return to
+Europe; but M. Perier, the Governor, pressed me so much, that I
+accepted the inspection of the plantation of the Company; which, in a
+little time after, became the King's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_The War with the_ Chitimachas. _The Conspiracy of the Negroes against
+the_ French. _Their Execution._
+
+
+Before my arrival in Louisiana, we happened to be at war with the
+nation of the Chitimachas; owing to one of that people, who being gone
+to dwell in a bye-place on the banks of the Missisippi, had
+assassinated M. de St. Come, a Missionary of that colony; who, in
+going down the river, imagined he might in safety retire into this
+man's hut for a night. M. de Biainville charged the whole nation with
+this assassination; and in order to save his own people, caused them
+to be attacked by several nations in alliance with the French.
+
+Prowess is none of the greatest qualities of the Indians, much less of
+the Chitimachas. They were therefore worsted, and the loss of their
+bravest warriors constrained them to sue for peace. This the Governor
+granted, on condition that they brought him the head of the assassin;
+which they accordingly did, and concluded a peace by the ceremony of
+the Calumet, hereafter described.
+
+At the time the succours were expected from France, in order to
+destroy the Natchez, the negroes formed a design to rid themselves of
+all the French at once, and to settle in their room, by making
+themselves masters of the capital, and of all the property of the
+French. It was discovered in the following manner.
+
+A female negroe receiving a violent blow from a French soldier for
+refusing to obey him, said in her passion, that the French should not
+long insult negroes. Some Frenchmen overhearing these threats, brought
+her before the Governor, {72} who sent her to prison. The Judge
+Criminal not being able to draw any thing out of her, I told the
+Governor, who seemed to pay no great regard to her threats, that I was
+of opinion, that a man in liquor, and a woman in passion, generally
+speak truth. It is therefore highly probable, said I that there is
+some truth in what she said: and if so, there must be some conspiracy
+ready to break out, which cannot be formed without many negroes of the
+King's plantation being accomplices therein: and if there are any, I
+take upon me, said I, to find them out, and arrest them, if necessary,
+without any disorder or tumult.
+
+The Governor and the whole Court approved of my reasons: I went that
+very evening to the camp of the negroes, and from hut to hut, till I
+saw a light. In this hut I heard them talking together of their
+scheme. One of them was my first commander and my confidant, which
+surprised me greatly; his name was Samba.
+
+I speedily retired for fear of being discovered; and in two days
+after, eight negroes, who were at the head of the conspiracy, were
+separately arrested, unknown to each other, and clapt in irons without
+the least tumult.
+
+The day after, they were put to the torture of burning matches, which,
+though several times repeated, could not bring them to make any
+confession. In the mean time I learnt that Samba had in his own
+country been at the head of the revolt by which the French lost Fort
+Arguin; and when it was recovered again by M. Perier de Salvert, one
+of the principal articles of the peace was, that this negro should be
+condemned to slavery in America: that Samba, on his passage, had laid
+a scheme to murder the crew, in order to become master of the ship;
+but that being discovered, he was put in irons, in which he continued
+till he landed in Louisiana.
+
+I drew up a memorial of all this; which was read before Samba by the
+Judge Criminal; who, threatening him again with torture, told him, he
+had ever been a seditious fellow: upon which Samba directly owned all
+the circumstances of the conspiracy; and the rest being confronted
+with him, confessed {73} also: after which, the eight negroes were
+condemned to be broke alive on the wheel, and the woman to be hanged
+before their eyes; which was accordingly done, and prevented the
+conspiracy from taking effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+_The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the_ French _in 1729. Extirpation
+of the_ Natchez _in 1730._
+
+
+In the beginning of the month of December 1729, we heard at New
+Orleans, with the most affecting grief, of the massacre of the French
+at the post of the Natchez, occasioned by the imprudent conduct of the
+Commandant. I shall trace that whole affair from its rise.
+
+The Sieur de Chopart had been Commandant of the post of the Natchez,
+from which he was removed on account of some acts of injustice. M.
+Perier, Commandant General, but lately arrived, suffered himself to be
+prepossessed in his favour, on his telling him, that he had commanded
+that post with applause: and thus he obtained the command from M.
+Perier, who was unacquainted with his character.
+
+This new Commandant, on taking possession of his post, projected the
+forming one of the most eminent settlements of the whole colony. For
+this purpose he examined all the grounds unoccupied by the French, but
+could not find any thing that came up to the grandeur of his views.
+Nothing but the village of the White Apple, a square league at least
+in extent, could give him satisfaction; where he immediately resolved
+to settle. This ground was distant from the fort about two leagues.
+Conceited with the beauty of his project, the Commandant sent for the
+Sun of that village to come to the fort.
+
+The Commandant, upon his arrival at the fort, told him, without
+further ceremony, that he must look out for another ground to build
+his village on, as he himself resolved, as soon as possible, to build
+on the village of the Apple; that he must directly clear the huts, and
+retire somewhere else. The better to cover his design, he gave out,
+that it was necessary for the {74} French to settle on the banks of
+the rivulet, where stood the Great Village, and the abode of the Grand
+Sun. The Commandant, doubtless, supposed that he was speaking to a
+slave, whom we may command in a tone of absolute authority. But he
+knew not that the natives of Louisiana are such enemies to a state of
+slavery, that they prefer death itself thereto; above all, the Suns,
+accustomed to govern despotically, have still a greater aversion to
+it.
+
+The Sun of the Apple thought, that if he was talked to in a reasonable
+manner, he might listen to him: in this he had been right, had he to
+deal with a reasonable person. He therefore made answer, that his
+ancestors had lived in that village for as many years as there were
+hairs in his double cue; and therefore it was good they should
+continue there still.
+
+Scarce had the interpreter explained this answer to the Commandant,
+but he fell into a passion, and threatened the Sun, if he did not quit
+his village in a few days, he might repent it. The Sun replied, when
+the French came to ask us for lands to settle on, they told us there
+was land enough still unoccupied, which they might take; the same sun
+would enlighten them all, and all would walk in the same path. He
+wanted to proceed, farther in justification of what he alleged; but
+the Commandant, who was in a passion, told him, he was resolved to be
+obeyed, without any further reply. The Sun, without discovering any
+emotion or passion, withdrew; only saying, he was going to assemble
+the old men of his village, to hold a council on this affair.
+
+He actually assembled them: and in this council it was resolved to
+represent to the Commandant, that the corn of all the people of their
+village was already shot a little out of the earth, and that all the
+hens were laying their eggs; that if they quitted their village at
+present, the chickens and corn would be lost both to the French and to
+themselves; as the French were not numerous enough to weed all the
+corn they had sown in their fields.
+
+This resolution taken, they sent to propose it to the Commandant, who
+rejected it with a menace to chastise them if they did not obey in a
+very short time, which he prefixed. {75} The Sun reported this answer
+to his council, who debated the question, which was knotty. But the
+policy of the old men was, that they should propose to the Commandant,
+to be allowed to stay in their village till harvest, and till they had
+time to dry their corn, and shake out the grain; on condition each hut
+of the village should pay him in so many moons (months,) which they
+agreed on, a basket of corn and a fowl; that this Commandant appeared
+to be a man highly self-interested; and that this proposition would be
+a means of gaining time, till they should take proper measures to
+withdraw themselves from the tyrrany of the French.
+
+The Sun returned to the Commandant, and proposed to pay him the
+tribute I just mentioned, if he waited till the first colds, (winter;)
+and then the corn would be gathered in, and dry enough to shake out
+the grain; that thus they would not be exposed to lose their corn, and
+die of hunger: that the Commandant himself would find his account in
+it; and that as soon as any corn was shaken out, they should bring him
+some.
+
+The avidity of the Commandant made him accept the proposition with
+joy, and blinded him with regard to the consequences of his tyrrany.
+He, however, pretended that he agreed to the offer out of favour, to
+do a pleasure to a nation so beloved, and who had ever been good
+friends of the French. The Sun appeared highly satisfied to have
+obtained a delay sufficient for taking the precautions necessary to
+the security of the nation; for he was by no means the dupe of the
+feigned benevolence of the Commandant.
+
+The Sun, upon his return, caused the council to be assembled; told the
+old men, that the French Commandant had acquiesced in the offers which
+he had made him, and granted the term of time they demanded. He then
+laid before them, that it was necessary wisely to avail themselves of
+this time, in order to withdraw themselves from the proposed payment
+and tyrannic domination of the French, who grew dangerous in
+proportion as they multiplied. That the Natchez ought to remember the
+war made upon them, in violation of the peace concluded between them:
+that this war having been made upon their village alone, they ought to
+consider of the surest means {76} to take a just and bloody vengeance:
+that this enterprise being of the utmost consequence, it called for
+much secrecy, for solid measures, and for much policy: that thus it
+was proper to cajole the French Chief more than ever: that this affair
+required some days to reflect on, before they came to a resolution
+therein, and before it should be proposed to the Grand Sun and his
+council: that at present they had only to retire; and in a few days he
+would assemble them again, that they might then determine the part
+they were to act.
+
+In five or six days he brought together the old men, who in that
+interval were consulting with each other: which was the reason that
+all the suffrages were unanimous in the same and only means of
+obtaining the end they proposed to themselves, which was the entire
+destruction of the French in this province.
+
+The Sun, seeing them all assembled, said: "You have had time to
+reflect on the proposition I made you; and so I imagine you will soon
+set forth the best means how to get rid of your bad neighbours without
+hazard." The Sun having done speaking, the oldest rose up, saluted his
+Chief after his manner, and said to him:
+
+"We have a long time been sensible that the neighbourhood of the
+French is a greater prejudice than benefit to us: we, who are old men,
+see this; the young see it not. The wares of the French yield pleasure
+to the youth; but in effect, to what purpose is all this, but to
+debauch the young women, and taint the blood of the nation, and make
+them vain and idle? The young men are in the same case; and the
+married must work themselves to death to maintain their families, and
+please their children. Before the French came amongst us, we were men,
+content with what we had, and that was sufficient: we walked with
+boldness every road, because we were then our own masters: but now we
+go groping, afraid of meeting thorns, we walk like slaves, which we
+shall soon be, since the French already treat us as if we were such.
+When they are sufficiently strong, they will no longer dissemble. For
+the least fault of our young people, they will tie them to a post, and
+whip them as they do their black slaves. Have they not {77} already
+done so to one of our young men; and is not death preferable to
+slavery?"
+
+Here he paused a while, and after taking breath, proceeded thus:
+
+"What wait we for? Shall we suffer the French to multiply, till we are
+no longer in a condition to oppose their efforts? What will the other
+nations say of us, who pass for the most ingenious of all the Red-men?
+They will then say, we have less understanding than other people. Why
+then wait we any longer? Let us set ourselves at liberty, and show we
+are really men, who can be satisfied with what we have. From this very
+day let us begin to set about it, order our women to get provisions
+ready, without telling them the reason; go and carry the Pipe of Peace
+to all the nations of this country; make them sensible, that the
+French being stronger in our neighbourhood than elsewhere, make us,
+more than others, feel that they want to enslave us; and when become
+sufficiently strong, will in like manner treat all the nations of the
+country; that it is their interest to prevent so great a misfortune;
+and for this purpose they have only to join us, and cut off the French
+to a man, in one day and one hour; and the time to be that on which
+the term prefixed and obtained of the French Commandant, to carry him
+the contribution agreed on, is expired; the hour to be the quarter of
+the day (nine in the morning;) and then several warriors to go and
+carry him the corn, as the beginning of their several payments, also
+carry with them their arms, as if going out to hunt: and that to every
+Frenchman in a French house, there shall be two or three Natchez; to
+ask to borrow arms and ammunition for a general hunting-match, on
+account of a great feast, and to promise to bring them meat; the
+report of the firing at the Commandant's, to be the signal to fall at
+once upon, and kill the French: that then we shall be able to prevent
+those who may come from the old French village, (New Orleans) by the
+great water (Missisippi) ever to settle here."
+
+He added, that after apprising the other nations of the necessity of
+taking that violent step, a bundle of rods, in number equal to that
+they should reserve for themselves, should be {78} left with each
+nation, expressive of the number of days that were to precede that on
+which they were to strike the blow at one and the same time. And to
+avoid mistakes, and to be exact in pulling out a rod every day, and
+breaking and throwing it away, it was necessary to give this in charge
+to a person of prudence. Here he ceased and sat down: they all
+approved his counsel, and were to a man of his mind.
+
+The project was in like manner approved of by the Sun of the Apple:
+the business was to bring over the Grand Sun, with the other petty
+Suns, to their opinion; because all the Princes being agreed as to
+that point, the nation would all to a man implicitly obey. They
+however took the precaution to forbid apprising the women thereof, not
+excepting the female Suns, (Princesses) or giving them the least
+suspicion of their designs against the French.
+
+The Sun of the Apple was a man of good abilities; by which means he
+easily brought over the Grand Sun to favour his scheme, he being a
+young man of no experience in the world, and having no great
+correspondence with the French: he was the more easily gained over, as
+all the Suns were agreed, that the Sun of the Apple was a man of
+solidity and penetration; who having repaired to the Sovereign of
+nation, apprised him of the necessity of taking that step, as in time
+himself would be forced to quit his own village; also of the wisdom of
+the measures concerted, such as even ascertained success; and of the
+danger to which his youth was exposed with neighbours so enterprising;
+above all, with the present French Commandant, of whom the
+inhabitants, and even the soldiers complained: that as long as the
+Grand Sun, his father, and his uncle, the Stung Serpent, lived, the
+Commandant of the fort durst never undertake any thing to their
+detriment; because the Grand Chief of the French, who resides at their
+great village (New Orleans,) had a love for them: but that he, the
+Grand Sun, being unknown to the French, and but a youth, would be
+despised. In fine, that the only means to preserve his authority, was
+to rid himself of the French, by the method, and with the precautions
+projected by the old men.
+
+{79} The result of this conversation was, that on the day following,
+when the Suns should in the morning come to salute the Grand Sun, he
+was to order them to repair to the Sun of the Apple, without taking
+notice of it to any one. This was accordingly executed, and the
+seducing abilities of the Sun of the Apple drew all the Suns into his
+scheme. In consequences of which they formed a council of Suns and
+aged Nobles, who all approved of the design: and then these aged
+Nobles were nominated heads of embassies to be sent to the several
+nations; had a guard of Warriors to accompany them, and on pain of
+death, were discharged from mentioning it to any one whatever. This
+resolution taken, they set out severally at the same time, unknown to
+the French.
+
+Notwithstanding the profound secrecy observed by the Natchez, the
+council held by the Suns and aged Nobles gave the people uneasiness,
+unable as they were to penetrate into the matter. The female Suns
+(Princesses) had alone in this nation a right to demand why they were
+kept in the dark in this affair. The young Grand female Sun was a
+Princess scarce eighteen: and none but the Stung Arm, a woman of great
+wit, and no less sensible of it, could be offended that nothing was
+disclosed to her. In effect, she testified her displeasure at this
+reserve with respect to herself, to her son; who replied, that the
+several deputations were made, in order to renew their good intelligence
+with the other nations, to whom they had not of a long time sent an
+embassy, and who might imagine themselves slighted by such a neglect.
+This feigned excuse seemed to appease the Princess, but not quite to rid
+her of all her uneasiness; which, on the contrary, was heightened, when,
+on the return of the embassies, she saw the Suns assemble in secret
+council together with the deputies, to learn what reception they met
+with; whereas ordinarily they assembled in public.
+
+At this the female Sun was filled with rage, which would have openly
+broke out, had not her prudence set bounds to it. Happy it was for the
+French, she imagined herself neglected: for I am persuaded the colony
+owes its preservation to the vexation of this woman rather than to any
+remains of affection {80} she entertained for the French, as she was
+now far advanced in years, and her gallant dead some time.
+
+In order to get to the bottom of the secret, she prevailed on her son
+to accompany her on a visit to a relation, that lay sick at the
+village of the Meal; and leading him the longest way about, and most
+retired, took occasion to reproach him with the secrecy he and the
+other Suns observed with regard to her, insisting with him on her
+right as a mother, and her privilege as a Princess: adding, that
+though all the world, and herself too, had told him he was the son of
+a Frenchman, yet her own blood was much dearer to her than that of
+strangers; that he needed not apprehend she would ever betray him to
+the French, against whom, she said, you are plotting.
+
+Her son, stung with these reproaches, told her, it was unusual to
+reveal what the old men of the council had once resolved upon;
+alledging, he himself, as being Grand Sun, ought to set a good example
+in this respect: that the affair was concealed from the Princess his
+consort as well as from her; and that though he was the son of a
+Frenchman, this gave no mistrust of him to the other Suns. But seeing,
+says he, you have guessed the whole affair, I need not inform you
+farther; you know as much as I do myself, only hold your tongue.
+
+She was in no pain, she replied, to know against whom he had taken his
+precautions: but as it was against the French, this was the very thing
+that made her apprehensive he had not taken his measures aright in
+order to surprise them; as they were a people of great penetration,
+though their Commandant had none: that they were brave, and could
+bring over by their presents, all the Warriors of the other nations;
+and had resources, which the Red-men were without.
+
+Her son told her she had nothing to apprehend as to the measures
+taken: that all the nations had heard and approved their project, and
+promised to fall upon the French in their neighbourhood, on the same
+day with the Natchez: that the Chactaws took upon them to destroy all
+the French lower down and along the Missisippi, up as far as the
+Tonicas; to which last people, he said, we did not send, as they and
+the Oumas {81} are too much wedded to the French; and that it was
+better to involve both these nations in the same general destruction
+with the French. He at last told her, the bundle of rods lay in the
+temple, on the flat timber.
+
+The Stung Arm being informed of the whole design, pretended to approve
+of it, and leaving her son at ease, henceforward was only solicitous
+how she might defeat this barbarous design: the time was pressing, and
+the term prefixed for the execution was almost expired.
+
+This woman, unable to bear to see the French cut off to a man in one
+day by the conspiracy of the natives, sought how to save the greatest
+part of them: for this purpose she be thought herself of acquainting
+some young women therewith, who loved the French, enjoining them never
+to tell from whom they had their information.
+
+She herself desired a soldier she met, to go and tell the Commandant,
+that the Natchez had lost their senses, and to desire him to be upon
+his guard: that he need only make the smallest repairs possible on the
+fort, in presence of some of them, in order to shew his mistrust; when
+all their resolutions and bad designs would vanish and fall to the
+ground.
+
+The soldier faithfully performed his commission: but the Commandant,
+far from giving credit to the information, or availing himself
+thereof; or diving into, and informing him self of the grounds of it,
+treated the soldier as a coward and a visionary, caused him to be
+clapt in irons, and said, he would never take any step towards
+repairing the fort, or putting himself on his guard, as the Natchez
+would then imagine he was a man of no resolution, and was struck with
+a mere panick.
+
+The Stung Arm fearing a discovery, notwithstanding her utmost
+precaution, and the secrecy she enjoined, repaired to the temple, and
+pulled some rods out of the fatal bundle: her design was to hasten or
+forward the term prefixed, to the end that such Frenchmen as escaped
+the massacre, might apprize their countrymen, many of whom had
+informed the Commandant; who clapt seven of them in irons, treating
+them as cowards on that account.
+
+{82} The female Sun, seeing the term approaching, and many of those
+punished, whom she had charged to acquaint the Governor, resolved to
+speak to the Under-Lieutenant; but to no better purpose, the
+Commandant paying no greater regard to him than to the common
+soldiers.
+
+Notwithstanding all these informations, the Commandant went out the
+night before on a party of pleasure, with some other Frenchmen, to the
+grand village of the Natchez, without returning to the fort till break
+of day; where he was no sooner come, but he had pressing advice to be
+upon his guard.
+
+The Commandant, still flustered with his last night's debauch, added
+imprudence to his neglect of these last advices; and ordered his
+interpreter instantly to repair to the grand village, and demand of
+the Grand Sun, whether he intended, at the head of his Warriors, to
+come and kill the French, and to bring him word directly. The Grand
+Sun, though but a young man, knew how to dissemble, and spoke in such
+a manner to the interpreter, as to give full satisfaction to the
+Commandant, who valued himself on his contempt of former advices; he
+then repaired to his house, situate below the fort.
+
+The Natchez had too well taken their measures to be disappointed in
+the success thereof. The fatal moment was at last come. The Natchez
+set out on the Eve of St. Andrew, 1729, taking care to bring with them
+one of the lower sort, armed with a wooden hatchet, in order to knock
+down the Commandant: they had so high a contempt for him, that no
+Warrior would deign to kill him. [Footnote: Others say he was shot:
+but neither account can be ascertained, as no Frenchman present
+escaped.] The houses of the French filled with enemies, the fort in
+like manner with the natives, who entered in at the gate and breaches,
+deprived the soldiers, without officers, or even a serjeant at their
+head, of the means of self defence. In the mean time the Grand Sun
+arrived, with some Warriors loaded with corn, in appearance as the
+first payment of the contribution; when several shot were fired. As
+this firing was the signal, several shot were heard at the same
+instant. Then at length the Commandant saw, but too late, his folly:
+he ran into his garden, whither he was pursued {83} and killed. This
+Massacre was executed every where at the same time. Of about seven
+hundred persons, but few escaped to carry the dreadful news to the
+capital; on receiving which the Governor and Council were sensibly
+affected, and orders were dispatched every where to put people on
+their guard.
+
+The other Indians were displeased at the conduct of the Natchez,
+imagining they had forwarded the term agreed on, in order to make them
+ridiculous, and proposed to take vengeance the first opportunity, not
+knowing the true cause of the precipitation of the Natchez.
+
+After they had cleared the fort, warehouse, and other houses, the
+Natchez set them all on fire, not leaving a single building standing.
+
+The Yazous, who happened to be at that very time on an embassy to the
+Natchez, were prevailed on to destroy the post of the Yazous; which
+they failed not to effect some days after, making themselves masters
+of the fort, under colour of paying a visit, as usual, and knocking
+all the garrison on the head.
+
+M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was then taking the proper steps to
+be avenged: he sent M. le Sueur to the Chactaws, to engage them on our
+side against the Natchez; in which he succeeded without any
+difficulty. The reason of their readiness to enter into this design
+was not then understood, it being unknown that they were concerned in
+the plot of the Natchez to destroy all the French, and that it was
+only to be avenged of the Natchez, who had taken the start of them,
+and not given them a sufficient share of the booty.
+
+M. de Loubois, king's lieutenant, was nominated to be at the head of
+this expedition: he went up the river with a small army, and arrived
+at the Tonicas. The Chactaws at length in the month of February near
+the Natchez, to the number of fifteen or sixteen hundred men, with M.
+le Sueur at their head; whither M. de Loubois came the March
+following.
+
+The army encamped near the ruins of the old French settlement; and
+after resting five days there, they marched to the enemy's fort, which
+was a league from thence.
+
+{84} After opening the trenches and firing for several days upon the
+fort without any great effect, the French at last made their approach
+so near as to frighten the enemy, who sent to offer to release all the
+French women and children, on the condition of obtaining a lasting
+peace, and of being suffered to live peaceably on their ground,
+without being driven from thence, or molested for the future.
+
+M. de Loubois assured them of peace on their own terms, if they also
+gave up the French, who were in the fort, and all the negroes they had
+taken belonging to the French; and if they agreed to destroy the fort
+by fire. The Grand Sun accepted these conditions, provided the French
+general should promise, he would neither enter the fort with the
+French, nor suffer their auxiliaries to enter; which was accepted by
+the general; who sent the allies to receive all the slaves.
+
+The Natchez, highly pleased to have gained time, availed themselves of
+the following night, and went out of the fort, with their wives and
+children, loaded with their baggage and the French plunder, leaving
+nothing but the cannon and ball behind.
+
+M. de Loubois was struck with amazement at this escape, and only
+thought of retreating to the landing-place, in order to build a fort
+there: but first it was necessary to recover the French out of the
+hands of the Chactaws, who insisted on a very high ransom. The matter
+was compromised by means of the grand chief of the Tonicas, who
+prevailed on them to accept what M. de Loubois was constrained to
+offer them, to satisfy their avarice; which they accordingly accepted,
+and gave up the French slaves, on promise of being paid as soon as
+possible: but they kept as security a young Frenchman and some negro
+slaves, whom they would never part with, till payment was made.
+
+M. de Loubois gave orders to build a terrace-fort, far preferable to a
+stoccado; there he left M. du Crenet, with an hundred and twenty men
+in garrison, with cannon and ammunition; after which he went down the
+Missisippi to New Orleans. The Chactaws, Tonicas, and other allies,
+returned home.
+
+{85} After the Natchez had abandoned the fort, it was demolished, and
+its piles, or stakes, burnt. As the Natchez dreaded both the vengeance
+of the French, and the insolence of the Chactaws, that made them take
+the resolution of escaping in the night.
+
+A short time after, a considerable party of the Natchez carried the
+Pipe of Peace to the Grand Chief of the Tonicas, under pretence of
+concluding a peace with him and all the French. The Chief sent to M.
+Perier to know his pleasure: but the Natchez in the mean time
+assassinated the Tonicas, beginning with their Grand Chief; and few of
+them escaped this treachery.
+
+M. Perier, Commandant General, zealous for the service, neglected no
+means, whereby to discover in what part the Natchez had taken refuge.
+And after many enquiries he was told, they had entirely quitted the
+east side of the Missisippi, doubtless to avoid the troublesome and
+dangerous visits of the Chactaws; and in order to be more concealed
+from the French, had retired to the West of the Missisippi, near the
+Silver Creek, about sixty leagues from the mouth of the Red River.
+
+These advices were certain: but the Commandant General not thinking
+himself in a condition fit to attack them without succours, had
+applied for that purpose to the Court; and succours were accordingly
+sent him.
+
+In the mean time the Company, who had been apprized of the misfortune
+at the Post of the Natchez, and the losses they had sustained by the
+war, gave up that Colony to the King, with the privileges annexed
+thereto. The Company at the same time ceded to the King all that
+belonged to them in that Colony, as fortresses, artillery, ammunition,
+warehouses, and plantations, with the negroes belonging thereto. In
+consequence of which, his Majesty sent one of his ships, commanded by
+M. de Forant, who brought with him M. de Salmont, Commissary-General
+of the Marine, and Inspector of Louisiana, in order to take possession
+of that Colony in the King's name.
+
+I was continued in the inspection of this plantation, now become the
+King's in 1730, as before.
+
+{86} M. Perier, who till then had been Commandant General of Louisiana
+for the West India Company, was now made Governor for the King; and
+had the satisfaction to see his brother arrive, in one of the King's
+ships, commanded by M. Perier de Salvert, with the succours he
+demanded, which were an hundred and fifty soldiers of the marine. This
+Officer had the title of Lieutenant General of the Colony conferred
+upon him.
+
+The Messrs. Perier set out with their army in very favourable weather;
+and arrived at last, without obstruction, near to the retreat of the
+Natchez. To get to that place, they went up the Red river, then the
+Black River, and from thence up the Silver Creek, which communicates
+with a small Lake at no great distance from the fort, which the
+Natchez had built, in order to maintain their ground against the
+French.
+
+The Natchez, struck with terror at the sight of a vigilant enemy, shut
+themselves up in their fort. Despair assumed the place of prudence,
+and they were at their wits end, on seeing the trenches gain ground on
+the fort: they equip themselves like warriors, and stain their bodies
+with different colours, in order to make their last efforts by a
+sally, which resembled a transport of rage more than the calmness of
+valour, to the terror, at first, of the soldiers.
+
+The reception they met from our men, taught them, however, to keep
+themselves shut up in their fort; and though the trench was almost
+finished, our Generals were impatient to have the mortars put in a
+condition to play on the place. At last they are set in battery; when
+the third bomb happened to fall in the middle of the fort, the usual
+place of residence of the women and children, they set up a horrible
+screaming; and the men, seized with grief at the cries of their wives
+and children, made the signal to capitulate.
+
+The Natchez, after demanding to capitulate, started difficulties,
+which occasioned messages to and fro till night, which they waited to
+avail themselves of, demanding till next day to settle the articles of
+capitulation. The night was granted them, but being narrowly watched
+on the side next the gate, they could not execute the same project of
+escape, as in the war {87} with M. de Loubois. However, they attempted
+it, by taking advantage of the obscurity of the night, and of the
+apparent stillness of the French: but they were discovered in time,
+the greatest part being constrained to retire into the fort. Some of
+them only happened to escape, who joined those that were out a
+hunting, and all together retired to the Chicasaws. The rest
+surrendered at discretion, among whom was the Grand Sun, and the
+female Suns, with several warriors, many women, young people, and
+children.
+
+The French army re-embarked, and carried the Natchez as slaves to New
+Orleans, where they were put in prison; but afterwards, to avoid an
+infection, the women and children were disposed of in the King's
+plantation, and elsewhere; among these women was the female Sun,
+called the Stung Arm, who then told me all she had done, in order to
+save the French.
+
+Some time after, these slaves were embarked for St. Domingo, in order
+to root out that nation in the Colony; which was the only method of
+effecting it, as the few that escaped had not a tenth of the women
+necessary to recruit the nation. And thus that nation, the most
+conspicuous in the Colony, and most useful to the French, was
+destroyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+_The War with the_ Chicasaws. _The first Expedition by the river_
+Mobile. _The second by the_ Missisippi. _The war with the_ Chactaws
+_terminated by the prudence of_ M. de Vaudreuil.
+
+
+The war with the Chicasaws was owing to their having received and
+adopted the Natchez: though in this respect they acted only according
+to an inviolable usage and sacred custom, established among all the
+nations of North America; that when a nation, weakened by war, retires
+for shelter to another, who are willing to adopt them, and is pursued
+thither by their enemies, this is in effect to declare war against the
+nation adopting.
+
+But M. de Biainville, whether displeased with this act of hospitality,
+or losing sight of this unalterable law, constantly {88} prevailing
+among those nations, sent word to the Chicasaws, to give up the
+Natchez. In answer to his demand they alledged, that the Natchez
+having demanded to be incorporated with them, were accordingly
+received and adopted; so as now to constitute but one nation, or
+people, under the name of Chicasaws, that of Natchez being entirely
+abolished. Besides, added they, had Biainville received our enemies,
+should we go to demand them? or, if we did, would they be given up?
+
+Notwithstanding this answer, M. de Biainville made warlike
+preparations against the Chicasaws, sent off Captain le Blanc, with
+six armed boats under his command; one laden with gun-powder, the rest
+with goods, the whole allotted for the war against the Chicasaws; the
+Captain at the same time carrying orders to M. d'Artaguette,
+Commandant of the Post of the Illinois, to prepare to set out at the
+head of all the troops, inhabitants and Indians, he could march from
+the Illinois, in order to be at the Chicasaws the 10th of May
+following, as the Governor himself was to be there at the same time.
+
+The Chicasaws, apprized of the warlike preparations of the French,
+resolved to guard the Missisippi, imagining they would be attacked on
+that side. In vain they attempted to surprise M. le Blanc's convoy,
+which got safe to the Arkansas, where the gun-powder was left, for
+reasons no one can surmise.
+
+From thence he had no cross accident to the Illinois, at which place
+he delivered the orders the Governor had dispatched for M.
+d'Artaguette; who finding a boat laden with gun-powder, designed for
+his post, and for the service of the war intended against the
+Chicasaws, left at the Arkansas, sent off the same day a boat to fetch
+it up; which on its return was taken by a party of Chicasaws; who
+killed all but M. du Tiffenet, junior, and one Rosalie, whom they made
+slaves.
+
+In the mean time, M. de Biainville went by sea to Fort Mobile, where
+the Grand Chief of the Chactaws waited for him, in consequence of his
+engaging to join his Warriours with ours, in order to make war upon
+the Chicasaws, in consideration of a certain quantity of goods, part
+to be paid down directly, the rest at a certain time prefixed. The
+Governor, {89} after this, returned to New Orleans, there to wait the
+opening of the campaign.
+
+M. de Biainville, on his return, made preparations against his own
+departure, and that of the army, consisting of regular troops, some
+inhabitants and free negroes, and some slaves, all which set out from
+New Orleans for Mobile; where, on the 10th of March, 1736, the army,
+together with the Chactaws, was assembled; and where they rested till
+the 2d of April, when they began their march, those from New Orleans
+taking their route by the river Mobile, in thirty large boats and as
+many pettyaugres; the Indians by land, marching along the east bank of
+that river; and making but short marches, they arrived at Tombecbec
+only the 20th of April, where M. de Biainville caused a fort to be
+built: here he gave the Chactaws the rest of the goods due to them,
+and did not set out from thence till the 4th of May. All this time was
+taken up with a Council of War, held on four soldiers, French and
+Swiss, who had laid a scheme to kill the Commandant and garrison, to
+carry off M. du Tiffenet and Rosalie, who had happily made their
+escape from the Chicasaws, and taken refuge in the fort, and to put
+them again into the hands of the enemy, in order to be better received
+by them, and to assist, and shew them how to make a proper defence
+against the French, and from thence to go over to the English of
+Carolina.
+
+From the 4th of May, on which the army set out from Tombeebee, they
+took twenty days to come to the landing-place. After landing, they
+built a very extensive inclosure of palisadoes, with a shed, as a
+cover for the goods and ammuninition, then the army passed the night.
+On the 25th powder and ball were given out to the soldiers, and
+inhabitants, the sick with some raw soldiers being left to guard this
+old sort of fort.
+
+From this place to the fort of the Chicasaws are seven leagues: this
+day they marched five leagues and a half in two columns and in file,
+across the woods. On the wings marched the Chactaws, to the number of
+twelve hundred at least, commanded by their Grand Chief. In the
+evening they encamped in a meadow, surrounded with wood.
+
+{90} On the 26th of May they marched to the enemy's fort, across thin
+woods; and with water up to the waist, passed over a rivulet, which
+traverses a small wood; on coming out of which, they entered a fine
+plain: in this plain stood the fort of the Chicasaws, with a village
+defended by it. This fort is situated on an eminence, with an easy
+ascent; around it stood several huts, and at a greater distance
+towards the bottom, other huts, which appeared to have been put in a
+state of defence: quite close to the fort ran a little brook, which
+watered a part of the plain.
+
+The Chactaws no sooner espied the enemy's fort, than they rent the air
+with their death-cries, and instantly flew to the fort: but their
+ardour flagged at a carabin-shot from the place. The French marched in
+good order, and got beyond a small wood, which they left in their
+rear, within cannon-shot of the enemy's fort, where an English flag
+was seen flying. At the same time four Englishmen, coming from the
+huts, were seen to go up the ascent, and enter the fort, where their
+flag was set up.
+
+Upon this, it was imagined, they would be summoned to quit the enemy's
+fort, and to surrender, as would in like manner the Chicasaws: but
+nothing of this was once proposed. The General gave orders to the
+Majors to form large detachments of each of their corps, in order to
+go and take the enemy's fort. These orders were in part executed:
+three large detachments were made; namely, one of grenadiers, one of
+soldiers, and another of militia, or train-bands; who, to the number
+of twelve hundred men, advanced with ardour towards the enemy's fort,
+crying out aloud several times, _Vive le Roi_, as if already masters of
+the place; which, doubtless, they imagined to carry sword in hand; for
+in the whole army there was not a single iron tool to remove the
+earth, and form the attacks.
+
+The rest of the army marched in battle-array, ten men deep; mounted
+the eminence whereon the fort stood, and being come there, set fire to
+some huts, with wild-fire thrown at the ends of darts; but the smoke
+stifled the army.
+
+The regular troops marched in front, and the militia, or train-bands,
+in rear. According to rule these train-bands {91} made a quarter turn
+to right and left, with intent to go and invest the place. But M. de
+Jusan, Aid-Major of the troops, stopt short their ardor, and sent them
+to their proper post, reserving for his own corps the glory of
+carrying the place, which continued to make a brisk defence.
+Biainville remained at the quarters of reserve; where he observed what
+would be the issue of the attack, than which none could be more
+disadvantageous.
+
+Both the regulars and inhabitants, or train-bands, gave instances of the
+greatest valour: but what could they do, open and exposed as they were,
+against a fort, whose stakes or wooden posts were a fathom in compass,
+and their joinings again lined with other posts, almost as big? From
+this fort, which was well garrisoned, issued a shower of balls; which
+would have mowed down at least half the assailants, if directed by men
+who knew how to fire. The enemy were under cover from all the attacks of
+the French, and could have defended themselves by their loop-holes.
+Besides, they formed a gallery of flat pallisadoes quite round, covered
+with earth, which screened it from the effects of grenadoes. In this
+manner the troops lavished their ammunition against the wooden posts, or
+stakes, of the enemy's fort, without any other effect than having
+thirty-two men killed, and almost seventy wounded; which last were
+carried to the body of reserve; from whence the General, seeing the bad
+success of the attack, ordered to beat the retreat, and sent a large
+detachment to favour it. It was now five in the evening, and the attack
+had been begun at half an hour after one. The troops rejoined the body
+of the army, without being able to carry off their dead, which were left
+on the field of battle, exposed to the rage of the enemy.
+
+After taking some refreshment, they directly fortified themselves, by
+felling trees, in order to pass the night secure from the insults of
+the enemy, by being carefully on their guard. Next day it was observed
+the enemy had availed themselves of that night to demolish some huts,
+where the French, during the attack, had put themselves under cover,
+in order from thence to batter the fort.
+
+{92} On the 27th, the day after the attack, the army began its march,
+and lay at a league from the enemy. The day following, at a league
+from the landing-place, whither they arrived next day, the French
+embarked for Fort Mobile, and from thence for the Capital, from which
+each returned to his own home.
+
+A little time after, a serjeant of the garrison of the Illinois
+arrived at New Orleans, who reported, that, in consequence of the
+General's orders, M. d'Artaguette had taken his measures so well, that
+on the 9th of May he arrived with his men near the Chicasaws, sent out
+scouts to discover the arrival of the French army; which he continued
+to do till the 20th: that the Indians in alliance hearing no accounts
+of the French, wanted either to return home, or to attack the
+Chicasaws; which last M. d'Artaguette resolved upon, on the 21st, with
+pretty good success at first, having forced the enemy to quit their
+village and fort: that he then attacked another village with the same
+success, but that pursuing the runaways, M. d'Artaguette had received
+two wounds, which the Indians finding, resolved to abandon that
+Commandant, with forty-six soldiers and two serjeants, who defended
+their Commandant all that day, but were at last obliged to surrender;
+that they were well used by the enemy, who understanding that the
+French were in their country, prevailed on M. d'Artaguette to write to
+the General: but that this deputation having had no success, and
+learning that the French were retired, and despairing of any ransom
+for their slaves, put them to death by a slow fire. The serjeant
+added, he had the happiness to fall into the hands of a good master,
+who favoured his escape to Mobile.
+
+M. de Biainville, desirous to take vengeance of the Chicasaws, wrote
+to France for succours, which the Court sent, ordering also the Colony
+of Canada to send succours. In the mean time M. de Biainville sent off
+a large detachment for the river St. Francis, in order to build a fort
+there, called also St. Francis.
+
+The squadron which brought the succours from France being arrived,
+they set out, by going up the Missisippi, for the fort that had been
+just built. This army consisted of Marines, {93} of the troops of the
+Colony, of several Inhabitants, many Negroes, and some Indians, our
+allies; and being assembled in this place, took water again, and still
+proceeded up the Missisippi to a little river called Margot, near the
+Cliffs called Prud'homme, and there the whole army landed. They
+encamped on a fine plain, at the foot of a hill, about fifteen leagues
+from the enemy; fortified themselves by way of precaution, and built
+in the fort a house for the Commandant, some cazerns, and a warehouse
+for the goods. This fort was called Assumption, from the day on which
+they landed.
+
+They had waggons and sledges made, and the roads cleared for
+transporting cannon, ammunition, and other necessaries for forming a
+regular siege. There and then it was the succours from Canada arrived,
+consisting of French, Iroquois, Hurons, Episingles, Algonquins, and
+other nations: and soon after arrived the new Commandant of the
+Illinois, with the garrison, inhabitants, and neighbouring Indians,
+all that he could bring together, with a great number of horses.
+
+This formidable army, consisting of so many different nations, the
+greatest ever seen, and perhaps that ever will be seen, in those
+parts, remained in this camp without undertaking any thing, from the
+month of August 1739, to the March following. Provisions, which at
+first were in great plenty, came at last to be so scarce, that they
+were obliged to eat the horses which were to draw the artillery,
+ammunition, and provisions: afterwards sickness raged in the army. M.
+de Biainville, who hitherto had attempted nothing against the
+Chicasaws, resolved to have recourse to mild methods. He therefore
+detached, about the 15th of March, the company of Cadets, with their
+Captain, M. de Celoron, their Lieutenant, M. de St. Laurent, and the
+Indians, who came with them from Canada, against the Chicasaws, with
+orders to offer peace to them in his name, if they sued for it.
+
+What the General had foreseen, failed not to happen. As soon as the
+Chicasaws saw the French, followed by the Indians of Canada, they
+doubted not in the least, but the rest of that numerous army would
+soon follow; and they no sooner saw them approach, but they made
+signals of peace, and came out {94} of their fort in the most humble
+manner, exposing themselves to all the consequences that might ensue,
+in order to obtain peace. They solemnly protested that they actually
+were, and would continue to be inviolable friends of the French; that
+it was the English, who prevailed upon them to act in this manner; but
+that they had fallen out with them on this account, and at that very
+time had two of that nation, whom they made slaves; and that the
+French might go and see whether they spoke truth.
+
+M. de St. Laurent asked to go, and accordingly went with a young
+slave: but he might have had reason to have repented it, had not the
+men been more prudent than the women, who demanded the head of the
+Frenchman: but the men, after consulting together, were resolved to
+save him, in order to obtain peace of the French, on giving up the two
+Englishmen. The women risk scarce any thing near so much as the men;
+these last are either slain in battle, or put to death by their
+enemies; whereas the women at worst are but slaves; and they all
+perfectly well know, that the Indian women are far better off when
+slaves to the French, than if married at home. M. de St. Laurent,
+highly pleased with this discovery, promised them peace in the name of
+M. de Biainville, and of all the French: after these assurances, they
+went all in a body out of the fort, to present the Pipe to M. de
+Celoron, who accepted it, and repeated the same promise.
+
+In a few days after, he set out with a great company of Chicasaws,
+deputed to carry the Pipe to the French General, and deliver up the
+two Englishmen. When they came before M. de Biainville, they fell
+prostrate at his feet, and made him the same protestations of fidelity
+and friendship, as they had already made to M. de Celoron; threw the
+blame on the English; said they were entirely fallen out with them,
+and had taken these two, and put them in his hands, as enemies. They
+protested, in the most solemn manner, they would for ever be friends
+of the French and of their friends, and enemies of their enemies; in
+fine, that they would make war on the English, if it was thought
+proper, in order to shew that they renounced them as traitors.
+
+{95} Thus ended the war with the Chicasaws, about the beginning of
+April, 1740. M. de Biainville dismissed the auxiliaries, after making
+them presents; razed the Fort Assumption, thought to be no longer
+necessary, and embarked with his whole army; and in passing down,
+caused the Fort St. Francis to be demolished, as it was now become
+useless; and he repaired to the Capital, after an absence of more than
+ten months.
+
+Some years after, we had disputes with a part of the Chactaws, who
+followed the interests of the Red-Shoe, a Prince of that nation, who,
+in the first expedition against the Chicasaws, had some disputes with
+the French. This Indian, more insolent than any one of his nation,
+took a pretext to break out, and commit several hostilities against
+the French. M. de Vaudreuil, then Governor of Louisiana, being
+apprised of this, and of the occasion thereof, strictly forbad the
+French to frequent that nation, and to truck with them any arms or
+ammunition, in order to put a stop to that disorder in a short time,
+and without drawing the sword.
+
+M. de Vaudreuil, after taking these precautions, sent to demand of the
+Grand Chief of the whole nation, whether, like the Red-Shoe, he was
+also displeased with the French. He made answer, he was their friend:
+but that the Red-Shoe was a young man, without understanding. Having
+returned this answer, they sent him a present: but he was greatly
+surprised to find neither arms, powder, nor ball in this present, at a
+time when they were friends as before. This manner of proceeding,
+joined to the prohibition made of trucking with them arms or
+ammunition, heightened their surprise, and put them on having an
+explication on this head with the Governor; who made answer, That
+neither arms nor ammunition would be trucked with them, as long as the
+Red-Shoe had no more understanding; that they would not fail, as being
+brethren, to share a good part of the ammunition and arms with the
+Warriors of the Red-Shoe. This answer put them on remonstrating to the
+Village that insulted us; told them, if they did not instantly make
+peace with the French, they would themselves make war upon them. This
+threatening declaration made them sue for peace with the French, who
+were not in a condition to maintain {96} a war against a nation so
+numerous. And thus the prudent policy of M. de Vaudreuil put a stop to
+this war, without either expence or the loss of a man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+_Reflections on what gives Occasions to Wars in_ Louisiana. _The Means
+of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the Manner of coming off with
+Advantage and little Expence in them._
+
+
+The experience I have had in the art of war, from some campaigns I
+made in a regiment of dragoons till the peace of 1713, my application
+to the study of the wars of the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient
+people, and the wars I have seen carried on with the Indians of
+Louisiana, during the time I resided in that Province, gave me
+occasion to make several reflections on what could give rise to a war
+with the Indians, on the means of avoiding such a war, and on such
+methods as may be employed, in order either to make or maintain a war
+to advantage against them, when constrained thereto.
+
+In the space of sixteen years that I resided in Louisiana, I remarked,
+that the war, and even the bare disputes we have had with the Indians
+of this Colony, never had any other origin, but our too familiar
+intercourse with them.
+
+In order to prove this, let us consider the evils produced by this
+familiarity. In the first place, it makes them gradually drop that
+respect, which they naturally entertain for our nation.
+
+In the second place, the French traffickers, or traders, are generally
+young people without experience, who, in order to gain the good-will
+of these people, afford them lights, or instruction, prejudicial to
+our interest. These young merchants are not, it is true, sensible of
+these consequences: but again, these people never lose sight of what
+can be of any utility to them, and the detriment thence accruing is
+not less great, nor less real.
+
+In the third place, this familiarity gives occasion to vices, whence
+dangerous distempers ensue, and corruption of blood, {97} which is
+naturally highly pure in this colony. These persons, who frequently
+resort to the Indians, imagined themselves authorized to give a loose
+to their vices, from the practice of these last, which is to give
+young women to their guests upon their arrival; a practice that
+greatly injures their health, and proves a detriment to their
+merchandizing.
+
+In the fourth place, this resorting to the Indians puts these last
+under a constraint, as being fond of solitude; and this constraint is
+still more heightened, if the French settlement is near them; which
+procures them too frequent visits, that give them so much more
+uneasiness, as they care not on any account that people should see or
+know any of their affairs. And what fatal examples have we not of the
+dangers the settlements which are too near the Indians incur. Let but
+the massacre of the French be recollected, and it will be evident that
+this proximity is extremely detrimental to the French.
+
+In the fifth and last place, commerce, which is the principal
+allurement that draws us to this new world instead of flourishing, is,
+on the contrary, endangered by the too familiar resort to the Indians
+of North America. The proof of this is very simple.
+
+All who resort to countries beyond sea, know by experience, that when
+there is but one ship in the harbour, the Captain sells his cargo at
+what price he pleases: and then we hear it said, such a ship gained
+two, three, and sometimes as high as four hundred per cent. Should
+another ship happen to arrive in that harbour, the profit abates at
+least one half; but should three arrive, or even four successively,
+the goods then are, so to speak, thrown at the head of the buyer: so
+that in this case a merchant has often great difficulty to recover his
+very expenses of fitting out. I should therefore be led to believe,
+that it would be for the interest of commerce, if the Indians were
+left to come to fetch what merchandize they wanted, who having none
+but us in their neighbourhood, would come for it, without the French
+running any risk in their commerce, much less in their lives.
+
+For this purpose, let us suppose a nation of Indians on the banks of
+some river or rivulet, which is always the case, as all {98} men
+whatever have at all times occasion for water. This being supposed, I
+look out for a spot proper to build a small terras-fort on, with
+fraises or stakes, and pallisadoes. In this fort I would build two
+small places for lodgings, of no great height; one to lodge the
+officers, the other the soldiers: this fort to have an advanced work,
+a half-moon, or the like, according to the importance of the post. The
+passage to be through this advanced work to the fort, and no Indian
+allowed to enter on any pretence whatever; not even to receive the
+Pipe of Peace there, but only in the advanced work; the gate of the
+fort to be kept shut day and night against all but the French. At the
+gate of the advanced work a sentinel to be posted, and that gate to be
+opened and shut on each person appearing before it. By these
+precautions we might be sure never to be surprised, either by avowed
+enemies, or by treachery. In the advanced work a small building to be
+made for the merchants, who should come thither to traffick or truck
+with the neighbouring Indians; of which last only three or four to be
+admitted at a time, all to have the merchandize at the same price, and
+no one to be favoured above another. No soldier or inhabitant to go to
+the villages of the neighbouring Indians, under severe penalties. By
+this conduct disputes would be avoided, as they only arise from too
+great a familiarity with them. These forts to be never nearer the
+villages than five leagues, or more distant than seven or eight. The
+Indians would make nothing of such a jaunt; it would be only a walk
+for them, and their want of goods would easily draw them, and in a
+little time they would become habituated to it. The merchants to pay a
+salary to an interpreter, who might be some orphan, brought up very
+young among these people.
+
+This fort, thus distant a short journey, might be built without
+obstruction, or giving any umbrage to the Indians: as they might be
+told it was built in order to be at hand to truck their furs, and at
+the same time to give them no manner of uneasiness. One advantage
+would be, besides that of commerce, which would be carried on there,
+that these forts would prevent the English from having any
+communication with the Indians, as these last would find a great
+facility for their truck, and in forts so near them, every thing they
+could want.
+
+{99} The examples of the surprise of the forts of the Natchez, the
+Yazoux, and the Missouris, shew but too plainly the fatal consequences
+of negligence in the service, and of a misplaced condescension in
+favour of the soldiers, by suffering them to build huts near the fort,
+and to lie in them. None should be allowed to lie out of the fort, not
+even the Officers. The Commandant of the Natchez, and the other
+Officers, and even the Serjeants, were killed in their houses without
+the fort. I should not be against the soldiers planting little fields
+of tobacco, potatoes, and other plants, too low to conceal a man: on
+the contrary, these employments would incline them to become settlers;
+but I would never allow them houses out of the fort. By this means a
+fort becomes impregnable against the most numerous; because they never
+will attack, should they have ever so much cause, as long as they see
+people on their guard.
+
+Should it be objected that these forts would cost a great deal: I
+answer, that though there was to be a fort for each nation, which is
+not the case, it would not cost near so much as from time to time it
+takes to support wars, which in this country are very expensive, on
+account of the long journeys, and of transporting all the implements
+of war, hitherto made use of. Besides, we have a great part of these
+forts already built, so that we only want the advanced works; and two
+new forts more would suffice to compleat this design, and prevent the
+fraudulent commerce of the English traders.
+
+As to the manner of carrying on the war in Louisiana, as was hitherto
+done, it is very expensive, highly fatiguing, and the risk always great;
+because you must first transport the ammunition to the landing-place;
+from thence travel for many leagues; then drag the artillery along by
+main force, and carry the ammunition on men's shoulders, a thing that
+harasses and weakens the troops very much. Moreover, there is a great
+deal of risk in making war in this manner: you have the approaches of a
+fort to make, which cannot be done without loss of lives: and should you
+make a breach, how many brave men are lost, before you can force men who
+fight like desperadoes, because they prefer death to slavery.
+
+{100} I say, should you make a breach; because in all the time I
+resided in this Province, I never saw nor heard that the cannon which
+were brought against the Indian forts, ever made a breach for a single
+man to pass: it is therefore quite useless to be at that expence, and
+to harass the troops to bring artillery, which can be of no manner of
+service.
+
+That cannon can make no breach in Indian forts may appear strange: but
+not more strange than true; as will appear, if we consider that the
+wooden posts or stakes which surround these forts, are too big for a
+bullet of the size of those used in these wars, to cut them down,
+though it were even to hit their middle. If the bullet gives more
+towards the edge of the tree, it glides off, and strikes the next to
+it; should the ball hit exactly between two posts, it opens them, and
+meets the post of the lining, which stops it short: another ball may
+strike the same tree, at the other joining, then it closes the little
+aperture the other had made.
+
+Were I to undertake such a war, I would bring only a few Indian
+allies; I could easily manage them; they would not stand me so much in
+presents, nor consume so much ammunition and provisions: a great
+saving this; and bringing no cannon with me, I should also save
+expences. I would have none but portable arms; and thus my troops
+would not be harassed. The country every where furnishes wherewithal
+to make moveable intrenchments and approaches, without opening the
+ground: and I would flatter myself to carry the fort in two days time.
+There I stop: the reader has no need of this detail, nor I to make it
+public.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Pensacola _taken by Surprize by the_ French. _Retaken by the_ Spaniards.
+_Again retaken by the_ French, _and demolished_.
+
+
+Before I go any farther, I think it necessary to relate what happened
+with respect to the Fort of Pensacola in Virginia. [Footnote: The
+author must mean Carolina.] This fort belongs to the Spaniards, and
+serves for an {101} Entrepot, or harbour for the Spanish galleons to
+put into, in their passage from La Vera Cruz to Europe.
+
+Towards the beginning of the year 1719, the Commandant General having
+understood by the last ships which arrived, that war was declared
+between France and Spain, resolved to take the post of Pensacola from
+the Spaniards; which stands on the continent, about fifteen leagues
+from Isle Dauphine, is defended by a staccado-fort the entrance of the
+road: over against it stands a fortin, or small fort, on the west
+point of the Isle St. Rose; which, on that side, defends the entrance
+of the road: this fort has only a guard-house to defend it.
+
+The Commandant General, persuaded it would be impossible to besiege
+the place in form, wanted to take it by surprise, confiding in the
+ardor of the French, and security of the Spaniards, who were as yet
+ignorant of our being at war with them in Europe. With that view he
+assembled the few troops he had, with several Canadian and French
+planters, newly arrived, who went as volunteers. M. de Chateauguier,
+the Commandant's brother, and King's Lieutenant, commanded under him;
+and next him, M. de Richebourg, Captain. After arming this body of
+men, and getting the necessary supplies of ammunition and provisions,
+he embarked with his small army, and by the favour of a prosperous
+wind, arrived in a short time at his place of destination. The French
+anchored near the Fortin, made their descent undiscovered, seized on
+the guard-house, and clapt the soldiers in irons; which was done in
+less than half an hour. Some French soldiers were ordered to put on
+the cloaths of the Spaniards, in order to facilitate the surprising
+the enemy. The thing succeeded to their wish. On the morrow at
+day-break, they perceived the boat which carried the detachment from
+Pensacola, in order to relieve the guard of the fortin; on which the
+Spanish march was caused to be beat up; and the French in disguise
+receiving them, and clapping them in irons, put on their cloaths; and
+stepping into the same boat, surprised the sentinel, the guard-house,
+and at last the garrison, to the very Governor himself, who was taken
+in bed; so that they all were made prisoners without any bloodshed.
+
+{102} The Commandant General, apprehensive of the scarcity of
+provisions, shipped off the prisoners, escorted by some soldiers,
+commanded by M. de Richebourg, in order to land them at the Havanna:
+he left his brother at Pensacola, to command there, with a garrison of
+sixty men. As soon as the French vessel had anchored at the Havanna,
+M. de Richebourg went on shore, to acquaint the Spanish Governor with
+his commission; who received him with politeness, and as a testimony
+of his gratitude, made him and his officers prisoners, put the
+soldiers in irons and in prison, where they lay for some time, exposed
+to hunger and the insults of the Spaniards, which determined many of
+them to enter into the service of Spain, in order to escape the
+extreme misery under which they groaned.
+
+Some of the French, newly enlisted in the Spanish troops, informed the
+Governor of the Havanna, that the French garrison left at Pensacola
+was very weak: he, in his turn, resolved to carry that fort by way of
+reprisal. For that purpose he caused a Spanish vessel, with that which
+the French had brought to the Havanna, to be armed. The Spanish vessel
+stationed itself behind the Isle St. Rose, and the French vessel came
+before the fort with French colours. The sentinel enquired, who
+commanded the vessel? They answered, M. de Richebourg. This vessel,
+after anchoring, took down her French, and hoisted Spanish colours,
+firing three guns: at which signal, agreed on by the Spaniards, the
+Spanish vessel joined the first; then they summoned the French to
+surrender. M. de Chateauguiere rejected the proposition, fired upon
+the Spaniards, and they continued cannonading each other till night.
+
+On the following day the cannonading was continued till noon, when the
+Spaniards ceased firing, in order to summon the Commandant anew to
+surrender the fort: he demanded four days, and was allowed two. During
+that time, he sent to ask succours of his brother, who was in no
+condition to send him any.
+
+The term being expired, the attack was renewed, the Commandant bravely
+defending himself till night; which two thirds of the garrison availed
+themselves of, to abandon their Governor, {103} who, having only
+twenty men left, saw himself unable to make any longer resistance,
+demanded to capitulate, and was allowed all the honours of war; but in
+going out of the place, he and all his men were made prisoners. This
+infraction of the capitulation was occasioned by the shame the
+Spaniards conceived, of being constrained to capitulate in this manner
+with twenty men only.
+
+As soon as the Governor of the Havanna was apprised of the surrender
+of the fort, vainly imagining he had overthrown half his enemies at
+least, he caused great rejoicings to be made in the island, as if he
+had gained a decisive victory, or carried a citadel of importance. He
+also sent off several vessels to victual and refresh his warriors,
+who, according to him, must have been greatly fatigued in such an
+action as I have just described.
+
+The new Governor of Pensacola caused the fortifications to be repaired
+and even augmented; sent afterwards the vessel, named the Great Devil,
+armed with six pieces of cannon, to take Dauphin Island, or at least
+to strike terror into it. The vessel St. Philip, which lay in the
+road, entered a gut or narrow place, and there mooring across, brought
+all her guns to bear on the enemy; and made the Great Devil sensible,
+that Saints resist all the efforts of Hell.
+
+This ship, by her position, served for a citadel to the whole island,
+which had neither fortifications nor intrenchments, nor any other sort
+of defence, excepting a battery of cannon at the east point, with some
+inhabitants, who guarded the coast, and prevented a descent. The Great
+Devil, finding she made no progress, was constrained, by way of
+relaxation, to go and pillage on the continent the habitation of the
+Sieur Miragouine, which was abandoned. In the mean time arrived from
+Pensacola, a little devil, a pink, to the assistance of the Great
+Devil. As soon as they joined, they began afresh to cannonade the
+island, which made a vigorous defence.
+
+In the time that these two vessels attempted in vain to take the
+island, a squadron of five ships came in sight, four of them with
+Spanish colours, and the least carrying French hoisted to {104} the
+top of the staff, as if taken by the four others. In this the French
+were equally deceived with the Spaniards: the former, however, knew
+the small vessel, which was the pink, the Mary, commanded by the brave
+M. Iapy. The Spaniards, convinced by these appearances, that succours
+were sent them, deputed two officers in a shallop on board the
+commodore: but they were no sooner on board, than they were made
+prisoners.
+
+They were in effect three French men of war, with two ships of the
+Company, commanded by M. Champmelin. These ships brought upwards of
+eight hundred men, and thirty officers, as well superior as subaltern,
+all of them old and faithful servants of the King, in order to remain
+in Louisiana. The Spaniards, finding their error, fled to Pensacola,
+to carry the news of this succour being arrived for the French.
+
+The squadron anchored before the island, hoisted French colours, and
+fired a salvo, which was answered by the place. The St. Philip was
+drawn out and made to join the squadron: a new embarkation of troops
+was made, and the Mary left before Isle Dauphine.
+
+On September the 7th, finding the wind favourable, the squadron set
+sail for Pensacola: by the way, the troops that were to make the
+attack on the continent, were landed near Rio Perdido; after which the
+ships, preceded by a boat, which shewed the way, entered the harbour,
+and anchored, and laid their broad sides, in spite of several
+discharges of cannon from the fort, which is upon the Isle of St.
+Rose. The ships had no sooner laid their broad-sides, but the
+cannonade began on both sides. Our ships had two forts to batter, and
+seven sail of ships that lay in the harbour. But the great land fort
+fired only one gun on our army, in which the Spanish Governor, having
+observed upwards of three hundred Indians, commanded by M. de St.
+Denis, whose bravery was universally acknowledged, was struck with
+such a panick, from the fear of falling into their hands, that he
+struck, and surrendered the place.
+
+The fight continued for about two hours longer: but the heavy metal of
+our Commodore making great execution, the Spaniards cried out several
+times on board their ships, to {105} strike; but fear prevented their
+executing these orders: none but a French prisoner durst do it for
+them. They quitted their ships, leaving matches behind, which would
+have soon set them on fire. The French prisoners between decks, no
+longer hearing the least noise, surmised a flight, came on deck,
+discovered the stratagem of the Spaniards, removed the matches, and
+thus hindered the vessels from taking fire, acquainting the Commodore
+therewith. The little fort held out but an hour longer, after which it
+surrendered for want of gunpowder. The Commandant came himself to put
+his sword in the hands of M. Champmelin, who embraced him, returned
+him his sword, and told him, he knew how to distinguish between a
+brave officer, and one who was not. He made his own ship his place of
+confinement, whereas the Commandant of the great fort was made the
+laughing-stock of the French.
+
+All the Spaniards on board the ships, and those of the two forts were
+made prisoners of war: but the French deserters, to the number of
+forty, were made to cast lots; half of them were hanged at the
+yard-arms, the rest condemned to be galley-slaves to the Company for
+ten years in the country.
+
+M. Champmelin caused the two forts to be demolished, preserving only
+three or four houses, with a warehouse. These houses were to lodge the
+officer, and the few soldiers that were left there, and one to be a
+guard-house. The rest of the planters were transported to Isle
+Dauphine, and M. Champmelin set sail for France. [Footnote: At the
+peace that soon succeeded between France and Spain, Pensacola was
+restored to the last.]
+
+The history of Pensacola is the more necessary, as it is so near our
+settlements, that the Spaniards hear our guns, when we give them
+notice by that signal of our design to come and trade with them.
+
+{107}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+_Of the Country, and its Products_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its Climate_
+
+
+Louisiana that part of North America, which is bounded on the south by
+the Gulf of Mexico; on the east by Carolina, an English colony, and by
+a part of Canada; on the west by New Mexico; and on the north, in part
+by Canada; in part it extends, without any assignable bounds, to the
+Terrae Incognitae, adjoining to Hudson's Bay. [Footnote: By the
+charter granted by Louis XIV. to M. Crozat, Louisiana extends only
+"from the edge of the sea as far as the Illinois," which is not above
+half the extent assigned by our author.] Its breadth is about two
+hundred leagues, [Footnote: According to the best maps and accounts
+extant, the distance from the Missisippi to the mountains of New
+Mexico is about nine hundred miles, and from the Missisippi to the
+Atlantic Ocean about six hundred; reckoning sixty miles to a degree,
+and in a straight line.] extending between the Spanish and English
+settlements; its length undetermined, as being altogether unknown.
+However, the source of the Missisippi will afford us some light on
+this head.
+
+The climate of Louisiana varies in proportion as it extends northward:
+all that can be said of it in general is, that its southern parts are
+not so scorching as those of Africa in the {108} same latitude; and
+that the northern parts are colder than the corresponding parts of
+Europe. New Orleans, which lies in lat. 30°, as do the more northerly
+coasts of Barbary and Egypt, enjoys the same temperature of climate as
+Languedoc. Two degrees higher-up, at the Natchez, where I resided for
+eight years, the climate is far more mild than at New Orleans, the
+country lying higher: and at the Illinois, which is between 45° and
+46°, the summer is in no respect hotter than at Rochelle; but we find
+the frosts harder, and a more plentiful fall of snow. This difference
+of climate from that of Africa and Europe, I ascribe to two causes:
+the first is, the number of woods, which, though scattered up and
+down, cover the face of this country: the second, the great number of
+rivers. The former prevent the sun from warming the earth; and the
+latter diffuse a great degree of humidity: not to mention the
+continuity of this country with those to the northward; from which it
+follows, that the winds blowing from that quarter are much colder than
+if they traversed the sea in their course. For it is well known that
+the air is never so hot, and never so cold at sea, as on land.
+
+We ought not therefore to be surprised, if in the southern part of
+Louisiana, a north wind obliges people in summer to be warmer
+cloathed; or if in winter a south wind admits of a lighter dress; as
+naturally owing, at the one time to the dryness of the wind, at the
+other, to the proximity of the Equator.
+
+Few days pass in Louisiana without seeing the sun. The rain pours down
+there in sudden heavy showers, which do not last long, but disappear
+in half an hour, perhaps. The dews are very plentiful, advantageously
+supplying the place of rain.
+
+We may therefore well imagine that the air is perfectly good there;
+the blood is pure; the people are healthy; subject to few diseases in
+the vigour of life, and without decrepitude in old age, which they
+carry to a far greater length than in France. People live to a long
+and agreeable old age in Louisiana, if they are but sober and
+temperate.
+
+This country is extremely well watered, but much more so in some
+places than in others. The Missisippi divides this {109} colony from
+north to south into two parts almost equal. The first discoverers of
+this river by the way of Canada, called it Colbert, in honour of that
+great Minister. By some of the savages of the north it is called
+Meact-Chassipi, which literally denotes, The Ancient Father of Rivers,
+of which the French have, by corruption formed Missisippi. Other
+Indians, especially those lower down the river, call it Balbancha; and
+at last the French have given it the name of St. Louis.
+
+Several travellers have in vain attempted to go up to its source;
+which, however, is well known, whatever some authors, misinformed, may
+alledge to the contrary. We here subjoin the accounts that may be most
+depended upon.
+
+M. de Charleville, a Canadian, and a relation of M. de Biainville,
+Commandant General of this colony, told me, that at the time of the
+settlement of the French, curiosity alone had led him to go up this
+river to its sources; that for this end he fitted out a canoe, made of
+the bark of the birch-tree, in order to be more portable in case of
+need. And that having thus set out with two Canadians and two Indians,
+with goods, ammunition, and provisions, he went up the river three
+hundred leagues to the north, above the Illinois: that there be found
+the Fall, called St. Antony's. This fall is a flat-rock, which
+traverses the river, and gives it only between eight or ten feet fall.
+He caused his canoe and effects to be carried over that place; and
+that embarking afterwards above the fall, he continued going up the
+river an hundred leagues more to the north, where he met the Sioux, a
+people inhabiting that country, at some distance from the Missisippi;
+some say, on each side of it.
+
+The Sioux, little accustomed to see Europeans, were surprized at seeing
+him, and asked whither he was going. He told them, up the Missisippi to
+its source. They answered, that the country whither he was going was
+very bad, and where he would have great difficulty to find game for
+subsistence; that it was a great way off, reckoned as far from the
+source to the fall, as from this last to the sea. According to this
+information, the Missisippi must measure from its source to its mouth
+between fifteen and sixteen hundred leagues, as they reckon eight
+hundred leagues from St. Antony's Fall to the sea. This {110} conjecture
+is the more probable, as that far to the north, several rivers of a
+pretty long course fall into the Missisippi; and that even above St.
+Antony's Fall, we find in this river between thirty and thirty-five
+fathom water, and a breadth in proportion; which can never be from a
+source at no great distance off. I may add, that all the Indians,
+informed by those nearer the source, are of the same opinion.
+
+Though M. de Charleville did not see the source of the Missisippi, he,
+however, learned, that a great many rivers empty their waters into it:
+that even above St. Antony's Fall, he saw rivers on each side of the
+Missisippi, having a course of upwards of an hundred leagues.
+
+It is proper to observe, that in going down the river from St.
+Antony's Fall, the right hand is the west, the left the east. The
+first river we meet from the fall, and some leagues lower down, is the
+river St. Peter, which comes from the west: lower down to the east, is
+the river St. Croix, both of them tolerable large rivers. We meet
+several others still less, the names of which are of no consequence.
+Afterwards we meet with the river Moingona, which comes from the west,
+about two hundred and fifty leagues below the fall, and upwards of an
+hundred and fifty leagues in length. This river is somewhat brackish.
+From that river to the Illinois, several rivulets or brooks, both to
+the right and left, fall into the Missisippi. The river of the
+Illinois comes from the east, and takes its rise on the frontiers of
+Canada; its length is two hundred leagues.
+
+The river Missouri comes from a source about eight hundred leagues
+distant; and running from north-west to south-east, discharges itself
+into the Missisippi, about four or five leagues below the river of the
+Illinois. This river receives several others, in particular the river
+of the Canzas, which runs above an hundred and fifty leagues. From the
+rivers of the Illinois and the Missouri to the sea are reckoned five
+hundred leagues, and three hundred to St. Antony's Fall: from the
+Missouri to the Wabache, or Ohio, an hundred leagues. By this last
+river is the passage from Louisiana to Canada. This voyage is
+performed from New Orleans by going up the Missisippi to the Wabache;
+which they go up in the same manner quite to {111} the river of the
+Miamis; in which they proceed as far as the Carrying-place; from which
+there are two leagues to a little river which falls into Lake Erie.
+Here they change their vessels; they come in pettyaugres, and go down
+the river St. Laurence to Quebec in birch canoes. On the river St.
+Laurence are several carrying-places, on account of its many falls or
+cataracts.
+
+
+Those who have performed this voyage, have told me they reckoned
+eighteen hundred leagues from New Orleans to Quebec. [Footnote: It is
+not above nine hundred leagues.] Though the Wabache is considered in
+Louisiana, as the most considerable of the rivers which come from
+Canada, and which, uniting in one bed, form the river commonly called
+by that name, yet all the Canadian travellers assure me, that the
+river called Ohio, and which falls into the Wabache, comes a much
+longer way than this last; which should be a reason for giving it the
+name Ohio; but custom has prevailed in this respect. [Footnote: But
+not among the English; we call it the Ohio.]
+
+From the Wabache, and on the same side, to Manchac, we see but very
+few rivers, and those very small ones, which fall into the Missisippi,
+though there are nearly three hundred and fifty leagues from the
+Wabache to Manchac. [Footnote: That is, from the mouth of the Ohio to
+the river Iberville, which other accounts make but two hundred and
+fifty leagues.] This will, doubtless, appear something extraordinary
+to those unacquainted with the country.
+
+The reason, that may be assigned for it, appears quite natural and
+striking. In all that part of Louisiana, which is to the east of the
+Missisippi, the lands are so high in the neighbourhood of the river,
+that in many places the rain-water runs off from the banks of the
+Missisippi, and discharges itself into rivers, which fall either
+directly into the sea, or into lakes.
+
+Another very probable reason is, that from the Wabache to the sea, no
+rain falls but in sudden gusts; which defect is compensated by the
+abundant dews, so that the plants lose nothing by that means. The
+Wabache has a course of three hundred {112} leagues, and the Ohio has
+its source a hundred leagues still farther off.
+
+In continuing to go down the Missisippi, from the Wabache to the river
+of the Arkansas, we observe but few rivers, and those pretty small.
+The most considerable is that of St. Francis, which is distant thirty
+and odd leagues from that of the Arkansas. It is on this river of St.
+Francis, that the hunters of New Orleans go every winter to make salt
+provisions, tallow, and bears oil, for the supply of the capital.
+
+The river of the Arkansas, which is thirty-five leagues lower down,
+and two hundred leagues from New Orleans, is so denominated from the
+Indians of that name, who dwell on its banks, a little above its
+confluence with the Missisippi. It runs three hundred leagues, and its
+source is in the same latitude with Santa-Fé, in New Mexico, in the
+mountains of which it rises. It runs up a little to the north for a
+hundred leagues, by forming a flat elbow, or winding, and returns from
+thence to the south-east, quite to the Missisippi. It has a cataract,
+or fall, about the middle of its course. Some call it the White River,
+because in its course it receives a river of that name. The Great
+Cut-point is about forty leagues below the river of the Arkansas: this
+was a long circuit which the Missisippi formerly took, and which it
+has abridged, by making its way through this point of land.
+
+Below this river, still going towards the sea, we observe scarce any
+thing but brooks or rivulets, except the river of the Yasous, sixty
+leagues lower down. This river runs but about fifty leagues, and will
+hardly admit of a boat for a great way: it has taken its name from the
+nation of the Yasous, and some others dwelling on its banks.
+Twenty-eight leagues below the river of the Yasous, is a great cliff
+of a reddish free-stone: over-against this cliff are the great and
+little whirlpools.
+
+From this little river, we meet but with very small ones, till we come
+to the Red River, called at first the Marne, because nearly as big as
+that river, which falls into the Seine. The Nachitoches dwell on its
+banks, and it was distinguished by the name of that nation; but its
+common name, and which it still bears, is that of the Red River. It
+takes its rise in New Mexico, {113} forms an elbow to the north, in
+the same manner as the river of the Arkansas, falls down afterwards
+towards the Missisippi, running south east. They generally allow it a
+course of two hundred leagues. At about ten leagues from its
+confluence it receives the Black River, or the river of the Wachitas,
+which takes its rise pretty near that of the Arkansas. This rivulet,
+or source, forms, as is said, a fork pretty near its rise, one arm of
+which falls into the river of the Arkansas; the largest forms the
+Black River. Twenty leagues below the Red River is the Little
+Cut-point, and a league below that point are the little cliffs.
+
+From the Red River to the sea we observe nothing but some small
+brooks: but on the east side, twenty-five leagues above New Orleans,
+we find a channel, which is dry at low water. The inundations of the
+Missisippi formed this channel (which is called Manchac) below some
+high lands, which terminate near that place. It discharges itself into
+the lake Maurepas, and from thence into that of St. Louis, of which I
+gave an account before.
+
+The channel runs east south-east: formerly there was a passage through
+it; but at present it is so choaked up with dead wood, that it begins
+to have no water [Footnote: Manchac is almost dry for three quarters
+of the year: but during the inundation, the waters of the river have a
+vent through it into the lakes Ponchartrain and St. Louis. _Dumont_, II.
+297.
+
+This is the river Iberville, which is to be the boundary of the
+British dominions.] but at the place where it receives the river
+Amité, which is pretty large, and which runs seventy leagues in a very
+fine country.
+
+A very small river falls into the lake Maurepas, to the east of
+Manchac. In proceeding eastward, we may pass from this lake into that
+of St. Louis, by a river formed by the waters of the Amité. In going
+to the north of this lake, we meet to the east the little river
+Tandgipao. From thence proceeding always east, we come to the river
+Quéfoncté, which is long and beautiful, and comes from the Chactaws.
+Proceeding in the same route, we meet the river Castin-Bayouc: we may
+afterwards quit the lake by the channel, which borders the same
+country, {114} and proceeding eastward we meet with Pearl River which
+falls into this channel.
+
+Farther up the coast, which lies from west to east, we meet St.
+Louis's Bay, into which a little river of that name discharges itself:
+farther on, we meet the river of the Paska-Ogoulas: and at length we
+arrive at the Bay of Mobile, which runs upwards of thirty leagues into
+the country, where it receives the river of the same name, which runs
+for about a hundred and fifty leagues from north to south. All the
+rivers I have just mentioned, and which fall not into the Missisippi,
+do in like manner run from north to south.
+
+_Description of the Lower_ Louisiana, _and the Mouths of the_
+Missisippi.
+
+I return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi. At a little
+distance from Manchac we meet the river of the Plaqumines; it lies to
+the west, and is rather a creek than a river. Three or four leagues
+lower down is the Fork, which is channel running to the west of the
+Missisippi, through which part of the inundations of that river run
+off. These waters pass through several lakes, and from thence to the
+sea, by Ascension Bay. As to the other rivers to the west of this bay,
+their names are unknown.
+
+The waters which fall into those lakes consist not only of such as
+pass through this channel, but also of those that come out of the
+Missisippi, when overflowing its banks on each side: for, of all the
+water which comes out of the Missisippi over its banks, not a drop
+ever returns into its bed; but this is only to be understood of the
+low lands, that is, between fifty and sixty leagues from the sea
+eastward, and upwards of a hundred leagues westward.
+
+It will, doubtless, seem strange, that a river which overflows its
+banks, should never after recover its waters again, either in whole or
+in part; and this will appear so much the more singular, as every
+where else it happens otherwise in the like circumstances.
+
+It appeared no less strange to myself; and I have on all occasions
+endeavoured to the utmost, to find out what could {115} produce an
+effect, which really appeared to me very extraordinary, and, I
+imagine, not without success.
+
+From Manchac down to the sea, it is probable, and even in some degree
+certain, that all the lands thereabouts are brought down and
+accumulated by means of the ooze which the Missisippi carries along
+with it in its annual inundations; which begin in the month of March,
+by the melting of the snow to the north, and last for about three
+months. Those oozy or muddy lands easily produce herbs and reeds; and
+when the Missisippi happens to overflow the following year, these
+herbs and reeds intercept a part of this ooze, so that those at a
+distance from the river cannot retain so large a quantity of it, since
+those that grow next the river have stopt the greatest part; and by a
+necessary consequence, the others farther off, and in proportion as
+they are distant from the Missisippi, can retain a much less quantity
+of the mud. In this manner the land rising higher along the river, in
+process of time the banks of the Missisippi became higher than the
+lands about it. In like manner also these neighbouring lakes on each
+side of the river are remains of the sea, which are not yet filled up.
+Other rivers have firm banks, formed by the lands of Nature, a land of
+the same nature with the continent, and always adhering thereto: these
+sorts of banks, instead of augmenting, do daily diminish, either by
+sinking, or tumbling down into the bed of the river. The banks of the
+Missisippi, on the contrary, increase, and cannot diminish in the low
+and accumulated lands; because the ooze, alone deposited on its banks,
+increase them; which, besides, is the reason that the Missisippi
+becomes narrower, in place of washing away the earth, and enlarging
+its bed, as all other known rivers do. If we consider these facts,
+therefore, we ought no longer to be surprised that the waters of the
+Missisippi, when once they have left their bed, can never return
+thither again.
+
+In order to prove this augmentation of lands, I shall relate what
+happened near Orleans: one of the inhabitants caused a well to be sunk
+at a little distance from the Missisippi, in order to procure a
+clearer water. At twenty feet deep there was found a tree laid flat,
+three feet in diameter: the height of the earth was therefore
+augmented twenty feet since the fall or lodging of that tree, as well
+by the accumulated mud, as by the {116} rotting of the leaves, which
+fall every winter, and which the Missisippi carries down in vast
+quantities. In effect, it sweeps down a great deal of mud, because it
+runs for twelve hundred leagues at least across a country which is
+nothing else but earth, which the depth of the river sufficiently
+proves. It carries down vast quantities of leaves, canes and trees,
+upon its waters, the breadth of which is always above half a league,
+and sometimes a league and a quarter. Its banks are covered with much
+wood, sometimes for the breadth of a league on each side, from its
+source to its mouth. There is nothing therefore more easy to be
+conceived, than that this river carries down with its waters a
+prodigious quantity of ooze, leaves, canes and trees, which it
+continually tears up by the roots, and that the sea throwing back
+again all these things, they should necessarily produce the lands in
+question, and which are sensibly increasing. At the entrance of the
+pass or channel to the south-east, there was built a small fort, still
+called Balise. This fort was built on a little island, without the
+mouth of the river. In 1734 it stood on the same spot, and I have been
+told that at present it is half a league within the river: the land
+therefore hath in twenty years gained this space on the sea. Let us
+now resume the sequel of the Geographical Description of Louisiana.
+
+The coast is bounded to the west by St. Bernard's Bay, where M. de la
+Salle landed; into this bay a small river falls, and there are some
+others which discharge their waters between this bay and Ascension
+bay; the planters seldom frequent that coast. On the east the coast is
+bounded by Rio Perdido, which the French corruptedly call aux Perdrix;
+Rio Perdido signifying Lost River, aptly so called by the Spaniards,
+because it loses itself under ground, and afterwards appears again,
+and discharges itself into the sea, a little to the East of Mobile, on
+which the first French planters settled.
+
+From the Fork down to the sea, there is no river; nor is it possible
+there should be any, after what I have related: on the contrary, we
+find at a small distance from the Fork, another channel to the east,
+called the Bayoue of le Sueur: it is full of a soft ooze or mud, and
+communicates with the lakes which lie to the east.
+
+{117} On coming nearer to the sea, we meet, at about eight leagues
+from the principal mouth of the Missisippi, the first Pass; and a
+league lower down, the Otter Pass. These two passes or channels are
+only for pettyaugres. From this place there is no land fit to tread
+on, it being all a quagmire down to the sea. There also we find a
+point, which parts the mouths of the Missisippi: that to the right is
+called the South-Pass, or Channel; the west point of which runs two
+leagues farther into the sea than the point of the South-east Pass,
+which is to the left of that of the South Pass. At first vessels
+entered by the South-east Pass, but before we go down to it, we find
+to the left the East-Pass, which is that by which ships enter at
+present.
+
+At each of these three Passes or Channels there is a Bar, as in all
+other rivers: these bars are three quarters of a league broad, with
+only eight or nine feet water: but there is a channel through this
+bar, which being often subject to shift, the coasting pilot is obliged
+to be always sounding, in order to be sure of the pass: this channel
+is, at low water, between seventeen and eighteen feet deep. [Footnote:
+I shall make no mention of the islands, which are frequent in the
+Missisippi, as being, properly speaking, nothing but little isles,
+produced by some trees, though the soil be nothing but a sand
+bottom.]
+
+This description may suffice to shew that the falling in with the land
+from sea is bad; the land scarce appears two leagues off; which
+doubtless made the Spaniards call the Missisippi Rio Escondido, the
+Hid River. This river is generally muddy, owing to the waters of the
+Missouri; for before this junction the water of the Missisippi is very
+clear. I must not omit mentioning that no ship can either enter or
+continue in the river when the waters are high, on account of the
+prodigious numbers of trees, and vast quantities of dead wood, which
+it carries down, and which, together with the canes, leaves, mud, and
+sand, which the sea throws back upon the coast, are continually
+augmenting the land, and make it project into the Gulf of Mexico, like
+the bill of a bird.
+
+I should be naturally led to divide Louisiana into the Higher and
+Lower, on account of the great difference between {118} the two
+principal parts of this vast country. The Higher I would call that
+part in which we find stone, which we first meet with between the
+river of the Natchez and that of the Yasous, between which is a cliff
+of a fine free stone; and I would terminate that part at Manchac,
+where the high lands end. I would extend the Lower Louisiana from
+thence down to the sea. The bottom of the lands on the hills is a red
+clay, and so compact, as might afford a solid foundation for any
+building whatever. This clay is covered by a light earth, which is
+almost black, and very fertile. The grass grows there knee deep; and
+in the bottoms, which separate these small eminences, it is higher
+than the tallest man. Towards the end of September both are
+successively set on fire; and in eight or ten days young grass shoots
+up half a foot high. One will easily judge, that in such pastures
+herds of all creatures fatten extraordinarily. The flat country is
+watery, and appears to have been formed by every thing that comes down
+to the sea. I shall add, that pretty near the Nachitoches, we find
+banks of muscle-shells, such as those of which Cockle-Island is
+formed. The neighbouring nation affirms, that according to their old
+tradition, the sea formerly came up to this place. The women of this
+nation go and gather these shells, and make a powder of them, which
+they mix with the earth, of which they make their pottery, or earthen
+ware. However, I would not advise the use of these shells
+indifferently for this purpose, because they are naturally apt to
+crack in the fire: I have therefore reason to think, that those found
+at the Nachitoches have acquired their good quality only by the
+discharge of their salts, from continuing for so many ages out of the
+sea.
+
+If we may give credit to the tradition of these people, and if we
+would reason on the facts I have advanced, we shall be naturally led
+to believe, and indeed every thing in this country shews it, that the
+Lower Louisiana is a country gained on the sea, whose bottom is a
+crystal sand, white as snow, fine as flour, and such as is found both
+to the east and west of the Missisippi; and we may expect, that in
+future ages the sea and river may form another land like that of the
+Lower Louisiana. The Fort Balise shews that a century is sufficient to
+extend Louisiana two leagues towards the sea.
+
+{119}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_The Author's Journey in_ Louisiana, _from the Natchez to the River St.
+Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws._
+
+
+Ever since my arrival in Louisiana, I made it my business to get
+information in whatever was new therein, and to make discoveries of
+such things as might be serviceable to society. I therefore resolved
+to take a journey through the country. And after leaving my plantation
+to the care of my friends and neighbours, I prepared for a journey
+into the interior parts of the province, in order to learn the nature
+of the soil, its various productions, and to make discoveries not
+mentioned by others.
+
+I wanted to travel both for my own instruction, and for the benefit of
+the publick: but at the same time I desired to be alone, without any
+of my own countrymen with me; who, as they neither have patience, nor
+are made for fatigue, would be ever teazing me to return again, and
+not readily take up either with the fare or accommodations, to be met
+with on such a journey. I therefore pitched upon ten Indians, who were
+indefatigable, robust, and tractable, and sufficiently skilled in
+hunting, a qualification necessary on such journeys. I explained to
+them my whole design; told them, we should avoid passing through any
+inhabited countries, and would take our journeys through such as were
+unknown and uninhabited; because I travelled in order to discover what
+no one before could inform me about. This explication pleased them;
+and on their part they promised, I should have no reason to be
+dissatisfied with them. But they objected, they were under
+apprehensions of losing themselves in countries they did not know. To
+remove these apprehensions, I shewed them a mariner's compass, which
+removed all their difficulties, after I had explained to them the
+manner of using it, in order to avoid losing our way.
+
+We set out in the month of September, which is the best season of the
+year for beginning a journey in this country: in the first place,
+because, during the summer, the grass is too high for travelling;
+whereas in the month of September, the meadows, the grass of which is
+then dry, are set on fire, and {120} the ground becomes smooth, and
+easy to walk on: and hence it is, that at this time, clouds of smoke
+are seen for several days together to extend over a long track of
+country; sometimes to the extent of between twenty and thirty leagues
+in length, by two or three leagues in breadth, more or less, according
+as the wind sets, and is higher or lower. In the second place, this
+season is the most commodious for travelling over those countries;
+because, by means of the rain, which ordinarily falls after the grass
+is burnt, the game spread themselves all over the meadows, and delight
+to feed on the new grass; which is the reason why travellers more
+easily find provisions at this time than at any other. What besides
+facilitates these excursions in Autumn, or in the beginning of Winter,
+is, that all works in the fields are then at an end, or at least the
+hurry of them is over.
+
+For the first days of our journey the game was pretty rare, because
+they shun the neighbourhood of men; if you except the deer, which are
+spread all over the country, their nature being to roam indifferently
+up and down; so that at first we were obliged to put up with this
+fare. We often met with flights of partridges, which the natives
+cannot kill, because they cannot shoot flying; I killed some for a
+change. The second day I had a turkey-hen brought to regale me. The
+discoverer, who killed it, told me, there were a great many in the
+same place, but that he could do nothing without a dog. I have often
+heard of a turkey-chace, but never had an opportunity of being at one:
+I went with him and took my dog along with me. On coming to the spot,
+we soon descried the hens, which ran off with such speed, that the
+swiftest Indian would lose his labour in attempting to outrun them. My
+dog soon came up with them, which made them take to their wings, and
+perch on the next trees; as long as they are not pursued in this
+manner, they only run, and are soon out of sight. I came near their
+place of retreat, killed the largest, a second, and my discoverer a
+third. We might have killed the whole flock; for, while they see any
+men, they never quit the tree they have once perched on. Shooting
+scares them not, as they only look at the bird that drops, and set up
+a timorous cry, as he falls.
+
+{121} Before I proceed, it is proper to say a word concerning my
+discoverers, or scouts. I had always three of them out, one a-head, and
+one on each hand of me; commonly distant a league from me, and as much
+from each other. Their condition of scouts prevented not their carrying
+each his bed, and provisions for thirty-six hours upon occasion. Though
+those near my own person were more loaded, I however sent them out,
+sometimes one, sometimes another, either to a neighbouring mountain or
+valley: so that I had three or four at least, both on my right and left,
+who went out to make discoveries a small distance off. I did thus, in
+order to have nothing to reproach myself with, in point of vigilance,
+since I had begun to take the trouble of making discoveries.
+
+The next business was, to make ourselves mutually understood,
+notwithstanding our distance: we agreed, therefore, on certain
+signals, which are absolutely necessary on such occasions. Every day,
+at nine in the morning, at noon, and at three in the afternoon, we
+made a smoke. This signal was the hour marked for making a short halt,
+in order to know, whether the scouts followed each other, and whether
+they were nearly at the distance agreed on. These smokes were made at
+the hours I mentioned, which are the divisions of the day according to
+the Indians. They divide their day into four equal parts; the first
+contains the half of the morning; the second is at noon; the third
+comprizes the half of the afternoon; and the fourth, the other half of
+the afternoon to the evening. It was according to this usage our
+signals were mutually made, by which we regulated our course, and
+places of rendezvous.
+
+We marched for some days without finding any thing which could either
+engage my attention, or satisfy my curiosity. True it is, this was
+sufficiently made up in another respect; as we travelled over a
+charming country, which might justly furnish our painters of the
+finest imagination with genuine notions of landskips. Mine, I own, was
+highly delighted with the sight of fine plains, diversified with very
+extensive and highly delightful meadows. The plains were intermixed
+with thickets, planted by the hand of Nature herself; and interspersed
+with hills, running off in gentle declivities, and with {122} valleys,
+thick set, and adorned with woods, which serve for a retreat to the
+most timorous animals, as the thickets screen the buffaloes from the
+abundant dews of the country.
+
+I longed much to kill a buffalo with my own hand; I therefore told my
+people my intention to kill one of the first herd we should meet; nor
+did a day pass, in which we did not see several herds; the least of
+which exceeded a hundred and thirty or a hundred and fifty in number.
+
+Next morning we espied a herd of upwards of two hundred. The wind
+stood as I could have wished, being in our faces, and blowing from the
+herd; which is a great advantage in this chace; because when the wind
+blows from you towards the buffaloes, they come to scent you, and run
+away, before you can come within gun-shot of them; whereas, when the
+wind blows from them on the hunters, they do not fly till they can
+distinguish you by sight; and then, what greatly favours your coming
+very near to them is, that the curled hair, which falls down between
+their horns upon their eyes, is so bushy, as greatly to confuse their
+sight. In this manner I came within full gun-shot of them, pitched
+upon one of the fattest, shot him at the extremity of the shoulder,
+and brought him down stone-dead. The natives, who stood looking on,
+were ready to fire, had I happened to wound him but slightly; for in
+that case, these animals are apt to turn upon the hunter, who thus
+wounds them.
+
+Upon seeing the buffalo drop down dead, and the rest taking to flight,
+the natives told me, with a smile: "You kill the males, do you intend
+to make tallow?" I answered, I did it on purpose, to shew them the
+manner of making him good meat, though a male. I caused his belly to
+be opened quite warm, the entrails to be taken out directly, the
+bunch, tongue, and chines to be cut out; one of the chines to be laid
+on the coals, of which I made them all taste; and they all agreed the
+meat was juicy, and of an exquisite flavour.
+
+I then took occasion to remonstrate to them, that if, instead of
+killing the cows, as was always their custom, they killed the bulls,
+the difference in point of profit would be very considerable: {123}
+as, for instance, a good commerce with the French in tallow, with
+which the bulls abound; bull's flesh is far more delicate and tender
+than cow's; a third advantage is, the selling of the skins at a higher
+rate, as being much better; in fine, this kind of game, so
+advantageous to the country, would thereby escape being quite
+destroyed; whereas, by killing the cows, the breed of these animals is
+greatly impaired.
+
+I made a soup, that was of an exquisite flavour, but somewhat fat, of
+the broth boiled from the marrow-bones of this buffalo, the rest of
+the broth serving to make maiz-gruel, called Sagamity, which to my
+taste surpassed the best dish in France: the bunch on the back would
+have graced the table of a prince.
+
+In the route I held, I kept more on the sides of the hills than on the
+plains. Above some of these sides, or declivities, I found, in some
+places, little eminences, which lay peeled, or bare, and disclosed a
+firm and compact clay, or pure matrix, and of the species of that of
+Lapis Calaminaris. The intelligent in Mineralogy understand what I
+would be at. The little grass, which grows there, was observed to
+droop, as also three or four misshapen trees, no bigger than one's
+leg; one of which I caused to be cut down; when, to my astonishment, I
+saw it was upwards of sixty years standing. The neighbouring country
+was fertile, in proportion to its distance from this spot. Near that
+place we saw game of every kind, and in plenty, and never towards the
+summit.
+
+We crossed the Missisippi several times upon Cajeux (rafts, or floats,
+made of several bundles of canes, laid across each other; a kind of
+extemporaneous pontoon,) in order to take a view of mountains which
+had raised my curiosity. I observed, that both sides of the river had
+their several advantages; but that the West side is better watered;
+appeared also to be more fruitful both in minerals, and in what
+relates to agriculture; for which last it seems much more adapted than
+the East side.
+
+Notwithstanding our precaution to make signals, one of my scouts
+happened one day to stray, because the weather was {124} foggy; so
+that he did not return at night to our hut; at which I was very
+uneasy, and could not sleep; as he was not returned, though the
+signals of call had been repeated till night closed. About nine the
+next morning he cast up, telling us he had been in pursuit of a drove
+of deer, which were led by one that was altogether white: but that not
+being able to come up with them, he picked up, on the side of a hill,
+some small sharp stones, of which he brought a sample.
+
+These stones I received with pleasure, because I had not yet seen any
+in all this country, only a hard red free-stone in a cliff on the
+Missisippi. After carefully examining those which my discoverer
+brought me, I found they were a gypsum. I took home some pieces, and
+on my return examined them more attentively; found them to be very
+clear, transparent, and friable; when calcined, they turned extremely
+white, and with them I made some factitious marble. This gave me hopes
+that this country, producing Plaster of Paris, might, besides, have
+stones for building.
+
+I wanted to see the spot myself: we set out about noon, and travelled
+for about three leagues before we came to it. I examined the spot,
+which to me appeared to be a large quarry of Plaster.
+
+As to the white deer above mentioned, I learned from the Indians, that
+some such were to be met with, though but rarely, and that only in
+countries not frequented by the hunters.
+
+The wind being set in for rain, we resolved to put ourselves under
+shelter. The place where the bad weather overtook us was very fit to
+set up at. On going out to hunt, we discovered at five hundred paces
+off, in the defile, or narrow pass, a brook of a very clear water, a
+very commodious watering-place for the buffaloes, which were in great
+numbers all around us.
+
+My companions soon raised a cabin, well-secured to the North. As we
+resolved to continue there for eight days at least, they made it so
+close as to keep out the cold: in the night, I felt nothing of the
+severity of the North wind, though I lay but lightly covered. My bed
+consisted of a bear's skin, and two robes or coats of buffalo; the
+bear skin, with the flesh side {125} undermost, being laid on leaves,
+and the pile uppermost by way of straw-bed; one of the buffalo coats
+folded double by way of feather-bed; one half of the other under me
+served for a matrass, and the other over me for a coverlet: three
+canes, or boughs, bent to a semicircle, one at the head, another in
+the middle, and a third at the feet, supported a cloth which formed my
+tester and curtains, and secured me from the injuries of the air, and
+the stings of gnats and moskitto's. My Indians had their ordinary
+hunting and travelling beds, which consist of a deer skin and a
+buffalo coat, which they always carry with them, when they expect to
+lie out of their villages. We rested nine days, and regaled ourselves
+with choice buffalo, turkey, partridge, pheasants, &c.
+
+The discovery I had made of the plaster, put me to look out, during our
+stay, in all the places round about, for many leagues. I was at last
+tired of beating about such fine plains, without discovering the least
+thing, and I had resolved to go forward to the North when at the
+noon-signal the scout a-head waited to shew me a shining and sharp
+stone, of the length and size of one's thumb, and as square as a joiner
+could have made a piece of wood of the same bigness. I imagined it might
+be rock-crystal; to be assured thereof, I took a large musquet flint in
+my left hand, presenting its head, or thick end, on which I struck with
+one of the edges of the crystal, and drew much more fire than with the
+finest steel: and notwithstanding the many strokes I gave, the piece of
+crystal was not in the least scratched or streaked.
+
+I examined these stones, and found pieces of different magnitudes,
+some square, others with six faces, even and smooth like mirrors,
+highly transparent, without any veins or spots. Some of these pieces
+jutted out of the earth, like ends of beams, two feet and upwards in
+length; others in considerable numbers, from seven to nine inches;
+above all, those with six panes or faces. There was a great number of
+a middling and smaller sort: my people wanted to carry some with them;
+but I dissuaded them. My reason was, I apprehended some Frenchman
+might by presents prevail on them to discover the place.
+
+{126} For my part, I carefully observed the latitude, and followed, on
+setting out, a particular point of the compass, to come to a river
+which I knew. I took that route, under pretense of going to a certain
+nation to procure dry provisions, which we were in want of, and which
+are of great help on a journey.
+
+We arrived, after seven days march, at that nation, by whom we were
+well received. My hunters brought in daily many duck and teal. I
+agreed with the natives of the place for a large pettyaugre of black
+walnut, to go down the river, and afterwards to go up the Missisippi.
+
+I had a strong inclination to go up still higher north, in order to
+discover mines. We embarked, and the eleventh day of our passage I
+caused the pettyaugre to be unladen of every thing, and concealed in
+the water, which was then low. I loaded seven men with the things we
+had.
+
+Matters thus ordered, we set out according to the intention I had to
+go to the northward. I observed every day, with new pleasure, the more
+we advanced to that quarter, the more beautiful and fertile the
+country was, abounding in game of every kind: the herds of deer are
+numerous; at every turn we meet with them; and not a day passed
+without seeing herds of buffaloes, sometimes five or six, of upwards
+of an hundred in a drove.
+
+In such journeys as these we always take up our night's lodging near
+wood and water, where we put up in good time: then at sun-set, when
+every thing in nature is hushed, we were charmed with the enchanting
+warbling of different birds; so that one would be inclined to say,
+they reserved this favourable moment for the melody and harmony of
+their song, to celebrate undisturbed and at their ease, the benefits
+of the Creator. On the other hand, we are disturbed in the night, by
+the hideous noise of the numberless water-fowls that are to be seen on
+the Missisippi, and every river or lake near it, such as cranes,
+flamingo's, wild geese, herons, saw-bills, ducks, &c.
+
+As we proceeded further north, we began to see flocks of swans roam
+through the air, mount out of sight, and proclaim {127} their passage
+by their piercing shrill cries. We for some days followed the course
+of a river, at the head of which we found, in a very retired place, a
+beaver-dam.
+
+We set up our hut within reach of this retreat, or village of beavers,
+but at such a distance, as that they could not observe our fire. I put
+my people on their guard against making any noise, or firing their
+pieces, for fear of scaring those animals; and thought it even
+necessary to forbid them to cut any wood, the better to conceal
+ourselves.
+
+After taking all these precautions, we rose and were on foot against the
+time of moonshine, posted ourselves in a place as distant from the huts
+of the beavers, as from the causey or bank, which dammed up the waters
+of the place where they were. I took my fusil and pouch, according to my
+custom of never travelling without them. But each Indian was only to
+take with him a little hatchet, which all travellers in this country
+carry with them. I took the oldest of my retinue, after having pointed
+out to the others the place of ambush, and the manner in which the
+branches of trees we had cut were to be set to cover us. I then went
+towards the middle of the dam, with my old man, who had his hatchet, and
+ordered him softly to make a gutter or trench, a foot wide, which he
+began on the outside of the causey or dam, crossing it quite to the
+water. This he did by removing the earth with his hands. As soon as the
+gutter was finished, and the water ran into it, we speedily, and without
+any noise, retired to our place of ambush, in order to observe the
+behaviour of the beavers in repairing this breach.
+
+A little after we were got behind our screen of boughs, we heard the
+water of the gutter begin to make a noise: and a moment after, a beaver
+came out of his hut and plunged into the water. We could only know this
+by the noise, but we saw him at once upon the bank or dam, and
+distinctly perceived that he took a survey of the gutter, after which he
+instantly gave with all his force four blows with his tail; and had
+scarce struck the fourth, but all the beavers threw themselves pell-mell
+into the water, and came upon the dam: when they were all come thither,
+one of them muttered and mumbled to the {128} rest (who all stood very
+attentive) I know not what orders, but which they doubtless understood
+well, because they instantly departed, and went out on the banks of the
+pond, one party one way; another, another way. Those next us were
+between us and the dam, and we at the proper distance not to be seen,
+and to observe them. Some of them made mortar, others carried it on
+their tails, which served for sledges. I observed they put themselves
+two and two, side by side, the one with his head to the other's tail,
+and thus mutually loaded each other, and trailed the mortar, which was
+pretty stiff, quite to the dam, where others remained to take it, put it
+into the gutter, and rammed it with blows of their tails.
+
+The noise which the water made before by its fall, soon ceased, and
+the breach was closed in a short time: upon which one of the beavers
+struck two great blows with his tail, and instantly they all took to
+the water without any noise, and disappeared. We retired, in order to
+take a little rest in our hut, where we remained till day; but as soon
+as it appeared, I longed much to satisfy my curiosity about these
+creatures.
+
+My people together made a pretty large and deep breach, in order to
+view the construction of the dam, which I shall describe presently: we
+then made noise enough without further ceremony. This noise, and the
+water, which the beavers observed soon to lower, gave them much
+uneasiness; so that I saw one of them at different times come pretty
+near to us, in order to examine what passed.
+
+As I apprehended that when the water was run off they would all take
+flight to the woods, we quitted the breach, and went to conceal
+ourselves all round the pond, in order to kill only one, the more
+narrowly to examine it; especially as these beavers were of the grey
+kind, which are not so common as the brown.
+
+One of the beavers ventured to go upon the breach, after having
+several times approached it, and returned again like a spy. I lay in
+ambush in the bottom, at the end of the dam: I saw him return; he
+surveyed the breach, then struck four blows, which saved his life, for
+I then aimed at him. But these {129} four blows, so well struck, made
+me judge it was the signal of call for all the rest, just as the night
+before. This also made me think he might be the overseer of the works,
+and I did not choose to deprive the republic of beavers of a member
+who appeared so necessary to it. I therefore waited till others should
+appear: a little after, one came and passed close by me, in order to
+go to work; I made no scruple to lay him at his full length, on the
+persuasion he might only be a common labourer. My shot made them all
+return to their cabins, with greater speed than a hundred blows of the
+tail of their Overseer could have done. As soon as I had killed this
+beaver, I called my companions; and finding the water did not run off
+quick enough, I caused the breach to be widened, and I examined the
+dead.
+
+I observed these beavers to be a third less than the brown or common
+sort, but their make the same; having the same head, same sharp teeth,
+same beards, legs as short, paws equally furnished with claws, and
+with membranes or webs, and in all respects made like the others. The
+only difference is, that they are of an ash-gray, and that the long
+pile, which passes over the soft wool, is silvered, or whitish.
+
+During this examination, I caused my people to cut boughs, canes, and
+reeds, to be thrown in towards the end of the pond, in order to pass
+over the little mud which was in that place; and at the same time I
+caused some shot to be fired on the cabins that lay nearest us. The
+report of the guns, and the rattling of the shot on the roofs of the
+cabins, made them all fly into the woods with the greatest
+precipitation imaginable. We came at length to a cabin, in which there
+were not six inches of water. I caused to undo the roof without
+breaking any thing, during which I saw the piece of aspin-tree, which
+was laid under the cabin for their provisions.
+
+I observed fifteen pieces of wood, with their bark in part gnawed. The
+cabin also had fifteen cells round the hole in the middle, at which
+they went out; which made me think each had his own cell.
+
+I am now to give a sketch of the architecture of these amphibious
+animals, and an account of their villages; it is thus {130} I call the
+place of their abode, after the Canadians and the Indians, with whom I
+agree; and allow, these animals deserve, so much the more to be
+distinguished from others, as I find their instinct far superior to
+that of other animals. I shall not carry the parallel any farther, it
+might become offensive.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Beaver_--MIDDLE: _Beaver lodge_--BOTTOM:
+_Beaver dam_]
+
+The cabins of the beavers are round, having about ten or twelve feet
+in diameter, according to the number, more or {131} less, of fixed
+inhabitants. I mean, that this diameter is to be taken on the flooring
+at about a foot above the water, when it is even with the dam: but as
+the upper part runs to a point, the under is much larger than the
+flooring, which we may represent to ourselves, by supposing all the
+upright posts to resemble the legs of a great A, whose middle stroke
+is the flooring. These posts are picked out, and we might say, well
+proportioned, seeing, at the height this flooring is to be laid at,
+there is a hook for bearing bars, which by that means form the
+circumference of the flooring. The bars again bear traverses, or cross
+pieces of timber, which are the joists; canes and grass complete this
+flooring, which has a hole in the middle to go out at, when they
+please, and into this all the cells open.
+
+The dam is formed of timbers, in the shape of St. Andrew's cross, or
+of a great X, laid close together, and kept firm by timbers laid
+lengthwise, which are continued from one end of the dam to the other,
+and placed on the St. Andrew's crosses: the whole is filled with
+earth, clapped close by great blows of their tails. The inside of the
+dam, next the water, is almost perpendicular; but on the outside it
+has a great slope, that grass coming to grow thereon, may prevent the
+water that passes there, to carry away the earth.
+
+I saw them neither cut nor convey the timbers along, but it is to be
+presumed their manner is the same as that of other Beavers, who never
+cut but a soft wood; for which purpose they use their fore-teeth,
+which are extremely sharp. These timbers they push and roll before
+them on the land, as they do on the water, till they come to the place
+where they want to lay them. I observed these grey Beavers to be more
+chilly, or sensible of cold, than the other species: and it is
+doubtless for this reason they draw nearer to the south.
+
+We set out from this place to come to a high ground, which seemed to
+be continued to a great distance. We came the same evening to the foot
+of it, but the day was too far advanced to ascend it. The day
+following we went to its top, found it a flat, except some small
+eminences at intervals. There appeared to be very little wood on it,
+still less water, and least of all stone; though probably there may be
+some in its bowels, having {132} observed some stones in a part where
+the earth was tumbled down.
+
+We accurately examined all this rising ground, without discovering any
+thing; and though that day we travelled upwards of five leagues, yet
+we were not three leagues distant from the hut we set out from in the
+morning. This high ground would have been a very commodious situation
+for a fine palace; as from its edges is a very distant prospect.
+
+Next day, after a ramble of about two leagues and a half, I had the
+signal of call to my right. I instantly flew thither; and when I came,
+the scout shewed me a stump sticking out of the earth knee high, and
+nine inches in diameter. The Indian took it at a distance for the
+stump of a tree, and was surprised to find wood cut in a country which
+appeared to have been never frequented: but when he came near enough
+to form a judgement about it, he saw from the figure, that it was a
+very different thing: and this was the reason he made the signal of
+call.
+
+I was highly pleased at this discovery, which was that of a lead-ore.
+I had also the satisfaction to find my perseverance recompensed; but
+in particular I was ravished with admiration, on seeing this wonderful
+production, and the power of the soil of this province, constraining,
+as it were, the minerals to disclose themselves. I continued to search
+all around, and I discovered ore in several places. We returned to
+lodge at our last hut, on account of the convenience of water, which
+was too scarce on this high ground.
+
+We set out from thence, in order to come nearer to the Missisippi:
+through every place we passed, nothing but herds of buffaloes, elk,
+deer, and other animals of every kind, were to be seen; especially
+near rivers and brooks. Bears, on the other hand, keep in the thick
+woods, where they find their proper food.
+
+After a march of five days I espied a mountain to my right, which
+seemed so high as to excite my curiosity. Next morning I directed
+thither my course, where we arrived about three in the afternoon. We
+stopped at the foot of the mountain, where we found a fine spring
+issuing out of the rock.
+
+{133} The day following we went up to its top, where it is stony.
+Though there is earth enough for plants, yet they are so thin sown,
+that hardly two hundred could be found on an acre of ground. Trees are
+also very rare on that spot, and these poor, meagre, and cancerous.
+The stones I found there are all fit for making lime.
+
+We from thence took the route that should carry us to our pettyaugre,
+a journey but of a few days. We drew the pettyaugre out of the water,
+and there passed the night. Next day we crossed the Missisippi; in
+going up which we killed a she-bear, with her cubs: for during the
+winter, the banks of the Missisippi are lined with them; and it is
+rare, in going up the river, not to see many cross it in a day, in
+search of food: the want of which makes them quit the banks.
+
+I continued my route in going up the Missisippi quite to the Chicasaw
+Cliffs, (Ecores à Prud'homme) where I was told I should find something
+for the benefit of the colony: this was what excited my curiosity.
+
+Being arrived at those cliffs we landed, and concealed, after unlading
+it, the pettyaugre in the water; and from that day I sought, and at
+length found the iron-mine, of which I had some hints given me. After
+being sure of this, I carefully searched all around, to find Castine:
+but this was impossible: however, I believe it may be found higher up in
+ascending the Missisippi, but that care I leave to those who hereafter
+shall choose to undertake the working that mine. I had, however, some
+amends made me for my trouble; as in searching, I found some marks of
+pit-coal in the neighbourhood, a thing at least as useful in other parts
+of the colony as in this.
+
+After having made my reflections, I resolved in a little time to
+return home; but being loth to leave so fine a country, I penetrated a
+little farther into it; and in his short excursion I espied a small
+hill, all bare and parched, having on its top only two trees in a very
+drooping condition, and scarce any grass, besides some little tufts,
+distant enough asunder, which grew on a very firm clay. The bottom of
+this hill was not so barren, and the adjacent country fertile as in
+other parts. {134} These indications made me presume there might be a
+mine in that spot.
+
+I at length returned towards the Missisippi, in order to meet again the
+pettyaugre. As in all this country, and in all the height of the colony
+we find numbers of buffaloes, elk, deer, and other game; so we find
+numbers of wolves, some tigers, Cat-a-mounts, (Pichous) and
+carrion-crows, all of them carnivorous animals, which I shall hereafter
+describe. When we came near the Missisippi we made the signal of
+recognition, which was answered, though at some distance. It was there
+my people killed some buffaloes, to be dressed and cured in their
+manner, for our journey. We embarked at length, and went down the
+Missisippi, till we came within a league of the common landing-place.
+The Indians hid the pettyaugre, and went to their village. As for
+myself, I got home towards dusk, where I found my neighbours and slaves
+surprised, and at the same time glad, at my unexpected return, as if it
+had been from a hunting-match in the neighbourhood.
+
+I was really well pleased to have got home, to see my slaves in
+perfect health, and all my affairs in good order: But I was strongly
+impressed with the beauties of the countries I had seen. I could have
+wished to end my days in those charming solitudes, at a distance from
+the tumultuous hurry of the world, far from the pinching gripe of
+avarice and deceit. There it is, said I to myself, one relishes a
+thousand innocent delights, and which are repeated with a satisfaction
+ever new. It is there one lives exempt from the assaults of censure,
+detraction, and calumny. In those delightsome meadows, which often
+extend far out of sight, and where we see so many different species of
+animals, there it is we have occasion to admire the beneficence of the
+Creator. To conclude, there it is, that at the gentle purling of a
+pure and living water, and enchanted with the concerts of birds, which
+fill the neighbouring thickets, we may agreeably contemplate the
+wonders of nature, and examine them all at our leisure.
+
+I had reasons for concealing my journey, and stronger reasons still to
+suppress what I had discovered, in order to avail myself thereof
+afterwards: but the crosses I underwent, and {135} the misfortunes of
+my life, have, to this day, prevented me from profiting by these
+discoveries, in returning to that charming country, and even so much
+as to lay them before the public.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Of the Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the Coast._
+
+
+In order to describe the nature of this country with some method, I
+shall first speak of the place we land at, and shall therefore begin
+with the coast: I shall then go up the Missisippi; the reverse of what
+I did in the Geographical Description, in which I described that river
+from its source down to its mouth.
+
+The coast, which was the first inhabited, extends from Rio Perdido to
+the lake of St. Louis: this ground is a very fine land, white as snow,
+and so dry, as not to be fit to produce any thing but pine, cedar, and
+some ever-green oaks.
+
+The river Mobile is the most considerable of that coast to the east.
+[Footnote: This river, which they call Mobile, and which after the
+rains of winter is a fine river in spring, is but a brook in summer,
+especially towards its source. _Dumont_, II, 228.] It rolls its waters
+over a pure sand, which cannot make it muddy. But if this water is
+clear, it partakes of the sterility of its bottom, so that it is far
+from abounding so much in fish as the Missisippi. Its banks and
+neighbourhood are not very fertile from its source down to the sea.
+The ground is stony, and scarce any thing but gravel, mixt with a
+little earth. Though these lands are not quite barren, there is a wide
+difference between their productions and those of the lands in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi. Mountains there are, but whether
+stone fit for building, I know not.
+
+In the confines of the river of the Alibamous (Creeks) the lands are
+better: the river falls into the Mobile, above the bay of the same
+name. This bay may be about thirty leagues in length, after having
+received the Mobile, which runs from {136} north to south for about
+one hundred and fifty leagues. On the banks of this river was the
+first settlement of the French in Louisiana, which stood till New
+Orleans was founded, which is at this day the capital of the colony.
+
+The lands and water of the Mobile are not only unfruitful in all kinds
+of vegetables and fish, but the nature of the waters and the soil
+contributes also to prevent the multiplication of animals; even women
+have experienced this. I understood by Madam Hubert, whose husband was
+at my arrival Commissary Director of the colony, that in the time the
+French were in that post, there were seven or eight barren women, who
+all became fruitful, after settling with their husbands on the banks
+of the Missisippi, where the capital was built, and whither the
+settlement was removed.
+
+Fort St. Louis of Mobile was the French post. This fort stands on the
+banks of that river, near another small river, called Dog River, which
+falls into the bay to the south of the fort.
+
+Though these countries are not so fertile as those in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi; we are, however, to observe, that the
+interior parts of the country are much better than those near the sea.
+
+On the coast to the west of Mobile, we find islands not worth
+mentioning.
+
+From the sources of the river of the Paska-Ogoulas, quite to those of
+the river of Quefoncté, which falls into the lake of St. Louis, the
+lands are light and fertile, but something gravelly, on account of the
+neighbourhood of the mountains that lie to the north. This country is
+intermixt with extensive hills, fine meadows, numbers of thickets, and
+sometimes with woods, thick set with cane, particularly on the banks
+of rivers and brooks; and is extremely proper for agriculture.
+
+The mountains which I said these countries have to the north, form
+nearly the figure of a chaplet, with one end pretty near the
+Missisippi, the other on the banks of the Mobile. The inner part of
+this chaplet or chain is filled with hills; which {137} are pretty
+fertile in grass, simples, fruits of the country, horse-chesnuts, and
+wild-chesnuts, as large, and at least as good as those of Lyons.
+
+To the north of this chain of mountains lies the country of the
+Chicasaws, very fine and free of mountains: it has only very extensive
+and gentle eminences, or rising grounds, fertile groves and meadows,
+which in springtime are all over red, from the great plenty of wood
+strawberries: in summer, the plains exhibit the most beautiful enamel,
+by the quantity and variety of the flowers: in autumn, after the
+setting fire to the grass, they are covered with mushrooms.
+
+All the countries I have just mentioned are stored with game of every
+kind. The buffalo is found on the most rising grounds; the partridge
+in thick open woods, such as the groves in meadows; the elks delight
+in large forests, as also the pheasant; the deer, which is a roving
+animal, is every where to be met with, because in whatever place it
+may happen to be, it always has something to browse on. The ring-dove
+here flies in winter with such rapidity, as to pass over a great deal
+of country in a few hours; ducks and other aquatick game are in such
+numbers, that wherever there is water, we are sure to find many more
+than it is possible for us to shoot, were we to do nothing else; and
+thus we find game in every place, and fish in plenty in the rivers.
+
+Let us resume the coast; which, though flat and dry, on account of its
+sand, abounds with delicious fish, and excellent shell-fish. But the
+crystal sand, which is pernicious to the sight by its whiteness, might
+it not be adapted for making some beautiful composition or
+manufacture? Here I leave the learned to find out what use this sand
+may be of.
+
+If this coast is flat, it has in this respect an advantage; as we
+might say, Nature wanted to make it so, in order to be self-defended
+against the descent of an enemy.
+
+Coming out of the Bay of Paska-Ogoulas, if we still proceed west, we
+meet in our way with the Bay of Old Biloxi, where a fort was built,
+and a settlement begun; but a great fire, spread by a violent wind,
+destroyed it in a few moments, which in prudence ought never to have
+been built at all.
+
+{138} Those who settled at Old Biloxi could not, doubtless, think of
+quitting the sea-coast. They settled to the west, close to New-Biloxi,
+on a sand equally dry and pernicious to the sight. In this place the
+large grants happened to be laid off, which were extremely
+inconvenient to have been made on so barren a soil; where it was
+impossible to find the least plant or greens for any money, and where
+the hired servants died with hunger in the most fertile colony in the
+whole world.
+
+In pursuing the same route and the same coast westward, the lands are
+still the same, quite to the small Bay of St. Louis, and to the
+Channels, which lead to the lake of that name. At a distance from the
+sea the earth is of a good quality, fit for agriculture; as being a
+light soil, but something gravelly. The coast to the north of the Bay
+of St. Louis is of a different nature, and much more fertile. The
+lands at a greater distance to the north of this last coast, are not
+very distant from the Missisippi; they are also much more fruitful
+than those to the cast of this bay in the same latitude.
+
+In order to follow the sea-coast down to the mouth of the Missisippi,
+we must proceed almost south, quitting the Channel. I have elsewhere
+mentioned, that we have to pass between Cat-Island, which we leave to
+the left, and Cockle-Island, which we leave to the right. In making
+this ideal route, we pass over banks almost level with the water,
+covered with a vast number of islets; we leave to the left the
+Candlemas-Isles, which are only heaps of sand, having the form of a
+gut cut in pieces; they rise but little above the sea, and scarcely
+yield a dozen of plants, just as in the neighbouring islets I have now
+mentioned. We leave to the right lake Borgne, which is another outlet
+of the lake St. Louis, and continuing the same route by several
+outlets for a considerable way, we find a little open clear sea, and
+the coast to the right, which is but a quagmire, gradually formed by a
+very soft ooze, on which some reeds grow. This coast leads soon to the
+East Pass or channel, which is one of the mouths of the Missisippi,
+and this we find bordered with a like soil, if indeed it deserves the
+name of soil.
+
+There is, moreover, the South-east Pass, where stands Balise, and the
+South Pass, which projects farther into the sea. {139} Balise is a
+fort built on an island of sand, secured by a great number of piles
+bound with good timber-work. There are lodgings in it for the officers
+and the garrison; and a sufficient number of guns for defending the
+entrance of the Missisippi. It is there they take the bar-pilot on
+board, in order to bring the ships into the river. All the passes and
+entrances of the Missisippi are as frightful to the eye, as the
+interior part of the colony is delightful to it.
+
+The quagmires continue still for about seven leagues going up the
+Missisippi, at the entrance of which we meet a bar, three fourths of a
+league broad; which we cannot pass without the bar-pilot, who alone is
+acquainted with the channel.
+
+All the west coast resembles that which I mentioned, from Mobile to
+the bay of St. Louis; it is equally flat, formed of a like sand, and a
+bar of isles, which lengthen out the coast, and hinder a descent; the
+coast continues thus, going westward, quite to Ascension Bay, and even
+a little farther. Its soil also is also barren, and in every respect
+like to that I have just mentioned.
+
+
+I again enter the Missisippi, and pass with speed over these
+quagmires, incapable to bear up the traveller, and which only afford a
+retreat to gnats and moskittos, and to some water-fowl, which,
+doubtless, find food to live on, and that in security.
+
+On coming out of these marshes, we find a neck of land on each side of
+the Missisippi; this indeed is firm land, but lined with marshes,
+resembling those at the entrance of the river. For the space of three
+or four leagues, this neck of land is at first bare of trees, but
+comes after to be covered with them, so as to intercept the winds,
+which the ships require, in order to go up the river to the capital.
+This land, though very narrow, is continued, together with the trees
+it bears, quite to the English Reach, which is defended by two forts;
+one to the right, the other to the left of the Missisippi.
+
+The origin of the name, English Reach, (Detour aux Anglois) is
+differently assigned. I made enquiry of the oldest of the country, to
+what circumstance this Reach might owe its {140} name. And they told
+me, that before the first settlement of the French in this colony, the
+English, having heard of the beauty of the country, which they had,
+doubtless, visited before, in going thither from Carolina by land,
+attempted to make themselves masters of the entrance of the
+Missisippi, and to go up the river, in order to fortify themselves on
+the first firm ground they could meet. Excited by that jealousy which
+is natural to them, they took such precautions as they imagined to be
+proper, in order to succeed.
+
+The Indians on their part, who had already seen or heard of several
+people (French) having gone up and down the Missisippi at different
+times; the Indians, I say, who, perhaps, were not so well pleased with
+such neighbours, were still more frightened at seeing a ship enter the
+river, which determined them to stop its passage; but this was
+impossible, as long as the English had any wind, of which they availed
+themselves quite to this Reach. These Indians were the Ouachas and
+Chaouachas, who dwelt to the west of the Missisippi, and below this
+Reach. There were of them on each side of the river, and they lying in
+the canes, observed the English, and followed them as they went up,
+without daring to attack them.
+
+When the English were come to the entrance of this Reach, the little
+wind they had failed them; observing besides, that the Missisippi made
+a great turn or winding, they despaired of succeeding; and wanted to
+moor in this spot, for which purpose they must bring a rope to land:
+but the Indians shot a great number of arrows at them, till the report
+of a cannon, fired at random, scattered them, and gave the signal to
+the English to go on board, for fear the Indians should come in
+greater numbers, and cut them to pieces.
+
+Such is the origin of the name of this Reach. The Missisippi in this
+place forms the figure of a crescent, almost closed; so that the same
+wind which brings up a ship, proves often contrary, when come to the
+Reach; and this is the reason that ships moor, and go up towed, or
+tacking. This Reach is six or seven leagues; some assign it eight,
+more or less, according as they happen to make way.
+
+{141} The lands on both sides of this Reach are inhabited, though the
+depth of soil is inconsiderable. Immediately above this Reach stands
+New Orleans, the capital of this colony, on the east of the
+Missisippi. A league behind the town, directly back from the river, we
+meet with a Bayouc or creek, which can bear large boats with oars. In
+following this Bayouc for the space of a league, we go to the lake St.
+Louis, and after traversing obliquely this last, we meet the Channels,
+which lead to Mobile, where I began my description of the nature of
+the soil of Louisiana.
+
+The ground on which New Orleans is situated, being an earth accumulated
+by the ooze, in the same manner as is that both below and above, a good
+way from the capital, is of a good quality for agriculture, only that it
+is strong, and rather too fat. This land being flat, and drowned by the
+inundations for several ages, cannot fail to be kept in moisture, there
+being, moreover, only a mole or bank to prevent the river from
+over-flowing it; and would be even too moist, and incapable of
+cultivation, had not this mole been made, and ditches, close to each
+other, to facilitate the draining off the waters: by this means it has
+been put in a condition to be cultivated with success.
+
+From New Orleans to Manchac on the east of the Missisippi, twenty-five
+leagues above the capital, and quite to the Fork to the west, almost
+over-against Manchac, and a little way off, the lands are of the same
+kind and quality with those of New Orleans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_Quality of the Lands above the_ Fork. _A Quarry of Stone for building_.
+_High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility. West Coast: West Lands:
+Saltpetre_.
+
+
+To the west, the Fork, the lands are pretty flat, but exempt from
+inundations. The part best known of these lands is called Baya-Ogoula,
+a name framed Bayouc and Ogoula, which signifies the nation dwelling
+near the Bayouc; there having been a nation of that name in that
+place, when the first Frenchmen {142} came down the Missisippi; it
+lies twenty-five leagues from the capital.
+
+[Illustration: _Indians of the North leaving in the winter with their
+families for a hunt_]
+
+But to the east, the lands are a good deal higher, seeing from Manchac
+to the river Wabache they are between an hundred and two hundred feet
+higher than the Missisippi in its greatest floods. The slope of these
+lands goes off perpendicularly from the Missisippi, which on that side
+receives but few rivers, and those very small, if we except the river
+of the Yasous, whose course is not above fifty leagues.
+
+All these high lands are, besides, surmounted, in a good many places,
+by little eminences, or small hills, and rising grounds running off
+lengthwise, with gentle slopes. It is only when we go a little way
+from the Missisippi, that we find these high lands are over-topped by
+little mountains, which appear to be all of earth, though steep,
+without the least gravel or pebble being perceived on them.
+
+The soil on these high lands is very good; it is a black light mold,
+about three feet deep on the hills or rising grounds. This upper earth
+lies upon a reddish clay, very strong and stiff; the lowest places
+between these hills are of the same nature, {143} but there the black
+earth is between five and six feet deep. The grass growing in the
+hollows is of the height of a man, and very slender and fine; whereas
+the grass of the same meadow on the high lands rises scarce knee deep;
+as it does on the highest eminences, unless there is found something
+underneath, which not only renders the grass shorter, but even
+prevents its growth by the efficacy of some exhalations; which is not
+ordinarily the case on hills, though rising high, but only on the
+mountains properly so called.
+
+My experience in architecture having taught me, that several quarries
+have been found under a clay like this, I was always of opinion there
+must be some in those hills.
+
+Since I made these reflections, I have had occasion, in my journey to
+the country, to confirm these conjectures. We had set up our hut at
+the foot of an eminence, which was steep towards us, and near a
+fountain, whose water was lukewarm and pure.
+
+This fountain appeared to me to issue out of a hole, which was formed
+by the sinking of the earth. I stooped in order to take a better view
+of it, and I observed stone, which to the eye appeared proper for
+building, and the upper part which was this clay, which is peculiar to
+the country. I was highly pleased to be thus ascertained, that there
+was stone fit for building in this colony, where it is imagined there
+is none, because it does not come out of the earth to shew-itself.
+
+It is not to be wondered, that there is none to be found in the Lower
+Louisiana, which is only an earth accumulated by ooze; but it is far
+more extraordinary, not to see a flint, nor even a pebble on the
+hills, for upwards of an hundred leagues sometimes; however, this is a
+thing common in this province.
+
+I imagine I ought to assign a reason for it, which seems pretty
+probable to me. This land has never been turned, or dug, and is very
+close above the clay, which is extremely hard, and covers the stone,
+which cannot shew itself through such a covering: it is therefore no
+such surprise, that we observe no stone out of the earth in these
+plains and on these eminences.
+
+{144} All these high lands are generally meadows and forests of tall
+trees, with grass up to the knee. Along gullies they prove to be
+thickets, in which wood of every kind is found, and also the fruits of
+the country.
+
+Almost all these lands on the east of the river are such as I have
+described; that is, the meadows are on those high grounds, whose slope
+is very gentle; we also find there tall forests, and thickets in the
+low bottoms. In the meadows we observe here and there groves of very
+tall and straight oaks, to the number of fourscore or an hundred at
+most: there are others of about forty or fifty, which seem to have
+been planted by men's hands in these meadows, for a retreat to the
+buffaloes, deer, and other animals, and a screen against storms, and
+the sting of the flies.
+
+The tall forests are all hiccory, or all oak: in these last we find a
+great many morels; but then there grows a species of mushrooms at the
+feet of felled walnut-trees, which the Indians carefully gather; I
+tasted of them, and found them good.
+
+The meadows are not only covered with grass fit for pasture, but
+produce quantities of wood-strawberries in the month of April; for the
+following months the prospect is charming; we scarce observe a pile of
+grass, unless what we tread under foot; the flowers, which are then in
+all their beauty, exhibit to the view the most ravishing sight, being
+diversified without end; one in particular I have remarked, which
+would adorn the most beautiful parterre; I mean the Lion's Mouth (_la
+gueule de Lion_).
+
+These meadows afford not only a charming prospect to the eye; they,
+moreover, plentifully produce excellent simples, (equally with tall
+woods) as well for the purposes of medicine as of dying. When all
+these plants are burnt, and a small rain comes on, mushrooms of an
+excellent flavour succeed to them, and whiten the surface of the
+meadows all over.
+
+Those rising meadows and tall forests abound with buffaloes, elk, and
+deer, with turkeys, partridges, and all kinds of game; consequently
+wolves, catamounts, and other carnivorous animals are found there;
+which, in following the other animals, destroy and devour such as are
+too old or too fat; and when the {145} Indians go a hunting, these
+animals are sure to have the offal, or hound's fee, which makes them
+follow the hunters.
+
+These high lands naturally produce mulberry-trees, the leaves of which
+are very grateful to the silk-worm. Indigo, in like manner, grows
+there along the thickets, without culture. There also a native tobacco
+is found growing wild, for the culture of which, as well as for other
+species of tobacco, these lands are extremely well adapted. Cotton is
+also cultivated to advantage: wheat and flax thrive better and more
+easily there, than lower down towards the capital, the land there
+being too fat; which is the reason that, indeed, oats come there to a
+greater height than in the lands I am speaking of; but the cotton and
+the other productions are neither so strong nor so fine there, and the
+crops of them are often less profitable, though the soil be of an
+excellent nature.
+
+In fine, those high lands to the east of the Missisippi, from Manchae
+to the river Wabache, may and ought to contain mines: we find in them,
+just at the surface, iron and pit-coal, but no appearance of silver
+mines; gold there may be, copper also, and lead.
+
+Let us return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi; which I
+shall cross, in order to visit the west side, as I have already done
+the east. I shall begin with the west coast, which resembles that to
+the east; but is still more dry and barren on the shore. On quitting
+that coast of white and crystal sand, in order to go northward, we
+meet five or six lakes, which communicate with one another, and which
+are, doubtless, remains of the sea. Between these lakes and the
+Missisippi, is an earth accumulated on the sand, and formed by the
+ooze of that river, as I said; between these lakes there is nothing
+but sand, on which there is so little earth, that the sand-bottom
+appears to view; so that we find there but little pasture, which some
+strayed buffaloes come to eat; and no trees, if we except a hill on
+the banks of one of these lakes, which is all covered with ever-green
+oaks, fit for ship-building. This spot may be a league in length by
+half a league in breadth; and was called Barataria, because enclosed
+by these lakes and their outlets, to form almost an island on dry
+land.
+
+{146} These lakes are stored with monstrous carp, as well for size as
+for length; which slip out of the Missisippi and its muddy stream,
+when overflowed, in search of clearer water. The quantity of fish in
+these lakes is very surprising, especially as they abound with vast
+numbers of alligators. In the neighbourhood of these lakes there are
+some petty nations of Indians, who partly live on this amphibious
+animal.
+
+Between these lakes and the banks of the Missisippi, there is some
+thin herbage, and among others, natural hemp, which grows like trees,
+and very branched. This need not surprise us, as each plant stands
+very distant from the other: hereabouts we find little wood, unless
+when we approach the Missisippi.
+
+To the west of these lakes we find excellent lands, covered in many
+places with open woods of tall trees, through which one may easily
+ride on horseback; and here we find some buffaloes, which only pass
+through these woods because the pasture under the trees is bitter; and
+therefore they prefer the grass of the meadows, which lying exposed to
+the rays of the sun, becomes thereby more savoury.
+
+In going still farther west, we meet much thicker woods, because this
+country is extremely well watered; we here find numbers of rivers,
+which fall into the sea; and what contributes to the fertility of this
+land, is the number of brooks, that fall into these rivers.
+
+This country abounds with deer and other game; buffaloes are rare; but
+it promises great riches to such as shall inhabit it, from the
+excellent quality of its lands. The Spaniards, who bound us on that
+side, are jealous enough: but the great quantities of land they
+possess in America, have made them lose sight of settling there,
+though acquainted therewith before us: however, they took some steps
+to traverse our designs, when they saw we had some thoughts that way.
+But they are not settled there as yet; and who could hinder us from
+making advantageous settlements in that country?
+
+I resume the banks of the Missisippi, above the lakes, and the lands
+above the Fork, which, as I have sufficiently acquainted {147} the
+reader, are none of the best; and I go up to the north, in order to
+follow the same method I observed in describing the nature of the
+lands to the east.
+
+The banks of the Missisippi are of a fat and strong soil; but far less
+subject to inundations than the lands of the east. If we proceed a
+little way westward, we meet land gradually rising, and of an
+excellent quality; and even meadows, which we might well affirm to be
+boundless, if they were not intersected by little groves. These
+meadows are covered with buffaloes and other game, which live there so
+much the more peaceably, as they are neither hunted by men, who never
+frequent those countries; nor disquieted by wolves or tigers, which
+keep more to the north.
+
+The country I have just described is such as I have represented it,
+till we come to New Mexico: it rises gently enough, near the Red
+River, which bounds it to the north, till we reach a high land, which
+was no more than five or six leagues in breadth, and in certain places
+only a league; it is almost flat, having but some eminences at some
+considerable distance from each other: we also meet some mountains of
+a middling height, which appear to contain something more than bare
+stone.
+
+This high land begins at some leagues from the Missisippi, and
+continues so quite to New Mexico; it lowers towards the Red River, by
+windings, where it is diversified alternately with meadows and woods.
+The top of this height, on the contrary, has scarce any wood. A fine
+grass grows between the stones, which are common there. The buffaloes
+come to feed on this grass, when the rains drive them out of the
+plains; otherwise they go but little thither, because they find there
+neither water, nor saltpetre.
+
+We are to remark, by the bye, that all cloven-footed animals are
+extremely fond of salt, and that Louisiana in general contains a great
+deal of saltpetre. And thus we are not to wonder, if the buffalo, the
+elk, and the deer, have a greater inclination to some certain places
+than to others, though they are there often hunted. We ought therefore
+to conclude, that there is more saltpetre in those places, than in such
+as they {148} haunt but rarely. This is what made me remark, that these
+animals, after their ordinary repass, fail but rarely to go to the
+torrents, where the earth is cut, and even to the clay; which they lick,
+especially after rain, because they there find a taste of salt, which
+allures them thither. Most of those who have made this remark imagine
+that these animals eat the earth; whereas in such places they only go in
+quest of the salt, which to them is so strong an allurement as to make
+them bid defiance to dangers in order to get at it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Quality of the Lands of the_ Red River. _Posts of the_ Nachitoches. _A
+Silver Mine. Lands of the_ Black River.
+
+
+The Banks of the Red River, towards its confluence, are pretty low,
+And sometimes drowned by the inundations of the Missisippi; but above
+all, the north side, which is but a marshy land for upwards of ten
+leagues in going up to the Nachitoches, till we come to the Black
+River, which falls into the Red. This last takes its name from the
+colour of its sand, which is red in several places: it is also called
+the Marne, a name given it by some geographers, but unknown in the
+country. Some call it the River of the Nachitoches, because they dwell
+on its banks: but the appellation, Red River, has remained to it.
+
+
+Between the Black River and the Red River the soil is but very light,
+and even sandy, where we find more firs than other trees; we also
+observe therein some marshes. But these lands, though not altogether
+barren, if cultivated, would be none of the best. They continue such
+along the banks of the river, only to the rapid part of it, thirty
+leagues from the Missisippi. This rapid part cannot justly be called a
+fall; however, we can scarce go up with oars, when laden, but must
+land and tow. I imagine, if the waterman's pole was used, as on the
+Loire and other rivers in France, this obstacle would be easily
+surmounted.
+
+The south side of this river, quite to the rapid part, is entirely
+different from the opposite side; it is something higher, {149} and
+rises in proportion as it approaches to the height I have mentioned;
+the quality is also very different. This land is good and light, and
+appears disposed to receive all the culture imaginable, in which we
+may assuredly hope to succeed. It naturally produces beautiful fruit
+trees and vines in plenty; it was on that side muscadine grapes were
+found. The back parts have neater woods, and the meadows intersected
+with tall forests. On that side the fruit trees of the country are
+common; above all, the hiccory and walnut-trees, which are sure
+indications of a good soil.
+
+From the rapid part to the Nachitoches, the lands on both sides of
+this river sufficiently resemble those I have just mentioned. To the
+left, in going up, there is a petty nation, called the Avoyelles, and
+known only for the services they have done the Colony by the horses,
+oxen, and cows they have brought from New Mexico for the service of
+the French in Louisiana. I am ignorant what view the Indians may have
+in that commerce: but I well know, that notwithstanding the fatigues
+of the journey, these cattle, one with another, did not come, after
+deducting all expenses, and even from the second hand, but to about
+two pistoles a head; whence I ought to presume, that they have them
+cheap in New Mexico. By means of this nation we have in Louisiana very
+beautiful horses, of the species of those of Old Spain, which, if
+managed or trained, people of the first rank might ride. As to the
+oxen and cows, they are the same as those of France, and both are at
+present very common in Louisiana.
+
+The south side conveys into the Red River only little brooks. On the
+north side, and pretty near the Nachitoches, there is, as is said, a
+spring of water very salt, running only four leagues. This spring, as
+it comes out of the earth, forms a little river, which, during the
+heats, leaves some salt on its banks. And what may render this more
+credible is, that the country whence it takes its rise contains a
+great deal of mineral salt, which discovers itself by several springs
+of salt water, and by two salt lakes, of which I shall presently
+speak. In fine, in going up we come to the French fort of the
+Nachitoches, built in an island, formed by the Red River.
+
+{150} This island is nothing but sand, and that so fine, that the wind
+drives it like dust; so that the tobacco attempted to be cultivated
+there at first was loaded with it. The leaf of the tobacco having a
+very fine down, easily retains this sand, which the least breath of
+air diffuses every where; which is the reason that no more tobacco is
+raised in this island, but provisions only, as maiz, potatoes,
+pompions, &c. which cannot be damaged by the sands.
+
+M. de St. Denis commanded at this place, where he insinuated himself
+into the good graces of the natives in such a manner, that, altho'
+they prefer death to slavery, or even to the government of a
+sovereign, however mild, yet twenty or twenty-five nations were so
+attached to his person, that, forgetting they were born free, they
+willingly surrendered themselves to him; the people and their Chiefs
+would all have him for their Grand Chief; so that at the least signal,
+he could put himself at the head of thirty thousand men, drawn out of
+those nations, which had of their own accord submitted themselves to
+his orders; and that only by sending them a paper on which he drew the
+usual hieroglyphics that represent war among them, with a large leg,
+which denoted himself. This was still the more surprising, as the
+greatest part of these people were on the Spanish territories, and
+ought rather to have attached themselves to them, than to the French,
+if it had not been for the personal merits of this Commander.
+
+At the distance of seven leagues from the French Post, the Spaniards
+have settled one, where they have resided ever since M. de la Motte,
+Governor of Louisiana, agreed to that settlement. I know not by what
+fatal piece of policy the Spaniards were allowed to make this
+settlement; but I know, that, if it had not been for the French, the
+natives would never have suffered the Spaniards to settle in that
+place.
+
+However, several French were allured to this Spanish settlement,
+doubtless imagining, that the rains which come from Mexico, rolled and
+brought gold along with them, which would cost nothing but the trouble
+of picking up. But to what purpose serves this beautiful metal, but to
+make the people vain and idle among whom it is so common, and to make
+them {151} neglect the culture of the earth, which constitutes true
+riches, by the sweets it procures to man, and by the advantages it
+furnishes to commerce.
+
+Above the Nachitoches dwell the Cadodaquious, whose scattered villages
+assume different names. Pretty near one of these villages was
+discovered a silver mine, which was found to be rich, and of a very
+pure metal. I have seen the assay of it, and its ore is very fine.
+This silver lies concealed in small invisible particles, in a stone of
+a chesnut colour, which is spongy, pretty light, and easily
+calcinable: however, it yields a great deal more than it promises to
+the eye. The assay of this ore was made by a Portuguese, who had
+worked at the mines of New Mexico, whence he made his escape. He
+appeared to be master of his business, and afterwards visited other
+mines farther north, but he ever gave the preference to that of the
+Red River.
+
+This river, according to the Spaniards, takes its rise in 32 degrees
+of north latitude; runs about fifty leagues north-east; forms a great
+elbow, or winding to the east; then proceeding thence south-east, at
+which place we begin to know it, it comes and falls into the
+Missisippi, about 31° and odd minutes.
+
+I said above, that the Black River discharges itself into the Red, ten
+leagues above the confluence of this last with the Missisippi: we now
+proceed to resume that river, and follow its course, after having
+observed, that the fish of all those rivers which communicate with the
+Missisippi, are the same as to species, but far better in the Red and
+Black Rivers, because their water is clearer and better than that of
+the Missisippi, which they always quit with pleasure. Their delicate
+and finer flavour may also arise from the nourishment they take in
+those rivers.
+
+The lands of which we are going to speak are to the north of the Red
+River. They may be distinguished into two parts; which are to the
+right and left of the Black River, in going up to its source, and even
+as far as the river of the Arkansas. It is called the Black River,
+because its depth gives it that colour, {152} which is, moreover,
+heightened by the woods which line it throughout the Colony. All the
+rivers have their banks covered with woods; but this river, which is
+very narrow, is almost quite covered by the branches, and rendered of
+a dark colour in the first view. It is sometimes called the river of
+the Wachitas, because its banks were occupied by a nation of that
+name, who are now extinct. I shall continue to call it by its usual
+name.
+
+The lands which we directly find on both sides are low, and continue
+thus for the space of three or four leagues, till we come to the river
+of the Taensas, thus denominated from a nation of that name, which
+dwelt on its banks. This river of the Taensas is, properly speaking,
+but a channel formed by the overflowings of the Missisippi, has its
+course almost parallel thereto, and separates the low lands from the
+higher. The lands between the Missisippi and the river of the Taensas
+are the same as in the Lower Louisiana.
+
+The lands we find in going up the Black River are nearly the same, as
+well for the nature of the soil, as for their good qualities. They are
+rising grounds, extending in length, and which in general may be
+considered as one very extensive meadow, diversified with little
+groves, and cut only by the Black River and little brooks, bordered
+with wood up to their sources. Buffaloes and deer are seen in whole
+herds there. In approaching to the river of the Arkansas, deer and
+pheasants begin to be very common; and the same species of game is
+found there, as is to the east of the Missisippi; in like manner
+wood-strawberries, simples, flowers, and mushrooms. The only
+difference is, that this side of the Missisippi is more level, there
+being no lands so high and so very different from the rest of the
+country. The woods are like those to the east of the Missisippi,
+except that to the west there are more walnut and hiccory trees. These
+last are another species of walnut, the nuts of which are more tender,
+and invite to these parts a greater number of parrots. What we have
+just said, holds in general of this west side; let us now consider
+what is peculiar thereto.
+
+{153}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_A Brook of Salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River of the_ Arkansas.
+_Red veined Marble: Slate: Plaster. Hunting the Buffalo. The dry
+Sand-banks in the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+After we have gone up the Black River about thirty leagues, we find to
+the left a brook of salt water, which comes from the west. In going up
+this brook about two leagues, we meet with a lake of salt water, which
+may be two leagues in length, by one in breadth. A league higher up to
+the north, we meet another lake of salt water, almost as long and
+broad as the former.
+
+This water, doubtless, passes through some mines of salt; it has the
+taste of salt, without that bitterness of the sea-water. The Indians
+come a great way off to this place, to hunt in winter, and make salt.
+Before the French trucked coppers with them, they made upon the spot
+pots of earth for this operation: and they returned home loaded with
+salt and dry provisions.
+
+To the east of the Black River we observe nothing that indicates
+mines; but to the west one might affirm there should be some, from
+certain marks, which might well deceive pretended connoisseurs. As for
+my part, I would not warrant that there were two mines in that part of
+the country, which seems to promise them. I should rather be led to
+believe that they are mines of salt, at no great depth from the
+surface of the earth, which, by their volatile and acid spirits,
+prevent the growth of plants in those spots.
+
+Ten or twelve leagues above this brook is a creek, near which those
+Natchez retreated, who escaped being made slaves with the rest of
+their nation, when the Messrs. Perier extirpated them on the east side
+of the river, by order of the Court.
+
+The Black River takes its rise to the north-west of its confluence,
+and pretty near the river of the Arkansas, into which falls a branch
+from this rise or source; by means of which we may have a
+communication from the one to the other with a middling carriage. This
+communication with the river of the {154} Arkansas is upwards of an
+hundred leagues from the Post of that name. In other respects, this
+Black River might carry a boat throughout, if cleared of the wood
+fallen into its bed, which generally traverses it from one side to the
+other. It receives some brooks, and abounds in excellent fish, and in
+alligators.
+
+I make no doubt but these lands are very fit to bear and produce every
+thing that can be cultivated with success on the east of the
+Missisippi, opposite to this side, except the canton or quarter
+between the river of the Taensas and the Missisippi; that land, being
+subject to inundations, would be proper only for rice.
+
+I imagine we may now pass on to the north of the river of the
+Arkansas, which takes its rise in the mountains adjoining to the east
+of Santa Fé. It afterwards goes up a little to the north, from whence
+it comes down to the south, a little lower than its source. In this
+manner it forms a line parallel almost with the Red River.
+
+That river has a cataract or fall, at about an hundred and fifty
+leagues from its confluence. Before we come to this fall, we find a
+quarry of red-veined marble, one of slate, and one of plaster. Some
+travellers have there observed grains of gold in a little brook: but
+as they happened to be going in quest of a rock of emeralds, they
+deigned not to amuse themselves with picking up particles of gold.
+
+This river of the Arkansas is stored with fish; has a great deal of
+water; having a course of two hundred and fifty leagues, and can carry
+large boats quite to the cataract. Its banks are covered with woods,
+as are all the other rivers of the country. In its course it receives
+several brooks or rivulets, of little consequence, unless we except
+that called the White River, and which discharges itself into the
+curve or elbow of that we are speaking of, and below its fall.
+
+In the whole tract north of this river, we find plains that extend out
+of sight, which are vast meadows, intersected by groves, at no great
+distance from one another, which are all tall woods, where we might
+easily hunt the stag; great numbers {155} of which, as also of
+buffaloes, are found here. Deer also are very common.
+
+From having seen those animals frightened at the least noise,
+especially at the report of a gun, I have thought of a method to hunt
+them, in the manner the Spaniards of New Mexico do, which would not
+scare them at all, and which would turn to the great advantage of the
+inhabitants, who have this game in plenty in their country. This
+hunting might be set about in winter, from the beginning of October,
+when the meadows are burnt, till the month of February.
+
+This hunting is neither expensive nor fatiguing: horses are had very
+cheap in that country, and maintained almost for nothing. Each hunter
+is mounted on horseback, and armed with a crescent somewhat open,
+whose inside should be pretty sharp; the top of the outside to have a
+socket, to put in a handle: then a number of people on horseback to go
+in quest of a herd of buffaloes, and always attack them with the wind
+in their backs. As soon as they smell a man, it is true, they run
+away; but at the sight of the horses they will moderate their fears,
+and thus not precipitate their flight; whereas the report of a gun
+frightens them so as to make them run at full speed. In this chace,
+the lightest would run fast enough; but the oldest, and even the young
+of two or three years old, are so fat, that their weight would make
+them soon be overtaken: then the armed hunter may strike the buffalo
+with his crescent above each ham, and cut his tendons; after which he
+is easily mastered. Such as never saw a buffalo, will hardly believe
+the quantity of fat they yield: but it ought to be considered, that,
+continuing day and night in plentiful pastures of the finest and most
+delicious grass, they must soon fatten, and that from their youth. Of
+this we have an instance in a bull at the Natchez, which was kept till
+he was two years old, and grew so fat, that he could not leap on a
+cow, from his great weight; so that we were obliged to kill him, and
+got nigh an hundred and fifty pounds of tallow from him. His neck was
+near as big as his body.
+
+From what I have said, it may be judged what profit such hunters might
+make of the skins and tallow of those buffaloes; {156} the hides would
+be large, and their wool would be still an additional benefit. I may
+add, that this hunting of them would not diminish the species, those
+fat buffaloes being ordinarily the prey of wolves, as being too heavy
+to be able to defend themselves.
+
+Besides, the wolves would not find their account in attacking them in
+herds. It is well known that the buffaloes range themselves in a ring,
+the strongest without, and the weakest within. The strong standing
+pretty close together, present their horns to the enemy, who dare not
+attack them in this disposition. But wolves, like all other animals,
+have their particular instinct, in order to procure their necessary
+food. They come so near that the buffaloes smell them some way off,
+which makes them run for it. The wolves then advance with a pretty
+equal pace, till they observe the fattest out of breath. These they
+attack before and behind; one of them seizes on the buffalo by the
+hind-quarter, and overturns him, the others strangle him.
+
+The wolves being many in a body, kill not what is sufficient for one
+alone, but as many as they can, before they begin to eat. For this is
+the manner of the wolf, to kill ten or twenty times more than he
+needs, especially when he can do it with ease, and without
+interruption.
+
+Though the country I describe has very extensive plains, I pretend not
+to say that there are no rising grounds or hills; but they are more
+rare there than elsewhere, especially on the west side. In approaching
+to New Mexico we observe great hills and mountains, some of which are
+pretty high.
+
+I ought not to omit mentioning here, that from the low lands of
+Louisiana, the Missisippi has several shoal banks of sand in it, which
+appear very dry upon the falling of the waters, after the inundations.
+These banks extend more or less in length; some of them half a league,
+and not without a considerable breadth. I have seen the Natchez, and
+other Indians, sow a sort of grain, which they called Choupichoul, on
+these dry sand-banks. This sand received no manner of culture; and the
+women and children covered the grain any how with their feet, without
+taking any great pains about it. After this sowing, {157} and manner
+of culture, they waited till autumn, when they gathered a great
+quantity of the grain. It was prepared like millet, and very good to
+eat. This plant is what is called Belle Dame Sauvage, [Footnote: He
+seems to mean Buck-wheat.] which thrives in all countries, but
+requires a good soil: and whatever good quality the soil in Europe may
+have, it shoots but a foot and a half high; and yet, on this sand of
+the Missisippi, it rises, without any culture, three feet and a half,
+and four feet high. Such is the virtue of this sand all up the
+Missisippi; or, to speak more properly, for the whole length of its
+course; if we except the accumulated earth of the Lower Louisiana,
+across which it passes, and where it cannot leave any dry sand-banks;
+because it is straitened within its banks, which the river itself
+raises, and continually augments.
+
+In all the groves and little forests I have mentioned, and which lie
+to the north of the Arkansas, pheasants, partridges, snipes, and
+woodcocks, are in such great numbers, that those who are most fond of
+this game, might easily satisfy their longing, as also every other
+species of game. Small birds are still vastly more numerous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_The Lands of the River_ St. Francis. _Mine of_ Marameg, _and other
+Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone resembling Porphyry. Lands of the_
+Missouri. _The Lands north of the _ Wabache. _The Lands of the
+Illinois_. De la Mothe's _Mine, and other Mines._
+
+
+Thirty leagues above the river of the Arkansas, to the north, and on
+the same side of the Missisippi, we find the river St. Francis.
+
+The lands adjoining to it are always covered with herds of buffaloes,
+nothwithstanding they are hunted every winter in those parts: for it
+is to this river, that is, in its neighbourhood, that the French and
+Canadians go and make their salt provisions for the inhabitants of the
+capital, and of the neighbouring {158} plantations, in which they are
+assisted by the native Arkansas, whom they hire for that purpose. When
+they are upon the spot, they chuse a tree fit to make a pettyaugre,
+which serves for a salting or powdering-tub in the middle, and is
+closed at the two ends, where only is left room for a man at each
+extremity.
+
+The trees they choose are ordinarily the poplar, which grow on the
+banks of the water. It is a white wood, soft and binding. The
+pettyaugres might be made of other wood, be cause such are to be had
+pretty large; but either too heavy for pettyaugres, or too apt to
+split.
+
+The species of wood in this part of Louisiana is tall oak; the fields
+abound with four sorts of walnut, especially the black kind; so
+called, because it is of a dark brown colour, bordering on black; this
+sort grows very large.
+
+There are besides fruit trees in this country, and it is there we
+begin to find commonly Papaws. We have also here other trees of every
+species, more or less, according as the soil is favourable. These
+lands in general are fit to produce every thing the low lands can
+yield, except rice and indigo. But in return, wheat thrives there
+extremely well: the vine is found every where; the mulberry-tree is in
+plenty; tobacco grows fine, and of a good quality; as do cotton and
+garden plants: so that by leading an easy and agreeable life in that
+country, we may at the same time be sure of a good return to France.
+
+The land which lies between the Missisippi and the river St. Francis,
+is full of rising grounds, and mountains of a middling height, which,
+according to the ordinary indications, contain several mines: some of
+them have been assayed; among the rest, the mine of Marameg, on the
+little river of that name; the other mines appear not to be so rich,
+nor so easy to be worked. There are some lead mines, and others of
+copper, as is pretended.
+
+The mine of Marameg, which is silver, is pretty near the confluence of
+the river which gives it name; which is a great advantage to those who
+would work it, because they might {159} easily by that means have
+their goods from Europe. It is situate about five hundred leagues from
+the sea.
+
+I shall continue on the west side of the Missisippi, and to the north
+of the famous river of Missouri, which we are now to cross. This river
+takes its rise at eight hundred leagues distance, as is alledged, from
+the place where it discharges itself into the Missisippi. Its waters
+are muddy, thick, and charged with nitre; and these are the waters
+that make the Missisippi muddy down to the sea, its waters being
+extremely clear above the confluence of the Missouri: the reason is,
+that the former rolls its waters over a sand and pretty firm soil; the
+latter, on the contrary, flows across rich and clayey lands, where
+little stone is to be seen; for though the Missouri comes out of a
+mountain, which lies to the north-west of New Mexico, we are told,
+that all the lands it passes through are generally rich; that is, low
+meadows, and lands without stone.
+
+This great river, which seems ready to dispute the pre-eminence with
+the Missisippi, receives in its long course many rivers and brooks,
+which considerably augment its waters. But except those that have
+received their names from some nation of Indians who inhabit their
+banks, there are very few of their names we can be well assured of,
+each traveller giving them different appellations. The French having
+penetrated up the Missouri only for about three hundred leagues at
+most, and the rivers which fall into its bed being only known by the
+Indians, it is of little importance what names they may bear at
+present, being besides in a country but little frequented. The river
+which is the best known is that of the Osages, so called from a nation
+of that name, dwelling on its banks. It falls into the Missouri,
+pretty near its confluence.
+
+The largest known river which falls into the Missouri, is that of the
+Canzas; which runs for near two hundred leagues in a very fine
+country. According to what I have been able to learn about the course
+of this great river, from its source to the Canzas, it runs from west
+to east; and from that nation it falls down to the southward, where it
+receives the river of the Canzas, which comes from the west; there it
+forms a great elbow, which terminates in the neighbourhood of the
+Missouri; {160} then it resumes its course to the south-east, to lose
+at last both its name and waters in the Missisippi, about f our
+leagues lower down than the river of the Illinois.
+
+There was a French Post for some time in an island a few leagues in
+length, overagainst the Missouris; the French settled in this fort at
+the east-point, and called it Fort Orleans. M. de Bourgmont commanded
+there a sufficient time to gain the friendship of the Indians of the
+countries adjoining to this great river. He brought about a peace
+among all those nations, who before his arrival were all at war; the
+nations to the north being more war-like than those to the south.
+
+After the departure of that commandant, they murdered all the
+garrison, not a single Frenchman having escaped to carry the news: nor
+could it be ever known whether it happened through the fault of the
+French, or through treachery.
+
+As to the nature of that country, I refer to M. de Bourgmont's
+Journal, an extract from which I have given above. That is an original
+account, signed by all the officers, and several others of the
+company, which I thought was too prolix to give at full length, and
+for that reason I have only extracted from it what relates to the
+people and the quality of the soil, and traced out the route to those
+who have a mind to make that journey; and even this we found necessary
+to abridge in this translation.
+
+In this journey of M. de Bourgmont, mention is only made of what we
+meet with from Fort Orleans, from which we set out, in order to go to
+the Padoucas: wherefore I ought to speak of a thing curious enough to
+be related, and which is found on the banks of the Missouri; and that
+is, a pretty high cliff, upright from the edge of the water. From the
+middle of this cliff juts out a mass of red stone with white spots,
+like porphyry, with this difference, that what we are speaking of is
+almost soft and tender, like sand-stone. It is covered with another
+sort of stone of no value; the bottom is an earth, like that on other
+rising grounds. This stone is easily worked, and bears the most
+violent fire. The Indians of the country have contrived to strike off
+pieces thereof with their arrows, {161} and after they fall in the
+water plunge for them. When they can procure pieces thereof large
+enough to make pipes, they fashion them with knives and awls. This
+pipe has a socket two or three inches long, and on the opposite side
+the figure of a hatchet; in the middle of all is the boot, or bowl of
+the pipe, to put the tobacco in. These sort of pipes are highly
+esteemed among them.
+
+All to the north of the Missouri is entirely unknown, unless we give
+credit to the relations of different travellers; but to which of them
+shall we give the preference? In the first place, they almost all
+contradict each other: and then, men of the most experience treat them
+as impostors; and therefore I choose to pay no regard to any of them.
+
+Let us therefore now repass the Missisippi, in order to resume the
+description of the lands to the east, and which we quitted at the
+river Wabache. This river is distant from the sea four hundred and
+sixty (three hundred) leagues; it is reckoned to have four hundred
+leagues in length, from its source to its confluence into the
+Missisippi. It is called Wabache, though, according to the usual
+method, it ought to be called the Ohio, or Beautiful River; seeing the
+Ohio is known under that name in Canada, before its confluence was
+known: and as the Ohio takes its rise at a greater distance off than
+the three others, which mix together, before they empty themselves
+into the Missisippi, this should make the others lose their names; but
+custom has prevailed on the occasion. [Footnote: But not among the
+English; we call it the Ohio.] The first river known to us, which
+falls into the Ohio, is that of the Miamis, which takes its rise
+towards lake Erié.
+
+It is by this river of the Miamis that the Canadians come to
+Louisiana. For this purpose they embark on the river St. Laurence, go
+up this river, pass the cataracts quite to the bottom of Lake Erié,
+where they find a small river, on which they also go up to a place
+called the Carriage of the Miamis; because that people come and take
+their effects, and carry them on their backs for two leagues from
+thence to the banks of the river of their name, which I just said
+empties itself into {162} the Ohio. From thence the Canadians go down
+that river, enter the Wabache, and at last the Missisippi, which
+brings them to New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana. They reckon
+eighteen hundred leagues [Footnote: It is but nine hundred leagues.]
+from the capital of Canada to that of Louisiana, on account of the
+great turns and windings they are obliged to take.
+
+The river of the Miamis is thus the first to the north, which falls
+into the Ohio; then that of the Chaouanons to the south; and lastly,
+that of the Cherakees; all which together empty themselves into the
+Missisippi. This is what we call the Wabache, and what in Canada and
+New England they call the Ohio. This river is beautiful, greatly
+abounding in fish, and navigable almost up to its source.
+
+To the north of this river lies Canada, which inclines more to the
+east than the source of the Ohio, and extends to the country of the
+Illinois. It is of little importance to dispute here about the limits
+of these two neighbouring colonies, as they both appertain to France.
+The lands of the Illinois are reputed to be a part of Louisiana; we
+have there a post near a village of that nation, called Tamaroüas.
+
+The country of the Illinois is extremely good, and abounds with
+buffalo and other game. On the north of the Wabache we begin to see
+the Orignaux; a species of animals which are said to partake of the
+buffalo and the stag; they have, indeed, been described to me to be
+much more clumsy than the stag. Their horns have something of the
+stag, but are shorter and more massy; the meat of them, as they say,
+is pretty good. Swans and other water-fowl are common in these
+countries.
+
+The French Post of the Illinois is, of all the colony, that in which
+with the greatest ease they grow wheat, rye, and other like grain, for
+the sowing of which you need only to turn the earth in the slightest
+manner; that slight culture is sufficient to make the earth produce as
+much as we can reasonably desire. I have been assured, that in the
+last war, when the flour from France was scarce, the Illinois sent
+down to New Orleans upwards of eight hundred thousand weight thereof
+in {163} one winter. Tobacco also thrives there, but comes to maturity
+with difficulty. All the plants transported thither from France
+succeed well, as do also the fruits.
+
+In those countries there is a river, which takes its name from the
+Illinois. It was by this river that the first travellers came from
+Canada into the Missisippi. Such as come from Canada, and have
+business only on the Illinois, pass that way yet: but such as want to
+go directly to the sea, go down the river of the Miamis into the
+Wabache, or Ohio, and from thence into the Missisippi.
+
+In this country there are mines, and one in particular, called De la
+Mothe's mine, which is silver, the assay of which has been made; as
+also of two lead-mines, so rich at first as to vegetate, or shoot a
+foot and a half at least out of the earth.
+
+The whole continent north of the river of the Illinois is not much
+frequented, consequently little known. The great extent of Louisiana
+makes us presume, that these parts will not soon come to our
+knowledge, unless some curious person should go thither to open mines,
+where they are said to be in great numbers, and very rich.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering, and
+manufacturing the Commodities that are proper Articles of Commerce. Of
+the Culture of_ Maiz, Rice, _and other Fruits of the Country. Of the_
+Silk-worm.
+
+
+In order to give an account of the several sorts of plants cultivated
+in Louisiana, I begin with Maiz, as being the most useful grain,
+seeing it is the principal food of the people of America, and that the
+French found it cultivated by the Indians.
+
+Maiz, which in France we call Turkey corn, (and we Indian-corn) is a
+grain of the size of a pea; there is of it as large as our sugar-pea:
+it grows on a sort of husks, (Quenouille) in ascending rows: some of
+these husks have to the {164} number of seven hundred grains upon
+them, and I have counted even to a greater number. This husk may be
+about two inches thick, by seven or eight inches and upwards in
+length: it is wrapped up in several covers or thin leaves, which
+screen it from the avidity of birds. Its foot or stalk is often of the
+same size: it has leaves about two inches and upwards broad, by two
+feet and a half long, which are chanelled, or formed like gutters, by
+which they collect the dew which dissolves at sun-rising, and trickles
+down to the stalk, sometimes in such plenty, as to wet the earth
+around them for the breadth of six or seven inches. Its flower is on
+the top of the stalk, which is sometimes eight feet high. We
+ordinarily find five or six ears on each stalk, and in order to
+procure a greater crop, the part of the stalk above the ears ought to
+be cut away.
+
+For sowing the Maiz in a field already cleared and prepared, holes are
+made four feet asunder every way, observing to make the rows as
+straight as may be, in order to weed them the easier: into every hole
+five or six grains are put, which are previously to be steeped for
+twenty-four hours at least, to make them rise or shoot the quicker,
+and to prevent the fox and birds from eating such quantities of them:
+by day there are people to guard them against birds; by night fires
+are made at proper distances to frighten away the fox, who would
+otherwise turn up the ground, and eat the corn of all the rows, one
+after another, without omitting one, till he has his fill, and is
+therefore the most pernicious animal to this corn. The corn, as soon
+as shot out of the earth, is weeded: when it mounts up, and its stalks
+are an inch big, it is hilled, to secure it against the wind. This
+grain produces enough for two negroes to make fifty barrels, each
+weighing an hundred and fifty pounds.
+
+Such as begin a plantation in woods, thick set with cane, have an
+advantage in the Maiz, that makes amends for the labour of clearing
+the ground; a labour always more fatiguing than cultivating a spot
+already cleared. The advantage is this: they begin with cutting down
+the canes for a great extent of ground; the trees they peel two feet
+high quite round: this operation is performed in the beginning of
+March, as then the sap is in motion in that country: about fifteen
+days after, the canes, {165} being dry, are set on fire: the sap of
+the trees are thereby made to descend, and the branches are burnt,
+which kills the trees.
+
+On the following day they sow the corn in the manner I have just
+shewn: the roots of the cane, which are not quite dead, shoot fresh
+canes, which are very tender and brittle; and as no other weeds grow
+in the field that year, it is easy to be weeded of these canes, and as
+much corn again may be made, as in a field already cultivated.
+
+This grain they eat in many different ways; the most common way is to
+make it into Sagamity, which is a kind of gruel made with water, or
+strong broth. They bake bread of it like cakes (by baking it over the
+fire on an iron plate, or on a board before the fire,) which is much
+better than what they bake in the oven, at least for present use; but
+you must make it every day; and even then it is too heavy to soak in
+soup of any kind. They likewise make Parched Meal [Footnote: See Book
+III, Chap. I.] of it, which is a dish of the natives, as well as the
+Cooedlou, or bread mixt with beans. The ears of corn roasted are
+likewise a peculiar dish of theirs; and the small corn dressed in that
+manner is as agreeable to us as to them. A light and black earth
+agrees much better with the Maiz than a strong and rich one.
+
+The Parched Meal is the best preparation of this corn; the French like
+it extremely well, no less than the Indians themselves: I can affirm
+that it is a very good food, and at the same time the best sort of
+provision that can be carried on a journey, because it is refreshing
+and extremely nourishing.
+
+As for the small Indian corn, you may see an account of it in the
+first chapter of the third Book; where you will likewise find an
+account of the way of sowing wheat, which if you do not observe, you
+may as well sow none.
+
+Rice is sown in a soil well laboured, either by the plough or hoe, and
+in winter, that it may be sowed before the time of the inundation. It
+is sown in furrows of the breadth of a hoe: when shot, and three or
+four inches high, they let water into the furrows, but in a small
+quantity, in proportion as it grows, and then give water in greater
+plenty.
+
+{166} The ear of this grain nearly resembles that of oats; its grains
+are fastened to a beard, and its chaff is very rough, and full of
+those fine and hard beards: the bran adheres not to the grain, as that
+of the corn of France; it consists of two lobes, which easily separate
+and loosen, and are therefore readily cleaned and broke off.
+
+They eat their rice as they do in France, but boiled much thicker, and
+with much less cookery, although it is not inferior in goodness to
+ours: they only wash it in warm water, taken out of the same pot you
+are to boil it in, then throw it in all at once, and boil it till it
+bursts, and so it is dressed without any further trouble. They make
+bread of it that is very white and of a good relish; but they have
+tried in vain to make any that will soak in soup.
+
+The culture of the Water-melon is simple enough. They choose for the
+purpose a light soil, as that of a rising ground, well exposed: they
+make holes in the earth, from two and a half to three feet in
+diameter, and distant from each other fifteen feet every way, in each
+of which holes they put five or six seeds. When the seeds are come up,
+and the young plants have struck out five or six leaves, the four most
+thriving plants are pitched upon, and the others plucked up to prevent
+their starving each other, when too numerous. It is only at that time
+that they have the trouble of watering them, nature alone performing
+the rest, and bringing them to maturity; which is known by the green
+rind beginning to change colour. There is no occasion to cut or prune
+them. The other species of melons are cultivated in the same manner,
+only that between the holes the distance is but five or six feet.
+
+All sorts of garden plants and greens thrive extremely well in
+Louisiana, and grow in much greater abundance than in France: the
+climate is warmer, and the soil much better. However, it is to be
+observed, that onions and other bulbous plants answer not in the low
+lands, without a great deal of pains and labour; whereas in the high
+grounds they grow very large and of a fine flavour.
+
+The inhabitants of Louisiana may very easily make Silk, having
+mulberries ready at hand, which grow naturally in the {167} high
+lands, and plantations of them may be easily made. The leaves of the
+natural mulberries of Louisiana are what the silk-worms are very fond
+of; I mean the more common mulberries with a large leaf, but tender,
+and the fruit of the colour of Burgundy wine. The province produces
+also the White Mulberry, which has the same quality with the red.
+
+I shall next relate some experiments that have been made on this
+subject, by people who were acquainted with it. Madam Hubert, a native
+of Provence, where they make a great deal of silk, which she
+understood the management of, was desirous of trying whether they
+could raise silk-worms with the mulberry leaves of this province, and
+what sort of silk they would afford. The first of her experiments was,
+to give some large silk-worms a parcel of the leaves of the Red
+Mulberry, and another parcel of the White Mulberry both upon the same
+frame. She observed the worms went over the leaves of both sorts,
+without shewing any greater liking to the one than to the other: then
+she put to the other two sorts of leaves some of the leaves of the
+White-sweet or Sugar-Mulberry, and she found that the worms left the
+other sorts to go to these, and that they preferred them to the leaves
+of the common Red and White Mulberry. [Footnote: See an account of
+these different sorts of Mulberry, in the notes at the end of this
+Volume.]
+
+The second experiment of Madam Hubert was, to raise and feed some
+silk-worms separately. To some she gave the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, and to others the leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry; in
+order to see the difference of the silk from the difference of their
+food. Moreover, she raised and fed some of the native silk-worms of
+the country, which were taken very young from the mulberry-trees; but
+she observed that these last were very flighty, and did nothing but
+run up and down, their nature being, without doubt, to live upon
+trees: she then changed their place, that they might not mix with the
+other worms that came from France, and gave them little branches with
+the leaves on them, which made them a little more settled.
+
+{168} This industrious lady waited till the cocoons were perfectly
+made, in order to observe the difference between them in unwinding the
+silk; the success of which, and of all her other experiments, she was
+so good as to give me a particular account of. When the cocoons were
+ready to be wound, she took care of them herself, and found that the
+wild worms yielded less silk than those from France; for although they
+were of a larger size, they were not so well furnished with silk,
+which proceeded, no doubt, from their not being sufficiently
+nourished, by their running incessantly up and down; and accordingly
+she observed that they were but meagre; but notwithstanding, their
+silk was strong and thick, though coarse.
+
+Those who were fed with the leaves of the Red Mulberry made cocoons
+well furnished with silk; which was stronger and finer than that of
+France. Those that were fed upon the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, had the same silk with those that were fed on the leaves of
+the Red Mulberry. The fourth sort, again, that had been fed with the
+leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry, had but little silk; it was indeed
+as fine as the preceding, but it was so weak and so brittle, that it
+was with great difficulty they could wind it.
+
+These are the experiments of this lady on silk-worms, which every one
+may make his own uses of, in order to have the sorts of silk,
+mulberries, or worms, that are most suitable to his purpose, and most
+likely to turn to his account: which we are very glad of this
+opportunity to inform them of, that they may see how much society owes
+to those persons who take care to study nature, in order to promote
+industry and public utility.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_Of_ Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, _and_ Saffron.
+
+
+The high lands of Louisiana produce a natural Indigo: what I saw in
+two or three places where I have observed it, grew at the edges of the
+thick woods, which shews it delights in a good, but light soil. One of
+these stalks was but ten or twelve inches high, its wood at least
+three lines in diameter, and of as {169} fine a green as its leaf; it
+was as tender as the rib of a cabbage leaf; when its head was blown a
+little, the two other stalks shot in a few days, the one seventeen,
+the other nineteen inches high; the stem was six lines thick below,
+and of a very lively green, and still very tender, the lower part only
+began to turn brown a little; the tops of both were equally ill
+furnished with leaves, and without branches; which makes it to be
+presumed, that being so thriving and of so fine a growth, it would
+have shot very high, and surpass in vigour and heighth the cultivated
+Indigo. The stalk of the Indigo, cultivated by the French at the
+Natchez, turned brown before it shot eleven or twelve inches; when in
+seed it was five feet high and upwards, and surpassed in vigour what
+was cultivated in the Lower Louisiana, that is, in the quarter about
+New Orleans: but the natural, which I had an opportunity of seeing
+only young and tender, promised to become much taller and stouter than
+ours, and to yield more.
+
+[Illustration: Indigo.]
+
+The Indigo cultivated in Louisiana comes from the islands; its grain is
+of the bigness of one line, and about a quarter longer, brown and hard,
+flatted at the extremities, because it is compressed in its pod. This
+grain is sown in a soil prepared like a garden, and the field where it
+is cultivated is called the Indigo-garden. In order to sow it, holes are
+made on a straight line with a small hoe, a foot asunder; in each hole
+four or five {170} seeds are put, which are covered with earth; great
+care is had not to suffer any strange plants to grow near it, which
+would choak it; and it is sown a foot asunder, to the end it may draw
+the fuller nourishment, and be weeded without grazing or ruffling the
+leaf, which is that which gives the Indigo. When its leaf is quite come
+to its shape, it resembles exactly that of the Acacia, so well known in
+France, only that it is smaller.
+
+It is cut with large pruning-knives, or a sort of sickles, with about
+six or seven inches aperture, which should be pretty strong. It ought
+to be cut before its wood hardens; and to be green as its leaf, which
+ought, however, to have a bluish eye or cast. When cut it is conveyed
+into the rotting-tub, as we shall presently explain. According as the
+soil is better or worse, it shoots higher or lower; the tuft of the
+first cutting, which grows round, does not exceed eight inches in
+heighth and breadth: the second cutting rises sometimes to a foot. In
+cutting the Indigo you are to set your foot upon the root, in order to
+prevent the pulling it out of the earth; and to be upon your guard not
+to cut yourself, as the tool is dangerous.
+
+In order to make an Indigo-work, a shed is first of all to be built:
+this building is at least twenty feet high, without walls or flooring,
+but only covered. The whole is built upon posts, which may be closed
+with mats, if you please: this building has twenty feet in breadth,
+and at least thirty in length. In this shed three vats or large tubs
+are set in such a manner, that the water may be easily drained off
+from the first, which is the lowermost and smallest. The second rests
+with the edge of its bottom on the upper edge of the first, so that
+the water may easily run from it into the one below. This second vat
+is not broader but deeper than the first, and is called the Battery;
+for this reason it has its beaters, which are little buckets formed of
+four ends of boards, about eight inches long, which together have the
+figure of the hopper of a mill; a stick runs across them, which is put
+into a wooden fork, in order to beat the Indigo: there are two of them
+on each side, which in all make four.
+
+The third vat is placed in the same manner over the second, and is as
+big again, that it may hold the leaves; it is called the {171}
+Rotting-tub, because the leaves which are put into it are deadened,
+not corrupted or spoiled therein. The Indigo-operator, who conducts
+the whole work, knows when it is time to let the water into the second
+vat; then he lets go the cock; for if the leaves were left too long,
+the Indigo would be too black; it must have no more time than what is
+sufficient to discharge a kind of flower or froth that is found upon
+the leaf.
+
+The water, when it is all in the second vat, is beat till the
+Indigo-operator gives orders to cease; which he does not before he has
+several times taken up some of this water with a silver cup, by way of
+assay, in order to know the exact time in which they ought to give
+over beating the water: and this is a secret which practice alone can
+teach with certainty.
+
+When the Indigo-operator finds that the water is sufficiently beaten,
+he lets it settle till he can draw off the water clear; which is done
+by means of several cocks one above another, for fear of losing the
+Indigo. For this purpose, if the water is clear, the highest cock is
+opened, the second in like manner, till the water is observed to be
+tinged; then they shut the cock: the same is done in all the cocks
+till all the Indigo be in a pap at the bottom of the second vat. The
+first, or small vat, serves only to purify the water which is found to
+be tinged, and let run while clear.
+
+When the Indigo is well settled, they put it in cloth bags a foot and
+six inches wide, with a small circle at top, which helps to receive
+the Indigo with ease; it is suffered to drain till it gives no more
+water: however, it must be moist enough to spread it in the mould with
+a wooden knife or spatula.
+
+In order to have the seed, they suffer it to run up as many feet as
+they foresee shall be necessary for seed; it shoots four or five feet
+high, according to the quality of the soil. There are four cuttings of
+it in the islands, where the climate is warmer; three good cuttings
+are made in Louisiana, and of as good a quality at least as in the
+islands.
+
+Tobacco, which was found among the Indians of Louisiana, seems also to
+be a native of the country, seeing their ancient tradition informs us,
+that from time immemorial they {172} have, in their treaties of peace
+and in their embassies, used the pipe, the principal use of which is
+that the deputies shall all smoke therein. This native Tobacco is very
+large; its stalk, when suffered to run to seed, shoots to five feet
+and a half and six feet; the lower part of its stem is at least
+eighteen lines in diameter, and its leaves often near two feet long,
+which are thick and succulent, its juice is strong, but never
+disorders the head. The Tobacco of Virginia has a broader but shorter
+leaf; its stalk is smaller, and runs not up so high; its smell is not
+disagreeable, but not so strong; it takes more plants to make a pound,
+because its leaf is thinner, and not so full of sap as the native.
+What is cultivated in the Lower Louisiana is smaller, and not so
+strong; but that made in the islands is thinner than that of
+Louisiana, but much stronger, and disorders the head.
+
+In order to sow Tobacco, you make a bed on the best piece of ground
+you are master of, and give it six inches in heighth; this earth you
+beat and make level with the back of a spade; you afterwards sow the
+seed, which is extremely fine, nearly resembling poppy seed. It must
+be sown thin, and notwithstanding that attention, it often happens to
+be too thick. When the seed is sown, the earth is no longer stirred,
+but the seed is covered with ashes the thickness of a farthing, to
+prevent the worms from eating the tobacco when it is just shooting out
+of the earth.
+
+As soon as the tobacco has four leaves, it is transplanted into a soil
+prepared for it, put into holes a foot broad made in a line, and
+distant three feet every way; a distance not too great, in order to
+weed it with ease, without breaking the leaves.
+
+The best time for transplanting it is after rain, otherwise you must
+water it: in like manner, when the seed is in the earth, if it rains
+not, you must gently sprinkle it towards evening, because it is
+somewhat slow in rising, and when it is sprouted it requires a little
+water. You must lightly cover the plant in the day time with some
+leaves plucked the night before; a precaution on no account to be
+dispensed with, till the young plant has fully struck root. You must
+also daily visit the {173} tobacco, to clear it of caterpillars, which
+fasten upon it, and would entirely eat it up, if they are not
+destroyed. The tobacco-caterpillar is of the shape of a silk-worm, has
+a prickle on its back towards its extremity; its colour is of the most
+beautiful sea-green, striped with silver-streaks; in a word, it is as
+beautiful to the eye as it is fatal to the plant it is fond of.
+
+I gave great attention to keep my plantation clear of all weeds,
+observing in weeding it with the hoe not to touch the stalks, about
+which I caused to lay new earth, as well to secure them against gusts
+of wind, as to enable them to draw from the earth a more abundant
+nourishment. When the tobacco began to put forth suckers, I plucked
+them off, because they would have shot into branches, which would
+impoverish the leaves, and for the same reason stopped the tobacco
+from shooting above the twelfth leaf, afterwards stripping off the
+four lowermost, which never come to any thing. Hitherto I did nothing
+but what was ordinarily done by those who cultivate tobacco with some
+degree of care; but my method of proceeding afterwards was different.
+
+I saw my neighbours strip the leaves of tobacco from the stalk, string
+them, set them to dry, by hanging them out in the air, then put them
+in heaps, to make them sweat. As for me, I carefully examined the
+plant, and when I observed the stem begin to turn yellow here and
+there, I caused the stalk to be cut with a pruning-knife, and left it
+for some time on the earth to deaden. Afterwards it was carried off,
+on handbarrows, because it is thus less exposed to be broken than on
+the necks of negroes. When it was brought to the house, I caused it to
+be hung up, with the big end of the stem turned upwards, the leaves of
+each stalk slightly touching one another, being well assured they
+would shrivel in drying, and no longer touch each other. It hereby
+happened, that the juice contained in the pith (sometimes as big as
+one's finger) of the stem of the plant, flowed into the leaves, and
+augmenting their sap, made them much more mild and waxy. As fast as
+these leaves assumed a bright chesnut colour, I stripped them from the
+stalk, and made them directly into bundles, which I wrapped up in a
+cloth, and bound it close with a cord for twenty four hours; {174}
+then undoing the cloth, they were tied up closer still. This tobacco
+turned black and so waxy, that it could not be rasped in less than a
+year; but then it had a substance and flavour so much the more
+agreeable, as it never affected the head; and so I sold it for double
+the price of the common.
+
+The cotton which is cultivated in Louisiana, is of the species of the
+white Siam, [Footnote: This East-India annual cotton has been found to
+be much better and whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies,
+which is of the Turkey kind. Both of them keep their colour better in
+washing, and are whiter than the perennial cotton that comes from the
+islands, although this last is of a longer staple.] though not so
+soft, nor so long as the silk-cotton; it is extremely white and very
+fine, and a very good use may be made of it. This cotton is produced,
+not from a tree, as in the East-Indies, but from a plant, and thrives
+much better in light than in strong and fat lands, such as those of
+the Lower Louisiana, where it is not so fine as on the high grounds.
+
+This plant may be cultivated in lands newly cleared, and not yet
+proper for tobacco, much less for indigo, which requires a ground well
+worked like a garden. The seeds of cotton are planted three feet
+asunder, more or less according to the quality of the soil: the field
+is weeded at the proper season, in order to clear it of the noxious
+weeds, and fresh earth laid to the root of the plant, to secure it
+against the winds. The cotton requires weeding, neither so often, nor
+so carefully as other plants; and the care of gathering is the
+employment of young people, incapable of harder labour.
+
+When the root of the cotton is once covered with fresh earth, and the
+weeds are removed, it is suffered to grow without further touching it,
+till it arrives to maturity. Then its heads or pods open into five
+parts, and expose their cotton to view. When the sun has dried the
+cotton well, it is gathered in a proper manner, and conveyed into the
+conservatory; after which comes on the greatest task, which is to
+separate it from the grain or seed to which it closely adheres; and it
+is this part of the work, which disgusts the inhabitants in the
+cultivation {175} of it. I contrived a mill for the purpose, tried it,
+and found it to succeed, so as to dispatch the work very much.
+
+[Illustration: Top: Cotton on the stalk--Bottom: Rice on the stalk]
+
+The culture of indigo, tobacco, and cotton, may be easily carried on
+without any interruption to the making of silk, as any one of these is
+no manner of hindrance to the other. In the first place, the work
+about these three plants does not come on till after the worms have
+spun their silk: in the second place, {176} the feeding and cleaning
+the silk-worm requires no great degree of strength; and thus the care
+employed about them interrupts no other sort of work, either as to
+time, or as to the persons employed therein. It suffices for this
+operation to have a person who knows how to feed and clean the worms;
+young negroes of both sexes might assist this person, little skill
+sufficing for this purpose: the oldest of the young negroes, when
+taught, might shift the worms and lay the leaves; the other young
+negroes gather and fetch them; and all this labour, which takes not up
+the whole day, lasts only for about six weeks. It appears therefore,
+that the profit made of the silk is an additional benefit, so much the
+more profitable, as it diverts not the workmen from their ordinary
+tasks. If it be objected, that buildings are requisite to make silk to
+advantage; I answer, buildings for the purpose cost very little in a
+country where wood may be had for taking; I add farther, that these
+buildings may be made and daubed with mud by any persons about the
+family; and besides, may serve for hanging tobacco in, two months
+after the silk-worms are gone.
+
+I own I have not seen the wax-tree cultivated in Louisiana; people
+content themselves to take the berries of this tree, without being at
+pains to rear it; but as I am persuaded it would be very advantageous
+to make plantations of it, I shall give my sentiments on the culture
+proper for this tree, after the experiments I made in regard to it.
+
+I had some seeds of the wax-tree brought me to Fontenai le Comte, in
+Poictou, some of which I gave to several of my friends, but not one of
+them came up. I began to reflect, that Poictou not being by far so
+warm as Louisiana, these seeds would have difficulty to shoot; I
+therefore thought it was necessary to supply by art the defect of
+nature; I procured horse, cow, sheep, and pigeon's dung in equal
+quantity, all which I put in a vessel of proportionable size, and
+poured on them water, almost boiling, in order to dissolve their
+salts: this water I drew off, and steeped the grains in a sufficient
+quantity thereof for forty-eight hours; after which I sowed them in a
+box full of good earth; seven of them came up, and made shoots between
+seven and eight inches high, but they were all {177} killed by the
+frost for want of putting them into the greenhouse.
+
+This seed having such difficulty to come up, I presume that the wax,
+in which it is wrapped up, hinders the moisture from penetrating into,
+and making its kernel shoot; and there fore I should think that those
+who choose to sow it, would do well if they previously rolled it
+lightly between two small boards just rough from the saw; this
+friction would cause the pellicle of wax to scale off with so much the
+greater facility, as it is naturally very dry; and then it might be
+put to steep.
+
+Hops grow naturally in Louisiana, yet such as have a desire to make
+use of them for themselves, or sell them to brewers, cultivate this
+plant. It is planted in alleys, distant asunder six feet, in holes two
+feet and one foot deep, in which the root is lodged. When shot a good
+deal, a pole of the size of one's arm, and between twelve and fifteen
+feet long, is fixed in the hole; care is had to direct the shoots
+towards it, which fail not to run up the pole. When the flower is ripe
+and yellowish, the stem is cut quite close to the earth and the pole
+pulled out, in order to pick the flowers, which are saved.
+
+If we consider the climate of Louisiana, and the quality of the high
+lands of that province, we might easily produce saffron there. The
+culture of this plant would be so much the more advantageous to the
+planters, as the neighbourhood of Mexico would procure a quick and
+useful vent for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_Of the Commerce that, and may be carried on in_ Louisiana. _Of the
+Commodities which that Province may furnish in return for those of_
+Europe. _Of the Commerce of_ Louisiana _with the Isles_.
+
+
+I have often reflected on the happiness of France in the portion which
+Providence has allotted her in America. She has found in her lands
+neither the gold nor silver of Mexico and Peru, nor the precious
+stones and rich stuffs of the East-Indies; but she will find therein,
+when she pleases, mines of iron, lead, and copper. She is there
+possessed of a fertile soil, {178} which only requires to be occupied
+in order to produce not only all the fruits necessary and agreeable to
+life, but also all the subjects on which human industry may exercise
+itself in order to supply our wants. What I have already said of
+Louisiana ought to make this very plain; but to bring the whole
+together, in order, and under one point of view, I shall next relate
+every thing that regards the commerce of this province.
+
+_Commodities which_ Louisiana _may furnish in return for those
+of_ Europe.
+
+France might draw from this colony several sorts of furs, which would
+not be without their value, though held cheap in France; and by their
+variety, and the use that might be made of them, would yield
+satisfaction. Some persons have dissuaded the traders from taking any
+furs from the Indians, on a supposition that they would be moth-eaten
+when carried to New-Orleans, on account of the heat of the climate:
+but I am acquainted with people of the business, who know how to
+preserve them from such an accident.
+
+Dry buffalo hides are of sufficient value to encourage the Indians to
+procure them, especially if they were told, that only their skins and
+tallow were wanted; they would then kill the old bulls, which are so
+fat as scarce to be able to go: each buffalo would yield at least a
+hundred pounds of tallow; the value of which, with the skin, would
+make it worth their while to kill them, and thus none of our money
+would be sent to Ireland in order to have tallow from that country;
+besides the species of buffaloes would not be diminished, because
+these fat buffaloes are always the prey of wolves.
+
+Deer-skins, which were bought of the Indians at first, did not please
+the manufacturers of Niort, where they are dressed, because the
+Indians altered the quality by their way of dressing them; but since
+these skins have been called for without any preparation but taking
+off the hair, they make more of them, and sell them cheaper than
+before.
+
+The wax-tree produces wax, which being much drier than bees-wax, may
+bear mixture, which will not hinder its lasting longer than bees-wax.
+Some of this wax was sent to Paris to {179} a factor of Louisiana, who
+set so low a price upon it as to discourage the planters from sowing
+any more. The sordid avarice of this factor has done a service to the
+islands, where it gives a higher price than that of France.
+
+The islands also draw timber for building from Louisiana, which might
+in time prevent France from making her profits of the beauty,
+goodness, and quantity of wood of this province. The quality of the
+timber is a great inducement to build docks there for the construction
+of ships: the wood might be had at a low price of the inhabitants,
+because they would get it in winter, which is almost an idle time with
+them. This labour would also clear the grounds, and so this timber
+might be had almost for nothing. Masts might be also had in the
+country, on account of the number of pines which the coast produces;
+and for the same reason pitch and tar would be common. For the planks
+of ships, there is no want of oak; but might not very good one be made
+of cypress? this wood is, indeed, softer than oak, but endowed with
+qualities surpassing this last: it is light, not apt to split or warp,
+is supple and easily worked; in a word, it is incorruptible both in
+air and water; and thus making the planks stouter than ordinary, there
+would be no inconvenience from the use of cypress. I have observed,
+that this wood is not injured by the worm, and ship-worms might
+perhaps have the same aversion to it as other worms have.
+
+Other wood fit for the building of ships is very common in this
+country; such as elm, ash, alder, and others. There are likewise in
+this country several species of wood, which might sell in France for
+joiners work and fineering, as the cedar, the black walnut, and the
+cotton-tree. Nothing more would therefore be wanting for compleating
+ships but cordage and iron. As to hemp, it grows so strong as to be
+much fitter for making cables than cloth. The iron might be brought
+from France, as also sails; however, there needs only to open the iron
+mine at the cliffs of the Chicasaws, called Prud'homme, to set up
+forges, and iron will be readily had. The king, therefore, might cause
+all sorts of shipping to be built there at so small a charge, that a
+moderate expence would procure a numerous fleet. If the English build
+ships in their colonies {180} from which they draw great advantages,
+why might not we do the same in Louisiana?
+
+France fetches a great deal of saltpetre from Holland and Italy; she
+may draw from Louisiana more than she will have occasion for, if once
+she sets about it. The great fertility of the country is an evident
+proof thereof, confirmed by the avidity of cloven-footed animals to
+lick the earth, in all places where the torrents have broke it up: it
+is well known how fond these creatures are of salt. Saltpetre might be
+made there with all the ease imaginable, on account of the plenty of
+wood and water; it would besides be much more pure than what is
+commonly had, the earth not being fouled with dunghills; and on the
+other hand, it would not be dearer than what is now purchased by
+France in other places.
+
+What commerce might not be made with Silk? The silk-worms might be
+reared with much greater success in this country than in France, as
+appears from the trials that have been made, and which I have above
+related.
+
+The lands of Louisiana are very proper for the culture of Saffron, and
+the climate would contribute to produce it in great abundance; and,
+what would still be a considerable advantage, the Spaniards of Mexico,
+who consume a great deal of it, would enhance its price.
+
+I have spoken of Hemp, in respect to the building of ships: but such
+as might be built there, would never be sufficient to employ all the
+hemp which might be raised in that colony, did the inhabitants
+cultivate as much of it as they well might. But you will say, Why do
+they not? My answer is, the inhabitants of this colony only follow the
+beaten track they have got into: but if they saw an intelligent person
+sow hemp without any great expence or labour, as the soil is very fit
+for it; if, I say, they saw that it thrives without weeding; that in
+the winter evenings the negroes and their children can peel it; in a
+word, if they saw that there is good profit to be had by the sale of
+it; they then would all make hemp. They think and act in the same
+manner as to all the other articles of culture in this country.
+
+{181} Cotton is also a good commodity for commerce; and the culture of
+it is attended with no difficulty. The only impediment to the culture
+of it in a greater quantity, is the difficulty of separating it from
+the seed. However, if they had mills, which would do this work with
+greater dispatch, the profit would considerably increase.
+
+The Indigo of Louisiana, according to intelligent merchants, is as
+good as that of the islands; and has even more of the copper colour.
+As it thrives extremely well, and yields more herb than in the
+islands, as much Indigo may be made as there, though they have four
+cuttings, and only three in Louisiana. The climate is warmer in the
+islands, and therefore they make four gatherings; but the soil is
+drier, and produces not so much as Louisiana: so that the three
+cuttings of this last are as good as the four cuttings in the islands.
+
+The Tobacco of this colony is so excellent, that if the commerce
+thereof was free, it would sell for one hundred sols and six livres
+the pound, so fine and delicate is its juice and flavour. Rice may
+also form a fine branch of trade. We go to the East-Indies for the
+rice we consume in France; and why should we draw from foreign
+countries, what we may have of our own countrymen? We should have it
+at less trouble, and with more security. Besides, as sometimes,
+perhaps too often, years of scarcity happen, we might always depend
+upon finding rice in Louisiana, because it is not subject to fail, an
+advantage which few provinces enjoy.
+
+We may add to this commerce some drugs, used in medicine and dying. As
+to the first, Louisiana produces Sassafras, Sarsaparilla, Esquine, but
+above all the excellent balm of Copalm (Sweet-gum) the virtues of
+which, if well known, would save the life of many a person. This
+colony also furnishes us with bears oil, which is excellent in all
+rheumatic pains. For dying, I find only the wood Ayac, or Stinking
+Wood, for yellow; and the Achetchi for red; of the beauty of which
+colours we shall give an account in the third book.
+
+Such are the commodities which may form a commerce of this colony with
+France, which last may carry in exchange all {182} sorts of European
+goods and merchandize; the vent whereof is certain, as every thing
+answers there, where luxury reigns equally as in France. Flour, wines,
+and strong liquors sell well; and though I have spoken of the manner
+of growing wheat in this country, the inhabitants, towards the lower
+part of the river especially, will never grow it, any more than they
+will cultivate the vine, because in these sorts of work a negro will
+not earn his master half as much as in cultivating Tobacco; which,
+however, is less profitable than Indigo.
+
+_The Commerce of_ Louisiana _with the Islands._
+
+From Louisiana to the Islands they carry cypress wood squared for
+building, of different scantlings: sometimes they transport houses,
+all framed and marked out, ready to set up, on landing at their place
+of destination.
+
+Bricks, which cost fourteen or fifteen livres the thousand, delivered
+on board the ship.
+
+
+Tiles for covering houses and sheds, of the same price.
+
+Apalachean beans, (Garavanzas) worth ten livres the barrel, of two
+hundred weight.
+
+Maiz, or Indian corn.
+
+Cypress plank of ten or twelve feet.
+
+Red peas, which cost in the country twelve or thirteen livres the
+barrel.
+
+Cleaned rice, which costs twenty livres the barrel, of two hundred
+weight.
+
+There is a great profit to be made in the islands, by carrying thither
+the goods I have just mentioned: this profit is generally _cent. per
+cent._ in returns. The shipping which go from the colony bring back
+sugar, coffee, rum, which the negroes consume in drink; besides other
+goods for the use of the country.
+
+The ships which come from France to Louisiana put all in at Cape
+François. Sometimes there are ships, which not having a lading for
+France, because they may have been paid in money or bills of exchange,
+are obliged to return by Cape François, in order to take in their
+cargo for France.
+
+{183}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_Of the Commerce with the_ Spaniards. _The Commodities they bring to the
+Colony, if there is a Demand for them. Of such as may be given in
+return, and may suit them. Reflections on the Commerce of this
+Province, and the great Advantage which the State and particular
+Persons may derive therefrom._
+
+
+_The Commerce with the_ Spaniards.
+
+The commodities which suit the Spaniards are sufficiently known by
+traders, and therefore it is not necessary to give an account of them:
+I have likewise forebore to give the particulars of the commodities
+which they carry to this colony, though I know them all: that is not
+our present business. I shall only apprise such as shall settle in
+Louisiana, in order to traffick with the Spaniards, that it is not
+sufficient to be furnished with the principal commodities which suit
+their commerce, but they should, besides, know how to make the proper
+assortments; which are most advantageous to us, as well as to them,
+when they carry them to Mexico.
+
+_The Commodities which the_ Spaniards _bring to_ Louisiana, _if there is
+a demand for them_.
+
+Campeachy wood, which is generally worth from ten to fifteen livres
+the hundred weight.
+
+Brasil wood, which has a quality superior to that of Campeachy.
+
+Very good Cacoa, which is to be met with in all the ports of Spain,
+worth between eighteen and twenty livres the quintal, or hundred
+weight.
+
+Cochineal, which comes from Vera Cruz: there is no difficulty to have
+as much of it as one can desire, because so near; it is worth fifteen
+livres the pound: there is an inferior sort, called Sylvester.
+
+Tortoise-shell, which is common in the Spanish islands, is worth seven
+or eight livres the pound.
+
+Tanned leather, of which they have great quantities; that marked or
+stamped is worth four livres ten sols the levee.
+
+{184} Marroquin, or Spanish leather, of which they have great
+quantities, and cheap.
+
+Turned calf, which is also cheap.
+
+Indigo, which is manufactured at Guatimala, is worth three or four
+livres the pound: there is of it of a perfect good quality, and
+therefore sells at twelve livres the pound.
+
+Sarsaparilla, which they have in very great quantities, and sell at
+thirteen or fifteen sols.
+
+Havanna snuff, which is of different prices and qualities: I have seen
+it at three shillings the pound, which in our money make thirty-seven
+sols six deniers.
+
+Vanilla, which is of different prices. They have many other things
+very cheap, on which great profits might be made, and for which an
+easy vent may be found in Europe; especially for their drugs: but a
+particular detail would carry me too far, and make me lose sight of
+the object I had in view.
+
+What I have just said of the commerce of Louisiana, may easily shew
+that it will necessarily encrease in proportion as the country is
+peopled; and industry also will be brought to perfection. For this
+purpose nothing more is requisite than some inventive and industrious
+geniuses, who coming from Europe, may discover such objects of
+commerce as may turn to account. I imagine a good tanner might in this
+colony tan the leather of the country, and cheaper than in France; I
+even imagine that the leather might there be brought to its perfection
+in less time; and what makes me think so, is, that I have heard it
+averred, that the Spanish leather is extremely good, and is never
+above three or four months in the tan-pit.
+
+The same will hold of many other things, which would prevent money
+going out of the kingdom to foreign countries. Would it not be more
+suitable and more useful, to devise means of drawing the same
+commodities from our own colonies? As these means are so easy, at
+least money would not go out of our hands; France and her colonies
+would be as two families who traffick together, and render each other
+mutual service. Besides, there would not be occasion for so much money
+to carry on a commerce to Louisiana, seeing the inhabitants have need
+of European goods. It would therefore be a commerce {185} very
+different from that which, without exporting the merchandise of the
+kingdom, exports the money; a commerce still very different from that
+which carries to France commodities highly prejudicial to our own
+manufactures.
+
+I may add to all that I have said on Louisiana, as one of the great
+advantages of this country, that women are very fruitful in it, which
+they attribute to the waters of the Missisippi. Had the intentions of
+the Company been pursued, and their orders executed, there is no doubt
+but this colony had at this day been very strong, and blessed with a
+numerous young progeny, whom no other climate would allure to go and
+settle in; but being retained by the beauty of their own, they would
+improve its riches, and multiplied anew in a short time, could offer
+their mother-country succours in men and ships, and in many other
+things that are not to be contemned.
+
+I cannot too much shew the importance of the succours in corn, which
+this colony might furnish in a time of scarcity. In a bad year we are
+obliged to carry our money to foreigners for corn, which has been
+oftentimes purchased in France, because they have had the secret of
+preserving their corn; but if the colony of Louisiana was once well
+settled, what supplies of corn might not be received from that
+fruitful country? I shall give two reasons which will confirm my
+opinion.
+
+The first is, That the inhabitants always grow more corn than is
+necessary for the subsistence of themselves, their workmen, and
+slaves. I own, that in the lower part of the colony only rice could be
+had, but this is always a great supply. Now, were the colony gradually
+settled to the Arkansas, they would grow wheat and rye in as great
+quantities as one could well desire, which would be of great service
+to France, when her crops happen to fail.
+
+The second reason is, That in this colony a scarcity is never to be
+apprehended. On my arrival in it, I informed myself of what had happened
+therein from 1700, and I myself remained in it till 1734; and since my
+return to France I have had accounts from it down to this present year
+1757; and from these accounts I can aver, that no intemperature of
+season has caused {186} any scarcity since the beginning of this
+century. I was witness to one of the severest winters that had been
+known in that country in the memory of the oldest people living; but
+provisions were then not dearer than in other years. The soil of this
+province being excellent, and the seasons always suitable, the
+provisions and other commodities cultivated in it never fail to thrive
+surprizingly.
+
+One will, perhaps, be surprized to hear me promise such fine things of
+a country which has been reckoned to be so much inferior to the
+Spanish or Portuguese colonies in America; but such as will take the
+trouble to reflect on that which constitutes the genuine strength of
+states, and the real goodness of a country, will soon alter their
+opinion, and agree with me, that a country fertile in men, in
+productions of the earth, and in necessary metals, is infinitely
+preferable to countries from which men draw gold, silver, and
+diamonds: the first effect of which is to pamper luxury and render the
+people indolent; and the second to stir up the avarice of neighbouring
+nations. I therefore boldly aver, that Louisiana, well governed, would
+not long fail to fulfil all I have advanced about it; for though there
+are still some nations of Indians who might prove enemies to the
+French, the settlers, by their martial character, and their zeal for
+their king and country, aided by a few troops, commanded, above all,
+by good officers, who at the same time know how to command the
+colonists: the settlers, I say, will be always match enough for them,
+and prevent any foreigners whatever from invading the country. What
+would therefore be the consequence if, as I have projected, the first
+nation that should become our enemy were attacked in the manner I have
+laid down in my reflections on an Indian war? They would be directly
+brought to such a pass as to make all other nations tremble at the
+very name of the French, and to be ever cautious of making war upon
+them. Not to mention the advantage there is in carrying on wars in
+this manner; for as they cost little, as little do they hazard the
+loss of lives.
+
+In 1734, M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was relieved by M. de
+Biainville, and the King's plantation put on a new footing, by an
+arrangement suitable to the notions of the person {187} who advised
+it. A sycophant, who wanted to make his court to Cardinal Fleury,
+would persuade that minister, that the plantation cost his Majesty ten
+thousand livres a year, and that this sum might be well saved; but
+took care not to tell his Eminence, that for these ten thousand it
+saved at least fifty thousand livres.
+
+Upon this, my place of Director of the public plantations was
+abolished, and I at length resolved to quit the colony and return to
+France, nothwithstanding all the fair promises and warm solicitations
+of my superiors to prevail upon me to stay. A King's ship, La Gironde,
+being ready to sail, I went down the river in her to Balise, and from
+thence we set sail, on the 10th of May, 1734. We had tolerable fine
+weather to the mouth of the Bahama Streights; afterwards we had the
+wind contrary, which retarded our voyage for a week about the banks of
+Newfoundland, to which we were obliged to stretch for a wind to carry
+us to France: from thence we made the passage without any cross
+accident, and happily arrived in the road of Chaidbois before
+Rochelle, on the 25th of June following, which made it a passage of
+forty-five days from Louisiana to France.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, by_ M. Du
+Mont.
+
+I
+
+_Of_ Tobacco, _with the way of cultivating and curing it._
+
+The lands of Louisiana are as proper as could be desired, for the
+culture of tobacco; and, without despising what is made in other
+countries, we may affirm that the tobacco which grows in the country
+of the Natchez, is even preferable to that of Virginia or St. Domingo;
+I say, in the country of the Natchez, because the soil at that post
+appears to be more suitable to this plant than any other: although it
+must be owned, that there is but very little difference betwixt the
+tobacco which grows there and in some other parts of the colony, as at
+the Cut-point, at the Nachitoches, and even at New Orleans; but
+whether it is owing to the exposure, or to the goodness of {188} the
+soil, it is allowed that the tobacco of the Natchez and Yasous is
+preferable to the rest.
+
+The way of planting and curing tobacco in this country, is as follows:
+they sow it on beds well worked with the hoe or spade in the months of
+December, January, or February; and because the seed is very small,
+they mix it with ashes, that it may be thinner sowed: then they rake
+the beds, and trample them with their feet, or clap them with a plank,
+that the seed may take sooner in the ground. The tobacco does not come
+up till a month afterwards, or even for a longer time; and then they
+ought to take great care to cover the beds with straw or cypress-bark,
+to preserve the plants from the white frosts, that are very common in
+that season. There are two sorts of tobacco; the one with a long and
+sharp-pointed leaf, the other has a round and hairy leaf; which last
+they reckon the best sort.
+
+At the end of April, and about St. George's day, the plants have about
+four leaves, and then they pull the best and strongest of them: these
+they plant out on their tobacco-ground by a line stretched across it,
+and at three feet distance one from another: this they do either with
+a planting-stick, or with their finger, leaving a hole on one side of
+the plant, to receive the water, with which they ought to water it.
+The tobacco being thus planted, it should be looked over evening and
+morning, in order to destroy a black worm, which eats the bud of the
+plant, and afterwards buries itself in the ground. If any of the
+plants are eat by this worm, you must set another one by it. You must
+choose a rainy season to plant your tobacco, and you should water it
+three times to make it take root. But they never work their ground in
+this country to plant their tobacco; they reckon it sufficient to stir
+it a little about four inches square round the plant.
+
+When the tobacco is about four or five inches high, they weed it, and
+clean the ground all about it, and hill up every plant. They do the
+same again, when it is about a foot and a half high. And when the
+plant has, about eight or nine leaves, and is ready to put forth a
+stalk, they nip off the top, which they call topping the tobacco: this
+amputation makes the {189} leaves grow longer and thicker. After this,
+you must look over every plant, and every leaf, in order to sucker it,
+or to pull off the buds, which grow at the joints of the leaves; and
+at the same time you must destroy the large green worms that are found
+on the tobacco, which are often as large as a man's finger, and would
+eat up the whole plant in a night's time.
+
+After this, you must take care to have ready a hanger (or
+tobacco-house,) which in Louisiana they make in the following manner:
+they set several posts in the ground, at equal distances from one
+another, and lay a beam or plate on the top of them, making thus the
+form of a house of an oblong square. In the middle of this square they
+set up two forks, about one third higher than the posts, and lay a pole
+cross them, for the ridge-pole of the building; upon which they nail the
+rafters, and cover them with cypress-bark, or palmetto-leaves. The first
+settlers likewise build their dwelling-houses in this manner, which
+answer the purpose very well, and as well as the houses which their
+carpenters build for them, especially for the curing of tobacco; which
+they hang in these houses upon sticks or canes, laid across the
+building, and about four feet and a half asunder, one above another.
+
+The tobacco-house being ready, you wait till your tobacco is ripe, and
+fit to be cut; which you may know by the leaves being brittle, and
+easily broke between the fingers, especially in the morning before
+sun-rising; but those versed in it know when the tobacco is fit to cut
+by the looks of it, and at first sight. You cut your tobacco with a
+knife as nigh the ground as you can, after which you lay it upon the
+ground for some time, that the leaves may fall, or grow tender, and
+not break in carrying. When you carry your tobacco to the house, you
+hang it first at the top by pairs, or two plants together, thus
+continuing from story to story, taking care that the plants thus hung
+are about two inches asunder, and that they do not touch one another,
+lest they should rot. In this manner they fill their whole house with
+tobacco, and leave it to sweat and dry.
+
+After the tobacco is cut, they weed and clean the ground on which it
+grew: each root then puts out several suckers, which are all pulled
+off, and only one of the best is left to {190} grow, of which the same
+care is taken as of the first crop. By this means a second crop is
+made on the same ground, and sometimes a third. These seconds, indeed,
+as they are called, do not usually grow so high as the first plant,
+but notwithstanding they make very good tobacco. [Footnote: This is an
+advantage that they have in Louisiana over our tobacco planters, who
+are prohibited by law to cultivate these seconds; the summers are so
+short, that they do not come to due maturity in our tobacco colonies;
+whereas in Louisiana the summers are two or three months longer, by
+which they make two or three crops of tobacco a year upon the same
+ground, as early as we make one. Add to this, their fresh lands will
+produce three times as much of that commodity, as our old plantations;
+which are now worn out with culture, by supplying the whole world
+almost with tobacco for a hundred and fifty years. Now if their
+tobacco is worth five and six shillings a pound, as we are told above,
+or even the tenth part of it, when ours is worth but two pence or
+three pence, and they give a bounty upon ships going to the
+Missisippi, when our tobacco is loaded with a duty equal to seven
+times its prime cost; they may, with all these advantages, soon get
+this trade from us, the, only one this nation has left entire to
+itself. These advantages enable the planters to give a much better
+price for servants and slaves, and thereby to engross the trade. It
+was by these means, that the French got the sugar trade from us, after
+the treaty of Utrecht, by being allowed to transport their people from
+St. Christopher's to the rich and fresh lands of St. Domingo; and by
+removing from Canada to Louisiana, they may in the like manner get not
+only this, but every other branch of the trade of North America.]
+
+If you have a mind to make your tobacco into rolls, there is no
+occasion to wait till the leaves are perfectly dry; but as soon as
+they have acquired a yellowish brown colour, although the stem is
+green, you unhang your tobacco, and strip the leaves from the stalks,
+lay them up in heaps, and cover them with woolen cloths, in order to
+sweat them. After that you stem the tobacco, or pull out the middle
+rib of the leaf, which you throw away with the stalks, as good for
+nothing; laying by the longest and largest of the leaves, that are of
+a good blackish brown colour, and keep them for a covering for your
+rolls. After this you take a piece of coarse linen, at least eight
+inches broad and a foot long, which you spread on the ground, and on
+it lay the large leaves you have picked out, and the others over them
+in handfuls, taking care always to have more in the middle than at the
+ends: then you roll the {191} tobacco up in the cloth, tying it in the
+middle and at each end. When you have made a sufficient number of
+these bundles, the negroes roll them up as hard as they can with a
+cord about as big as the little finger, which is commonly about
+fifteen or sixteen fathom long: you tighten them three times, so as to
+make them as hard as possible; and to keep them so, you might tie them
+up with a string.
+
+But since the time of the West India company, we have seldom cured our
+tobacco in this manner, if it is not for our own use; we now cure it
+in hands, or bundles of the leaves, which they pack in hogsheads, and
+deliver it thus in France to the farmers general. In order to cure the
+tobacco in this manner, they wait till the leaves of the stem are
+perfectly dry, and in moist, giving weather, they strip the leaves
+from the stalk, till they have a handful of them, called a hand, or
+bundle of tobacco, which they tie up with another leaf. These bundles
+they lay in heaps, in order to sweat them, for which purpose they
+cover those heaps with blankets, and lay boards or planks over them.
+But you should take care that the tobacco is not over-heated, and does
+not take fire, which may easily happen; for which purpose you uncover
+your heaps from time to time, and give the tobacco air, by spreading
+it abroad. This you continue to do till you find no more heat in the
+tobacco; then you pack it in hogsheads, and may transport it any
+where, without danger either of its heating or rotting.
+
+II.
+
+_Of the way of making_ Indigo.
+
+The blue stone, known by the name of Indigo, is the extract of a plant
+which they who have a sufficient number of slaves to manage it, make
+some quantities throughout all this colony. For this purpose they
+first weed the ground, and make small holes in it with a hoe, about
+five inches asunder, and on a straight line. In each of these holes
+they put five or six seeds of the indigo, which are small, long, and
+hard. When they come up, they put forth leaves somewhat like those of
+box, but a little longer and broader, and not so thick and indented.
+When the plant is five or six inches high, they take {192} care to
+loosen the earth about the root, and at the same time to weed it. They
+reckon it has acquired a proper maturity, when it is about three feet
+and a half high: this you may likewise know, if the leaf cracks as you
+squeeze the plant in your hand.
+
+Before you cut it, you get ready a place that is covered in the same
+manner with the one made for tobacco, about twenty-five feet high; in
+which you put three vats, one above another, as it were in different
+stories, so that the highest is the largest; that in the middle is
+square, and the deepest; the third, at bottom, is the least.
+
+After these operations, you cut the indigo, and when you have several
+arms-full, or bundles of the plant, to the quantity judged necessary
+for one working, you fill the vat at least three quarters full; after
+which you pour water thereon up to the brim, and the plant is left to
+steep, in order to rot it; which is the reason why this vat is called
+the rotting-tub. For the three or four hours which the plant takes to
+rot, the water is impregnated with its virtue; and, though the plant
+is green, communicates thereto a blue colour.
+
+At the bottom of the great vat, and where it bears on the one in the
+middle (which, as was said, is square) is a pretty large hole, stopped
+with a bung; which is opened when the plant is thought to be
+sufficiently rotten, and all the water of this vat, mixed with the
+mud, formed by the rotting of the plant, falls by this hole into the
+second vat; on the edges of which are placed, at proper distances,
+forks of iron or wood, on which large long poles are laid, which reach
+from the two sides to the middle of the water in the vat; the end
+plunged in the water is furnished with a bucket without a bottom. A
+number of slaves lay hold on these poles, by the end which is out of
+the water; and alternately pulling them down, and then letting the
+buckets fall into the vat, they thus continue to beat the water; which
+being thus agitated and churned, comes to be covered with a white and
+thick scum; and in such quantity as that it would rise up and flow
+over the brim of the vat, if the operator did not take care to throw
+in, from time to time, some fish-oil, which he sprinkles with a
+feather upon this scum. For these reasons this vat is called the
+battery.
+
+{193} They continue to beat the water for an hour and a half, or two
+hours; after which they give over, and the water is left to settle.
+However, they from time to time open three holes, which are placed at
+proper distances from top to bottom in one of the sides of this second
+vat in order to let the water run off clear. This is repeated for
+three several times; but when at the third time the muddy water is
+ready to come out at the lowermost hole, they stop it, and open
+another pierced in the lower part of that side, which rests on the
+third vat. Then all the muddy water falls through that hole of the
+second vat, into the third, which is the least, and is called the
+_deviling (diablotin.)_
+
+They have sacks, a foot long, made of a pretty close cloth, which they
+fill with this liquid thick matter, and hang them on nails round the
+indigo-house. The water drains out gradually; and the matter which is
+left behind, resembles a real mud, which they take out of these sacks,
+and put in moulds, made like little drawers, two feet long by half a
+foot broad, and with a border, or ledge, an inch and a half high. Then
+they lay them out in the sun, which draws off all the moisture: and as
+this mud comes to dry, care is taken to work it with a mason's trowel:
+at length it forms a body, which holds together, and is cut in pieces,
+while fresh, with wire. It is in this manner that they draw from a
+green herb this fine blue colour, of which there are two sorts, one of
+which is of a purple dove colour.
+
+III.
+
+_Of Tar; the way of making it; and of making it into Pitch_.
+
+I have said, that they made a great deal of tar in this colony, from
+pines and firs; which is done in the following manner. It is a common
+mistake, that tar is nothing but the sap or gum of the pine, drawn
+from the tree by incision; the largest trees would not yield two
+pounds by this method; and if it were, to be made in that manner, you
+must choose the most thriving and flourishing trees for the purpose;
+whereas it is only made from the trees that are old, and are beginning
+to decay, because the older they are, the greater quantities they
+contain of that fat bituminous substance, which yields tar; it {194}
+is even proper that the tree should be felled a long time, before they
+use them for this purpose. It is usually towards the mouth of the
+river, and along the sea-coasts, that they make tar; because it is in
+those places that the pines chiefly grow.
+
+When they have a sufficient number of these trees, that are fit for
+the purpose, they saw them in cuts with a cross-cut saw, about two
+feet in length; and while the slaves are employed in sawing them,
+others split these cuts lengthwise into small pieces, the smaller the
+better. They sometimes spend three or four months in cutting and
+preparing the trees in this manner. In the mean time they make a
+square hollow in the ground, four or five feet broad, and five or six
+inches deep: from one side of which goes off a canal or gutter, which
+discharges itself into a large and pretty deep pit, at the distance of
+a few paces. From this pit proceeds another canal, which communicates
+with a second pit; and even from the first square you make three or
+four such trenches, which discharge themselves into as many pits,
+according to the quantity of wood you have, or the quantity of tar you
+imagine you may draw from it. Then you lay over the square hole four
+or five pretty strong bars of iron, and upon these bars you arrange
+crosswise the split pieces of pine, of which you should have a
+quantity ready; laying them so, that there may be a little air between
+them. In this manner you raise a large and high pyramid of the wood,
+and when it is finished, you set fire to it at the top. As the wood
+burns, the fire melts the resin in the pine, and this liquid tar
+distills into the square hole, and from thence runs into the pits made
+to receive it.
+
+If you would make pitch of this tar, take two or three red-hot cannon
+bullets, and throw them into the pits, full of the tar, which you
+intend for this purpose: immediately upon which, the tar takes fire
+with a terrible noise and a horrible thick smoke, by which the
+moisture that may remain in the tar is consumed and dissipated, and
+the mass diminishes in proportion; and when they think it is
+sufficiently burnt, they extinguish the fire, not with water, but with
+a hurdle covered with turf and earth. As it grows cold, it becomes
+hard and shining, so that you cannot take it out of the pits, but by
+cutting it with an axe.
+
+{195}
+
+IV.
+
+_Of the Mines of_ Louisiana.
+
+Before we quit this subject, I shall conclude this account by
+answering a question, which has often been proposed to me. Are there
+any Mines, say they, in this province? There are, without all dispute;
+and that is so certain, and so well known, that they who have any
+knowledge of this country never once called it in question. And it is
+allowed by all, that there are to be found in this country quarries of
+plaster of Paris, slate, and very fine veined marble; and I have
+learned from one of my friends, who as well as myself had been a great
+way on discoveries, that in travelling this province he had found a
+place full of fine stones of rock-crystal. As for my share, I can
+affirm, without endeavoring to impose on any one, that in one of my
+excursions I found, upon the river of the Arkansas, a rivulet that
+rolled down with its waters gold-dust; from which there is reason to
+believe that there are mines of this metal in that country. And as for
+silver-mines, there is no doubt but they might be found there, as well
+as in New Mexico, on which this province borders. A Canadian
+traveller, named Bon Homme, as he was hunting at some distance from
+the Post of the Nachitoches, melted some parcels of a mine, that is
+found in rocks at a very little distance from that Post, which
+appeared to be very good silver, without any farther purification.
+[Footnote: See a farther account and assay of this mine above.]
+
+It will be objected to me, perhaps, that if there is any truth in what
+I advance, I should have come from that country laden with silver and
+gold; and that if these precious metals are to be found there, as I
+have said, it is surprizing that the French have never thought of
+discovering and digging them in thirty years, in which they have been
+settled in Louisiana. To this I answer, that this objection is only
+founded on the ignorance of those who make it; and that a traveller,
+or an officer, ordered by his superiors to go to reconnoitre the
+country, to draw plans, and give an account of what he has seen, in
+nothing but immense woods and deserts, where they cannot so {196} much
+as find a path, but what is made by the wild beasts; I say, that such
+people have enough to do to take care of themselves and of their
+present business, instead of gathering riches; and think it
+sufficient, that they return in a whole skin.
+
+With regard to the negligence that the French seem hitherto to have
+shewn in searching for these mines, and in digging them, we ought to
+take due notice, that in order to open a silver-mine, for example, you
+must advance at least a hundred thousand crowns, before you can expect
+to get a penny of profit from it, and that the people of the country
+are not in a condition to be at any such charge. Add to this, that the
+inhabitants are too ignorant of these mines; the Spaniards, their
+neighbours, are too discreet to teach them; and the French in Europe
+are too backward and timorous to engage in such an undertaking. But
+notwithstanding, it is certain that the thing has been already done,
+and that just reasons, without doubt, but different from an
+impossibility, have caused it to be laid aside.
+
+This author gives a like account of the culture of Rice in Louisiana,
+and of all the other staple commodities of our colonies in North
+America.
+
+{197} _Extract from a late_ French _Writer, concerning the Importance
+of_ Louisiana _to France_.
+
+"One cannot help lamenting the lethargic state of that colony,
+(Louisiana) which carries in its bosom the bed of the greatest riches;
+and in order to produce them, asks only arms proper for tilling the
+earth, which is wholly disposed to yield an hundred fold. Thanks to
+the fertility of our islands, our Sugar plantations are infinitely
+superior to those of the English, and we likewise excel them in our
+productions of Indigo, Coffee, and Cotton.
+
+"Tobacco is the only production of the earth which gives the English
+an advantage over us. Providence, which reserved for us the discovery
+of Louisiana, has given us the possession of it, that we may be their
+rivals in this particular, or at least that we may be able to do
+without their Tobacco. Ought we to continue tributaries to them in
+this respect, when we can so easily do without them?
+
+"I cannot help remarking here, that among several projects presented
+of late years for giving new force to this colony, a company of
+creditable merchants proposed to furnish negroes to the inhabitants,
+and to be paid for them in Tobacco alone at a fixed valuation.
+
+"The following advantages, they demonstrated, would attend their
+scheme. I. It would increase a branch of commerce in France, which
+affords subsistence to two of the English colonies in America, namely
+Virginia and Maryland, the inhabitants of which consume annually a
+very considerable quantity of English stuffs, and employ a great
+number of ships in the transportation of their Tobacco. The
+inhabitants of those two provinces are so greatly multiplied, in
+consequence of the riches they have acquired by their commerce with
+us, that they begin to spread themselves upon territories that belong
+to us. II. The second advantage arising from the scheme would be, to
+carry the cultivation of Tobacco to its greatest extent and
+perfection. III. To diminish in proportion the cultivation of the
+English plantations, as well as lessen their navigation in that part.
+IV. To put an end entirely to the {198} importation of any Tobacco
+from Great-Britain into France, in the space of twelve years. V. To
+diminish annually, and in the same space of time finally put an end
+to, the exportation of specie from France to Great-Britain, which
+amounts annually to five millions of our money for the purchase of
+Tobacco, and the freightage of English ships, which bring it into our
+ports. VI. By diminishing the cause of the outgoing specie, to augment
+the balance of commerce in favour of the nation. These are the
+principal advantages which France would have reason to have expected
+from the establishment of this company, if it had been effected."
+_Essai sur les Interêts du Commerce Maritime, par_ M. du Haye. 1754.
+
+The probability of succeeding in such a scheme will appear from the
+foregoing accounts of Tobacco in Louisiana, pag. 172, 173, 181, 188,
+&c. They only want hands to make any quantities of Tobacco in
+Louisiana. The consequences of that will appear from the following
+account.
+
+{199} _An Account of the Quantity of Tobacco imported into_ Britain,
+_and exported from it, in the four Years of Peace, after the late
+Tobacco-Law took place, according to the Custom-House Accounts._
+
+
+                                 Imported     Exported
+                                  Hhds.        Hhds.
+                       1752 - - - 55,997 - -  48,922
+    England,           1753 - - - 70,925 - -  57,353
+                       1754 - - - 59,744 - -  50,476
+                       1755 - - - 71,881 - -  54,384
+                                ---------   ---------
+                                 258,547 - - 211,135
+                                ---------   ---------
+                       1752 - - - 22,322 - -  21,642
+    Scotland,          1753 - - - 26,210 - -  24,728
+                       1754 - - - 22,334 - -  21,764
+                       1755 - - - 20,698 - -  19,711
+                                ---------   ---------
+                                  91,564 - -  87,845
+                                ---------   ---------
+                     Total - - - 350,111 - - 298,980
+                     Average - -  87,528 - -  74,745
+                 Imported yearly - - -  hhds  87,528
+                 Exported - - - - - - - - -   74,745
+                                            ---------
+                  Home consumption - - - - -  12,783
+  To 87,528 hogsheads, at 10£ per hogshead, £875,280
+  To duty on 12,783 hogsheads at 20£ - - -   255,660
+                                           ---------
+  Annual income from Tobacco - - - - -     1,130,940
+
+
+The number of seamen employed in the Tobacco trade is computed at
+4500;--in the Sugar trade 3600;--and in the Fishery of Newfoundland
+4000, from Britain.
+
+{201}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+_The Natural History of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Of Corn and Pulse_.
+
+
+Having, in the former part of this work, given an account of the
+nature of the soil of Louisiana, and observed that some places were
+proper for one kind of plants, and some for another; and that almost
+the whole country was capable of producing, and bringing to the utmost
+maturity, all kinds of grain, I shall now present the industrious
+planter with an account of the trees and plants which may be
+cultivated to advantage in those lands with which he is now made
+acquainted.
+
+During my abode in that country, where I myself have a grant of lands,
+and where I lived sixteen years, I have had leisure to study this
+subject, and have made such progress in it, that I have sent to the
+West-India Company in France no less than three hundred medicinal
+plants, found in their possessions, and worthy of the attention of the
+public. The reader may depend upon my being faithful and exact; he
+must not however here expect a description of every thing that
+Louisiana produces of the vegetable kind. Its prodigious fertility
+makes it impracticable for me to undertake so extensive a work. I
+shall chiefly describe those plants and fruits that are most useful to
+the inhabitants, either in regard to their own subsistence or
+preservation, or in regard to their foreign commerce; {202} and I
+shall add the manner of cultivating and managing the plants that are
+of greatest advantage to the colony.
+
+Louisiana produces several kinds of Maiz, namely Flour-maiz, which is
+white, with a flat and shrivelled surface, and is the softest of all
+the kinds; Homony corn, which is round, hard, and shining; of this
+there are four sorts, the white, the yellow, the red, and the blue;
+the Maiz of these two last colours is more common in the high lands
+than in the Lower Louisiana. We have besides small corn, or small
+Maiz, so called because it is smaller than the other kinds. New
+settlers sow this corn upon their first arrival, in order to have
+whereon to subsist as soon as possible; for it rises very fast, and
+ripens in so short a time, that from the same field they may have two
+crops of it in one year. Besides this, it has the advantage of being
+more agreeable to the taste than the large kind.
+
+Maiz, which in France is called Turkey Corn, (and in England Indian
+Corn) is the natural product of this country; for upon our arrival we
+found it cultivated by the natives. It grows upon a stalk six, seven,
+and eight feet high; the ear is large, and about two inches diameter,
+containing sometimes seven hundred grains and upwards; and each stalk
+bears sometimes six or seven ears, according to the goodness of the
+ground. The black and light soil is that which agrees best with it;
+but strong ground is not so favourable to it.
+
+This corn, it is well known, is very wholesome both for man and other
+animals, especially for poultry. The natives, that they may have
+change of dishes, dress it in various ways. The best is to make it
+into what is called Parched Meal, (Farine Froide.) As there is nobody
+who does not eat of this with pleasure, even though not very hungry, I
+will give the manner of preparing it, that our provinces of France,
+which reap this grain, may draw the same advantage from it.
+
+The corn is first parboiled in water; then drained and well dried.
+When it is perfectly dry, it is then roasted in a plate made for that
+purpose, ashes being mixed with it to hinder it from burning; and they
+keep continually stirring it, that it may take only the red colour
+which they want. When it has taken that colour, they remove the ashes,
+rub it well, and then {203} put it in a mortar with the ashes of dried
+stalks of kidney beans, and a little water; they then beat it gently,
+which quickly breaks the husk, and turns the whole into meal. This
+meal, after being pounded, is dried in the sun, and after this last
+operation it may be carried any where, and will keep six months, if
+care be taken from time to time to expose it to the sun. When they
+want to eat of it, they mix in a vessel two thirds water with one
+third meal, and in a few minutes the mixture swells greatly in bulk,
+and is fit to eat. It is a very nourishing food, and is an excellent
+provision for travellers, and those who go to any distance to trade.
+
+This parched meal, mixed with milk and a little sugar, may be served
+up at the best tables. When mixed with milk-chocolate it makes a very
+lasting nourishment. From Maiz they make a strong and agreeable beer;
+and they likewise distil brandy from it.
+
+Wheat, rye, barley, and oats grow extremely well in Louisiana; but I
+must add one precaution in regard to wheat; when it is sown by itself,
+as in France, it grows at first wonderfully; but when it is in flower,
+a great number of drops of red water may be observed at the bottom of
+the stalk within six inches of the ground, which are collected there
+during the night, and disappear at sun-rising. This water is of such
+an acrid nature, that in a short time it consumes the stalk, and the
+ear falls before the grain is formed. To prevent this misfortune,
+which is owing to the too great richness of the soil, the method I
+have taken, and which has succeeded extremely well, is to mix with the
+wheat you intend to sow, some rye and dry mould, in such a proportion
+that the mould shall be equal to the rye and wheat together. This
+method I remember to have seen practised in France; and when I asked
+the reason of it, the farmer told me that as the land was new, and had
+lately been a wood, it contained an acid that was prejudicial to the
+wheat; and that as the rye absorbed that acid without being hurt, it
+thereby preserved the other grain. I have seen barley and oats in that
+country three feet high.
+
+The rice which is cultivated in that country was brought from
+Carolina. It succeeds surprizingly well, and experience {204} has
+there proved, contrary to the common notion, that it does not want to
+have its foot always in the water. It has been sown in the flat
+country without being flooded, and the grain that was reaped was full
+grown, and of a very delicate taste. The fine relish need not surprise
+us; for it is so with all plants and fruits that grow without being
+watered, and at a distance from watery places. Two crops may be reaped
+from the same plant; but the second is poor if it be not flooded. I
+know not whether they have attempted, since I left Louisiana, to sow
+it upon the sides of hills.
+
+The first settlers found in the country French-beans of various
+colours, particularly red and black, and they have been called beans
+of forty days, because they require no longer time to grow and to be
+fit to eat green. The Apalachean beans are so called because we
+received them from a nation of the natives of that name. They probably
+had them from the English of Carolina, whither they had been brought
+from Guinea. Their stalks spread upon the ground to the length of four
+or five feet. They are like the other beans, but much smaller, and of
+a brown colour, having a black ring round the eye, by which they are
+joined to the shell. These beans boil tender, and have a tolerable
+relish, but they are sweetish, and somewhat insipid.
+
+The potatoes are roots more commonly long than thick; their form is
+various, and their fine skin is like that of the Topinambous (Irish
+potatoes.) In their substance and taste they very much resemble sweet
+chesnuts. They are cultivated in the following manner; the earth is
+raised in little hills or high furrows about a foot and a half broad,
+that by draining the moisture, the roots may have a better relish. The
+small potatoes being cut in little pieces with an eye in each, four or
+five of those pieces are planted on the head of the hills. In a short
+time they push out shoots, and these shoots being cut off about the
+middle of August within seven or eight inches of the ground, are
+planted double, cross-ways, in the crown of other hills. The roots of
+these last are the most esteemed, not only on account of their fine
+relish, but because they are easier kept during the winter. In order to
+preserve them during {205} that season, they dry them in the sun as
+soon as they are dug up, and then lay them up in a close and dry place,
+covering them first with ashes, over which they lay dry mould. They
+boil them, or bake them, or roast them on hot coals like chesnuts; but
+they have the finest relish when baked or roasted. They are eat dry, or
+cut into small slices in milk without sugar, for they are sweet of
+themselves. Good sweetmeats are also {206} made of them, and some
+Frenchmen have drawn brandy from them.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Appalachean Beans,_--Bottom: _Sweet Potatoes_
+(on p. 205)]
+
+The Cushaws are a kind of pompion. There are two sorts of them, the
+one round, and the other in the shape of a hunting horn. These last
+are the best, being of a more firm substance, which makes them keep
+much better than the others; their sweetness is not so insipid, and
+they have fewer seeds. They make sweetmeats of these last, and use
+both kinds in soup; they make fritters of them, fry them, bake them,
+and roast them on the coals, and in all ways of cooking they are good
+and palatable.
+
+All kinds of melons grow admirably well in Louisiana. Those of Spain,
+of France, of England, which last are called white melons, are there
+infinitely finer than in the countries from whence they have their
+name; but the best of all are the water melons. As they are hardly
+known in France, except in Provence, where a few of the small kind
+grow, I fancy a description of them will not be disagreeable to the
+reader.
+
+The stalk of this melon spreads like ours upon the ground, and extends
+to the length of ten feet. It is so tender, that when it is any way
+bruised by treading upon it, the fruit dies; and if it is rubbed in
+the least, it grows warm. The leaves are very much indented, as broad
+as the hand when they are spread out, and are somewhat of a sea-green
+colour. The fruit is either round like a pompion, or long. There are
+some good melons of this last kind, but the first sort are most
+esteemed, and deservedly so. The weight of the largest rarely exceeds
+thirty pounds, but that of the smallest is always above ten pounds.
+Their rind is of a pale green colour, interspersed with large white
+spots. The substance that adheres to the rind is white, crude, and of
+a disagreeable tartness, and is therefore never eaten. The space
+within that is filled with a light and sparkling substance, that may
+be called for its properties a rose-coloured snow. It melts in the
+mouth as if it were actually snow, and leaves a relish like that of
+the water prepared for sick people from gooseberry jelly. This fruit
+cannot fail therefore of being very refreshing, and is so wholesome,
+that persons in all kinds of distempers may satisfy their {207}
+appetite with it, without any apprehension of being the worse for it.
+The water-melons of Africa are not near so relishing as those of
+Louisiana.
+
+[Illustration: Watermelon]
+
+The seeds of water-melons are placed like those of the French melons.
+Their shape is oval and flat, being as thick at the ends as towards
+the middle; their length is about six lines, and their breadth four.
+Some are black and others red; but the black are the best, and it is
+those you ought to choose {208} for sowing, if you would wish to have
+good fruit; which you cannot fail of, if they are not planted in
+strong ground, where they would degenerate and become red.
+
+All kinds of greens and roots which have been brought from Europe into
+that colony succeed better there than in France, provided they be
+planted in a soil suited to them; for it is certainly absurd to think
+that onions and other bulbous plants should thrive there in a soft and
+watery soil, when every where else they require a light and dry earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Of the Fruit Trees of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+I shall now proceed to give an account of the fruit trees of this
+colony, and shall begin with the Vine, which is so common in
+Louisiana, that whatever way you walk from the sea coast for five
+hundred leagues northwards, you cannot proceed an hundred steps
+without meeting with one; but unless the vine-shoots should happen to
+grow in an exposed place, it cannot be expected that their fruit
+should ever come to perfect maturity. The trees to which they twine
+are so high, and so thick of leaves, and the intervals of underwood
+are so filled with reeds, that the sun cannot warm the earth, or ripen
+the fruit of this shrub. I will not undertake to describe all the
+kinds of grapes which this country produces; it is even impossible to
+know them all; I shall only speak of three or four.
+
+The first sort that I shall mention does not perhaps deserve the name
+of a grape, although its wood and its leaf greatly resemble the vine.
+This shrub bears no bunches, and you hardly ever see upon it above two
+grapes together. The grape in substance and colour is very like a
+violet damask plum, and its stone, which is always single, greatly
+resembles a nut. Though not very relishing, it has not however that
+disagreeable sharpness of the grape that grows in the neighbourhood of
+New Orleans.
+
+On the edge of the savannahs or meadows we meet with a grape, the
+shoots of which resemble those of the Burgundy {209} grape. They make
+from this a tolerable good wine, if they take care to expose it to the
+sun in summer, and to the cold in winter. I have made this experiment
+myself, and must say that I never could turn it into vinegar.
+
+There is another kind of grape which I make no difficulty of classing
+with the grapes of Corinth, commonly called currants. It resembles
+them in the wood, the leaf, the tree, the size, and the sweetness. Its
+tartness is owing to its being prevented from ripening by the thick
+shade of the large trees to which it twines. If it were planted and
+cultivated in an open field, I make not the least doubt but it would
+equal the grape of Corinth, with which I class it.
+
+Muscadine grapes, of an amber colour, of a very good kind, and very
+sweet, have been found upon declivities of a good exposure, even so
+far north as the latitude of 31 degrees. There is the greatest
+probability that they might make excellent wine of these, as it cannot
+be doubted but the grapes might be brought to great perfection in this
+country, since in the moist soil of New Orleans, the cuttings of the
+grape which some of the inhabitants of that city brought from France,
+have succeeded extremely well, and afforded good wine.
+
+As a proof of the fertility of Louisiana, I cannot forbear mentioning
+the following fact; an inhabitant of New Orleans having planted in his
+garden a few twigs of this Muscadine vine, with a view of making an
+arbour of them, one of his sons, with another negro boy, entered the
+garden in the month of June, when the grapes are ripe, and broke off
+all the bunches they could find. The father, after severely chiding
+the two boys, pruned the twigs that had been broken and bruised; and
+as several months of summer still remained, the vine pushed out new
+shoots, and new bunches, which ripened and were as good as the former.
+
+The Persimmon, which the French of the colony call Placminier, very
+much resembles our medlar-tree in its leaf and wood: its flower, which
+is about an inch and a half broad, is white, and is composed of five
+petals; its fruit is about the size of a large hen's egg; it is shaped
+like our medlar, but its substance is sweeter and more delicate. This
+fruit is astringent; {210} when it is quite ripe the natives make
+bread of it, which they keep from year to year; and the bread has this
+remarkable property that it will stop the most violent looseness or
+dysentery; therefore it ought to be used with caution, and only after
+physic. The natives, in order to make this bread, squeeze the fruit
+over fine sieves to separate the pulp from the skin and the kernels.
+Of this pulp, which is like paste or thick pap, they make cakes about
+a foot and a half long, a foot broad, and a finger's breadth in
+thickness: these they dry in an oven, upon gridirons, or else in the
+sun; which last method of drying gives a greater relish to the bread.
+This is one of their articles of traffick with the French.
+
+Their plum-trees are of two sorts: the best is that which bears
+violet-coloured plums, quite like ours, which are not disagreeable,
+and which certainly would be good if they did not grow in the middle
+of woods. The other kind bears plums of the colour of an unripe
+cherry, and these are so tart that no body can eat them; but I am of
+opinion they might be preserved like gooseberries; especially if pains
+were taken to cultivate them in open grounds. The small cherries,
+called the Indian cherry, are frequent in this country. Their wood is
+very beautiful, and their leaves differ in nothing from those of the
+cherry tree.
+
+The Papaws are only to be found far up in Higher Louisiana. These
+trees, it would seem, do not love heat; they do not grow so tall as
+the plum-trees; their wood is very hard and flexible; for the lower
+branches are sometimes so loaded with fruit that they hang
+perpendicularly downwards; and if you unload them of their fruit in
+the evening, you will find them next morning in their natural erect
+position. The fruit resembles a middle-sized cucumber; the pulp is
+very agreeable and very wholesome; but the rind, which is easily
+stripped off, leaves on the fingers so sharp an acid, that if you
+touch your eye with them before you wash them, it will be immediately
+inflamed, and itch most insupportably for twenty-four hours after.
+
+The natives had doubtless got the peach-trees and fig-trees from the
+English colony of Carolina, before the French {211} established
+themselves in Louisiana. The peaches are of the kind which we call
+Alberges; are of the size of the fist, adhere to the stone, and
+contain so much water that they make a kind of wine of it. The figs
+are either blue or white; are large and well enough tasted. Our
+colonists plant the peach stones about the end of February, and suffer
+the trees to grow exposed to all weathers. In the third year they will
+gather from one tree at least two hundred peaches, and double that
+number for six {212} or seven years more, when the tree dies
+irrecoverably. As new trees are so easily produced, the loss of the
+old ones is not in the least regretted.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Pawpaw_--Bottom: _Blue Whortle-berry_ (on p. 211)]
+
+The orange-trees and citron-trees that were brought from Cape François
+have succeeded extremely well; however I have seen so severe a winter
+that those kinds of trees were entirely frozen to the very trunk. In
+that case they cut the trees down to the ground, and the following
+summer they produced shoots that were better than the former. If these
+trees have succeeded in the flat and moist soil of New Orleans, what
+may we not expect when they are planted in better soil, and upon
+declivities of a good exposure? The oranges and citrons are as good as
+those of other countries; but the rind of the orange in particular is
+very thick, which makes it the better for a sweet-meat.
+
+There is plenty of wild apples in Louisiana, like those in Europe; and
+the inhabitants have got many kind of fruit trees from France, such as
+apples, pears, plums, cherries, &c. which in the low grounds run more
+into wood than fruit; the few I had at the Natches proved that high
+ground is much more suited to them than the low.
+
+The blue Whortle-berry is a shrub somewhat taller than our largest
+gooseberry bushes, which are left to grow as they please. Its berries
+are of the shape of a gooseberry, grow single, and are of a blue
+colour: they taste like a sweetish gooseberry, and when infused in
+brandy it makes a good dram. They attribute several virtues to it,
+which, as I never experienced, I cannot answer for. It loves a poor
+gravelly soil.
+
+Louisiana produces no black mulberries: but from the sea to the
+Arkansas, which is an extent of navigation upon the river of two
+hundred leagues, we meet very frequently with three kinds of
+mulberries; one a bright red, another perfectly white, and a third
+white and sweetish. The first of these kinds is very common, but the
+two last are more rare. Of the red mulberries they make excellent
+vinegar, which keeps a long time, provided they take care in the
+making of it to keep it in the shade in a vessel well stopped,
+contrary to the practice in France. They make vinegar also of bramble
+berries, but this {213} is not so good as the former. I do not doubt
+but the colonists at present apply themselves seriously to the
+cultivation of mulberries, to feed silk-worms, especially as the
+countries adjoining to France, and which supplied us with silk, have
+now made the exportation of it difficult.
+
+The olive-trees in this colony are surprisingly beautiful. The trunk
+is sometimes a foot and a half diameter, and thirty feet high before
+it spreads out into branches. The Provençals settled in the colony
+affirm, that its olives would afford as good an oil as those of their
+country. Some of the olives that were prepared to be eat green, were
+as good as those of Provence. I have reason to think, that if they
+were planted on the coasts, the olives would have a finer relish.
+
+They have great numbers and a variety of kinds of walnut-trees in
+this country. There is a very large kind, the wood of which is almost
+as black as ebony, but very porous. The fruit, with the outer shell,
+is of the size of a large hen's egg: the shell has no cleft, is very
+rough and so hard as to require a hammer to break it. Though the fruit
+be very relishing, yet it is covered with such a thick film, that few
+can bestow the pains of separating the one from the other. The natives
+make bread of it, by throwing the fruit into water, and rubbing it
+till the film and oil be separated from it. If those trees were
+engrafted with the French walnut, their fruit would probably be
+improved.
+
+Other walnut-trees have a very white and flexible wood. Of this wood
+the natives make their crooked spades for hoeing their fields. The nut
+is smaller than ours, and the shell more tender; but the fruit is so
+bitter that none but perroquets can put up with it.
+
+The Hicori bears a very small kind of nut, which at first sight one
+would take for filberts, as they have the same shape and colour, and
+their shell is as tender, but within they are formed like walnuts.
+They have such an excellent relish, that the French make fried cakes
+of them as good as those of almonds.
+
+Louisiana produces but a few filberts, as the filbert requires a poor
+gravelly soil which is not to be met with in this {214} province,
+except in the neighbourhood of the sea, especially near the river
+Mobile.
+
+[Illustration: Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber]
+
+The large chesnuts are not to be met with but at the distance of one
+hundred leagues from the sea, and far from rivers in the heart of the
+woods, between the country of the Chactaws and that of the Chicasaws.
+The common chesnuts succeed best upon high declivities, and their
+fruit is like the chesnuts that grow in our woods. There is another
+kind of chesnuts, which are called the Acorn chesnuts, as they are
+shaped like an acorn, {215} and grow in such a cup. But they have the
+colour and taste of a chesnut; and I have often thought that those
+were the acorns which the first of men were said to have lived upon.
+
+The Sweet-Gum, or Liquid-Ambar (Copalm) is not only extremely common,
+but it affords a balm, the virtues of which are infinite. Its bark is
+black and hard, and its wood so tender and supple, that when the tree
+is felled you may draw from the middle of it rods of five or six feet
+in length. It cannot be employed in building or furniture, as it warps
+continually; nor is it fit for burning on account of its strong smell;
+but a little of it in a fire yields an agreeable perfume. Its leaf is
+indented with five points like a star.
+
+I shall not undertake to particularize all the virtues of this
+Sweet-Gum or Liquid-Ambar, not having learned all of them from the
+natives of the country, who would be no less surprised to find that we
+used it only as a varnish, than they were to see our surgeons bleed
+their patients. This balm, according to them, is an excellent
+febrifuge; they take ten or a dozen drops of it in gruel fasting, and
+before their meals; and if they should take a little more, they have
+no reason to apprehend any danger. The physicians among the natives
+purge their patients before they give it them. It cures wounds in two
+days without any bad consequences: it is equally sovereign for all
+kinds of ulcers, after having applied to them for some days a plaster
+of bruised ground-ivy. It cures consumptions, opens obstructions; it
+affords relief in the colic and all internal diseases; it comforts the
+heart; in short, it contains so many virtues, that they are every day
+discovering some new property that it has.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Of Forest Trees.
+
+
+Having described the most remarkable of their fruit trees, I shall now
+proceed to give an account of their forest trees. White and red cedars
+are very common upon the coast. The incorruptibility of the wood, and
+many other excellent properties which are well known, induced the
+first French settlers to build their houses of it; which were but very
+low.
+
+{216} [Illustration: Cypress]
+
+Next to the cedar the cypress-tree is the most valuable wood. Some
+reckon it incorruptible; and if it be not, it is at least a great many
+years in rotting. The tree that was found twenty feet deep in the
+earth near New Orleans was a cypress, and was uncorrupted. Now if the
+lands of Lower Louisiana are augmented two leagues every century, this
+tree must have been buried at least twelve centuries. The cypress
+grows very straight and tall, with a proportionable thickness. They
+commonly {217} make their pettyaugres of a single trunk of this tree,
+which will carry three or four thousand weight, and sometimes more. Of
+one of those trees a carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+which carried sixteen ton, and the other fourteen. There is a cypress
+at Baton Rouge, a French settlement twenty-six leagues above New
+Orleans, which measures twelve yards round, and is of a prodigious
+height. The cypress has few branches, and its leaf is long and narrow.
+The trunk close by the ground sometimes sends off two or three stems,
+which enter the earth obliquely, and serve for buttresses to the tree.
+Its wood is of a beautiful colour, somewhat reddish; it is soft,
+light, and smooth; its grain is straight, and its pores very close. It
+is easily split by wedges, and though used green it never warps. It
+renews itself in a very extraordinary manner: a short time after it is
+cut down, a shoot is observed to grow from one of its roots exactly in
+the form of a sugar-loaf, and this sometimes rises ten feet high
+before any leaf appears: the branches at length arise from the head of
+this conical shoot. [Footnote: This is a mistake, according to
+Charlevoix.]
+
+The cypresses were formerly very common in Louisiana; but they have
+wasted them so imprudently, that they are now somewhat rare. They
+felled them for the sake of their bark, with which they covered their
+houses, and they sawed the wood into planks which they exported at
+different places. The price of the wood now is three times as much as
+it was formerly.
+
+The Pine-tree, which loves a barren soil, is to be found in great
+abundance on the sea coasts, where it grows very high and very
+beautiful. The islands upon the coast, which are formed wholly of
+shining sand, bear no other trees, and I am persuaded that as fine
+masts might be made of them as of the firs of Sweden.
+
+All the south parts of Louisiana abound with the Wild Laurel, which
+grows in the woods without any cultivation: the same may be said of
+the stone laurel, but if a person is not upon his guard he may take
+for the laurel a tree natural to the country, which would communicate
+its bad smell to every thing it is applied to. Among the laurels the
+preference ought to be {218} given to the tulip laurel (magnolia)
+which is not known in Europe. This tree is of the height and bulk of
+one of our common walnut-trees. Its head is naturally very round, and
+so thick of leaves that neither the sun nor rain can penetrate it. Its
+leaves are full four inches long, near three inches broad, and very
+thick, of a beautiful sea-green on the upperside, and resembling white
+velvet on the under-side: its bark is smooth and of a grey colour; its
+wood is white, soft and flexible, and {219} the grain interwoven. It
+owes its name to the form of its great white flowers, which are at
+least two inches broad. These appearing in the spring amidst the
+glossy verdure of the leaves, have a most beautiful effect. As the top
+is naturally round, and the leaves are ever-green, avenues of this
+tree would doubtless be worthy of a royal garden. After it has shed
+its leaves, its fruit appears in the form of a pine apple, and upon
+the first approach of the cold its grain turns into a lively red. Its
+{220} kernel is very bitter, and it is said to be a specific against
+fevers.
+
+[Illustration: _Magnolia_ (on p. 218)]
+
+[Illustration: _Sassafras_ (on p. 219)]
+
+The sassafras, the name of which is familiar to botanists on account
+of its medicinal qualities, is a large and tall tree. Its bark is
+thick, and cracked here and there; its wood is some what of the colour
+of cinnamon, and has an agreeable smell. It will not burn in the fire
+without the mixture of other wood, and even in the fire, if it should
+be separated from the flaming wood, it is immediately extinguished as
+if it were dipped in water.
+
+The maple grows upon declivities in cold climates, and is much more
+plentiful in the northern than the southern parts of the colony. By
+boring it they draw from it a sweet syrup which I have drunk of, and
+which they alledge is an excellent stomachic.
+
+The myrtle wax-tree is one of the greatest blessings with which nature
+has enriched Louisiana, as in this country the bees lodge their honey
+in the earth to save it from the ravages of the bears, who are very
+fond of it, and do not value their stings. One would be apt to take it
+at first sight, both from its bark and its height, for that kind of
+laurel used in the kitchens. It rises in several stems from the root;
+its leaf is like that of the laurel, but not so thick nor of such a
+lively green. It bears its fruit in bunches like a nosegay, rising
+from the same place in various stalks about two inches long: at the
+end of each of those stalks is a little pea, containing a kernel in a
+nut, which last is wholly covered with wax. The fruit, which is very
+plentiful, is easily gathered, as the shrub is very flexible. The tree
+thrives as well in the shade of other trees as in the open air; in
+watry places and cold countries, as well as in dry grounds and hot
+climates; for I have been told that some of them have been found in
+Canada, a country as cold as Denmark.
+
+This tree yields two kinds of wax, one a whitish yellow, and the
+other green. It was a long time before they learned to separate them,
+and they prepared the wax at first in the, following manner. They
+threw the grains and the stalks into a large kettle of boiling water,
+and when the wax was detached {221} from them, they scummed off the
+grains. When the water cooled the wax floated in a cake at the top,
+and being cut small, bleached in a shorter time than bees wax. They
+now prepare it in this manner; they throw boiling water upon the
+stalks and grains till they are entirely floated, and when they have
+stood thus a few minutes, they pour off the water, which carries the
+finest wax with it. This wax when cold is of a {222} pale yellow
+colour, and may be bleached in six or seven days. Having separated the
+best wax, they pour the water again upon the stalks and grains, and
+boil all together till they think they have separated all the wax.
+Both kinds are exported to our sugar islands, where the first is sold
+for a hundred sols the pound, and the second for forty.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Myrtle Wax Tree_--BOTTOM: _Vinegar tree (Acacia or
+Locust)_ (on p. 221)]
+
+This wax is so brittle and dry that if it falls it breaks into several
+pieces; on this account however it lasts longer than that of France, and
+is preferred to it in our sugar islands, where the latter is softened by
+the great heats, and, consumes like tallow. I would advise those who
+prepare this wax to separate the grain from the short stalk before they
+boil it, as the stalk is greener than the grain, and seems to part easily
+with its colour. The water which serves to melt and separate the wax is
+far from being useless. The fruit communicates to it such an astringent
+virtue, as to harden the tallow that is melted in it to such a degree,
+that the candles made of that tallow are as firm as the wax candles of
+France. This astringent quality likewise renders it an admirable specific
+against a dysentery or looseness. From what I have said of the myrtle
+wax-tree, it may well be believed that the French of Louisiana cultivate
+it carefully, and make plantations of it.
+
+The cotton-tree (a poplar) is a large tree which no wise deserves the
+name it bears, unless for some beards that it throws out. Its fruit
+which contains the grain is about the size of a walnut, and of no use;
+its wood is yellow, smooth, somewhat hard, of a fine grain, and very
+proper for cabinet work. The bark of its root is a sovereign remedy
+for cuts, and so red that it may even serve to dye that colour.
+
+The acacia (locust) is the same in Louisiana as in France, much more
+common, and less streight. The natives call it by a name that
+signifies hard wood, and they make their bows of it because it is very
+stiff. They look upon it as an incorruptible wood, which induced the
+French settlers to build their houses of it. The posts fixed in the
+earth must be entirely {223} stripped of their bark, for
+notwithstanding their hardness, if the least bark be left upon them
+they will take root.
+
+[Illustration: _Poplar ("Cotton Tree")_]
+
+The holm-oak grows to a surprising bulk and height in this country; I
+have seen of them a foot and a half diameter, and about 30 feet from
+the ground to the lowest branches.
+
+The mangrove is very common all over America. it grows in Louisiana
+near the sea, even to the bounds of low water mark. It is more
+prejudicial than useful, inasmuch as {224} it occupies a great deal of
+good land, prevents sailors from landing, and affords shelter to the
+fish from the fishermen.
+
+[Illustration: _Black Oak_]
+
+Oak-trees abound in Louisiana; there are some red, some white, and
+some ever-green. A ship-builder of St. Maloes assured me that the red
+is as good as the ever-green upon which we set so high a value in
+France. The ever-green oak is most common toward the sea-coasts, and
+near the banks of rivers, consequently may be transported with great
+ease, and {225} become a great resource for the navy of France.
+[Footnote: Eleven leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi, on the
+west side, there is great plenty of ever-green oaks, the wood of which
+is very proper for the timbers of ships, as it does not rot in water.
+_Dumont_, I. & 50.
+
+Accordingly the best ships built in America are well known to be those
+that have their timbers of ever-green oak, and their plank of cedar,
+of both which there are great plenty on all the coasts of Louisiana.]
+I forgot to mention a fourth kind of oak, namely the black oak, so
+called from the colour of its bark. Its wood is very hard, and of a
+{226} deep red. It grows upon the declivities of hills and in the
+savannahs. Happening after a shower of rain to examine one of these
+which I cut down, I observed some water to come from it as red as
+blood, which made me think that it might be used for dying.
+
+[Illustration: _Linden or Bass Tree_ (on p. 225)]
+
+The ash is very common in this country; but more and better upon the
+sea-coasts than in the inland parts. As it is easy to be had, and is
+harder than the elm, the wheel-wrights make use of it for wheels,
+which it is needless to, ring with iron in a country where there are
+neither stones nor gravel.
+
+The elm, beech, lime, and hornbeam, are exactly the same in Louisiana
+as in France; the last of these trees is very common here. The bark of
+the lime-tree of this country is equally proper for the making of
+ropes, as the bark of the common lime; but its leaf is twice as large,
+and shaped like an oblong trefoil leaf with the point cut off.
+
+The white woods are the aspen, willow, alder and liart. This last
+grows very large, its wood is white and light, and its fibres are
+interwoven; it is very flexible and is easily cut, on which account
+they make their large pettyaugres of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Of Shrubs and Excrescences.
+
+
+The ayac, or stinking-wood, is usually a small tree, seldom exceeding
+the thickness of a man's leg; its leaf is of a yellowish green,
+glossy, and of an oval form, being about three inches in length. The
+wood is yellow, and yields a water of the same colour, when it is cut
+in the sap: but both the wood and the water that comes from it have a
+disagreeable, smell. The natives use the wood for dying; they cut it
+into small bits, pound them, and then boil them in water. Having
+strained this water, they dip the feathers and hair into it, which it
+is their custom to dye first yellow, and then red. When they intend to
+use it for the yellow dye, they take care to cut the wood in the
+winter, but if they want only a slight colour they never mind the
+season of cutting it.
+
+{227} [Illustration: _Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree_]
+
+The machonchi, or vinegar-tree, is a shrub with leaves, somewhat
+resembling those of the ash; but the foot-stalk from which the leaves
+hang is much longer. When the leaves are dry the natives mix them with
+their tobacco to weaken it a little, for they do not love strong
+tobacco for smoaking. The wood is of an astringent nature, and if put
+into vinegar makes it stronger.
+
+{228} [Illustration: TOP: _Cassine or Yapon_--BOTTOM: _Tooth-ache Tree or
+Prickly Ash_]
+
+The cassine, or yapon, is a shrub which never grows higher than 15
+feet; its bark is very smooth, and the wood flexible. Its leaf is very
+much indented, and when used as tea is reckoned good for the stomach.
+The natives make an intoxicating liquor from it, by boiling it in
+water till great part of the liquor evaporate.
+
+The tooth-ache tree does not grow higher than 10 to 12 feet. The
+trunk, which is not very large, is wholly covered over with {229}
+short thick prickles, which are easily rubbed off. The pith of this
+shrub is almost as large as that of the elder, and the form of the
+leaf is almost the same in both. It has two barks, the outer almost
+black, and the inner white, with somewhat of a pale reddish hue. This
+inner bark has the property of curing the tooth-ach. The patient rolls
+it up to the size of a bean, puts it upon the aching tooth, and chews
+it till the pain ceases. Sailors and other such people powder it, and
+use it as pepper.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Passion Thorn or Honey Locust_--BOTTOM: _Bearded
+Creeper_]
+
+{230} [Illustration: _Palmetto_]
+
+The passion-thorn does not rise above the height of a shrub; but its
+trunk is rather thick for its height. This shrub is in great esteem
+among the Natches; but I never could learn for what reason. Its leaf
+resembles that of the black thorn; and its wood while it is green is
+not very hard. Its prickles are at least two inches long, and are very
+hard and piercing; within half an inch of their root two other small
+prickles grow out from them so as to form a cross. The whole trunk is
+covered {231} with these prickles, so that you must be very wary how
+you approach it, or cut it.
+
+The elder-tree is exactly like that of France, only that its leaf is a
+little more indented. The juice of its leaves mixed with hog's lard is
+a specific against the haemorrhoids.
+
+The palmetto has its leaves in the form of an open fan, scolloped at
+the end of each of its folds. Its bark is more rough and knotty than
+that of the palm-tree. Although it is less than that of the East
+Indies, it may however serve to the same purposes. Its wood is not
+harder than that of a cabbage, and its trunk is so soft that the least
+wind overturns it, so that I never saw any but what were lying on the
+ground. It is very common in Lower Louisiana, where there are no wild
+oxen; for those animals who love it dearly, and are greatly fattened
+by it, devour it wherever they can find it. The Spanish women make
+hats of its leaves that do not weigh an ounce, riding-hoods, and other
+curious works.
+
+The birch-tree is the same with that of France. In the north they make
+canoes of its bark large enough to hold eight persons. When the sap
+rises they strip off the bark from the tree in one piece with wedges,
+after which they sew up the two ends of it to serve for stem and
+stern, and anoint the whole with gum.
+
+I make not the least doubt but that there are great numbers of other
+trees in the forests of Louisiana that deserve to be particularly
+described; but I know of none, nor have I heard of any, but what I
+have already spoken of. For our travellers, from whom alone we can get
+any intelligence of those things, are more intent upon discovering
+game which they stand in need of for their subsistence, than in
+observing the productions of nature in the vegetable kingdom. To what
+I have said of trees, I shall only add, from my own knowledge, an
+account of two singular excrescences.
+
+The first is a kind of agaric or mushroom, which grows from the root
+of the walnut-tree, especially when it is felled. The natives, who are
+very careful in the choice of their food, gather it with great
+attention, boil it in water, and eat it with {232} their gruel. I had
+the curiosity to taste of it, and found it very delicate, but rather
+insipid, which might easily be corrected with a little seasoning.
+
+The other excrescence is commonly found upon trees near the banks of
+rivers and lakes. It is called Spanish beard, which name was given it
+by the natives, who, when the Spaniards first appeared in their
+country about 240 years ago, were greatly surprised at their
+mustachios and beards. This excrescence appears like a bunch of hair
+hanging from the large branches of trees, and might at first be easily
+mistaken for an old perruque, especially when it is dancing with the
+wind. As the first settlers of Louisiana used only mud walls for their
+houses, they commonly mixed it with the mud for strengthening the
+building. When gathered it is of a grey colour, but when it is dry its
+bark falls off, and discovers black filaments as long and as strong as
+the hairs of a horse's tail. I dressed some of it for stuffing a
+mattress, by first laying it up in a heap to make it part with the
+bark, and afterwards beating it to take off some small branches that
+resemble so many little hooks. It is affirmed by some to be
+incorruptible: I myself have seen of it under old rotten trees that
+was perfectly fresh and strong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Of Creeping Plants._
+
+
+The great fertility of Louisiana renders the creeping plants extremely
+common, which, exclusive of the ivy, are all different from those
+which we have in France. I shall only mention the most remarkable.
+
+The bearded-creeper is so called from having its whole stalk covered
+with a beard about an inch long, hooked at the end, and somewhat thicker
+than a horse's hair. There is no tree which it loves to cling to so much
+as to the sweet gum; and so great is its sympathy, if I may be allowed
+the expression, for that tree, that if it grow between it and any other
+tree, it turns solely towards the sweet gum, although it should be at
+the greatest distance from it. This is likewise the tree upon which
+{233} it thrives best. It has the same virtue with its balm of being a
+febrifuge, and this I affirm after a great number of proofs. The
+physicians among the natives use this simple in the following manner.
+They take a piece of it, above the length of the finger, which they
+split into as many threads as possible; these they boil in a quart of
+water, till one third of the decoction evaporate, and the remainder is
+strained clear. They then purge the patient, and the next day, upon the
+approach of the fit, they give a third of the decoction to drink. If the
+patient be not cured with the first dose, he is again purged and drinks
+another third, which seldom fails of having the wished-for effect. This
+medicine is indeed very bitter, but it strengthens the stomach; a
+singular advantage it has over the Jesuits bark, which is accused of
+having a contrary effect.
+
+There is another creeper very like salsaparilla, only that it bears
+its leaves by threes. It bears a fruit smooth on one side like a
+filbert, and on the other as rough as the little shells which serve
+for money on the Guinea coast. I shall not speak of its properties;
+they are but too well known by the women of Louisiana, especially the
+girls, who very often have recourse to it.
+
+Another creeper is called by the native physicians the remedy against
+poisoned arrows. It is large and very beautiful; its leaves are pretty
+long, and the pods it bears are narrow, about an inch broad, and eight
+inches long.
+
+The salsaparilla grows naturally in Louisiana, and it is not inferior
+in its qualities to that of Mexico. It is so well known that it is
+needless to enlarge upon it.
+
+The esquine partly resembles a creeper and partly a bramble. It is
+furnished with hard spikes like prickles, and its oblong leaves are
+like those of the common creeper (liane;) its stalk is straight, long,
+shining, and hard, and it runs up along the reeds: its root is spungy,
+and sometimes as large as one's head, but more long than round.
+Besides the sudorific virtue which the esquine possesses in common
+with the salsaparilla, it has the property of making the hair grow,
+and the women among the natives use it successfully with this view.
+{234} They cut the root into small bits, boil them in water, and wash
+their heads with the decoction. I have seen several of them whose hair
+came down below their knees, and one particularly whose hair came
+lower than the ankle bones.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Bramble_--BOTTOM: _Sarsaparilla_]
+
+Hops grow naturally in the gullies in the high lands.
+
+Maiden-hair grows in Louisiana more beautiful, at least as good as
+that of Canada, which is in so great repute. It {235} grows in gullies
+upon the sides of hills, in places that are absolutely impenetrable to
+the most ardent rays of the sun. It seldom rises above a foot, and it
+bears a thick shaggy head. The native physicians know more of its
+virtues than we do in France.
+
+The canes or reeds which I have mentioned so often may be divided into
+two kinds. One kind grows in moist places to the height of eighteen
+feet, and the thickness of the wrist. The natives makes matts, sieves,
+small boxes, and other works of it. Those that grow in dry places are
+neither so high nor so thick, but are so hard, that before the arrival
+of the French, the natives used splits of those canes to cut their
+victuals with. After a certain number of years, the large canes bear a
+great abundance of grain, which is somewhat like oats, but about three
+times as large. The natives carefully gather these grains and make
+bread or gruel of them. This flour swells as much as that of wheat.
+When the reeds have yielded the grain they die, and none appear for a
+long time after in the same place, especially if fire has been set to
+the old ones.
+
+The flat-root receives its name from the form of its root, which is
+thin, flat, pretty often indented, and sometimes even pierced through:
+it is a line or sometimes two lines in thickness, and its breadth is
+commonly a foot and a half. From this large root hang several other
+small straight roots, which draw the nourishment from the earth. This
+plant, which grows in meadows that are not very rich, sends up from
+the same root several straight stalks about eighteen inches high,
+which are as hard as wood, and on the top of the stalks it bears small
+purplish, flowers, in their figure greatly resembling those of heath;
+its seed is contained in a deep cup closed at the head, and in a
+manner crowned. Its leaves are about an inch broad, and about two
+long, without any indenting, of a dark green, inclining to a brown. It
+is so strong a sudorific, that the natives never use any other for
+promoting sweating, although they are perfectly acquainted with
+sassafras, salsaparilla, the esquine and others.
+
+The rattle-snake-herb has a bulbous root, like that of the tuberose,
+but twice as large. The leaves of both have the same {236} shape and
+the same colour, and on the under side have some flame-coloured spots;
+but those of the rattle-snake plant are twice as large as the others,
+end in a very firm point, and are armed with very hard prickles on
+both sides. Its stalk grows to the height of about three feet, and
+from the head rise five or six sprigs in different directions, each of
+which bears a purple flower an inch broad, with five leaves in the
+form of a {237} cup. After these leaves are shed there remains a head
+about the size of a small nut, but shaped like the head of a poppy.
+This head is separated into four divisions, each of which contains
+four black seeds, equally thick throughout, and about the size of a
+large lentil. When the head is ripe, it will, when shaken, give the
+same sound as the tail of a rattle-snake, which seems to indicate the
+property of the plant; for it is the specific remedy against the bite
+of that dangerous reptile. The person who has been bit ought
+immediately to take a root, bite off part of it, chew it for some
+time, and apply it to the wound. In five or six hours it will extract
+the whole poison, and no bad consequences need be apprehended.
+
+[Illustration: _Rattlesnake herb_ (on p. 236)]
+
+Ground-ivy is said by the natives to possess many more virtues than
+are known to our botanists. It is said to ease women in labour when
+drank in a decoction; to cure ulcers, if bruised and laid upon the
+ulcered part; to be a sovereign remedy for the head-ach; a
+considerable quantity of its leaves bruised, and laid as a cataplasm.
+upon the head, quickly removes the pain. As this is an inconvenient
+application to a person that wears his hair, I thought of taking the
+salts of the plant, and I gave some of them in vulnerary water to a
+friend of mine who was often attacked with the head-ach, advising him
+likewise to draw up some drops by the nose: he seldom practised this
+but he was relieved a few moments after.
+
+The Achechy is only to be found in the shade of a wood, and never
+grows higher than six or seven inches. It has a small stalk, and its
+leaves are not above three lines long. Its root consists of a great
+many sprigs a line in diameter, full of red juice like chickens blood.
+Having transplanted this plant from an overshadowed place into my
+garden, I expected to see it greatly improved; but it was not above an
+inch taller, and its head was only a little bushier than usual. It is
+with the juice of this plant that the natives dye their red colour.
+Having first dyed their feathers or hair yellow or a beautiful citron
+colour with the ayac wood, they boil the roots of the achechy in
+water, then squeeze them with all their force, and the expressed
+liquor serves for the red dye. That which was naturally white before
+it was dyed yellow, takes a beautiful scarlet; {238} that which was
+brown, such as buffalo's hair, which is of a chesnut colour, becomes a
+reddish brown.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Red Dye Plant_--BOTTOM: _Flat Root_]
+
+I shall not enlarge upon the strawberries, which are of an excellent
+flavour, and so plentiful, that from the beginning of April the
+savannahs or meadows appear quite red with them. I shall also only
+just mention the tobacco, which I reserve for the article of
+agriculture; but I ought not to omit to take notice, that hemp grows
+naturally on the lands adjoining to the lakes {239} on the west of the
+Missisippi. The stalks are as thick as one's finger, and about six
+feet long. They are quite like ours both in the wood, the leaf, and
+the rind. The flax which was sown in this country rose three feet
+high.
+
+I cannot affirm from my own knowledge that the soil in this province
+produces either white mushrooms or truffles. But morelles in their
+season are to be found in the greatest abundance, and round mushrooms
+in the autumn.
+
+When I consider the mild temperature of this climate, I am persuaded
+that all our flowers would succeed extremely well in it. The country
+has flowers peculiar to itself, and, in such abundance, that from the
+month of May till the end of summer, you can hardly see the grass in
+the meadows; and of such various hues that one is at a loss which to
+admire most and declare to be the most beautiful. The number and
+diversity of those flowers quite enchant the sight. I will not however
+attempt to give a particular account of them, as I am not qualified on
+this head to satisfy the desires of the curious, from my having
+neglected to consider the various flowers themselves. I have seen
+single and small roses without any smell; and another kind of rose
+with four white petals, which in its smell, chives, and pointal,
+differed in nothing from our damask roses. But of all the flowers of
+this country, that which struck me most, as it is both very common and
+lasts a long time, is the flower called Lion's Mouth. The flowers
+which decorate its stalk, its shady colours, its blowing for more than
+three months, justly entitle it to the preference before all other
+flowers. It forms of itself an agreeable nosegay; and in my opinion,
+it deserves to be ranked with the finest flowers, and to be cultivated
+with attention in the gardens of our kings.
+
+As to cotton and indigo, I defer speaking of them till I come to the
+chapter of agriculture.
+
+{240}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_Of the Quadrupedes._
+
+
+Before I speak of the animals which the first settlers found in
+Louisiana, it is proper to observe, that all those which were brought
+hither from France, or from New Spain and Carolina, such as horses,
+oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, and others, have multiplied and
+thriven perfectly well. However it ought to be remarked, that in Lower
+Louisiana, where the ground is moist and much covered with wood, they
+can neither be so good nor so beautiful as in Higher Louisiana, where
+the soil is dry, where there are most extensive meadows, and where the
+sun warms the earth to a much greater degree.
+
+The buffalo is about the size of one of our largest oxen, but he
+appears rather bigger, on account of his long curled wool, which makes
+him appear to the eye much larger than he really is. This wool is very
+fine and very thick, and is of a dark chesnut colour, as are likewise
+his bristly hairs, which are also curled, and so long, that the bush
+between his horns often falls over his eyes, and hinders him from
+seeing before him; but his sense of hearing and smelling is so
+exquisite as in some measure to supply the want of the other. A pretty
+large bunch rises on his shoulders in the place where they join to the
+neck. His horns are thick, short, and black; and his hoof is also
+black. The cows of this species have small udders like those of a
+mare.
+
+This buffalo is the chief food of the natives, and of the French also
+for a long time past; the best piece is the bunch on the shoulders,
+the taste of which is extremely delicate. They hunt this animal in the
+winter; for which purpose they leave Lower Louisiana, and the river
+Missisippi, as he cannot penetrate thither on account of the thickness
+of the woods; and besides loves to feed on long grass, which is only
+to be found in the meadows of the high lands. In order to get near
+enough to fire upon him, they go against the wind, and they take aim
+at the hollow of the shoulder, that they may bring him to the ground
+at once, for if he is only slightly wounded, he runs against his
+enemy. The natives when hunting seldom {241} choose to kill any but
+the cows, having experienced that the flesh of the male smells rank;
+but this they might easily prevent, if they did but cut off the
+testicles from the beast as soon as he is dead, as they do from stags
+and wild boars. By killing the males there is less hazard of
+diminishing the species than by killing the females; and besides, the
+males have much more tallow, and their skins are the largest and best.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Panther or Catamount_--BOTTOM: _Bison or Buffalo_]
+
+{242} These skins are an object of no small consideration. The natives
+dress them with their wool on, to such great perfection, as to render
+them more pliable than our buff. They dye them different colours, and
+cloath themselves therewith. To the French they supply the place of
+the best blankets, being at the same time very warm and very light.
+
+The stag is entirely the same with that of France, only he is a little
+larger. They are only to be found in Upper Louisiana, where the woods
+are much thinner than in Lower Louisiana, and the chesnuts which the
+stag greatly loves are very common.
+
+The deer is very frequent in this province, notwithstanding the great
+numbers of them that are killed by the natives. According to the
+hunters, he partly resembles the stag, the rein-deer, and the
+roe-buck. As to myself, I can only say what I have seen; that he is
+about four feet high, has large horns bending forwards, and decorated
+with several antlers, the ends of which are formed somewhat like a
+rose; that his flesh is dry like that of ours, and when he is fat
+tastes like mutton. They feed in herds, and are not in the least of a
+fierce nature. They are excessively capricious, hardly remain a moment
+in one place, but are coming and going continually. The natives dress
+the skin extremely well, like buff, and afterwards paint it. Those
+skins that are brought to France are often called does skins.
+
+The natives hunt the deer sometimes in companies, and sometimes alone.
+The hunter who goes out alone, furnishes himself with the dried head of
+a deer, with part of the skin of the neck fastened to it, and this skin
+is stretched out with several hoops made of split cane, which are kept
+in their places by other splits placed along the inside of the skin, so
+that the hands and arms may be easily put within the neck. Being thus
+provided, he goes in quest of the deer, and takes all necessary
+precautions not to be discovered by that animal: when he sees one, he
+approaches it as gently as possible, hiding himself behind a bush which
+he carries in his hand, till he be within shot of it. But if, before he
+can come near enough, the buck shakes its head, which is a sign that he
+is going to make some {243} capers and run away, the hunter immediately
+counterfeits the cries of those animals when they call each other, in
+which case the buck frequently comes up towards him. He then shews the
+head which he holds in his hand, and by lowering and lifting his arm by
+turns, it makes the appearance of a buck feeding, and lifting his head
+from time to time to graze. The hunter still keeps himself behind the
+bush, till the buck comes near enough to him, and the moment he turns
+his side, he fires at the hollow of his shoulder, and lays him dead.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian Deer Hunt_]
+
+{244} When the natives want to make the dance of the deer; or if they
+want to exercise themselves merrily; or if it should happen that the
+Great Sun inclines to such sport, they go about an hundred of them in
+a company to the hunting of this animals, which they must bring home
+alive. As it is a diverting exercise, many young men are generally of
+the party, who disperse themselves in the meadows among the thickets
+in order to discover the deer. They no sooner perceive one than they
+advance towards him in a wide crescent, one point of which may be a
+quarter of a league from the other. Part of the crescent draws near to
+him, which frightens him away to another point; that part likewise
+advancing, he immediately flies back to the other sidee. He is kept
+thus running from one side to another a considerable time, on purpose
+to exercise the young men, and afford diversion to the Great Sun, or
+to another Little Sun, who is nominated to supply his place. The deer
+sometimes attempts to get out and escape by the openings of the
+crescent, in which case those who are at the points run forwards, and
+oblige him to go back. The crescent then gradually forms a circle; and
+when they perceive the deer beginning to be tired, part of them stoop
+almost to the ground, and remain in that posture till he approaches
+them, when they rise and shout: he instantly flies off to the other
+side, where they do the same; by which means he is at length so
+exhausted, that he is no longer able to stand on his legs, and suffers
+himself to be taken like a lamb. Sometimes, however, he defends
+himself on the ground with his antlers and forefeet; they therefore
+use the precaution to seize upon him behind, and even in that case
+they are sometimes wounded.
+
+The hunters having seized the deer present it to the Great Sun, or in
+his absence, to the person whom he sent to represent him. If he says,
+_well_, the roe-buck is immediately opened, and its four quarters
+carried to the hut of the Great Sun, who gives portions of them to the
+chief men among the hunters.
+
+The wolf is not above fifteen inches high, and of a proportionable
+length. He is not so brown as our wolves, nor so fierce and dangerous;
+he is therefore more like a dog than a wolf, especially the dog of the
+natives, who differs from him {245} in nothing, but that he barks. The
+wolf is very common in the hunting countries; and when the hunter
+makes a hut for himself in the evening upon the bank of a river, if he
+sees the wolf, he may be confident that the buffaloes are not at a
+very great distance. It is said, that this animal, not daring to
+attack the buffalo when in a herd, will come and give notice to the
+hunter that he may kill him, in hopes of coming in for the offals. The
+wolves are actually so familiar, that they come and go on all sides
+when looking for something to eat, without minding in the least
+whether they be near or at a distance from the habitations of men.
+
+In my time two very large black wolves were seen in Louisiana. The
+oldest inhabitants, and those who travel to the remotest parts of the
+colony, declared that they had never before seen any such; from whence
+it was concluded, that they were foreign wolves which had lost their
+way. Fortunately they killed them both; for one of them was a she-wolf
+big with young.
+
+The bear appears in Louisiana in winter, as the snows, which then
+cover the northern climates, hinder him from procuring a subsistence
+there, and force him southwards. If some few are seen in the summer
+time, they are only the slow young bears, that have not been strong
+enough to follow the herd northwards. The bear lives upon roots and
+fruits, particularly acorns; but this most delicate food is honey and
+milk. When he meets with either of these last, he will suffer himself
+to be killed than quit his prize. Our colonists have sometimes
+diverted themselves by burying a small pail with some milk in it
+almost up to the edge in the ground, and setting two young bears to
+it. The contest then was which of the two should hinder the other from
+tasting the milk, and both of them so tore the earth with their paws,
+and pulled at the pail, that they generally overturned the milk,
+before either of them had tasted of it.
+
+In opposition to the general opinion, which supposes the bear a
+carnivorous animal, I affirm, with all the inhabitants of this colony,
+and the neighbouring countries, that he never feeds upon flesh. It is
+indeed to be lamented that the first {246} travellers had the
+impudence to publish to the world a thousand false stories, which were
+easily believed because they were new. People, so far from wishing to
+be undeceived, have even been offended with those who attempted to
+detect the general errors; but it is my duty to speak the truth, for
+the sake of those who are willing to hear it. What I maintain here is
+not a mere conjectural supposition, but a known fact over all North
+America, which may be attested by the evidence of a great number of
+people who have lived there, and by the traders who are going and
+coming continually. There is not one instance can be given of their
+having devoured men, notwithstanding their great multitudes, and the
+extreme hunger which they must sometimes have suffered; for even in
+that case they never so much as touch the butchers meat which they
+meet with.
+
+The bears seldom quit the banks of the Missisippi, as it is there that
+they can best procure a subsistence; but when I lived at the Natchez
+there happened so severe a winter, that those animals came from the
+north in such numbers that they starved each other, and were very
+lean. Their great hunger obliged them to quit the woods which line the
+banks of the river: they were seen at night running among the
+settlements; and they sometimes even entered those court-yards that
+were not well shut; they there found butchers meat exposed to the open
+air, but they never touched it, and eat only the corn or roots they
+could meet with. Certainly on such occasion as this, and in such a
+pressing want, they would have proved carnivorous, if it had been in
+the least degree their natural disposition.
+
+But perhaps one will say, "It is true they never touch dead flesh; it
+is only living flesh that they devour." That is being very delicate
+indeed, and what I can by no means allow them: for if they were
+flesh-eaters, I greatly suspect that, in the severe famine which I
+have spoken of, they would have made a hearty meal of the butchers
+meat which they found in the court-yards; or at least would have
+devoured several persons, who fell in their way, which they never did.
+The following fact however will be a more compleat answer to this
+objection.
+
+{247} Two Canadians, who were on a journey, landed on a sand-bank,
+when they perceived a bear crossing the river. As he appeared fat, and
+consequently would yield a great deal of oil, one of the travellers
+ran forwards and fired at him. Unhappily however he only slightly
+wounded him; and as the bears in that case always turn upon their
+enemy, the hunter was immediately seized by the wounded bear, who in a
+few moments squeezed him to death, without wounding him in the least
+with his teeth, although his muzzle was against his face, and he must
+certainly have been exasperated. The other Canadian, who was not above
+three hundred paces distance, ran to save his comrade with the utmost
+speed, but he was dead before he came up to him; and the bear escaped
+into the wood. Upon examining the corpse he found the place, where the
+bear had squeezed it, pressed in two inches more than the rest of the
+breast.
+
+Some perhaps may still add, that the mildness of the climate of
+Louisiana may have an effect upon the disposition of the bears, and
+prevent them from being so voracious as those of our continent; but I
+affirm that carnivorous animals retain the same disposition in all
+countries. The wolves of Louisiana are carnivorous as well as those of
+Europe, although they differ in other particulars. The tigers of
+Africa, and those of America, are equally mischievous animals. The
+wild-cats of America, though very different from those of Europe,
+have however the same appetite for mice when they are tamed. It is the
+same with other species, naturally inclined to live upon other
+animals; and the bears of America, if flesh-eaters, would not quit the
+countries covered with snow, where they would find men and other
+animals in abundance, to come so far in search of fruits and roots;
+which kind of nourishment carnivorous animals refuse to taste.
+[Footnote: Since I wrote the above account of the bears, I have been
+certainly informed, that in the mountains of Savoy there are two sorts
+of bears. The one black, like that of Louisiana, and not carnivorous;
+the other red, and no less carnivorous than the wolves. Both turn upon
+their enemy when wounded.]
+
+
+Bears are seen very frequently in Louisiana in the winter time, and
+they are so little dreaded, that the people sometimes {248} make it a
+diversion to hunt them. When they are fat, that is about the end of
+December, they cannot run so fast as a man; therefore the hunters are
+in no danger if they should turn upon them. The she-bears are
+tolerably fat when they are big with young; but after they have
+littered they quickly become lean.
+
+The bears usually arrive in Louisiana towards the end of autumn; and
+then they are very lean, as they do not leave the north till the earth
+be wholly covered with snow, and find often but a very scanty
+subsistence in their way southwards. I said above, that those animals
+seldom go to any great distance from the river; and on both banks
+travellers meet with such a beaten path in winter, that to those who
+are not acquainted with it, it appears like the track of men. I
+myself, the first time I observed it, was deceived by it. I was then
+near two hundred miles from any human dwelling, yet the path at first
+appeared to me as if it had been made by thousands of men, who had
+walked that way bare-footed. Upon a narrower inspection however, I
+observed, that the prints of the feet were shorter than that of a man,
+and that there was the impression of a claw at the end of each toe. It
+is proper to observe that in those paths the bear does not pique
+himself upon politeness, and will yield the way to nobody; therefore
+it is prudent in a traveller not to fall out with him for such a
+trifling affair.
+
+The bears, after they have been a short time in the country, and found
+abundance of fruits, turn fat and lazy, and it is then the natives go
+out to hunt them. The bear, when he is fat, huts himself, that is,
+retires into the hollow trunk of some rotten tree that has died on
+end. The natives, when they meet with any of those trees, which they
+suspect contains a bear in it, give two or three strong blows against
+the trunk, and immediately run behind the next tree opposite to the
+lowest breach. If there be a bear within, he appears in a few minutes
+at the breach, to look out and spy the occasion of the disturbance;
+but upon observing nothing likely to annoy him, he goes down again to
+the bottom of his castle.
+
+The natives having once seen their prey, gather a heap of dried canes,
+which they bruise with their feet, that they may {249} burn the
+easier, and one of them mounting upon a tree adjoining to that in
+which the bear is, sets fire to the reeds, and darts them one after
+another into the breach; the other hunters having planted themselves
+in ambuscade upon other trees. The bear is quickly burned out of his
+habitation, and he no sooner appears on the outside, than they let fly
+their arrows at him, and often kill him before he gets to the bottom
+of the tree.
+
+He is no sooner dead than some of the hunters are dispatched to look
+for a deer, and they seldom fail of bringing in one or two. When a
+deer is brought, they cut off the head, and then take off the skin
+whole, beginning at the neck, and rolling it down, as they cut it,
+like a stocking. The legs they cut off at the knee-joints, and having
+cleaned and washed the skin, they stop all the holes except the neck,
+with a kind of paste made of the fat of the deer mixed with ashes,
+over which they tie several bindings with the bark of the lime-tree.
+Having thus provided a kind of cask, they fill it with the oil of the
+bear, which they prepare by boiling the flesh and fat together. This
+Deer of Oil, as it is called, they sell to the French for a gun, a
+yard of cloth, or any other thing of that value. The French, before
+they use it, purify it, by putting it into a large kettle, with a
+handful of laurel leaves; and sprinkling it when it begins to be hot
+with some water, in which they have dissolved a large quantity of
+salt. The smoke that rises upon this sprinkling carries off with it
+any bad smell the fat may have; they next pour it off into a vessel,
+and eight days after there is found on the top of it a clear oil which
+serves all the purposes of olive oil; what remains below is a fine
+kind of lard, proper for the kitchen, and a sovereign remedy for all
+kinds of pains. I myself was cured of the rheumatism in my shoulder by
+it.
+
+The Tiger is not above a foot and a half high, and long in proportion:
+his hair is somewhat of a bright bay colour, and he is brisk as all
+tigers naturally are. His flesh when boiled tastes like veal, only it
+is not so insipid. There are very few of them to be seen; I never saw
+but two near my settlement; and I have great reason to think that it
+was the same beast I saw both times. The first time he laid hold of my
+dog, who barked and howled; but upon my running towards him the {250}
+tiger left him. The next time he seized a pig; but this I likewise
+rescued, and his claws had gone no deeper than the fat. This animal is
+not more carnivorous than fearful; he flies at the sight of a man, and
+makes off with greater speed, if you shout and halloo as he runs.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Wild Cat_--MIDDLE: _Opossum_--BOTTOM: _Skunk_]
+
+The Cat-a-mount is a kind of wild cat, as high as the tiger, but not
+so thick, and his skin is extremely beautiful. He is a great destroyer
+of poultry, but fortunately his species is rare.
+
+{251} Foxes are so numerous, that upon the woody heights you
+frequently see nothing but their holes. As the woods afford them
+plenty of game, they do not molest the poultry, which are always
+allowed to run at large. The foxes are exactly shaped like ours, but
+their skin is much more beautiful. Their hair is fine and thick, of a
+deep brown colour, and over this rise several long silver-coloured
+hairs, which have a fine effect.
+
+The Wild Cat has been improperly so called by the first French
+settlers in Louisiana; for it has nothing of the cat but its nimble
+activity, and rather resembles a monkey. It is not above eight or ten
+inches high, and about fifteen long. Its head is like that of a fox;
+it has long toes, but very short claws, not made for seizing game;
+accordingly it lives upon fruit, bread, and other such things. This
+animal may be tamed, and then becomes very frolicksome and full of
+tricks. The hair of those that are tame is grey; but of the wild is
+reddish; neither of them is so beautiful as that of the fox; it grows
+very fat, and its flesh is good to eat. I shall not describe the real
+wild cat, as it is entirely like ours.
+
+The Rabbit is extremely common over all Louisiana; it is particular in
+this, that its pile is like that of the hare, and it never burrows.
+Its flesh is white and delicate, and has the usual taste, without any
+rankness. There is no other kind of rabbit or hare, if you please to
+call it, in all the colony, than that above described.
+
+The Wood-Rat has the head and tail of a common rat, but has the bulk
+and length of a cat. Its legs are short, its paws long, and its toes
+are armed with claws: its tail is almost without hair, which serves
+for hooking itself to any thing; for when you take hold of it by that
+part, it immediately twists itself round your finger. Its pile is
+grey, and though very fine, yet is never smooth. The women among the
+natives spin it and dye it red. It hunts by night, and makes war upon
+the poultry, only sucking their blood and leaving their flesh. It is
+very rare to see any creature walk so slow; and I have often catched
+them when walking my ordinary pace. When he sees himself upon the
+point of being caught, instinct prompts him to counterfeit being dead;
+and in this he perseveres with such {252} constancy, that though laid
+on a hot gridiron, he will not make the least sign of life. He never
+moves, unless the person go to a distance or hide himself, in which
+case he endeavors as fast as possible to escape into some hole or
+bush.
+
+When the she-one is about to litter, she chooses a place in the thick
+bushes at the foot of a tree, after which she and the male crop a
+great deal of fine dry grass, which is loaded upon her belly, and then
+the male drags her and her burden by the tail to the littering-place.
+She never quits her young a moment; but when she is obliged to change
+her lodging, carries them with her in a pouch or double skin that
+wraps round her belly, and there they may sleep or suck at their ease.
+The two sides of this pouch lap so close that the joining can hardly
+be observed; nor can they be separated without tearing the skin. If
+the she-one be caught carrying her young thus with her, she will
+suffer herself to be roasted alive, without the least sign of life,
+rather than open the pouch and expose her young ones. The flesh of
+this animal is very good, and tastes somewhat like that of a sucking
+pig, when it is first broiled, and afterwards roasted on the spit.
+
+The Pole-cat or Skunk is about the size of a kitten eight months old.
+The male is of a beautiful black, but the female has rings of white
+intermixed with the black. Its ear and its paw are like that of a
+mouse, and it has a very lively eye. I suppose it lives upon fruits
+and seeds. It is most justly called the Stinking Beast, for its odour
+is so strong, that it may be pursued upon the track twenty-four hours
+after it has passed. It goes very slow, and when the hunter approaches
+it, it squirts out, far and wide such a stinking urine, that neither
+man nor beast can hardly approach it. A drop of this creature's blood,
+and probably some of its urine, having one day fallen upon my coat
+when I was hunting, I was obliged as fast as possible to go home and
+change my cloaths; and before I, could use my coat, it was scoured and
+exposed for several days to the dew.
+
+The Squirrels of Louisiana are like those of France, excepting one
+kind, which are called Flying-Squirrels, because they leap from one
+tree to another, though the distance between them be twenty-five or
+thirty feet. It is about the size of a {253} rat, and of a deep
+ash-colour. Its two fore-legs are joined to its two hind-legs by two
+membranes, so that when it leaps it seems to fly, though it always
+leaps somewhat downwards. This animal may be very easily tamed; but
+even then it is best to chain it. There is another sort, not much
+bigger than a mouse, and of a bright bay-colour. These are so familiar
+that they will come out of the woods, will enter the houses, and sit
+within two yards of the people of the house, if they do not make any
+motion; and there they will feed on any maiz within their reach. I
+never was so well diverted in my life with the frolics of any animal,
+as I have been with the vivacity and attitudes of this little
+squirrel.
+
+The Porcupine is large and fine of this kind; but as he lives only
+upon fruit, and loves cold, is most common about the river Illinois,
+where the climate is somewhat cold, and there is plenty of wild
+fruits. The skin, when stripped of the quills, is white and brown. The
+natives dye part of the white, yellow and red, and the brown they dye
+black. They have likewise the art of splitting the skin, and applying
+it to many curious works, particularly to trim the edges of their
+deer-skin, and to line small bark-boxes, which are very neat.
+
+The Hedge-hog of Louisiana is in every respect the same with that of
+Europe.
+
+I shall not enlarge upon the Beavers, which are universally known,
+from the many descriptions we have of them.
+
+The Otters are the same with those of France, and there are but few of
+them to be seen.
+
+Some Turtle are seen in this country; but very rarely. In the many
+hundred leagues of country that I have passed over, I have hardly seen
+above a hundred.
+
+Frogs are very common, especially in Lower Louisiana, notwithstanding
+the great number of snakes that destroy them. There are some that grow
+very large, sometimes above a foot and a half long, and astonish
+strangers at first by their croaking especially if they are in a
+hollow tree.
+
+The Crocodile is very common in the river Missisippi. Although this
+amphibious animal be almost as well known as {254} those I have just
+mentioned, I cannot however omit taking some notice of it. Without
+troubling the reader with a description of it, which he will meet with
+every where, I shall observe that it shuns the banks of the river
+frequented by men. It lays its eggs in the months of May, when the sun
+is already hot in that country, and it deposits them in the most
+concealed place it can find among grass exposed to the heats of the
+south. The eggs are about the size of those of a goose, but longer in
+proportion. Upon breaking them you will find hardly any thing but
+white, the yolk being about the size of that of a young hen. I never
+saw any that were new hatched. The smallest I ever met with, which I
+concluded to be about three months old, was as long as a middle-sized
+eel, and an inch and a half thick. I have killed one nineteen feet
+long, and three feet and a half in its greatest breadth. A friend of
+mine killed one twenty-two feet long, and the legs of both these,
+which on land seemed to move with great difficulty, were not above a
+foot in length. But however sluggish they be on land, in the water
+they move with great agility.
+
+This animal has his body always covered with slime, which is the case
+with all fishes that live in muddy waters. When he comes on shore his
+track is covered with that slime, as his belly trails on the ground,
+and this renders the earth very slippery in that part, especially as
+he returns by the same path to the water. He never hunts the fish upon
+which he subsists; but places himself in ambuscade, and catches them
+as they pass. For that purpose he digs a hole in the bank of the
+river, below the surface of the water, where the current is strong,
+having a small entrance, but large enough within to turn himself round
+in. The fish, which are fatigued with the strong current, are glad to
+get into the smooth water in that corner, and there they are
+immediately seized by the crocodile.
+
+I shall not contradict the accounts of venerable antiquity about the
+crocodiles of the Nile, who fall upon men and devour them; who cross
+the roads, and make a slippery path upon them to trip passengers, and
+make them slide into the river; who counterfeit the voice of an
+infant, to draw children into their snares; neither shall I contradict
+the travellers who have {255} confirmed those stories from mere
+hearsays. But as I profess to speak the truth, and to advance nothing
+but what I am certain of from my own knowledge, I may safely affirm
+that the crocodiles of Louisiana are doubtless of another species than
+those of other countries. In fact, I never heard them imitate the
+cries of an infant, nor is it at all probable that they can
+counterfeit them. Their voice is as strong as that of a bull. It is
+true they attack men in the water, but never on land, where they are
+not at all formidable. Besides, there are nations that in great part
+subsist upon this animal, which is hunted out by the fathers and
+mothers, and killed by the children. What can we then believe of those
+stories that have been told us of the crocodile? I myself killed all
+that ever I met of them; and they are so much the less to be dreaded,
+in that they can neither run nor rise up against a man. In the water
+indeed, which is their favourite element, they are dangerous; but in
+that case it is easy to guard against them.
+
+The largest of all the reptiles of Louisiana, is the Rattle-Snake:
+some of them have been seen fifteen inches thick, and long in
+proportion; but this species is naturally shorter in proportion to
+their thickness than the other kinds of serpents. This serpent gets
+its name from several hollow knots at its tail, very thin and dry,
+which make a rattling noise. These knots, though inserted into each
+other, are yet quite detached, and only the first of them is fastened
+to the skin. The number of the knots, it is said, marks the age of the
+serpent, and I am much inclined to believe it; for as I have killed a
+great number of them, I always observed, that the longer and thicker
+the serpent was, it had the more knots. Its skin is almost black; but
+the lower part of its belly is striped black and white.
+
+As soon as it hears or sees a man, it rouses itself by shaking its
+tail, which makes a rattling noise that may be heard at several paces
+distance, and gives warning to the traveller to be upon his guard. It
+is much to be dreaded when it coils itself up in a spiral line, for
+then it may easily dart upon a man. It shuns the habitations of men,
+and by a singular providence, wherever it retires to, there the herb
+which cures its bite, is likewise to be found.
+
+{256} [Illustration: TOP: _Alligator_--MIDDLE: _Rattle Snake_--BOTTOM:
+_Green Snake_]
+
+There are several other kinds of serpents to be seen here, some of
+which resemble those of France, and attempt to slip into the
+hen-houses to devour the eggs and new-hatched chickens. Others are
+green, about two feet long, and not thicker than a goose-quill; they
+frequent the meadows, and may be seen running over the spires of
+grass, such is their lightness and nimbleness.
+
+{257} Vipers are very rare in Lower Louisiana, as that reptile loves
+stoney grounds. In the highlands they are now-and-then to met with,
+and there they quite resemble ours.
+
+Lizards are very common: there is a small kind of these that are
+called Cameleons, because they change their colour according to that
+of the place they pass over. [Footnote: When the Cameleon is angry, a
+nerve rises arch-wise from his mouth to the middle of his throat; and
+the skin which covers it is so stretched as to remain red, whatever
+colour the rest of the body be. He never does any hurt, and always
+runs away when observed.]
+
+Among the spiders of Louisiana there is one kind that will appear very
+extraordinary. It is as large, but rather longer than a pigeon's egg,
+black with gold-coloured specks. Its claws are pierced through above
+the joints. It does not carry its eggs like the rest, but encloses
+them in a kind of cup covered with its silk. It lodges itself in a
+kind of nut made of the same silk, and hung to the branches of the
+trees. The web which this insect weaves is so strong, that it not only
+stops birds, but cannot even be broken by men without a considerable
+effort.
+
+I never saw any Moles in Louisiana, nor heard of any being seen by
+others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_Of Birds, and Flying Insects_.
+
+
+Birds are so very numerous in Louisiana, that if all the different
+kinds of them were known, which is far from being the case at present,
+the description of them alone would require an entire volume. I only
+undertake the description of all those which have come within my
+knowledge, the number of which, I am persuaded, will be sufficient to
+satisfy the curious reader.
+
+The Eagle, the king of the birds, is smaller than the eagle of the
+Alps; but he is much more beautiful, being entirely white, excepting
+only the tips of his wings, which are black. As he is also very rare,
+this is another reason for heightening his value to the native, who
+purchase at a great price the large {258} feathers of his wings, with
+which they ornament the Calumet, or Symbol of Peace, as I have
+elsewhere described.
+
+When speaking of the king of birds, I shall take notice of the Wren,
+called by the French Roitelet (Petty King) which is the same in
+Louisiana as in France. The reason of its name in French will plainly
+enough appear from the following history. A magistrate, no less
+remarkable for his probity than for the rank he holds in the law,
+assured me that, when he was at Sables d'Olonne in Poitou, on account
+of an estate which he had in the neighbourhood of that city, he had
+the curiosity to go and see a white eagle which was then brought from
+America. After he had entered the house a wren was brought, and let
+fly in the hall where the eagle was feeding. The wren perched upon a
+beam, and was no sooner perceived by the eagle, than he left off
+feeding, flew into a corner, and hung down his head. The little bird,
+on the other hand, began to chirp and appear angry, and a moment after
+flew upon the neck of the eagle, and pecked him with the greatest
+fury, the eagle all the while hanging his head in a cowardly manner,
+between his feet. The wren, after satisfying its animosity, returned
+to the beam.
+
+The Falcon, the Hawk, and the Tassel are the same as in France; but
+the falcons are much more beautiful than ours.
+
+The Carrion-Crow, or Turky Bustard, is of the size and shape of a
+Turky-cock; his head is covered with red flesh, and his plumage is
+black: he has a hooked beak, but his toes are armed with very small
+talons, and are therefore very improper for seizing live game, which
+indeed he does not chuse to attack, as his want of agility prevents
+him from darting upon it with the rapidity of a bird of prey.
+Accordingly he lives only upon the dead beasts that he happens to meet
+with, and yet notwithstanding this kind of food he smells of musk.
+Several people maintain, that the Carrion-Crow, or Carancro, is the
+same with our Vulture. The Spaniards forbid the killing of it under
+pain of corporal punishment; for as they do not use the whole carcase
+of the buffaloes which they kill, those birds eat what they leave,
+which otherwise, by rotting on the ground, would, according to them,
+infect the air.
+
+{259}
+
+The Cormorant is shaped very much like a duck, but its plumage is
+different and much more beautiful. This bird frequents the shores of
+the sea and of lakes, but rarely appears in rivers. Its usual food is
+fish; but as it is very voracious, it likewise eats dead flesh; and
+this it can tear to pieces by means of a notch in its bill, which is
+about the size of that of a duck.
+
+The Swan of Louisiana are like those of France, only they are larger.
+However, notwithstanding their bulk and their weight, they often rise
+so high in the air, that they cannot be distinguished but by their
+shrill cry. Their flesh is very good to eat, and their fat is a
+specific against cold humours. The natives set a great value upon the
+feathers of the Swan. Of the large ones they make the diadems of their
+sovereigns, hats, and other ornaments; and they weave the small ones
+as the peruke-makers weave hair, and make coverings of them for their
+noble women. The young people of both sexes make tippets of the skin,
+without stripping it of its down.
+
+The Canada-Goose is a water-fowl, of the shape of a goose; but twice
+as large and heavy. Its plumage is ash-coloured; its eyes are covered
+with a black spot; its cries are different from those of a goose, and
+shriller; its flesh is excellent.
+
+The Pelican is so called from its large head, its large bill, and
+above all for its large pouch, which hangs from its neck, and has
+neither feather nor down. It fills this pouch with fish, which it
+afterwards disgorges for the nourishment of its young. It never
+removes from the shores of the sea, and is often killed by sailors for
+the sake of the pouch, which when dried serves them as a purse for
+their tobacco.
+
+The Geese are the same with the wild geese of France. They abound upon
+the shores of the sea and of lakes, but are rarely seen in rivers.
+
+In this country there are three kinds of Ducks; first, the Indian
+Ducks, so called because they came originally from that country. These
+are almost entirely white, having but a very few grey feathers. On
+each side of their head they have flesh of a more lively red than that
+of the Turky-cock, and they are larger than our tame ducks. They are
+as tame as those of {260} Europe, and their flesh when young is
+delicate, and of a fine flavour. The Wild Ducks are fatter, more
+delicate, and of better taste than those of France; but in other
+respects they are entirely the same. For one you see in France you may
+here count a thousand. The Perching-Ducks, or Carolina Summer-Ducks,
+are somewhat larger than our teals. Their plumage is quite beautiful,
+and so changeable that no painting can imitate it. Upon their head
+they have a beautiful tuft of the most {261} lively colours, and their
+red eyes appear like flames. The natives ornament their calumets or
+pipes with the skin of their neck. Their flesh is very good, but when
+it is too fat it tastes oily. These ducks are to be met with the whole
+year round; they perch upon the branches of trees, which the others do
+not, and it is from this they have their name.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Pelican_--BOTTOM: _Wood Stock_ (on p. 260)]
+
+The Teal are found in every season; and they differ nothing from those
+of France but in having a finer relish.
+
+The Divers of Louisiana are the same with those of France: they no
+sooner see the fire in the pan, than they dive so suddenly that the
+shot cannot touch them, and they are therefore called Lead-Eaters.
+
+The Saw-bill has the inside of its beak indented like the edge of a
+saw: it is said to live wholly upon shrimps, the shells of which it
+can easily break.
+
+The Crane is a very common water-fowl; it is larger than a turkey,
+very lean, and of an excellent taste. It eats somewhat like beef, and
+makes very good soup.
+
+The Flamingo has only a little down upon its head; its plumage is
+grey, and its flesh good.
+
+The Spatula has its name from the form of its bill, which is about
+seven or eight inches long, an inch broad towards the head, and two
+inches and a half towards the extremity; it is not quite so large as a
+wild goose; its thighs and legs are about the height of those of a
+turkey. Its plumage is rose-coloured, the wings being brighter than
+any other part. This is a water-fowl, and its flesh is very good.
+
+The Heron of Louisiana is not in the least different from that of
+Europe.
+
+The Egret, or White Heron, is so called from tufts of feathers upon
+the wings near the body, which hinder it from flying high; it is a
+water-fowl with white plumage; but its flesh tastes very oily.
+
+The Bec-croche, or Crook-bill, has indeed a crooked bill, with which
+it seizes the cray-fish upon which it subsists. Its {262} flesh has
+that taste, and is red. Its plumage is a whitish grey; and it is about
+the size of a capon.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Flying Squirrel_--MIDDLE: _Roseate
+Spoon-bill_--BOTTOM: _Snowy Heron_]
+
+The Indian Water-Hen, and the Green-Foot, are the same as in France.
+
+The Hatchet-Bill is so called on account of its bill, which is red,
+and formed like the edge of an ax. Its feet are also Of a beautiful
+red, and it is therefore often called Red-Foot. As {263} it lives upon
+shell-fish, it never removes from the sea-coast, but upon the approach
+of a storm, which is always sure to follow its retiring into the
+inland parts.
+
+The King-Fisher excels ours in nothing but in the beauty of its
+plumage, which is as various as the rainbow. This bird, it is well
+known, goes always against the wind; but perhaps few people know that
+it preserves the same property when it is dead. I myself hung a dead
+one by a silk thread directly over a sea-compass, and I can declare it
+as a fact, that the bill was always turned towards the wind.
+
+The Sea-Lark and Sea-Snipe never quit the sea; their flesh may be eat,
+as it has very little of the oily taste.
+
+The Frigate-Bird is a large bird, which in the day-time keeps itself
+in the air above the shore of the sea. It often rises very high,
+probably for exercise; for it feeds upon fish, and every night retires
+to the coast. It appears larger than it really is, as it is covered
+with a great many feathers of a grey colour. Its wings are very long,
+its tail forked, and it cuts the air with great swiftness.
+
+The Draught-Bird is a large bird, not much unlike the Frigate-Bird, as
+light, but not so swift. The under-part of its plumage is chequered
+brown and white, but the upper-part is of greyish brown.
+
+The Fool is of a yellowish colour, and about the size of a hen; it is
+so called, because it will suffer a man to approach it so near as to
+seize it with his hand: but even then it is too soon to cry victory;
+for if the person who seizes it does not take the greatest precaution,
+it will snap off his finger at one bite.
+
+When those three last birds are observed to hover very low over the
+shore, we may most certainly expect an approaching storm. On the other
+hand, when the sailors see the Halcyons behind their vessel, they
+expect and generally meet with fine weather for some days.
+
+Since I have mentioned the Halcyon, I shall here describe it. It is a
+small bird, about the size of a swallow, but its beak {264} is longer,
+and its plumage is violet-coloured. It has two streaks of a yellowish
+brown at the end of the feathers of its wings, which when it sits
+appear upon its back. When we left Louisiana, near an hundred halcyons
+followed our vessel for near three days: they kept at the distance of
+about a stone-cast, and seemed to swim, yet I could never discover
+that their feet were webbed, and was therefore greatly surprised. They
+probably live upon the small insects that drop from the outside of the
+vessel when sailing; for they now-and-then dived, and came up in the
+same place. I have some suspicion that, by keeping in the wake of the
+ship, they float after it without swimming; for when they happened to
+be out of the wake of the ship, they were obliged to fly, in order to
+come up with the ship again. This bird is said to build its nest of
+the glutinous froth of the sea close upon the shore, and to launch it
+when a land breeze arises, raising one of its wings in the form of a
+sail, which receiving the wind, helps to carry it out to sea.
+
+I shall now proceed to speak of the fowls which frequent the woods,
+and shall begin with the Wild-Turky, which is very common all over the
+colony. It is finer, larger, and better than that in France. The
+feathers of the turky are of a duskish grey, edged with a streak of
+gold colour, near half an inch broad. In the small feathers the
+gold-coloured streak is not above one tenth of an inch broad. The
+natives make fans of the tail, and of four tails joined together, the
+French make an umbrella. The women among the natives weave the
+feathers as our peruke-makers weave their hair, and fasten them to an
+old covering of bark, which they likewise line with them, so that it
+has down on both sides. Its flesh is more delicate, fatter, and more
+juicy than that of ours. They go in flocks, and with a dog one may
+kill a great many of them. I never could procure any of the turky's
+eggs, to try to hatch them, and discover whether they were as
+difficult to bring up in this country as in France, since the climate
+of both countries is almost the same. My slave told me, that in his
+nation they brought up the young turkies as easily as we do chickens.
+
+The Pheasant is the most beautiful bird that can be painted, and in
+every respect entirely like that of Europe. {265} Their rarity, in my
+opinion, makes them more esteemed than they deserve. I would at any
+time prefer a slice off the fillet of a buffalo to any pheasant.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _White Ibis_--MIDDLE: _Tobacco Worm_--BOTTOM: _Cock
+Roach_]
+
+The Partridges of Louisiana are not larger than a wood-pigeon. Their
+plumage is exactly the same with that of our grey partridges; they
+have also the horse-shoe upon the breast; they perch upon trees, and
+are seldom seen in flocks. Their {266} cry consists only of two strong
+notes, somewhat resembling the name given them by the natives, who
+call them Ho-ouy. Their flesh is white and delicate, but, like all the
+other game in this country, it has no _fumet_, and only excels in the
+fine taste.
+
+The Woodcock is very rare, because it is only to be met with in
+inhabited countries. It is like that of France; its flesh is white,
+but rather plumper and more delicate than that of ours, which is owing
+to the plenty and goodness of its fruit.
+
+The Snipe is much more common than the woodcock, and in this country
+is far from being shy. Its flesh is white, and of a much better relish
+than that of ours.
+
+I am of opinion that the Quail is very rare in Louisiana; I have
+sometimes heard it, but never saw it, nor know any Frenchman that ever
+did.
+
+Some of our colonists have thought proper to give the name of Ortolan
+to a small bird which has the same plumage, but in every other respect
+does not in the least resemble it.
+
+The Corbijeau is as large as the woodcock, and very common. Its
+plumage is varied with several shady colours, and is different from
+that of the woodcock; its feet and beak are also longer, which last is
+crooked and of a reddish yellow colour; its flesh is likewise firmer
+and better tasted.
+
+The Parroquet of Louisiana is not quite so large as those that are
+usually brought to France. Its plumage is usually of a fine sea-green,
+with a pale rose-coloured spot upon the crown, which brightens into
+red towards the beak, and fades off into green towards the body. It is
+with difficulty that it learns to speak, and even then it rarely
+practices it, resembling in this the natives themselves, who speak
+little. As a silent parrot would never make its fortune among our
+French ladies, it is doubtless on this account that we see so few of
+these in France.
+
+The Turtle-Dove is the same with that of Europe, but few of them are
+seen here.
+
+The Wood-Pigeons are seen in such prodigious numbers, that I do not
+fear to exaggerate, when I affirm that they sometimes {267} cloud the
+sun. One day on the banks of the Missisippi I met with a flock of them
+which was so large, that before they all passed, I had leisure to fire
+with the same piece four times at them. But the rapidity of their
+flight was so great, that though I do not fire ill, with my four shots
+I brought down but two.
+
+These birds come to Louisiana only in the winter, and remain in Canada
+during the summer, where they devour the corn, as they eat the acorns
+in Louisiana. The Canadians have used every art to hinder them from
+doing so much mischief, but without success. But if the inhabitants of
+those colonies were to go a fowling for those birds in the manner that
+I have done, they would insensibly destroy them. When they walk among
+the high forest trees, they ought to remark under the trees the
+largest quantity of dung is to be seen. Those trees being once
+discovered, the hunters ought to go out when it begins to grow dark,
+and carry with them a quantity of brimstone which they must set fire
+to in so many earthen plates placed at regular distances under the
+trees. In a very short time they will hear a shower of wood-pigeons
+falling to the ground, which, by the light of some dried canes, they
+may gather into sacks, as soon as the brimstone is extinguished.
+
+I shall here give an instance that proves not only the prodigious number
+of those birds, but also their singular instinct. In one of my journeys
+at land, when I happened to be upon the bank of the river, I heard a
+confused noise which seemed to come along the river from a considerable
+distance below us. As the sound continued uniformly I embarked, as fast
+as I could, on board the pettyaugre, with four other men, and steered
+down the river, keeping in the middle, that I might go to any side that
+best suited me. But how great was my surprise when I approached the
+place from whence the noise came, and observed it to proceed from a
+thick short pillar on the bank of the river. When I drew still nearer to
+it, I perceived that it was formed by a legion of wood-pigeons, who kept
+continually flying up and down successively among the branches of an
+ever-green oak, in order to beat down the acorns with their wings. Every
+now and then some alighted to eat the {268} acorns which they themselves
+or the others had beat down; for they all acted in common, and eat in
+common; no avarice nor private interest appearing among them, but each
+labouring as much for the rest as for himself.
+
+Crows are common in Louisiana, and as they eat no carrion their flesh
+is better tasted than that of the crows of France. Whatever their
+appetite may be, they dare not for the carrion crow approach any
+carcass.
+
+I never saw any Ravens in this country, and if there be any they must
+be very rare.
+
+The Owls are larger and whiter than in France, and their cry is much
+more frightful. The Little Owl is the same with ours, but much more
+rare. These two birds are more common in Lower Louisiana than in the
+higher.
+
+The Magpye resembles those of Europe in nothing but its cry; it is
+more delicate, is quite black, has a different manner of flying, and
+chiefly frequents the coasts.
+
+The Blackbirds are black all over, not excepting their bills nor their
+feet, and are almost as large again as ours. Their notes are
+different, and their flesh is hard.
+
+There are two sorts of Starlings in this country; one grey and
+spotted, and the other black. In both the tip of the shoulder is of a
+bright red. They are only to be seen in winter; and then they are so
+numerous, that upwards of three hundred of them have been taken at
+once in a net. A beaten path is made near a wood, and after it is
+cleaned and smoothed, it is strewed with rice. On each side of this
+path is stretched a long narrow silken net, with very small meshes,
+and made to turn over at once by strings fastened to the stick that
+stretches the end of it. The starlings no sooner alight to pick up the
+grain, than the fowler, who lies concealed with the strings in his
+hand, pulls the net over them.
+
+The Wood-pecker is much the same as in France; but here there are two
+kinds of them; one has grey feathers spotted with black; the other has
+the head and the neck of a bright red, and the rest of the body as the
+former. This bird lives upon the {269} worms which it finds in rotten
+wood, and not upon ants, as a modern author would have us believe, for
+want of having considered the nature of the things which he relates.
+The bird, when looking for its food, examines the trunks of trees that
+have lost their bark; it clasps by its feet with its belly close to
+the tree, and hearkens if it can hear a worm eating the wood; in this
+manner it leaps from place to place upon the trunk till it hears a
+worm, then it pierces the wood in that part, pricks the worm with its
+hard and pointed tongue, and draws it out. The arms which nature has
+furnished it with are very proper for this kind of hunting; its claws
+are hard and very sharp; its beak is formed like a little ax, and is
+very hard; its neck is long and flexible, to give proper play to its
+beak; and its hard tongue, which it can extend three or four inches,
+has a most sharp point with several beards that help to hold the prey.
+
+The Swallows of this country have that part yellow which ours have
+white, and they, as well as the martins, live in the woods.
+
+The Nightingale differs in nothing from ours in respect to its shape
+or plumage, unless that it has the bill a little longer. But in this
+it is particular that it is not shy, and sings through the whole year,
+though rarely. It is very easy to entice them to your roof, where it
+is impossible for the cats to reach them, by laying something for them
+to eat upon a lath, with a piece of the shell of a gourd which serves
+to hold their nest. You may in that case depend upon their not
+changing their habitation.
+
+The Pope is a bird that has a red and black plumage. It has got that
+name perhaps because its colour makes it look somewhat old, and none
+but old men are promoted to that dignity; or because its notes are
+soft, feeble, and rare; or lastly, because they wanted a bird of that
+name in the colony, having two other kinds named cardinals and
+bishops.
+
+The Cardinal owes its name to the bright red of the feathers, and to a
+little cowl on the hind part of the head, which resembles that of the
+bishop's ornament, called a camail. It is as large as a black-bird,
+but not so long. Its bill and toes are {270} large, strong, and black.
+Its notes are so strong and piercing that they are only agreeable in
+the woods. It is remarkable for laying up its winter provision in the
+summer, and near a Paris bushel of maiz has been found in its retreat,
+artfully covered, first with leaves and then with small branches, with
+only a little opening for the bird itself to enter.
+
+The Bishop is a bird smaller than the linnet; its plumage is a
+violet-coloured blue, and its wings, which serve it for a cope, are
+entirely violet-colour. Its notes are so sweet, so variable, and
+tender, that those who have once heard it, are apt to abate in their
+praises of the nightingale. I had such great pleasure in hearing this
+charming bird, that I left an oak standing very near my apartment,
+upon which he used to come and perch, though I very well knew, that
+the tree, which stood single, might be overturned by a blast of wind,
+and fall upon my house to my great loss.
+
+The Humming-Bird is not larger even with its feathers than a large
+beetle. The colour of its feathers is variable, according to the light
+they are exposed in; in the sun they appear like enamel upon a gold
+ground, which delights the eyes. The longest feathers of the wings of
+this bird are not much more than half an inch long; its bill is about
+the same length, and pointed like an awl; and its tongue resembles a
+sowing-needle; its feet are like those of a large fly. Notwithstanding
+its little size, its flight is so rapid, that it is always heard
+before it be seen. Although like the bee it sucks the flowers, it
+never rests upon them, but supports itself upon its wings, and passes
+from one flower to another with the rapidity of lightening. It is a
+rare thing to catch a humming-bird alive; one of my friends however
+had the happiness to catch one. He had observed it enter the flower of
+a convolvulus, and as it had quite buried itself to get at the bottom,
+he ran forwards, shut the flower, cut it from the stalk, and carried
+off the bird a prisoner. He could not however prevail upon it to eat,
+and it died four days after.
+
+The Troniou is a small bird about the size of a sparrow; its plumage
+is likewise the same; but its beak is slenderer. Its notes seem to
+express its name.
+
+{271} The French settlers raise in this province turkies of the same
+kind with those of France, fowls, capons, &c. of an excellent taste.
+The pigeons for their fine flavour and delicacy are preferred by
+Europeans to those of any other country. The Guinea fowl is here
+delicious.
+
+In Louisiana we have two kinds of Silk-worms; one was brought from
+France, the other is natural to the country. I shall enlarge upon them
+under the article of agriculture.
+
+The Tobacco-worm is a caterpillar of the size and figure of a
+silk-worm. It is of a fine sea-green colour, with rings of a silver
+colour; on its rump it has a sting near a quarter of an inch long.
+These insects quickly do a great deal of mischief, therefore care is
+taken every day, while the tobacco is rising, to pick them off and
+kill them.
+
+In summer Caterpillars are sometimes found upon the plants, but these
+insects are very rare in the colony. Glow-worms are here the same as
+in France.
+
+Butterflies are not near so common as in France; the consequence of
+there being fewer caterpillars; but they are of incomparable beauty,
+and have the most brilliant colours. In the meadows are to be seen
+black grasshoppers, which almost always walk, rarely leap, and still
+seldomer fly. They are about the size of a finger or thum, and their
+head is shaped somewhat like that of a horse. Their four small wings
+are of a most beautiful purple. Cats are very fond of grasshoppers.
+
+The Bees of Louisiana lodge in the earth, to secure their honey from
+the ravages of the bears. Some few indeed build their combs in the
+trunks of trees, as in Europe; but by far the greatest number in the
+earth in the lofty forests, where the bears seldom go.
+
+The Flies are of two kinds, one a yellowish brown, as in France, and
+the other black.
+
+The Wasps in this country take up their abode near the houses where
+they smell victuals. Several French settlers endeavored to root them
+out of their neighbourhood; but I acted otherwise; for reflecting,
+that no flies are to be seen where the {272} wasps frequent, I invited
+them by hanging up a piece of flesh in the air.
+
+The quick-stinger is a long and yellowish fly, and it receives its
+name from its stinging the moment it lights. The common flies of
+France are very common also in Louisiana.
+
+The Cantharides, or Spanish flies, are very numerous, and larger than
+in Europe; they are of such an acid nature, that if they but slightly
+touch the skin as they pass, a pretty large blister instantly rises.
+These flies live upon the leaves of the oak.
+
+The Green-flies appear only every other year, and the natives
+superstitiously look upon their appearance as a presage of a good
+crop. It is a pity that the cattle are so greatly molested by them,
+that they cannot remain in the fields; for they are extremely
+beautiful and twice as large as bees.
+
+Fire flies are very common; when the night is serene they are so very
+numerous, that if the light they dart out were constant, one might see
+as clearly as in fine moonshine.
+
+The Fly-ants, which we see attach themselves to the flower of the
+acacia, and which disappear when that flower is gone, do not proceed
+from the common ants. The fly ants, though shaped like the other kind,
+are however longer and larger. They have a square head; their colour
+is a brownish red bordered with black; they have four red and grey
+wings, and fly like common flies, which the other ants do not even
+when they have wings.
+
+The Dragon-flies are pretty numerous; they do not want to destroy them
+because they feed upon moskitos, which is one of the most troublesome
+kind of insects.
+
+
+The Moskitos are famous all over America, for their multitude, the
+troublesomeness of their buzzing and the venom of their stings, which
+occasion an insupportable itching, and often form so many ulcers, if
+the person stung does not immediately put some spittle on the wound.
+In open places they are less tormenting; but still they are
+troublesome; and the best way of driving them out of the houses is to
+burn a little brimstone in {273} the mornings and evenings. The smoke
+of this infallibly kills them, and the smell keeps others away for
+several days. An hour after the brimstone has been burnt, the
+apartments may be safely entered into by men.
+
+By the same means we may rid ourselves of the flies and moskitos,
+whose sting is so painful and so frequent during the short time they
+fly about; for they do not rise till about sun-set, and they retire at
+night. This is not the case with the Burning-fly. These, though not
+much larger than the point of a pin, are insupportable to the people
+who labour in the fields. They fly from sun-rising to sun-setting, and
+the wounds they give burn like fire.
+
+The Lavert is an insect about an inch and a quarter long, a little
+more than a quarter broad, and a tenth part of an inch thick. It
+enters the houses by the smallest crevices and in the night-time it
+falls upon dishes that are covered even with a plate, which renders it
+very troublesome to those whose houses are only built of wood. Bue
+they are so relishing to the cats, that these last quit everything to
+fall upon them wherever they perceive them. When a new settler has
+once cleared the ground about his house, and is at some distance from
+the woods, he is quickly freed from them.
+
+In Louisiana there are white ants, which seem to love dead wood.
+Persons who have been in the East-Indies have assured me, that they
+are quite like those which in that country are called _cancarla_, and
+that they would eat through glass, which I never had the experience
+of. There are in Louisiana, as in France, red, black, and flying ants.
+
+{274}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Of Fishes and Shell-Fish_.
+
+
+Though there is an incredible quantity of fishes in this country, I
+shall however be very concise in my account of them; because during my
+abode in the country they were not sufficiently known; and the people
+were not experienced enough in the art of catching them. The most of
+the rivers being very deep, and the Missisippi, as I have mentioned,
+being between thirty-eight and forty fathoms, from its mouth to the
+fall of St. Anthony, it may be easily conceived that the instruments
+used for fishing in France, cannot be of any use in Louisiana, because
+they cannot go to the bottom of the rivers, or at least so deep as to
+prevent the fish from escaping. The line therefore can be only used
+and it is with it they catch all the fish that are eaten by the
+settlers upon the river. I proceed to an account of those fish.
+
+The Barbel is of two sorts, the large and the small. The first is
+about four feet long, and the smallest of this sort that is ever seen
+is two feet long, the young ones doubtless keeping at the bottom of
+the water. This kind has a very large head, and a round body, which
+gradually lessens toward the tail. The fish has no scales, nor any
+bones, excepting that of the middle: its flesh is very good and
+delicate, but in a small degree vary insipid, which is easily
+remedied; in other respects it eats very like the fresh cod of the
+country.
+
+The small is from a foot to two in length. Its head is shaped like
+that of the other kind; but its body is not so round, nor so pointed
+at the tail.
+
+The Carp of the river Missisippi is monstrous. None are seen under two
+feet long; and many are met with three and four feet in length. The
+carps are not so very good in the lower part of the river; but the
+higher one goes the finer they are, on account of the plenty of sand
+in those parts. A great number of carps are carried into the lakes
+that are filled by the overflowing of the river, and in those lakes
+they are found {275} of all sizes, in great abundance, and of a better
+relish than those of the river.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Cat Fish_--Middle: _Gar Fish_--Bottom: _Spoonbill
+Catfish_]
+
+The Burgo-Breaker is an excellent fish; it is usually a foot and a
+foot and a half long: it is round, with gold-coloured scales. In its
+throat it has two bones with a surface like that of a file to break
+the shell-fish named Burgo. Though delicate, it is nevertheless very
+firm. It is best when not much boiled.
+
+{276} The Ring-Skate is found in the river up as far as New Orleans,
+but no higher. It is very good, and no way tough. In other respects it
+is exactly like that of France.
+
+The Spatula is so called, because from its snout a substance extends
+about a foot in length, in the form of an apothecary's Spatula. This
+fish, which is about two feet in length, is neither round or flat, but
+square, having at its sides and in the under part bones that forman
+angle like those of the back.
+
+No Pikes are caught above a foot and a half long. As this is a
+voracious fish, perhaps the Armed-fish pursues it, both from jealousy
+and appetite. The pike, besides being small, is very rare.
+
+The Choupic is a very beautiful fish; many people mistake it for the
+trout, as it takes a fly in the same manner. But it is very different
+from the trout, as it prefers muddy and dead water to a clear stream,
+and its flesh is so soft that it is only good when fried.
+
+The Sardine or small Pilchard of the river Missisippi, is about three
+or four fingers in breadth, and between six and seven inches long; it
+is good and delicate. One year I salted about the quantity of forty
+pints of them, and all the French who eat of them acknowledged them to
+be Sardines from their flesh, their bones, and their taste. They
+appear only for a short season, and are caught by the natives, when
+swimming against the strongest current, with nets made for that
+purpose only.
+
+The Patassa, so called by the natives for its flatness, is the roach
+or fresh-water mullet of this country.
+
+The Armed-Fish has its name from its arms, and its scaly mail. Its
+arms are its very sharp teeth, about the tenth of an inch in diameter,
+and as much distant from each other, and near half an inch long. The
+interval of the larger teeth is filled with shorter teeth. These arms
+are a proof of its voracity. Its mail is nothing but its scales, which
+are white, as hard as ivory, and about the tenth of an inch in
+thickness. They are near an inch long, about half as much in breadth,
+end in a {277} point, and have two cutting sides. There are two ranges
+of them down the back, shaped exactly like the head of a spontoon, and
+opposite to the point of the scale has a little shank, about three
+tenths of an inch long, which the natives insert into the end of their
+arrows, making the scale serve for a head. The flesh of this fish is
+hard and not relishing.
+
+There are a great number of Eels in the river Missisippi, and very
+large ones are found in all the rivers and creeks.
+
+The whole lower part of the river abounds in Crayfish. Upon my first
+arrival in the colony the ground was covered with little hillocks,
+about six or seven inches high, which the crayfish had made for taking
+the air out of the water; but since dikes have been raised for keeping
+off the river from the low grounds, they no longer shew themselves.
+Whenever they are wanted, they fish for them with the leg of a frog,
+and in a few moments they will catch a large dish of them.
+
+The Shrimps are diminutive crayfish; they are usually about three
+inches long, and of the size of the little finger. Although in other
+countries they are generally found in the sea only, yet in Louisiana
+you will meet with great numbers of them more than an hundred leagues
+up the river. In the lake St. Louis, about two leagues from New
+Orleans, the waters of which, having a communication with the sea, are
+somewhat brackish, are found several sorts both of sea fish, and fresh
+water fish. As the bottom of the lake is very level, they fish in it
+with large nets lately brought from France.
+
+Near the lake, when we pass by the outlets to the sea, and continue
+along the coasts, we meet with small oysters in great abundance, that
+are very well tasted. On the other hand, when we quit the lake by
+another lake that communicates with one of the mouths of the river, we
+meet with oysters four or five inches broad, and six or seven long.
+These large oysters eat best fried, having hardly any saltness, but in
+other respects are large and delicate.
+
+Having spoken of the oysters of Louisiana, I shall take some notice of
+the oysters that are found on the trees at St. Domingo. When I arrived
+at the harbour of Cape François in {278} my way to Louisiana, I was
+much surprised to see oysters hanging to the branches of some shrubs;
+but M. Chaineau, who was our second captain, explained the phaenomenon
+to me. According to him, the twigs of the shrubs are bent down at high
+water, to the very bottom of the shore, whenever the sea is any ways
+agitated. The oysters in that place no sooner feel the twigs than they
+lay hold of them, and when the sea retires they appear suspended upon
+them.
+
+Towards the mouths of the river we meet with mussels no salter than
+the large oysters above mentioned; and this is owing to the water
+being only brackish in those parts, as the river there empties itself
+by three large mouths, and five other small ones, besides several
+short creeks, which all together throw at once an immense quantity of
+water into the sea; the whole marshy ground occupies an extent of ten
+or twelve leagues.
+
+
+There are likewise excellent mussels upon the northern shore of the
+lake St. Louis, especially in the river of Pearls; they may be about
+six or seven inches long, and sometimes contain pretty large pearls,
+but of no great value.
+
+The largest of the shell-fish on the coast is the Burgo, well known in
+France. There is another fish much smaller and of a different shape.
+Its hollow shell is strong and beautiful, and the flat one is
+generally black; some blue ones are found, and are much esteemed.
+These shells have long been in request for tobacco-boxes.
+
+{279}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_The Origin of the Americans._
+
+
+The remarkable difference I observed between the Natchez, including in
+that name the nations whom they treat as brethren, and the other
+people of Louisiana, made me extremely desirous to know whence both of
+them might originally come. We had not then that full information
+which we have since received from the voyages and discoveries of M. De
+Lisle in the eastern parts of the Russian empire. I therefore applied
+myself one day to put the keeper of the temple in good humour, and
+having succeeded in that without much difficulty, I then told him,
+that from the little resemblance I observed between the Natchez and
+the neighbouring nations, I was inclined to believe that they were not
+originally of the country which they then inhabited; and that if the
+ancient speech taught him any thing on that subject, he would do me a
+great pleasure to inform me of it. At these words he leaned his head
+on his two hands, with which he covered his eyes, and having remained
+in that posture about a quarter of an hour, as if to recollect
+himself, he answered to the following effect:
+
+"Before we came into this land we lived yonder under the sun,
+(pointing with his finger nearly south-west, by which I understood
+that he meant Mexico;) we lived in a fine country where the earth is
+always pleasant; there our Suns had their abode, and our nation
+maintained itself for a long time against the ancients of the country,
+who conquered some of our villages {280} in the plains, but never
+could force us from the mountains. Our nation extended itself along
+the great water where this large river loses itself; but as our
+enemies were become very numerous, and very wicked, our Suns sent some
+of their subjects who lived near this river, to examine whether we
+could retire into the country through which it flowed. The country on
+the east side of the river being found extremely pleasant, the Great
+Sun, upon the return of those who had examined it, ordered all his
+subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselves
+against the antients of this country, to remove into this land, here
+to build a temple, and to preserve the eternal fire.
+
+"A great part of our nation accordingly settled here, where they lived
+in peace and abundance for several generations. The Great Sun, and
+those who had remained with him, never thought of joining us, being
+tempted to continue where they were by the pleasantness of the
+country, which was very warm, and by the weakness of their enemies,
+who had fallen into civil dissentions, in consequence of the ambition
+of one of their chiefs, who wanted to raise himself from a state of
+equality with the other chiefs of the villages, and to treat all the
+people of his nation as slaves. During those discords among our
+enemies, some of them even entered into an alliance with the Great
+Sun, who still remained in our old country, that he might conveniently
+assist our other brethren who had settled on the banks of the Great
+Water to the east of the large river, and extended themselves so far
+on the coast and among the isles, that the Great Sun did not hear of
+them sometimes for five or six years together.
+
+"It was not till after many generations that the Great Suns came and
+joined us in this country, where, from the fine climate, and the peace
+we had enjoyed, we had multiplied like the leaves of the trees.
+Warriors of fire, who made the earth to tremble, had arrived in our
+old country, and having entered into an alliance with our brethren,
+conquered our ancient enemies; but attempting afterwards to make
+slaves of our Suns, they, rather than submit to them, left our
+brethren who refused to follow them, and came hither attended only
+with their slaves."
+
+{281} Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he replied,
+that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a brownish colour, who
+carried arms that darted out fire with a great noise, and killed at a
+great distance; that they had likewise heavy arms which killed a great
+many men at once, and like thunder made the earth tremble; and that
+they came from the sun-rising in floating villages.
+
+The ancients of the country he said were very numerous, and inhabited
+from the western coast of the great water to the northern countries on
+his side the sun, and very far upon the same coast beyond the sun.
+They had a great number of large and small villages, which were all
+built of stone, and in which there were houses large enough to lodge a
+whole village. Their temples were built with great labour and art, and
+they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials.
+
+But ye yourselves, said I, whence are ye come? The ancient speech, he
+replied, does not say from what land we came; all that we know is,
+that our fathers, to come hither, followed the sun, and came with him
+from the place where he rises; that they were a long time on their
+journey, were all on the point of perishing, and were brought into
+this country without seeking it.
+
+To this account of the keeper of the temple, which was afterwards
+confirmed to me by the Great Sun, I shall add the following passage of
+Diodorus Siculus, which seems to confirm the opinion of those who
+think the eastern Americans are descended from the Europeans, who may
+have been driven by the winds upon the coasts of Guiana or Brazil.
+
+"To the west of Africa, he says, lies a very large island, distant
+many days sail from that part of our continent. Its fertile soil is
+partly plain, and partly mountainous. The plain country is most sweet
+and pleasant, being watered every where with rivulets, and navigable
+rivers; it is beautified with many gardens, which are planted with all
+kinds of trees, and the orchards particularly are watered with
+pleasant streams. The villages are adorned with houses built in a
+magnificent taste, having parterres ornamented with arbours covered
+with flowers. Hither the inhabitants retire during the summer to enjoy
+the fruits which the country furnishes them with in the greatest {282}
+abundance. The mountainous part is covered with large woods, and all
+manner of fruit trees, and in the vallies, which are watered with
+rivulets, the inhabitants meet with every thing that can render life
+agreeable. In a word, the whole island, by its fertility and the
+abundance of its springs, furnishes the inhabitants not only with
+every thing that may flatter their wishes, but with what may also
+contribute to their health and strength of body. Hunting furnishes
+them with such an infinite number of animals, that in their feasts
+they have nothing to wish for in regard either to plenty or delicacy.
+Besides, the sea, which surrounds the island, supplies them
+plentifully with all kinds of fish, and indeed the sea in general is
+very abundant. The air of this island is so temperate that the trees
+bear leaves and fruit almost the whole year round. In a word, this
+island is so delicious, that it seems rather the abode of the gods
+than of men.
+
+"Anciently, on account of its remote situation, it was altogether
+unknown; but afterwards it was discovered by accident. It is well
+known, that from the earliest ages the Phenicians undertook long
+voyages in order to extend their commerce, and in consequence of those
+voyages established several colonies in Africa and the western parts
+of Europe. Every thing succeeding to their wish, and being become very
+powerful, they attempted to pass the pillars of Hercules and enter the
+ocean. They accordingly passed those pillars, and in their
+neighbourhood built a city upon a peninsula of Spain, which they named
+Gades. There, amongst the other buildings proper for the place, they
+built a temple to Hercules, to whom they instituted splendid
+sacrifices after the manner of their country. This temple is in great
+veneration at this day, and several Romans who have rendered
+themselves illustrious by their exploits, have performed their vows to
+Hercules for the success of their enterprizes.
+
+"The Phenicians accordingly having passed the Streights of Spain,
+sailed along Africa, when by the violence of the winds they were
+driven far out to sea, and the storm continuing several days, they
+were at length thrown on this island. Being the first who were
+acquainted with its beauty and fertility, they {283} published them to
+other nations. The Tuscans, when they were masters at sea, designed to
+send a colony thither, but the Carthaginians found means to prevent
+them on the two following accounts; first, they were afraid lest their
+citizens, tempted by the charms of that island, should pass over
+hither in too great numbers, and desert their own country; next they
+looked upon it as a secure asylum for themselves, if ever any terrible
+disaster should befal their republic."
+
+This description of Diodorus is very applicable in many circumstances
+to America, particularly in the agreeable temperature of the climate
+to Africans, the prodigious fertility of the earth, the vast forests,
+the large rivers, and the multitude of rivulets and springs. The
+Natchez may then justly be supposed to be descended from some
+Phenicians or Carthaginians, who had been wrecked on the shores of
+South America, in which case they might well be imagined to have but
+little acquaintance with the arts, as those who first landed would be
+obliged to apply all their thoughts to their immediate subsistence,
+and consequently would soon become rude and barbarous. Their worship
+of the eternal fire likewise implies their descent from the
+Phenicians; for every body knows that this superstition, which first
+took its rise in Egypt, was introduced by the Phenicians into all the
+countries that they visited. The figurative stile, and the bold and
+Syriac expressions in the language of the Natchez, is likewise another
+proof of their being descended from the Phenicians. [Footnote: The
+author might have mentioned a singular custom, in which both nations
+agree; for it appears from _Polybius_, 1 I. c. 6. that Carthaginians
+practised scalping.]
+
+As to those whom the Natchez, long after their first establishment,
+found inhabiting the western coasts of America, and whom we name
+Mexicans, the arts which they possessed and cultivated with success,
+obliged me to give them a different origin. Their temples, their
+sacrifices, their buildings, their form of government, and their
+manner of making war, all denote a people who have transmigrated in a
+body, and brought with them the arts, the sciences, and the customs of
+their country. Those people had the art of writing, and also of {284}
+painting. Their archives consisted of cloths of cotton, whereon they
+had painted or drawn all those transactions which they thought worthy
+of being transmitted to posterity. It were greatly to be wished that
+the first conquerors of this new world had preserved to us the figures
+of those drawings; for by comparing them with the characters used by
+other nations, we might perhaps have discovered the origin of the
+inhabitants. The knowledge which we have of the Chinese characters,
+which are rather irregular drawings than characters, would probably
+have facilitated such a discovery; and perhaps those of Japan would
+have been found greatly to have resembled the Mexican; for I am
+strongly of opinion that the Mexicans are descended from one of those
+two nations.
+
+In fact, where is the impossibility, that some prince in one of those
+countries, upon failing in an attempt to raise himself to the
+sovereign power, should leave his native country with all his
+partizans, and look for some new land, where, after he had established
+himself, he might drop all foreign correspondence? The easy navigation
+of the South Sea renders the thing probable; and the new map of the
+eastern bounds of Asia, and the western of North America, lately
+published by Mr. De Lisle, makes it still more likely. This map makes
+it plainly appear, that between the islands of Japan, or northern
+coasts of China, and those of America, there are other lands, which to
+this day have remained unknown; and who will take upon him to say
+there is no land, because it has never yet been discovered? I have
+therefore good grounds to believe, that the Mexicans came originally
+from China or Japan, especially when I consider their reserved and
+uncommunicative disposition, which to this day prevails among the
+people of the eastern parts of Asia. The great antiquity of the
+Chinese nation likewise makes it possible that a colony might have
+gone from thence to America early enough to be looked upon as _the
+Ancients of the country_, by the first of the Phenicians who could be
+supposed to arrive there. As a further corroboration of my
+conjectures, I was informed by a man of learning in 1752, that in the
+king's library there is a Chinese manuscript, which positively affirms
+that America was peopled by the inhabitants of Corea.
+
+{285} When the Natchez retired to this part of America, where I saw
+them, they there found several nations, or rather the remains of
+several nations, some on the east, others on the west of the
+Missisippi. These are the people who are distinguished among the
+natives by the name of Red Men; and their origin is so much the more
+obscure, as they have not so distinct a tradition, as the Natchez, nor
+arts and sciences like the Mexicans, from whence we might draw some
+satisfactory inferences. All that I could learn from them was, that
+they came from between the north and the sun-setting; and this account
+they uniformly adhered to whenever they gave any account of their
+origin. This lame tradition no ways satisfying the desire I had to be
+informed on this point, I made great inquiries to know if there was
+any wise old man among the neighbouring nations, who could give me
+further intelligence about the origin of the natives. I was happy
+enough to discover one, named Moncacht-apé among the Yazous, a nation
+about forty leagues north from the Natchez. This man was remarkable
+for his solid understanding and elevation of sentiments; and I may
+justly compare him to those first Greeks, who travelled chiefly into
+the east to examine the manners and customs of different nations, and
+to communicate to their fellow-citizens, upon their return, the
+knowledge which they had acquired. Moncacht-apé, indeed, never
+executed so noble a plan; but he had however conceived it, and had
+spared no labour and pains to effectuate it. He was by the French
+called the Interpreter, because he understood several of the North
+American languages; but the other name which I have mentioned was
+given him by his own nation, and signifies _the killer of pain and
+fatigue_. This name was indeed most justly applicable to him; for, to
+satisfy his curiosity, he had made light of the most dangerous and
+painful journeys, in which he had spent several years of his life. He
+stayed two or three days with me; and upon my desiring him to give me
+an account of his travels, he very readily complied with my request,
+and spoke to the following effect:
+
+"I had lost my wife, and all the children whom I had by her, when I
+undertook my journey towards the sun-rising. I set out from my village
+contrary to the inclinations of all my {286} relations, and went first
+to the Chicasaws, our friends and neighbours. I continued among them
+several days to inform myself whether they knew whence we all came, or
+at least whence they themselves came; they, who were our elders; since
+from them came the language of the country. As they could not inform
+me, I proceeded on my journey. I reached the country of the
+Chaouanous, and afterwards went up the Wabash or Ohio, almost to its
+source, which is in the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. I
+left them however towards the north; and during the winter, which in
+that country is very severe and very long, I lived in a village of the
+Abenaquis, where I contracted an acquaintance with a man somewhat
+older than myself, who promised to conduct me the following spring to
+the Great Water. Accordingly when the snows were melted, and the
+weather was settled, we proceeded eastward, and, after several days
+journey, I at length saw the Great Water, which filled me with such
+joy and admiration that I could not speak. Night drawing on, we took
+up our lodging on a high bank above the water, which was sorely vexed
+by the wind, and made so great a noise that I could not sleep. Next
+day the ebbing and flowing of the water filled me with great
+apprehension; but my companion quieted my fears, by assuring me that
+the water observed certain bounds both in advancing and retiring.
+Having satisfied our curiosity in viewing the Great Water, we returned
+to the village of the Abenaquis, where I continued the following
+winter; and after the snows were melted, my companion and I went and
+viewed the great fall of the river St. Laurence at Niagara, which was
+distant from the village several days journey. The view of this great
+fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out
+of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, I had the courage to
+walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio, and my
+companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we
+formed it into a pettiaugre, which served to conduct me down the Ohio
+and the Missisippi, after which, with much difficulty I went up our
+small river; and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were
+rejoiced to see me in good health.
+
+{287} "This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my
+curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the
+antient speech informed them that the Red Men of the north came
+originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river
+Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from
+whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey
+westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up
+along the eastern bank of the river Missisippi, till I came to the
+Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river about the fourth
+part of a day's journey, that I might be able to cross it without
+being carried into the Missisippi. There I formed a Cajeux or raft of
+canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next
+day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat
+one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon
+after I arrived among the Tamaroas, a village of the nation of the
+Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards
+to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river,
+runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with
+the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Missisippi, I went
+up the Missouri along its northern bank, and after several days
+journey I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long
+time to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along
+the Missouri I passed through meadows a whole day's journey in length,
+which were quite covered with buffaloes.
+
+"When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my
+journey up along the Missouri till I came to the nation of the West,
+or the Canzas. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I
+proceeded in the same course near thirty days, and at length I met
+with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that
+neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone. I continued with
+the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them and
+his wife, who was near her time of lying-in, to their village, which
+lay far off betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along
+the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched {288} directly
+northwards for five days more, when we came to the Fine River, which
+runs westwards in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We
+proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village
+of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been
+of their own nation. A few days after I joined a party of the Otters,
+who were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them,
+and we embarked in a pettiaugre, and went down the river for eighteen
+days, landing now and then to supply ourselves with provisions. When I
+arrived at the nation who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with
+them till the cold was passed, that I might learn their language,
+which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.
+
+"The cold was hardly gone, when I again embarked on the Fine River,
+and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally
+staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one
+day's journey from the Great Water on the west. This nation live in
+the woods about the distance of a league from the river, from their
+apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating
+villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These
+men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down
+to their breasts; they were thick and short, had large heads, which
+were covered with cloth; they were always dressed, even in the
+greatest heats; their cloaths fell down to the middle of their legs,
+which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their
+arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves
+outnumbered by Red Men, they retired on board their large pettiaugre,
+their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.
+
+"Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow
+stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this
+nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed
+all those kind of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood
+however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were
+still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them,
+had invited their allies to assist them in making an attack upon them
+the next {289} time they should return. The following summer I
+accordingly joined in this expedition, and after traveling five long
+days journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually
+landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red Men,
+by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprize the
+strangers, and accordingly when they landed to cut the wood, we were
+so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping
+on board two large pettiaugres, and flying westward upon the Great
+Water.
+
+"Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller
+than ourselves, and very white; they had a large head, and in the
+middle of the crown the hair was very long; their head was wrapt in a
+great many folds of stuff, and their cloaths seemed to be made neither
+of wool nor silk; they were very soft, and of different colours. Two
+only of the eleven who were slain had fire-arms with powder and ball.
+I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than
+yours, and did not kill at so great a distance.
+
+"After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my
+journey, and with that design I let the Red Men return home, and
+joined myself to those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with
+whom I travelled along the shore of the Great Water, which bends
+directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the
+villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long and
+the night very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all
+thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended
+still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting,
+after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great
+Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young,
+he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was
+eat away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low,
+many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it therefore
+impracticable to proceed much further, on account of the severity of
+the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by
+which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westward to days
+journeys, I compute that they would have employed {290} me thirty-six
+moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before
+I returned to my relations among the Yazous."
+
+Moncacht-apé, after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or
+five days visiting among the Natchez, and then returned to take leave
+of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value,
+among which was a concave mirror about two inches and a half diameter,
+which had cost me about three halfpence. As this magnified the face to
+four or five times its natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with
+it, and would not have exchanged it with the best mirror in France.
+After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly
+satisfied to his own nation.
+
+Moncacht-apé's account of the junction of America with the eastern
+parts of Asia seems confirmed from the following remarkable fact. Some
+years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were
+discovered in a marsh near the river Ohio; and as they were not much
+consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many
+years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the
+manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will
+appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the
+north-east parts of Asia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_An Account of the Several Nations of_ Indians _in_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+If to the history of the discoveries and conquests of the Spaniards we
+join the tradition of all the nations of America, we shall be fully
+persuaded, that this quarter of the world, before it was discovered by
+Christopher Columbus, was very populous, not only on the continent but
+also in the islands.
+
+However, by an incomprehensible fatality, the arrival of the Spaniards
+in this new world seems to have been the unhappy epoch of the
+destruction of all the nations of America, {291} not only by war, but
+by nature itself. As it is but too well known how many millions of
+natives were destroyed by the Spanish sword, I shall not therefore
+present my readers with that horrible detail; but perhaps many people
+do not know that an innumerable multitude of the natives of Mexico and
+Peru voluntarily put an end to their own lives, some by sacrificing
+themselves to the manes of their sovereigns who had been cut off, and
+whose born victims they, according to their detestable customs, looked
+upon themselves to be; and others, to avoid falling under the
+subjection of the Spaniards, thinking death a less evil by far than
+slavery.
+
+The same effect has been produced among the people of North America by
+two or three warlike nations of the natives. The Chicasaws have not
+only cut off a great many nations who were adjoining to them, but have
+even carried their fury as far as New Mexico, near six hundred miles
+from the place of their residence, to root out a nation that had
+removed at that distance from them, in a firm expectation that their
+enemies would not come so far in search of them. They were however
+deceived and cut off. The Iroquois have done the same in the east
+parts of Louisiana; and the Padoucas and others have acted in the same
+manner to nations in the west of the colony. We may here observe, that
+those nations could not succeed against their enemies without
+considerable loss to themselves, and that they have therefore greatly
+lessened their own numbers by their many warlike expeditions.
+
+I mentioned that nature had contributed no less than war to the
+destruction of these people. Two distempers, that are not very fatal
+in other parts of the world, make dreadful ravages among them; I mean
+the small-pox and a cold, which baffle all the art of their
+physicians, who in other respects are very skilful. When a nation is
+attacked by the small-pox, it quickly makes great havock; for as a
+whole family is crowded into a small hut, which has no communications
+with the external air, but by a door about two feet wide and four feet
+high, the distemper, if it seizes one, is quickly communicated to all.
+The aged die in consequence of their advanced years and the bad
+quality of their food; and the young, if they are not {292} strictly
+watched, destroy themselves, from an abhorrence of the blotches in
+their skin. If they can but escape from their hut, they run out and
+bathe themselves in the river, which is certain death in that
+distemper. The Chatkas, being naturally not very handsome, are not so
+apt to regret the loss of their beauty; consequently suffer less, and
+are much more numerous than the other nations.
+
+Colds, which are very common in the winter, likewise destroy great
+numbers of the natives. In that season they keep fires in their huts
+day and night; and as there is no other opening but the door, the air
+within the hut is kept excessive warm without any free circulation; so
+that when they have occasion to go out, the cold seizes them, and the
+consequences of it are almost always fatal.
+
+The first nations that the French were acquainted with in this part of
+North America, were those on the east of the colony; for the first
+settlement we made there was at Fort Louis on the river Mobile. I
+shall therefore begin my account of the different nations of Indians
+on this side of the colony, and proceed westwards in the same order as
+they are situated.
+
+But however zealous I may be in displaying not only the beauties, but
+the riches and advantages of Louisiana, yet I am not at all inclined
+to attribute to it what it does not possess; therefore I warn my
+reader not to be surprised, if I make mention of a few nations in this
+colony, in comparison of the great number which he may perhaps have
+seen in the first maps of this country. Those maps were made from
+memoirs sent by different travellers, who noted down all the names
+they heard mentioned, and then fixed upon a spot for their residence;
+so that a map appeared stiled with the names of nations, many of whom
+were destroyed, and others were refugees among nations who had adopted
+them and taken them under their protection. Thus, though the nations
+on this continent were formerly both numerous and populous, they are
+now so thinned and diminished, that there does not exist at present a
+third part of the nations whose names are to be found in the maps.
+
+The most eastern nation of Louisiana is that called the Apalaches,
+which is a branch of the great nation of the Apalaches, {293} who
+inhabited near the mountains to which they have given their name. This
+great nation is divided into several branches, who take different
+names. The branch in the neighbourhood of the river Mobile is but
+inconsiderable, and part of it is Roman Catholic.
+
+On the north of the Apalaches are the Alibamous, a pretty considerable
+nation; they love the French, and receive the English rather out of
+necessity than friendship. On the first settling of the colony we had
+some commerce with them; but since the main part of the colony has
+fixed on the river, we have somewhat neglected them, on account of the
+great distance.
+
+East from the Alibamous are the Caouitas, whom M. de Biainville,
+governor of Louisiana, wanted to distinguish above the other nations,
+by giving the title of emperor to their sovereign, who then would have
+been chief of all the neighbouring nations; but those nations refused
+to acknowledge him as such, and said that it was enough if each nation
+obeyed its own chief; that it was improper for the chiefs themselves
+to be subject to other chiefs, and that such a custom had never
+prevailed among them, as they chose rather to be destroyed by a great
+nation than to be subject to them. This nation is one of the most
+considerable; the English trade with them, and they suffer the traders
+to come among them from policy.
+
+To, the north of the Alibamous are the Abeikas and Conchacs, who, as
+far as I can learn, are the same people; yet the name of Conchac seems
+appropriated to one part more than another. They are situated at a
+distance from the great rivers and consequently have no large canes in
+their territory. The canes that grow among them are not thicker than
+one's finger, and are at the same time so very hard, that when they
+are split, they cut like knives, which these people call _conchacs_. The
+language of this nation is almost the same with that of the Chicasaws,
+in which the word _conchac_ signifies a knife.
+
+The Abeikas, on the east of them, have the Cherokees, divided into
+several branches, and situated very near the Apalachean mountains. All
+the nations whom I have mentioned {294} have been united in a general
+alliance for a long time past, in order to defend themselves against the
+Iroquois, or Five Nations, who, before this alliance was formed, made
+continual war upon them; but have ceased to molest them since they have
+seen them united. All these nations, and some small ones intermixed
+among them, have always been looked upon as belonging to no colony,
+excepting the Apalaches; but since the breaking out of the war with the
+English in 1756, it is said they have voluntarily declared for us.
+
+The nations in the neighbourhood of the Mobile, are first the Chatots,
+a small nation consisting of about forty huts, adjoining to the river
+and the sea. They are Roman Catholics, or reputed such; and are
+friends to the French, whom they are always ready to serve upon being
+paid for it. North from the Chatots, and very near them, is the French
+settlement of Fort Louis on the Mobile.
+
+A little north from Fort Louis are situated the Thomez, which are not
+more numerous than the Chatots, and are said to be Roman Catholics.
+They are our friends to to such a degree as even to teaze us with
+their officiousness.
+
+Further north live the Taensas, who are a branch of the Natchez, of
+whom I shall have occasion to speak more at large. Both of these
+nations keep the eternal fire with the utmost care; but they trust the
+guard of it to men, from a persuasion that none of their daughters
+would sacrifice their liberty for that office. The whole nation of the
+Taensas consists only of about one hundred huts.
+
+Proceeding still northwards along the bay, we meet with the nation of
+the Mobiliens, near the mouth of the river Mobile, in the bay of that
+name. The true name of this nation is Mouvill, which the French have
+turned into Mobile, calling the river and the bay from the nation that
+inhabited near them. All these small nations were living in peace upon
+the arrival of the French, and still continue so; the nations on the
+east of the Mobile serving as a barrier to them against the incursions
+of the Iroquois. Besides, the Chicasaws look upon them as their
+brethren, as both they, and their neighbours on the east of the {295}
+Mobile, speak a language which is nearly the same with that of the
+Chicasaws.
+
+Returning towards the sea, on the west of the Mobile, we find the
+small nation of the Pacha-Ogoulas, that is, Nation of Bread, situated
+upon the bay of the same name. This nation consists only of one
+village of about thirty huts. Some French Canadians have settled in
+their neighbourhood, and they live together like brethren, as the
+Canadians, who are naturally of a peaceable disposition, know the
+character of the natives, and have the art of living with the nations
+of America. But what chiefly renders the harmony betwixt them durable,
+is the absence of soldiers, who never appear in this nation.
+
+Further northwards, near the river Pacha-Ogoulas, is situated the
+great nation of the Chatkas, or Flat-heads. I call them the great
+nation, for I have not known or heard of any other near so numerous.
+They reckon in this nation twenty-five thousand warriors. There may
+perhaps be such a number of men among them, who take that name; but I
+am far from thinking that all these have a title to the character of
+warriors.
+
+According to the tradition of the natives, this nation arrived so
+suddenly, and passed so rapidly through the territories of others,
+that when I asked them, whence came the Chatkas? they answered me,
+that they sprung out of the ground; by which they meant to express
+their great surprize at seeing them appear so suddenly. Their great
+numbers awed the natives near whom they passed; their character being
+but little inclined to war, did not inspire them with the fury of
+conquest; thus they at length arrived in an uninhabited country which
+nobody disputed with them. They have since lived without any disputes
+with their neighbours; who on the other hand have never dared to try
+whether they were brave or not. It is doubtless owing to this that
+they have increased to their present numbers.
+
+They are called Flat-heads; but I do not know why that name has been
+given to them more than to others, since all the nations of Louisiana
+have their heads as flat, or nearly so. They are situated about two
+hundred and fifty miles north {296} from the sea, and extend more from
+east to west than from south to north.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian Buffalo Hunt on foot_]
+
+Those who travel from the Chatkas to the Chicasaws, seldom go by the
+shortest road, which extends about one hundred and eighty miles, and
+is very woody and mountainous. They choose rather to go along the
+river Mobile, which is both the easiest and most pleasant route. The
+nation of the Chicasaws is very warlike. The men have very regular
+features, {297} are large, well-shaped, and neatly dressed; they are
+fierce, and have a high opinion of themselves. They seem to be the
+remains of a populous nation, whose warlike disposition had prompted
+them to invade several nations, whom they have indeed destroyed, but
+not without diminishing their own numbers by those expeditions. What
+induces me to believe that this nation has been formerly very
+considerable, is that the nations who border upon them, and whom I
+have just mentioned, speak the Chicasaw language, though somewhat
+corrupted, and those who speak it best value themselves upon it.
+
+I ought perhaps to except out of this number the Taensas, who being a
+branch of the Natchez, have still preserved their peculiar language;
+but even these speak, in general, the corrupted Chicasaw language,
+which our French settlers call the Mobilian language. As to the
+Chatkas, I suppose, that being very numerous, they have been able to
+preserve their own language in a great measure; and have only adopted
+some words of the Chicasaw language. They always spoke to me in the
+Chicasaw tongue.
+
+In returning towards the coast next the river Missisippi, we meet with
+a small nation of about twenty huts, named Aquelou-Pissas, that is,
+_Men who understand and see_. This nation formerly lived within three of
+four miles of the place where New Orleans is built; but they are
+further north at present, and not far from the lake St. Lewis, or
+Pontchartrain. They speak a language somewhat approaching to that of
+the Chicasaws. We have never had great dealings with them.
+
+Being now arrived at the river Missisippi, I shall proceed upwards
+along its banks as far as to the most distant nations that are known
+to us.
+
+The first nation that I meet with is the Oumas, which signifies the
+Red Nation. They are situated about twenty leagues from New Orleans,
+where I saw some of them upon my arrival in this province. Upon the
+first establishment of the colony, some French went and settled near
+them; and they have been very fatal neighbours, by furnishing them
+with brandy, which they drink to great excess.
+
+{298} Crossing the Red River, and proceeding still upwards, we find
+the remains of the nation of the Tonicas, who have always been very
+much attached to the French, and have even been our auxiliaries in
+war. The Chief of this nation was our very zealous friend; and as he
+was full of courage, and always ready to make war on the enemies of
+the French, the king sent him a brevet of brigadier of the red armies,
+and a blue ribbon, from whence hung a silver medal, which on one side
+represented the marriage of the king, and on the reverse had the city
+of Paris. He likewise sent him a gold-headed cane; and the Indian
+Chief was not a little proud of wearing those honourable distinctions,
+which were certainly well bestowed. This nation speaks a language so
+far different from that of their neighbours, in that they pronounce
+the letter R, which the others have not. They have likewise different
+customs.
+
+The Natchez in former times appear to have been one of the most
+respectable nations in the colony, not only from their own tradition,
+but from that of the other nations, in whom their greatness and
+civilized customs raised no less jealousy than admiration. I could
+fill a volume with what relates to this people alone; but as I am now
+giving a concise account of the people of Louisiana, I shall speak of
+them as of the rest, only enlarging a little upon some important
+transactions concerning them.
+
+When I arrived in 1720 among the Natchez, that nation was situated
+upon a small river of the same name; the chief village where the Great
+Sun resided was built along the banks of the river, and the other
+villages were planted round it. They were two leagues above the
+confluence of the river, which joins the Missisippi at the foot of the
+great precipices of the Natchez. From thence are four leagues to its
+source, and as many to Rosalie, and they were situated within a league
+of the fort.
+
+Two small nations lived as refugees among the Natchez. The most
+ancient of these adopted nations were the Grigras, who seem to have
+received that name from the French, because when talking with one
+another they often pronounce those two syllables, which makes them be
+remarked as strangers among the Natchez, who, as well as the
+Chicasaws, and all the nations {299} that speak the Chicasaw language,
+cannot pronounce the letter R.
+
+The other small nation adopted by the Natchez, are the Thioux, who
+have also the letter R in their language. These were the weak remains
+of the Thioux nation, formerly one of the strongest in the country.
+However, according to the account of the other nations, being of a
+turbulent disposition, they drew upon themselves the resentment of the
+Chicasaws, which was the occasion of their ruin; for by their many
+engagements they were at length so weakened that they durst not face
+their enemy, and consequently were obliged to take refuge among the
+Natchez.
+
+The Natchez, the Grigras, and the Thioux, may together raise about
+twelve hundred warriors; which is but a small force in comparison of
+what the Natchez could formerly have raised alone; for according to
+their traditions they were the most powerful nation of all North
+America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors,
+and on that account respected by them. To give an idea of their power,
+I shall only mention, that formerly they extended from the river
+Manchac, or Iberville, which is about fifty leagues from the sea, to
+the river Wabash, which is distant from the sea about four hundred and
+sixty leagues; and that they had about five hundred Suns or princes.
+From these facts we may judge how populous this nation formerly has
+been; but the pride of their Great Suns, or sovereigns, and likewise
+of their inferior Suns, joined to the prejudices of the people, has
+made greater havock among them, and contributed more to their
+destruction, than long and bloody wars would have done.
+
+As their sovereigns were despotic, they had for a long time past
+established the following inhuman and impolitic custom, that when any
+of them died, a great number of their subjects, both men and women,
+should likewise be put to death. A proportionable number of subjects
+were likewise killed upon the death of any of the inferior Suns; and
+the people on the other hand had imbibed a belief that all those who
+followed their princes into the other world, to serve them there,
+would be eternally happy. It is easy to conceive how ruinous such an
+{300} inhuman custom would be among a nation who had so many princes
+as the Natchez.
+
+It would seem that some of the Suns, more humane than the rest, had
+disapproved of this barbarous custom, and had therefore retired to
+places at a remote distance from the centre of their nation. For we
+have two branches of this great nation settled in other parts of the
+colony, who have preserved the greatest part of the customs of the
+Natchez. One of these branches is the nation of the Taensas on the
+banks of the Mobile, who preserve the eternal fire, and several other
+usages of the nation from whom they are descended. The other branch is
+the nation of the Chitimachas, whom the Natchez have always looked
+upon as their brethren.
+
+Forty leagues north from the Natchez is the river Yasous, which runs
+into the Missisippi, and is so called from a nation of the same name
+who had about a hundred huts on its banks.
+
+Near the Yazous, on the same river, lived the Coroas, a nation
+consisting of about forty huts. These two nations pronounce the letter
+R.
+
+Upon the same river likewise lived the Chacchi-Oumas, a name which
+signifies _red Cray-fish_. These people had not above fifty huts.
+
+Near the same river dwelt the Ouse-Ogoulas, or the Nation of the Dog,
+which might have about sixty huts.
+
+The Tapoussas likewise inhabited upon the banks of this river, and had
+not above twenty-five huts. These three last nations do not pronounce
+the letter R, and seem to be branches of the Chicasaws, especially as
+they speak their language. Since the massacre of the French settlers
+at the Natchez, these five small nations, who had joined in the
+conspiracy against us, have all retired among the Chicasaws, and make
+now but one nation with them.
+
+To the north of the Ohio, not far from the banks of the Missisippi,
+inhabit the Illinois, who have given their name to the river on the
+banks of which they have settled. They are divided into several
+villages, such as the Tamaroas, the Caskaquias, {301} the Caouquias,
+the Pimiteouis, and some others. Near the village of the Tamaroas is a
+French post, where several French Canadians have settled.
+
+This is one of the most considerable posts in all Louisiana, which
+will appear not at all surprising, when we consider that the Illinois
+were one of the first nations whom we discovered in the colony, and
+that they have always remained most faithful allies of the French; an
+advantage which is in a great measure owing to the proper manner of
+living with the natives of America, which the Canadians have always
+observed. It is not their want of courage that renders them so
+peaceable, for their valour is well known. The letter R is pronounced
+by the Illinois.
+
+Proceeding further northwards we meet with a pretty large nation,
+known by the name of the Foxes, with whom we have been at war near
+these forty years past, yet I have not heard that we have had any
+blows with them for a long time.
+
+From the Foxes to the fall of St. Anthony, we meet with no nation, nor
+any above the Fall for near an hundred leagues. About that distance
+north of the Fall, the Sioux are settled, and are said to inhabit
+several scattered villages both on the east and west of the
+Missisippi.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+Having described as exactly as possible all the nations on the east of
+the Missisippi, as well those who are included within the bounds of
+the colony, as those who are adjoining to it, and have some connection
+with the others; I shall now proceed to give an account of those who
+inhabit on the west of the river, from the sea northwards.
+
+Between the river Missisippi, and those lakes which are filled by its
+waters upon their overflowing, is a small nation named Chaouchas, or
+Ouachas, who inhabit some little villages, but are of so little
+consequences that they are no otherwise known to our colonists but by
+their name.
+
+{302} In the neighbourhood of the lakes abovementioned live the
+Chitimachas. These are the remains of a nation which was formerly
+pretty considerable; but we have destroyed part of them by exciting
+our allies to attack them. I have already observed that they were a
+branch of the Natchez, and upon my first settling among these, I found
+several Chitimachas, who had taken refuge among them to avoid the
+calamities of the war which had been made upon them near the lakes.
+
+Since the peace that was concluded with them in 1719, they have not
+only remained quiet, but kept themselves so prudently retired, that,
+rather than have any intercourse with the French, or traffic with them
+for what they look upon as superfluities, they choose to live in the
+manner they did an hundred years ago.
+
+Along the west coast, not far from the sea, inhabit the nation named
+Atacapas, that is, Man-eaters, being so called by the other nations on
+account of their detestable custom of eating their enemies, or such as
+they believe to be their enemies. In this vast country there are no
+other cannibals to be met with besides the Atacapas; and since the
+French have gone among them, they have raised in them so great an
+horror of that abominable practice of devouring creatures of their own
+species, that they have promised to leave it off; and accordingly for
+a long time past we have heard of no such barbarity among them.
+
+The Bayouc-Ogoulas were formerly situated in the country that still
+bears their name. This nation is now confounded with the others to
+whom it is joined.
+
+The Oque-Loussas are a small nation situated north-west from the Cut
+Point. They live on the banks of two small lakes, the waters of which
+appear black by reason of the great number of leaves which cover the
+bottom of them, and have given name to the nation, Oque-Loussas in
+their language signifying Black Water.
+
+From the Oque-Loussas to the Red River, we meet with no other nation;
+but upon the banks of this river, a little above the Rapid, is seated
+the small nation of the Avoyels. These are the people who bring to our
+settlers horses, oxen, and cows. {303} I know not in what fair they
+buy them, nor with what money they pay for them; but the truth is,
+they sell them to us for about seventeen shillings a-piece. The
+Spaniards of New-Spain have such numbers of them that they do not know
+what to do with them, and are obliged to those who will take them off
+their hands. At present the French have a greater number of them than
+they want, especially of horses.
+
+About fifty leagues higher up the Red River, live the Nachitoches,
+near a French post of the same name. They are a pretty considerable
+nation, having about two hundred huts. They have always been greatly
+attached to the French; but never were friends to the Spaniards. There
+are some branches of this nation situated further westward; but the
+huts are not numerous.
+
+Three hundred miles west from the Missisippi, upon the Red River, we
+find the great nation of the Cadodaquioux. It is divided into several
+branches which extend very widely. This people, as well as the
+Nachitoches, have a peculiar language; however, there is not a village
+in either of the nations, nor indeed in any nation of Louisiana, where
+there are not some who can speak the Chicasaw language, which is
+called the vulgar tongue, and is the same here as the Lingua Franca is
+in the Levant.
+
+Between the Red River and the Arkansas there is at present no nation.
+Formerly the Ouachites lived upon the Black River, and gave their name
+to it; but at this time there are no remains of that nation; the
+Chicasaws having destroyed great part of them, and the rest took
+refuge among the Cadodaquioux, where their enemies durst not molest
+them. The Taensas lived formerly in this neighbourhood upon a river of
+their name; but they took refuge on the banks of the Mobile near the
+allies of the Chicasaws, who leave them undisturbed.
+
+The nation of the Arkansas have given their name to the river on which
+they are situated, about four leagues from its confluence with the
+Missisippi. This nation is pretty considerable, and its men are no
+less distinguished for being good hunters than stout warriors. The
+Chicasaws, who are of a {304} restless disposition, have more than
+once wanted to make trial of the bravery of the Arkansas; but they
+were opposed with such firmness, that they have now laid aside all
+thoughts of attacking them, especially since they have been joined by
+the Kappas, the Michigamias, and a part of the Illinois, who have
+settled among them. Accordingly there is no longer any mention either
+of the Kappas or Michigamias, who are now all adopted by the Arkansas.
+
+The reader may have already observed in this account of the natives of
+Louisiana, that several nations of those people had joined themselves
+to others, either because they could no longer resist their enemies,
+or because they hoped to improve their condition by intermixing with
+another nation. I am glad to have this occasion of observing that
+those people respect the rights of hospitality, and that those rights
+always prevail, notwithstanding any superiority that one nation may
+have over another with whom they are at war, or even over those people
+among whom their enemies take refuge. For example, a nation of two
+thousand warriors makes war upon, and violently pursues another nation
+of five hundred warriors, who retire among a nation in alliance with
+their enemies. If this last nation adopt the five hundred, the first
+nation, though two thousand in number, immediately lay down their
+arms, and instead of continuing hostilities, reckon the adopted nation
+among the number of their allies.
+
+Besides the Arkansas, some authors place other nations upon their
+river. I cannot take upon me to say that there never were any; but I
+can positively affirm, from my own observation upon the spot, that no
+other nation is to be met with at present on this river, or even as
+far as the Missouri.
+
+Not far from the river Missouri is situated the nation of the Osages,
+upon a small river of the same name. This nation is said to have been
+pretty considerable formerly, but at present they can neither be said
+to be great nor small.
+
+The nation of the Missouris is very considerable, and has given its
+name to the large river that empties itself into the Missisippi. It is
+the first nation we meet with from the confluence {305} of the two
+rivers, and yet it is situated above forty leagues up the Missouri.
+The French had a settlement pretty near this nation, at the time when
+M. de Bourgmont was commandant in those parts; but soon after he left
+them, the inhabitants massacred the French garrison.
+
+The Spaniards, as well as our other neighbours, being continually
+jealous of our superiority over them, formed a design of establishing
+themselves among the Missouris, about forty leagues from the Illinois,
+in order to limit our boundaries westward. They judged it necessary,
+for the security of their colony, entirely to cut off the Missouris,
+and for that purpose they courted the friendship of the Osages, whose
+assistance they thought would be of service to them in their
+enterprize, and who were generally at enmity with the Missouris. A
+company of Spaniards, men, women, and soldiers, accordingly set out
+from Santa Fe, having a Dominican for their chaplain, and an engineer
+for their guide and commander. The caravan was furnished with horses,
+and all other kinds of beasts necessary; for it is one of their
+prudent maxims, to send off all those things together. By a fatal
+mistake the Spaniards arrived first among the Missouris, whom they
+mistook for the Osages, and imprudently discovering their hostile
+intentions, they were themselves surprised and cut off by those whom
+they intended for destruction. The Missouris some time afterwards
+dressed themselves with the ornaments of the chapel; and carried them
+in a kind of triumphant procession to the French commandant among the
+Illinois. Along with the ornaments they brought a Spanish map, which
+seemed to me to be a better draught of the west part of our colony,
+towards them, than of the countries we are most concerned with. From
+this map it appears, that we ought to bend the Red River, and that of
+the Arkansas, somewhat more, and place the source of the Missisippi
+more westerly than our geographers do.
+
+The principal nations who inhabit upon the banks, or in the
+neighbourhood of the Missouri, are, besides those already mentioned,
+the Canzas, the Othoues, the White Panis, the Black Panis, the
+Panimachas, the Aiouez, and the Padoucas. The most numerous of all
+those nations are the Padoucas, the smallest {306} are the Aiouez, the
+Othoues, and the Osages; the others are pretty considerable.
+
+To the north of all those nations, and near the river Missisippi, it
+is pretended that a part of the nation of the Sioux have their
+residence. Some affirm that they inhabit now on one side of the river,
+now on another. From what I could learn from travellers, I am inclined
+to think, that they occupy at the same time both sides of the
+Missisippi, and their settlements, as I have elsewhere observed, are
+more than an hundred leagues above the Fall of St. Anthony. But we
+need not yet disquiet ourselves about the advantages which might
+result to us from those very remote countries. Many ages must pass
+before we can penetrate into the northern parts of Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_A Description of the natives of_ Louisiana; _of their manners and
+customs, particularly those of the_ Natchez: _of their language, their
+religion, ceremonies_, Rulers _or_ Suns, _feasts, marriages, &c._
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_A description of the natives; the different employments of the two
+sexes; and their manner of bringing up their children._
+
+
+In the concise history which I have given of the people of Louisiana,
+and in several other places where I have happened to mention them, the
+reader may have observed that these nations have not all the same
+character, altho' they live adjoining to each other. He therefore
+ought not to expect a perfect uniformity in their manners, or that I
+should describe all the different usages that prevail in different
+parts, which would create a disagreeable medley, and tend only to
+confound his ideas which cannot be too clear. My design is only to
+shew in general, from the character of those people, what course we
+ought to observe, in order to draw advantage from our intercourse with
+them. I shall however be more full in speaking of the Natchez, a
+populous nation, among whom I lived the space of eight years, and
+whose sovereign, the chief of war, and the chief of the keepers of the
+temple, were among my most intimate {307} friends. Besides, their
+manners were more civilized, their manner of thinking more just and
+fuller of sentiment, their customs more reasonable, and their
+ceremonies more natural and serious; on all which accounts they were
+eminently distinguished above the other nations.
+
+All the natives of America in general are extremely well made; very
+few of them are to be seen under five feet and a half, and very many
+of them above that; their leg seems as if it was fashioned in a mould;
+it is nervous, and the calf is firm; they are long waisted; their head
+is upright and somewhat flat in the upper part, and their features are
+regular; they have black eyes, and thick black hair without curls. If
+we see none that are extremely fat and pursy, neither do we meet with
+any that are so lean as if they were in a consumption. The men in
+general are better made than the women; they are more nervous, and the
+women more plump and fleshy; the men are almost all large, and the
+women of a middle size. I have always been inclined to think, that the
+care they take of their children in their infancy contributes greatly
+to their fine shapes, tho' the climate has also its share in that, for
+the French born in Louisiana are all large, well shaped, and of good
+flesh and blood.
+
+When any of the women of the natives is delivered, she goes
+immediately to the water and washes herself and the infant; she then
+comes home and lies down, after having disposed her infant in the
+cradle, which is about two feet and a half long, nine inches broad,
+and half a foot deep, being formed of straight pieces of cane bent up
+at one end, to serve for a foot or stay. Betwixt the canes and the
+infant is a kind of matrass of the tufted herb called Spanish Beard,
+and under its head is a little skin cushion, stuffed with the same
+herb. The infant is laid on its back in the cradle, and fastened to it
+by the shoulders, the arms, the legs, the thighs, and the hips; and
+over its forehead are laid two bands of deer-skin which keeps its head
+to the cushion, and renders that part flat. As the cradle does not
+weigh much above two pounds, it generally lies on the mother's bed,
+who suckles the infant occasionally. The infant is rocked not
+side-ways but end-ways, and when it is a {308} month old they put
+under its knees garters made of buffalo's wool which is very soft, and
+above the ankle bones they bind the legs with threads of the same wool
+for the breadth of three or four inches. And these ligatures the child
+wears till it be four or five years old.
+
+The infants of the natives are white when they are born, but they soon
+turn brown, as they are rubbed with bear's oil and exposed to the sun.
+They rub them with oil, both to render their nerves more flexible, and
+also to prevent the flies from stinging them, as they suffer them to
+roll about naked upon all fours, before they are able to walk upright.
+They never put them upon their legs till they are a year old, and they
+suffer them to suck as long as they please, unless the mother prove
+with child, in which case she ceases to suckle.
+
+When the boys are about twelve years of age, they give them a bow and
+arrows proportioned to their strength, and in order to exercise them
+they tie some hay, about twice as large as the fist, to the end of a
+pole about ten feet high. He who brings down the hay receives the
+prize from an old man who is always present: the best shooter is
+called the young warrior, the next best is called the apprentice
+warrior, and so on of the others, who are prompted to excel more by
+sentiments of honour than by blows.
+
+As they are threatened from their most tender infancy with the
+resentment of the old man, if they are any ways refractory or do any
+mischievous tricks, which is very rare, they fear and respect him above
+every one else. This old man is frequently the great-grandfather, or
+the great-great-grand-father of the family, for those natives live to a
+very great age. I have seen some of them not able to walk, without
+having any other distemper or infirmity than old age, so that when the
+necessities of nature required it, or they wanted to take the air, they
+were obliged to be carried out of their hut, an assistance which is
+always readily offered to the old men. The respect paid to them by
+their family is so great, that they are looked upon as the judges of
+all differences, and their counsels are decrees. An old man who is the
+head of a family is called father, even by his grand-children, and
+great-grand-children, {309} who to distinguish their immediate father
+call him their true father.
+
+If any of their young people happen to fight, which I never saw nor
+heard of during the whole time I resided in their neighbourhood, they
+threaten to put them in a hut at a great distance from their nation,
+as persons unworthy to live among others; and this is repeated to them
+so often, that if they happen to have had a battle, they take care
+never to have another. I have already observed that I studied them a
+considerable number of years; and I never could learn that there ever
+were any disputes or boxing matches among either their boys or men.
+
+As the children grow up, the fathers and mothers take care each to
+accustom those of their own sex to the labours and exercises suited to
+them, and they have no great trouble to keep them employed; but it
+must be confessed that the girls and the women work more than the men
+and the boys. These last go a hunting and fishing, cut the wood, the
+smallest bits of which are carried home by the women; they clear the
+fields for corn, and hoe it; and on days when they cannot go abroad
+they amuse themselves with making, after their fashion, pickaxes,
+oars, paddles, and other instruments, which once made last a long
+while. The women on the other hand have their children to bring up,
+have to pound the maiz for the subsistence of the family, have to keep
+up the fire, and to make a great many utensils, which require a good
+deal of work, and last but a short time, such as their earthen ware,
+their matts, their clothes, and a thousand other things of that kind.
+
+When the children are about ten or twelve years of age they accustom
+them by degrees to carry small loads, which they increase with their
+years. The boys are from time to time exercised in running; but they
+never suffer them to exhaust themselves by the length of the race,
+lest they should overheat themselves. The more nimble at that exercise
+sometimes sportfully challenges those who are more slow and heavy; but
+the old man who presides hinders the raillery from being carried to
+any excess, carefully avoiding all subjects of quarrel and dispute, on
+which account doubtless it is that they will never suffer them to
+wrestle.
+
+{310} Both boys and girls are early accustomed to bathe every morning,
+in order to strengthen the nerves, and harden them against cold and
+fatigue, and likewise to teach them to swim, that they may avoid or
+pursue an enemy, even across a river. The boys and girls, from the
+time they are three years of age, are called out every morning by an
+old man, to go to the river; and here is some more employment for the
+mothers who accompany them thither to teach them to swim. Those who
+can swim tolerably well, make a great noise in winter by beating the
+water in order to frighten away the crocodiles, and keep themselves
+warm.
+
+The reader will have observed that most of the labour and fatigue
+falls to the share of the women; but I can declare that I never heard
+them complain of their fatigues, unless of the trouble their children
+gave them, which complaint arose as much from maternal affection, as
+from any attention that the children required. The girls from their
+infancy have it instilled into them, that if they are sluttish or
+unhandy they will have none but a dull aukward fellow for their
+husband; I observed in all the nations I visited, that this
+threatening was never lost upon the young girls.
+
+I would not have it thought however, that the young men are altogether
+idle. Their occupations indeed are not of such a long continuance; but
+they are much more laborious. As the men have occasion for more
+strength, reason requires that they should not exhaust themselves in
+their youth; but at the same time they are not exempted from those
+exercises that fit them for war and hunting. The children are educated
+without blows; and the body is left at full liberty to grow, and to
+form and strengthen itself with their years. The youths accompany the
+men in hunting, in order to learn the wiles and tricks necessary to be
+practised in the field, and accustom themselves to suffering and
+patience. When they are full grown men, they dress the field or waste
+land, and prepare it to receive the seed; they go to war or hunting,
+dress the skins, cut the wood, make their bows and arrows, and assist
+each other in building their huts.
+
+They have still I allow a great deal of more spare time than the
+women; but this is not all thrown away. As these {311} people have not
+the assistance of writing, they are obliged to have recourse to
+tradition, in order to preserve the remembrance of any remarkable
+transactions; and this tradition cannot be learned but by frequent
+repetitions, consequently many of the youths are often employed in
+hearing the old men narrate the history of their ancestors, which is
+thus transmitted from generation to generation. In order to preserve
+their traditions pure and uncorrupt, they are careful not to deliver
+them indifferently to all their young people, but teach them only to
+those young men of whom they have the best opinion.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the language, government, religion, ceremonies, and feasts of the
+natives._
+
+
+During my residence among the Natchez I contracted an intimate
+friendship, not only with the chiefs or guardians of the temple, but
+with the Great Sun, or the sovereign of the nation, and his brother
+the Stung Serpent, the chief of the warriors; and by my great intimacy
+with them, and the respect I acquired among the people, I easily
+learned the peculiar language of the nation.
+
+This language is easy in the pronunciation, and expressive in the
+terms. The natives, like the Orientals, speak much in a figurative
+stile, the Natchez in particular more than any other people of
+Louisiana. They have two languages, that of the nobles and that of the
+people, and both are very copious. I will give two or three examples
+to shew the difference of these two languages. When I call one of the
+common people, I say to him _aquenan_, that is, hark ye: if, on the
+other hand, I want to speak to a Sun, or one of their nobles, I say to
+him, _magani_, which signifies, hark ye. If one of the common people
+call at my house, I say to him, _tachte-cabanacte, are you there_, or I
+am glad to see you, which is equivalent to our goodmorrow. I express
+the same thing to a Sun by the word _apapegouaiché_. Again, according to
+their custom, I say to one of the common people, _petchi, sit you down_;
+but to a Sun, when I desire him to sit down, I say, _caham_. The two
+languages are {312} nearly the same in all other respects; for the
+difference of expression seems only to take place in matters relating
+to the persons of the Suns and nobles, in distinction from those of
+the people.
+
+Tho' the women speak the same language with the men, yet, in their
+manner of pronunciation, they soften and smooth the words, whereas the
+speech of the men is more grave and serious. The French, by chiefly
+frequenting the women, contracted their manner of speaking, which was
+ridiculed as an effeminacy by the women, as well as the men, among the
+natives.
+
+
+From my conversations with the chief of the guardians of the temple, I
+discovered that they acknowledged a supreme being, whom they called
+_Coyococop-Chill_, or _Great Spirit_. The _Spirit infinitely great_, or
+the _Spirit_ by way of excellence. The word _chill_, in their language,
+signifies the most superlative degree of perfection, and is added by
+them to the word which signifies _fire_, when they want to mention the
+Sun; thus _Oua_ is _fire_, and _Oua-chill_ is the _supreme fire_, or the
+_Sun_; therefore, by the word _Coyocop-Chill_ they mean a spirit that
+surpasses other spirits as much as the sun does common fire.
+
+"God," according to the definition of the guardian of the temple, "was
+so great and powerful, that, in comparison with him, all other things
+were as nothing; he had made all that we see, all that we can see, and
+all that we cannot see; he was so good, that he could not do ill to
+any one, even if he had a mind to it. They believe that God had made
+all things by his will; that nevertheless the little spirits, who are
+his servants, might, by his orders, have made many excellent works in
+the universe, which we admire; but that God himself had formed man
+with his own hands."
+
+The guardian added, that they named those little spirits,
+_Coyocop-techou_, that is, a _free servant_, but as submissive and as
+respectful as a slave; that those spirits were always present before
+God, ready to execute his pleasure with an extreme diligence; that the
+air was filled with other spirits, some good some wicked; and that the
+latter had a chief, who was more {313} wicked than them all; that God
+had found him so wicked, that he had bound him for ever, so that the
+other spirits of the air no longer did so much harm, especially when
+they were by prayers entreated not to do it; for it is one of the
+religious customs of those people to invoke the spirits of the air for
+rain or fine weather, according as each is needed. I have seen the
+Great Sun fast for nine days together, eating nothing but maiz-corn,
+without meat or fish, drinking nothing but water, and abstaining from
+the company of his wives during the whole time. He underwent this
+rigorous fast out of complaisance to some Frenchmen, who had been
+complaining that it had not rained for a long time. Those
+inconsiderate people had not remarked, that notwithstanding the want
+of rain, the fruits of the earth had not suffered, as the dew is so
+plentiful in summer as fully to supply that deficiency.
+
+The guardian of the temple having told me that God had made man with
+his own hands, I asked him if he knew how that was done. He answered,
+"that God had kneaded some clay, such as that which potters use, and
+had made it into a little man; and that after examining it, and
+finding it well formed, he blew up his work, and forthwith that little
+man had life, grew, acted, walked, and found himself a man perfectly
+well shaped." As he made no mention of the woman, I asked him how he
+believed she was made; he told me, "that probably in the same manner
+as the man; that their _antient speech_ made no mention of any
+difference, only told them that the man was made first, and was the
+strongest and most courageous, because he was to be the head and
+support of the woman, who was made to be his companion."
+
+Here I did not omit to rectify his notions on the subjects we had been
+talking about, and to give him those just ideas which religion teaches
+us, and the sacred writings have transmitted to us. He hearkened to me
+with great attention, and promised to repeat all that I had told him
+to the old men of his nation, who certainly would not forget it;
+adding, that we were very happy in being able to retain the knowledge
+of such fine things by means of the speaking cloth, so they name books
+and manuscripts.
+
+{314} I next proceeded to ask him, who had taught them to build a
+temple; whence had they their eternal fire, which they preserved with
+so much care; and who was the person that first instituted their
+feasts? He replied, "The charge I am entrusted with obliges me to know
+all these things you ask of me; I will therefore satisfy you: hearken
+to me. A great number of years ago there appeared among us a man and
+his wife, who came down from the sun. Not that we believe that the sun
+had a wife who bore him children, or that these were the descendants
+of the sun; but when they first appeared among us they were so bright
+and luminous that we had no difficulty to believe that they came down
+from the sun. This man told us, that having seen from on high that we
+did not govern ourselves well; that we had no master; that each of us
+had presumption enough to think himself capable of governing others,
+while he could not even conduct himself; he had thought fit to come
+down among us to teach us to live better.
+
+"He moreover told us, that in order to live in peace among ourselves,
+and to please the supreme Spirit, we must indispensably observe the
+following points; we must never kill any one but in defence of our own
+lives; we must never know any other woman besides our own; we must
+never take any thing that belongs to another; we must never lye nor
+get drunk; we must not be avaricious, but must give liberally, and
+with joy, part of what we have to others who are in want, and
+generously share our subsistence with those who are in need of it."
+
+"The words of this man deeply affected us, for he spoke them with
+authority, and he procured the respect even of the old men themselves,
+tho' he reprehended them as freely as the rest. Next day we offered to
+acknowledge him as our sovereign. He at first refused, saying that he
+should not be obeyed, and that the disobedient would infallibly die;
+but at length he accepted the offer that was made him on the following
+condition:
+
+"That we would go and inhabit another country, better than that in
+which we were, which he would shew us; that we would afterwards live
+conformable to the instructions he had given us; that we would promise
+never to acknowledge any {315} other sovereigns but him and his
+descendants; that the nobility should be perpetuated by the women
+after this manner; if I, said he, have male and female children, they
+being brothers and sisters cannot marry together; the eldest boy may
+chuse a wife from among the people, but his sons shall be only nobles;
+the children of the eldest girl, on the other hand, shall be princes
+and princesses, and her eldest son be sovereign; but her eldest
+daughter be the mother of the next sovereign, even tho' she should
+marry one of the common people; and, in defect of the eldest daughter,
+the next female relation to the person reigning shall be the mother of
+the future sovereign; the sons of the sovereign and princes shall lose
+their rank, but the daughters shall preserve theirs."
+
+"He then told us, that in order to preserve the excellent precepts he
+had given us, it was necessary to build a temple, into which it should
+be lawful for none but the princes and princesses to enter, to speak
+to the Spirit. That in the temple they should eternally preserve a
+fire, which he would bring down from the sun, from whence he himself
+had descended, that the wood with which the fire was supplied should
+be pure wood without bark; that eight wise men of the nation should be
+chosen for guarding the fire night and day; that those eight men
+should have a chief, who should see them do their duty, and that if
+any of them failed in it he should be put to death. He likewise
+ordered another temple to be built in a distant part of our nation,
+which was then very populous, and the eternal fire to be kept there
+also, that in case it should be extinguished in the one it might be
+brought from the other; in which case, till it was again lighted, the
+nation would be afflicted with a great mortality."
+
+"Our nation having consented to these conditions, he agreed to be our
+sovereign; and in presence of all the people he brought down the fire
+from the sun, upon some wood of the walnut-tree which he had prepared,
+which fire was deposited in both the temples. He lived a long time,
+and saw his children's children. To conclude, he instituted our feasts
+such as you see them."
+
+The Natchez have neither sacrifices, libations, nor offerings: their
+whole worship consists in preserving the eternal {316} fire, and this
+the Great Sun watches over with a peculiar attention. The Sun, who
+reigned when I was in the country, was extremely solicitous about it,
+and visited the temple every day. His vigilance had been awakened by a
+terrible hurricane which some years before had happened in the
+country, and was looked upon as an extraordinary event, the air being
+generally clear and serene in that climate. If to that calamity should
+be joined the extinction of the eternal fire, he was apprehensive
+their whole nation would be destroyed.
+
+One day, when the Great Sun called upon me, he gave me an account of a
+dreadful calamity that had formerly befallen the nation of the
+Natchez, in consequence, as he believed, of the extinction of the
+eternal fire. He introduced his account in the following manner: "Our
+nation was formerly very numerous and very powerful; it extended more
+than twelve days journey from east to west, and more than fifteen from
+south to north. We reckoned then 500 Suns, and you may judge by that
+what was the number of the nobles, of the people of rank, and the
+common people. Now in times past it happened, that one of the two
+guardians, who were upon duty in the temple, left it on some business,
+and the other fell asleep, and suffered the fire to go out. When he
+awaked and saw that he had incurred the penalty of death, he went and
+got some profane fire, as tho' he had been going to light his pipe,
+and with that he renewed the eternal fire. His transgression was by
+that means concealed; but a dreadful mortality immediately ensued, and
+raged for four years, during which many Suns and an infinite number of
+the people died.
+
+"The guardian at length sickened, and found himself dying, upon which
+he sent for the Great Sun, and confessed the heinous crime he had been
+guilty of. The old men were immediately assembled, and, by their
+advice, fire being snatched from the other temple, and brought into
+this, the mortality quickly ceased." Upon my asking him what he meant
+by "snatching the fire," he replied, "that it must always be brought
+away by violence, and that some blood must be shed, unless some tree
+on the road was set on fire by lightning, and {317} then the fire
+might be brought from thence; but that the fire of the sun was always
+preferable."
+
+It is impossible to express his astonishment when I told him, that it
+was a trifling matter to bring down fire from the sun, and that I had it
+in my power to do it whenever I pleased. As he was extremely desirous to
+see me perform that seeming miracle, I took the smallest of two burning
+glasses which I had brought from France, and placing some dry punk (or
+agaric) upon a chip of wood, I drew the focus of the glass upon it, and
+with a tone of authority pronounced the word _Caheuch_, that is, _come_,
+as tho' I had been commanding the fire to come down. The punk
+immediately smoking, I blew a little and made it flame to the utter
+astonishment of the Great Sun and his whole retinue, some of whom stood
+trembling with amazement and religious awe. The prince himself could not
+help exclaiming, "Ah, what an extraordinary thing is here!" I confirmed
+him in his idea, by telling him, that I greatly loved and esteemed that
+useful instrument, as it was most valuable, and was given to me by my
+grandfather, who was a very learned man.
+
+Upon his asking me, if another man could do the same thing with that
+instrument that he had seen me do, I told him that every man might do
+it, and I encouraged him to make the experiment himself. I accordingly
+put the glass in his hand, and leading it with mine over another piece
+of agaric, I desired him to pronounce the word _Caheuch_, which he did,
+but with a very faint and diffident tone; nevertheless, to his great
+amazement, he saw the agaric begin to smoke, which so confounded him
+that he dropt both the chip on which it was laid and the glass out of
+his hands, crying out, "Ah, what a miracle!"
+
+Their curiosity being now fully raised, they held a consultation in my
+yard, and resolved to purchase at any rate my wonderful glass, which
+would prevent any future mortality in their nation, in consequence of
+the extinction of the eternal fire. I, in the mean time, had gone out
+to my field, as if about some business; but in reality to have a
+hearty laugh at the comical scene which I had just occasioned. Upon my
+return the Great Sun entered my apartment with me, and laying his hand
+upon mine, told me, that tho' he loved all the French, he {318} was
+more my friend than of any of the rest, because most of the French
+carried all their understanding upon their tongue, but that I carried
+mine in my whole head and my whole body. After this preamble he
+offered to bargain for my glass, and desired me to set what value I
+pleased upon it, adding that he would not only cause the price to be
+paid by all the families of the nation, but would declare to them that
+they lay under an obligation to me for giving up to them a thing which
+saved them from a general mortality. I replied, that tho' I bore his
+whole nation in my heart, yet nothing made me part with my glass, but
+my affection for him and his brother; that, besides, I asked nothing
+in return but things necessary for my subsistence, such as corn,
+fowls, game, and fish, when they brought him any of these. He offered
+me twenty barrels of maiz, of 150 pounds each, twenty fowls, twenty
+turkies, and told me that he would send me game and fish every time
+his warriors brought him any, and his promise was punctually
+fulfilled. He engaged likewise not to speak any thing about it to the
+Frenchmen, lest they should be angry with me for parting with an
+instrument of so great a value. Next day the glass was tried before a
+general assembly of all the Suns, both men and women, the nobles, and
+the men of rank, who all met together at the temple; and the same
+effect being produced as the day before, the bargain was ratified; but
+it was resolved not to mention the affair to the common people, who,
+from their curiosity to know the secrets of their court, were
+assembled in great numbers not far from the temple, but only to tell
+them, that the whole nation of the Natchez were under great
+obligations to me.
+
+The Natchez are brought up in a most perfect submission to their
+sovereign; the authority which their princes exercise over them is
+absolutely despotic, and can be compared to nothing but that of the
+first Ottoman emperors. Like these, the Great Sun is absolute master
+of the lives and estates of his subjects, which he disposes of at his
+pleasure, his will being the only law; but he has this singular
+advantage over the Ottoman princes, that he has no occasion to fear
+any seditious tumults, or any conspiracy against his person. If he
+orders a man guilty of a capital crime to be put to death, the
+criminal {319} neither supplicates, nor procures intercession to be
+made for his life, nor attempts to run away. The order of the
+sovereign is executed on the spot, and nobody murmurs. But however
+absolute the authority of the Great Sun may be, and although a number
+of warriors and others attach themselves to him, to serve him, to
+follow him wherever he goes, and to hunt for him, yet he raises no
+stated impositions; and what he receives from those people appears
+given, not so much as a right due, as a voluntary homage, and a
+testimony of their love and gratitude.
+
+The Natchez begin their year in the month of March, as was the
+practice a long time in Europe, and divide it into thirteen moons. At
+every new moon they celebrate a feast, which takes its name from the
+principal fruits reaped in the preceding moon, or from animals that
+are then usually hunted. I shall give an account of one or two of
+these feasts as concisely as I can.
+
+The first moon is called that of the Deer, and begins their new year,
+which is celebrated by them with universal joy, and is at the same
+time an anniversary memorial of one of the most interesting events in
+their history. In former times a Great Sun, upon hearing a sudden
+tumult in his village, had left his hut in a great hurry, in order to
+appease it, and fell into the hands of his enemies; but was quickly
+after rescued by his warriors, who repulsed the invaders, and put them
+to flight.
+
+In order to preserve the remembrance of this honourable exploit, the
+warriors divide themselves into two bodies, distinguished from each
+other by the colour of their feathers. One of these bodies represents
+the invaders, and after raising loud shouts and cries, seize the Great
+Sun, who comes out of his hut undressed, and rubbing his eyes, as
+though he were just awake. The Great Sun defends himself intrepidly
+with a wooden tomahawk, and lays a great many of his enemies upon the
+ground, without however giving them a single blow, for he only seems
+to touch them with his weapon. In the mean time the other party come
+out of their ambuscade, attack the invaders, and, after fighting with
+them for some time, rescue their prince, and drive them into a wood,
+which is represented by an arbour {320} made of canes. During the
+whole time of the skirmish, the parties keep up the war-cry, or the
+cry of terror, as each of them seem to be victors or vanquished. The
+Great Sun is brought back to his hut in a triumphant manner; and the
+old men, women, and children, who were spectators of the engagement,
+rend the sky with their joyful acclamations. The Great Sun continues
+in his hut about half an hour, to repose himself after his great
+fatigues, which are such that an actor of thirty years of age would
+with difficulty have supported them, and he however, when I saw this
+feast, was above ninety. He then makes his appearance again to the
+people, who salute him with loud acclamations, which cease upon his
+proceeding towards the temple. When he is arrived in the middle of the
+court before the temple, he makes several gesticulations, then
+stretches out his arms horizontally, and remains in that posture
+motionless as a statute for half an hour. He is then relieved by the
+master of the ceremonies, who places himself in the same attitude, and
+half an hour after is relieved by the great chief of war, who remains
+as long in the same posture. When this ceremony is over, the Great
+Sun, who, when he was relieved, had returned to his hut, appears again
+before the people in the ornaments of his dignity, is placed upon his
+throne, which is a large stool with four feet cut out of one piece of
+wood, has a fine buffalo's skin thrown over his shoulders, and several
+furs laid upon his feet, and receives various presents from the women,
+who all the while continue to express their joy by their shouts and
+acclamations. Strangers are then invited to dine with the Great Sun,
+and in the evening there is a dance in his hut, which is about thirty
+feet square, and twenty feet high, and like the temple is built upon a
+mount of earth, about eight feet high, and sixty feet over on the
+surface.
+
+The second moon, which answers to our April, is called the Strawberry
+moon, as that fruit abounds then in great quantities.
+
+The third moon is that of the Small Corn. This moon is often
+impatiently looked for, their crop of large corn never sufficing to
+nourish them from one harvest to another.
+
+{321} The fourth is that of Water-melons, and answers to our June.
+
+The fifth moon is that of the Fishes: in this month also they gather
+grapes, if the birds have suffered them to ripen.
+
+The sixth, which answers to our August, is that of the Mulberries. At
+this feast they likewise carry fowls to the Great Sun.
+
+The seventh, which is that of Maiz, or Great Corn. This feast is
+beyond dispute the most solemn of all. It principally consists in
+eating in common, and in a religious manner, of new corn, which had
+been sown expressly with that design, with suitable ceremonies. This
+corn is sown upon a spot of ground never before cultivated; which
+ground is dressed and prepared by the warriors alone, who also are the
+only persons that sow the corn, weed it, reap it, and gather it. When
+this corn is near ripe, the warriors fix on a place proper for the
+general feast, and close adjoining to that they form a round granary,
+the bottom and sides of which are of cane; this they fill, with the
+corn, and when they have finished the harvest, and covered the
+granary, they acquaint the Great Sun, who appoints the day for the
+general feast. Some days before the feast, they build huts for the
+Great Sun, and for all the other families, round the granary, that of
+the Great Sun being raised upon a mount of earth about two feet high.
+On the feast-day the whole nation set out from their village at
+sun-rising, leaving behind only the aged and infirm that are not able
+to travel, and a few warriors, who are to carry the Great Sun on a
+litter upon their shoulders. The seat of this litter is covered with
+several deer skins, and to its four sides are fastened four bars which
+cross each other, and are supported by eight men, who at every hundred
+paces transfer their burden to eight other men, and thus successively
+transport it to the place where the feast is celebrated, which may be
+near two miles from the village. About nine o'clock the Great Sun
+comes out of his hut dressed in the ornaments of his dignity, and
+being placed in his litter, which has a canopy at the head formed of
+flowers, he is carried in a few minutes to the sacred granary, shouts
+of {322} joy re-echoing on all sides. Before he alights he makes the
+tour of the whole place deliberately, and when he comes before the
+corn, he salutes it thrice with the words, _hoo, hoo, hoo_, lengthened
+and pronounced respectfully. The salutation is repeated by the whole
+nation, who pronounce the word _hoo_ nine times distinctly, and at the
+ninth time he alights and places himself on his throne.
+
+Immediately after they light a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood
+violently against each other, and when every thing is prepared for
+dressing the corn, the chief of war, accompanied by the warriors
+belonging to each family, presents himself before the throne, and
+addresses the Sun in these words, "speak, for I hear thee." The
+sovereign then rises up, bows towards the four quarters of the world,
+and advancing to the granary, lifts his eyes and hands to heaven, and
+says, "Give us corn:" upon which the great chief of war, the princes
+and princesses, and all the men, thank him separately, by pronouncing
+the word _hoo_. The corn is then distributed, first to the female Suns,
+and then to all the women, who run with it to their huts, and dress it
+with the utmost dispatch. When the corn is dressed in all the huts, a
+plate of it is put into the hands of the Great Sun, who presents it to
+the four quarters of the world, and then says to the chief of war,
+_eat_; upon this signal the warriors begin to eat in all the huts; after
+them the boys of whatever age, excepting those who are on the breast;
+and last of all the women. When the warriors have finished their
+repast, they form themselves into two choirs before the huts, and sing
+war songs for half an hour; after which the chief of war, and all the
+warriors in succession, recount their brave exploits, and mention, in
+a boasting manner, the number of enemies they have slain. The youths
+are next allowed to harangue, and each tells in the best manner he
+can, not what he has done, but what he intends to do; and if his
+discourse merits approbation, he is answered by a general _hoo_; if not,
+the warriors hang down their heads and are silent.
+
+This great solemnity is concluded with a general dance by torch-light.
+Upwards of two hundred torches of dried canes, each of the thickness
+of a child, are lighted round the place, {323} where the men and women
+often continue dancing till day-light; and the following is the
+disposition of their dance. A man places himself on the ground with a
+pot covered with a deer-skin, in the manner of a drum, to beat time to
+the dances; round him the women form themselves into a circle, not
+joining hands, but at some distance from each other; and they are
+inclosed by the men in another circle, who have in each hand a
+chichicois, or calabash, with a stick thrust through it to serve for a
+handle. When the dance begins, the women move round {324} the men in
+the centre, from left to right, and the men contrariwise from right to
+left, and they sometimes narrow and sometimes widen their circles. In
+this manner the dance continues without intermission the whole night,
+new performers successively taking the place of those who are wearied
+and fatigued.
+
+[Illustration: _Dance of the Natchez indians_ (on p. 323)]
+
+Next morning no person is seen abroad before the Great Sun comes out
+of his hut, which is generally about nine o'clock, and then upon
+signal made by the drum, the warriors make their appearance
+distinguished into two troops, by the feathers which they wear on
+their heads. One of these troops is headed by the Great Sun, and the
+other by the chief of war, who begin a new diversion by tossing a ball
+of deer-skin stuffed with Spanish beard from the one to the other. The
+warriors quickly take part in the sport, and a violent contest ensues
+which of the two parties shall drive the ball to the hut of the
+opposite chief. The diversion generally lasts two hours, and the
+victors are allowed to wear the feathers of superiority till the
+following year, or till the next time they play at the ball. After
+this the warriors perform the war dance; and last of all they go and
+bathe; an exercise which they are very fond of when they are heated or
+fatigued.
+
+The rest of that day is employed as the preceding; for the feasts
+holds as long as any of the corn remains. When it is all eat up, the
+Great Sun is carried back in his litter, and they all return to the
+village, after which he sends the warriors to hunt both for themselves
+and him.
+
+The eighth moon is that of Turkies, and answers to our October.
+
+The ninth moon is that of the Buffalo; and it is then they go to hunt
+that animal. Having discovered whereabouts the herd feeds, they go out
+in a body to hunt them. Young and old, girls and married women, except
+those who are with child, are all of the party, for there is generally
+work for them all. Some nations are a little later in going out to
+this hunting, that they may find the cows fatter, and the herds more
+numerous.
+
+The tenth moon is that of Bears; at this time of hunting the feasts
+are not so grand and solemn, because great part of the nations are
+accompanying the hunters in their expeditions.
+
+{325} The eleventh answers to our January, and is named as Cold-meal
+Moon. The twelfth is that of Chesnuts. That fruit has been gathered
+long before, nevertheless it gives its name to this moon.
+
+Lastly, the thirteenth is that of Walnuts, and it is added to compleat
+the year. It is then they break the nuts to make bread of them by
+mixing with them the flour of Maiz.
+
+The feasts which I saw celebrated in the chief village of the Natchez,
+which is the residence of the Great Sun, are celebrated in the same
+manner in all the villages of the nation, which are each governed by a
+Sun, who is subordinate to the Great Sun, and acknowledge his absolute
+authority.
+
+It is not to be conceived how exact these people are in assigning the
+pre-eminence to the men. In every assembly, whether of the whole
+nation in general, or of several families together, or of one family,
+the youngest boys have the preference to the women of the most
+advanced age; and at their meals, when their food is distributed, none
+is presented to the women, till all the males have received their
+share, so that a boy of two years old is served before his mother.
+
+The women being always employed, without ever being diverted from
+their duty, or seduced by the gallantries of lovers, never think of
+objecting to the propriety of a custom, in which they have been
+constantly brought up. Never having seen any example that contradicted
+it, they have not the least idea of varying from it. Thus being
+submissive from the habit, as well as from reason, they, by their
+docility, maintain that peace in their families, which they find
+established upon entering them.
+
+{326}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+_Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks._
+
+
+Paternal authority, as I have elsewhere observed, is not less sacred
+and inviolable than the pre-eminence of the men. It still subsists
+among the Natchez, such as it was in the first ages of the world. The
+children belong to the father, and while he lives they are under his
+power. They live with him, they, their wives, and their children; the
+same hut contains the whole family. The old man alone commands there,
+and nothing but death puts an end to his empire. As these people have
+seldom or rather never any differences among them, the paternal
+authority appears in nothing more conspicuous than in the marriages.
+
+When the boys and girls arrive at the perfect age of puberty, they
+visit each other familiarly, and are suffered so to do. The girls,
+sensible that they will be no longer mistresses of their heart, when
+once they are married, know how to dispose of it to advantage, and
+form their wardrobe by the sale of their favours; for there, as well
+as in other countries, nothing for nothing. The lover, far from having
+any thing to object to this, on the contrary, rates the merit of his
+future spouse, in proportion to the fruits she has produced. But when
+they are married they have no longer any intrigues, neither the
+husband nor the wife, because their heart is no longer their own. They
+may divorce their wives; it is, however, so rare to see the man and
+wife part, that during the eight years I lived in their neighbourhood,
+I knew but one example of it, and then each took with them the
+children of their own sex.
+
+If a young man has obtained a girl's consent, and they desire to marry,
+it is not their fathers, and much less their mothers, or male or female
+relations who take upon them to, conclude the match; it is the heads of
+the two families alone, who are usually great-grandfathers, and
+sometimes more. These two old men have an interview, in which, after the
+young man has formally made a demand of the girl, they examine if there
+be any relation between the two parties, and if any, what degree {327}
+it is; for they do not marry within the third degree. Notwithstanding
+this interview, and the two parties be found not within the prohibited
+degrees, yet if the proposed wife be disagreeable to the father,
+grandfather, &c. of the husband, the match is never concluded. On the
+other hand, ambition, avarice, and the other passions, so common with
+us, never stifle in the breasts of the fathers those dictates of nature,
+which make us desire to see ourselves perpetuated in our offspring, nor
+influence them to thwart their children, improperly, and much less to
+force their inclinations. By an admirable harmony, very worthy of our
+imitation, they only marry those who love one another, and those who
+love one another, are only married when their parents agree to it. It is
+rare for young men to marry before they be five-and-twenty. Till they
+arrive at that age they are looked upon as too weak, without
+understanding and experience.
+
+When the marriage-day is once fixed, preparations are made for it both
+by the men and women; the men go a hunting, and the women prepare the
+maiz, and deck out the young man's cabin to the best of their power.
+On the wedding-day the old man on the part of the girl leaves his hut,
+and conducts the bride to the hut of the bridegroom; his whole family
+follow him in order and silence; those who are inclined to laugh or be
+merry, indulging themselves only in a smile.
+
+He finds before the other hut all the relations of the bridegroom, who
+receive and salute him with their usual expression of congratulation,
+namely, _hoo, hoo_, repeated several times. When he enters the hut, the
+old man on the part of the bridegroom says to him in their language,
+_are you there?_ to which he answers, _yes_. He is next desired to sit
+down, and then not a word passes for near ten minutes, it being one of
+their prudent customs to suffer a guest to rest himself a little after
+his arrival, before they begin a conversation; and besides, they look
+upon the time spent in compliments as thrown away.
+
+After both the old men are fully rested, they rise, and the bridegroom
+and bride appearing before them, they ask them, if they love each
+other? and if they are willing to take one another for man and wife?
+observing to them at the same time, {328} that they ought not to marry
+unless they propose to live amicably together; that nobody forces
+them, and that as they are each other's free choice, they will be
+thrust out of the family if they do not live in peace. After this
+remonstrance the father of the bridegroom delivers the present which
+his son is to make into his hands, the bride's father at the same time
+placing himself by her side. The bridegroom then addresses the bride;
+"Will you have me for your husband?" she answers, "Most willingly, and
+it gives me joy; love me, as well as I love you; for I love, and ever
+will love none but you." At these words the bridegroom covers the head
+of the bride with the present which he received from his father, and
+says to her, "I love you, and have therefore taken you for my wife,
+and this I give to your parents, to purchase you." He then gives the
+present to the bride's father.
+
+The husband wears a tuft of feathers fastened to his hair, which is in
+the form of a cue, and hangs over his left ear, to which is fastened a
+sprig of oak with the leaves on, and in his left hand he bears a bow
+and arrows. The young wife bears in her left hand a small branch of
+laurel, and in her right a stalk of maiz, which was delivered to her
+by her mother at the time she received the present from her husband.
+This stalk she presents to her husband, who takes it from her with his
+right hand, and says, "I am your husband;" she answers, and "I am your
+wife." They then shake hands reciprocally with each other's relations;
+after which he leads her towards the bed, and says, "There is our bed,
+keep it tight;" which is as much as to say, do not defile the nuptial
+bed.
+
+The marriage ceremony being thus concluded, the bridegroom and the
+bride, with their friends, sit down to a repast, and in the evening
+they begin their dances, which continue often till day-light.
+
+The nation of the Natchez is composed of nobility and common people.
+The common people are named in their language _Miche-Miche-Quipy_, that
+is, _Stinkards_; a name however which gives them great offense, and
+which it is proper to avoid pronouncing before them, as it would not
+fail to put them into a very bad humour. The common people are to the
+{329} last degree submissive to the nobility, who are divided into
+Suns, nobles, and men of rank.
+
+The Suns are the descendants of the man and woman who pretended to
+have come down from the sun. Among the other laws they gave to the
+Natchez, they ordained that their race should always be distinguished
+from the bulk of the nation, and that none of them should ever be put
+to death upon any account. They established likewise another usage
+which is found among no other people, except a nation of Scythians
+mentioned by Herodotus. They ordained that nobility should only be
+transmitted by the women. Their male and female children were equally
+named Suns, and regarded as such, but with this difference, that the
+males enjoyed this privilege only in their own person, and during
+their own lives. Their children had only the title of nobles, and the
+male children of those nobles were only men of rank. Those men of
+rank, however, if they distinguished themselves by their war-like
+exploits, might raise themselves again to the rank of nobles; but
+their children became only men of rank, and the children of those men
+of rank, as well as of the others, were confounded with the common
+people, and classed among the Stinkards. Thus as these people are very
+long-lived, and frequently see the fourth generation, it often happens
+that a Sun sees some of his posterity among the Stinkards; but they
+are at great pains to conceal this degradation of their race,
+especially from strangers, and almost totally disown those great-grand
+children; for when they speak of them they only say, they are dear to
+them. It is otherwise with the female posterity of the Suns, for they
+continue through all generations to enjoy their rank. The descendants
+of the Suns being pretty numerous, it might be expected that those who
+are out of the prohibited degrees might intermarry, rather than ally
+with the Stinkards; but a most barbarous custom obliges them to their
+mis-alliances. When any of the Suns, either male or female, die, their
+law ordains that the husband or wife of the Sun shall be put to death
+on the day of the interment of the deceased: now as another law
+prohibits the issue of the Suns from being put to death, it is
+therefore impossible for the descendants of the Suns to match with
+each other.
+
+{330} Whether it be that they are tired of this law, or that they with
+their Suns descended of French blood, I shall not determine; but the
+wife of the Great Sun came one day to visit me so early in the morning
+that I was not got out of bed. She was accompanied with her only
+daughter, a girl between fourteen and fifteen years of age, handsome
+and well shaped; but she only sent in her own name by my slave; so
+that without getting up, I made no scruple of desiring her to come in.
+When her daughter appeared I was not a little surprized; but I shook
+hands with them both, and desired them to sit down. The daughter sat
+down on the foot of my bed, and kept her eyes continually fixed on me,
+while the mother addressed herself to me in the most serious and
+pathetic tone. After some compliments to me, and commendations of our
+customs and manners, she condemned the barbarous usages that prevailed
+among themselves, and ended with proposing me as a husband for her
+daughter, that I might have it in my power to civilize their nation by
+abolishing their inhuman customs, and introducing those of the French.
+As I foresaw the danger of such an alliance, which would be opposed by
+the whole nation of the Natchez, and at the same time was sensible
+that the resentment of a slighted woman is very formidable, I returned
+her such an answer as might shew my great respect for her daughter,
+and prevent her from making the same application to some brainless
+Frenchman, who, by accepting the offer, might expose the French
+settlement to some disastrous event. I told her that her daughter was
+handsome, and pleased me much, as she had a good heart, and a well
+turned mind; but the laws we received from the Great Spirit, forbad us
+to marry women who did not pray; and that those Frenchmen who lived
+with their daughters took them only for a time; but it was not proper
+that the daughter of the Great Sun should be disposed of in that
+manner. The mother acquiesced in my reasons; but when they took their
+leave I perceived plainly that the daughter was far from being
+satisfied. I never saw her from that day forwards; and I heard she was
+soon after married to another.
+
+From this relation the reader may perceive that there needs nothing
+but prudence and good sense to persuade those people {331} to what is
+reasonable, and to preserve their friendship without interruption. We
+may safely affirm that the differences we have had with them have been
+more owing to the French than to them. When they are treated
+insolently or oppressively, they have no less sensibility of injuries
+than others. If those who have occasion to live among them, will but
+have sentiments of humanity, they will in them meet with men.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+_Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious Ceremonies of the
+People of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+I shall now proceed to give some account of the customs that prevail
+in general among all the nations of North America; and these have a
+great resemblance to each other, as there is hardly any difference in
+the manner of thinking and acting among the several nations. These
+people have no religion expressed by any external worship. The
+strongest evidences that we discover of their having any religion at
+all, are their temples, and the eternal fire therein kept up by some
+of them. Some of them indeed do not keep up the eternal fire, and have
+turned their temples into charnel-houses.
+
+However, all those people, without exception, acknowledge a supreme
+Being, but they never on any account address their prayers to him,
+from their fixt belief that God, whom they call the Great Spirit, is
+so good, that he cannot do evil, whatever provocation he may have.
+They believe the existence of two Great Spirits, a good and a bad.
+They do not, as I have said, invoke the Good Spirit; but they pray to
+the bad, in order to avert from their persons and possessions the
+evils which he might inflict upon them. They pray to the evil spirit,
+not because they think him almighty; for it is the Good Spirit whom
+they believe so; but because, according to them, he governs the air,
+the seasons, the rain, the fine weather, and all that may benefit or
+hurt the productions of the earth.
+
+They are very superstitious in respect to the flight of birds, and the
+passage of some animals that are seldom seen in their country. They
+are much inclined to hear and believe {332} diviners, especially in
+regard to discovering things to come; and they are kept in their
+errors by the Jongleurs, who find their account in them.
+
+The natives have all the same manner of bringing up their children,
+and are in general well shaped, and their limbs are justly
+proportioned. The Chicasaws are the most fierce and arrogant, which
+they undoubtedly owe to their frequent intercourse with the English of
+Carolina. They are brave; a disposition they may have inherited as the
+remains of that martial spirit that prompted them to invade their
+neighbouring nations, by which they themselves were at length greatly
+weakened. All the nations on the north of the colony are likewise
+brave, but they are more humane than the Chicasaws, and have not their
+high-spirited pride. All these nations of the north, and all those of
+Louisiana, have been inviolably attached to us ever since our
+establishment in this colony. The misfortune of the Natchez, who,
+without dispute, were the finest of all those nations, and who loved
+us, ought not in the least to lessen our sentiments of those people,
+who are in general distinguished for their natural goodness of
+character. All those nations are prudent, and speak little; they are
+sober in their diet, but they are passionately fond of brandy, though
+they are singular in never tasting any wine, and neither know nor care
+to learn any composition of liquors. In their meals they content
+themselves with maiz prepared various ways, and sometimes they use
+fish and flesh. The meat that they eat is chiefly recommended to them
+for being wholesome; and therefore I have conjectured that dog's
+flesh, for which we have such an aversion, must however be as good as
+it is beautiful, since they rate it so highly as to use it by way of
+preference in their feasts of ceremony. They eat no young game, as
+they find plenty of the largest size, and do not think delicacy of
+taste alone any recommendation; and therefore, in general, they would
+not taste our ragouts, but, condemning them as unwholesome, prefer to
+them gruel made of maiz, called in the colony Sagamity.
+
+The Chactaws are the only ugly people among all the nations in
+Louisiana; which is chiefly owing to the fat with which {333} they rub
+their skin and their hair, and to their manner of defending themselves
+against the moskitos, which they keep off by lighting fires of
+fir-wood, and standing in the smoke.
+
+Although all the people of Louisiana have nearly the same usages and
+customs, yet as any nation is more or less populous, it has
+proportionally more or fewer ceremonies. Thus when the French first
+arrived in the colony, several nations kept up the eternal fire, and
+observed other religious ceremonies, which they have now disused,
+since their numbers have been greatly diminished. Many of them still
+continue to have temples, but the common people never enter these, nor
+strangers, unless peculiarly favoured by the nation. As I was an
+intimate friend of the sovereign of the Natchez, he shewed me their
+temple, which is about thirty feet square, and stands upon an
+artificial mount about eight feet high, by the side of a small river.
+The mount slopes insensibly from the main front, which is northwards,
+but on the other sides it is somewhat steeper. The four corners of the
+temple consist of four posts, about a foot and an half diameter, and
+ten feet high, each made of the heart of the cypress tree, which is
+incorruptible. The side-posts are of the same wood, but only about a
+foot square; and the walls are of mud, about nine inches thick; so
+that in the inside there is a hollow between every post. The inner
+space is divided from east to west into two apartments one of which is
+twice as large as the other. In the largest apartment the eternal fire
+is kept, and there is likewise a table or altar in it, about four feet
+high, six long, and two broad. Upon this table lie the bones of the
+late Great Sun in a coffin of canes very neatly made. In the inner
+apartment, which is very dark, as it receives no light but from the
+door of communication, I could meet with nothing but two boards, on
+which were placed some things like small toys, which I had not light
+to peruse. The roof is in the form of a pavilion, and very neat both
+within and without, and on the top of it are placed three wooden
+birds, twice as large as a goose, with their heads turned towards the
+east. The corner and side-posts, as has been mentioned, rise above the
+earth ten feet high, and it is said they are as much sunk under
+ground; it cannot therefore but appear surprising how the natives
+could transport such large beams, fashion them, and raise them {334}
+upright, when we know of no machines they had for that purpose.
+Besides the eight guardians of the temple, two of whom are always on
+watch, and the chief of those guardians, there also belongs to the
+service of the temple a master of the ceremonies, who is also master
+of the mysteries; since, according to them, he converses very
+familiarly with the Spirit. Above all these persons is the Great Sun,
+who is at the same time chief priest and sovereign of the nation. The
+temples of some of the nations of Louisiana are very mean, and one
+would often be apt to mistake them for the huts of private persons,
+but to those who are acquainted with their manners, they are easily
+distinguishable, as they have always before the door two posts formed
+like the ancient Termini, that is, having the upper part cut into the
+shape of a man's head. The door of the temple, which is pretty
+weighty, is placed between the wall and those two posts, so that
+children may not be able to remove it, to go and play in the temple.
+The private huts have also posts before their doors, but these are
+never formed like Termini.
+
+None of the nations of Louisiana are acquainted with the custom of
+burning their dead, which was practised by the Greeks and Romans; nor
+with that of the Egyptians, who studied to preserve them to
+perpetuity. The different American nations have a most religious
+attention for their dead, and each have some peculiar customs in
+respect to them; but all of them either inter them, or place them in
+tombs, and carefully carry victuals to them for some time. These tombs
+are either within their temples, or close adjoining to them, or in
+their neighbourhood. They are raised about three feet above the earth,
+and rest upon four pillars, which are forked stakes fixed fast in the
+ground. The tomb, or rather bier, is about eight feet long, and a foot
+and a half broad; and after the body is placed upon it, a kind of
+basket-work of twigs is wove round it, and covered with mud, an
+opening being left at the head for placing the victuals that are
+presented to the dead person. When the body is all rotted but the
+bones, these are taken out of the tomb, and placed in a box of canes,
+which is deposited in the temple. They usually weep and lament for
+their dead three days; but for those who are killed in war, they make
+a much longer and more grievous lamentation.
+
+{335} Among the Natchez the death of any of their Suns, as I have
+before observed, is a most fatal event; for it is sure to be attended
+with the destruction of a great number of people of both sexes. Early
+in the spring 1725, the Stung Serpent, who was the brother of the
+Great Sun, and my intimate friend, was seized with a mortal distemper,
+which filled the whole nation of the Natchez with the greatest
+consternation and terror; for the two brothers had mutually engaged to
+follow each other to the land of spirits; and if the Great Sun should
+kill himself for the sake of his brother, very many people would
+likewise be put to death. When the Stung Serpent was despaired of, the
+chief of the guardians of the temple came to me in the greatest
+confusion, and acquainting me with the mutual engagements of the two
+brothers, begged of me to interest myself in preserving the Great Sun,
+and consequently a great part of the nation. He made the same request
+to the commander of the fort. Accordingly we were no sooner informed
+of the death of the Stung Serpent, than the commander, some of the
+principal Frenchmen, and I, went in a body to the hut of the Great
+Sun. We found him in despair; but, after some time, he seemed to be
+influenced by the arguments I used to dissuade him from putting
+himself to death. The death of the Stung Serpent was published by the
+firing of two muskets, which were answered by the other villages, and
+immediately cries and lamentations were heard on all sides. The Great
+Sun, in the mean time, remained inconsolable, and sat bent forwards,
+with his eyes towards the ground. In the evening, while we were still
+in his hut, he made a sign to his favourite wife; who in consequence
+of that threw a pailful of water on the fire, and extinguished it.
+This was a signal for extinguishing all the fires of the nation, and
+filled every one with terrible alarms, as it denoted that the Great
+Sun was still resolved to put himself to death. I gently chided him
+for altering his former resolution, but he assured me he had not, and
+desired us to go and sleep securely. We accordingly left him,
+pretending to rely on the assurance he had given us; but we took up
+our lodging in the hut of his chief servants, and stationed a soldier
+at the door of his hut, whom we ordered to give us notice of whatever
+happened. There was no need to fear our being betrayed by the wife of
+{336} the Great Sun, or any others about him; for none of them had the
+least inclination to die, if they could help it. On the contrary, they
+all expressed the greatest thankfulness and gratitude to us for our
+endeavors to avert the threatened calamity from their nation.
+
+Before we went to our lodgings we entered the hut of the deceased, and
+found him on his bed of state, dressed in his finest cloaths, his face
+painted with vermilion, shod as if for a journey, with his
+feather-crown on his head. To his bed were fastened his arms, which
+consisted of a double-barreled gun, a pistol, a bow, a quiver full of
+arrows, and a tomahawk. Round his bed were placed all the calumets of
+peace he had received during his life, and on a pole, planted in the
+ground near it, hung a chain of forty-six rings of cane painted red,
+to express the number of enemies he had slain. All his domesticks were
+round him, and they presented victuals to him at the usual hours, as
+if he were alive. The company in his hut were composed of his
+favourite wife, of a second wife, which he kept in another village,
+and visited when his favourite was with child; of his chancellor, his
+physician, his chief domestic, his pipe-bearer, and some old women,
+who were all to be strangled at his interment. To these victims a
+noble woman voluntarily joined herself, resolving, from her friendship
+to the Stung Serpent, to go and live with him in the country of
+spirits. I regretted her on many accounts, but particularly as she was
+intimately acquainted with the virtues of simples, had by her skill
+saved many of our people's lives, and given me many useful
+instructions. After we had satisfied our curiosity in the hut of the
+deceased, we retired to our hut, where we spent the night. But at
+day-break we were suddenly awaked, and told that it was with
+difficulty the Great Sun was kept from killing himself. We hastened to
+his hut, and upon entering it I remarked dismay and terror painted
+upon the countenances of all who were present. The Great Sun held his
+gun by the butt-end, and seemed enraged that the other Suns had seized
+upon it, to prevent him from executing his purpose. I addressed myself
+to him, and after opening the pan of the lock, to let the priming fall
+out, I chided him gently for his not acting according to his former
+resolution. He pretended at first {337} not to see me; but, after some
+time, he let go his hold of the musket, and shook hands with me
+without speaking a word. I then went towards his wife, who all this
+while had appeared in the utmost agony and terror, and I asked her if
+she was ill. She answered me, "Yes, very ill," and added, "if you
+leave us, my husband is a dead man, and all the Natchez will die; stay
+then, for he opens his ears only to your words, which have the
+sharpness and strength of arrows. You are his true friend, and do not
+laugh when you speak, like most of the Frenchmen." The Great Sun at
+length consented to order his fire to be again lighted, which was the
+signal for lighting the other fires of the nation, and dispelled all
+their apprehensions.
+
+Soon after the natives begun the dance of death, and prepared for the
+funeral of the Stung Serpent. Orders were given to put none to death
+on that occasion, but those who were in the hut of the deceased. A
+child however had been strangled already by its father and mother,
+which ransomed their lives upon the death of the Great Sun, and raised
+them from the rank of Stinkards to that of Nobles. Those who were
+appointed to die were conducted twice a day, and placed in two rows
+before the temple, where they acted over the scene of their death,
+each accompanied by eight of their own relations who were to be their
+executioners, and by that office exempted themselves from dying upon
+the death of any of the Suns, and likewise raised themselves to the
+dignity of men of rank.
+
+Mean while thirty warriors brought in a prisoner, who had formerly
+been married to a female Sun; but, upon her death, instead of
+submitting to die with her, had fled to New Orleans, and offered to
+become the hunter and slave of our commander in chief. The commander
+accepting his offer, and granting him his protection, he often visited
+his countrymen, who, out of complaisance to the commander, never
+offered to apprehend him: but that officer being now returned to
+France, and the runaway appearing in the neighbourhood, he was now
+apprehended, and numbered among the other victims. Finding himself
+thus unexpectedly trapped, he began to cry bitterly; but three old
+women, who were his relations, offering to die in his stead, he was
+not only again exempted from death, but {338} raised to the dignity of
+a man of rank. Upon this he afterwards became insolent, and profiting
+by what he had seen and learned at New Orleans, he easily, on many
+occasions, made his fellow-countrymen his dupes.
+
+[Illustration: _Burial of the Stung Serpent_]
+
+On the day of the interment, the wife of the deceased made a very
+moving speech to the French who were present, recommending her
+children, to whom she also addressed herself, to their friendship, and
+advising perpetual union between {339} the two nations. Soon after the
+master of the ceremonies appeared in a red-feathered crown, which half
+encircled his head, having a red staff in his hand in the form of a
+cross, at the end of which hung a garland of black feathers. All the
+upper part of his body was painted red, excepting his arms, and from
+his girdle to his knees hung a fringe of feathers, the rows of which
+were alternately white and red. When he came before the hut of the
+deceased, he saluted him with a great _hoo_, and then began the cry of
+death, in which he was followed by the whole people. Immediately after
+the Stung Serpent was brought out on his bed of state, and was placed
+on a litter, which six of the guardians of the temple bore on their
+shoulders. The procession then began, the master of the ceremonies
+walking first, and after him the oldest warrior, holding in one hand
+the pole with the rings of canes, and in the other the pipe of war, a
+mark of the dignity of the deceased. Next followed the corpse, after
+which came those who were to die at the interment. The whole
+procession went three times round the hut of the deceased, and then
+those who carried the corpse proceeded in a circular kind of march,
+every turn intersecting the former, until they came to the temple. At
+every turn the dead child was thrown by its parents before the bearers
+of the corpse, that they might walk over it; and when the corpse was
+placed in the temple the victims were immediately strangled. The Stung
+Serpent and his two wives were buried in the same grave within the
+temple; the other victims were interred in different parts, and after
+the ceremony they burnt, according to custom, the hut of the deceased.
+
+{340}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION V.
+
+_Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives._
+
+
+The arts and manufactures of the natives are so insignificant, when
+compared with ours, that I should not have thought of treating of
+them, if some persons of distinction had not desired me to say
+something of them, in order to shew the industry of those people, and
+how far invention could carry them, in supplying those wants which
+human nature is continually exposed to.
+
+As they would have frequent occasion for fire, the manner of lighting
+it at pleasure must have been one of the first things that they
+invented. Not having those means which we use, they bethought
+themselves of another ingenious method which they generally practise.
+They take a dry dead stick from a tree, about the thickness of their
+finger, and pressing one end against another dry piece of wood, they
+turn it round as swiftly as they can till they see the smoke appear,
+then blowing gently soon make the wood flame.
+
+Cutting instruments are almost continually wanted; but as they had no
+iron, which, of all metals, is the most useful in human society, they
+were obliged, with infinite pains, to form hatchets out of large
+flints, by sharpening their thin edge, and making a hole through them
+for receiving the handle. To cut down trees with these axes would have
+been almost an impracticable work; they were therefore obliged to
+light fires round the roots of them, and to cut away the charcoal as
+the fire eat into the tree. They supplied the want of knives for
+cutting their victuals with thin splits of a hard cane, which they
+could easily renew as they wore out.
+
+
+They made their bows of acacia wood, which is hard and easily cleft;
+and at first their bowstrings were made of the bark of the wood, but
+now they make them of the thongs of hides. Their arrows are made of a
+shrub that sends out long straight shoots; but they make some of small
+hard reeds: those that are intended for war, or against the buffalo,
+the deer, or large carp, are pointed with the sharp scale of the armed
+fish, which is neatly fastened to the head of the arrow with splits of
+cane and fish-glue.
+
+{341} The skins of the beasts which they killed in hunting naturally
+presented themselves for their covering; but they must be dressed
+however before they could be properly used. After much practice they
+at length discovered that the brain of any animal suffices to dress
+its skin. To sew those skins they use the tendons of animals beat and
+split into threads, and to pierce the skins they apply the bone of a
+heron's leg, sharpened like an awl.
+
+To defend themselves against the inclemencies of the weather, they
+built huts of wood, which were close and strong enough to resist the
+impetuosity of the wind. These huts are each a perfect square; none of
+them are less than fifteen feet square, and some of them are more than
+thirty feet in each of their fronts. They erect these huts in the
+following manner: they bring from the woods several young
+walnut-trees, about four inches in diameter, and thirteen or twenty
+feet high; they plant the strongest of these in the four corners, and
+the others fifteen inches from each other in straight lines, for the
+sides of the building; a pole is then laid horizontally along the
+sides in the inside, and all the poles are strongly fastened to it by
+split canes. Then the four corner poles are bent inwards till they all
+meet in the centre, where they are strongly fastened together; the
+side-poles are then bent in the same direction, and bound down to the
+others; after which they make a mortar of mud mixed with Spanish
+beard, with which they fill up all the chinks, leaving no opening but
+the door, and the mud they cover both outside and inside with mats
+made of the splits of cane. The roof is thatched with turf and straw
+intermixed, and over all is laid a mat of canes, which is fastened to
+the tops of the walls by the creeping plant. These huts will last
+twenty years without any repairs.
+
+The natives having once built for themselves fixed habitations, would
+next apply themselves to the cultivation of the ground. Accordingly,
+near all their habitations, they have fields of maiz, and of another
+nourishing grain called Choupichoul, which grows without culture. For
+dressing their fields they invented hoes, which are formed in the
+shape of an L, having the lower part flat and sharp; and to take the
+husk {342} from their corn they made large wooden mortars, by
+hollowing the trunks of trees with fire.
+
+To prepare their maiz for food, and likewise their venison and game,
+there was a necessity for dressing them over the fire, and for this
+purpose they bethought themselves of earthen ware, which is made by
+the women, who not only form the vessel, but dig up and mix the clay.
+In this they are tolerable artists; they make kettles of an
+extraordinary size, pitchers with a small opening, gallon bottles with
+long necks, pots or pitchers for their bear oil, which will hold forty
+pints; lastly, large and small plates in the French fashion: I had
+some made out of curiosity upon the model of my delf-ware, which were
+a very pretty red. For sifting the flour of their maiz, and for other
+uses, the natives make sieves of various finenesses of the splits of
+cane. To supply themselves with fish they make nets of the bark of the
+limetree; but the large fish they shoot with arrows.
+
+The beds of the natives are placed round the sides of their huts,
+about a foot and a half from the ground, and are formed in this
+manner. Six forked stakes support two poles, which are crossed by
+three others, over which canes are laid so close as to form an even
+surface, and upon these are laid several bear skins, which serve for
+the bed furniture; a buffalo's skin is the coverlet, and a sack stuft
+with Spanish beard is the bolster. The women sometimes add to this
+furniture of the bed mats wove of canes, dyed of three colours, which
+colours in the weaving are formed into various figures. These mats
+render the bottom of the bed still smoother, and in hot weather they
+remove the bear skins and lie upon them. Their seats or stools, which
+they seldom use, are about six or seven inches high, and the seat and
+feet are made of the same piece.
+
+The women likewise make a kind of hampers to carry corn, flesh, fish,
+or any other thing which they want to transport from one place to
+another; they are round, deeper than broad, and of all sizes. Here, as
+well as in other countries, the women take special care to lay up
+securely all their trinkets and finery. They make baskets with long
+lids that roll doubly over them, and in these they place their
+ear-rings and pendants, their {343} bracelets, garters, their ribbands
+for their hair, and their vermilion for painting themselves, if they
+have any, but when they have no vermilion they boil ochre, and paint
+themselves with that.
+
+The women also make the men's girdles and garters, and the collars for
+carrying their burdens. These collars are formed of two belts of the
+breadth of the hand of bear's skin, dressed so as to soften it, and
+these belts are joined together by long cross straps of the same
+leather, that serve to tie the bundles, which are oftener carried by
+the women than the men. One of the broad belts goes over their
+shoulders, and the other across their forehead, so that those two
+parts mutually ease each other.
+
+The women also make several works in embroidery with the skin of the
+porcupine, which is black and white, and is cut by them into thin
+threads, which they dye of different colours. Their designs greatly
+resemble those which we meet with on gothic architecture; they are
+formed of straight lines, which when they meet always cross each
+other, or turn off at square angles.
+
+The conveniences for passing rivers would soon be suggested to them by
+the floating of wood upon the water. Accordingly one of their methods
+of crossing rivers is upon floats of canes, which are called by them
+Cajeu, and are formed in this manner: They cut a great number of
+canes, which they tie up into faggots, part of which they fasten
+together side-ways, and over these they lay a row crossways, binding
+all close together, and then launching it into the water. For carrying
+a great number of men with their necessary baggage, they soon found it
+necessary to have other conveniences; and nothing appeared so proper
+for this as some of their large trees hollowed; of these they
+accordingly made their pettyaugres, which as I mentioned above are
+sometimes so large as to carry ten or twelve ton weight. These
+pettyaugres are conducted by short oars, called Pagaies, about six
+feet long, with broad points, which are not fastened to the vessel,
+but managed by the rowers like shovels.
+
+{344}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VI.
+
+_Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their Meals and
+Fastings._
+
+
+The natives of Louisiana, both men and women, wear a very thin dress
+in the summer. During the heat the men wear only a little apron of
+deer skin, dressed white or dyed black; but hardly any but chiefs wear
+black aprons. Those who live in the neighbourhood of the French
+settlements wear aprons of coarse limbourgs, a quarter of a yard
+broad, and the whole breadth of the cloth, or five quarters long;
+these aprons are fastened by a girdle about their waists, and tucked
+up between the thighs.
+ I
+During the heats the women wear only half a yard of limbourg stuff
+about their middle, which covers them down to the knees; or in place
+of that they use deer skin; and the rest of the body both in men and
+women is naked.
+
+Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the mulberry-tree, or of
+the feathers of swans, turkies, or India ducks. The bark they take
+from young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have
+been cut down; after it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all
+the woody part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a
+second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the
+dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the coarseness
+of pack-thread, and weave them in the following manner: they plant
+two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, and having
+stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads
+of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious
+manner into a cloak of about a yard square with a wrought border round
+the edges.
+
+The young boys and girls go quite naked; but the girls at the age of
+eight or ten put on a little petticoat, which is a kind of fringe made
+of threads of mulberry bark. The boys do not wear any covering till
+they are twelve or thirteen years of age.
+
+Some women even in hot weather have a small cloak wrapt round like a
+waistcoat; but when the cold sets in, they wear a {345} second, the
+middle of which passes under the right arm, and the two ends are
+fastened over the left shoulder, so that the two arms are at liberty,
+and one of the breasts is covered. They wear nothing on their heads;
+their hair is suffered to grow to its full length, except in the
+fore-part, and it is tied in a cue behind in a kind of net made of
+mulberry threads. They carefully pick out all the hairs that grow upon
+any part of the body.
+
+The shoes of the men and women are of the same fashion, but they
+rarely wear any but when they travel. They are made of deer-skin, the
+sole and upper-leather of the same piece, which is sewed together on
+the upper part of the foot; they are cut about three inches longer
+than the foot, and are folded over the toes; the quarters are about
+nine inches high, and fasten round the leg like a buskin. The womens'
+ear-rings are made of the center part of a large shell, called burgo,
+which is about the thickness of one's little finger, and there is a
+hole in the ear about that size for holding it. Their necklaces are
+composed of several strings of longish or roundish kernel-stones,
+somewhat resembling porcelaine; and with the smallest of these
+kernel-stones they ornament their furs, garters, &c.
+
+From their early youth the women get a streak pricked cross their
+nose; some of them have a streak pricked down the middle of their
+chin; others in different parts, especially the women of the nations
+who have the R in their language. I have seen some who were pricked
+all over the upper part of the body, not even excepting the breasts
+which are extremely sensible.
+
+In the cold weather the men cover themselves with a shirt made of two
+dressed deer-skins, which is more like a fur night-gown than a shirt:
+they likewise, at the same time, wear a kind of breeches, which cover
+both the thighs and the legs. If the weather be very severe, they
+throw over all a buffalo's skin, which is dressed with the wool on,
+and this they keep next to their body to increase the warmth. In the
+countries where they hunt beavers, they make robes of six skins of
+those animals sewed together.
+
+{346} The youths here are as much taken up about dress, and as fond of
+vying with each other in finery as in other countries; they paint
+themselves with vermilion very often; they deck themselves with
+bracelets made of the ribs of deer, which are bent by the means of
+boiling water, and when polished, look as fine as ivory; they wear
+necklaces like the women, and sometimes have a fan in their hand; they
+clip off the hair from the crown of the head, and there place a piece
+of swan's skin with the down on; to a few hairs that they leave on
+that part they fasten the finest white feathers that they can meet
+with; a part of their hair which is suffered to grow long, they weave
+into a cue, which hangs over their left ear.
+
+They likewise have their nose pricked, but no other part till they are
+warriors, and have performed some brave action, such as killing an
+enemy, and bringing off his scalp. Those who have signalized
+themselves by some gallant exploit, cause a tomahawk to be pricked on
+their left shoulder, underneath which is also pricked the hieroglyphic
+sign of the conquered nation. Whatever figure they intend to prick, is
+first traced on the skin with a bit of charcoal, and having fixed six
+needles in a piece of wood in two rows, in such a manner that they
+only stick out about the tenth part of an inch, they prick the skin
+all over the mark, and then rub charcoal dust over the part, which
+enters the punctures, and leaves a mark that can never be effaced.
+This pricking generally gives a fit of sickness to the patient, who is
+obliged for some time to live only on boiled maiz. The warriors also
+pierce the lower part of their ears, and make a hole an inch diameter,
+which they fill with iron wire. Besides these ear-rings they have a
+belt hung round with little bells, if they can purchase any from the
+French, so that they march more like mules than men. When they can get
+no bells, they fasten to their belts wild gourds with two or three
+pebbles in each. The chief ornament of the sovereigns, is their crown
+of feathers; this crown is composed of a black bonnet of net work,
+which is fastened to a red diadem about two inches broad. The diadem
+is embroidered with white kernel-stones, and surmounted with white
+feathers, which in the fore-part are about eight inches long, and half
+as much behind. This crown or feather hat makes a very pleasing
+appearance.
+
+{347} All nations are not equally ingenious at inventing feasts,
+shews, and diversions, for employing the people agreeably, and filling
+up the void of their usual employments. The natives of Louisiana have
+invented but a very few diversions, and these perhaps serve their turn
+as well as a greater variety would do. The warriors practise a
+diversion which is called the game of _the pole_, at which only two play
+together at a time. Each has a pole about eight feet long, resembling
+a Roman f, and the game consists in rolling a flat round stone, about
+three inches diameter and an inch thick, with the edge somewhat
+sloping, and throwing the pole at the same time in such a manner, that
+when the stone rests, the pole may touch it or be near it. Both
+antagonists throw their poles at the same time, and he whose pole is
+nearest the stone counts one, and has the right of rolling the stone.
+The men fatigue themselves much at this game, as they run after their
+poles at every throw; and some of them are so bewitched by it, that
+they game away one piece of furniture after another. These gamesters
+however are very rare, and are greatly discountenanced by the rest of
+the people.
+
+The women play with small bits of cane, about eight or nine inches
+long. Three of these they hold loosely in one hand, and knock them to
+the ground with another; if two of them fall with the round side
+undermost, she that played counts one; but if only one, she counts
+nothing. They are ashamed to be seen or found playing; and as far as I
+could discover, they never played for any stake.
+
+The young people, especially the girls, have hardly any kind of
+diversion but that of the ball: this consists in tossing a ball from
+one to the other with the palm of the hand, which they perform with a
+tolerable address.
+
+When the natives meet with a Frenchman whom they know, they shake
+hands with him, incline their head a little, and say in their own
+language, "Are you there, my friend?" If he has no serious affair to
+propose to them, or if they themselves have nothing of consequence to
+say, they pursue their journey.
+
+If they happen to be going the same way with a French man, they never
+go before him, unless something of consequence {348} oblige them. When
+you enter into their hut, they welcome you with the word of
+salutation, which signifies "Are you there, my friend?" then shake
+hands with you, and pointing to a bed, desire you to sit down. A
+silence of a few minutes then ensues till the stranger begins to
+speak, when he is offered some victuals, and desired to eat. You must
+taste of what they offer you, otherwise they will imagine that you
+despise them.
+
+When the natives converse together, however numerous the assembly be,
+never more than one person speaks at once. If one of the company has
+any thing to say to another, he speaks so low that none of the rest
+hear him. Nobody is interrupted, even with the chiding of a child; and
+if the child be stubborn, it is removed elsewhere. In the council,
+when a point is deliberated upon and debated, they keep silence for a
+short time, and then they speak in their turns, no one offering to
+interrupt another.
+
+The natives being habituated to their own prudent custom, it is with
+the utmost difficulty they can keep from laughing, when they see
+several French men or French women together, and always several of
+them speaking at the same time. I had observed them for two years
+stifling a laugh on those occasions, and had often asked the reason of
+it, without receiving any satisfactory answer. At length I pressed one
+of them so earnestly to satisfy me, that after some excuses, he told
+me in their language, "Our people say, that when several Frenchmen are
+together, they speak all at once, like a flock of geese."
+
+All the nations whom I have known, and who inhabit from the sea as far
+as the Illinois, and even farther, which is a space of about fifteen
+hundred miles, carefully cultivate the maiz corn, which they make
+their principal subsistence. They make bread of it baked in cakes,
+another kind baked among the ashes, and another kind in water; they
+make of it also cold meal, roasted meal, gruel, which in this country
+is called Sagamity. This and the cold meal in my opinion are the two
+best dishes that are made of it; the others are only for a change.
+They eat the Sagamity as we eat soup, with a spoon made of a buffalo's
+horn. When they eat flesh or fish they use bread. They likewise use
+two kinds of millet, which they shell in the manner {349} of rice; one
+of these is called Choupichoul, and the other Widlogouil, and they
+both grow almost without any cultivation.
+
+In a scarcity of these kinds of corn, they have recourse to
+earth-nuts, which they find in the woods; but they never use these or
+chestnuts but when necessity obliges them.
+
+The flesh-meats they usually eat are the buffalo, the deer, the bear,
+and the dog: they eat of all kind of water-fowl and fish; but they
+have no other way of dressing their meat but by roasting or boiling.
+The following is their manner of roasting their meat when they are in
+the fields hunting: they plant a stake in the ground sloping towards
+the fire, and on the point of this stake they spit their meat, which
+they turn from time to time. To preserve what they do not use, they
+cut it into thin pieces, which they dry, or rather half-roast, upon a
+grate made of canes placed cross-ways. They never eat raw flesh, as so
+many people have falsely imagined, and they limit themselves to no set
+hours for their meals, but eat whenever they are hungry; so that we
+seldom see several of them eating at once, unless at their feasts,
+when they all eat off the same plate, except the women, the boys, and
+the young girls, who have each a plate to themselves.
+
+When the natives are sick, they neither eat flesh nor fish, but take
+Sagamity boiled in the broth of meat. When a man falls sick, his wife
+sleeps with the woman in the next bed to him, and the husband of that
+woman goes elsewhere. The natives, when they eat with Frenchmen, taste
+of nothing but of pure roast and boiled: they eat no sallad, and
+nothing raw but fruit. Their drink is pure water or pure brandy, but
+they dislike wine and all made liquors.
+
+Having mentioned their manner of feeding, I shall say a word or two of
+their manner of fasting. When they want rain, or when they desire hot
+weather for ripening their corn, they address themselves to the old
+man who has the greatest character for living wisely, and they intreat
+him to invoke the aerial spirits, in order to obtain what they demand.
+This old man, who never refuses his countrymen's request, prepares to
+fast for nine days together. He orders his wife to withdraw, and {350}
+during the whole time he eats nothing but a dish of gruel boiled in
+water, without salt, which is brought him once a day by his wife after
+sun-set. They never will accept of any reward for this service, that
+the spirits may not be angry with them.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII.
+
+_Of the_ Indian _Art of War._
+
+
+I will now present the reader with their manner of making war, which
+is uniformly the same among all the nations. When one nation intends
+to make war upon another in all the forms, they hold a council of war,
+which is composed of the oldest and bravest warriors. It is to be
+supposed that this nation has been insulted, that the other has
+committed some hostilities against it, or that they have disturbed
+them in their hunting country, coming thither to steal their game, as
+they call it. There is always some pretence for declaring war; and
+this pretence, whether true or false, is explained by the war-chief,
+who omits no circumstance that may excite his nation to take up arms.
+
+After he has explained the reasons for the war, the old men debate the
+question in presence of the great chief or sovereign of the nation.
+This sovereign and the great chief of war are only witnesses of the
+debate; for the opinion of the old men always prevails, and the two
+chiefs voluntarily agree to it, from their respect and their great
+regard for the experience and wisdom of those venerable counsellors.
+
+If it is resolved to demand from the other nation the reason of the
+hostilities committed by them, they name one of their bravest and most
+eloquent warriors, as a second to their speech-maker or chancellor,
+who is to carry the pipe of peace, and address that nation. These two
+are accompanied by a troop of the bravest warriors, so that the
+embassy has the appearance of a warlike expedition; and, if
+satisfaction is not given, sometimes ends in one. The ambassadors
+carry no presents with them, to shew that they do not intend to
+supplicate or beg a peace: they take with them only the pipe of peace,
+{351} as a proof that they come as friends. The embassy is always well
+received, entertained in the best manner, and kept as long as
+possible; and if the other nation is not inclined to begin a war, they
+make very large presents to the ambassadors, and all their retinue, to
+make up for the losses which their nation complains of.
+
+[Illustration: _Bringing the Pipe of Peace_]
+
+If a nation begins actual hostilities without any formalities, the
+nation invaded is generally assisted by several allies, {352} keeps
+itself on the defensive, gives orders to those who live at a great
+distance to join the main body of the nation, prepares logs for
+building a fort, and every morning sends some warriors out upon the
+scout, choosing for that purpose those who trust more to their heels
+than their heart.
+
+The assistance of the allies is generally solicited by the pipe of
+peace, the stalk of which is about four feet and a half long, and is
+covered all over with the skin of a duck's neck, the feathers of which
+are glossy and of various colours. To this pipe is fastened a fan made
+of the feathers of white eagles, the ends of which are black, and are
+ornamented with a tuft dyed a beautiful red.
+
+When the allies are assembled a general council is held in presence of
+the sovereign, and is composed of the great war-chief, the war-chiefs
+of the allies, and all the old warriors. The great war-chief opens the
+assembly with a speech, in which he exhorts them to take vengeance of
+the insults they have received; and after the point is debated, and
+the war agreed upon, all the warriors go a hunting to procure game for
+the war-feast, which, as well as the war-dance, lasts three days.
+
+The natives distinguish the warriors into three classes, namely, true
+warriors, who have always given proofs of their courage; common
+warriors, and apprentice-warriors. They likewise divide our military
+men into the two classes of true warriors and young warriors. By the
+former they mean the settlers, of whom the greatest part, upon their
+arrival, were soldiers, who being now perfectly acquainted with the
+tricks and wiles of the natives, practice them upon their enemy, whom
+they do not greatly fear. The young warriors are the soldiers of the
+regular troops, as the companies are generally composed of young men,
+who are ignorant of the stratagems used by the natives in time of war.
+
+When the war-feast is ready the warriors repair to it, painted from
+head to foot with stripes of different colours. They have nothing on
+but their belt, from whence hangs their apron, their bells, or their
+rattling gourds, and their tomahawk. In their right hand they have a
+bow, and those of the {353} north in their left carry a buckler formed
+of two round pieces of buffalo's hide sewed together.
+
+The feast is kept in a meadow, the grass of which is mowed to a great
+extent; there the dishes, which are of hollow wood, are placed round
+in circles of about twelve or fifteen feet diameter, and the number of
+those circular tables is proportioned to the largeness of the
+assembly, in the midst of whom is placed the pipe of war upon the end
+of a pole seven or eight feet high. At the foot of this pole, in the
+middle of a circle is placed the chief dish of all, which is a large
+dog roasted whole; the other plates are ranged circularly by threes;
+one of these contains maiz boiled in broth like gruel, another roasted
+deer's flesh, and the other boiled. They all begin with eating of the
+dog, to denote their fidelity and attachment to their chief; but
+before they taste of any thing, an old warrior, who, on account of his
+great age, is not able to accompany the rest to the war, makes an
+harangue to the warriors, and by recounting his own exploits, excites
+them to act with bravery against the enemy. All the warriors then,
+according to their rank, smoke in the pipe of war, after which they
+begin their repast; but while they eat, they keep walking continually,
+to signify that a warrior ought to be always in action and upon his
+guard.
+
+While they are thus employed, one of the young men goes behind a bush
+about two hundred paces off, and raises the cry of death. Instantly
+all the warriors seize their arms, and run to the place whence the cry
+comes; and when they are near it the young warrior shews himself
+again, raises the cry of death, and is answered by all the rest, who
+then return to the feast, and take up the victuals which in their
+hurry they had thrown upon the ground. The same alarm is given two
+other times, and the warriors each time act as at first. The war drink
+then goes round, which is a heady liquor drawn from the leaves of the
+Cassine after they have been a long while boiled. The feast being
+finished, they all assemble about fifty paces from a large post, which
+represents the enemy; and this each of them in his turn runs up to,
+and strikes with his tomahawk, recounting at the same time all his
+former brave exploits, and sometimes boasting of valorous deeds that
+he never performed. But {354} they have the complaisance to each other
+to pardon this gasconading.
+
+All of them having successively struck the post, they begin the dance
+of war with their arms in their hands; and this dance and the
+war-feast are celebrated for three days together, after which they set
+out for the war. The women some time before are employed in preparing
+victuals for their husbands, and the old men in engraving upon bark
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that attacks, and of their number
+of warriors.
+
+Their manner of making war is to attack by surprize; accordingly, when
+they draw near to any of the enemy's villages, they march only in the
+night; and that they may not be discovered, raise up the grass over
+which they trod. One half of the warriors watch, while the other half
+sleep in the thickest and most unfrequented part of the wood.
+
+If any of their scouts can discover a hut of the enemy detached from
+the rest, they all surround it about day-break, and some of the
+warriors entering, endeavor to knock the people on the head as they
+awake, or take some man prisoner. Having scalped the dead, they carry
+off the women and children prisoners, and place against a tree near
+the hut the hieroglyphic picture, before which they plant two arrows
+with their points crossing each other. Instantly they retreat into the
+woods, and make great turnings to conceal their route.
+
+The women and children whom they take prisoners are made slaves. But
+if they take a man prisoner the joy is universal, and the glory of
+their nation is at its height. The warriors, when they draw near to
+their own villages after an expedition, raise the cry of war three
+times successively; and if they have a man prisoner with them,
+immediately go and look for three poles to torture him upon; which,
+however weary or hungry they be, must be provided before they take any
+refreshment. When they have provided those poles, and tied the
+prisoner to them, they may then go and take some victuals. The poles
+are about ten feet long; two of them are planted upright in the ground
+at a proper distance, and the other is cut through in the middle, and
+the two pieces are fastened crossways {355} to the other two, so that
+they form a square about five feet every way. The prisoner being first
+scalped by the person who took him, is tied to this square, his hands
+to the upper part, and his feet to the lower, in such a manner that he
+forms the figure of a St. Andrew's cross. The young men in the mean
+time having prepared several bundles of canes, set fire to them; and
+several of the warriors taking those flaming canes, burn the prisoner
+in different parts of his body, while others burn him in other parts
+with their tobacco-pipes. The patience of prisoners in those miserable
+circumstances is altogether astonishing. No cries or lamentations
+proceed from them; and some have been known to suffer tortures, and
+sing for three days and nights without intermission. Sometimes it
+happens that a young woman who has lost her husband in the war, asks
+the prisoner to supply the room of the deceased, and her request is
+immediately granted.
+
+[Illustration: _Torture of Prisoners_--INSET: _Plan of Fort_]
+
+I mentioned above that when one nation declares war against another,
+they leave a picture near one of their villages. That picture is
+designed in the following manner. On the top towards the right hand is
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that declares war; next is a naked
+man with a tomahawk in his hand; and then an arrow pointed against a
+woman, who is flying away, her hair floating behind her in the air;
+immediately {356} before this woman is the proper emblem of the nation
+against whom the war is declared. All this is on one line; and below
+is drawn the figure of the moon, which is followed by one I, or more;
+and a man is here represented, before whom is a number of arrows which
+seem to pierce a woman who is running away. By this is denoted, when
+such a moon is so many days old, they will come in great numbers and
+attack such a nation; but this lower part of the picture does not
+always carry true intelligence. The nation that has offered the
+insult, or commenced hostilities wrongfully, rarely finds any allies
+even among those nations who call them brothers.
+
+In carrying on a war they have no such thing as pitched battles, or
+carrying on of sieges; all the mischief they do each other, is by
+surprise and skirmishing, and in this their courage and address
+consists. Among them flight is no ways shameful; their bravery lies
+often in their legs; and to kill a man asleep or at unawares, is quite
+as honourable among them, as to gain a signal victory after a stout
+battle.
+
+When a nation is too weak to defend itself in the field, they
+endeavour to protect themselves by a fort. This fort is built
+circularly of two rows of large logs of wood, the logs of the inner
+row being opposite to the joining of the logs of the outer row. These
+logs are about fifteen feet long, five feet of which are sunk in the
+ground. The outer logs are about two feet thick, and the inner about
+half as much. At every forty paces along the wall a circular tower
+jets out; and at the entrance of the fort, which is always next to the
+river, the two ends of the wall pass beyond each other, and leave a
+side opening. In the middle of the fort stands a tree with its
+branches lopt off within six or eight inches of the trunk, and this
+serves for a watch-tower. Round this tree are some huts, for the
+protection of the women and children from random arrows; but
+notwithstanding all these precautions for defense, if the besieged are
+but hindered from coming out to water, they are soon obliged to
+retire.
+
+When a nation finds itself no longer able to oppose its enemy, the
+chiefs send a pipe of peace to a neutral nation, and solicit their
+mediation, which is generally successful, the vanquished {357} nation
+sheltering themselves under the name of the mediators, and for the
+future making but one nation with them.
+
+Here it may be observed that when they go to attack others, it
+sometimes happens that they lose some of their own warriors. In that
+case, they immediately, if possible, scalp their dead friends, to
+hinder the enemy from having that subject of triumph. Moreover, when
+they return home, whether as victors or otherwise, the great warchief
+pays to the respective families for those whom he does, not bring back
+with him; which renders the chiefs very careful of the lives of their
+warriors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_Of the Negroes of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distemper, and the Manner of curing
+them._
+
+
+Having finished my account of the natives of Louisiana, I shall
+conclude this treatise with some observations relating to the negroes;
+who, in the lower part of the province especially, perform all the
+labours of agriculture. On that account I have thought proper to give
+some instructions concerning them, for the benefit of those who are
+inclined to settle in that province.
+
+The negroes must be governed differently from the Europeans; not
+because they are black, nor because they are slaves; but because they
+think differently from the white men.
+
+First, they imbibe a prejudice from their infancy, that the white men
+buy them for no other purpose but to drink their blood; which is owing
+to this, that when the first negroes saw the Europeans drink claret,
+they imagined it was blood, as that wine is of a deep red colour; so
+that nothing but the actual experience of the contrary can eradicate
+the false opinion. But as none of those slaves who have had that
+experience ever return to their own country, the same prejudice
+continues to subsist on the coast of Guinea where we purchase them.
+Some {358} who are strangers to the manner of thinking that prevails
+among the negroes, may perhaps think that the above remark is of no
+consequence, in respect to those slaves who are already sold to the
+French. There have been instances however of bad consequences flowing
+from this prejudice; especially if the negroes found no old slave of
+their own country upon their first arrival in our colonies. Some of
+them have killed or drowned themselves, several of them have deserted
+(which they call making themselves Marons) and all this from an
+apprehension that the white men were going to drink their blood. When
+they desert they believe they can get back to their own country by
+going round the sea, and may live in the woods upon the fruits, which
+they imagine are as common every where as with them.
+
+They are very superstitious, and are much attached to their
+prejudices, and little toys which they call _gris, gris_. It would be
+improper therefore to take them from them, or even speak of them to
+them; for they would believe themselves undone, if they were stripped
+of those trinkets. The old negroes soon make them lose conceit of
+them.
+
+The first thing you ought to do when you purchase negroes, is to cause
+them to be examined by a skilful surgeon and an honest man, to
+discover if they have the venereal or any other distemper. When they
+are viewed, both men and women are stripped naked as the hand, and are
+carefully examined from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet,
+then between the toes and between the fingers, in the mouth, in the
+ears, not excepting even the parts naturally concealed, though then
+exposed to view. You must ask your examining surgeon if he is
+acquainted with the distemper of the yaws, which is the virus of
+Guinea, and incurable by a great many French surgeons, though very
+skilful in the management of European distempers. Be careful not to be
+deceived in this point; for your surgeon may be deceived himself;
+therefore attend at the examination yourself, and observe carefully
+over all the body of the negro, whether you can discover any parts of
+the skin, which though black like the rest, are however as smooth as a
+looking-glass, without any tumor or rising. Such spots may be easily
+discovered; {359} for the skin of a person who goes naked is usually
+all over wrinkles. Wherefore if you see such marks you must reject the
+negro, whether man or woman. There are always experienced surgeons at
+the sale of new negroes, who purchase them; and many of those surgeons
+have made fortunes by that means; but they generally keep their secret
+to themselves.
+
+Another mortal distemper with which many negroes from Guinea are
+attacked, is the scurvy. It discovers itself by the gums, but
+sometimes it is so inveterate as to appear outwardly, in which case it
+is generally fatal. If any of my readers shall have the misfortune to
+have a negro attacked with one of those distempers, I will now teach
+him how to save him, by putting him in a way of being radically cured
+by the surgeons; for I have no inclination to fall out with those
+gentlemen. I learned this secret from a negro physician, who was upon
+the king's plantation, when I took the superintendence of it.
+
+You must never put an iron instrument into the yaw; such an
+application would be certain death. In order to open the yaw, you take
+iron rust reduced to an impalpable powder, and passed through a fine
+search; you afterwards mix that powder with citron juice till it be of
+the consistence of an ointment, which you spread upon a linen cloth
+greased with hog's grease, or fresh lard without salt, for want of a
+better. You lay the plastier upon the yaw, and renew it evening and
+morning, which will open the yaw in a very short time without any
+incision.
+
+The opening being once made, you take about the bulk of a goose's egg
+of hog's lard without salt, in which you incorporate about an ounce of
+good terebinthine; after which take a quantity of powdered verdigris,
+and soak it half a day in good vinegar, which you must then pour off
+gently with all the scum that floats at top. Drop a cloth all over
+with the verdigris that remains, and upon that apply your last
+ointment. All these operations are performed without the assistance of
+fire. The whole ointment being well mixed with a spatula, you dress
+the yaw with it; after that put your negro into a copious sweat, and
+he will be cured. Take special care that your surgeon uses no
+mercurial medicine, as I have seen; for that will occasion the death
+of the patient.
+
+{360} The scurvy is no less to be dreaded than the yaws; nevertheless
+you may get the better of it, by adhering exactly to the following
+prescription: take some scurvy-grass, if you have any plants of it,
+some ground-ivy, called by some St. John's wort, water-cresses from a
+spring or brook, and for want of that, wild cresses; take these three
+herbs, or the two last, if you have no scurvy-grass; pound them, and
+mix them with citron-juice, to make of them a soft paste, which the
+patient must keep upon both his gums till they be clean, at all times
+but when he is eating. In the mean while he must be suffered to drink
+nothing but an infusion of the herbs above named. You pound two
+handfuls of them, roots and all, after washing off any earth that may
+be upon the roots or leaves; to these you join a fresh citron, cut
+into slices. Having pounded all together, you then steep them in an
+earthen pan in a pint of pure water of the measure of Paris; after
+that you add about the size of a walnut of powdered and purified
+saltpetre, and to make it a little relishing to the negro, you add
+some powder sugar. After the water has stood one night, you squeeze
+out the herbs pretty strongly. The whole is performed cold, or without
+fire. Such is the dose for a bottle of water Paris measure; but as the
+patient ought to drink two pints a day, you may make several pints at
+a time in the above proportion.
+
+In these two distempers the patients must be supported with good
+nourishment, and made to sweat copiously. It would be a mistake to
+think that they ought to be kept to a spare diet; you must give them
+nourishing food, but a little at a time. A negro can no more than any
+other person support remedies upon bad food, and still less upon a
+spare diet; but the quantity must be proportioned to the state of the
+patient, and the nature of the distemper. Besides, good food makes the
+best part of the remedy to those who in common are but poorly fed. The
+negro who taught me these two remedies, observing the great care I
+took of both the negro men and negro women, taught me likewise the
+cure of all the distempers to which the women are subject; for the
+negro women are as liable to diseases as the white women.
+
+{361}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the Manner of governing the Negroes._
+
+
+When a negro man or woman comes home to you, it is proper to caress
+them, to give them something good to eat, with a glass of brandy; it
+is best to dress them the same day, to give them something to sleep
+on, and a covering. I suppose the others have been treated in the same
+manner; for those marks of humanity flatter them, and attach them to
+their masters. If they are fatigued or weakened by a journey, or by
+any distempers, make them work little; but keep them always busy as
+long as they are able to do any thing, never suffering them to be
+idle, but when they are at their meals. Take care of them when they
+are sick, and give attention both to their remedies and their food,
+which last ought then to be more nourishing than what they usually
+subsist upon. It is your interest so to do, both for their
+preservation, and to attach them more closely to you; for though many
+Frenchmen say that negroes are ungrateful, I have experienced that it
+is very easy to render them much attached to you by good treatment,
+and by doing them justice, as I shall mention afterwards.
+
+If a negro woman lies-in, cause her to be taken care of in every thing
+that her condition makes necessary, and let your wife, if you have
+one, not disdain to take the immediate care of her herself, or at
+least have an eye over her.
+
+A Christian ought to take care that the children be baptised and
+instructed, since they have an immortal soul. The mother ought then to
+receive half a ration more than usual, and a quart of milk a day, to
+assist her to nurse her child.
+
+Prudence requires that your negroes be lodged at a proper distance, to
+prevent them from being troublesome or offensive; but at the same time
+near enough for your conveniently observing what passes among them.
+When I say that they ought not to be placed so near your habitation as
+to be offensive, I mean by that the smell which is natural to some
+nations of negroes, such as the Congos, the Angolas, the Aradas, and
+others. On this account it is proper to have in their camp a bathing
+place formed by thick planks, buried in the earth about a foot or a
+{362} foot and a half at most, and never more water in it than about
+that depth, for fear lest the children should drown themselves in it;
+it ought likewise to have an edge, that the little children may not
+have access to it, and there ought to be a pond without the camp to
+supply it with water and keep fish. The negro camp ought to be
+inclosed all round with palisades, and to have a door to shut with a
+lock and key. The huts ought to be detached from each other, for fear
+of fire, and to be built in direct lines, both for the sake of
+neatness, and in order to know easily the hut of each negro. But that
+you may be as little incommoded as possible with their natural smell,
+you must have the precaution to place the negro camp to the north or
+north-east of your house, as the winds that blow from these quarters
+are not so warm as the others, and it is only when the negroes are
+warm that they send forth a disagreeable smell.
+
+The negroes that have the worst smell are those that are the least
+black; and what I have said of their bad smell, ought to warn you to
+keep always on the windward side of them when you visit them at their
+work; never to suffer them to come near your children, who, exclusive
+of the bad smell, can learn nothing good from them, either as to
+morals, education, or language.
+
+From what I have said, I conclude that a French father and his wife
+are great enemies to their posterity when they give their children
+such nurses. For the milk being the purest blood of the woman, one
+must be a step-mother indeed to give her child to a negro nurse in
+such a country as Louisiana, where the mother has all conveniences of
+being served, of accommodating and carrying their children, who by
+that means may be always under their eyes. The mother then has nothing
+else to do but to give the breast to her child.
+
+I have no inclination to employ my pen in censuring the over-delicacy
+and selfishness of the women, who thus sacrifice their children; it
+may, without further illustration, be easily perceived how much
+society is interested in this affair. I shall only say, that for any
+kind of service whatever about the house, I would advise no other kind
+of negroes, either young or old, but Senegals, called among themselves
+Diolaufs, because of all {363} the negroes I have known, these have
+the purest blood; they have more fidelity and a better understanding
+than the rest, and are consequently fitter for learning a trade, or
+for menial services. It is true they are not so strong as the others
+for the labours of the field, and for bearing the great heats.
+
+The Senegals however are the blackest, and I never saw any who had a
+bad smell. They are very grateful; and when one knows how to attach
+them to him, they have been found to sacrifice their own life to save
+that of their master. They are good commanders over other negroes,
+both on account of their fidelity and gratitude, and because they seem
+to be born for commanding. As they are high-minded, they may be easily
+encouraged to learn a trade, or to serve in the house, by the
+distinction they will thereby acquire over the other negroes, and the
+neatness of dress which that condition will entitle them to.
+
+When a settler wants to make a fortune, and manage his plantation with
+oeconomy, he ought to prefer his interest to his pleasure, and only
+take the last by snatches. He ought to be the first up and the last
+a-bed, that he may have an eye over every thing that passes in his
+plantation. It is certainly his interest that his negroes labour a
+good deal: but it ought to be an equal and moderate labour, for
+violent and continual labours would soon exhaust and ruin them;
+whereas by keeping them always moderately employed, they neither
+exhaust their strength nor ruin their constitution. By this they are
+kept in good health, and labour longer, and with more good will:
+besides it must be allowed that the day is long enough for an
+assiduous labourer to deserve the repose of the evening.
+
+To accustom them to labour in this manner I observed the following
+method: I took care to provide one piece of work for them before
+another was done, and I informed their commander or driver in their
+presence, that they might not lose time, some in coming to ask what
+they were to do, and others in waiting for an answer. Besides I went
+several times a day to view them, by roads which they did not expect,
+pretending to be going a hunting or coming from it. If I observed them
+idle, I reprimanded them, and if when they saw me coming, they wrought
+too hard, I told them that they fatigued themselves, {364} and that
+they could not continue at such hard labour during the whole day,
+without being harassed, which I did not want.
+
+When I surprised them singing at their work, and perceived that they
+had discovered me, I said to them chearfully, Courage, my boys, I love
+to see you merry at your work; but do not sing so loud, that you may
+not fatigue yourselves, and at night you shall have a cup of Tafia (or
+rum) to give you strength and spirits. One cannot believe the effect
+such a discourse would have upon their spirits, which was easily
+discernible from the chearfulness upon their countenances, and their
+ardour at work.
+
+If it be necessary not to pass over any essential fault in the
+negroes, it is no less necessary never to punish them but when they
+have deserved it, after a serious enquiry and examination supported by
+an absolute certainty, unless you happen to catch them in the fact.
+But when you are fully convinced of the crime, by no means pardon them
+upon any assurances or protestations of theirs, or upon the
+solicitations of others; but punish them in proportion to the fault
+they have done, yet always with humanity, that they may themselves be
+brought to confess that they have deserved the punishment they have
+received. A Christian is unworthy of that name when he punishes with
+cruelty, as is done to my knowledge in a certain colony, to such a
+degree that they entertain their guests with such spectacles, which
+have more of barbarity than humanity in them. When a negro comes from
+being whipped, cause the sore parts to be washed with vinegar mixed
+with salt, Jamaica pepper, which grows in the garden, and even a
+little gun-powder.
+
+As we know from experience that most men of a low extraction, and
+without education, are subject to thieving in their necessities, it is
+not at all surprising to see negroes thieves, when they are in want of
+every thing, as I have seen many badly fed, badly cloathed, and having
+nothing to lie upon but the ground. I shall make but one reflection.
+If they are slaves, it is also true that they are men, and capable of
+becoming Christians: besides, it is your intention to draw advantage
+from them, is it not therefore reasonable to take all the care of
+{365} them that you can? We see all those who understand the
+government of horses give an extraordinary attention to them, whether
+they be intended for the saddle or the draught. In the cold season
+they are well covered and kept in warm stables. In the summer they
+have a cloth thrown over them, to keep them from the dust, and at all
+times good litter to lie upon. Every morning their dung is carried
+away, and they are well curried and combed. If you ask those masters,
+why they bestow so much pains upon beasts? they will tell you, that,
+to make a horse serviceable to you, you must take a good deal of care
+of him, and that it is for the interest of the person to whom a horse
+belongs, so to do. After this example, can one hope for labour from
+negroes, who very often are in want of necessaries? Can one expect
+fidelity from a man, who is denied what he stands most in need of?
+When one sees a negro, who labours hard and with much assiduity, it is
+common to say to him, by way of encouragement, that they are well
+pleased with him, and that he is a good negro. But when any of them,
+who understand our language, are so complimented, they very properly
+reply, _Masser, when negre be much fed, negre work much; when negre has
+good masser, negre be good._
+
+If I advise the planters to take great care of their negroes, I at the
+same time shew them that their interest is connected in that with
+their humanity. But I do no less advise them always to distrust them,
+without seeming to fear them, because it is as dangerous to shew a
+concealed enemy that you fear him, as to do him an injury.
+
+Therefore make it your constant custom to shut your doors securely,
+and not to suffer any negro to sleep in the house with you, and have
+it in their power to open your door. Visit your negroes from time to
+time, at night and on days and hours when they least expect you, in
+order to keep them always in fear of being found absent from their
+huts. Endeavour to assign each of them a wife, to keep clear of
+debauchery and its bad consequences. It is necessary that the negroes
+have wives, and you ought to know that nothing attaches them so much
+to a plantation as children. But above all do not suffer any of them
+to abandon his wife, when he has once made choice of one {366} in your
+presence. Prohibit all fighting under pain of the lash, otherwise the
+women will often raise squabbles among the men.
+
+Do not suffer your negroes to carry their children to the field with
+them, when they begin to walk, as they only spoil the plants and take
+off the mothers from their work. If you have a few negro children, it
+is better to employ an old negro woman to keep them in the camp, with
+whom the mothers may leave something for their children to eat. This
+you will find to be the most profitable way. Above all do not suffer
+the mothers ever to carry them to the edge of the water, where there
+is too much to be feared.
+
+For the better subsistence of your negroes, you ought every week to
+give them a small quantity of salt and of herbs of your garden, to
+give a better relish to their Couscou, which is a dish made of the
+meal of rice or maiz soaked in broth.
+
+If you have any old negro, or one in weak health, employ him in
+fishing both for yourself and your negroes. His labour will be well
+worth his subsistence.
+
+It is moreover for your own interest to give your negroes a small
+piece of waste ground to improve at the end of your own, and to engage
+them to cultivate it for their own profit, that they may be able to
+dress a little better, by selling the produce of it, which you ought
+to buy from them upon fair and just terms. It were better that they
+should employ themselves in cultivating that field on Sundays, when
+they are not Christians, than do worse. In a word, nothing is more to
+be dreaded than to see the negroes assemble together on Sundays,
+since, under pretence of Calinda or the dance, they sometimes get
+together to the number of three or four hundred, and make a kind of
+Sabbath, which it is always prudent to avoid; for it is in those
+tumultuous meetings that they sell what they have stolen to one
+another, and commit many crimes. In these likewise they plot their
+rebellions.
+
+To conclude, one may, by attention and humanity, easily manage
+negroes; and, as an inducement, one has the satisfaction to draw great
+advantage from their labours.
+
+[THE END]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Index
+
+
+Abeikas Indians--293
+Acacia Tree--222
+Achechy--237
+Adaies Indians--9;
+    Post of, 54
+Agriculture, Indian--341
+Aiaouez Indians--59, 62; 63; 66; 305
+Alaron, Martin de--9, 10
+Algonquins--93
+Alder--226
+Alibamous Indians--293
+Alibamous River--135
+Alligator--
+    slave girl kills, 19;
+    author kills large one, 22;
+    description of, 253-255
+Amite River--113
+Ants--272; 273
+Aplaches Indians--293
+Apples, wild--212
+Aquelou-Pissas Indians--18; 297
+Arkansas--
+    German colonists there, 29; 88
+Arkansas Indians--
+    mate with Canadians, 4; 57; 303
+Arkansas River--
+    reached by Tonti, 4; 112; 113; 153-154
+Armed-fish--276-277
+Ascension Bay--114; 139
+Ash--226
+Aspen--226
+Assinais Indians--5-9
+Attakapas Indians--
+    cannibals, 302
+Avoyelles Indians--149;
+    home of, 302-303
+Ayac Shrub--226
+
+Balers, Marquis of--9
+Barataria--145
+Barbel, description of--274
+Barley--203
+Baton Rouge--52;
+    named after a cypress tree, 217
+Bay of St. Bernard--3
+Bay of St. Esprit--2
+Bay of St. Louis--16; 17; 114;
+    lands around, 138
+Bayou Choupic--17; 18
+Bayou Goula--141
+Bayou-Ogoulas Indians--52; 302
+Bayou St. John--17; 18; 49; 52
+Beans--
+    cultivation in La., 204
+Bears--132; 133;
+    description of, 245-249;
+    feast of, 324
+Beavers--
+    description of, 127-131
+Bec-croche--261
+Bees--271
+Bienville--
+    becomes Gov. Gen. of La., 10-11;
+    founds New Orleans, 15;
+    breeds hogs, 16; 28; 38;
+    defeats Natchez Indians, 39; 42; 49; 71; 87; 88; 92; 93;
+    war against Chicasaws, 94-95; 109;
+    returns to La., 186
+Biloxi--11; 16;
+    not suitable for settlement, 28;
+    distress of German colonists, 29;
+    country back of, 30; 47;
+    settlement destroyed, 137.
+Birch Tree--231
+Bishop (Bird)--270
+Blackbirds--268
+Black River--113;
+    land around it, 148;
+    lands along, 151-154
+Bon Homme--195
+Bois-Briant--58
+Bonita Fish--12
+Bourgrnont, Commander de--
+    voyage to Missouri and Kansas, 59-68;
+    his journal, 69; 160; 305
+Bows--
+    how made, 340
+Buffalo--64;
+    hunt by author, 122; 132; 134; 146; 147; 152;
+    hunt in New Mexico, 155;
+    hides and tallow, 155-156; 162, 178;
+    description of, 240;
+    Indian hunt, 240;
+    feast of, 324
+Burgo-Breaker (fish)--275
+Burial customs--333-337
+Butterflies--271
+Buzzard--
+    deseciption of, 258
+
+Caouquias Indians--301
+Caouitas Indians--293
+Caddo Indians--151; 303
+Cadillac, de la Motte--
+    arrives in La., 5; 6; 8; 9;
+    death of, 10;
+    his mine, 163
+Calendar of Natchez--319
+Calumet (Pipe of Peace)--35;
+    feathers for, 258
+Campeachy wood--183
+Canadians--
+    early voyagers to La., 4;
+    at Dauphin Island, 16;
+    at Mobile, 46; 58; 59;
+    get salt, 157;
+    Route to La., 161-163
+Candlemas Islands--138
+Cannes Brulee's--52
+Canoe--
+    how made, 69
+Cantharadies--272
+Canzas (see Kansas)
+Cape Anthony--13
+Cape Francois--11-13; 182
+Capuchins--51
+Caranco--22
+Cardinal--269
+Carolina--
+    population, IX; 47
+Carp--17; 146; 274
+Carrion-Crow--258
+Carthaginians--
+    practised scalping, 283
+Caskaquias (see Kaskasia)
+Cassine Shrub--228
+Castin Bayou--113
+Castine Mine--133
+Catamounts--134; 144
+Caterpillars--271
+Catfish--
+    description of, 274
+Cat Island--16; 138
+Cedar Trees--215; 225
+Celoron, Capt. de--93; 94
+Chacchi-Oumas Indians--300
+Chactaw Indians (see Choctaws)
+Chaineau, M.--278
+Chameleons--257
+Champmelin, Commander--
+    captures Pensacola XXIV; 104; 105
+Chandeleur Islands--13
+Chaouachas Indians--140; 301
+Chaouanous River--162
+Charleville, M. de--109; 110
+Charlevoix--I; III; IV; XXV; XXVI; 24; 30
+Chateauguier--101
+Chatkas Indians--295;
+    language, 297
+Chatots Indians--294
+Cherokees--293
+Cherokee River--162
+Chestnut Trees--214
+Chicasaw Cliffs--133
+Chicasaw Indians--46;
+    murder French, 56-57;
+    war with, 87-90;
+    make peace, 94;
+    country of, 137;
+    destructive wars, 291;
+    language, 297;
+    destroy other tribes, 303-304;
+    fierce and arrogant, 332.
+Chitimachas Indians--18;
+    war with, 71; 300;
+    home of, 302
+Choctaws--46; 80; 84; 85; 113
+Chopart, de--73; his death, 82
+Choupic--276
+Choupichoul (buck wheat)-156-157
+Clerac (Gascony)-27
+Climate--
+    of Gulf Coast, III; VIII;
+    severe weather, 36;
+    at Mobile, 46;
+    of the Miss. Valley, 57;
+    of La., 107-108
+Clothing of Indians--344-346
+Cochineal--183
+Cockle-Island--17, 138
+Codfish--14
+Cola-Pissas--18
+Colbert--3
+Coligni, Admiral de--2
+Conchac Indians--293
+Copper Mines--30, 145
+Corbijeau--266
+Cormorant, 259
+Coroas Indians--300
+Cooking, Indian--342
+Corn--
+    description of, 164-165;
+    importance of.185;
+    its cultivation in La., 202;
+    feast of, 321-322; 347
+Cotton--145; 158;
+    how cultivated, 174-175;
+    for export, 181
+Cotton Tree--222
+Coxe--
+    account of Carolina, VI; XIII; 47
+Cranes--22; 126;
+    description of, 261
+Crayfish--277
+Creeper, bearded--232
+Crocodile--253-255
+Crows--268
+Crozat--
+    La. ceded to, 5;
+    full store-houses, 8;
+    transfers to West India Co., 10; 107
+Cuba--13
+Cushaws--
+    cultivation in La., 206
+Cypress Tree--IV;
+    at Baton Rouge, 52; 216; 217
+
+
+d'Artaguette--28; 52; 88; 92
+Dauphin Isle--13; 15; 45; 46; 49; 101; 103
+d'Avion--23
+Deer--64;
+    white, 124; 132; 134; 144; 152;
+    hunt, 242-244; feast of, 319
+Deer Oil--249
+DeLaet--2
+De Lisle--279
+de Meuse--
+    grant, 54
+de Soto--2
+de Ville, Father--26
+Diodorus Siculus--
+    his description of lands west of Africa, 281-282
+Diseases--
+    fatal to Indians--291;
+    of Negroes, 359-360
+Dove--266
+Dragon flies--272
+Draught (Bird)--263
+Ducks--126;
+    description of, 259-261
+du Crenet--84
+du Haye--198
+Dumont (Historian)--I; V; VII; XXV; 46; 56; 66; 113; 135;
+    historical memoirs, 187; 225
+Du Pratz--1eaves La., 187
+du Tiffenet--88; 89
+du Vernai, Paris--52
+
+Eagles--257
+Eels--277
+Egret--261
+Elder Tree--231
+
+Elephant--
+    skeletons found in Ohio--290
+Elk--64, 132, 134, 144
+Elm--226
+English--
+    extent of American possessions, XIV;
+    shipping, XVII;
+    at English Turn, 47-51;
+    on the Yazoo, 56; 57;
+    on the Miss. River, 140;
+    tobacco trade, 199
+English Turn (Reach)--47; 51;
+    why its name, 139-140
+Epidemic--13
+Episingles Indians--93
+Esquine--181, 233
+Eye Inflammation--
+    treatment for, 43
+Exports--
+    from La. to Islands, 182
+
+Falcon--258
+Feast of War--352-353
+Feasts of Indians--320-322
+Ferns--
+    Maiden hair, 234-235
+Fig Trees--210-211
+Filberts--213
+Fire, how made--340
+Fireflies--272
+Fish--
+    plentiful in La., 274
+Five Nations--294
+Flamingo--22; 126;
+    description of, 261
+Flat root--235
+Flaucourt, Loire de, 24
+Flax--145
+Fleury, Cardinal--187
+Flies--271
+Florida--
+    French settle there, 2;
+    Spanish attack them, 2;
+    French later attack Spanish, 2
+Flowers--239
+Flying Fish--12
+Food of Indians--348-350
+Fool--
+    description of, 263
+Forant, M. de--85
+Fort Assumption--57; 93; 95
+Fort Balise--47; 48; 116; 118;
+    where built, 139
+Fort Carolin (Fla.)--2
+Fort Chartres--58
+Fort Crevecoeur--3
+Fort Louis--46; 294
+Fort Mobile--88; 92
+Fort Orleans--59; 61; 62; 69; 160
+Fort Rosalie--23-24; 33; 34; 35
+Fort St. Francis--92; 95
+Fort St. John Baptist--6; 7; 9; 10
+Fort St. Louis--136
+Fox Indians--
+    home of, 301
+Foxes--251
+French--
+    shipping, XVII;
+    in Fla., 2, 18;
+    at Natchez, 32-33;
+    bad influence, 41;
+    massacre at Natchez, 82-83;
+    commerce with La., 177-182
+Frigate (Bird)--263
+Frogs--253
+Fur trade--178
+
+Gar fish--
+    description of, 276-277
+Gaillard--61-63; 65
+Games--
+    Indian, 347
+Geese--
+    wild, 127; 259
+Gentilly--52
+Germans--
+    in La., 29
+Gold--145; plentiful in Mexico, 150
+Gourges, Dominque de--2; 8
+Grapes--208-209
+Grass Point--17
+Great Sun--40; 42-43
+    burial, 333-336
+Green flies--272
+Grigas Indians--298
+Guenot--34
+Gulf of Mexico Coast--1;
+  northern boundary, 13;
+  description of land bordering, 135-137
+Gypsum--124
+
+Habitations of Indians--341
+Hakluyt (Fla.)--2
+Halcyon--
+    description of, 263-264
+Hatchet-bill--262
+Havana--102
+Hawks--258
+Hedge-hog--253
+Hennepin, Father--3
+Herons--126; 261
+Hemp--
+    cultivation, 180; 238
+Hickory Trees--213
+Horn Island--16
+Hornbean Trees--226
+Hops--177; 234
+Howard, John--58
+Hubert--
+    planter, 20; 22; 24; 25
+Hubert, Mme.--136; 167
+Humming Bird--270
+Hurons--93
+Hurricane--30; 31; 32
+Huts--
+    how made, 341
+
+Iapy, Commander--104
+Iberville--
+    made Gov. Gen. of La., 4;
+    his death, 5; 8; 10
+Iberville River--113
+Illinois--
+    visited by Hennepin and LaSalle, 3;
+    hurricane, 30; 57; 58; 88; 162; 163
+Illinois Indians--66;
+    home of, 300-301
+Illinois River--110
+Indians--
+    travel, 60-61;
+    how to fight, 99-100;
+    origin of, 279;
+    descended from Europeans, 281
+Indigo--
+    cultivation and processing, 168-171;
+    for export, 181;
+    Dumont's method of making, 191-193
+Iron--145
+Iroquois--93;
+    destructive wars of, 291
+Ivy--
+    ground, 237
+
+Jamaica--13
+Jesuits--51; 58
+
+Kappas Indians--304
+Kansas Indians--59; 60; 61; 62; 66; 68; 69; 305
+Kansas River--63; 64; 110;
+    description of, 159
+Kayemans--13
+Kaskasia--58
+Kaskasia Indians--301
+King-fisher--
+    description of, 263
+
+la Chaise, Director Gen.--44; 45
+Lake Borgne--17; 138
+Lake Erie--111; 161
+Lake Maurepas--17; 113
+
+Lake Pontchartrain--17
+Lake St. Louis--17; 46; 49; 52; 113; 135
+Lafourche (the Fork)--141
+Language of Natchez--311
+LaSalle--
+    travels from Canada to the Gulf, 3;
+    is killed on second trip, 4; 116
+Lavert--273
+Laudonviere, René de--2
+Laurel Trees--217
+Laval, Father--XXIII; XXV
+Lavigne, Sieur--18
+Law, John--29
+Lead--132; 145; 158; 163
+LeBlanc--
+    grant, 56; 88
+LeSueur--83
+LeSueur, Bayou--116
+Levans--29
+Liart Trees--226
+Lime Trees--226
+Linarez, Duke of--7-9
+Lion's Mouth (flower) 239
+Lizards--257
+Locust Tree--222
+Longevity of Indians--329
+L'Orient--29
+Loubois, Lieut. de--83; 84
+Louis XIV--3; 5; 107
+Louisiana--
+    poor colonization, XXVI;
+    named after Louis XIV, 3;
+    names, 15;
+    boundary of, 107;
+    description of soil, 117-118;
+    a fine country, 185;
+    fertility of, 197
+Luchereau, M. de--4
+
+Magnolia Trees--218-219
+Magpie--268
+Maize--163-165; 202-203
+Manchac River--111; 114
+Mangrove--223
+Maple Trees--220
+Marameg Mine--158
+Marameg River--58
+Margat River--57; 93
+Marriage customs--326-328
+Massacre Island--
+    Now Dauphin Isle, 13;
+    how it was named, 14
+Massacre of French at Natchez--73; 82
+Medicines--44; 45; 181; 215
+Medicine, Indian--26; 27; 43; 44
+Mehane--22
+Mexicans--
+    descent from Chinese or Japanese, 284
+Mexico--6; 7; 10;
+    home of ancient Natchez tribe, 279;
+    natives kill themselves, 291
+Mezieres, Marquis de--52
+Miami River--111; 161; 162; 163
+Michigamias Indians--304
+Mines in Illinois--163;
+    in La., 195-196
+Miragouine, Sieur--103
+Mississippi River--
+    lands of lower basin, VI; VII;
+    commands continent, IX;
+    navigation of, XI-XII;
+    mouths of, XIII;
+    reached by Hennepin, 3; 15; 18; 24;
+    hurricane, 30; 47; 48; 49; 51;
+    inhabitants along, 52; 53; 55; 58; 59; 63; 107;
+    As names, 109;
+    attempts to find source, 109;
+    mouths of, 114-115;
+    the passes, 117; 133;
+    soil at mouth, 138-139;
+    on east bank, 141-142;
+    lands west of, 145; 161; 162; 163;
+    voyage to source by Indian, 289-290
+Mississippi Scheme--II; 58
+Missionary--23
+Missouri Indians--59; 60; 66;
+    home of, 304-305
+Missouri River--
+    navigation of, XII; 60; 63; 69; 110;
+    description of, 159
+
+Mobile--
+    barren lands, XX; 9; 11;
+    birth place of La., 15; 45; 49; 89;
+    native of land, 135-136;
+    fertility of animals and women, 136
+Mobile Bay--114
+Mobile Indians--294
+Mobile River--
+    Canadians settle on, 4-5; 46; 135
+Moingona River--110
+Moncacht-apé, old wise man of Yazoo tribe--
+    his voyages, 285-290
+Montplaisir, M. de--27
+Montreal--59
+Mosquitoes--
+    description of, 272-273;
+    how Indians fight, 333
+Mulberry Trees--145; 158;
+    for silk growing, 167-168; 212;
+    feast of, 321
+Muscadine Grapes--209
+Mushroom--231
+Myrtle Wax-tree--220
+
+Narvaez--1
+Natchez--
+    goodness of the country, 20-21;
+    commandment, 27-28;
+    terrible storm, 30-32;
+    settlement at, 38-39; 55-56
+Natchez Indians--
+    DuPratz arrives among, 23-27;
+    first war with French, 32-36;
+    second war, 38-39; 55; 69;
+    council of war, 76-77; 84;
+    destroyed by French, 86-87; 153;
+    grow grain, 156;
+    origin of, 279-280; 297;
+    home of, 298;
+    power of, 299;
+    description of social habits--
+        birth and rearing children, 306-311;
+        language, government, religion, 311-320
+Natchitoches--
+    French settle, 5;
+    St. Denis at, 6;
+    Spanish settle near, 8; 54;
+    quality of land, 148;
+    silver there, 195
+Natchitoches Indians--112;
+    home of, 303
+Negroes--
+    revolt, 71;
+    choice of for slaves, 357;
+    how to handle, 361;
+    odors of, 362
+Nesunez, Pamphilo--1
+New Orleans--V;
+    health good, IX;
+    settlement of, 11;
+    founded, 15; 17; 18; 22;
+    physicians and surgeons of, 26; 30; 45; 46;
+    forts below, 48;
+    description of, 49-52;
+    harbor of, 52; 58; 71;
+    climate, 108; 136;
+    nature of soil, 141;
+    distance from Canada, 162
+New Mexico--6; 54; 55; 112;
+    nature of land, 147;
+    hunting there, 155
+Niagara Falls--286
+Nightingale--269
+Nobility--
+    Natchez, 328
+North America--
+    extent of, XV;
+    its products, XVI
+
+Oak Trees--IV; V; 223-225
+Oats--203
+Ohio River--
+    navigation of, XII; 58; 111; 161; 162; 163;
+    skeleton of elephants found, 290
+Ochre--23
+Olivarez, Friar--9
+Olive Trees--213
+Orange Trees--212
+Opelousas Indians--302
+Opossum (wood-rat)--251
+Orignaux--162
+Osage Indians--59-60; 66; 304; 305
+Osage River--159
+Othouez Indians--59; 60; 61; 62; 66; 305
+Otters--253
+Otter Indians--287-288
+Ouachas Indians--140
+Ouchitas Indains--
+    former home of, 303
+Ouachita River--113
+Oumas Indians--52; 80; home of, 297
+Ouse-Ogoulas Indians--300
+Owls--268
+Oysters--
+    in La., 277;
+    on trees in St. Domingo, 278
+
+Paducah Indians--59; 61; 62; 63; 65;
+    Customs and manners, 66-68
+    destructive wars of, 291; 305
+Paillou, Major General--
+    at N. O., 15; 18; 39
+Parroquets--266
+Palmetto--231
+Panimahas Indians--59; 63; 66; 305
+Panis Indians--305
+Partridges--144; 265
+Paseagoulas River--114; 136
+Pasca-Ogoulas Indians--15; 46; 295
+Patassa (fish)--276
+Pawpaws--158; 210
+Peach Trees--210-211
+Pearl River--114
+Pelican--
+    description of, 259
+Pensacola--
+    description of, XXIII; 2;
+    Spanish settle, 8;
+    captured by French, 100-105
+Perdido River--104; 116; 135
+Perrier--
+    Gov. of La., 71; 73; 83; 85;
+    defeats Natchez Indians, 86-87; 153;
+    leaves La., 186
+Perrier de Salvert--72; 86
+Persimmons--209
+Peru--
+    natives killed themselves, 291
+Petits Ecores--52; 53
+Pheasant--264
+Phoenicians--
+    ancestors of Natchez Indians, 283
+Phenomenon--
+    alarming, 30;
+    at Natchez, 36-38;
+    extraordinary, 70
+Pigeons--
+    description of, 266-267
+Pike--276
+Pilchard--14; description of, 276
+Pimiteouis Indians--301
+Pin--IV;
+    for tar, 193-194; 217
+Pipe of Peace--59; 60; 63; 65; 258
+Pitch--
+    how to make, 194
+Plaquemine Bayou--114
+Plums--210
+Pointe Coupeé--52; 53; 54
+Pole Cat--252
+Pope (Bird)--269
+Poplar--222
+Porcupine--253
+Port de Paix--13
+Puerto Rico--11
+Potatoes (sweet)--
+    cultivation in La., 204-205
+Pottery--
+    how made, 342
+Provencals--
+    in La., 29
+Prud'homme Cliffs--93
+Prud'homme River--57
+Pumpkins--206
+
+Quail--266
+Quebec--3; 111
+
+Rabbits--251
+Raimond, Diego--6; 10
+Rattle snake--
+    cure for bite, 237;
+    description of, 255
+Rattle-snake herb--235-237
+Red fish--14
+Red River--54; 55; 112;
+    nature of land, 148; 151
+Red Shoe, Prince of Chactaws--95
+Religion of Natchez--312
+Rice--
+    how grown, 165;
+    how eaten, 166;
+    in La., 204-205
+Richebourg, Captain--101; 102
+Ring-skate (fish)--276
+Rio del Norte--6
+Rochelle--
+    author leaves, 11;
+    returns to, 187
+Rye--
+    in Illinois, 162; 203
+
+Saffron--180
+Sagamity--348; 349
+St. Anthony's Falls--109; 110
+St. Augustin, Fla.--2
+St. Bernard's Bay--116
+St. Catherine's Creek--33; 34; 35; 38
+St. Come--
+    Missionary, 71
+St. Croix River--110
+St. Denis--
+    journey to Mexico, 6-11; 54; 104;
+    popular with natives, 150
+St. Domingo--4; 11; 13;
+    oysters on trees, 277
+St. Francis River--57;
+
+    lands around, 157-158; 112
+St. Hilaire, Surgeon--42
+St. Laurent--93; 94
+St. Lawrence River--111; 161; 286
+St. Louis Church--51
+St. Louis River--3; 4; 8
+St. Rose Isle--101; 102
+St. Peter River--110
+Sallee--58
+Salmont, Com. Gen.--85
+Salt--
+    in lower La., 147;
+    spring near Natchitoches, 149;
+    mines, 153
+Salt petre--147; 180
+Samba--72
+Santa Fé--112
+Sarde (fish)--14
+Sardine--276
+Sarsaparilla--233
+Sassafras--181; 220
+Saw Bill--261
+Scalping--283
+Scotland--
+    tobacco trade, 199
+Scurvy--
+    how to cure--360
+Sea-Lark--263
+Sea Snipe--263
+Ship Island--16; 28
+Shrimp--277
+Siam distemper--13
+Silk--
+    growing experiments, 167-168
+    cultivation possible, 176;
+    worms, 271
+Silver--145; 151; 158; 163; 195
+Sioux Indians--109;
+    home of, 301-306
+Skunk--252
+Smallpox--
+    fatal to Indians, 291
+Snipe--266
+Spanish--
+    claim La., 5; 54; 55;
+    on west of La., colony, 146;
+    near Natchitoches, 150;
+    how they hunt in Mexico, 155;
+    commerce with La., 183-184;
+    attempt to settle Missouri, 305
+Starlings--268
+Stag--242
+Spatula--
+    description of, 261; 276
+Spiders--
+    description of, 257
+Squirrels--252
+Stink Wood Tree--226
+Strawberries--238;
+    feast of, 320
+Stung Arm--79; 80; 81
+Stung Serpent--35; 40;
+    death of, 335-336
+Sturgeon--14
+Sun of the Apple Village--
+    negotiates with the French, 73-78
+Swallows--269
+Swans--127; 162; 259
+Sweet gum--181; 215
+
+Tamarouas Indians--58; 162; 300; 301
+Tangipahoa River--113
+Tar--
+    how to make--193-194
+Tassel--258
+Tattooing--346
+Tchefuncte River--113; 136
+Teal--261
+Temple, Indian--
+    description of, 333
+Tensas Indians--
+    near Mobile, 294;
+    language, 297; 300;
+    former home of, 303
+Tensas River--
+    lands along, 152
+Termites--273
+Thioux Indians--299
+Thomez Indians--294
+Thorn, Passion--229-230
+Thornback (fish)--14
+Tigers--134;
+    description of, 249-250
+Timber--
+    for shipbuilding, 179
+Tobacco--
+    trade, XVII;
+    plantation, 25; 145; 158;
+    in Illinois, 163;
+    how cultivated, 171-174;
+    for export, 181;
+    DuMont's description of cultivation, 187-191;
+    advantages of La. cultivation, 197-198;
+    British imports and exports, 199;
+    worm, 271
+Tombigbee--46; 89
+Tonicas Indians--23; 27; 44; 80; 84; 85;
+    language of, 298
+Tonti, Chevalier de--3; 4
+Topoussas Indians--300
+Torture, Indian--354-355
+Tortuga--13
+Tooth-ache Tree--228
+Tradewinds--12
+Troniou--270
+Turkeys, wild--120; 144;
+    description of, 264;
+    feast of, 324
+Turkey Buzzard--258
+Turtles--253
+
+Ursuline Nuns--51
+
+Vanilla--184
+Vasquez de Aillon, Lucas--1
+Vauban--46
+Vaudreuil, Gov.--95; 96
+Vinegar Tree--227
+Virginia--58
+
+Wabash River--110; 111; 161; 162; 163
+Walnut Tree--158; 213
+War--
+    with Natchez Indians, 32-36; 38-39;
+    causes of Indian wars, 96-97;
+    how they fight, 350;
+    war feast, 352-353
+Wasps--271
+Water-hen--262
+Water Melons--
+    how grown, 166;
+    cultivation of in La., 206-207;
+    feast of, 321
+Wax--
+    from Wax Tree, 220-222
+Wax Tree--176; 220-222
+West India Company--
+    Takes over La., 10;
+    sends colonists, 11; 18; 32; 44;
+    gives up colony, 85
+Wheat--145;
+    in Illinois, 162;
+    in La., 203
+White Apple Village--33; 39;
+    demanded by French, 73
+Whortle-berries--212
+Wild Cat--251
+Wild Geese--22; 259
+Wild Turkey--
+    description of, 264
+    (see turkey)
+Willow Tree--226
+Wolves--134; 144;
+    kill buffaloes, 156;
+    description of, 244-245
+Women--
+    "fruitful" in La., 185
+Woodcock--266
+Wood-pecker--
+    description of, 268-269
+Wood-Rat--251
+Wren--258
+
+Yapon Shrub--228
+Yaws--359
+Yazoo Indians--56;
+    kill the garrison at their Post, 83; 300
+Yazoo River--56; 112
+Ydalgo, Friar--5; 7; 9
+
+[Illustration: A Map of Louisiana]
+
+[Illustration: THE GULPH OF MEXICO]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Louisiana, by Le Page Du Pratz
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA ***
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>The History Of Louisiana, by M. Le Page du Pratz</title>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<STYLE type="text/css">
+/* BR { clear: all } */
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+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Louisiana, by Le Page Du Pratz
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: The History of Louisiana
+       Or Of The Western Parts Of Virginia And Carolina: Containing
+              A Description Of The Countries That Lie On Both Sides Of
+              The River Missisippi
+
+Author: Le Page Du Pratz
+
+Posting Date: February 13, 2015 [EBook #9153]
+Release Date: October, 2005
+First Posted: September 8, 2003
+Last Updated: March 14, 2015
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stan Goodman and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA,
+OR OF THE WESTERN PARTS
+OF VIRGINIA AND CAROLINA:</h1>
+
+<p>Containing a DESCRIPTION
+of the Countries
+that lie on both Sides
+of the River Missisippi:<br>
+<br>
+With an ACCOUNT of the
+SETTLEMENTS,
+INHABITANTS,
+SOIL,
+CLIMATE,
+AND
+PRODUCTS.</p>
+
+<p>Translated from the FRENCH
+Of M. LE PAGE Du PRATZ;<br>
+<br>
+With some Notes and Observations
+relating to our Colonies.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+
+<h2><a name="foreword">Foreword</a></h2>
+
+<p>Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz was a Dutchman, as his birth in Holland
+about 1695 apparently proves. He died in 1775, just where available
+records do not tell us, but the probabilities are that he died in
+France, for it is said he entered the French Army, serving with the
+Dragoons, and saw service in Germany. While there is some speculation
+about all the foregoing, there can be no speculation about the
+statement that on May 25, 1718 he left La Rochelle, France, in one of
+three ships bound for a place called Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>For M. Le Page tells us about this in a three-volume work he wrote
+called, Histoire de la Louisiane, recognized as the authority to be
+consulted by all who have written on the early history of New Orleans
+and the Louisiana province.</p>
+
+<p>Le Page, who arrived in Louisiana August 25, 1718, three months after
+leaving La Rochelle, spent four months at Dauphin Island before he and
+his men made their way to Bayou St. John where he set up a plantation.
+He had at last reached New Orleans, which he correctly states,
+"existed only in name," and had to occupy an old lodge once used by an
+Acolapissa Indian. The young settler, he was only about 23 at the
+time, after arranging his shelter tells us: "A few days afterwards I
+purchased from a neighbour a native female slave, so as to have a
+woman to cook for us. My slave and I could not speak each other's
+language; but I made myself understood by means of signs." This slave,
+a girl of the Chitimacha tribe, remained with Le Page for years, and
+one draws the inference that she was possessed of a vigorous
+personality, and was not devoid of charm or bravery. Le Page writes
+that when frightened by an alligator approaching his camp fire, he ran
+to the lodge for his gun. However, the Indian girl calmly picked up a
+stick and hammered the 'gator so lustily on its nose that it
+retreated. As Le Page arrived with his gun, ready to shoot "the
+monster," he tells us: "She began to smile, and said many things which
+I did not comprehend, but she made me understand by signs, that there
+was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast."</p>
+
+<p>It is unfortunate, for the purpose of sociological study, that this
+Indian girl appears so infrequently in the many accounts Le Page has
+left us in his highly interesting studies of early Louisiana and its
+original inhabitants. He does not even tell us the Indian girl's name.</p>
+
+<p>We are told that after living on the banks of Bayou St. John for about
+two years, he left for the bluff lands of the Natchez country. His
+Indian girl decided she would go with him, as she had relatives there.
+Hearing of her plan, her old father offered to buy her back from Le
+Page. The Chitimacha girl, however, refused to leave her master,
+whereupon, the Indian father performed a rite of his tribe, which made
+her the ward of the white man&mdash;a simple ceremony of joining hands.</p>
+
+<p>Le Page spent eight years among the Natchez and what he wrote about
+them&mdash;their lives, their customs, their ceremonials&mdash;has been
+acknowledged to be the best and most accurate accounts we have of
+these original inhabitants of Louisiana. He has left us, in his
+splendid history, much information on the other Indian tribes of the
+lower Mississippi River country.</p>
+
+<p>Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz tells us he spent sixteen years in
+Louisiana before returning to France in 1734. They were years well
+spent&mdash;to judge by what he wrote.</p>
+
+<p>As it was written and published in the French language, Le Page's
+history proved in many instances to be a tantalizing casket of
+historical treasure that could not be opened by those who had not
+mastered French. The original edition, published in Paris in 1758, a
+score of years after the author landed in New Orleans, was followed in
+1763 by a two-volume edition in English, and eleven years later in
+1774, by a one-volume edition in English, entitled: "The History of
+Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina." The
+texts in the English editions are identical.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, early historians who could not read the French edition,
+were now able to read M. Le Page's accounts of his adventures in the
+New World. Unfortunately, especially for present day historians, the
+English editions have become increasingly rare&mdash;many libraries do not
+have them on their shelves. Therefore, the present re-publication
+fills a long-felt want.</p>
+
+<p>The English translation, with its added matter, is reproduced exactly
+as it was printed for T. Becket to be sold in his shop at the corner
+of the Adelphi in the Strand, London, 1774. Errors of grammar and
+spelling are not corrected. The only change is the modernizing of the
+old <i>s</i>'s which look like <i>f</i>'s.</p>
+
+<p>The present edition is really two works in one, for the English
+translation did not include any of the original edition's many
+illustrations. The London books did have two folding maps, one of the
+Louisiana province, the other of the country about the mouths of the
+Mississippi River. Not only are these maps reproduced in the present
+work, but in addition, all the other illustrations, including the rare
+map of New Orleans, appearing in the original French edition, are
+included. These quaint engravings of the birds, the beasts, the
+flowers, the shrubs, the trees, fish, the deer and buffalo hunts, and
+the habits and customs of the Natchez Indians, add much to the value
+of the present re-publication. I have captioned them with present-day
+names of the flora and fauna.</p>
+
+<p>STANLEY CLISBY ARTHUR.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>Mr. Arthur is a naturalist, historian and writer, and
+executive-director of the Louisiana State Museum.&mdash;J. S. W.
+Harmanson, Publisher</i>.)</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="toc">CONTENTS</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>  <a href="#preface">Preface</a></p>
+
+<p>  <a href="#book-I">BOOK I.</a>
+    The Transactions of the French in Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-I">CHAP. I.</a>
+      Of the first Discovery and Settlement of Louisiana</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-II">CHAP. II.</a>
+      The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the Spaniards
+      at the Assinaïs. His second Journey to Mexico, and Return
+      from thence</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-III">CHAP. III.</a>
+      Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the West-India Company
+      to Louisiana. Arrival and Stay at Cape François.  Arrival
+      at the Isle Dauphine. Description of that Island</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-IV">CHAP. IV.</a>
+      The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the
+      Places he passed through, as far as New Orleans</p>
+
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-V">CHAP. V.</a>
+      The Author put in Possession of his Territory.  His
+      Resolution to go and settle among the Natchez</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-VI">CHAP. VI.</a>
+      The Voyage of the Author to Biloxi. Description of that
+      Place. Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two
+      Copper Mines. His Return to the Natchez</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-VII">CHAP. VII.</a>
+      First War with the Natchez. Cause of the War</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-VIII">CHAP. VIII.</a>
+      The Governor surprized the Natchez with seven hundred
+      Men. Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The
+      Author sends upwards of three hundred Simples to the
+      Company</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-IX">CHAP. IX.</a>
+      French Settlements, or Posts. Post at Mobile.  The Mouths
+      of the Missisippi. The Situation and Description of New
+      Orleans</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-X">CHAP. X.</a>
+      The Voyages of the French to the Missouris, Canzas, and
+      Padoucas. The Settlements they in vain attempted to make
+      in those Countries; with a Description of an extraordinary
+      Phaenomenon</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-XI">CHAP. XI.</a>
+      The War with the Chitimachas. The Conspiracy of the Negroes
+      against the French. Their Execution</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-XII">CHAP. XII.</a>
+      The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the French in 1729.
+      Extirpation of the Natchez in 1730</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-XIII">CHAP. XIII.</a>
+      The War with the Chicasaws. The first Expedition by the
+      River Mobile. The second by the River Missisippi. The War
+      with the Chactaws terminated by the Prudence of M. de
+      Vaudreuil</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-XIV">CHAP. XIV.</a>
+      Reflections on what gives Occasion to Wars in Louisiana.
+      The Means of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the
+      Manner of coming off with Advantage and little Expence in
+      them</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-I-chapter-XV">CHAP. XV.</a>
+      Pensacola taken by Surprize by the French. Retaken by the
+      Spaniards. Again retaken by the French, and demolished</p>
+
+<p>  <a href="#book-II">BOOK II.</a>
+    Of the Country and its Products.</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-I">CHAP. I.</a>
+      Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its climate</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-II-chapter-I-section-I">Description of the Lower Louisiana, and the Mouths of the
+        Missisippi.</a></p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-II">CHAP. II.</a>
+      The Author's journey in Louisiana, from the Natchez to the
+      River St. Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-III">CHAP. III.</a>
+      The Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the
+      Coast.</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-IV">CHAP. IV.</a>
+      Quality of the Lands above the Fork.  A Quarry of Stone
+      for building.  High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility.
+      West Coast: West Lands: Saltpetre</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-V">CHAP. V.</a>
+      Quality of the Lands of the Red River. Posts of
+      Nachitoches. A Silver Mine. Lands of the Black River</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-VI">CHAP. VI.</a>
+      A Brook of salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River
+      of the Arkansas. Red-veined Marble: Slate: Plaster.
+      Hunting the Buffalo. The dry Sand-banks in the Missisippi</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-VII">CHAP. VII.</a>
+      The Lands of the River St. Francis. Mine of Marameg, and
+      other Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone, resembling
+      Porphyry. Lands of the Missouri. The Lands North of the
+      Wabache. The Lands of the Illinois. De La Mothe's Mine,
+      and other Mines</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-VIII">CHAP. VIII.</a>
+      Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering,
+      and manufacturing the Commodities that are proper
+      Articles of Commerce. Of the Culture of Maiz, Rice, and
+      other Fruits of the Country. Of the Silk Worm</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-IX">CHAP. IX.</a>
+      Of Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, and Saffron</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-X">CHAP. X.</a>
+      Of the Commerce that is, and may be carried on in
+      Louisiana. Of the Commodities which that Province
+      may furnish in Return for those of Europe. Of the
+      Commerce of Louisiana with the Isles</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-XI">CHAP. XI.</a>
+      Of the Commerce with the Spaniards. The Commodities
+      they bring to the Colony, if there is a Demand for
+      them. Of such as may be given in Return, and may suit
+      them. Reflections on the Commerce of this Province,
+      and the great Advantages which the State and
+      particular Persons may derive therefrom</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-XII">Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana,
+      by M. Dumont.</a></p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-II-chapter-XII-section-I">I.</a>   Of Tobacco, with the Way of cultivating and curing it</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-II-chapter-XII-section-II">II.</a>  Of the Way of making Indigo</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-II-chapter-XII-section-III">III.</a> Of Tar; the Way of making it; and of making it into
+           pitch</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-II-chapter-XII-section-IV">IV.</a>  Of the Mines of Louisiana</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-II-chapter-XII-section-V">Extract from a late French Writer, concerning the Importance
+      of Louisiana to France</a></p>
+
+<p>  <a href="#book-III">BOOK III.</a>
+    The Natural History of Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-I">CHAP. I.</a>
+      Of Corn and Pulse</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-II">CHAP. II.</a>
+      Of the Fruit Trees of Louisiana</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-III">CHAP. III.</a>
+      Of Forest Trees</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-IV">CHAP. IV.</a>
+      Of Shrubs and Excrescences</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-V">CHAP. V.</a>
+      Of Creeping Plants</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-VI">CHAP. VI.</a>
+      Of the Quadrupedes</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-VII">CHAP. VII.</a>
+      Of Birds and flying Insects</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-III-chapter-VIII">CHAP. VIII.</a>
+      Of Fishes and Shell-Fish</p>
+
+<p>  <a href="#book-IV">BOOK IV.</a>
+    Of the Natives of Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-IV-chapter-I">CHAP. I.</a>
+      The Origin of the Americans</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-IV-chapter-II">CHAP. II.</a>
+      An Account of the several Nations of Louisiana</p>
+
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-II-section-I">SECT. I.</a>
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the Missisippi</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-II-section-II">SECT. II.</a>
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the Missisippi</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III">CHAP. III.</a>
+      A Description of the Natives of Louisiana; of their
+      Manners and Customs, particularly those of the Natchez:
+      Of their Language, their Religion, Ceremonies, Rulers,
+      or Suns, Feasts, Marriages, &amp;c</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III-section-I">SECT. I.</a>
+        A Description of the Natives; the different Employments
+        of the two Sexes; and their Manner of bringing up their
+        Children</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III-section-II">SECT. II.</a>
+        Of the Language, Government, Religion, Ceremonies, and
+        Feasts of the Natives</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III-section-III">SECT. III.</a>
+        Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III-section-IV">SECT. IV.</a>
+        Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious
+        Ceremonies of the People of Louisiana</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III-section-V">SECT. V.</a>
+        Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III-section-VI">SECT. VI.</a>
+        Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their
+        Meals and Fastings</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-III-section-VII">SECT. VII.</a>
+        Of the Indian Art of War</p>
+
+<p>    <a href="#book-IV-chapter-IV">CHAP. IV.</a>
+      Of the Negroes of Louisiana</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-IV-section-I">SECT. I.</a>
+        Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distempers, and the
+        Manner of curing them</p>
+
+<p>      <a href="#book-IV-chapter-IV-section-II">SECT. II.</a>
+        Of the Manner of governing the Negroes</p>
+
+<p>  <a href="#index">INDEX</a></p>
+
+<h2><a name="lof">List of Illustrations</a></h2>
+
+<p>    <a href="#illustration-i">Indian in Summer Time</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-ii">Indian in Winter Time</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-iii">Indian Woman and Daughter</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-iv">Plan of New Orleans, 1720</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-v">Beaver, Beaver lodge, Beaver dam</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-vi">Indians of the North Leaving in the Winter with their
+Families for a Hunt</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-vii">Indigo</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-viii">Cotton and Rice on the Stalk</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-ix">Appalachean Beans. Sweet Potatoes</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-x">Watermelon</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xi">Pawpaw. Blue Whortle-berry</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xii">Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xiii">Cypress</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xiv">Magnolia</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xv">Sassafras</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xvi">Myrtle Wax Tree. Vinegar Tree</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xvii">Poplar ("Cotton Tree")</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xviii">Black Oak</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xix">Linden or Bass Tree</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xx">Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxi">Cassine or Yapon. Tooth-ache Tree or Prickly Ash</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxii">Passion Thorn or Honey Locust. Bearded Creeper</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxiii">Palmetto</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxiv">Bramble, Sarsaparilla</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxv">Rattlesnake Herb</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxvi">Red Dye Plant. Flat Root</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxvii">Panther or Catamount. Bison or Buffalo</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxviii">Indian Deer Hunt</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxix">Wild Cat. Opossum. Skunk</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxx">Alligator. Rattle Snake. Green Snake</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxi">Pelican. Wood Stock</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxii">Flying Squirrel. Roseate Spoonbill. Snowy Heron</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxiii">White Ibis. Tobacco Worm. Cock Roach</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxiv">Cat Fish. Gar Fish. Spoonbill Catfish</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxv">Indian Buffalo Hunt on Foot</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxvi">Dance of the Natchez Indians</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxvii">Burial of the Stung Serpent</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxviii">Bringing the Pipe of Peace</a><br>
+<a href="#illustration-xxxix">Torture of Prisoners. Plan of Fort</a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p><a name="page-i"></a></p>
+
+<h2><a name="preface">PREFACE</a></h2>
+
+<p>The History of Louisiana, which we here present to the public, was
+wrote by a planter of sixteen years experience in that country, who
+had likewise the advantage of being overseer or director of the public
+plantations, both when they belonged to the company, and afterwards
+when they fell to the crown; by which means he had the best
+opportunities of knowing the nature of the soil and climate, and what
+they produce, or what improvements they are likely to admit of; a
+thing in which this nation is, without doubt, highly concerned and
+interested. And when our author published this history in 1758, he had
+likewise the advantage, not only of the accounts of F. Charlevoix, and
+others, but of the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published at Paris
+in 1753, by Mr. Dumont, an officer who resided two-and-twenty years in
+the country, and was personally concerned and acquainted with many of
+the transactions in it; from whom we have extracted some passages, to
+render this account more complete.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever opportunities our author had of gaining a knowledge of
+his subject, it must be owned, that he made his accounts of it very
+perplexed. By endeavoring to take in every thing, he descends to many
+trifles; and by dwelling too long on a subject, he comes to render it
+obscure, by being prolix in things which hardly relate to what he
+treats of. He interrupts the thread of his discourse with private
+anecdotes, long harangues, and tedious narrations, which have little
+or no relation to the subject, and are of much less consequence to the
+reader. The want of method and order throughout the whole work is
+still more apparent; and that, joined to these digressions, renders
+his accounts, however just and interesting, so tedious and irksome to
+read, and at the same time so indistinct, that few seem to have reaped
+the benefit of them. For these reasons it was necessary to methodize
+the whole work; to abridge some parts of it; and to leave out many
+things that appear to be trifling. This we have endeavored to do in
+the translation, by reducing the whole work to four general heads or
+books; and <a name="page-ii"></a> by bringing the several subjects treated of, the
+accounts of which lie scattered up and down in different parts of the
+original, under these their proper heads; so that the connection
+between them, and the accounts of any one subject, may more easily
+appear.</p>
+
+<p>This, it is presumed, will appear to be a subject of no small
+consequence and importance to this nation, especially at this time.
+The countries here treated of, have not only by right always belonged
+to Great-Britain, but part of them is now acknowledged to it by the
+former usurpers: and it is to be hoped, that the nation may now reap
+some advantages from those countries, on which it has expended so many
+millions; which there is no more likely way to do, than by making them
+better known in the first place, and by learning from the experience
+of others, what they do or are likely to produce, that may turn to
+account to the nation.</p>
+
+<p>It has been generally suspected, that this nation has suffered much,
+from the want of a due knowledge of her dominions in America, which we
+should endeavor to prevent for the future. If that may be said of any
+part of America, it certainly may of those countries, which have been
+called by the French Louisiana. They have not only included under that
+name all the western parts of Virginia and Carolina; and thereby
+imagined, that they had, from this nominal title, a just right to
+those antient dominions of the crown of Britain: but what is of worse
+consequence perhaps, they have equally deceived and imposed upon many,
+by the extravagant hopes and unreasonable expectations they had formed
+to themselves, of the vast advantages they were to reap from those
+countries, as soon as they had usurped them; which when they came to
+be disappointed in, they ran from one extreme to another, and
+condemned the country as good for nothing, because it did not answer
+the extravagant hopes they had conceived of it; and we seem to be
+misled by their prejudices, and to be drawn into mistakes by their
+artifice or folly. Because the Missisippi scheme failed in 1719, every
+other reasonable scheme of improving that country, and of reaping any
+advantage from it, must do the same. It is to wipe off these
+prejudices, that the following account of these countries, which
+appears to be both <a name="page-iii"></a> just and reasonable, and agreeable to every
+thing we know of America, may be the more necessary.</p>
+
+<p>We have been long ago told by F. Charlevoix, from whence it is, that
+many people have formed a contemptible opinion of this country that
+lies on and about the Missisippi. They are misled, says he, by the
+relations of some seafaring people, and others, who are no manner of
+judges of such things, and have never seen any part of the country but
+the coast side, about Mobile, and the mouths of the Mississippi; which
+our author here tells us is as dismal to appearance, the only thing
+those people are capable of judging of, as the interior parts of the
+country, which they never saw, are delightful, fruitful, and inviting.
+They tell us, besides, that the country is unhealthful; because there
+happens to be a marsh at the mouth of the Missisippi, (and what river
+is there without one?) which they imagine must be unhealthful, rather
+than that they know it to be so; not considering, that all the coast
+both of North and South America is the same; and not knowing, that the
+whole continent, above this single part on the coast, is the most
+likely, from its situation, and has been found by all the experience
+that has been had of it, to be the most healthy part of all North
+America in the same climates, as will abundantly appear from the
+following and all other accounts.</p>
+
+<p>To give a general view of those countries, we should consider them as
+they are naturally divided into four parts; 1. The sea coast; 2. The
+Lower Louisiana, or western part of Carolina; 3. The Upper Louisiana,
+or western part of Virginia; and 4, the river Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>I. The sea coast is the same with all the rest of the coast of North
+America to the southward of New York, and indeed from thence to Mexico,
+as far as we are acquainted with it. It is all a low flat sandy beach,
+and the soil for some twenty or thirty miles distance from the shore,
+more or less, is all a <i>pine barren</i>, as it is called, or a sandy
+desart; with few or no good ports or harbours on the coast, especially
+in all those southern parts of America, from Chesapeak bay to Mexico.
+But however barren this coast is in other respects, it is entirely
+covered with tall pines, which afford great store of pitch, tar, and
+turpentine. <a name="page-iv"></a> These pines likewise make good masts for ships; which I
+have known to last for twenty odd years, when it is well known, that our
+common masts of New England white pine will often decay in three or four
+years. These masts were of that kind that is called the pitch pine, and
+lightwood pine; of which I knew a ship built that ran for sixteen years,
+when her planks of this pine were as sound and rather harder than at
+first, although her oak timbers were rotten. The cypress, of which there
+is such plenty in the swamps on this coast, is reckoned to be equally
+serviceable, if not more so, both for masts (of which it would afford
+the largest of any tree that we know), and for ship building. And ships
+might be built of both these timbers for half the price perhaps of any
+others, both on account of the vast plenty of them, and of their being
+so easily worked.</p>
+
+<p>In most parts of these coasts likewise, especially about the
+Missisippi, there is great plenty of cedars and ever-green oaks; which
+make the best ships of any that are built in North America. And we
+suspect it is of these cedars and the American cypress, that the
+Spaniards build their ships of war at the Havanna. Of these there is
+the greatest plenty, immediately; to the westward of the mouth of the
+Missisippi where "large vessels can go to the lake of the Chetimachas,
+and nothing hinders them to go and cut the finest oaks in the world,
+with which all that coast is covered;"<sup><a href="#fn-01" name="fr-01">1</a></sup>
+which, moreover, is a sure sign of a very
+good, instead of a bad soil; and accordingly we see the French have
+settled their tobacco plantations thereabouts. It is not without
+reason then, that our author tells us, the largest navies might be
+built in that country at a very small expence.</p>
+
+<p>From this it appears, that even the sea coast, barren as it is, from
+which the whole country has been so much depreciated, is not without
+its advantages, and those peculiarly adapted to a trading and maritime
+nation. Had these sandy desarts indeed been in such a climate as
+Canada, they would have been of as little value, as many would make
+them here. It might be difficult indeed to settle colonies merely for
+these or any other <a name="page-v"></a> productions of those poor lands: but to the
+westward of the Missisippi, the coast is much more fruitful all along
+the bay of Mexico; being watered with a great number of rivers, the
+banks of which are very fertile, and are covered with forests of the
+tallest oaks, &amp;c. as far as to New Mexico, a thing not to be seen any
+where else on these coasts. The coast alone will supply all the
+products of North America, and is as convenient to navigation as any
+part of it, without going nigh the Missisippi; so that it is with good
+reason our author says, "That country promises great riches to such as
+shall inhabit it, from the excellent quality of its lands,"<sup><a href="#fn-02" name="fr-02">2</a></sup>
+in such a climate.</p>
+
+<p>These are the productions of the dry (we cannot call them high)
+grounds: the swamps, with which this coast abounds, are still more
+fruitful, and abundantly compensate the avidity and barrenness of the
+soil around them. They bear rice in such plenty, especially the marsh
+about New Orleans, "That the inhabitants reap the greatest advantage
+from it, and reckon it the manna of the land."<sup><a href="#fn-03" name="fr-03">3</a></sup>
+It was such marshes on the Nile, in the same climate, that were
+the granary of the Roman empire. And from a few such marshes in
+Carolina, not to be compared to those on the Missisippi, either in
+extent or fertility, Britain receives at least two or three hundred
+thousand pounds a year, and might vend twice that value of their
+products.</p>
+
+<p>But however barren or noxious these low lands on the sea coast may be,
+they extend but a little way about the Missisippi, not above thirty or
+forty miles in a straight line, on the east side of that river, and
+about twice as far on the west side; in which last, the lands are, in
+recompence, much more fruitful. To follow the course of the river
+indeed, which runs very obliquely south-east and north-west, as well
+as crooked, they reckon it eighty-two leagues from the mouth of the
+river to the Cut-Point, where the high lands begin.</p>
+
+<p>II. By the Lower Louisiana, our author means only the Delta of the
+Missisippi, or the drowned lands made by the overflowing of the river.
+But we may more properly give <a name="page-vi"></a> that appellation to the whole
+country, from the low and flat sea coast above described, to the
+mountains, which begin about the latitude 35°, a little above the
+river St. Francis; that is, five degrees of latitude, or three hundred
+and fifty statute miles from the coast; which they reckon to be six
+hundred and sixty miles up the Missisippi. About that latitude a
+continued ridge of mountains runs westward from the Apalachean
+mountains nigh to the banks of the Missisippi, which are thereabouts
+very high, at what we have called the Chicasaw Cliffs. Opposite to
+these on the west side of the Missisippi, the country is mountainous,
+and continues to be so here and there, as far as we have any accounts
+of it, westward to the mountains of New Mexico; which run in a chain
+of continued ridges from north to south, and are reckoned to divide
+that country from Louisiana, about 900 miles west from the Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>This is one entire level champaign country; the part of which that
+lies west of the Missisippi is 900 miles (of sixty to a degree) by
+300, and contains 270,000 square miles, as much as both France and
+Spain put together. This country lies in the latitude of those
+fruitful regions of Barbary, Syria, Persia, India, and the middle of
+China, and is alone sufficient to supply the world with all the
+products of North America. It is very fertile in every thing, both in
+lands and metals, by all the accounts we have of it; and is watered by
+several large navigable rivers, that spread over the whole country
+from the Missisippi to New Mexico; besides several smaller rivers on
+the coast west of the Missisippi, that fall into the bay of Mexico; of
+which we have no good accounts, if it be not that Mr. Coxe tells us of
+one, the river of the Cenis, which, he says, "is broad, deep, and
+navigable almost to its heads, which chiefly proceed from the ridge of
+hills that separate this province from New Mexico,"<sup><a href="#fn-04" name="fr-04">4</a></sup>
+and runs through the rich and
+fertile country on the coast above mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>The western part of this country is more fertile, says our author,
+than that on the east side of the Missisippi; in which part, however,
+says he, the lands are very fertile, with a rich <a name="page-vii"></a> black mould
+three feet deep in the hills, and much deeper in the bottoms, with a
+strong clayey foundation. Reeds and canes even grow upon the hill
+sides; which, with the oaks, walnuts, tulip-trees, &amp;c. are a sure sign
+of a good and rich soil. And all along the Missisippi on both sides,
+Dumont tells, "The lands, which are all free from inundations, are
+excellent for culture, particularly those about Baton Rouge,
+Cut-Point, Arkansas, Natchez, and Yasous, which produce Indian corn,
+tobacco, indigo, &amp;c. and all kinds of provisions and esculent plants,
+with little or no care or labour, and almost without culture; the soil
+being in all those places a black mould of an excellent quality."<sup><a href="#fn-05" name="fr-05">5</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>These accounts are confirmed by our own people, who were sent by the
+government of Virginia in 1742, to view these the western parts of
+that province; and although they only went down the Ohio and
+Missisippi to New Orleans, they reported, that "they saw more good
+land on the Missisippi, and its many large branches, than they judge
+is in all the English colonies, as far as they are inhabited;" as
+appears from the report of that government to the board of trade.</p>
+
+<p>What makes this fertile country more eligible and valuable, is, that
+it appears both from its situation, and from the experience the French
+have had of it,<sup><a href="#fn-06" name="fr-06">6</a></sup>
+to be by far the most
+healthful of any in all these southern parts of North America; a thing
+of the last consequence in settling colonies, especially in those
+southern parts of America, which are in general very unhealthful. All
+the sea coasts of our colonies, to the southward of Chesapeak bay, or
+even of New-York, are low and flat, marshy and swampy, and very
+unhealthful on that account and those on and about the bay of Mexico,
+and in Florida, are withal excessively hot and intemperate, so that
+white people are unfit for labour in them; by which all our southern
+colonies, which alone promise to be of any great advantage to the
+nation, are so thin of people, that we have but 25,000 white people in
+all South Carolina.<sup><a href="#fn-07" name="fr-07">7</a></sup>
+But those lands on the Missisippi are, on <a name="page-viii"></a> the
+contrary, high, dry, hilly, and in some places mountainous at no great
+distance from the river, besides the ridges of the Apalachean
+mountains above mentioned, that lie to the northward of them; which
+must greatly refresh and cool the air all over the country, especially
+in comparison of what it is on the low and flat, sandy and parched sea
+coasts of our present colonies. These high lands begin immediately
+above the Delta, or drowned lands, at the mouth of the Missisippi;
+above which the banks of that river are from one hundred to two
+hundred feet high, without any marshes about them; and continue such
+for nine hundred miles to the river Ohio, especially on the east side
+of the river.<sup><a href="#fn-08" name="fr-08">8</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>Such a situation on rich and fertile lands in that climate, and on a
+navigable river, must appear to be of the utmost consequence. It is only
+from the rich lands on the river sides (which indeed are the only lands
+that can generally be called rich in all countries, and especially in
+North America), that this nation reaps any thing of value from all the
+colonies it has in that part of the world. But "rich lands on river
+sides in hot climates are extremely unhealthful," says a very good judge,<sup><a href="#fn-09" name="fr-09">9</a></sup>
+and we have often found to our
+cost. How ought we then to value such rich and healthful countries on
+the Missisippi? As much surely as some would depreciate and vilify them.
+It may be observed, that all the countries in America are only populous
+in the inland parts, and generally at a distance from navigation; as the
+sea coasts both of North and South America are generally low, damp,
+excessively hot, and unhealthful; at least in all the southern parts,
+from which alone we can expect any considerable returns. Instances of
+this may be seen in the adjacent provinces of Mexico, New Mexico, Terra
+Firma, Peru, Quito, etc. and far more in our southern colonies, which
+never became populous, till the people removed to the inland parts, at a
+distance from the sea. This we are in a manner prevented to do in our
+colonies, by the mountains which surround us, and confine us to the
+coast; whereas on the Missisippi the whole continent is open to them,
+and they have, besides, this healthy <a name="page-ix"></a> situation on the lower parts
+of that river, at a small distance from the sea.</p>
+
+<p>If those things are duly considered, it will appear, that they who are
+possessed of the Missisippi, will in time command that continent; and
+that we shall be confined on the sea coasts of our colonies, to that
+unhealthful situation, which many would persuade us is so much to be
+dreaded on the Missisippi. It is by this means that we have so very few
+people in all our southern colonies; and have not been able to get in
+one hundred years above twenty-five thousand people in South Carolina;
+when the French has not less than eighty or ninety thousand in Canada,
+besides ten or twelve thousand on the Missisippi, to oppose to them. The
+low and drowned lands, indeed, about the mouth of the Missisippi must no
+doubt be more or less unhealthful; but they are far from being so very
+pernicious as many represent them. The waters there are fresh, which we
+know, by manifold experience in America, are much less prejudicial to
+health than the offensive fetid marshes, that are to be found every
+where else on the salt waters. Accordingly we are credibly informed,
+that some of the inhabitants of New Orleans say, they never enjoyed
+better health even in France; and for that reason they invite their
+countrymen, in their letters to them, we are told, to come and partake
+of the salutary benefits of that delightful country. The clearing,
+draining, and cultivating of those low lands, must make a very great
+change upon them, from the accounts we have had of them in their rude
+and uncultivated state.</p>
+
+<p>III. The Upper Louisiana we call that part of the continent, which
+lies to the northward of the mountains above mentioned in latitude
+35°. This country is in many places hilly and mountainous for which
+reason we cannot expect it to be so fertile as the plains below it.
+But those hills on the west side of the Missisippi are generally
+suspected to contain mines, as well as the mountains of New Mexico, of
+which they are a continuation. But the fertile plains of Louisiana are
+perhaps more valuable than all the mines of Mexico; which there would
+be no doubt of, if they were duly cultivated. They will breed and
+maintain ten times as many people, and supply them with <a name="page-x"></a> many more
+necessaries, and articles of trade and navigation, than the richest
+mines of Peru.</p>
+
+<p>The most important place in this country, and perhaps in all North
+America, is at the Forks of the Missisippi, where the Ohio falls into
+that river; which, like another ocean, is the general receptacle of
+all the rivers that water the interior parts of that vast continent.
+Here those large and navigable rivers, the Ohio, river of the
+Cherokees, Wabache, Illinois, Missouri, and Missisippi, besides many
+others, which spread over that whole continent, from the Apalachean
+mountains to the mountains of New Mexico, upwards of one thousand
+miles, both north, south, east, and west, all meet together at this
+spot; and that in the best climate, and one of the most fruitful
+countries of any in all that part of the world, in the latitude 37°,
+the latitude of the Capes of Virginia, and of Santa Fe, the capital of
+New Mexico. By that means there is a convenient navigation to this
+place from our present settlements to New Mexico; and from all the
+inland parts of North America, farther than we are acquainted with it:
+and all the natives of that continent, those old friends and allies of
+the French, have by that means a free and ready access to this place;
+nigh to which the French formed a settlement, to secure their interest
+on the frontiers of all our southern colonies. In short this place is
+the centre of that vast continent, and of all the nations in it, and
+seems to be intended by nature to command them both; for which reason
+it ought no longer to be neglected by Britain. As soon as we pass the
+Apalachean mountains, this seems to be the most proper place to settle
+at; and was pitched upon for that purpose, by those who were the best
+acquainted with those countries, and the proper places of making
+settlements in them, of any we know. And if the settlements at this
+place had been made, as they were proposed, about twenty years ago,
+they might have prevented, or at least frustrated, the late attempts
+to wrest that country, and the territories of the Ohio, out of the
+hands of the English; and they may do the same again.</p>
+
+<p>But many will tell us, that those inland parts of North America will
+be of no use to Britain, on account of their distance <a name="page-xi"></a> from the
+sea, and inconvenience to navigation. That indeed might be said of the
+parts which lie immediately beyond the mountains, as the country of
+the Cherokees, and Ohio Indians about Pitsburg, the only countries
+thereabouts that we can extend our settlements to; which are so
+inconvenient to navigation, that nothing can be brought from them
+across the mountains, at least none of those gross commodities, which
+are the staple of North America; and they are as inconvenient to have
+any thing carried from them, nigh two thousand miles, down the river
+Ohio, and then by the Missisippi. For that reason those countries,
+which we look upon to be the most convenient, are the most
+inconvenient to us of any, although they join upon our present
+settlements. It is for these reasons, that the first settlements we
+make beyond the mountains, that is, beyond those we are now possessed
+of, should be upon the Missisippi, as we have said, convenient to the
+navigation of that river; and in time those new settlements may come
+to join to our present plantations; and we may by that means reap the
+benefit of all those inland parts of North America, by means of the
+navigation of the Missisippi, which will be secured by this post at
+the Forks. If that is not done, we cannot see how any of those inland
+parts of America, and the territories of the Ohio, which were the
+great objects of the present war, can ever be of any use to Britain,
+as the inhabitants of all those countries can otherwise have little or
+no correspondence with it.</p>
+
+<p>IV. This famous river, the Missisippi, is navigable upwards of two
+thousand miles, to the falls of St. Anthony in latitude 45°, the only
+fall we know in it, which is 16 degrees of latitude above its mouth;
+and even above that fall, our author tells us, there is thirty fathom
+of water in the river, with a proportionate breadth. About one
+thousand miles from its mouth it receives the river Ohio, which is
+navigable one thousand miles farther, some say one thousand five
+hundred, nigh to its source, not far from Lake Ontario in New York; in
+all which space there is but one fall or rapide in the Ohio, and that
+navigable both up and down, at least in canoes. This fall is three
+hundred miles from the Missisippi, and one thousand three hundred from
+the sea, with five fathom of water up to <a name="page-xii"></a> it. The other large
+branches of the Ohio, the river of the Cherokees, and the Wabache,
+afford a like navigation, from lake Erie in the north to the Cherokees
+in the south, and from thence to the bay of Mexico, by the Missisippi:
+not to mention the great river Missouri, which runs to the north-west
+parts of New Mexico, much farther than we have any good accounts of
+that continent. From this it appears, that the Missouri affords the
+most extensive navigation of any river we know; so that it may justly
+be compared to an inland sea, which spreads over nine tenths of all
+the continent of North America; all which the French pretended to lay
+claim to, for no other reason but because they were possessed of a
+paltry settlement at the mouth of this river.</p>
+
+<p>If those things are considered, the importance of the navigation of
+the Missisippi, and of a port at the mouth of it, will abundantly
+appear. Whatever that navigation is, good or bad, it is the only one
+for all the interior parts of North America, which are as large as a
+great part of Europe; no part of which can be of any service to
+Britain, without the navigation of the Missisippi, and settlements
+upon it. It is not without reason then, that we say, whoever are
+possessed of this river, and of the vast tracts of fertile lands upon
+it, must in time command that continent, and the trade of it, as well
+as all the natives in it, by the supplies which this navigation will
+enable them to furnish those people. By those means, if the French, or
+any others, are left in possession of the Missisippi, while we neglect
+it, they must command all that continent beyond the Apalachean
+mountains, and disturb our settlements much more than ever they did,
+or were able to do; the very thing they engaged in this war to
+accomplish, and we to prevent.</p>
+
+<p>The Missisippi indeed is rapid for twelve hundred miles, as far as to
+the Missouri, which makes it difficult to go up the river by water.
+For that reason the French have been used to quit the Missisippi at
+the river St. Francis, from which they have a nigher way to the Forks
+of the Missisippi by land. But however difficult it may be to ascend
+the river, it is, notwithstanding often done; and its rapidity
+facilitates a descent upon it, and a ready conveyance for those gross
+commodities, which <a name="page-xiii"></a> are the chief staple of North America, from
+the most remote places of the continent above mentioned: and as for
+lighter European goods, they are more easily carried by land, as our
+Indian traders do, over great part of the continent, on their horses,
+of which this country abounds with great plenty.</p>
+
+<p>The worst part of the navigation, as well as of the country, is
+reckoned to be at the mouth of the river; which, however, our author
+tells us, is from seventeen to eighteen feet deep, and will admit
+ships of five hundred tons, the largest generally used in the
+plantation trade. And even this navigation might be easily mended, not
+only by clearing the river of a narrow bar in the passes, which our
+author, Charlevoix, and others, think might be easily done; but
+likewise by means of a bay described by Mr. Coxe, from the actual
+survey of his people, lying to the westward of the south pass of the
+river; which, he says, has from twenty-five to six fathom water in it,
+close to the shore, and not above a mile from the Missisippi, above
+all the shoals and difficult passes in it, and where the river has one
+hundred feet of water. By cutting through that one mile then, it would
+appear that a port might be made there for ships of any burden; the
+importance of which is evident, from its commanding all the inland
+parts of North America on one side, and the pass from Mexico on the
+other; so as to be preferable in these respects even to the Havanna;
+not to mention that it is fresh water, and free from worms, which
+destroy all the ships in those parts.</p>
+
+<p>And as for the navigation from the Missisippi to Europe, our author
+shews that voyage may be performed in six weeks; which is as short a
+time as our ships generally take to go to and from our colonies. They
+go to the Missisippi with the trade winds, and return with the
+currents.</p>
+
+<p>It would lead us beyond the bounds of a preface, to shew the many
+advantages of those lands on the Missisippi to Britain, or the
+necessity of possessing them. That would require a treatise by itself,
+of which we can only give a few abstracts in this place. For this
+purpose we should compare those lands with our present colonies; and
+should be well informed of the quantity and condition of the lands we
+already possess, before <a name="page-xiv"></a> we can form any just judgement of what
+may be farther proper or requisite.</p>
+
+<p>Our present possessions in North America between the sea and the
+mountains appear, from many surveys and actual mensurations, as well
+as from all the maps and other accounts we have of them, to be at a
+medium about three degrees of longitude, or one hundred and forty
+miles broad, in a straight line; and they extend from Georgia, in
+latitude 32°, to the bay of Fundi, in latitude 45° (which is much
+farther both north and south, than the lands appear to be of any great
+value); which makes 13 degrees difference of latitude, or 780 miles:
+this length multiplied by the breadth 140, makes 109,200 square
+miles., This is not above as much land as is contained in Britain and
+Ireland; which, by Templeman's Survey, make 105,634 square miles.
+Instead of being as large as a great part of Europe then, as we are
+commonly told, all the lands we possess in North America, between the
+sea and mountains, do not amount to much more than these two islands.
+This appears farther, from the particular surveys of each of our
+colonies, as well as from this general estimate of the whole.</p>
+
+<p>Of these lands which we thus possess, both the northern and southern
+parts are very poor and barren, and produce little or nothing, at
+least for Britain. It is only in our middle plantations, Virginia,
+Maryland, and Carolina, that the lands produce any staple commodity
+for Britain, or that appear to be fit for that purpose. In short, it
+is only the more rich and fertile lands on and about Chesapeak bay,
+with a few swamps in Carolina, like the lands on the Missisippi, that
+turn to any great account to this nation in all North America, or that
+are ever likely to do it. This makes the quantity of lands that
+produce any staple commodity for Britain in North America incredibly
+small, and vastly less than what is commonly imagined. It is reckoned,
+that there are more such lands in Virginia, than in all the rest of
+our colonies; and yet it appeared from the public records, about
+twenty-five years ago, that there was not above as much land patented
+in that colony, which is at the same time the oldest of any in all
+North America, than is in the county of Yorkshire, in England, to-wit,
+<a name="page-xv"></a> 4684 square miles; although the country was then settled to the
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>If we examine all our other colonies, there will appear to be as great
+a scarcity and want of good lands in them, at least to answer the
+great end of colonies, the making of a staple commodity for Britain.
+In short, our colonies are already settled to the mountains, and have
+no lands, either to extend their settlements, as they increase and
+multiply; to keep up their plantations of staple commodities for
+Britain; or to enlarge the British dominions by the number of
+foreigners that remove to them; till they pass those mountains, and
+settle on the Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>This scarcity of land in our colonies proceeds from the mountains,
+with which they are surrounded, and by which they are confined to this
+narrow tract, and a low vale, along the sea side. The breadth of the
+continent from the Atlantic ocean to the Missisippi, appears to be
+about 600 miles (of 60 to a degree) of which there is about 140 at a
+medium, or 150 at most, that lies between the sea and mountains: and
+there is such another, and rather more fertile tract of level and
+improveable lands, about the same breadth, between the western parts
+of those mountains and the Missisippi: so that the mountainous country
+which lies between these two, is equal to them both, and makes one
+half of all the lands between the Missisippi and Atlantic ocean; if we
+except a small tract of a level champaign country upon the heads of
+the Ohio, which is possessed by the Six Nations, and their dependents.
+These mountainous and barren desarts, which lie immediately beyond our
+present settlements, are not only unfit for culture themselves, and so
+inconvenient to navigation, whether to the ocean, or to the
+Missisippi, that little or no use can be made of them; but they
+likewise preclude us from any access to those more fertile lands that
+lie beyond them, which would otherwise have been occupied long ago,
+but never can be settled, so at least as to turn to any account to
+Britain, without the possession and navigation of the Missisippi;
+which is, as it were, the sea of all the inland parts of North America
+beyond the Apalachean mountains, without which those inland parts of
+that continent can never turn to any account to this nation.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-xvi"></a> It is this our situation in North America, that renders all that
+continent beyond our present settlements of little or no use, at least
+to Britain; and makes the possession of the Missisippi absolutely
+necessary to reap the benefit of it. We possess but a fourth part of
+the continent between that river and the ocean; and but a tenth part
+of what lies east of Mexico; and can never enjoy any great advantages
+from any more of it, till we settle on the Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>How necessary such settlements on the Missisippi may be, will farther
+appear from what we possess on this side of it. The lands in North
+America are in general but very poor or barren; and if any of them are
+more fertile, the soil is light and shallow, and soon worn out with
+culture. It is only the virgin fertility of fresh lands, such as those
+on the Missisippi, that makes the lands in North America appear to be
+fruitful, or that renders them of any great value to this nation. But
+such lands in our colonies, that have hitherto produced their staple
+commodities for Britain, are now exhausted and worn out, and we meet
+with none such on this side of the Missisippi. But when their lands
+are worn out, neither the value of their commodities, nor the
+circumstances of the planters, will admit of manuring them, at least
+to any great advantage to this nation.</p>
+
+<p>The staple commodities of North America are so gross and bulky, and of
+so small value, that it generally takes one half of them to pay the
+freight and other charges in sending them to Britain; so that unless
+our planters have some advantage in making them, such as cheap, rich,
+and fresh lands, they never can make any; their returns to Britain are
+then neglected, and the trade is gained by others who have these
+advantages; such as those who may be possessed of the Missisippi, or
+by the Germans, Russians, Turks, &amp;c. who have plenty of lands, and
+labour cheap: by which means they make more of our staple of North
+America, tobacco, than we do ourselves; while we cannot make their
+staple of hemp, flax, iron, pot-ash, &amp;c. By that means our people are
+obliged to interfere with their mother country, for want of the use of
+those lands of which there is such plenty in North America, to produce
+these commodities that are so much wanted from thence.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-xvii"></a> The consequences of this may be much more prejudicial to this
+nation, than is commonly apprehended. This trade of North America,
+whatever may be the income from it, consists in those gross and bulky
+commodities that are the chief and principal sources of navigation;
+which maintain whole countries to make them, whole fleets to transport
+them, and numbers of people to manufacture them at home; on which
+accounts this trade is more profitable to a nation, than the mines of
+Mexico or Peru. If we compare this with other branches of trade, as
+the sugar trade, or even the fishery, it will appear to be by far the
+most profitable to the nation, whatever those others may be to a few
+individuals. We set a great value on the fishery, in which we do not
+employ a third part of the seamen that we do in the plantation trade
+of North America; and the same may be said of the sugar trade. The
+tobacco trade alone employs more seamen in Britain, than either the
+fishery, or sugar trade;<sup><a href="#fn-10" name="fr-10">10</a></sup>
+and brings in more money to the
+nation than all the products of America perhaps put together.</p>
+
+<p>But those gross commodities that afford these sources of navigation,
+however valuable they may be to the public, and to this nation in
+particular, are far from being so to individuals: they are cheap, and
+of small value, either to make, or to trade <a name="page-xviii"></a> in them; and for
+that reason they are neglected by private people, who never think of
+making them, unless the public takes care to give them all due
+encouragement, and to set them about those employments; for which
+purpose good and proper lands, such as those on the Missisippi, are
+absolutely necessary, without which nothing can be done.</p>
+
+<p>The many advantages of such lands that produce a staple for Britain,
+in North America, are not to be told. The whole interest of the nation
+in those colonies depends upon them, if not the colonies themselves.
+Such lands alone enable the colonies to take their manufactures and
+other necessaries from Britain, to the mutual advantage of both. And
+how necessary that may be will appear from the state of those colonies
+in North America, which do not make, one with another, as much as is
+sufficient to supply them only with the necessary article of
+cloathing; not to mention the many other things they want and take
+from Britain; and even how they pay for that is more than any man can
+tell. In short, it would appear that our colonies in North America
+cannot subsist much longer, if at all, in a state of dependence for
+all their manufactures and other necessaries, unless they are provided
+with other lands that may enable them to purchase them; and where they
+will find any such lands, but upon the Missisippi, is more than we can
+tell. When their lands are worn out, are poor and barren, or in an
+improper climate or situation, or that they will produce nothing to
+send to Britain, such lands can only be converted into corn and
+pasture grounds; and the people in our colonies are thereby
+necessarily obliged, for a bare subsistence, to interfere with
+Britain, not only in manufactures, but in the very produce of their
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>By this we may perceive the absurdity of the popular outcry, that we
+have already <i>land enough</i>, and more than we can make use of in North
+America. They who may be of that opinion should shew us, where that
+land is to be found, and what it will produce, that may turn to any
+account to the nation. Those people derive their opinion from what
+they see in Europe, where the quantity of land that we possess in
+North America, will, no doubt, maintain a greater number of people
+than we have there. But they should consider, that those people in
+<a name="page-xix"></a> Europe are not maintained by the planting of a bare raw
+commodity, with such immense charges upon it, but by farming,
+manufactures, trade, and commerce; which they will soon reduce our
+colonies to, who would confine them to their present settlements,
+between the sea coast and the mountains that surround them.</p>
+
+<p>Some of our colonies perhaps may imagine they cannot subsist without
+these employments; which indeed would appear to be the case in their
+present state: but that seems to be as contrary to their true
+interest, as it is to their condition of British colonies. They have
+neither skill, materials, nor any other conveniences to make
+manufactures; whereas their lands require only culture to produce a
+staple commodity, providing they are possessed of such as are fit for
+that purpose. Manufactures are the produce of labour, which is both
+scarce and dear among them; whereas lands are, or may, and should be
+made, both cheap and in plenty; by which they may always reap much
+greater profits from the one than the other. That is, moreover, a
+certain pledge for the allegiance and dependance of the colonies; and
+at the same time makes their dependance to become their interest. It
+has been found by frequent experience, that the making of a staple
+commodity for Britain, is more profitable than manufactures, providing
+they have good lands to work.</p>
+
+<p>It were to be wished indeed, that we could support our interest in
+America, and those sources of navigation, by countries that were more
+convenient to it, than those on the Missisippi. But that, we fear, is
+not to be done, however it may be desired. We wish we could say as much
+of the lands in Florida, and on the bay of Mexico, as of those on the
+Missisippi: but they are not to be compared to these, by all accounts,
+however convenient they may be in other respects to navigation. In all
+those southern and maritime parts of that continent the lands are in
+general but very poor and mean, being little more than <i>pine barrens</i>,
+or <i>sandy desarts</i>. The climate is at the same time so intemperate, that
+white people are in a great measure unfit for labour in it, as much as
+they are in the islands; this obliges them to make use of slaves, which
+are now become so dear, that it is to be doubted, whether all the
+produce <a name="page-xx"></a> of those lands will enable the proprietors of them to
+purchase slaves, or any other labourers; without which they can turn to
+little or no account to the nation, and those countries can support but
+very few people, if it were only to protect and defend them.</p>
+
+<p>The most convenient part of those countries seems to be about Mobile
+and Pensacola; which are, as it were, an entrepot between our present
+settlements and the Missisippi, and safe station for our ships. But it
+is a pity that the lands about them are the most barren, and the
+climate the most intemperate, by all accounts, of any perhaps in all
+America.<sup><a href="#fn-11" name="fr-11">11</a></sup>
+And our author tells us, the lands
+are not much better even on the river of Mobile; which is but a very
+inconsiderable one. But the great inconvenience of those countries
+proceeds from the number of Indians in them; which will make it very
+difficult to settle any profitable plantations among them, especially
+in the inland parts that are more fertile; whereas the Missisippi is
+free from Indians for 1000 miles. It was but in the year 1715, that
+those Indians overran all the colony of Carolina, even to
+Charles-Town; by which the French got possession of that country, and
+of the Missisippi; both which they had just before, in June 1713,
+dispossessed us of.</p>
+
+<p>If we turn our eyes again to the lands in our northern colonies, it is
+to be feared we can expect much less from them. There is an
+inconvenience attending them, with regard to any improvements on them
+for Britain, which is not to be remedied. The climate is so severe,
+and the winters so long, that the people are obliged to spend that
+time in providing the necessaries of life, which should be employed in
+profitable colonies, on the making of some staple commodity, and
+returns to Britain. They are obliged to feed their creatures for five
+or six months in the year, which employs their time in summer, and
+takes up the best of their lands, such as they are, which should
+produce their staple commodities, to provide for themselves and their
+stocks against winter. For that reason the people in all our northern
+colonies are necessarily obliged to become farmers, <a name="page-xxi"></a> to make corn
+and provisions, instead of planters, who make a staple commodity for
+Britain; and thereby interfere with their mother country in the most
+material and essential of all employments to a nation, agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>In short, neither the soil nor climate will admit of any improvements
+for Britain, in any of those northern colonies. If they would produce
+any thing of that kind, it must be hemp; which never could be made in
+them to any advantage, as appears from many trials of it in New
+England.<sup><a href="#fn-12" name="fr-12">12</a></sup>
+The great dependance of those
+northern colonies is upon the supplies of lumber and provisions which
+they send to the islands. But as they increase and multiply, their
+woods are cut down, lumber becomes scarce and dear, and the number of
+people inhances the value of land, and of every thing it produces,
+especially provisions.</p>
+
+<p>If this is the case of those northern colonies on the sea coast, what
+can we expect from the inland parts; in which the soil is not only
+more barren, and the climate more severe, but they are, with all these
+disadvantages, so inconvenient to navigation, both on account of their
+distance, and of the many falls and currents in the river St.
+Lawrence, that it is to be feared those inland parts of our northern
+colonies will never produce any thing for Britain, more than a few
+furrs; which they will do much better in the hands of the natives,
+than in ours. These our northern colonies, however, are very populous,
+and increase and multiply very fast. There are above a million of
+people in them, who can make but very little upon their lands for
+themselves, and still less for their mother country. For these reasons
+it is presumed, it would be an advantage to them, as well as to the
+whole nation, to remove their spare people, who want lands, to those
+vacant lands in the southern parts of the continent, which turn to so
+much greater account than any that they are possessed of. There they
+may have the necessaries of life in the greatest plenty; their stocks
+maintain themselves the whole year round, with little or no cost or
+labour; "by which means many people have a thousand head <a name="page-xxii"></a> of
+cattle, and for one man to have two hundred, is very common, with
+other stock in proportion."<sup><a href="#fn-13" name="fr-13">13</a></sup>
+This enables them to bestow their whole labour, both in summer
+and winter, on the making of some staple commodity for Britain,
+getting lumber and provisions for the islands, &amp;c. which both enriches
+them and the whole nation. That is much better, surely, than to perish
+in winter for want of cloathing, which they must do unless they make
+it; and to excite those grudges and jealousies, which must ever
+subsist between them and their mother country in their present state,
+and grow so much the worse, the longer they continue in it.</p>
+
+<p>The many advantages that would ensue from the peopling of those
+southern parts of the continent from our northern colonies, are hardly
+to be told. We might thereby people and secure those countries, and
+reap the profits of them, without any loss of people; which are not to
+be spared for that purpose in Britain, or any other of her dominions.
+This is the great use and advantage that may be made of the expulsion
+of the French from those northern parts of America. They have hitherto
+obliged us to strengthen those northern colonies, and have confined
+the people in them to towns and townships, in which their labour could
+turn to no great account, either to themselves or to the nation, by
+which we have, in a great measure, loss the labour of one half of the
+people in our colonies. But as they are now free from any danger on
+their borders, they may extend their settlements with safety, disperse
+themselves on plantations, and cultivate those lands that may turn to
+some account, both to them and to the whole nation. In short, they may
+now make some staple commodity for Britain; on which the interest of
+the colonies, and of the nation in them, chiefly depends; and which we
+can never expect from those colonies in their present situation.</p>
+
+<p>What those commodities are, that we might get from those southern
+parts of North America, will appear from the following accounts; which
+we have not room here to consider more particularly. We need only
+mention hemp, flax, and silk, those great articles and necessary
+materials of manufactures; for which alone this nation pays at least a
+million and an half <a name="page-xxiii"></a> a-year, if not two millions, and could
+never get them from all the colonies we have. Cotton and indigo are
+equally useful. Not to mention copper, iron, potash, &amp;c. which, with
+hemp, flax, and silk, make the great balance of trade against the
+nation, and drain it of its treasure; when we might have those
+commodities from our colonies for manufactures, and both supply
+ourselves and others with them. Wine, oil, raisins, and currants, &amp;c.
+those products of France and Spain, on which Britain expends so much
+of her treasure, to enrich her enemies, might likewise be had from
+those her own dominions. Britain might thereby cut off those resources
+of her enemies; secure her colonies for the future; and prevent such
+calamities of war, by cultivating those more laudable arts of peace:
+which will be the more necessary, as these are the only advantages the
+nation can expect, for the many millions that have been expended on
+America.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Description of the Harbour of</i> PENSACOLA.</p>
+
+<p>As the harbour of Pensacola will appear to be a considerable
+acquisition to Britain, it may be some satisfaction to give the
+following account of it, from F. Laval, royal professor of
+mathematics, and master of the marine academy at Toulon; who was sent
+to Louisiana, on purpose to make observations, in 1719; and had the
+accounts of the officers who took Pensacola at that time, and surveyed
+the place.</p>
+
+<p>"The colonies of Pensacola, and of Dauphin-Island, are at present on
+the decline, the inhabitants having removed to settle at Mobile and
+Biloxi, or at New-Orleans, where the lands are much better; for at the
+first the soil is chiefly sand, mixed with little earth. The land,
+however, is covered with woods of pines, firs, and oaks; which make
+good trees, as well as at Ship-Island. The road of Pensacola is the
+only good port thereabouts for large ships, and Ship-Island for small
+ones, where vessels that draw from thirteen to fourteen feet water,
+may ride in safety, under the island, in fifteen feet, and a good
+holding ground; as well as in the other ports, which are all only open
+roads, exposed to the south, and from west to east.</p>
+
+<p>"Pensacola is in north-latitude 30° 25'; and is the only road in the
+bay of Mexico, in which ships can be safe from all <a name="page-xxiv"></a> winds. It is
+land-locked on every side, and will hold a great number of ships,
+which have very good anchorage in it, in a good holding ground of soft
+sand, and from twenty-five to thirty-four feet of water. You will find
+not less than twenty-one feet of water on the barr, which is at the
+entrance into the road, providing you keep in the deepest part of the
+channel. Before a ship enters the harbour, she should bring the fort
+of Pensacola to bear between north and north 1/4 east, and keep that
+course till she is west or west 1/4 south, from the fort on the island
+of St. Rose, that is, till that fort bears east, and east 1/4 north.
+Then she must bear away a little to the land on the west side, keeping
+about mid-way between that and the island, to avoid a bank on this
+last, which runs out to some distance west-north-west from the point
+of the island.</p>
+
+<p>"If there are any breakers on the ledge of rocks, which lie to the
+westward of the barr, as often happens; if there is any wind, that may
+serve for a mark to ships, which steer along that ledge, at the
+distance of a good musket-shot, as they enter upon the barr; then keep
+the course above mentioned. Sometimes the currents set very strong out
+of the road, which you should take care of, less they should carry you
+upon these rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"As there is but half a foot rising (<i>levèe</i>) on the barr of Pensacola,
+every ship of war, if it be not in a storm, may depend upon nineteen
+(perhaps twenty) feet of water, to go into the harbour, as there are
+twenty-one feet on the barr. Ships that draw twenty feet must be towed
+in. By this we see, that ships of sixty guns may go into this harbour:
+and even seventy gun ships, the largest requisite in that country in
+time of war, if they were built flat-bottomed, like the Dutch ships,
+might pass every where in that harbour.</p>
+
+<p>"In 1719 Pensacola was taken by Mr. Champmelin, in the Hercules man of
+war, of sixty-four guns, but carried only fifty-six; in company with
+the Mars, pierced for sixty guns, but had in only fifty-four; and the
+Triton, pierced for fifty-four guns, but carried only fifty; with two
+frigates of thirty-six and twenty guns.<sup><a href="#fn-14" name="fr-14">14</a></sup></p>
+
+<p><a name="page-xxv"></a> "This road is subject to one inconvenience; several rivers fall
+into it, which occasion strong currents, and make boats or canoes, as
+they pass backwards and forwards, apt to run a-ground; but as the
+bottom is all sand, they are not apt to founder. On the other hand
+there is a great advantage in this road; it is free from worms, which
+never breed in fresh water, so that vessels are never worm-eaten in
+it."</p>
+
+<p>But F. Charlevoix seems to contradict this last circumstance: "The bay
+of Pensacola would be a pretty good port, (says he) if the worms did
+not eat the vessels in it, and if there was a little more water in the
+entrance into it; for the Hercules, commanded by Mr. Champmelin,
+touched upon it." It is not so certain then, that this harbour is
+altogether free from worms; although it may not be so subject to them,
+as other places in those climes, from the many small fresh water
+rivers that fall into this bay, which may have been the occasion of
+these accounts, that are seemingly contradictory.</p>
+
+<p>In such a place ships might at least be preserved from worms, in all
+likelihood, by paying their bottoms with aloes, or mixing it with
+their other stuff. That has been found to prevent the biting of these
+worms; and might be had in plenty on the spot. Many kinds of aloes
+would grow on the barren sandy lands about Pensacola, and in Florida,
+which is the proper soil for them; and would be a good improvement for
+those lands, which will hardly bear any thing else to advantage,
+whatever use is made of it.</p>
+
+<p>Having room in this place, we may fill it up with an answer to a
+common objection against Louisiana; which is, <a name="page-xxvi"></a> that this country
+is never likely to turn to any account, because the French have made
+so little of it.</p>
+
+<p>But that objection, however common, will appear to proceed only from
+the ignorance of those who make it. No country can produce any thing
+without labourers; which, it is certain, the French have never had in
+Louisiana, in any numbers at least, sufficient to make it turn to any
+greater account than it has hitherto done. The reason of this appears
+not to be owing to the country, but to their proceedings and
+misconduct in it. Out of the many thousand people who were contracted
+for by the grantees, to be sent to Louisiana in 1719, there were but
+eight hundred sent, we see; and of these the greatest part were ruined
+by their idle schemes, which made them and others abandon the country
+entirely. The few again who remained in it were cut off by an Indian
+massacre in 1729, which broke up the only promising settlements they
+had in the country, those of the Natchez, and Yasous, which were never
+afterwards reinstated. Instead of encouraging the colony in such
+misfortunes, the minister, Cardinal Fleuri, either from a spirit of
+oeconomy, or because it might be contrary to some other of his views,
+withdrew his protection from it, gave up the public plantations, and
+must thereby, no doubt, have very much discouraged others. By these
+means they have had few or no people in Louisiana, but such as were
+condemned to be sent to it for their crimes, women of ill fame,
+deserted soldiers, insolvent debtors, and galley-slaves, <i>forçats</i>, as
+they call them; "who, looking on the country only as a place of exile,
+were disheartened at every thing in it; and had no regard for the
+progress of a colony, of which they were only members by compulsion,
+and neither knew nor considered its advantages to the state. It is
+from such people that many have their accounts of this country; and
+throw the blame of all miscarriages in it upon the country, when they
+are only owing to the incapacity and negligence of those who were
+instructed to settle it."<sup><a href="#fn-15" name="fr-15">15</a></sup></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-01" name="fn-01">1</a></sup>  <i>Charlevoix</i> Hist. N. France, Tom. III. p. 444.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-02" name="fn-02">2</a></sup>  See p. <a href="#page-163">163</a>. </p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-03" name="fn-03">3</a></sup>  <i>Dumont</i>, I. 15.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-04" name="fn-04">4</a></sup>  Description of Carolina, p. 37</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-05" name="fn-05">5</a></sup>  Memoires, I. 16.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-06" name="fn-06">6</a></sup>  See p. <a href="#page-120">120</a>, <a href="#page-121">121</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-07" name="fn-07">7</a></sup>  Description of South Carolina. by&mdash;&mdash;, p. 30.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-08" name="fn-08">8</a></sup>  See p. <a href="#page-158">158</a></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-09" name="fn-09">9</a></sup>  <i>Arbuthnot</i> on Air. <i>App</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-10" name="fn-10">10</a></sup>  By the best accounts we have, there
+were 4000 seamen employed in the tobacco trade, in the year 1733, when
+the inspection on tobacco passed into a law; and we may perhaps reckon
+them now 4500, although some reckon them less.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">By the same accounts, taken by the custom-house officers, it appeared,
+that the number of British ships employed in all America, including
+the fishery, were 1400, with 17,000 seamen; besides 9000 or 10,000
+seamen belonging to North-America, who are all ready to enter into the
+service of Britain on, any emergency or encouragement.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">Of these there were but 4000 seamen employed in the fishery from
+Britain; and about as many, or 3600, in the sugar trade.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The French, on the other hand, employ upwards of 20,000 seamen in the
+fishery, and many more than we do in the sugar trade.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">In short, the plantation trade of North America is to Britain, what
+the fishery is to France, the great nursery of seamen, which may be
+much improved. It is for this reason that we have always thought this
+nation ought, for its safety, to enjoy an exclusive right to the one
+or the other of these at least.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-11" name="fn-11">11</a></sup>  See page 49, 111, &amp;c. <i>Charlevoix</i> Hist. N. France,
+Tom. III. 484. <i>Laval, infra</i>, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-12" name="fn-12">12</a></sup>  See <i>Douglas's</i> Hist. N. America. <i>Elliot's</i>
+Improvements on New England, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-13" name="fn-13">13</a></sup>  Description of South Carolina, p. 68.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-14" name="fn-14">14</a></sup>  The admiral was on
+board of the Hercules, which drew twenty-one feet of water, and there
+were but twenty-two feet into the harbour in the highest tides; so
+that they despaired of carrying in this ship. But an old Canadian,
+named Crimeau, a man of experience, who was perfectly acquainted with
+that coast, boasted of being able to do it, and succeeded; for which
+he was the next year honoured with letters of noblesse. <i>Dumont</i> (an
+officer there at that time) 11.22.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">But <i>Bellin</i>, from the charts of the admiralty, makes but twenty feet of
+water on the barr of Pensacola. The difference may arise from the
+tides, which are very irregular and uncertain on all that coast,
+according to the winds; never rising above three feet, sometimes much
+less. In twenty-four hours the tide ebbs in the harbour for eighteen
+or nineteen hours, and flows five or six. <i>Laval</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-15" name="fn-15">15</a></sup>  <i>Charlevoix</i> Hist. New France, Tom. III. p. 447.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-1"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<p>THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="book-I">BOOK I.</a></h2>
+
+<p><i>The Transactions of the</i> French <i>in</i> LOUISIANA.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-I">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the first Discovery and Settlement of</i> LOUISIANA.</p>
+
+
+<p>After the Spaniards came to have settlements on the Great Antilles, it
+was not long before they attempted to make discoveries on the coasts
+of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1520, Lucas Vasquez de Aillon landed on the
+continent to the north of that Gulf, being favourably received by the
+people of that country, who made him presents in gold, pearls, and
+plated silver. This favourable reception made him return thither four
+years after; but the natives having changed their friendly sentiments
+towards him, killed two hundred of his men, and obliged him to retire.</p>
+
+<p>In 1528, Pamphilo Nesunez<sup><a href="#fn-16" name="fr-16">16</a></sup> landed also on that
+coast, receiving from the first nations he met in his way, presents
+made in gold; which, by signs, they made him to understand, came from
+the Apalachean mountains, in the country which at this day goes under
+the name of Florida: and thither he attempted to go, undertaking a
+hazardous journey of twenty-five days. In this march he was so often
+attacked by the new people he continually discovered, and lost so many
+of his men, as only to think of re-embarking with the few that were
+left, <a name="page-2"></a> happy to have himself escaped the dangers which his
+imprudence had exposed him to.</p>
+
+<p>The relation published by the Historian of Dominico<sup><a href="#fn-17" name="fr-17">17</a></sup>
+Soto, who in 1539 landed in the Bay of St. Esprit, is so
+romantic, and so constantly contradicted by all who have travelled
+that country, that far from giving credit to it, we ought rather to
+suppose his enterprize had no success; as no traces of it have
+remained, any more than of those that went before. The inutility of
+these attempts proved no manner of discouragement to the Spaniards.
+After the discovery of Florida, it was with a jealous eye they saw the
+French settle there in 1564, under René de Laudonniere, sent thither
+by the Admiral de Coligni, where he built Fort Carolin; the ruins of
+which are still to be seen above the Fort of Pensacola.<sup><a href="#fn-18" name="fr-18">18</a></sup>
+There the Spaniards some time after attacked them, and forcing them to
+capitulate, cruelly murdered them, without any regard had to the
+treaty concluded between them. As France was at that time involved in
+the calamities of a religious war, this act of barbarity had remained
+unresented, had not a single man of Mont Marfan, named Dominique de
+Gourges, attempted, in the name of the nation, to take vengeance
+thereof. In 1567, having fitted out a vessel, and sailed for Florida,
+he took three forts built by the Spaniards; and after killing many of
+them in the several attacks he made, hanged the rest: and having
+settled there a new post,<sup><a href="#fn-19" name="fr-19">19</a></sup> returned to
+France. But the disorders of the state having prevented the
+maintaining that post, the Spaniards soon after retook possession of
+the country, where they remain to this day.</p>
+
+<p>From that time the French seemed to have dropped all thoughts of that
+coast, or of attempting any discoveries therein; when the wars in
+Canada with the natives afforded them the <a name="page-3"></a> knowledge of the vast
+country they are possessed of at this day. In one of these wars a
+Recollet, or Franciscan Friar, name F. Hennepin, was taken and carried
+to the Illinois. As he had some skill in surgery, he proved
+serviceable to that people, and was also kindly treated by them: and
+being at full liberty, he travelled over the country, following for a
+considerable time the banks of the river St. Louis, or Missisipi,
+without being able to proceed to its mouth. However, he failed not to
+take possession of that country, in the name of Louis XIV., calling it
+Louisiana. Providence having facilitated his return to Canada, he gave
+the most advantageous account of all he had seen; and after his return
+to France, drew up a relation thereof, dedicated to M. Colbert.</p>
+
+<p>The account he gave of Louisiana failed not to produce its good
+effects. Me de la Salle, equally famous for his misfortunes and his
+courage, undertook to traverse these unknown countries quite to the
+sea. In Jan. 1679 he set out from Quebec with a large detachment, and
+being come among the Illinois, there built the first fort France ever
+had in that country, calling it Crevecæur; and there he left a good
+garrison under the command of the Chevalier de Tonti. From thence he
+went down the river St. Louis, quite to its mouth; which, as has been
+said, is in the Gulf of Mexico; and having made observations, and
+taken the elevation in the best manner he could, returned by the same
+way to Quebec, from whence he passed over to France.</p>
+
+<p>After giving the particulars of his journey to M. Colbert, that great
+minister, who knew of what importance it was to the state to make sure
+of so fine and extensive a country, scrupled not to allow him a ship and
+a small frigate, in order to find out, by the way of the gulf of Mexico,
+the mouth of the river St. Louis. He set sail in 1685: but his
+observations, doubtless, not having had all the justness requisite,
+after arriving in the gulf, he got beyond the river, and running too far
+westward, entered the bay of St. Bernard: and some misunderstanding
+happening between him and the officers of the vessels, he debarqued with
+the men under his command, and having settled a post in that place,
+undertook to go by land in quest of <a name="page-4"></a> the great river. But after a
+march of several days, some of his people, irritated on account of the
+fatigue he exposed them to, availing themselves of an opportunity, when
+separated from the rest of his men, basely assassinated him. The
+soldiers, though deprived of their commander, still continued their
+route, and, after crossing many rivers, arrived at length at the
+Arkansas, where they unexpectedly found a French post lately settled.
+The Chevalier de Tonti was gone down from the fort of the Illinois,
+quite to the mouth of the river, about the time he judged M. de la Salle
+might have arrived by sea; and not finding him, was gone up again, in
+order to return to his post. And in his way entering the river of the
+Arkansas, quite to the village of that nation, with whom he made an
+alliance, some of his people insisted, they might be allowed to settle
+there; which was agreed to, he leaving ten of them in that place; and
+this small cantonment maintained its ground, not only because from time
+to time encreased by some Canadians, who came down this river; but above
+all, because those who formed it had the prudent precaution to live in
+peace with the natives, and treat as legitimate the children they had by
+the daughters of the Arkansas, with whom they matched out of necessity.</p>
+
+<p>The report of the pleasantness of Louisiana spreading through Canada,
+many Frenchmen of that country repaired to settle there, dispersing
+themselves at pleasure along the river St. Louis, especially towards
+its mouth, and even in some islands on the coast, and on the river
+Mobile, which lies nearer Canada. The facility of the commerce with
+St. Domingo was, undoubtedly, what invited them to the neighbourbood
+of the sea, though the interior parts of the country be in all
+respects far preferable. However, these scattered settlements,
+incapable to maintain their ground of themselves, and too distant to
+be able to afford mutual assistance, neither warranted the possession
+of this country, nor could they be called a taking of possession.
+Louisiana remained in this neglected state, till M. d'Hiberville, Chef
+d' Escadre, having discovered, in 1698, the mouths of the river St.
+Louis, and being nominated Governor General of that vast country,
+carried thither the first colony in 1699. As he was a native of
+Canada, the colony almost entirely consisted of Canadians, among whom
+M. de Luchereau, <a name="page-5"></a> uncle of Madam d'Hiberville, particularly
+distinguished himself.</p>
+
+<p>The settlement was made on the river Mobile, with all the facility
+that could be wished; but its progress proved slow: for these first
+inhabitants had no other advantage above the natives, as to the
+necessaries of life, but what their own industry, joined to some rude
+tools, to give the plainest forms to timbers, afforded them.</p>
+
+<p>The war which Louis IV, had at that time to maintain, and the pressing
+necessities of the state, continually engrossed the attention of the
+ministry, nor allowed them time to think of Louisiana. What was then
+thought most advisable, was to make a grant of it to some rich person;
+who, finding it his interest to improve that country, would, at the
+same time that he promoted his own interest, promote that of the
+state. Louisiana was thus ceded to M. Crozat. And it is to be
+presumed, had M. d'Hiberville lived longer, the colony would have made
+considerable progress: but that illustrious sea-officer, whose
+authority was considerable, dying at the Havannah, in 1701 (after
+which this settlement was deserted) a long time must intervene before
+a new Governor could arrive from France. The person pitched upon to
+fill that post, was M. de la Motte Cadillac, who arrived in that
+country in June 1713.</p>
+
+<p>The colony had but a scanty measure of commodities, and money scarcer
+yet: it was rather in a state of languor, than of vigorous activity,
+in one of the finest countries in the world; because impossible for it
+to do the laborious works, and make the first advances, always
+requisite in the best lands.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards, for a long time, considered Louisiana as a property
+justly theirs, because it constitutes the greatest Part of Florida,
+which they first discovered. The pains the French were at then to
+settle there, roused their jealousy, to form the design of cramping
+us, by settling at the Assinaïs, a nation not very distant from the
+Nactchitoches, whither some Frenchmen had penetrated. There the
+Spaniards met with no small difficulty to form that settlement, and
+being at a loss how to accomplish it, one F. Ydalgo, a Franciscan
+Friar, took it in his head to write to the French, to beg their
+assistance in <a name="page-6"></a> settling a mission among the Assinaïs. He sent three
+different copies of his letter hap-hazard three different ways to our
+settlements, hoping one of them at least might fall into the hands of
+the French.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was he disappointed in his hope, one of them, from one post to
+another, and from hand to hand, falling into the hands of M. de la
+Motte. That General, incessantly taken up with the concerns of the
+colony, and the means of relieving it, was not apprized of the designs
+of the Spaniards in that letter; could only see therein a sure and
+short method to remedy the present evils, by favouring the Spaniards,
+and making a treaty of commerce with them, which might procure to the
+colony what it was in want of, and what the Spaniards abounded with,
+namely, horses, cattle, and money: He therefore communicated that
+letter to M. de St. Denis, to whom he proposed to undertake a journey
+by land to Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>M. de St. Denis, for the fourteen years he was in Louisiana, had made
+several excursions up and down the country; and having a general
+knowledge of all the languages of the different nations which inhabit
+it, gained the love and esteem of these people, so far as to be
+acknowledged their Grand Chief.</p>
+
+<p>This gentleman, in other respects a man of courage, prudence, and
+resolution, was then the fittest person M. de la Motte could have
+pitched upon, to put his design in execution.</p>
+
+<p>How fatiguing soever the enterprize was, M. de St. Denis undertook it
+with pleasure, and set out with twenty-five men. This small company
+would have made some figure, had it continued entire; but some of them
+dropped M. de St. Denis by the way, and many of them remained among
+the Nactchitoches, to whose country he was come. He was therefore
+obliged to set out from that place, accompanied only by ten men, with
+whom he traversed upwards of an hundred and fifty leagues in a country
+entirely depopulated, having on his route met with no nation, till he
+came to the Presidio, or fortress of St. John Baptist, on the Rio
+(river) del Norte, in New Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>The Governor of this fort was Don Diego Raimond, an officer advanced
+in years, who favourbly received M. de St. <a name="page-7"></a> Denis, on acquainting
+him, that the motive to his journey was F. Ydalgo's letter, and that
+he had orders to repair to Mexico. But as the Spaniards do not readily
+allow strangers to travel through the countries of their dominion in
+America, for fear the view of these fine countries should inspire
+notions, the consequences of which might be greatly prejudicial to
+them, D. Diego did not chuse to permit M. de St. Denis to continue his
+route, without the previous consent of the Viceroy. It was therefore
+necessary to dispatch a courier to Mexico, and to wait his return.</p>
+
+<p>The courier, impatiently longed for, arrived at length, with the
+permission granted by the Duke of Linarez, Viceroy of Mexico. Upon
+which M. de St. Denis set out directly, and arrived at Mexico, June 5,
+1715. The Viceroy had naturally an affection to France; M. de St.
+Denis was therefore favourably received, saving some precautions,
+which the Duke thought proper to take, not to give any disgust to some
+officers of justice who were about him.</p>
+
+<p>The affair was soon dispatched; the Duke of Linarez having promised to
+make a treaty of commerce, as soon as the Spaniards should be settled
+at the Assinaïs; which M. de St. Denis undertook to do, upon his
+return to Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-16" name="fn-16">16</a></sup>  Narvaez.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-17" name="fn-17">17</a></sup>  Ferdinando.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-18" name="fn-18">18</a></sup>  This
+intended settlement of Admiral Coligni was on the east coast of
+Florida, about St. Augustin, instead of Pensacola. De Laet is of
+opinion, that their Fort Carolin was the same with St. Augustin.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-19" name="fn-19">19</a></sup>  He abandoned the country without
+making any settlement; nor have the French ever had any settlement in
+it from that day to this. See Laudonniere. Hakluyt, &amp;c.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-II">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the</i> Spaniards <i>at the</i>
+Assinaïs. <i>His Second Journey to</i> Mexico, <i>and Return from thence</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>M. De St. Denis soon returned to the fort of St. John Baptist; after
+which he resolved to form the caravan, which was to be settled at the
+Assinaïs; at whose head M. de St. Denis put himself, and happily
+conducted it to the place appointed. And then having, in quality of
+Grand Chief, assembled the nation of the Assinaïs, he exhorted them to
+receive and use the Spaniards well. The veneration which that people
+had for him, made them submit to his will in all things; and thus the
+promise he had made to the Duke of Linarez was faithfully fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-8"></a> The Assinaïs are fifty leagues distant from the Nactchitoches. The
+Spaniards, finding themselves still at too great a distance from us,
+availed themselves of that first settlement, in order to form a second
+among the Adaies, a nation which is ten leagues from our post of the
+Nactchitoches: whereby they confine us on the west within the
+neighbourhood of the river St. Louis; and from that time it was not
+their fault, that they had not cramped us to the north, as I shall
+mention in its place.</p>
+
+<p>To this anecdote of their history I shall, in a word or two, add that
+of their settlement at Pensacola, on the coast of Florida, three
+months after M. d'Hiberville had carried the first inhabitants to
+Louisiana, that country having continued to be inhabited by Europeans,
+ever since the garrison left there by Dominique de Gourges; which
+either perished, or deserted, for want of being supported.<sup><a href="#fn-20" name="fr-20">20</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>To return to M. de la Motte and M. de St. Denis: the former, ever
+attentive to the project of having a treaty of commerce concluded with
+the Spaniards, and pleased with the success of M. de St. Denis's
+journey to Mexico, proposed his return thither again, not doubting but
+the Duke of Linarez would be as good as his word, as the French had
+already been. M. de St. Denis, ever ready to obey, accepted the
+commission of his General. But this second journey was not to be
+undertaken as the first; it was proper to carry some goods, in order
+to execute that treaty, as soon as it should be concluded, and to
+indemnify himself for the expences he was to be at. Though the
+store-houses of M. Crozat were full, it was no easy matter to get the
+goods. The factors refused to give any on credit; nay, refused M. de
+la Motte's security; and there was no money to be had to pay them. The
+Governor was therefore obliged to form a company of the most
+responsible men of the colony: and to this company only the factors
+determined to advance the goods. This expedient was far from being
+agreeable to M. de St. Denis, who opened his mind to M. de la Motte on
+that head, and told him, that some or all of his partners would
+accompany the goods they had engaged to be security for; and that,
+although it was absolutely necessary the effects should appear to be
+his <a name="page-9"></a> property alone, they would not fail to discover they
+themselves were the proprietors; which would be sufficient to cause
+their confiscation, the commerce between the two nations not being
+open. M. de la Motte saw the solidity of these reasons; but the
+impossibility of acting otherwise constrained him to supersede them:
+and, as M. de St. Denis had foreseen, it accordingly happened.</p>
+
+<p>He set out from Mobile, August 13, 1716, escorted, as he all along
+apprehended, by some of those concerned; and being come to the
+Assinaïs, he there passed the winter. On the 19th of March, the year
+following, setting out on his journey, he soon arrived at the Presidio
+of St. John Baptist. M. de St. Denis declared these goods to be his
+own property, in order to obviate their confiscation, which was
+otherwise unavoidable; and wanted to shew some acts of bounty and
+generosity, in order to gain the friendship of the Spaniards. But the
+untractableness, the avarice, and indiscretion of the parties
+concerned, broke through all his measures; and to prevent the entire
+disconcerting of them, he hastened his departure for Mexico, where he
+arrived May 14, 1717. The Duke of Linarez was yet there, but sick, and
+on his death-bed. M. de St. Denis had, however, time to see him, who
+knew him again: and that Nobleman took care to have him recommended to
+the Viceroy his successor; namely, the Marquis of Balero, a man as
+much against the French as the Duke was for them.</p>
+
+<p>M. de St. Denis did not long solicit the Marquis of Balero for
+concluding the treaty of commerce; he soon had other business to mind.
+F. Olivarez, who, on the representation of P. Ydalgo, as a person of a
+jealous, turbulent, and dangerous disposition, had been excluded from
+the mission to the Assinaïs, being then at the court of the Viceroy,
+saw with an evil eye the Person who had settled F. Ydalgo in that
+mission, and resolved to be avenged on him for the vexation caused by
+that disappointment. He joined himself to an officer, named Don Martin
+de Alaron, a person peculiarly protected by the Marquis of Balero: and
+they succeeded so well with that nobleman that in the time M. de St.
+Denis least expected, he found himself arrested, and clapt in a
+dungeon; from which he was not discharged <a name="page-10"></a> till December 20 of
+this year, by an order of the Sovereign Council of Mexico, to which he
+found means to present several petitions. The Viceroy, constrained to
+enlarge him, allotted the town for his place of confinement.</p>
+
+<p>The business of the treaty of commerce being now at an end, M. de St.
+Denis's attention was only engaged how to make the most of the goods,
+of which Don Diego Raymond had sent as large a quantity as he could,
+to the town of Mexico; where they were seized by D. Martin de Alaron,
+as contraband; he being one of the emissaries of his protector,
+appointed to persecute such strangers as did not dearly purchase the
+permission to sell their goods. M. de St. Denis could make only enough
+of his pillaged and damaged effects just to defray certain expences of
+suit, which, in a country that abounds with nothing else but gold and
+silver, are enormous.</p>
+
+<p>Our prisoner having nothing further to engross his attention in
+Mexico, but the safety of his person, seriously bethought himself how
+to secure it; as he had ever just grounds to apprehend some bad
+treatment at the bands of his three avowed enemies. Having therefore
+planned the means of his flight, on September 25, 1718, as the night
+came on, he quitted Mexico, and placing himself in ambush at a certain
+distance from the town, waited till his good fortune should afford the
+means of travelling otherwise than on foot. About nine at night, a
+horseman, well-mounted, cast up. To rush of a sudden upon him,
+dismount him, mount his horse, turn the bridle, and set up a gallop,
+was the work of a moment only for St. Denis. He rode on at a good pace
+till day, then quitted the common road, to repose him: a precaution he
+observed all along, till he came near to the Presidio of St. John
+Baptist. From thence he continued his journey on foot; and at length,
+on April 2, 1719, arrived at the French colony, where he found
+considerable alterations.</p>
+
+<p>From the departure of M. de St. Denis from Mexico, to his return
+again, almost three years had elapsed. In that long time, the grant of
+Louisiana was transferred from M. Crozat to the West India Company; M.
+de la Motte Cadillac was dead, and M. de Biainville, brother to M.
+d'Hiberville, succeeded as <a name="page-11"></a> governor general. The capital place of
+the colony was no longer at Mobile, nor even at Old Biloxi, whither it
+had been removed: New Orleans, now begun to be built, was become the
+capital of the country, whither he repaired to give M. de Biainville
+an account of his journey; after which he retired to his settlement.
+The king afterwards conferred upon him the cross of St. Louis, in
+acknowledgement and recompence of his services.</p>
+
+<p>The West India Company, building great hopes of commerce on Louisiana,
+made efforts to people that country, sufficient to accomplish their
+end. Thither, for the first time, they sent, in 1718, a colony of
+eight hundred: men some of which settled at New Orleans, others formed
+the settlements of the Natchez. It was with this embarkation I passed
+over to Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-20" name="fn-20">20</a></sup>
+They returned to France. See p. <a href="#page-3">3</a>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-III">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the</i> West India Company <i>to</i>
+Louisiana. <i>Arrival and Stay at </i>Cape François. <i>Arrival at</i> Isle
+Dauphine. <i>Description of that Island</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>The embarkation was made at Rochelle on three different vessels, on
+one of which I embarked. For the first days of our voyage we had the
+wind contrary, but no high sea. On the eighth the wind turned more
+favourable. I observed nothing interesting till we came to the Tropick
+of Cancer, where the ceremony of baptizing was performed on those who
+had never been a voyage: after passing the Tropick, the Commodore
+steered too much to the south, our captain observed. In effect, after
+several days sailing, we were obliged to bear off to the north: we
+afterwards discovered the isle of St. Juan de Porto Rico, which
+belongs to the Spaniards. Losing sight of that, we discovered the
+island of St. Domingo; and a little after, as we bore on, we saw the
+Grange, which is a rock, overtopping the steep coast, which is almost
+perpendicular to the edge of the water. This rock, seen at a distance,
+seems to have the figure of a grange, or barn. A few hours after we
+<a name="page-12"></a> arrived at Cape François, distant from that rock only twelve
+leagues.</p>
+
+<p>We were two months in this passage to Cape François; both on account
+of the contrary winds, we had on setting out, and of the calms, which
+are frequent in those seas: our vessel, besides, being clumsy and
+heavy, had some difficulty to keep up with the others; which, not to
+leave us behind, carried only their four greater sails, while we had
+out between seventeen and eighteen.</p>
+
+<p>It is in those seas we meet with the Tradewinds; which though weak, a
+great deal of way might be made, did they blow constantly, because
+their course is from east to west without varying: storms are never
+observed in these seas, but the calms often prove a great hindrance;
+and then it is necessary to wait some days, till a <i>grain</i>, or squall,
+brings back the wind: a <i>grain</i> is a small spot seen in the air, which
+spreads very fast, and forms a cloud, that gives a wind, which is
+brisk at first, but not lasting, though enough to make way with.
+Nothing besides remarkable is here seen, but the chace of the
+<i>flying-fish</i> by the Bonitas.</p>
+
+<p>The Bonita is a fish, which is sometimes two feet long; extremely fond
+of the <i>flying-fish</i>; which is the reason it always keeps to the places
+where these fish are found: its flesh is extremely delicate and of a
+good flavour.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>flying-fish</i> is of the length of a herring, but rounder. From its
+sides, instead of fins, issue out two wings, each about four inches in
+length, by two in breadth at the extremity; they fold together and
+open out like a fan, and are round at the end; consisting of a very
+fine membrane, pierced with a vast many little holes, which keep the
+water, when the fish is out of it: in order to avoid the pursuit of
+the Bonita, it darts into the air, spreads out its wings, goes
+straight on, without being able to turn to the right or left; which is
+the reason, that as soon as the toilets, or little sheets of water,
+which fill up the small holes of its wings, are dried up, it falls
+down again; and the same Bonita, which pursued it in the water, still
+following it with his eye in the air, catches it when fallen into the
+water; it sometimes falls on board ships. The Bonita, in his turn,
+<a name="page-13"></a> becomes the prey of the seamen, by means of little puppets, in
+the form of <i>flying-fish</i>, which it swallows, and by that means is
+taken.</p>
+
+<p>We stayed fifteen days at Cape François, to take in wood and water,
+and to refresh. It is situate on the north part of the island of St.
+Domingo, which part the French are in possession of, as the Spaniards
+are of the other. The fruits and sweet-meats of the country are
+excellent, but the meat good for nothing, hard, dry, and tough. This
+country being scorched, grass is very scarce, and animals therein
+languish and droop. Six weeks before our arrival, fifteen hundred
+persons died of an epidemic distemper, called the Siam distemper.</p>
+
+<p>We sailed from Cape François, with the same wind, and the finest
+weather imaginable. We then passed between the islands of Tortuga and
+St. Domingo, where we espied Port de Paix, which is over-against
+Tortuga: we afterwards found ourselves between the extremities of St.
+Domingo and Cuba which belongs to the Spaniards: we then steered along
+the south coast of this last, leaving to the left Jamaica, and the
+great and little Kayemans, which are subject to the English. We at
+length quitted Cuba at Cape Anthony, steering for Louisiana a north
+west course. We espied land in coming towards it, but so flat, though
+distant but a league from us, that we had great difficulty to
+distinguish it, though we had then but four fathom water. We put out
+the boat to examine the land, which we found to be Candlemas island
+(la Chandeleur.) We directly set sail for the island of Massacre,
+since called Isle Dauphine, situated three leagues to the south of
+that continent, which forms the Gulf of Mexico to the north, at about
+27° 35' North latitude, and 288° of longitude. A little after we
+discovered the Isle Dauphine, and cast anchor before the harbour, in
+the road, because the harbour itself was choaked up. To make this
+passage we took three months, and arrived only August 25th. We had a
+prosperous voyage all along, and the more so, as no one died, or was
+even dangerously ill the whole time, for which we caused <i>Te Deum</i>
+solemnly to be sung.</p>
+
+<p>We were then put on shore with all our effects. The company had
+undertaken to transport us with our servants and <a name="page-14"></a> effects, at
+their expence, and to lodge, maintain and convey us to our several
+concessions, or grants.</p>
+
+<p>This gulf abounds with delicious fish; as the <i>sarde</i> (pilchard) red
+fish, cod, sturgeon, ringed thornback, and many other sorts, the best
+in their kind. The <i>sarde</i> is a large fish; its flesh is delicate, and
+of a fine flavour, the scales grey, and of a moderate size. The red
+fish is so called, from its red scales, of the size of a crown piece.
+The cod, fished for on this coast, is of the middling sort, and very
+delicate. The thornback is the same as in France. Before we quit this
+island, it will not, perhaps, be improper to mention some things about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The Isle Massacre was so called by the first Frenchman who landed
+there, because on the shore of this island they found a small rising
+ground, or eminence, which appeared the more extraordinary in an
+island altogether flat, and seemingly formed only by the sand, thrown
+in by some high gusts of wind. As the whole coast of the gulf is very
+flat, and along the continent lies a chain of such islands, which seem
+to be mutually joined by their points, and to form a line parallel
+with the continent, this small eminence appeared to them
+extraordinary: it was more narrowly examined, and in different parts
+thereof they found dead mens bones, just appearing above the little
+earth that covered them. Then their curiosity led them to rake off the
+earth in several places; but finding nothing underneath, but a heap of
+bones, they cried out with horror, <i>Ah! what a Massacre!</i> They
+afterwards understood by the natives, who are at no great distance
+off, that a nation adjoining to that island, being at war with another
+much more powerful, was constrained to quit the continent, which is
+only three leagues off, and to remove to this island, there to live in
+peace the rest of their days; but that their enemies, justly confiding
+in their superiority, pursued them to this their feeble retreat, and
+entirely destroyed them; and after raising this inhuman trophy of
+their victorious barbarity, retired again. I myself saw this fatal
+monument, which made me imagine this unhappy nation must have been
+even numerous toward its period, as only the bones of their warriors,
+and aged men must have lain there, their custom being to make slaves
+of their <a name="page-15"></a> young people. Such is the origin of the first name of
+this island, which, on our arrival, was changed to that of Isle
+Dauphine: an act of prudence, it should-seem, to discontinue an
+appellation, so odious, of a place that was the cradle of the colony;
+as Mobile was its birth-place.</p>
+
+<p>This island is very flat, and all a white sand, as are all the others,
+and the coast in like manner. Its length is about seven leagues from
+east to west; its breadth a short league from south to north,
+especially to the east, where the settlement was made, on account of
+the harbour which was at the south end of the island, and choaked up
+by a high sea, a little before our arrival: this east end runs to a
+point. It is tolerably well stored with pine; but so dry and parched,
+on account of its crystal sand, as that no greens or pulse can grow
+therein, and beasts are pinched and hard put to it for sustenance.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, M. de Biainville, commandant general for the company
+in this colony, was gone to mark out the spot on which the capital was
+to be built, namely, one of the banks of the river Missisippi, where
+at present stands the city of New Orleans, so called in honour of the
+duke of Orleans, then regent.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the Places he
+passed through, as far as</i> New Orleans.</p>
+
+
+<p>The time of my departure, so much wished for, came at length. I set
+out with my hired servants, all my effects, and a letter for M.
+Paillou, major general at New Orleans, who commanded there in the
+absence of M. de Biainville. We coasted along the continent, and came
+to lie in the mouth of the river of the Pasca-Ogoulas; so called,
+because near its mouth, and to the east of a bay of the same name,
+dwells a nation, called Pasca-Ogoulas, which denotes the Nation of
+Bread. Here it may be remarked, that in the province of Louisiana, the
+appellation of several people terminates in the word Ogoula, which
+signifies <i>nation</i>; and that most of the rivers derive their names from
+the nations which dwell on <a name="page-16"></a> their banks. We then passed in view of
+Biloxi, where formerly was a petty nation of that name; then in view
+of the bay of St. Louis, leaving to the left successively Isle
+Dauphine, Isle a Corne, (Horne-island,) Isle aux Vaisseaux,
+(Ship-island,) and Isle aux Chats, (Cat-island).</p>
+
+<p>I have already described Isle Dauphine, let us now proceed to the
+three following. Horn-island is very flat and tolerably wooded, about
+six leagues in length, narrowed to a point to the west side. I know
+not whether it was for this reason, or on account of the number of
+horned cattle upon it, that it received this name; but it is certain,
+that the first Canadians, who settled on Isle Dauphine, had put most
+of their cattle, in great numbers, there; whereby they came to grow
+rich even when they slept. These cattle not requiring any attendance,
+or other care, in this island, came to multiply in such a manner, that
+the owners made great profits of them on our arrival in the colony.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding still westward, we meet Ship-island; so called, because
+there is a small harbour, in which vessels at different times have put
+in for shelter. But as the island is distant four leagues from the
+coast, and that this coast is so flat, that boats cannot approach
+nearer than half a league, this harbour comes to be entirely useless.
+This island may be about five leagues in length, and a large league in
+breadth at the west point. Near that point to the north is the
+harbour, facing the continent; towards the east end it may be half a
+league in breadth: it is sufficiently wooded, and inhabited only by
+rats, which swarm there.</p>
+
+<p>At two leagues distance, going still westward, we meet Cat-island; so
+called, because at the time it was discovered, great numbers of cats
+were found upon it. This island is very small, not above half a league
+in diameter. The forests are over-run with underwood: a circumstance
+which, doubtless, determined M. de Biainville to put in some hogs to
+breed; which multiplied to such numbers, that, in 1722, going to hunt
+them, no other creatures were to be seen; and it was judged, that in
+time they must have devoured each other. It was found they had
+destroyed the cats.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-17"></a> All these islands are very flat, and have the same bottom of
+white sand; the woods, especially of the three first, consist of pine;
+they are almost all at the same distance from the continent, the coast
+of which is equally sandy.</p>
+
+<p>After passing the bay of St. Louis, of which I have spoken, we enter
+the two channels which lead to Lake Pontchartrain, called at present
+the Lake St. Louis: of these channels, one is named the Great, the
+other the Little; and they are about two leagues in length, and formed
+by a chain of islets, or little isles, between the continent and
+Cockle-island. The great channel is to the south.</p>
+
+<p>We lay at the end of the channels in Cockle-island; so called, because
+almost entirely formed of the shells named Coquilles des Palourdes, in
+the sea-ports, without a mixture of any others. This isle lies before
+the mouth of the Lake St. Louis to the east, and leaves at its two
+extremities two outlets to the lake; the one, by which we entered,
+which is the channel just mentioned; the other, by the Lake Borgne.
+The lake, moreover, at the other end westward, communicates, by a
+channel, with the Lake Maurepas; and may be about ten leagues in
+length from east to west, and seven in breadth. Several rivers, in
+their course southward, fall into it. To the south of the lake is a
+great creek (Bayouc, a stream of dead water, with little or no
+observable current) called Bayouc St. Jean; it comes close to New
+Orleans, and falls into this lake at Grass Point (Pointe aux Herbes)
+which projects a great way into the lake, at two leagues distance from
+Cockle-island. We passed near that Point, which is nothing but a
+quagmire. From thence we proceeded to the Bayouc Choupic, so
+denominated from a fish of that name, and three leagues from the
+Pointe aux Herbes. The many rivulets, which discharge themselves into
+this lake, make its waters almost fresh, though it communicates with
+the sea: and on this account it abounds not only with sea fish but
+with fresh water fish, some of which, particularly carp, would appear
+to be of a monstrous size in France.</p>
+
+<p>We entered this Creek Choupic: at the entrance of which is a fort at
+present. We went up this creek for the space of a league, and landed
+at a place where formerly stood the village <a name="page-18"></a> of the natives, who
+are called Cola-Pissas, an appellation corrupted by the French, the
+true name of that nation being Aquelou-Pissas, that is, <i>the nation of
+men that hear and see</i>. From this place to New Orleans, and the river
+Missisippi, on which that capital is built, the distance is only a
+league.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-V">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Author put in Possession of his Territory. His Resolution to go
+and settle among the</i> Natchez.</p>
+
+
+<p>Being arrived at the Creek Choupic the Sicur Lavigne, a Canadian, lodged
+me in a cabin of the Aquelou-Pissas, whose village he had bought. He
+gave others to my workmen for their lodging; and we were all happy to
+find, upon our arrival, that we were under shelter, in a place that was
+uninhabited. A few days after my arrival I bought an Indian female slave
+of one of the inhabitants, in order to have a person who could dress our
+victuals, as I perceived the inhabitants did all they could to entice
+away our labourers, and to gain them by fair promises. As for my slave
+and me, we did not understand one another's language; but I made myself
+to be understood by signs, which these natives comprehend very easily:
+she was of the nation of the Chitimachas, with whom the French had been
+at war for some years.</p>
+
+<p>I went to view a spot on St. John's Creek, about half a league distant
+from the place where the capital was to be founded, which was yet only
+marked out by a hut, covered with palmetto-leaves, and which the
+commandant had caused to be built for his own lodging; and after him
+for M. Paillou, whom he left commandant of that post. I had chosen
+that place preferably to any others, with a view to dispose more
+easily of my goods and provisions, and that I might not have them to
+transport to a great distance. I told M. Paillou of my choice, who
+came and put me in possession, in the name of the West-India company.</p>
+
+<p>I built a hut upon my settlement, about forty yards from the creek of
+St. John, till I could build my house, and lodging <a name="page-19"></a> for my people.
+As my hut was composed of very combustible materials, I caused a fire
+to be made at a distance, about half way from the creek, to avoid
+accidents: which occasioned an adventure, that put me in mind of the
+prejudices they have in Europe, from the relations that are commonly
+current. The account I am going to give of it, may have upon those who
+think as I did then, the same effect that it had upon me.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost night, when my slave perceived, within two yards of the
+fire, a young alligator, five feet long, which beheld the fire without
+moving. I was in the garden hard by, when she made me repeated signs
+to come to her; I ran with speed, and upon my arrival she shewed me
+the crocodile, without speaking to me; the little time that I examined
+it, I could see, its eyes were so fixed on the fire, that all our
+motions could not take them off. I ran to my cabin to look for my gun,
+as I am a pretty good marksman: but what was my surprize, when I came
+out, and saw the girl with a great stick in her hand attacking the
+monster! Seeing me arrive, she began to smile, and said many things,
+which I did not comprehend. But she made me understand, by signs, that
+there was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast; for the stick
+she shewed me was sufficient for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the former master of my slave came to ask me for some
+salad-plants; for I was the only one who had any garden-stuff, having
+taken care to preserve the seeds I had brought over with me. As he
+understood the language of the natives, I begged him to ask the girl,
+why she had killed the alligator so rashly. He began to laugh, and
+told me, that all new comers were afraid of those creatures, although
+they have no reason to be so: and that I ought not to be surprized at
+what the girl had done, because her nation inhabited the borders of a
+lake, which was full of those creatures; that the children, when they
+saw the young ones come on land, pursued them, and killed them, by the
+assistance of the people of the cabin, who made good cheer of them.</p>
+
+<p>I was pleased with my habitation, and I had good reasons, which I have
+already related, to make me prefer it to others; notwithstanding I had
+room to believe, that the situation was <a name="page-20"></a> none of the healthiest,
+the country about it being very damp. But this cause of an unwholesome
+air does not exist at present, since they have cleared the ground, and
+made a bank before the town. The quality of that land is very good,
+for what I had sown came up very well. Having found in the spring some
+peach-stones which began to sprout, I planted them; and the following
+autumn they had made shoots, four feet high, with branches in
+proportion.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding these advantages, I took a resolution to quit this
+settlement, in order to make another one, about a hundred leagues
+higher up; and I shall give the reasons, which, in my opinion, will
+appear sufficient to have made me take that step.</p>
+
+<p>My surgeon came to take his leave of me, letting me know, he could be
+of no service to me, near such a town as was forming; where there was
+a much abler surgeon than himself; and that they had talked to him so
+favourably of the post of the Natchez, that he was very desirous to go
+there, and the more so, as that place, being unprovided with a
+surgeon, might be more to his advantage. To satisfy me of the truth of
+what he told me, he went immediately and brought one of the old
+inhabitants, of whom I had bought my slave, who confirmed the account
+he had given me of the fineness of the country of the Natchez. The
+account of the old man, joined to many other advantages, to be found
+there, had made him think of abandoning the place where we were, to
+settle there; and he reckoned to be abundantly repaid for it in a
+little time.</p>
+
+<p>My slave heard the discourse that I have related, and as she began to
+understand French, and I the language of the country, she addressed
+herself to me thus: "Thou art going, then, to that country; the sky is
+much finer there; game is in much greater plenty; and as I have
+relations, who retired there in the war which we had with the French,
+they will bring us every thing we want: they tell me that country is
+very fine, that they live well in it, and to a good old age."</p>
+
+<p>Two days afterwards I told M. Hubert what I had heard of the country
+of the Natchez. He made answer, that he was <a name="page-21"></a> so persuaded of the
+goodness of that part of the country, that he was making ready to go
+there himself, to take up his grant, and to establish a large
+settlement for the company: and, continued he, "I shall be very glad,
+if you do the same: we shall be Company to one another, and you will
+unquestionably do your business better there than here."</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-i"><img src="images/illus01.png" alt="Indian in summer time" height="378" width="218"></a><br>
+<i>Indian in summer time</i></p>
+
+<p>This determined me to follow his advice: I quitted my settlement, and
+took lodgings in the town, till I should find an <a name="page-22"></a> opportunity to
+depart, and receive some negroes whom I expected in a short time.<sup><a href="#fn-21" name="fr-21">21</a></sup>
+My stay at New Orleans appeared long, before I
+heard of the arrival of the negroes. Some days after the news of their
+arrival, M. Hubert brought me two good ones, which had fallen to me by
+lot. One was a young negro about twenty, with his wife of the same
+age; which cost me both together 1320 livres, or 55&#163;. sterling.</p>
+
+<p>Two days after that I set off with them alone in a pettyaugre (a large
+canoe,) because I was told we should make much better speed in such a
+vessel, than in the boats that went with us; and that I had only to
+take powder and ball with me, to provide my whole company with game
+sufficient to maintain us; for which purpose it was necessary to make
+use of a paddle, instead of oars, which make too much noise for the
+game. I had a barrel of powder, with fifteen pounds of shot, which I
+thought would be sufficient for the voyage: but I found by experience,
+that this was not sufficient for the vast plenty of game that is to be
+met with upon that river, without ever going out of your way. I had
+not gone above twenty-eight leagues, to the grant of M. Paris du
+Vernai, when I was obliged to borrow of him fifteen pounds of shot
+more. Upon this I took care of my ammunition, and shot nothing but
+what was fit for our provision; such as wild ducks, summer ducks,
+teal, and saw-bills. Among the rest I killed a carancro, wild geese,
+cranes, and flamingo's; I likewise often killed young alligators; the
+tail of which was a feast for the slaves, as well as for the French
+and Canadian rowers.</p>
+
+<p>Among other things I cannot omit to give an account of a monstrous
+large alligator I killed with a musquet ball, as it lay upon the bank,
+about ten feet above the edge of the water. We measured it, and found
+it to be nineteen feet long, its head three feet and a half long,
+above two feet nine inches broad, and the other parts in proportion:
+at the belly it was two feet two inches thick; and it infected the
+whole air with the odor of musk. M. Mehane told me, he had killed one
+twenty-two feet long.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-23"></a> After several days navigation, we arrived at Tonicas on Christmas
+eve; where we heard mass from M. d' Avion, of the foreign missions,
+with whom we passed the rest of the holy days, on account of the good
+reception and kind invitation he gave us. I asked him, if his great
+zeal for the salvation of the natives was attended with any success;
+he answered me, that notwithstanding the profound respect the people
+shewed him, it was with the greatest difficulty he could get leave to
+baptize a few children at the point of death; that those of an
+advanced age excused themselves from embracing our holy religion
+because they are too old, say they, to accustom themselves to rules,
+that are so difficult to be observed; that the chief, who had killed
+the physician, that attended his only son in a distemper of which he
+died, had taken a resolution to fast every Friday while he lived, in
+remorse for his inhumanity with which he had been so sharply
+reproached by him. This grand chief attended both morning and evening
+prayers; the women and children likewise assisted regularly at them;
+but the men, who did not come very often, took more pleasure in
+ringing the bell. In other respects, they did not suffer this zealous
+pastor to want for any thing, but furnished him with whatever he
+desired.</p>
+
+<p>We were yet twenty-five leagues to the end of our journey to the
+Natchez, and we left the Tonicas, where we saw nothing interesting, if
+it were not several steep hills, which stand together; among which
+there is one that they name the White Hill, because they find in it
+several veins of an earth, that is white, greasy, and very fine, with
+which I have seen very good potters ware made. On the same hill there
+are veins of ochre, of which the Natchez had just taken some to stain
+their earthen Ware, which looked well enough; when it was besmeared
+with ochre, it became red on burning.</p>
+
+<p>At last we arrived at the Natchez, after a voyage of twenty-four
+leagues; and we put on shore at a landing-place, which is at the foot
+of a hill two hundred feet high, upon the top of which Fort Rosalie<sup><a href="#fn-22" name="fr-22">22</a></sup>
+is built,
+surrounded only with pallisadoes. <a name="page-24"></a> About the middle of the hill
+stands the magazine, nigh to some houses of the inhabitants, who are
+settled there, because the ascent is not so steep in that place; and
+it is for the same reason that the magazine is built there. When you
+are upon the top of this hill, you discover the whole country, which
+is an extensive beautiful plain, with several little hills
+interspersed here and there, upon which the inhabitants have built and
+made their settlements. The prospect of it is charming.</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival at the Natchez I was very well received by M. Loire de
+Flaucourt, storekeeper of this post, who regaled us with the game that
+abounds in this place; and after two days I hired a house near the
+fort, for M. Hubert and his family, on their arrival, till he could
+build upon his own plantation. He likewise desired me to choose two
+convenient parcels of land, whereon to settle two considerable
+plantations, one for the company, and the other for himself. I went to
+them in two or three days after my arrival, with an old inhabitant for
+my guide, and to shew me the proper places, and at the same time to
+choose a spot of ground for myself; this last I pitched upon the first
+day, because it is more easy to choose for one's self than for others.</p>
+
+<p>I found upon the main road that leads from the chief village of the
+Natchez to the fort, about an hundred paces from this last, a cabin of
+the natives upon the road side, surrounded with a spot of cleared
+ground, the whole of which I bought by means of an interpreter. I made
+this purchase with the more pleasure, as I had upon the spot,
+wherewithal to lodge me and my people, with all my effects: the
+cleared ground was about six acres, which would form a garden and a
+plantation for <a name="page-25"></a> tobacco, which was then the only commodity
+cultivated by the inhabitants. I had water convenient for my house,
+and all my land was very good. On one side stood a rising ground with
+a gentle declivity, covered with a thick field of canes, which always
+grow upon the rich lands; behind that was a great meadow, and on the
+other side was a forest of white walnuts (Hiecories) of nigh fifty
+acres, covered with grass knee deep. All this piece of ground was in
+general good, and contained about four hundred acres of a measure
+greater than that of Paris: the soil is black and light.</p>
+
+<p>The other two pieces of land, which M. Hubert had ordered me to look
+for, I took up on the border of the little river of the Natchez, each
+of them half a league from the great village of that nation, and a
+league from the fort; and my plantation stood between these two and
+the fort, bounding the two others. After this I took up my lodging
+upon my own plantation, in the hut I had bought of the Indian, and put
+my people in another, which they built for themselves at the side of
+mine; so that I was lodged pretty much like our wood-cutters in
+France, when they are at work in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I was put in possession of my habitation, I went with an
+interpreter to see the other fields, which the Indians had cleared
+upon my land, and bought them all, except one, which an Indian would
+never sell to me: it was situated very convenient for me, I had a mind
+for it, and would have given him a good price; but I could never make
+him agree to my proposals. He gave me to understand, that without
+selling it, he would give it up to me, as soon as I should clear my
+ground to his; and that while he stayed on his own ground near me, I
+should always find him ready to serve me, and that he would go
+a-hunting and fishing for me. This answer satisfied me, because I must
+have had twenty negroes, before I could have been able to have reached
+him; they assured me likewise, that he was an honest man; and far from
+having any occasion to complain of him as a neighbour, his stay there
+was extremely serviceable to me.</p>
+
+<p>I had not been settled at the Natchez six months, when I found a pain
+in my thigh, which, however, did not hinder me <a name="page-26"></a> to go about my
+business. I consulted our surgeon about it, who caused me to be
+bleeded; on which the humour fell upon the other thigh, and fixed
+there with such violence, that I could not walk without extreme pain.
+I consulted the physicians and surgeons of New Orleans, who advised me
+to use aromatic baths; and if they proved of no service, I must go to
+France, to drink the waters, and to bathe in them. This answer
+satisfied me so much the less, as I was neither certain of my cure by
+that means, nor would my present situation allow me to go to France.
+This cruel distemper, I believe, proceeded from the rains, with which
+I was wet, during our whole voyage; and might be some effects of the
+fatigues I had undergone in war, during several campaigns I had made
+in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>As I could not go out of my hut, several neighbours were so good as to
+come and see me, and every day we were no less than twelve at table
+from the time of our arrival, which was on the fifth of January, 1720.
+Among the rest F. de Ville, who waited there, in his journey to the
+Illinois, till the ice, which began to come down from the north, was
+gone. His conversation afforded me great satisfaction in my
+confinement, and allayed the vexation I was under from my two negroes
+being run away. In the mean time my distemper did not abate, which
+made me resolve to apply to one of the Indian conjurers, who are both
+surgeons, divines, and sorcerers; and who told me he would cure me by
+sucking the place where I felt my pain. He made several scarifications
+upon the part with a sharp flint, each of them about as large as the
+prick of a lancet, and in such a form, that he could suck them all at
+once, which gave me extreme pain for the space of half an hour. The
+next day I found myself a little better, and walked about into my
+field, where they advised me to put myself in the hands of some of the
+Natchez, who, they said, did surprising cures, of which they told me
+many instances, confirmed by creditable people. In such a situation a
+man will do any thing for a cure, especially as the remedy, which they
+told me of, was very simple: it was only a poultice, which they put
+upon the part affected, and in eight days time I was able to walk to
+the fort, finding myself perfectly cured, as I have felt no return of
+my pain since that <a name="page-27"></a> time. This was, without doubt, a great
+satisfaction to a young man, who found himself otherwise in good
+health, but had been confined to the house for four months and a half,
+without being able to go out a moment; and gave me as much joy as I
+could well have, after the loss of a good negro, who died of a
+defluxion on the breast, which he catched by running away into the
+woods, where his youth and want of experience made him believe he
+might live without the toils of slavery; but being found by the
+Tonicas, constant friends of the French, who live about twenty leagues
+from the N&#224;tchez, they carried him to their village, where he and
+his wife were given to a Frenchman, for whom they worked, and by that
+means got their livelihood; till M. de Montplaisir sent them home to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>This M. de Montplaisir, one of the most agreeable gentlemen in the
+colony, was sent by the company from Clerac in Gascony, to manage
+their plantation at the Natchez, to make tobacco upon it, and to shew
+the people the way of cultivating and curing it; the company having
+learned, that this place produced excellent tobacco, and that the
+people of Clerac were perfectly well acquainted with the culture and
+way of managing it.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-21" name="fn-21">21</a></sup>  Chap. VIII.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-22" name="fn-22">22</a></sup>  Fort Rosalie, in the country of the Natchez, was at first
+pitched upon for the metropolis of this colony. But though it be
+necessary to begin by a settlement near the sea; yet if ever Louisiana
+comes to be in a flourishing condition, as it may very well be, it
+appears to me, that the capital of it cannot be better situated than
+in this place. It is not subject to inundations of the river; the air
+is pure; the country very extensive; the land fit for every thing, and
+well watered; it is not at too great a distance from the sea, and
+nothing hinders vessels to go up to it. In fine, it is within reach of
+every place intended to be settled. Charlevoix, Hist. de la N. France,
+III. 415.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">This is on the east side of the Missisippi, and appears to be the
+first post on that river which we ought to secure.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Voyage of the Author to</i> Biloxi. <i>Description of that Place.
+Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two Coppermines. His Return
+to the Natchez.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The second year after my settling among the Natchez, I went to
+New Orleans, as I was desirous to sell my goods and commodities
+myself, instead of selling them to the travelling pedlars, who often
+require too great a profit for their pains. Another reason that made
+me undertake this voyage, was to send my letters to France myself,
+which I was certainly informed, were generally intercepted.</p>
+
+<p>Before my departure, I went to the commandant of the fort, and asked
+him whether he had any letters for the government. I was not on very
+good terms of friendship with this commandant of the Natchez, who
+endeavoured to pay his court <a name="page-28"></a> to the governor, at the expence of
+others. I knew he had letters for M. de Biainville, although he told
+me he had none, which made me get a certificate from the commissary
+general of this refusal to my demand; and at the same time the
+commissary begged me to carry down a servant of the company, and gave
+me an order to pay for his maintenance. As I made no great haste, but
+stopt to see my friends, in my going down the river, the commandant
+had time to send his letters, and to write to the governor, that I
+refused to take them. As soon as I arrived at Biloxi, this occasioned
+M. de Biainville to tell me, with some coldness, that I refused to
+charge myself with his letters. Upon this I shewed him the certificate
+of the commissary general; to which he could give no other answer,
+than by telling me, that at least I could not deny, that I had brought
+away by stealth a servant of the company. Upon this I shewed him the
+other certificate of the commissary general, by which he desired the
+directors to reimburse me the charges of bringing down this servant,
+who was of no use to him above; which put the governor in a very bad
+humour.</p>
+
+<p>Upon my arrival at New Orleans I was informed, that there were several
+grantees arrived at New Biloxi. I thought fit then to go thither, both
+to sell my goods, and to get sure conveyance for my letters to France.
+Here I was invited to sup with M. d'Artaguette, king's lieutenant, who
+usually invited all the grantees, as well as myself. I there found
+several of the grantees, who were all my friends; and among us we made
+out a sure conveyance for our letters to France, of which we
+afterwards made use.</p>
+
+<p>Biloxi is situate opposite to Ship-Island, and four leagues from it.
+But I never could guess the reason, why the principal settlement was
+made at this place, nor why the capital should be built at it; as
+nothing could be more repugnant to good sense; vessels not being able
+to come within four leagues of it; but what was worse, nothing could
+be brought from them, but by changing the boats three different times,
+from a smaller size to another still smaller; after which they had to
+go upwards of an hundred paces with small carts through the water to
+unload the least boats. But what ought still to have <a name="page-29"></a> been a
+greater discouragement against making a settlement at Biloxi, was,
+that the land is the most barren of any to be found thereabouts; being
+nothing but a fine sand, as white and shining as snow, on which no
+kind of greens can be raised; besides, the being extremely incommoded
+with rats, which swarm there in the sand, and at that time ate even
+the very stocks of the guns, the famine being there so very great,
+that more than five hundred people died of hunger; bread being very
+dear, and flesh-meat still more rare. There was nothing in plenty but
+fish, with which this place abounds.</p>
+
+<p>This scarcity proceeded from the arrival of several grantees all at
+once; so as to have neither provisions, nor boats to transport them to
+the places of their destination, as the company had obliged themselves
+to do. The great plenty of oysters, found upon the coast, saved the
+lives of some of them, although obliged to wade almost up to their
+thighs for them, a gun-shot from the shore. If this food nourished
+several of them, it threw numbers into sickness; which was still more
+heightened by the long time they were obliged to be in the water.</p>
+
+<p>The grants were those of M. Law, who was to have fifteen hundred men,
+consisting of Germans, Proven&#231;als, &amp;c. to form the settlement.
+His land being marked out at the Arkansas, consisted of four leagues
+square, and was erected into a duchy, with accoutrements for a company
+of dragoons, and merchandize for more than a million of livres. M.
+Levans, who was a trustee of it, had his chaise to visit the different
+posts of the grant. But M. Law soon after becoming bankrupt, the
+company seized on all the effects and merchandise; and but a few of
+those who engaged in the service of that grant, remained at the
+Arkansas; they were afterwards all dispersed and set at liberty. The
+Germans almost to a man settled eight leagues above, and to the west
+of the capital. This grant ruined near a thousand persons at L'Orient
+before their embarkation, and above two hundred at Biloxi; not to
+mention those who came out at the same time with me in 1718. All this
+distress, of which I was a witness at Biloxi, determined me to make an
+excursion a few leagues on the coast, in order to pass some days <a name="page-30"></a>
+with a friend, who received me with pleasure. We mounted horse to
+visit the interior part of the country a few leagues from the sea. I
+found the fields pleasant enough, but less fertile than along the
+Missisippi; as they have some resemblance of the neighbouring coast,
+which has scarce any other plants but pines, that run a great way, and
+some red and white cedars.</p>
+
+<p>When we came to the plain, I carefully searched every spot that I
+thought worth my attention. In consequence of the search I found two
+mines of copper, whose metal plainly appeared above ground. They stood
+about half a league asunder. We may justly conclude that they are very
+rich, as they thus disclose themselves on the surface of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>When I had made a sufficient excursion, and judged I could find
+nothing further to satisfy my curiosity, I returned to Biloxi, where I
+found two boats of the company, just preparing to depart for New
+Orleans, and a large pettyaugre, which belonged to F. Charlevoix the
+jesuit, whose name is well known in the republic of letters: with him
+I returned to New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>Some time after my return from New Orleans to the Natchez, towards the
+month of March 1722, a phaenomenon happened, which frightened the
+whole province. Every morning, for eight days running, a hollow noise,
+somewhat loud, was heard to reach from the sea to the Illinois; which
+arose from the west. In the afternoon it was heard to descend from the
+east, and that with an incredible quickness; and though the noise
+seemed to bear on the water, yet without agitating it, or discovering
+any more wind on the river than before. This frightful noise was only
+the prelude of a most violent tempest. The hurricane, the most furious
+ever felt in the province, lasted three days. As it arose from the
+south-west and north-east, it reached all the settlements which were
+along the Missisippi; and was felt for some leagues more or less
+strong, in proportion to the greater or less distance: but in the
+places, where the force or height of the hurricane passed, it
+overturned every thing in its way, which was an extent of a large
+quarter of a league broad; so that one would take it for <a name="page-31"></a> an
+avenue made on purpose, the place where it passed being entirely laid
+flat, whilst every thing stood upright on each side. The largest trees
+were torn up by the roots, and their branches broken to pieces and
+laid flat to the earth, as were also the reeds of the woods. In the
+meadows, the grass itself, which was then but six inches high, and
+which is very fine, could not escape, but was trampled, faded, and
+laid quite flat to the earth.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-ii"><img src="images/illus02.png" alt="Indian in winter time" height="383" width="219"></a><br>
+Indian in winter time</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-32"></a> The height of the hurricane passed at a league from my
+habitation; and yet my hose, which was built on piles, would have been
+overturned, had I not speedily propped it with a timber, with the
+great end in the earth, and nailed to the house with an iron hook
+seven or eight inches long. Several houses of our post were
+overturned. But it was happy for us in this colony, that the height of
+the hurricane passed not directly oer any post, but obliquely
+traversed the Missisippi, over a country intirely uninhabited. As this
+hurricane came from the south, it so swelled the sea, that the
+Missisippi flowed back against its current, so as to rise upwards of
+fifteen feet high.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>First War with the</i> Natchez. <i>Cause of the War.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In the same year, towards the end of summer, we had the first war with
+the Natchez. The French had settled at the Natchez, without any
+opposition from these people; so far from opposing them, they did them
+a great deal of service, and gave them very material assistance in
+procuring provisions; for those, who were sent by the West India
+Comany with the first fleet, had been detained at New Orleans. Had it
+not been for the natives, the people must have perished by famine and
+distress: for, how excellent soever a new country it may be, it must
+be cleared, grubbed up, and sown, and then at least we are to wait the
+first harvest, or crop. But during all that time people must live, and
+the company was well apprized of this, as they had send, witht he
+eight hundred men they had transported to Louisiana, provisions for
+three years. The grantees and planters, obliged <i>to treat</i>, or truck for
+provisions with the Natchez, in consequence of that saw their funds
+wasted, and themselves incapable of forming so considerable a
+settlement, without this trucking, as necessary, as it was frequent.</p>
+
+<p>However, some benefit resulted from this; namely that the Natchez,
+enticed by the facility of trucking for goods, before unknown to them,
+as fusils, gun-powder, lead, brandy, linen, cloths, and other like
+things, by means of an exchange of what they abounded with, came to be
+more and more attached <a name="page-33"></a> to the French; and would have continued
+very useful friends, had not the little satisfaction which the
+commandant of Fort Rosalie had given them, for the misbehavior of one
+of his soldiers, alienated their minds. This fort covered the
+settlement of the Natchez, and protected that of St. Catharine, which
+was on the banks of the rivulet of the Natchez; but botht he defence
+and protection it afforded were very inconsiderable; for this fort was
+only pallisadoed, open at six breaches, without a ditch, and with a
+very weak garrison. On the other hand, the houses of the inhabitants,
+though considerably numerous, were of themselves of no strength; and
+then the inhabitants, dispersed in the country, each amidst his field,
+far from affording mutual assistance, as they would had they been in a
+body, stood each of them, upon any accident, in need of the assistance
+of others.</p>
+
+<p>A young soldier of Fort Rosalie had given some credit to an old
+warrior of a village of the Natchez; which was that of the White
+Apple, each village having its peculiar name: the warrior, in return,
+was to give him some corn. Towards the beginning of the winter 1723,
+this soldier lodging near the fort, the old warrior came to see him;
+the soldier insisted on his corn; the native answered calmly, that the
+corn was not yet dry enough to shake out the grain; that besides, his
+wife had been ill, and that he would pay him as soon as possible. The
+young man, little satisfied with this answer, threatened to cudgel the
+old man: upon which, this last, who was in the soldier's hut,
+affronted at this threat, told him, he should turn out, and try who
+was the best man. On this challenge, the soldier, calling out murder,
+brings the guard to his assistance. The guard being come, the young
+fellow pressed them to fire upon the warrior, who was returning to his
+village at his usual pace; a soldier was imprudent enough to fire: the
+old man dropt down. The commandant was soon apprized of what happened,
+and came to the spot; where the witnesses, both French and Natchez,
+informed him of the fact. Both justice and prudence demanded to take
+an exemplary punishment of the soldier; but he got off with a
+reprimand. After this the natives made a litter, and carried off their
+warrior, who died the <a name="page-34"></a> following night of his wounds, though the
+fusil was only charged with great shot.</p>
+
+<p>Revenge is the predominant passion of the people in America: so that
+we ought not to be surprised, if the death of this old warrior raised
+his whole village against the French. The rest of the nation took no
+part at first in the quarrel.</p>
+
+<p>The first effect of the resentment of the Natchez fell upon a
+Frenchman named M. Guenot, whom they surprised returning from the fort
+to St. Catharine, and upon another inhabitant, whom they killed in his
+bed. Soon after they attacked, all in a body, the settlement of St.
+Catharine, and the other below Fort Rosalie. It was at this last I had
+fixed my abode: I therefore saw myself exposed, like many others, to
+pay with my goods, and perhaps my life, for the rashness of a soldier,
+and the too great indulgence of his captain. But as I was already
+acquainted with the character of the people we had to deal with, I
+despaired not to save both. I therefore barricadoed myself in my
+house, and having put myself in a posture of defence, when they came
+in the night, according to their custom, to surprise me, they durst
+not attack me.</p>
+
+<p>This first attempt, which I justly imagined was to be followed by
+another, if not by many such, made me resolve, as soon as day came, to
+retire under the fort, as all the inhabitants also did, and thither to
+carry all the provisions I had at my lodge. I could execute only half
+of my scheme. My slaves having begun to remove the best things, I was
+scarce arrived under the fort, but the commandant begged I might put
+myself at the head of the inhabitants, to go to succour St. Catharine.
+He had already sent thither all his garrison, reserving only five men
+to guard the fort; but this succour was not sufficient to relieve the
+settlement, which the natives in great numbers vigorously straitned.</p>
+
+<p>I departed without delay: we heard the firing at a distance, but the
+noise ceased as soon as I was come, and the natives appeared to have
+retired: they had, doubtless, discovered me on my march, and the sight
+of a reinforcement which I had brought with me, deceived them. The
+officer who commanded the detachment of the garrison, and whom I
+relieved, returned <a name="page-35"></a> to the fort with his men; and the command
+being thus devolved on me, I caused all the Negroes to be assembled,
+and ordered them to cut down all the bushes; which covering the
+country, favoured the approach of the enemy, quite to the doors of the
+houses of that Grant. This operation was performed without
+molestation, if you except a few shot, fired by the natives from the
+woods, where they lay concealed on the other side of the rivulet; for
+the plain round St. Catharine being entirely cleared of every thing
+that could screen them, they durst not shew themselves any more.</p>
+
+<p>However, the commandant of Fort Rosalie sent to treat with the <i>Stung
+Serpent</i>; in order to prevail with him to appease that part of his
+nation, and procure a peace. As that great warrior was our friend, he
+effectually laboured therein, and hostilities ceased. After I had
+passed twenty-four hours in St. Catharine, I was relieved by a new
+detachment from the inhabitants, whom, in my turn, I relieved next
+day. It was on this second guard, which I mounted, that the village we
+had been at war with sent me, by their deputies, the <i>calumet</i> or <i>pipe
+of peace</i>. I at first had some thoughts of refusing it, knowing that
+this honour was due to the commandant of the fort; and it appeared to
+me a thing so much the more delicate to deprive him of it, as we were
+not upon very good terms with each other. However, the evident risk of
+giving occasion to protract the war, by refusing it, determined me to
+accept of it; after having, however, taken the advice of those about
+me; who all judged it proper to treat these people gently, to whom the
+commandant was become odious.</p>
+
+<p>I asked the deputies, what they would have? They answered, faultering,
+<i>Peace</i>. "Good, said I; but why bring you the Calumet of Peace to me? It
+is to the Chief of the Fort you are to carry it, if you wish to have a
+Peace." "Our orders" said they, "are to carry it first to you, if you
+choose to receive it by only smoking therein: after which we will
+carry it to the Chief of the Fort; but if you refuse receiving it, our
+orders are to return."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this I told them, that I agreed to smoke in their pipe, on
+condition they would carry it to the Chief of the Fort. <a name="page-36"></a> They then
+made me an harangue; to which I answered, that it were best to resume
+our former manner of living together, and that the French and the
+<i>Red-men</i> should entirely forget what had passed. To conclude, that they
+had nothing further to do, but to go and carry the Pipe to the Chief
+of the Fort, and then go home and sleep in peace.</p>
+
+<p>This was the issue of the first war we had with the Natchez, which
+lasted only three or four days.</p>
+
+<p>The commerce, or truck, was set again on the same footing it had been
+before; and those who had suffered any damage, now thought only how
+they might best repair it. Some time after, the Major General arrived
+from New Orleans, being sent by the Governor of Louisiana to ratify
+the peace; which he did, and mutual sincerity was restored, and became
+as perfect as if there had never been any rupture between us.</p>
+
+<p>It had been much to be wished, that matters had remained on so good a
+footing. As we were placed in one of the best and finest countries of
+the world; were in strict connection with the natives, from whom we
+derived much knowledge of the nature of the productions of the
+country, and of the animals of all sorts, with which it abounds; and
+likewise reaped great advantage in our traffic for furs and
+provisions; and were aided by them in many laborious works, we wanted
+nothing but a profound peace, in order to form solid settlements,
+capable of making us lay aside all thoughts of Europe: but Providence
+had otherwise ordered.</p>
+
+<p>The winter which succeeded this war was so severe, that a colder was
+never remembered. The rain fell in icicles in such quantities as to
+astonish the oldest Natchez, to whom this great cold appeared new and
+uncommon.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the autumn of this year I saw a phaenomenon which struck the
+superstitious with great terror: it was in effect so extraordinary,
+that I never remember to have heard of any thing that either
+resembled, or even came up to it. I had just supped without doors, in
+order to enjoy the cool of the evening; my face was turned to the
+west, and I sat before my table to examine some planets which had
+already appeared. <a name="page-37"></a> I perceived a glimmering light, which made me
+raise my eyes; and immediately I saw, at the elevation of about 45
+degrees above the horizon, a light proceeding from the south, of the
+breadth of three inches, which went off to the north, always spreading
+itself as it moved, and made itself heard by a whizzing light like
+that of the largest sky-rocket. I judged by the eye that this light
+could not be above our atmosphere, and the whizzing noise which I
+heard confirmed me in that notion. <a name="page-38"></a> When it came in like manner to
+be about 45 degrees to the north above the horizon, it stopped short,
+and ceased enlargeing itself: in that place it appeared to be twenty
+inches broad; so that in its course, which had been very rapid, it
+formed the figure of a trumpet-marine, and left in its passage very
+lively sparks, shining brighter than those which fly from under a
+smith's hammer; but they were extinguished almost as fast as they were
+emitted.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-iii"><img src="images/illus03.png" alt="Indian woman and daughter (on p. 37)" height="385" width="214"></a><br>
+<i>Indian woman and daughter</i></p>
+
+<p>At the north elevation I just mentioned, there issued out with a great
+noise from the middle of the large end, a ball quite round, and all on
+fire: this ball was about six inches in diameter; it fell below the
+horizon to the north, and emitted, about twenty minutes after, a
+hollow, but very loud noise for the space of a minute, which appeared
+to come from a great distance. The light began to be weakened to the
+south, after emitting the ball, and at length disappeared, before the
+noise of the ball was heard.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Governor surprized the</i> Natchez <i>with seven hundred Men.
+Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The Author sends upwards of
+three hundred Simples to the Company.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p>M. De Biainville, at the beginning of the winter which followed this
+phaenomenonived very privately at our quarter of the Natchez, his
+march having been communicated to none but the Commandant of this
+Post, who had orders to seize all the Natchez that should come to the
+Fort that day, to prevent the news of his arrival being carried to
+their country men. He brought with him, in regular troops, inhabitants
+and natives, who were our allies, to the number of seven hundred men.</p>
+
+<p>Orders were given that all our settlers at the Natchez should repair
+before his door at midnight at the latest: I went thither and mixed
+with the crowd, without making myself known.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived two hours before day at the settlement of St. Catharine.
+The Commandant having at length found me out, <a name="page-39"></a> ordered me, in the
+King's name, to put myself at the head of the settlers among the
+Natchez, and to take the command upon me; and these he ordered to pay
+the same obedience to me as to himself. We advanced with great silence
+towards the village of the Apple. It may be easily seen that all this
+precaution was taken in order to surprise our enemies, who ought so
+much the less to expect this act of hostility, as they had fairly made
+peace with us, and as M. Paillou, Major General, had come and ratified
+this peace in behalf of the Governor. We marched to the enemy and
+invested the first hut of the Natchez, which we found separate; the
+drums, in concert with the fifes, beat the charge; we fired upon the
+hut, in which were only three men and two women.</p>
+
+<p>From thence we afterwards moved on to the village, that is, several
+huts that stood together in a row. We halted at three of them that lay
+near each other, in which between twelve and fifteen Natchez had
+entrenched themselves. By our manner of proceeding one would have
+thought that we came only to view the huts. Full of indignation that
+none exerted himself to fall upon them, I took upon me with my men to
+go round and take the enemy in rear. They took to their heels, and I
+pursued; but we had need of the swiftness of deer to be able to come
+up with them. I came so near, however, that they threw away their
+cloaths, to run with the greater speed.</p>
+
+<p>I rejoined our people, and expected a reprimand for having forced the
+enemy without orders; though I had my excuse ready. But here I was
+mistaken; for I met with nothing but encomiums.</p>
+
+<p>This war, of which I shall give no further detail, lasted only four
+days. M. de Biainville demanded the head of an old mutinous Chief of
+this village; and the natives, in order to obtain a peace, delivered
+him up.</p>
+
+<p>I happened to live at some distance from the village of the Apple, and
+very seldom saw any of the people. Such as lived nearer had more
+frequent visits from them; but after this war, and the peace which
+followed upon it, I never saw one of them. My neighbours who lived
+nearer to them saw but a few of them, even a long time after the
+conclusion of the war. The <a name="page-40"></a> natives of the other villages came but
+very seldom among us; and indeed, if we could have done well without
+them, I could have wished to have been rid of them for ever. But we
+had neither a flesh nor a fish-market; therefore, without them, we
+must have taken up with what the poultry-yard and kitchen-garden
+furnished; which would have been extremely inconvenient.</p>
+
+<p>I one day stopped the Stung Serpent, who was passing without taking
+notice of any one. He was brother to the Great Sun, and Chief of the
+Warriors of the Natchez. I accordingly called to him, and said, "We
+were formerly friends, are we no longer so?" He answered, <i>Noco</i>; that
+is, I cannot tell. I replied, "You used to come to my house; at
+present you pass by. Have you forgot the way; or is my house
+disagreeable to you? As for me, my heart is always the same, both
+towards you and all my friends. I am not capable of changing, why then
+are you changed?"</p>
+
+<p>He took some time to answer, and seemed to be embarrassed by what I
+said to him. He never went to the fort, but when sent for the
+Commandant, who put me upon sounding him; in order to discover whether
+his people still retained any grudge.</p>
+
+<p>He at length broke silence, and told me, "he was ashamed to have been
+so long without seeing me; but I imagined," said he, "that you were
+displeased at our nation; because among all the French who were in the
+war, you were the only one that fell upon us." "You are in the wrong,"
+said I, "to think so. M. de Biainville being our War-chief, we are
+bound to obey him; in like manner as you, though a Sun, are obliged to
+kill, or cause to be killed, whomsoever your brother, the Great Sun
+orders to be put to death. Many other Frenchmen, besides me, sought an
+opportunity to attack your countrymen, in obedience to the orders of
+M. de Biainville; and several other Frenchmen fell upon the nearest
+hut, one of whom was killed by the first shot which the Natchez
+fired."</p>
+
+<p>He then said: "I did not approve, as you know, the war our people made
+upon the French to avenge the death of their <a name="page-41"></a> relation, seeing I
+made them carry the <i>pipe of peace</i> to the French. This you well know,
+as you first smoked in the pipe yourself. Have the French two hearts, a
+good one today, and tomorrow a bad one? As for my brother and me, we
+have but one heart and one word. Tell me then, if thou art, as thou
+sayest, my true friend, what thou thinketh of all this, and shut thy
+mouth to every thing else. We know not what to think of the French, who,
+after having begun the war, granted a peace, and offered it of
+themselves; and then at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to
+be at peace, people come to kill us, without saying a word."</p>
+
+<p>"Why," continued he, with an air of displeasure, "did the French come
+into our country? We did not go to seek them: they asked for land of
+us, because their country was too little for all the men that were in
+it. We told them they might take land where they pleased, there was
+enough for them and for us; that it was good the same sun should
+enlighten us both, and that we would walk as friends in the same path;
+and that we would give them of our provisions, assist them to build,
+and to labour in their fields. We have done so; is not this true? What
+occasion then had we for Frenchmen? Before they came, did we not live
+better than we do, seeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn,
+our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what respect, then, had
+we occasion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which
+we used, were sufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white,
+blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo skins,
+which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankets for the winter,
+and mulberry-mantles for the summer; which indeed were not so
+beautiful; but our women were more laborious and less vain than they
+are now. In fine, before the arrival of the French, we lived like men
+who can be satisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are
+like slaves, who are not suffered to do as they please."</p>
+
+<p>To this unexpected discourse I know not what answer another would have
+made; but I frankly own, that if at my first address he seemed to be
+confused, I really was so in my turn. "My heart," said I to him,
+"better understands thy <a name="page-42"></a> reasons than my ears, though they are
+full of them; and though I have a tongue to answer, my ears have not
+heard the reasons of M. de Biainville, to tell them thee: but I know
+it was necessary to have the head he demanded, in order to a peace.
+When our Chiefs command us, we never require the reasons: I can say
+nothing else to thee. But to shew you that I am always your real
+friend, I have here a beautiful <i>pipe of peace</i>, which I wanted to carry
+to my own country. I know you have ordered all your warriors to kill
+some white eagles, in order to make one, because you have occasion for
+it. I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I
+reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>I went to look for it, and I gave it him, telling him, that it was
+<i>without design;</i> that is, according to them, from no interested motive.
+The natives put as great a value on a <i>pipe of peace</i> as on a gun. Mine
+was adorned with tinsel and silver wire: so that in their estimation
+my pipe was worth two guns. He appeared to be extremely well pleased
+with it; put it up hastily in his case, squeezed my hand with a smile,
+and called me his true friend.</p>
+
+<p>The winter was now drawing to a close, and in a little time the
+natives were to bring us bear-oil to truck. I hoped that by his means
+I should have of the best preferably to any other; which was the only
+compensation I expected for my pipe. But I was agreeably disappointed.
+He sent me a deer-skin of bear-oil, so very large that a stout man
+could hardly carry it, and the bearer told me, that he sent it to me
+as his true friend, <i>without design</i>. This deer-skin contained
+thirty-one pots of the measure of the country, or sixty-two pints
+Paris measure.</p>
+
+<p>Three days after, the Great Sun, his brother, sent me another
+deer-skin of the same oil, to the quantity of forty pints. The
+commonest sort sold this year at twenty sols a pint, and I was sure
+mine was not of the worst kind.</p>
+
+<p>For some days a <i>fistula lacrymalis</i> had come into my left eye, which
+discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger. I shewed it
+to M. St. Hilaire, an able surgeon, who <a name="page-43"></a> had practised for about
+twelve years in the Hôtel Dieu at Paris.</p>
+
+<p>He told me it was necessary to use the fire for it; and that,
+notwithstanding this operation, my sight would remain as good as ever,
+only my eye would be blood-shot: and that if I did not speedily set
+about the operation, the bone of the nose would become carious.</p>
+
+<p>These reasons gave me much uneasiness, as having both to fear and to
+suffer at the same time: however, after I had resolved to undergo the
+operation, the Grand Sun and his brother came one morning very early,
+with a man loaded with game, as a present for me.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Sun observed I had a swelling in my eye, and asked me what
+was the matter with it. I shewed it him, and told him, that in order
+to cure it, I must have fire put to it; but that I had some difficulty
+to comply, as I dreaded the consequences of such an operation. Without
+replying, or in the least apprizing me, he ordered the man who brought
+the game to go in quest of his physician, and tell him, he waited for
+him at my house. The messenger and physician made such dispatch, that
+this last came in an hour after. The Great Sun ordered him to look at
+my eye, and endeavour to cure me: after examining it, the physician
+said, he would undertake to cure me with simples and common water. I
+consented to this with so much the greater pleasure and readiness, as
+by this treatment I ran no manner of risque.</p>
+
+<p>That very evening the physician came with his simples, all pounded
+together, and making but a single ball, which he put with the water in
+a deep bason, he made me bend my head into it, so as the eye affected
+stood dipt quite open in the water. I continued to do so for eight or
+ten days, morning and evening; after which, without any other
+operation, I was perfectly cured, and never after had any return of
+the disorder.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy from this relation to understand what dextrous physicians
+the natives of Louisiana are. I have seen them perform surprising
+cures on Frenchmen; on two especially, who had put themselves under
+the hands of a French surgeon <a name="page-44"></a> settled at this post. Both patients
+were about to undergo the grand cure; and after having been under the
+hands of the surgeon for some time, their heads swelled to such a
+degree, that one of them made his escape, with as much agility as a
+criminal would from the hands of justice, when a favourable
+opportunity offers. He applied to a Natchez physician, who cured him
+in eight days: his comrade continuing still under the French surgeon,
+died under his hands three days after the escape of his companion,
+whom I saw three years after in a state of perfect health.</p>
+
+<p>In the war which I lately mentioned, the Grand Chief of the Tonicas,
+our allies, was wounded with a ball, which went through his cheek,
+came out under the jaw, again entered his body at the neck, and
+pierced through to the shoulder-blade, lodging at last between the
+flesh and the skin: the wound had its direction in this manner;
+because when he received it, he happened to be in a stooping posture,
+as were all his men, in order to fire. The French surgeon, under whose
+care he was, and who dressed him with great precaution, was an able
+man, and spared no pains in order to effect a cure. But the physicians
+of this Chief, who visited him every day, asked the Frenchman what
+time the cure would take? he answered, six weeks at least: they
+returned no answer, but went directly and made a litter; spoke to
+their Chief, and put him on it, carried him off, and treated him in
+their own manner, and in eight days affected a complete cure.</p>
+
+<p>These are facts well known in the colony. The physicians of the
+country have performed many other cures, which, if they were to be all
+related, would require a whole volume apart; but I have confined
+myself to the three above mentioned, in order to shew that disorders
+frequently accounted almost incurable, are, without any painful
+operation, and in a short time, cured by physicians, natives of
+Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>The West India Company being informed that this province produces a
+great many simples, whose virtues, known by the natives, afforded so
+easy a cure to all sorts of distempers, ordered M. de la Chaise, who
+was sent from France in quality of Director General of this colony, to
+cause enquiry to be made <a name="page-45"></a> into the simples proper for physick and
+for dying, by means of some Frenchmen, who might perhaps be masters of
+the secrets of the natives. I was pointed out for this purpose to M.
+de la Chaise, who was but just arrived, and who wrote to me, desiring
+my assistance in this enquiry; which I gave him with pleasure, and in
+which I exerted myself to my utmost, because I well knew the Company
+continually aimed at what might be for the benefit of the colony.</p>
+
+<p>After I thought I had done in that respect, what might give
+satisfaction to the Company, I transplanted in earth, put into cane
+baskets, above three hundred simples, with their numbers, and a
+memorial, which gave a detail of their virtues, and taught the manner
+of using them. I afterwards understood that they were planted in a
+botanic garden made for the purpose, by order of the Company.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>French Settlements, or Posts. The Post at Mobile. The Mouths of the
+Missisippi. The Situation and Description of</i> New Orleans.</p>
+
+
+<p>The Settlement at Mobile was the first seat of the colony in this
+province. It was the residence of the Commandant General, the
+Commissary General, the Staff-officers, &amp;c. As vessels could not enter
+the river Mobile, and there was a small harbour at Isle Dauphine, a
+settlement was made suited to the harbour, with a guardhouse for its
+security: so that these two settlements may be said to have made but
+one; both on account of their proximity, and necessary connection with
+each other. The settlement of Mobile, ten leagues, however, from its
+harbour, lies on the banks of the river of that name; and Isle
+Dauphine, over against the mouth of that river, is four leagues from
+the coast.</p>
+
+<p>Though the settlement of Mobile be the oldest, yet it is far from
+being the most considerable. Only some inhabitants remained there, the
+greatest part of the first inhabitants having left it, in order to
+settle on the river Missisippi, ever since New Orleans became the
+capital of the colony. That old post is the <a name="page-46"></a> ordinary residence of
+a King's Lieutenant, a Regulating Commissary, and a Treasurer. The
+fort, with four bastions, terraced and palisaded, has a garrison.</p>
+
+<p>This post is a check upon the nation of Choctaws, and cuts off the
+communication of the English with them; it protects the neighbouring
+nations, and keeps them in our alliance; in fine, it supports our
+peltry trade, which is considerable with the Choctaws and other
+nations.<sup><a href="#fn-23" name="fr-23">23</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>The same reason which pointed out the necessity of this post, with
+respect to the Choctaws, also shewed the necessity of building a fort
+at Tombecbé, to check the English in their ambitious views on the side
+of the Chicasaws. That fort was built only since the war with the
+Chicasaws in 1736.</p>
+
+<p>Near the river Mobile stands the small settlement of the
+Pasca-Ogoulas; which consists only of a few Canadians, lovers of
+tranquillity, which they prefer to all the advantages they could reap
+from commerce. They content themselves with a frugal country life, and
+never go to New Orleans but for necessaries.</p>
+
+<p>From that settlement quite to New Orleans, by the way of Lake St.
+Louis, there is no post at present. Formerly, and <a name="page-47"></a> just before the
+building of the capital, there were the old and new Biloxi:
+settlements, which have deserved an oblivion as lasting as their
+duration was short.</p>
+
+<p>To proceed with order and perspicuity, we will go up the Missisippi
+from its mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Fort Balise is at the entrance of the Missisippi, in 29° degrees North
+Latitude, and 286° 30' of Longitude. This fort is built on an isle, at
+one of the mouths of the Missisippi. Tho' there are but seventeen feet
+water in the channel, I have seen vessels of five hundred ton enter
+into it. I know not why this entrance is left so neglected, as we are
+not in want of able engineers in France, in the hydraulic branch, a
+part of the mathematics to which I have most applyed myself. I know it
+is no easy matter so to deepen or hollow the channel of a bar, that it
+may never after need clearing, and that the expences run high: but my
+zeal for promoting the advantage of this colony having prompted me to
+make reflections on those passes, or entrances of the Missisippi, and
+being perfectly well acquainted both with the country and the nature
+of the soil, I dare flatter myself, I may be able to accomplish it, to
+the great benefit of the province, and acquit myself therein with
+honour, at a small charge, and in a manner not to need repetition.<sup><a href="#fn-24" name="fr-24">24</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>I say, fort Balise is built upon an island; a circumstance, I imagine,
+sufficient to make it understood, that this fort is irregular; the
+figure and extent of this small island not admitting it to be
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>In going up the Missisippi, we meet with nothing remarkable before we
+come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the
+river takes a large compass; so that <a name="page-48"></a> the same wind, which was
+before fair, proves contrary in this elbow, or reach. For this reason
+it was thought proper to build two forts at that place, one on each
+side of the river, to check any attempts of strangers. These forts are
+more than sufficient to oppose the passage of an hundred sail; as
+ships can go up the river, only one after another, and can neither
+cast anchor, nor come on shore to moor.</p>
+
+<p>It will, perhaps, be thought extraordinary that ships cannot anchor in
+this place. I imagine the reader will be of my opinion, when I tell
+him, the bottom is only a soft mud, or ooze, almost entirely covered
+with dead trees, and this for upwards of an hundred leagues. As to
+putting on shore, it is equally impossible and needless to attempt it;
+because the place where these forts stand, is but a neck of land
+between the river and the marshes: now it is impossible for a shallop,
+or canoe, to come near to moor a vessel, in sight of a fort well
+guarded, or for an enemy to throw up a trench in a neck of land so
+soft. Besides, the situation of the two forts is such, that they may in
+a short time receive succours, both from the inhabitants, who are on
+the interior edge of the crescent, formed by the river, and from New
+Orleans, which is very near thereto.</p>
+
+<p>The distance from this place to the capital is reckoned six leagues by
+water, and the course nearly circular; the winding, or reach, having
+the figure of a C almost close. Both sides of the river are lined with
+houses, which afford a beautiful prospect to the eye; however, as this
+voyage is tedious by water, it is often performed on horseback by
+land.</p>
+
+<p>The great difficulties attending the going up the river under sail,
+particularly at the English Reach, for the reasons mentioned, put me
+upon devising a very simple and cheap machine, to make vessels go up
+with ease quite to New-Orleans. Ships are sometimes a month in the
+passage from Balise to the capital; whereas by my method they would
+not be eight days, even with a contrary wind; and thus ships would go
+four times quicker than by towing, or turning it. This machine might
+be deposited at Balise, and delivered to the vessel, in order to go up
+the current, and be returned again on its setting sail. It is besides
+proper to observe, that this machine would be no detriment <a name="page-49"></a> to the
+forts, as they would always have it in their power to stop the vessels
+of enemies, who might happen to use it.</p>
+
+<p>New Orleans, the capital of the colony, is situated to the East, on
+the banks of the Missisippi, in 30° of North Latitude. At my first
+arrival in Louisiana, it existed only in name; for on my landing I
+understood M. de Biainville, commandant general, was only gone to mark
+out the spot; whence he returned three days after our arrival at Isle
+Dauphine.</p>
+
+<p>He pitched upon this spot in preference to many others, more agreeable
+and commodious; but for that time this was a place proper enough:
+besides, it is not every man that can see so far as some others. As
+the principal settlement was then at Mobile, it was proper to have the
+capital fixed at a place from which there could be an easy
+communication with this post: and thus a better choice could not have
+been made, as the town being on the banks of the Missisippi, vessels,
+tho' of a thousand ton, may lay their sides close to the shore even at
+low water; or at most, need only lay a small bridge, with two of their
+yards, in order to load or unload, to roll barrels and bales, &amp;c.
+without fatiguing the ship's crew. This town is only a league from St.
+John's creek, where passengers take water for Mobile, in going to
+which they pass Lake St. Louis, and from thence all along the coast; a
+communication which was necessary at that time.</p>
+
+<p>I should imagine, that if a town was at this day to be built in this
+province, a rising ground would be pitched upon, to avoid inundations;
+besides, the bottom should be sufficiently firm, for bearing grand
+stone edifices.</p>
+
+<p>Such as have been a good way in the country, without seeing stone, or
+the least pebble, in upwards of a hundred leagues extent, will doubtless
+say, such a proposition is impossible, as they never observed stone
+proper for building in the parts they travelled over. I might answer,
+and tell them, they have eyes, and see not. I narrowly considered the
+nature of this country, and found quarries in it; and if there were any
+in the colony I ought to find them, as my condition and profession of
+architect should have procured me the knowledge of <a name="page-51"></a> them. After
+giving the situation of the capital, it is proper I describe the order
+in which it is built.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-iv"><img src="images/illus04.png" alt="Plan of New Orleans, 1720 (on p. 50)" height="402" width="554"></a><br>
+<i>Plan of New Orleans, 1720</i></p>
+
+<p>The place of arms is in the middle of that part of the town which
+faces the river; in the middle of the ground of the place of arms
+stands the parish church, called St. Louis, where the Capuchins
+officiate, whose house is to the left of the church. To the right
+stand the prison, or jail, and the guard-house: both sides of the
+place of arms are taken up by two bodies or rows of barracks. This
+place stands all open to the river.</p>
+
+<p>All the streets are laid out both in length and breadth by the line,
+and intersect and cross each other at right angles. The streets divide
+the town into sixty-six isles; eleven along the river lengthwise, or
+in front, and six in depth: each of those isles is fifty square
+toises, and each again divided into twelve emplacements, or
+compartments, for lodging as many families. The Intendant's house
+stands behind the barracks on the left; and the magazine, or
+warehouse-general behind the barracks on the right, on viewing the
+town from the river side. The Governor's house stands in the middle of
+that part of the town, from which we go from the place of arms to the
+habitation of the Jesuits, which is near the town. The house of the
+Ursulin Nuns is quite at the end of the town, to the right; as is also
+the hospital of the sick, of which the nuns have the inspection. What
+I have just described faces the river.</p>
+
+<p>On the banks of the river runs a causey, or mole, as well on the side
+of the town as on the opposite side, from the English Reach quite to
+the town, and about ten leagues beyond it; which makes about fifteen
+or sixteen leagues on each side the river; and which may be travelled
+in a coach or on horseback, on a bottom as smooth as a table.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest part of the houses is of brick; the rest are of timber
+and brick.</p>
+
+<p>The length of the causeys, I just mentioned, is sufficient to shew,
+that on these two sides of the Missisippi there are many habitations
+standing close together; each making a causey to secure his ground
+from inundations, which fail not to come every year with the spring:
+and at that time, if any ships <a name="page-52"></a> happen to be in the harbour of New
+Orleans, they speedily set sail; because the prodigious quantity of
+dead wood, or trees torn up by the roots, which the river brings down,
+would lodge before the ship, and break the stoutest cables.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of St. John's Creek, on the banks of the Lake St. Louis,
+there is a redoubt, and a guard to defend it.</p>
+
+<p>From this creek to the town, a part of its banks is inhabited by
+planters; in like manner as are the long banks of another creek: the
+habitations of this last go under the name of Gentilly.</p>
+
+<p>After these habitations, which are upon the Missisippi quite beyond
+the Cannes Brulées, Burnt Canes, we meet none till we come to the
+Oumas, a petty nation so called. This settlement is inconsiderable,
+tho' one of the oldest next to the capital. It lies on the east of the
+Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>The Baton Rogue is also on the east side of the Missisippi, and
+distant twenty-six leagues from New Orleans: it was formerly the grant
+of M. Artaguette d'Iron: it is there we see the famouse cypress-tree
+of which a ship-carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+sixteen, the other of fourteen tons. Some one of the first
+adventurers, who landed in this quarter, happened to say, that tree
+would make a fine walking-stick, and as cypress is a red wood, it was
+afterwards called le Baton Rouge. Its height could never be measured,
+it rises so out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Two leagues higher up than le Baton Rouge, was the Grant of M. Paris
+du Vernai. This settlement is called Bayou-Ogoulas, from a nation of
+that name, which formerly dwelt here. It is on the west side of the
+Missisippi, and twenty-eight leagues from New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>At a league on this side of Pointe Coupée, are les Petits Ecores,
+(little Cliffs) where was the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres. At
+this grant were a director and under-director; but the surgeon found
+out the secret of remaining sole master. The place is very beautiful,
+especially behind les Petits Ecores, where we go up by a gentle
+ascent. Near these cliffs, a rivulet falls into the Missisippi, into
+which a spring discharges its waters, which so attract the buffalos,
+that they are very often <a name="page-53"></a> found on its banks. 'Tis a pity this
+ground was deserted; there was enough of it to make a very
+considerable grant: a good water-mill might be guilt on the brook I
+just mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>At forty leagues from New Orleans lies a la Pointe Coupée, so called,
+because the Missisippi made there an elbow or winding, and formed the
+figure of a circle, open only about an hundred and odd toises, thro'
+which it made itself a shorter way, and where all its water runs at
+present. This was not the work of nature alone: two travellers, coming
+down the Missisippi, were forced to stop short at this place, because
+they observed at a distance the surff, or waves, to be very high, the
+wind beating against the current, and the river being out, so that they
+durst not venture to proceed. Just by them passed a rivulet, caused by
+the inundation, which might be a foot deep, by four or five feet broad,
+more or less. One of the travellers, seeing himself without any thing to
+do, took his fusil and followed the course of this rivulet, in hopes of
+killing some game. He had not gone an hundred toises, before he was put
+into a very great surprize, on perceiving a great opening, as when one
+is just getting out of a thick forest. He continues to advance, sees a
+large extent of water, which he takes for a lake; but turning on his
+left, he espies les Petits Ecores, just mentioned, and by experience he
+knew, he must go ten leagues to get thither: Upon this he knew, these
+were the waters of the river. He runs to acquaint his companion: this
+last wants to be sure of it: certain as they are both of it, they
+resolve, that it was necessary to cut away the roots, which stood in the
+passage, and to level the more elevated places. They attempted at length
+to pass their pettyaugre through, by pushing it before them. They
+succeeded beyond their expectation; the water which came on, aided them
+as much by its weight as by its depth, which was increased by the
+obstacle it met in its way: and they saw themselves in a short time in
+the Missisippi, ten leagues lower down than they were an hour before; or
+than they would have been, if they had followed the bed of the river, as
+they were formerly constrained to do.</p>
+
+<p>This little labour of our travellers moved the earth; the roots being
+cut away in part, proved no longer an obstacle to <a name="page-54"></a> the course of
+the water; the slope or descent in this small passage was equal to
+that in the river for the ten leagues of the compass it took; in fine,
+nature, though feebly aided, performed the rest. The first time I went
+up the river, its entire body of water passed through this part; and
+though the channel was only made six years before, the old bed was
+almost filled with the ooze, which the river had there deposited; and
+I have seen trees growing there of an astonishing size, that one might
+wonder how they should come to be so large in so short a time.</p>
+
+<p>In this spot, which is called la Pointe Coupée, the Cut-point, was the
+Grant of M. de Meuse, at present one of the most considerable posts of
+the colony, with a fort, a garrison, and an officer to command there.
+The river is on each side lined with inhabitants, who make a great
+deal of tobacco. There an Inspector resides, who examines and receives
+it, in order to prevent the merchants being defrauded. The inhabitants
+of the west side have high lands behind them, which form a very fine
+country, as I have observed above.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty leagues above this Cut-point, and sixty leagues from New
+Orleans, we meet with the Red River. In an island formed by that
+river, stands a French post, with a fort, a garrison, its commandant
+and officers. The first inhabitants who settled there, were some
+soldiers of that post, discharged after their time of serving was
+expired, who set themselves to make tobacco in the island. But the
+fine sand, carried by the wind upon the leaves of the tobacco, made it
+of a bad quality, which obliged them to abandon the island and settle
+on the continent, where they found a good soil, on which they made
+better tobacco. This post is called the Nachitoches, from a nation of
+that name, settled in the neighbourhood. At this post M. de St. Denis
+commanded.</p>
+
+<p>Several inhabitants of Louisiana, allured thither by the hopes of making
+soon great fortunes, because distant only seven leagues from the
+Spaniards, imagined the abundant treasures of New Mexico would pour in
+upon them. But in this they happened to be mistaken; for the Spanish
+post, called the Adaïes less money in it than the poorest village in
+Europe: the Spaniards being ill clad, ill fed, and always ready to buy
+<a name="page-55"></a> goods of the French on credit: which may be said in general of all
+the Spaniards of New Mexico, amidst all their mines of gold and silver.
+This we are well informed of by our merchants, who have dealt with the
+Spaniards of this post, and found their habitations and way of living to
+be very mean, and more so than those of the French.</p>
+
+<p>From the confluence of this Red River, in going up the Missisippi, as
+we have hitherto done, we find, about thirty leagues higher up, the
+post of the Natchez.</p>
+
+<p>Let not the reader be displeased at my saying often, <i>nearly</i>, or <i>about
+so many leagues</i>: we can ascertain nothing justly as to the distances
+in a country where we travel only by water. Those who go up the
+Missisippi, having more trouble, and taking more time than those who
+go down, reckon the route more or less long, according to the time in
+which they make their voyage; besides, when the water is high, it
+covers passes, which often shorten the way a great deal.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez are situate in about 32° odd minutes of north latitude,
+and 280° of longitude. The fort at this post stands two hundred feet
+perpendicular above low-water mark. From this fort the point of view
+extends west of the Missisippi quite to the horizon, that is, on the
+side opposite to that where the fort stands, though the west side be
+covered with woods, because the foot of the fort stands much higher
+than the trees. On the same side with the fort, the country holds at a
+pretty equal height, and declines only by a gentle and almost
+imperceptible slope, insensibly losing itself from one eminence to
+another.</p>
+
+<p>The nation which gave name to this post, inhabited this very place at
+a league from the landing-place on the Missisippi, and dwelt on the
+banks of a rivulet, which has only a course of four or five leagues to
+that river. All travellers who passed and stopped here, went to pay a
+visit to the natives, the Natchez. The distance of the league they
+went to them is through so fine and good a country, the natives
+themselves were so obliging and familiar, and the women so amiable,
+that all travellers failed not to make the greatest encomiums both on
+the country, and on the native inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-56"></a> The just commendations bestowed upon them drew thither
+inhabitants in such numbers, as to determine the Company to give
+orders for building a fort there, as well to support the French
+already settled, and those who should afterwards come thither, as to
+be a check on that nation. The garrison consisted only of between
+thirty and forty men, a Captain, a Lieutenant, Under Lieutenant, and
+two Serjeants.</p>
+
+<p>The Company had there a warehouse for the supply of the inhabitants, who
+were daily increasing in spite of all the efforts of one of the
+principal Superiors, who put all imaginable obstacles in the way: and
+notwithstanding the progress this settlement made, and the encomiums
+bestowed upon it, and which it deserved, God in his providence gave it
+up to the rage of its enemies, in order to take vengeance of the sins
+committed there; for without mentioning those who escaped the general
+massacre, there perished of them upwards of five hundred.</p>
+
+<p>Forty leagues higher up than the Natchez, is the river Yasou. The
+Grant of M. le Blanc, Minister, or Secretary at War, was settled
+there, four leagues from the Missisippi, as you go up this little
+river.<sup><a href="#fn-25" name="fr-25">25</a></sup>
+There a fort
+stands, with a company of men, commanded by a Captain, a Lieutenant,
+Under-Lieutenant, and two Serjeants. This company, together with the
+servants, were in the pay of this Minister.</p>
+
+<p>This post was very advantageously situated, as well for the goodness
+of the air as the quality of the soil, like to that of the Natchez, as
+for the landing-place, which was very commodious, and for the commerce
+with the natives, if our people but knew how to gain and preserve
+their friendship. But the neighbourhood of the Chicasaws, ever fast
+friends of the English, and ever instigated by them to give us
+uneasiness, almost cut off any hopes of succeeding. This post was on
+these accounts threatened with utter ruin, sooner or later; as
+actually happened in 1722, by means of those wretched Chicasaws; <a name="page-57"></a>
+who came in the night and murdered the people in the settlements that
+were made by two serjeants out of the fort. But a boy who was scalped
+by them was cured, and escaped with life.</p>
+
+<p>Sixty miles higher up than the Yasouz, and at the distance of two
+hundred leagues from New Orleans, dwell the Arkansas, to the west of
+the Missisippi. At the entrance of the river which goes by the name of
+that nation, there is a small fort, which defends that post, which is
+the second of the colony in point of time.</p>
+
+<p>It is a great pity so good and fine a country is distant from the sea
+upwards of two hundred leagues. I cannot omit mentioning, that wheat
+thrives extremely well here, without our being obliged ever to manure
+the land; and I am so prepossessed in its favour, that I persuade
+myself the beauty of the climate has a great influence on the
+character of the inhabitants, who are at the same time very gentle and
+very brave. They have ever had an inviolable friendship for the
+French, uninfluenced thereto either by fear or views of interest; and
+live with the French near them as brethren rather than as neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>In going from the Arkansas to the Illinois, we meet with the river St.
+Francis, thirty leagues more to the north, and on the west side of the
+Missisippi. There a small fort has been built since my return to
+France. To the East of the Missisippi, but more to the north, we also
+meet, at about thirty leagues, the river Margot, near the steep banks
+of Prud'homme: there a fort was also built, called Assumption, for
+undertaking an expedition against the Chicasaws, who are nearly in the
+same latitude. These two forts, after that expedition, were entirely
+demolished by the French, because they were thought to be no longer
+necessary. It is, however, probable enough, that this fort Assumption
+would have been a check upon the Chicasaws, who are always roving in
+those parts. Besides, the steep banks of Prud'homme contain iron and
+pit-coal. On the other hand, the country is very beautiful, and of an
+excellent quality, abounding with plains and meadows, which favour the
+excursions of the Chicasaws, and which they will ever continue to make
+upon us, till we have the address to divert them from their commerce
+with the English.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-58"></a> We have no other French settlements to mention in Louisiana, but
+that of the Illinois; in which part of the colony we had the first
+fort. At present the French settlement here is on the banks of the
+Missisippi, near one of the villages of the Illinois.<sup><a href="#fn-26" name="fr-26">26</a></sup>
+That post is commanded by one of the
+principal officers; and M. de Bois-Briant, who was lieutenant of the
+king, has commanded at it.</p>
+
+<p>Many French inhabitants both from Canada and Europe live there at this
+day; but the Canadians make three-fourths at least. The Jesuits have
+the Cure there, with a fine habitation and a mill; in digging the
+foundation of which last, a quarry of orbicular flat stones was found,
+about two inches in diameter, of the shape of a buffoon's cap, with
+six sides, whose groove was set with small buttons of the size of the
+head of a minikin or small pin. Some of these stones were bigger, some
+smaller; between the stones which could not be joined, there was no
+earth found.</p>
+
+<p>The Canadians, who are numerous in Louisiana, are most of them at the
+Illinois. This climate, doubtless, agrees better with them, because
+nearer Canada than any other settlement of the colony. Besides, in
+coming from Canada, they always pass through this settlement; which
+makes them choose to continue here. They bring their wives with them,
+or marry the French or India women. The ladies even venture to make
+this long and painful voyage from Canada, in order to end their days in
+a country which the Canadians look upon as a terrestrial paradise.<sup><a href="#fn-27" name="fr-27">27</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-23" name="fn-23">23</a></sup>  Fort Lewis at Mobile is built upon the river that
+bears the same name, which falls into the sea opposite to Dauphine
+island. The fort is about 15 or 16 leagues distant from that island;
+and is built of brick, fortified with four bastions, in the manner of
+Vauban, with half-moons, a covered way and glacis. There is a magazine
+in it, with barracks for the troops of the garrison, which is
+generally pretty numerous, and a flag for the commandant.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">I must own, I never could see for what reason this fort was built, or
+what could be the use of it. For although it is 120 leagues from the
+capital, to go down the river, yet it is from thence that they must
+have every thing that is necessary for the support of the garrison:
+and the soil is so bad, being nothing but sand, that it produces
+nothing but pines and firs, with a little pulse, which grows there but
+very indifferently: so that there are here but very few people. The
+only advantage of this place is, that the air is mild and healthful,
+and that it affords a traffick with the Spaniards who are near it. The
+winter is the most agreeable season, as it is mild, and affords plenty
+of game. But in summer the heats are excessive; and the inhabitants
+have nothing hardly to live upon but fish, which are pretty plentiful
+on the coast, and in the river. <i>Dumont</i>, II. 80.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-24" name="fn-24">24</a></sup>  Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two
+other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered; one is
+called the Otter Pass, and the other the East Pass; and they assure
+me, it is only by this last Pass that ships now go up or down the
+river, they having entirely deserted the ancient middle pass. <i>Dumont,</i>
+I. 4.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">Many other bays and rivers, not known to our authors, lying along the
+bay of Mexico, to the westward of the Missisippi, are described by Mr.
+Coxe, in his account of Carolina, called by the French Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-25" name="fn-25">25</a></sup>  The village of the Indians (Yasous) is a league from
+this settlement; and on one side of it there is a hill, on which they
+pretend that the English formerly had a fort; accordingly there are
+still some traces of it to be seen. <i>Dumont</i>, II. 296.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-26" name="fn-26">26</a></sup>  They
+have, or had formerly, other settlements hereabouts, at Kaskaskies,
+fort Chartres, Tamaroas, and on the river Marameg, on the west side of
+the Missisippi, where they found those mines that gave rise to the
+Missisippi scheme in 1719. In 1742, when John Howard, Sallee and
+others, were sent from Virginia to view those countries, they were
+made prisoners by the French; who came from a settlement they had on
+an island in the Missisippi, a little above the Ohio, where they made
+salt, lead, &amp;c. and went from thence to New Orleans, in a fleet of
+boats and canoes, guarded by a large armed schooner. <i>Report of the
+Government of Virginia</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-27" name="fn-27">27</a></sup>  It is this that has made the French undergo so many long and
+perilous voyages in North-America, upwards of two thousand miles,
+against currents, cataracts, and boisterous winds on the lakes, in
+order to get to this settlement of the Illinois, which is nigh to the
+Forks of the Missisippi, the most important place in all the inland
+parts of North-America, to which the French will sooner or later remove
+from Canada; and there erect another Montreal, that will be much more
+dangerous and prejudicial to us, than ever the other in Canada was.
+They will here be in the midst of all their old friends and allies, and
+much more convenient to carry on a trade with them, to spirit them up
+against the English, &amp;c. than ever they were at Montreal. To this
+settlement, where they likewise are not without good hopes of finding
+mines, the French will for ever be removing, as long as any of them are
+left in Canada.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-59"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-X">CHAPTER X.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Voyages of the</i> French <i>to the</i> Missouris, Canzas, <i>and</i> Padoucas.
+<i>The Settlements they in vain attempted to make in those Countries; with
+a Description of an extraordinary Phaenomenon.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The Padoucas, who lie west by northwest of the Missouris, happened at
+that time to be at war with the neighbouring nations, the Canzas,
+Othouez, Aiaouez, Osages, Missouris, and Panimahas, all in amity with
+the French. To conciliate a peace between all these nations and the
+Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont sent to engage them, as being our allies, to
+accompany him on a journey to the Padoucas, in order to bring about a
+general pacification, and by that means to facilitate the traffick or
+truck between them and us, and conclude an alliance with the Padoucas.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose M. de Bourgmont set out on the 3d of July, 1724, from
+Fort Orleans, which lies near the Missouris, a nation dwelling on the
+banks of the river of that name, in order to join that people, and
+then to proceed to the Canzas, where the general rendezvous of the
+several nations was appointed.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bourgmont was accompanied by an hundred Missouris, commanded by
+their Grand Chief, and eight other Chiefs of war, and by sixty-four
+Osages, commanded by four Chiefs of war, besides a few Frenchmen. On
+the sixth he joined the Grand Chief, six other Chiefs of war, and
+several Warriors of the Canzas, who presented him the Pipe of Peace,
+<a name="page-60"></a> and performed the honours customary on such occasions, to the
+Missouris and Osages.</p>
+
+<p>On the 7th they passed through extensive meadows and woods, and
+arrived on the banks of the river Missouri, over against the village
+of the Canzas.</p>
+
+<p>On the 8th the French crossed the Missouri in a pettyaugre, the
+Indians on floats of cane, and the horses were swam over. They landed
+within a gun-shot of the Canzas, who flocked to receive them with the
+Pipe; their Grand Chief, in the name of the nation, assuring M. de
+Bourgmont that all their warriors would accompany him in his journey
+to the Padoucas, with protestations of friendship and fidelity,
+confirmed by smoking the Pipe. The same assurances were made him by
+the other Chiefs, who entertained him in their huts, and<sup><a href="#fn-28" name="fr-28">28</a></sup>
+rubbed him over and his companions.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th M. de Bourgmont dispatched five Missouris to acquaint the
+Othouez with his arrival at the Canzas. They returned on the 10th, and
+brought word that the Othouez promised to hunt for him and his
+Warriors, and to cause provisions to be dried for the journey; that
+their Chief would set out directly, in order to wait on M. de
+Bourgmont, and carry him the word of the whole nation.</p>
+
+<p>The Canzas continued to regale the French; brought them also great
+quantities of grapes, of which the French made a good wine.</p>
+
+<p>On the 24th of July, at six in the morning, this little army set out,
+consisting of three hundred Warriors, including the Chiefs of the
+Canzas, three hundred women, about five hundred young people, and at
+least three hundred dogs. The women carried considerable loads, to the
+astonishment of the French, unaccustomed to such a sight. The young
+women also were well loaded for their years; and the dogs were made to
+trail a part of the baggage, and that in the following manner: the
+back of the dog was covered with a skin, with its pile on, then the
+dog was girthed round, and his breast-leather put on; and <a name="page-61"></a> taking
+two poles of the thickness of one's arm, and twelve feet long, they
+fastened their two ends half a foot asunder, laying on the dog's
+saddle the thong that fastened the two poles; and to the poles they
+also fastened, behind the dog, a ring or hoop, lengthwise, on which
+they laid the load.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th and 29th the army crossed several brooks and small rivers,
+passed through several meadows and thickets, meeting every where on
+their way a great deal of game.</p>
+
+<p>On the 30th M. de Bourgmont, finding himself very ill, was obliged to
+have a litter made, in order to be carried back to Fort Orleans till
+he should recover. Before his departure he gave orders about two
+Padouca slaves whom he had ransomed, and was to send before him to
+that nation, in order to ingratiate himself by this act of generosity.
+These he caused to be sent by one Gaillard, who was to tell their
+nation, that M. de Bourgmont, being fallen ill on his intended journey
+to their country, was obliged to return home; but that as soon as he
+got well again, he would resume his journey to their country, in order
+to procure a general peace between them and the other nations.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the same day arrived at the camp the Grand Chief of
+the Othouez: who acquainted M. de Bourgmont, that a great part of his
+Warriors waited for him on the road to the Padoucas, and that he came
+to receive his orders; but was sorry to find him ill.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the 4th of August, M. de Bourgmont set out from the
+Canzas in a pettyaugre, and arrived the 5th at Fort Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>On the 6th of September, M. de Bourgmont, who was still at Fort
+Orleans, was informed of the arrival of the two Padouca slaves on the
+25th of August at their own nation; and that meeting on the way a body
+of Padouca hunters, a day's journey from their village, the Padouca
+slaves made the signal of their nation, by throwing their mantles
+thrice over their heads: that they spoke much in commendation of the
+generosity of M. de Bourgmont, who had ransomed them: told all he had
+done in order to a general pacification: in fine, extolled the French
+to such a degree, that their discourse, held in presence <a name="page-62"></a> of the
+Grand Chief and of the whole nation, diffused an universal joy that
+Gaillard told them, the flag they saw was the symbol of Peace, and the
+word of the Sovereign of the French: that in a little time the several
+nations would come to be like brethren, and have but one heart.</p>
+
+<p>The Grand Chief of the Padoucas was so well assured that the war was
+now at an end, that he dispatched twenty Padoucas with Gaillard to the
+Canzas, by whom they were extremely well received. The Padoucas, on
+their return home, related their good reception among the Canzas; and
+as a plain and real proof of the pacification meditated by the French,
+brought with them fifty of the Canzas and three of their women; who,
+in their turn, were received by the Padoucas with all possible marks
+of friendship.</p>
+
+<p>Though M. de Bourgmont was but just recovering of his illness; he,
+however, prepared for his departure, and on the 20th of September
+actually set out from Fort Orleans by water, and arrived at the Canzas
+on the 27th.</p>
+
+<p>Gaillard arrived on the 2nd of October at the camp of the Canzas, with
+three Chiefs of war, and three Warriors of the Padoucas, who were
+received by M. de Bourgmont with flag displayed, and other testimonies
+of civility, and had presents made them of several goods, proper for
+their use.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of October arrived at the Canzas the Grand Chief, and seven
+other Chiefs of war of the Othouez; and next day, very early, six
+Chiefs of war of the Aiaouez.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bourgmant assembled all the Chiefs present, and setting them
+round a large fire made before his tent, rose up, and addressing
+himself to them, said, he was come to declare to them, in the name of
+his Sovereign, and of the Grand French Chief in the country,<sup><a href="#fn-29" name="fr-29">29</a></sup>
+that it was the will of his Sovereign,
+they should all live in peace for the future, like brethren and
+friends, if they expected to enjoy his love and protection: and since,
+says he, you are here all assembled this day, it is good you conclude
+a peace, and all smoke in the same pipe.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-63"></a> The Chiefs of these different nations rose up to a man, and said
+with one consent, they were well satisfied to comply with his request;
+and instantly gave each other their pipes of peace.</p>
+
+<p>After an entertainment prepared for them, the Padoucas sung the songs,
+and danced the dances of peace; a kind of pantomimes, representing the
+innocent pleasures of peace.</p>
+
+<p>On the 6th of October, M. de Bourgmont caused three lots of goods to
+be made out; one for the Othouez, one for the Aiaouez, and one for the
+Panimahas, which last arrived in the mean time; and made them all
+smoke in the same pipe of peace.</p>
+
+<p>On the 8th M. de Bourgmont set out from the Canzas with all the
+baggage, and the flag displayed, at the head of the French and such
+Indians as he had pitched on to accompany him, in all forty persons.
+The goods intended for presents were loaded on horses. As they set out
+late, they travelled but five leagues, in which they crossed a small
+river and two brooks, in a fine country, with little wood.</p>
+
+<p>The same day Gaillard, Quenel, and two Padoucas were dispatched to
+acquaint their nation with the march of the French. That day they
+travelled ten leagues, crossed one river and two brooks.</p>
+
+<p>The 10th they made eight leagues, crossed two small rivers and three
+brooks. To their right and left they had several small hills, on which
+one could observe pieces of rock even with the ground. Along the
+rivers there is found a slate, and in the meadows, a reddish marble,
+standing out of the earth, one, two, and three feet; some pieces of it
+upwards of six feet in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>The 11th they passed over several brooks and a small river, and then
+the river of the Canzas, which had only three feet water. Further on,
+they found several brooks, issuing from the neighbouring little hills.
+The river of the Canzas runs directly from west to east, and falls
+into the Missouri; is very great in floods, because, according to the
+report of the Padoucas, it comes a great way off. The woods, which
+border this river, afford a retreat to numbers of buffaloes and other
+game. On the left were seen great eminences, with hanging rocks.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-64"></a> The 12th of October, the journey, as the preceding day, was
+extremely diversified by the variety of objects. They crossed eight
+brooks, beautiful meadows, covered with herds of elks and buffaloes.
+To the right the view was unbounded, but to the left small hills were
+seen at a distance, which from time to time presented the appearance
+of ancient castles.</p>
+
+<p>The 13th, on their march they saw the meadows covered almost entirely
+with buffaloes, elks and deer; so that one could scarce distinguish
+the different herds, so numerous and so intermixed they were. The same
+day they passed through a wood almost two leagues long, and a pretty
+rough ascent; a thing which seemed extraordinary, as till then they
+only met with little groves, the largest of which scarce contained an
+hundred trees, but straight as a cane; groves too small to afford a
+retreat to a quarter of the buffaloes and elks seen there.</p>
+
+<p>The 14th the march was retarded by ascents and descents; from which
+issued many springs of an extreme pure water, forming several brooks,
+whose waters uniting make little rivers that fall into the river of
+the Canzas: and doubtless it is this multitude of brooks which
+traverse and water these meadows, extending a great way out of sight,
+that invite those numerous herds of buffaloes.</p>
+
+<p>The 15th they crossed several brooks and two little rivers. It is
+chiefly on the banks of the waters that we find those enchanting
+groves, adorned with grass underneath, and so clear of underwood, that
+we may there hunt down the stag with ease.</p>
+
+<p>The 16th they continued to pass over a similar landscape, the beauties
+of which were never cloying. Besides the larger game, these groves
+afforded also a retreat to flocks of turkeys.</p>
+
+<p>The 17th they made very little way, because they wanted to get into
+the right road, from which they had strayed the two preceding days,
+which they at length recovered; and, at a small distance from their
+camp, saw an encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to have been
+quitted only about eight days before. This yielded them so much the
+more pleasure, as it shewed the nearness of that nation, which made
+them encamp, after having travelled only six leagues, in order <a name="page-65"></a> to
+make signals from that place, by setting fire to the parts of the
+meadows which the general fire had spared. In a little time after the
+signal was answered in the same manner; and confirmed by the arrival
+of two Frenchmen, who had orders given them to make the signals.</p>
+
+<p>On the 18th they met a little river of brackish water; on the banks of
+which they found another encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to
+have been abandoned but four days before: at half a league further on,
+a great smoke was seen to the west, at no great distance off, which
+was answered by setting fire to the parts of the meadows, untouched by
+the general fire.</p>
+
+<p>About half an hour after, the Padoucas were observed coming at full
+gallop with the flag which Gaillard had left them on his first journey
+to their country. M. de Bourgmont instantly ordered the French under
+arms, and at the head of his people thrice saluted these strangers
+with his flag, which they also returned thrice, by raising their
+mantles as many times over their heads.</p>
+
+<p>After this first ceremony, M. de Bourgmont made them all sit down and
+smoke in the Pipe of Peace. This action, being the seal of the peace,
+diffused a general joy, accompanied with loud acclamations.</p>
+
+<p>The Padoucas, after mounting the French and the Indians who
+accompanied them, on their horses, set out for their camp: and after a
+journey of three leagues, arrived at their encampment; but left a
+distance of a gun-shot between the two camps.</p>
+
+<p>The day after their arrival at the Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont caused
+the goods allotted for this nation to be unpacked, and the different
+species parcelled out, which he made them all presents of.<sup><a href="#fn-30" name="fr-30">30</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>After which M. de Bourgmont sent for the Grand Chief and other Chiefs
+of the Padoucas, who came to the camp to the number of two hundred:
+and placing himself between them and <a name="page-66"></a> the goods thus parcelled and
+laid out to view, told them, he was sent by his Sovereign to carry
+them the word of peace, this flag, and these goods, and to exhort them
+to live as brethren with their neighbours the Panimahas, Aiaouez,
+Othouez, Canzas, Missouris, Osages, and Illinois, to traffick and
+truck freely together, and with the French.</p>
+
+<p>He at the same time gave the flag to the Grand Chief of the Padoucas,
+who received it with demonstrations of respect, and told him, I accept
+this flag, which you present to me on the part of your Sovereign: we
+rejoice at our having peace with all the nations you have mentioned;
+and promise in the name of our nation never to make war on any of your
+allies; but receive them, when they come among us, as our brethren; as
+we shall, in like manner, the French, and conduct them, when they want
+to go to the Spaniards, who are but twelve days journey from our
+village, and who truck with us in horses, of which they have such
+numbers, they know not what to do with them; also in bad hatchets of a
+soft iron, and some knives, whose points they break off, lest we
+should use them one day against themselves. You may command all my
+Warriors; I can furnish you with upwards of two thousand. In my own,
+and in the name of my whole nation, I entreat you to send some
+Frenchmen to trade with us; we can supply them with horses, which we
+truck with the Spaniards for buffalo-mantles, and with great
+quantities of furs.</p>
+
+<p>Before I quit the Padoucas, I shall give a summary of their manners;
+it may not, perhaps, be disagreeable to know in what respects they
+differ from other Indian nations.<sup><a href="#fn-31" name="fr-31">31</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>The Padoucas, who live at a distance from the Spaniards, cultivate no
+grain, and live only on hunting. But they are not to be considered as
+a wandering nation, tho' employed in hunting winter and summer; seeing
+they have large villages, consisting of a great number of cabins,
+which contain very numerous families: these are their permanent
+abodes; from which a <a name="page-67"></a> hundred hunters set out at a time with their
+horses, their bows, and a good stock of arrows. They go thus two or
+three days journey from home, where they find herds of buffaloes, the
+least of which consists of a hundred head. They load their horses with
+their baggage, tents and children, conducted by a man on horseback: by
+this means the men, women, and young people travel unencumbered and
+light, without being fatigued by the journey. When come to the
+hunting-spot, they encamp near a brook, where there is always wood;
+the horses they tie by one of their fore-feet with a string to a stake
+or bush.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning they each of them mount a horse, and proceed to the first
+herd, with the wind at their back, to the end the buffaloes may scent
+them, and take to flight, which they never fail to do, because they
+have a very quick scent. Then the hunters pursue them close at an easy
+gallop, and in a crescent, or half ring, till they hang out the tongue
+through fatigue, and can do no more than just walk: the hunters then
+dismount, point a dart at the extremity of the shoulder, and kill each
+of them one cow, sometimes more: for, as I said above, they never kill
+the males. Then they flay them, take out the entrails, and cut the
+carcasse in two; the head, feet, and entrails they leave to the wolves
+and other carnivorous animals: the skin they lay on the horse, and on
+that the flesh, which they carry home. Two days after they go out
+again; and then they bring home the meat stript from the bones; the
+women and young people dress it in the Indian fashion; while the men
+return for some days longer to hunt in the same manner. They carry
+home their dry provisions, and let their horses rest for three or four
+days: at the end of which, those who remained in the village, set out
+with the others to hunt in the like manner; which has made ignorant
+travellers affirm this people was a wandering nation.</p>
+
+<p>If they sow little or no maiz, they as little plant any citruis, never
+any tobacco; which last the Spaniards bring them in rolls, along with
+the horses they truck with them for buffalo-mantles.</p>
+
+<p>The nation of the Padoucas is very numerous, extends almost two
+hundred leagues, and they have villages quite close <a name="page-68"></a> to the
+Spaniards of New Mexico. They are acquainted with silver, and made the
+French understand they worked at the mines. The inhabitants of the
+villages at a distance from the Spaniards, have knives made of
+fire-stone, (<i>pierre de feu</i>,) of which they also make hatchets; the
+largest to fell middling and little trees with; the less, to flay and
+cut up the beasts they kill.</p>
+
+<p>These people are far from being savage, nor would it be a difficult
+matter to civilize them; a plain proof they have had long intercourse
+with the Spaniards. The few days the French stayed among them, they
+were become very familiar, and would fain have M. de Bourgmont leave
+some Frenchmen among them; especially they of the village at which the
+peace was concluded with the other nations. This village consisted of
+an hundred and forty huts, containing about eight hundred warriors,
+fifteen hundred women, and at least two thousand children, some
+Padoucas having four wives. When they are in want of horses, they
+train up great dogs to carry their baggage.</p>
+
+<p>The men for the most part wear breeches and stockings all of a piece,
+made of dressed skins, in the manner of the Spaniards: the women also
+wear petticoats and bodices all of a piece, adorning their waists with
+fringes of dressed skins.</p>
+
+<p>They are almost without any European goods among them, and have but a
+faint knowledge of them. They knew nothing of fire-arms before the
+arrival of M. de Bourgmont; were much frighted at them; and on hearing
+the report, quaked and bowed their heads.</p>
+
+<p>They generally go to war on horseback, and cover their horses with
+dressed leather, hanging down quite round, which secures them from
+darts. All we have hitherto remarked is peculiar to this people,
+besides the other usages they have in common with the nations of
+Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>On the 22nd of October, M. de Bourginont set out from the Padoucas,
+and travelled only five leagues that day: the 23d, and the three
+following days, he travelled in all forty leagues: the 27th, six
+leagues: the 28th, eight leagues: the 29th, six leagues; and the 30th,
+as many: the 31st, he travelled only four leagues, and that day
+arrived within half a league of the Canzas. From the Padoucas to the
+Canzas, proceeding always <a name="page-69"></a> east, we may now very safely reckon
+sixty-five leagues and a half. The river of the Canzas is parallel to
+this route.</p>
+
+<p>On the 1st of November they all arrived on the banks of the Missouri.
+M. de Bourgmont embarked the 2d on a canoe of skins; and at length, on
+the 5th of November, arrived at Fort Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>I shall here subjoin the description of one of these canoes. They
+choose for the purpose branches of a white and supple wood, such as
+poplar; which are to form the ribs or curves, and are fastened on the
+outside with three poles, one at bottom and two on the sides, to form
+the keel; to these curves two other stouter poles are afterwards made
+fast, to form the gunnels; then they tighten these sides with cords,
+the length of which is in proportion to the intended breadth of the
+canoe: after which they tie fast the ends. When all the timbers are
+thus disposed, they sew on the skins, which they take care previously
+to soak a considerable time to render them manageable.</p>
+
+<p>From the account of this journey, extracted and abridged from M. de
+Bourgmont's Journal, we cannot fail to observe the care and attention
+necessary to be employed in such enterprizes; the prudence and policy
+requisite to manage the natives, and to behave with them in an affable
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>If we view these nations with an eye to commerce, what advantages
+might not be derived from them, as to furs? A commerce not only very
+lucrative, but capable of being carried on without any risque;
+especially if we would follow the plan I am to lay down under the
+article Commerce.</p>
+
+<p>The relation of this journey shews, moreover, that Louisiana maintains
+its good qualities throughout; and that the natives of North America
+derive their origin from the same country, since at bottom they all
+have the same manners and usages, as also the same manner of speaking
+and thinking.</p>
+
+<p>I, however, except the Natchez, and the people they call their
+brethren, who have preserved festivals and ceremonies, which clearly
+shew they have a far nobler origin. Besides, the richness of their
+language distinguishes them from all those other people that come from
+Tartary; whose language, on the <a name="page-70"></a> contrary, is very barren: but if
+they resemble the others in certain customs, they were constrained
+thereto from the ties of a common society with them, as in their wars,
+embassies, and in every thing that regards the common interests of
+these nations.</p>
+
+<p>Before I put an end to this chapter, I shall relate an extraordinary
+phænomenon which appeared in Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of May 1726, the sun was then concealed for a whole
+day by large clouds, but very distinct one from another; they left but
+little void space between, to permit the view of the azure sky, and
+but in very few places: the whole day was very calm; in the evening
+especially these clouds were entirely joined; no sky was to be seen;
+but all the different configurations of the clouds were
+distinguishable: I observed they stood very high above the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The weather being so disposed, the sun was preparing to set. I saw him
+in the instant he touched the horizon, because there was a little
+clear space between that and the clouds. A little after, these clouds
+turned luminous, or reflected the light: the contour or outlines of
+most of them seemed to be bordered with gold, others but with a faint
+tincture thereof. It would be a very difficult matter to describe all
+the beauties which these different colourings presented to the view:
+but the whole together formed the finest prospect I ever beheld of the
+kind.</p>
+
+<p>I had my face turned to the east; and in the little time the sun
+formed this decoration, he proceeded to hide himself more and more;
+when sufficiently low, so that the shadow of the earth could appear on
+the convexity of the clouds, there was observed as if a veil,
+stretched north to south, had concealed or removed the light from off
+that part of the clouds which extended eastwards, and made them dark,
+without hindering their being perfectly well distinguished; so that
+all on the same line were partly luminous, partly dark.</p>
+
+<p>This very year I had a strong inclination to quit the post at the
+Natchez, where I had continued for eight years. I had taken that
+resolution, notwithstanding my attachment to that <a name="page-71"></a> settlement. I
+sold off my effects and went down to New Orleans, which I found
+greatly altered by being entirely built. I intended to return to
+Europe; but M. Perier, the Governor, pressed me so much, that I
+accepted the inspection of the plantation of the Company; which, in a
+little time after, became the King's.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-28" name="fn-28">28</a></sup>  It
+is thus they express their joy and caresses, at the sight of a person
+they respect.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-29" name="fn-29">29</a></sup>
+The Governor of Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-30" name="fn-30">30</a></sup>
+Red and blue Limburgs, shirts, fusils, sabres, gun-powder, ball,
+musket-flints, gunscrews, mattocks, hatchets, looking-glasses, Flemish
+knives, wood cutters knives, clasp-knives, scissars, combs, bells,
+awls, needles, drinking glasses, brass-wire, boxes, rings, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-31" name="fn-31">31</a></sup>  The Author should likewise
+have informed us of the fate of those intended settlements of the
+French, which Dumont tells us were destroyed, and all the French
+murdered by the Indians, particularly among the Missouris; which is
+confirmed below in book 11. ch. 7.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The War with the</i> Chitimachas. <i>The Conspiracy of the Negroes against
+the</i> French. <i>Their Execution.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Before my arrival in Louisiana, we happened to be at war with the
+nation of the Chitimachas; owing to one of that people, who being gone
+to dwell in a bye-place on the banks of the Missisippi, had
+assassinated M. de St. Come, a Missionary of that colony; who, in
+going down the river, imagined he might in safety retire into this
+man's hut for a night. M. de Biainville charged the whole nation with
+this assassination; and in order to save his own people, caused them
+to be attacked by several nations in alliance with the French.</p>
+
+<p>Prowess is none of the greatest qualities of the Indians, much less of
+the Chitimachas. They were therefore worsted, and the loss of their
+bravest warriors constrained them to sue for peace. This the Governor
+granted, on condition that they brought him the head of the assassin;
+which they accordingly did, and concluded a peace by the ceremony of
+the Calumet, hereafter described.</p>
+
+<p>At the time the succours were expected from France, in order to
+destroy the Natchez, the negroes formed a design to rid themselves of
+all the French at once, and to settle in their room, by making
+themselves masters of the capital, and of all the property of the
+French. It was discovered in the following manner.</p>
+
+<p>A female negroe receiving a violent blow from a French soldier for
+refusing to obey him, said in her passion, that the French should not
+long insult negroes. Some Frenchmen overhearing these threats, brought
+her before the Governor, <a name="page-72"></a> who sent her to prison. The Judge
+Criminal not being able to draw any thing out of her, I told the
+Governor, who seemed to pay no great regard to her threats, that I was
+of opinion, that a man in liquor, and a woman in passion, generally
+speak truth. It is therefore highly probable, said I that there is
+some truth in what she said: and if so, there must be some conspiracy
+ready to break out, which cannot be formed without many negroes of the
+King's plantation being accomplices therein: and if there are any, I
+take upon me, said I, to find them out, and arrest them, if necessary,
+without any disorder or tumult.</p>
+
+<p>The Governor and the whole Court approved of my reasons: I went that
+very evening to the camp of the negroes, and from hut to hut, till I
+saw a light. In this hut I heard them talking together of their
+scheme. One of them was my first commander and my confidant, which
+surprised me greatly; his name was Samba.</p>
+
+<p>I speedily retired for fear of being discovered; and in two days
+after, eight negroes, who were at the head of the conspiracy, were
+separately arrested, unknown to each other, and clapt in irons without
+the least tumult.</p>
+
+<p>The day after, they were put to the torture of burning matches, which,
+though several times repeated, could not bring them to make any
+confession. In the mean time I learnt that Samba had in his own
+country been at the head of the revolt by which the French lost Fort
+Arguin; and when it was recovered again by M. Perier de Salvert, one
+of the principal articles of the peace was, that this negro should be
+condemned to slavery in America: that Samba, on his passage, had laid
+a scheme to murder the crew, in order to become master of the ship;
+but that being discovered, he was put in irons, in which he continued
+till he landed in Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>I drew up a memorial of all this; which was read before Samba by the
+Judge Criminal; who, threatening him again with torture, told him, he
+had ever been a seditious fellow: upon which Samba directly owned all
+the circumstances of the conspiracy; and the rest being confronted
+with him, confessed <a name="page-73"></a> also: after which, the eight negroes were
+condemned to be broke alive on the wheel, and the woman to be hanged
+before their eyes; which was accordingly done, and prevented the
+conspiracy from taking effect.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the</i> French <i>in 1729. Extirpation
+of the</i> Natchez <i>in 1730.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In the beginning of the month of December 1729, we heard at New
+Orleans, with the most affecting grief, of the massacre of the French
+at the post of the Natchez, occasioned by the imprudent conduct of the
+Commandant. I shall trace that whole affair from its rise.</p>
+
+<p>The Sieur de Chopart had been Commandant of the post of the Natchez,
+from which he was removed on account of some acts of injustice. M.
+Perier, Commandant General, but lately arrived, suffered himself to be
+prepossessed in his favour, on his telling him, that he had commanded
+that post with applause: and thus he obtained the command from M.
+Perier, who was unacquainted with his character.</p>
+
+<p>This new Commandant, on taking possession of his post, projected the
+forming one of the most eminent settlements of the whole colony. For
+this purpose he examined all the grounds unoccupied by the French, but
+could not find any thing that came up to the grandeur of his views.
+Nothing but the village of the White Apple, a square league at least
+in extent, could give him satisfaction; where he immediately resolved
+to settle. This ground was distant from the fort about two leagues.
+Conceited with the beauty of his project, the Commandant sent for the
+Sun of that village to come to the fort.</p>
+
+<p>The Commandant, upon his arrival at the fort, told him, without
+further ceremony, that he must look out for another ground to build
+his village on, as he himself resolved, as soon as possible, to build
+on the village of the Apple; that he must directly clear the huts, and
+retire somewhere else. The better to cover his design, he gave out,
+that it was necessary for the <a name="page-74"></a> French to settle on the banks of
+the rivulet, where stood the Great Village, and the abode of the Grand
+Sun. The Commandant, doubtless, supposed that he was speaking to a
+slave, whom we may command in a tone of absolute authority. But he
+knew not that the natives of Louisiana are such enemies to a state of
+slavery, that they prefer death itself thereto; above all, the Suns,
+accustomed to govern despotically, have still a greater aversion to
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun of the Apple thought, that if he was talked to in a reasonable
+manner, he might listen to him: in this he had been right, had he to
+deal with a reasonable person. He therefore made answer, that his
+ancestors had lived in that village for as many years as there were
+hairs in his double cue; and therefore it was good they should
+continue there still.</p>
+
+<p>Scarce had the interpreter explained this answer to the Commandant,
+but he fell into a passion, and threatened the Sun, if he did not quit
+his village in a few days, he might repent it. The Sun replied, when
+the French came to ask us for lands to settle on, they told us there
+was land enough still unoccupied, which they might take; the same sun
+would enlighten them all, and all would walk in the same path. He
+wanted to proceed, farther in justification of what he alleged; but
+the Commandant, who was in a passion, told him, he was resolved to be
+obeyed, without any further reply. The Sun, without discovering any
+emotion or passion, withdrew; only saying, he was going to assemble
+the old men of his village, to hold a council on this affair.</p>
+
+<p>He actually assembled them: and in this council it was resolved to
+represent to the Commandant, that the corn of all the people of their
+village was already shot a little out of the earth, and that all the
+hens were laying their eggs; that if they quitted their village at
+present, the chickens and corn would be lost both to the French and to
+themselves; as the French were not numerous enough to weed all the
+corn they had sown in their fields.</p>
+
+<p>This resolution taken, they sent to propose it to the Commandant, who
+rejected it with a menace to chastise them if they did not obey in a
+very short time, which he prefixed. <a name="page-75"></a> The Sun reported this answer
+to his council, who debated the question, which was knotty. But the
+policy of the old men was, that they should propose to the Commandant,
+to be allowed to stay in their village till harvest, and till they had
+time to dry their corn, and shake out the grain; on condition each hut
+of the village should pay him in so many moons (months,) which they
+agreed on, a basket of corn and a fowl; that this Commandant appeared
+to be a man highly self-interested; and that this proposition would be
+a means of gaining time, till they should take proper measures to
+withdraw themselves from the tyrrany of the French.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun returned to the Commandant, and proposed to pay him the
+tribute I just mentioned, if he waited till the first colds, (winter;)
+and then the corn would be gathered in, and dry enough to shake out
+the grain; that thus they would not be exposed to lose their corn, and
+die of hunger: that the Commandant himself would find his account in
+it; and that as soon as any corn was shaken out, they should bring him
+some.</p>
+
+<p>The avidity of the Commandant made him accept the proposition with
+joy, and blinded him with regard to the consequences of his tyrrany.
+He, however, pretended that he agreed to the offer out of favour, to
+do a pleasure to a nation so beloved, and who had ever been good
+friends of the French. The Sun appeared highly satisfied to have
+obtained a delay sufficient for taking the precautions necessary to
+the security of the nation; for he was by no means the dupe of the
+feigned benevolence of the Commandant.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun, upon his return, caused the council to be assembled; told the
+old men, that the French Commandant had acquiesced in the offers which
+he had made him, and granted the term of time they demanded. He then
+laid before them, that it was necessary wisely to avail themselves of
+this time, in order to withdraw themselves from the proposed payment
+and tyrannic domination of the French, who grew dangerous in
+proportion as they multiplied. That the Natchez ought to remember the
+war made upon them, in violation of the peace concluded between them:
+that this war having been made upon their village alone, they ought to
+consider of the surest means <a name="page-76"></a> to take a just and bloody vengeance:
+that this enterprise being of the utmost consequence, it called for
+much secrecy, for solid measures, and for much policy: that thus it
+was proper to cajole the French Chief more than ever: that this affair
+required some days to reflect on, before they came to a resolution
+therein, and before it should be proposed to the Grand Sun and his
+council: that at present they had only to retire; and in a few days he
+would assemble them again, that they might then determine the part
+they were to act.</p>
+
+<p>In five or six days he brought together the old men, who in that
+interval were consulting with each other: which was the reason that
+all the suffrages were unanimous in the same and only means of
+obtaining the end they proposed to themselves, which was the entire
+destruction of the French in this province.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun, seeing them all assembled, said: "You have had time to
+reflect on the proposition I made you; and so I imagine you will soon
+set forth the best means how to get rid of your bad neighbours without
+hazard." The Sun having done speaking, the oldest rose up, saluted his
+Chief after his manner, and said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"We have a long time been sensible that the neighbourhood of the
+French is a greater prejudice than benefit to us: we, who are old men,
+see this; the young see it not. The wares of the French yield pleasure
+to the youth; but in effect, to what purpose is all this, but to
+debauch the young women, and taint the blood of the nation, and make
+them vain and idle? The young men are in the same case; and the
+married must work themselves to death to maintain their families, and
+please their children. Before the French came amongst us, we were men,
+content with what we had, and that was sufficient: we walked with
+boldness every road, because we were then our own masters: but now we
+go groping, afraid of meeting thorns, we walk like slaves, which we
+shall soon be, since the French already treat us as if we were such.
+When they are sufficiently strong, they will no longer dissemble. For
+the least fault of our young people, they will tie them to a post, and
+whip them as they do their black slaves. Have they not <a name="page-77"></a> already
+done so to one of our young men; and is not death preferable to
+slavery?"</p>
+
+<p>Here he paused a while, and after taking breath, proceeded thus:</p>
+
+<p>"What wait we for? Shall we suffer the French to multiply, till we are
+no longer in a condition to oppose their efforts? What will the other
+nations say of us, who pass for the most ingenious of all the Red-men?
+They will then say, we have less understanding than other people. Why
+then wait we any longer? Let us set ourselves at liberty, and show we
+are really men, who can be satisfied with what we have. From this very
+day let us begin to set about it, order our women to get provisions
+ready, without telling them the reason; go and carry the Pipe of Peace
+to all the nations of this country; make them sensible, that the
+French being stronger in our neighbourhood than elsewhere, make us,
+more than others, feel that they want to enslave us; and when become
+sufficiently strong, will in like manner treat all the nations of the
+country; that it is their interest to prevent so great a misfortune;
+and for this purpose they have only to join us, and cut off the French
+to a man, in one day and one hour; and the time to be that on which
+the term prefixed and obtained of the French Commandant, to carry him
+the contribution agreed on, is expired; the hour to be the quarter of
+the day (nine in the morning;) and then several warriors to go and
+carry him the corn, as the beginning of their several payments, also
+carry with them their arms, as if going out to hunt: and that to every
+Frenchman in a French house, there shall be two or three Natchez; to
+ask to borrow arms and ammunition for a general hunting-match, on
+account of a great feast, and to promise to bring them meat; the
+report of the firing at the Commandant's, to be the signal to fall at
+once upon, and kill the French: that then we shall be able to prevent
+those who may come from the old French village, (New Orleans) by the
+great water (Missisippi) ever to settle here."</p>
+
+<p>He added, that after apprising the other nations of the necessity of
+taking that violent step, a bundle of rods, in number equal to that
+they should reserve for themselves, should be <a name="page-78"></a> left with each
+nation, expressive of the number of days that were to precede that on
+which they were to strike the blow at one and the same time. And to
+avoid mistakes, and to be exact in pulling out a rod every day, and
+breaking and throwing it away, it was necessary to give this in charge
+to a person of prudence. Here he ceased and sat down: they all
+approved his counsel, and were to a man of his mind.</p>
+
+<p>The project was in like manner approved of by the Sun of the Apple:
+the business was to bring over the Grand Sun, with the other petty
+Suns, to their opinion; because all the Princes being agreed as to
+that point, the nation would all to a man implicitly obey. They
+however took the precaution to forbid apprising the women thereof, not
+excepting the female Suns, (Princesses) or giving them the least
+suspicion of their designs against the French.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun of the Apple was a man of good abilities; by which means he
+easily brought over the Grand Sun to favour his scheme, he being a
+young man of no experience in the world, and having no great
+correspondence with the French: he was the more easily gained over, as
+all the Suns were agreed, that the Sun of the Apple was a man of
+solidity and penetration; who having repaired to the Sovereign of
+nation, apprised him of the necessity of taking that step, as in time
+himself would be forced to quit his own village; also of the wisdom of
+the measures concerted, such as even ascertained success; and of the
+danger to which his youth was exposed with neighbours so enterprising;
+above all, with the present French Commandant, of whom the
+inhabitants, and even the soldiers complained: that as long as the
+Grand Sun, his father, and his uncle, the Stung Serpent, lived, the
+Commandant of the fort durst never undertake any thing to their
+detriment; because the Grand Chief of the French, who resides at their
+great village (New Orleans,) had a love for them: but that he, the
+Grand Sun, being unknown to the French, and but a youth, would be
+despised. In fine, that the only means to preserve his authority, was
+to rid himself of the French, by the method, and with the precautions
+projected by the old men.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-79"></a> The result of this conversation was, that on the day following,
+when the Suns should in the morning come to salute the Grand Sun, he
+was to order them to repair to the Sun of the Apple, without taking
+notice of it to any one. This was accordingly executed, and the
+seducing abilities of the Sun of the Apple drew all the Suns into his
+scheme. In consequences of which they formed a council of Suns and
+aged Nobles, who all approved of the design: and then these aged
+Nobles were nominated heads of embassies to be sent to the several
+nations; had a guard of Warriors to accompany them, and on pain of
+death, were discharged from mentioning it to any one whatever. This
+resolution taken, they set out severally at the same time, unknown to
+the French.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the profound secrecy observed by the Natchez, the
+council held by the Suns and aged Nobles gave the people uneasiness,
+unable as they were to penetrate into the matter. The female Suns
+(Princesses) had alone in this nation a right to demand why they were
+kept in the dark in this affair. The young Grand female Sun was a
+Princess scarce eighteen: and none but the Stung Arm, a woman of great
+wit, and no less sensible of it, could be offended that nothing was
+disclosed to her. In effect, she testified her displeasure at this
+reserve with respect to herself, to her son; who replied, that the
+several deputations were made, in order to renew their good intelligence
+with the other nations, to whom they had not of a long time sent an
+embassy, and who might imagine themselves slighted by such a neglect.
+This feigned excuse seemed to appease the Princess, but not quite to rid
+her of all her uneasiness; which, on the contrary, was heightened, when,
+on the return of the embassies, she saw the Suns assemble in secret
+council together with the deputies, to learn what reception they met
+with; whereas ordinarily they assembled in public.</p>
+
+<p>At this the female Sun was filled with rage, which would have openly
+broke out, had not her prudence set bounds to it. Happy it was for the
+French, she imagined herself neglected: for I am persuaded the colony
+owes its preservation to the vexation of this woman rather than to any
+remains of affection <a name="page-80"></a> she entertained for the French, as she was
+now far advanced in years, and her gallant dead some time.</p>
+
+<p>In order to get to the bottom of the secret, she prevailed on her son
+to accompany her on a visit to a relation, that lay sick at the
+village of the Meal; and leading him the longest way about, and most
+retired, took occasion to reproach him with the secrecy he and the
+other Suns observed with regard to her, insisting with him on her
+right as a mother, and her privilege as a Princess: adding, that
+though all the world, and herself too, had told him he was the son of
+a Frenchman, yet her own blood was much dearer to her than that of
+strangers; that he needed not apprehend she would ever betray him to
+the French, against whom, she said, you are plotting.</p>
+
+<p>Her son, stung with these reproaches, told her, it was unusual to
+reveal what the old men of the council had once resolved upon;
+alledging, he himself, as being Grand Sun, ought to set a good example
+in this respect: that the affair was concealed from the Princess his
+consort as well as from her; and that though he was the son of a
+Frenchman, this gave no mistrust of him to the other Suns. But seeing,
+says he, you have guessed the whole affair, I need not inform you
+farther; you know as much as I do myself, only hold your tongue.</p>
+
+<p>She was in no pain, she replied, to know against whom he had taken his
+precautions: but as it was against the French, this was the very thing
+that made her apprehensive he had not taken his measures aright in
+order to surprise them; as they were a people of great penetration,
+though their Commandant had none: that they were brave, and could
+bring over by their presents, all the Warriors of the other nations;
+and had resources, which the Red-men were without.</p>
+
+<p>Her son told her she had nothing to apprehend as to the measures
+taken: that all the nations had heard and approved their project, and
+promised to fall upon the French in their neighbourhood, on the same
+day with the Natchez: that the Chactaws took upon them to destroy all
+the French lower down and along the Missisippi, up as far as the
+Tonicas; to which last people, he said, we did not send, as they and
+the Oumas <a name="page-81"></a> are too much wedded to the French; and that it was
+better to involve both these nations in the same general destruction
+with the French. He at last told her, the bundle of rods lay in the
+temple, on the flat timber.</p>
+
+<p>The Stung Arm being informed of the whole design, pretended to approve
+of it, and leaving her son at ease, henceforward was only solicitous
+how she might defeat this barbarous design: the time was pressing, and
+the term prefixed for the execution was almost expired.</p>
+
+<p>This woman, unable to bear to see the French cut off to a man in one
+day by the conspiracy of the natives, sought how to save the greatest
+part of them: for this purpose she be thought herself of acquainting
+some young women therewith, who loved the French, enjoining them never
+to tell from whom they had their information.</p>
+
+<p>She herself desired a soldier she met, to go and tell the Commandant,
+that the Natchez had lost their senses, and to desire him to be upon
+his guard: that he need only make the smallest repairs possible on the
+fort, in presence of some of them, in order to shew his mistrust; when
+all their resolutions and bad designs would vanish and fall to the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>The soldier faithfully performed his commission: but the Commandant,
+far from giving credit to the information, or availing himself
+thereof; or diving into, and informing him self of the grounds of it,
+treated the soldier as a coward and a visionary, caused him to be
+clapt in irons, and said, he would never take any step towards
+repairing the fort, or putting himself on his guard, as the Natchez
+would then imagine he was a man of no resolution, and was struck with
+a mere panick.</p>
+
+<p>The Stung Arm fearing a discovery, notwithstanding her utmost
+precaution, and the secrecy she enjoined, repaired to the temple, and
+pulled some rods out of the fatal bundle: her design was to hasten or
+forward the term prefixed, to the end that such Frenchmen as escaped
+the massacre, might apprize their countrymen, many of whom had
+informed the Commandant; who clapt seven of them in irons, treating
+them as cowards on that account.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-82"></a> The female Sun, seeing the term approaching, and many of those
+punished, whom she had charged to acquaint the Governor, resolved to
+speak to the Under-Lieutenant; but to no better purpose, the
+Commandant paying no greater regard to him than to the common
+soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding all these informations, the Commandant went out the
+night before on a party of pleasure, with some other Frenchmen, to the
+grand village of the Natchez, without returning to the fort till break
+of day; where he was no sooner come, but he had pressing advice to be
+upon his guard.</p>
+
+<p>The Commandant, still flustered with his last night's debauch, added
+imprudence to his neglect of these last advices; and ordered his
+interpreter instantly to repair to the grand village, and demand of
+the Grand Sun, whether he intended, at the head of his Warriors, to
+come and kill the French, and to bring him word directly. The Grand
+Sun, though but a young man, knew how to dissemble, and spoke in such
+a manner to the interpreter, as to give full satisfaction to the
+Commandant, who valued himself on his contempt of former advices; he
+then repaired to his house, situate below the fort.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez had too well taken their measures to be disappointed in
+the success thereof. The fatal moment was at last come. The Natchez
+set out on the Eve of St. Andrew, 1729, taking care to bring with them
+one of the lower sort, armed with a wooden hatchet, in order to knock
+down the Commandant: they had so high a contempt for him, that no
+Warrior would deign to kill him.<sup><a href="#fn-32" name="fr-32">32</a></sup>
+The houses of the French filled with enemies, the fort in
+like manner with the natives, who entered in at the gate and breaches,
+deprived the soldiers, without officers, or even a serjeant at their
+head, of the means of self defence. In the mean time the Grand Sun
+arrived, with some Warriors loaded with corn, in appearance as the
+first payment of the contribution; when several shot were fired. As
+this firing was the signal, several shot were heard at the same
+instant. Then at length the Commandant saw, but too late, his folly:
+he ran into his garden, whither he was pursued <a name="page-83"></a> and killed. This
+Massacre was executed every where at the same time. Of about seven
+hundred persons, but few escaped to carry the dreadful news to the
+capital; on receiving which the Governor and Council were sensibly
+affected, and orders were dispatched every where to put people on
+their guard.</p>
+
+<p>The other Indians were displeased at the conduct of the Natchez,
+imagining they had forwarded the term agreed on, in order to make them
+ridiculous, and proposed to take vengeance the first opportunity, not
+knowing the true cause of the precipitation of the Natchez.</p>
+
+<p>After they had cleared the fort, warehouse, and other houses, the
+Natchez set them all on fire, not leaving a single building standing.</p>
+
+<p>The Yazous, who happened to be at that very time on an embassy to the
+Natchez, were prevailed on to destroy the post of the Yazous; which
+they failed not to effect some days after, making themselves masters
+of the fort, under colour of paying a visit, as usual, and knocking
+all the garrison on the head.</p>
+
+<p>M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was then taking the proper steps to
+be avenged: he sent M. le Sueur to the Chactaws, to engage them on our
+side against the Natchez; in which he succeeded without any
+difficulty. The reason of their readiness to enter into this design
+was not then understood, it being unknown that they were concerned in
+the plot of the Natchez to destroy all the French, and that it was
+only to be avenged of the Natchez, who had taken the start of them,
+and not given them a sufficient share of the booty.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Loubois, king's lieutenant, was nominated to be at the head of
+this expedition: he went up the river with a small army, and arrived
+at the Tonicas. The Chactaws at length in the month of February near
+the Natchez, to the number of fifteen or sixteen hundred men, with M.
+le Sueur at their head; whither M. de Loubois came the March
+following.</p>
+
+<p>The army encamped near the ruins of the old French settlement; and
+after resting five days there, they marched to the enemy's fort, which
+was a league from thence.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-84"></a> After opening the trenches and firing for several days upon the
+fort without any great effect, the French at last made their approach
+so near as to frighten the enemy, who sent to offer to release all the
+French women and children, on the condition of obtaining a lasting
+peace, and of being suffered to live peaceably on their ground,
+without being driven from thence, or molested for the future.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Loubois assured them of peace on their own terms, if they also
+gave up the French, who were in the fort, and all the negroes they had
+taken belonging to the French; and if they agreed to destroy the fort
+by fire. The Grand Sun accepted these conditions, provided the French
+general should promise, he would neither enter the fort with the
+French, nor suffer their auxiliaries to enter; which was accepted by
+the general; who sent the allies to receive all the slaves.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez, highly pleased to have gained time, availed themselves of
+the following night, and went out of the fort, with their wives and
+children, loaded with their baggage and the French plunder, leaving
+nothing but the cannon and ball behind.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Loubois was struck with amazement at this escape, and only
+thought of retreating to the landing-place, in order to build a fort
+there: but first it was necessary to recover the French out of the
+hands of the Chactaws, who insisted on a very high ransom. The matter
+was compromised by means of the grand chief of the Tonicas, who
+prevailed on them to accept what M. de Loubois was constrained to
+offer them, to satisfy their avarice; which they accordingly accepted,
+and gave up the French slaves, on promise of being paid as soon as
+possible: but they kept as security a young Frenchman and some negro
+slaves, whom they would never part with, till payment was made.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Loubois gave orders to build a terrace-fort, far preferable to a
+stoccado; there he left M. du Crenet, with an hundred and twenty men
+in garrison, with cannon and ammunition; after which he went down the
+Missisippi to New Orleans. The Chactaws, Tonicas, and other allies,
+returned home.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-85"></a> After the Natchez had abandoned the fort, it was demolished, and
+its piles, or stakes, burnt. As the Natchez dreaded both the vengeance
+of the French, and the insolence of the Chactaws, that made them take
+the resolution of escaping in the night.</p>
+
+<p>A short time after, a considerable party of the Natchez carried the
+Pipe of Peace to the Grand Chief of the Tonicas, under pretence of
+concluding a peace with him and all the French. The Chief sent to M.
+Perier to know his pleasure: but the Natchez in the mean time
+assassinated the Tonicas, beginning with their Grand Chief; and few of
+them escaped this treachery.</p>
+
+<p>M. Perier, Commandant General, zealous for the service, neglected no
+means, whereby to discover in what part the Natchez had taken refuge.
+And after many enquiries he was told, they had entirely quitted the
+east side of the Missisippi, doubtless to avoid the troublesome and
+dangerous visits of the Chactaws; and in order to be more concealed
+from the French, had retired to the West of the Missisippi, near the
+Silver Creek, about sixty leagues from the mouth of the Red River.</p>
+
+<p>These advices were certain: but the Commandant General not thinking
+himself in a condition fit to attack them without succours, had
+applied for that purpose to the Court; and succours were accordingly
+sent him.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time the Company, who had been apprized of the misfortune
+at the Post of the Natchez, and the losses they had sustained by the
+war, gave up that Colony to the King, with the privileges annexed
+thereto. The Company at the same time ceded to the King all that
+belonged to them in that Colony, as fortresses, artillery, ammunition,
+warehouses, and plantations, with the negroes belonging thereto. In
+consequence of which, his Majesty sent one of his ships, commanded by
+M. de Forant, who brought with him M. de Salmont, Commissary-General
+of the Marine, and Inspector of Louisiana, in order to take possession
+of that Colony in the King's name.</p>
+
+<p>I was continued in the inspection of this plantation, now become the
+King's in 1730, as before.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-86"></a> M. Perier, who till then had been Commandant General of Louisiana
+for the West India Company, was now made Governor for the King; and
+had the satisfaction to see his brother arrive, in one of the King's
+ships, commanded by M. Perier de Salvert, with the succours he
+demanded, which were an hundred and fifty soldiers of the marine. This
+Officer had the title of Lieutenant General of the Colony conferred
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The Messrs. Perier set out with their army in very favourable weather;
+and arrived at last, without obstruction, near to the retreat of the
+Natchez. To get to that place, they went up the Red river, then the
+Black River, and from thence up the Silver Creek, which communicates
+with a small Lake at no great distance from the fort, which the
+Natchez had built, in order to maintain their ground against the
+French.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez, struck with terror at the sight of a vigilant enemy, shut
+themselves up in their fort. Despair assumed the place of prudence,
+and they were at their wits end, on seeing the trenches gain ground on
+the fort: they equip themselves like warriors, and stain their bodies
+with different colours, in order to make their last efforts by a
+sally, which resembled a transport of rage more than the calmness of
+valour, to the terror, at first, of the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>The reception they met from our men, taught them, however, to keep
+themselves shut up in their fort; and though the trench was almost
+finished, our Generals were impatient to have the mortars put in a
+condition to play on the place. At last they are set in battery; when
+the third bomb happened to fall in the middle of the fort, the usual
+place of residence of the women and children, they set up a horrible
+screaming; and the men, seized with grief at the cries of their wives
+and children, made the signal to capitulate.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez, after demanding to capitulate, started difficulties,
+which occasioned messages to and fro till night, which they waited to
+avail themselves of, demanding till next day to settle the articles of
+capitulation. The night was granted them, but being narrowly watched
+on the side next the gate, they could not execute the same project of
+escape, as in the war <a name="page-87"></a> with M. de Loubois. However, they attempted
+it, by taking advantage of the obscurity of the night, and of the
+apparent stillness of the French: but they were discovered in time,
+the greatest part being constrained to retire into the fort. Some of
+them only happened to escape, who joined those that were out a
+hunting, and all together retired to the Chicasaws. The rest
+surrendered at discretion, among whom was the Grand Sun, and the
+female Suns, with several warriors, many women, young people, and
+children.</p>
+
+<p>The French army re-embarked, and carried the Natchez as slaves to New
+Orleans, where they were put in prison; but afterwards, to avoid an
+infection, the women and children were disposed of in the King's
+plantation, and elsewhere; among these women was the female Sun,
+called the Stung Arm, who then told me all she had done, in order to
+save the French.</p>
+
+<p>Some time after, these slaves were embarked for St. Domingo, in order
+to root out that nation in the Colony; which was the only method of
+effecting it, as the few that escaped had not a tenth of the women
+necessary to recruit the nation. And thus that nation, the most
+conspicuous in the Colony, and most useful to the French, was
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-32" name="fn-32">32</a></sup>  Others say he was shot:
+but neither account can be ascertained, as no Frenchman present
+escaped.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The War with the</i> Chicasaws. <i>The first Expedition by the river</i>
+Mobile. <i>The second by the</i> Missisippi. <i>The war with the</i> Chactaws
+<i>terminated by the prudence of</i> M. de Vaudreuil.</p>
+
+
+<p>The war with the Chicasaws was owing to their having received and
+adopted the Natchez: though in this respect they acted only according
+to an inviolable usage and sacred custom, established among all the
+nations of North America; that when a nation, weakened by war, retires
+for shelter to another, who are willing to adopt them, and is pursued
+thither by their enemies, this is in effect to declare war against the
+nation adopting.</p>
+
+<p>But M. de Biainville, whether displeased with this act of hospitality,
+or losing sight of this unalterable law, constantly <a name="page-88"></a> prevailing
+among those nations, sent word to the Chicasaws, to give up the
+Natchez. In answer to his demand they alledged, that the Natchez
+having demanded to be incorporated with them, were accordingly
+received and adopted; so as now to constitute but one nation, or
+people, under the name of Chicasaws, that of Natchez being entirely
+abolished. Besides, added they, had Biainville received our enemies,
+should we go to demand them? or, if we did, would they be given up?</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding this answer, M. de Biainville made warlike
+preparations against the Chicasaws, sent off Captain le Blanc, with
+six armed boats under his command; one laden with gun-powder, the rest
+with goods, the whole allotted for the war against the Chicasaws; the
+Captain at the same time carrying orders to M. d'Artaguette,
+Commandant of the Post of the Illinois, to prepare to set out at the
+head of all the troops, inhabitants and Indians, he could march from
+the Illinois, in order to be at the Chicasaws the 10th of May
+following, as the Governor himself was to be there at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>The Chicasaws, apprized of the warlike preparations of the French,
+resolved to guard the Missisippi, imagining they would be attacked on
+that side. In vain they attempted to surprise M. le Blanc's convoy,
+which got safe to the Arkansas, where the gun-powder was left, for
+reasons no one can surmise.</p>
+
+<p>From thence he had no cross accident to the Illinois, at which place
+he delivered the orders the Governor had dispatched for M.
+d'Artaguette; who finding a boat laden with gun-powder, designed for
+his post, and for the service of the war intended against the
+Chicasaws, left at the Arkansas, sent off the same day a boat to fetch
+it up; which on its return was taken by a party of Chicasaws; who
+killed all but M. du Tiffenet, junior, and one Rosalie, whom they made
+slaves.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, M. de Biainville went by sea to Fort Mobile, where
+the Grand Chief of the Chactaws waited for him, in consequence of his
+engaging to join his Warriours with ours, in order to make war upon
+the Chicasaws, in consideration of a certain quantity of goods, part
+to be paid down directly, the rest at a certain time prefixed. The
+Governor, <a name="page-89"></a> after this, returned to New Orleans, there to wait the
+opening of the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Biainville, on his return, made preparations against his own
+departure, and that of the army, consisting of regular troops, some
+inhabitants and free negroes, and some slaves, all which set out from
+New Orleans for Mobile; where, on the 10th of March, 1736, the army,
+together with the Chactaws, was assembled; and where they rested till
+the 2d of April, when they began their march, those from New Orleans
+taking their route by the river Mobile, in thirty large boats and as
+many pettyaugres; the Indians by land, marching along the east bank of
+that river; and making but short marches, they arrived at Tombecbec
+only the 20th of April, where M. de Biainville caused a fort to be
+built: here he gave the Chactaws the rest of the goods due to them,
+and did not set out from thence till the 4th of May. All this time was
+taken up with a Council of War, held on four soldiers, French and
+Swiss, who had laid a scheme to kill the Commandant and garrison, to
+carry off M. du Tiffenet and Rosalie, who had happily made their
+escape from the Chicasaws, and taken refuge in the fort, and to put
+them again into the hands of the enemy, in order to be better received
+by them, and to assist, and shew them how to make a proper defence
+against the French, and from thence to go over to the English of
+Carolina.</p>
+
+<p>From the 4th of May, on which the army set out from Tombeebee, they
+took twenty days to come to the landing-place. After landing, they
+built a very extensive inclosure of palisadoes, with a shed, as a
+cover for the goods and ammuninition, then the army passed the night.
+On the 25th powder and ball were given out to the soldiers, and
+inhabitants, the sick with some raw soldiers being left to guard this
+old sort of fort.</p>
+
+<p>From this place to the fort of the Chicasaws are seven leagues: this
+day they marched five leagues and a half in two columns and in file,
+across the woods. On the wings marched the Chactaws, to the number of
+twelve hundred at least, commanded by their Grand Chief. In the
+evening they encamped in a meadow, surrounded with wood.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-90"></a> On the 26th of May they marched to the enemy's fort, across thin
+woods; and with water up to the waist, passed over a rivulet, which
+traverses a small wood; on coming out of which, they entered a fine
+plain: in this plain stood the fort of the Chicasaws, with a village
+defended by it. This fort is situated on an eminence, with an easy
+ascent; around it stood several huts, and at a greater distance
+towards the bottom, other huts, which appeared to have been put in a
+state of defence: quite close to the fort ran a little brook, which
+watered a part of the plain.</p>
+
+<p>The Chactaws no sooner espied the enemy's fort, than they rent the air
+with their death-cries, and instantly flew to the fort: but their
+ardour flagged at a carabin-shot from the place. The French marched in
+good order, and got beyond a small wood, which they left in their
+rear, within cannon-shot of the enemy's fort, where an English flag
+was seen flying. At the same time four Englishmen, coming from the
+huts, were seen to go up the ascent, and enter the fort, where their
+flag was set up.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this, it was imagined, they would be summoned to quit the enemy's
+fort, and to surrender, as would in like manner the Chicasaws: but
+nothing of this was once proposed. The General gave orders to the
+Majors to form large detachments of each of their corps, in order to
+go and take the enemy's fort. These orders were in part executed:
+three large detachments were made; namely, one of grenadiers, one of
+soldiers, and another of militia, or train-bands; who, to the number
+of twelve hundred men, advanced with ardour towards the enemy's fort,
+crying out aloud several times, <i>Vive le Roi</i>, as if already masters of
+the place; which, doubtless, they imagined to carry sword in hand; for
+in the whole army there was not a single iron tool to remove the
+earth, and form the attacks.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the army marched in battle-array, ten men deep; mounted
+the eminence whereon the fort stood, and being come there, set fire to
+some huts, with wild-fire thrown at the ends of darts; but the smoke
+stifled the army.</p>
+
+<p>The regular troops marched in front, and the militia, or train-bands,
+in rear. According to rule these train-bands <a name="page-91"></a> made a quarter turn
+to right and left, with intent to go and invest the place. But M. de
+Jusan, Aid-Major of the troops, stopt short their ardor, and sent them
+to their proper post, reserving for his own corps the glory of
+carrying the place, which continued to make a brisk defence.
+Biainville remained at the quarters of reserve; where he observed what
+would be the issue of the attack, than which none could be more
+disadvantageous.</p>
+
+<p>Both the regulars and inhabitants, or train-bands, gave instances of the
+greatest valour: but what could they do, open and exposed as they were,
+against a fort, whose stakes or wooden posts were a fathom in compass,
+and their joinings again lined with other posts, almost as big? From
+this fort, which was well garrisoned, issued a shower of balls; which
+would have mowed down at least half the assailants, if directed by men
+who knew how to fire. The enemy were under cover from all the attacks of
+the French, and could have defended themselves by their loop-holes.
+Besides, they formed a gallery of flat pallisadoes quite round, covered
+with earth, which screened it from the effects of grenadoes. In this
+manner the troops lavished their ammunition against the wooden posts, or
+stakes, of the enemy's fort, without any other effect than having
+thirty-two men killed, and almost seventy wounded; which last were
+carried to the body of reserve; from whence the General, seeing the bad
+success of the attack, ordered to beat the retreat, and sent a large
+detachment to favour it. It was now five in the evening, and the attack
+had been begun at half an hour after one. The troops rejoined the body
+of the army, without being able to carry off their dead, which were left
+on the field of battle, exposed to the rage of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>After taking some refreshment, they directly fortified themselves, by
+felling trees, in order to pass the night secure from the insults of
+the enemy, by being carefully on their guard. Next day it was observed
+the enemy had availed themselves of that night to demolish some huts,
+where the French, during the attack, had put themselves under cover,
+in order from thence to batter the fort.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-92"></a> On the 27th, the day after the attack, the army began its march,
+and lay at a league from the enemy. The day following, at a league
+from the landing-place, whither they arrived next day, the French
+embarked for Fort Mobile, and from thence for the Capital, from which
+each returned to his own home.</p>
+
+<p>A little time after, a serjeant of the garrison of the Illinois
+arrived at New Orleans, who reported, that, in consequence of the
+General's orders, M. d'Artaguette had taken his measures so well, that
+on the 9th of May he arrived with his men near the Chicasaws, sent out
+scouts to discover the arrival of the French army; which he continued
+to do till the 20th: that the Indians in alliance hearing no accounts
+of the French, wanted either to return home, or to attack the
+Chicasaws; which last M. d'Artaguette resolved upon, on the 21st, with
+pretty good success at first, having forced the enemy to quit their
+village and fort: that he then attacked another village with the same
+success, but that pursuing the runaways, M. d'Artaguette had received
+two wounds, which the Indians finding, resolved to abandon that
+Commandant, with forty-six soldiers and two serjeants, who defended
+their Commandant all that day, but were at last obliged to surrender;
+that they were well used by the enemy, who understanding that the
+French were in their country, prevailed on M. d'Artaguette to write to
+the General: but that this deputation having had no success, and
+learning that the French were retired, and despairing of any ransom
+for their slaves, put them to death by a slow fire. The serjeant
+added, he had the happiness to fall into the hands of a good master,
+who favoured his escape to Mobile.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Biainville, desirous to take vengeance of the Chicasaws, wrote
+to France for succours, which the Court sent, ordering also the Colony
+of Canada to send succours. In the mean time M. de Biainville sent off
+a large detachment for the river St. Francis, in order to build a fort
+there, called also St. Francis.</p>
+
+<p>The squadron which brought the succours from France being arrived,
+they set out, by going up the Missisippi, for the fort that had been
+just built. This army consisted of Marines, <a name="page-93"></a> of the troops of the
+Colony, of several Inhabitants, many Negroes, and some Indians, our
+allies; and being assembled in this place, took water again, and still
+proceeded up the Missisippi to a little river called Margot, near the
+Cliffs called Prud'homme, and there the whole army landed. They
+encamped on a fine plain, at the foot of a hill, about fifteen leagues
+from the enemy; fortified themselves by way of precaution, and built
+in the fort a house for the Commandant, some cazerns, and a warehouse
+for the goods. This fort was called Assumption, from the day on which
+they landed.</p>
+
+<p>They had waggons and sledges made, and the roads cleared for
+transporting cannon, ammunition, and other necessaries for forming a
+regular siege. There and then it was the succours from Canada arrived,
+consisting of French, Iroquois, Hurons, Episingles, Algonquins, and
+other nations: and soon after arrived the new Commandant of the
+Illinois, with the garrison, inhabitants, and neighbouring Indians,
+all that he could bring together, with a great number of horses.</p>
+
+<p>This formidable army, consisting of so many different nations, the
+greatest ever seen, and perhaps that ever will be seen, in those
+parts, remained in this camp without undertaking any thing, from the
+month of August 1739, to the March following. Provisions, which at
+first were in great plenty, came at last to be so scarce, that they
+were obliged to eat the horses which were to draw the artillery,
+ammunition, and provisions: afterwards sickness raged in the army. M.
+de Biainville, who hitherto had attempted nothing against the
+Chicasaws, resolved to have recourse to mild methods. He therefore
+detached, about the 15th of March, the company of Cadets, with their
+Captain, M. de Celoron, their Lieutenant, M. de St. Laurent, and the
+Indians, who came with them from Canada, against the Chicasaws, with
+orders to offer peace to them in his name, if they sued for it.</p>
+
+<p>What the General had foreseen, failed not to happen. As soon as the
+Chicasaws saw the French, followed by the Indians of Canada, they
+doubted not in the least, but the rest of that numerous army would
+soon follow; and they no sooner saw them approach, but they made
+signals of peace, and came out <a name="page-94"></a> of their fort in the most humble
+manner, exposing themselves to all the consequences that might ensue,
+in order to obtain peace. They solemnly protested that they actually
+were, and would continue to be inviolable friends of the French; that
+it was the English, who prevailed upon them to act in this manner; but
+that they had fallen out with them on this account, and at that very
+time had two of that nation, whom they made slaves; and that the
+French might go and see whether they spoke truth.</p>
+
+<p>M. de St. Laurent asked to go, and accordingly went with a young
+slave: but he might have had reason to have repented it, had not the
+men been more prudent than the women, who demanded the head of the
+Frenchman: but the men, after consulting together, were resolved to
+save him, in order to obtain peace of the French, on giving up the two
+Englishmen. The women risk scarce any thing near so much as the men;
+these last are either slain in battle, or put to death by their
+enemies; whereas the women at worst are but slaves; and they all
+perfectly well know, that the Indian women are far better off when
+slaves to the French, than if married at home. M. de St. Laurent,
+highly pleased with this discovery, promised them peace in the name of
+M. de Biainville, and of all the French: after these assurances, they
+went all in a body out of the fort, to present the Pipe to M. de
+Celoron, who accepted it, and repeated the same promise.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days after, he set out with a great company of Chicasaws,
+deputed to carry the Pipe to the French General, and deliver up the
+two Englishmen. When they came before M. de Biainville, they fell
+prostrate at his feet, and made him the same protestations of fidelity
+and friendship, as they had already made to M. de Celoron; threw the
+blame on the English; said they were entirely fallen out with them,
+and had taken these two, and put them in his hands, as enemies. They
+protested, in the most solemn manner, they would for ever be friends
+of the French and of their friends, and enemies of their enemies; in
+fine, that they would make war on the English, if it was thought
+proper, in order to shew that they renounced them as traitors.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-95"></a> Thus ended the war with the Chicasaws, about the beginning of
+April, 1740. M. de Biainville dismissed the auxiliaries, after making
+them presents; razed the Fort Assumption, thought to be no longer
+necessary, and embarked with his whole army; and in passing down,
+caused the Fort St. Francis to be demolished, as it was now become
+useless; and he repaired to the Capital, after an absence of more than
+ten months.</p>
+
+<p>Some years after, we had disputes with a part of the Chactaws, who
+followed the interests of the Red-Shoe, a Prince of that nation, who,
+in the first expedition against the Chicasaws, had some disputes with
+the French. This Indian, more insolent than any one of his nation,
+took a pretext to break out, and commit several hostilities against
+the French. M. de Vaudreuil, then Governor of Louisiana, being
+apprised of this, and of the occasion thereof, strictly forbad the
+French to frequent that nation, and to truck with them any arms or
+ammunition, in order to put a stop to that disorder in a short time,
+and without drawing the sword.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Vaudreuil, after taking these precautions, sent to demand of the
+Grand Chief of the whole nation, whether, like the Red-Shoe, he was
+also displeased with the French. He made answer, he was their friend:
+but that the Red-Shoe was a young man, without understanding. Having
+returned this answer, they sent him a present: but he was greatly
+surprised to find neither arms, powder, nor ball in this present, at a
+time when they were friends as before. This manner of proceeding,
+joined to the prohibition made of trucking with them arms or
+ammunition, heightened their surprise, and put them on having an
+explication on this head with the Governor; who made answer, That
+neither arms nor ammunition would be trucked with them, as long as the
+Red-Shoe had no more understanding; that they would not fail, as being
+brethren, to share a good part of the ammunition and arms with the
+Warriors of the Red-Shoe. This answer put them on remonstrating to the
+Village that insulted us; told them, if they did not instantly make
+peace with the French, they would themselves make war upon them. This
+threatening declaration made them sue for peace with the French, who
+were not in a condition to maintain <a name="page-96"></a> a war against a nation so
+numerous. And thus the prudent policy of M. de Vaudreuil put a stop to
+this war, without either expence or the loss of a man.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Reflections on what gives Occasions to Wars in</i> Louisiana. <i>The Means
+of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the Manner of coming off with
+Advantage and little Expence in them.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The experience I have had in the art of war, from some campaigns I
+made in a regiment of dragoons till the peace of 1713, my application
+to the study of the wars of the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient
+people, and the wars I have seen carried on with the Indians of
+Louisiana, during the time I resided in that Province, gave me
+occasion to make several reflections on what could give rise to a war
+with the Indians, on the means of avoiding such a war, and on such
+methods as may be employed, in order either to make or maintain a war
+to advantage against them, when constrained thereto.</p>
+
+<p>In the space of sixteen years that I resided in Louisiana, I remarked,
+that the war, and even the bare disputes we have had with the Indians
+of this Colony, never had any other origin, but our too familiar
+intercourse with them.</p>
+
+<p>In order to prove this, let us consider the evils produced by this
+familiarity. In the first place, it makes them gradually drop that
+respect, which they naturally entertain for our nation.</p>
+
+<p>In the second place, the French traffickers, or traders, are generally
+young people without experience, who, in order to gain the good-will
+of these people, afford them lights, or instruction, prejudicial to
+our interest. These young merchants are not, it is true, sensible of
+these consequences: but again, these people never lose sight of what
+can be of any utility to them, and the detriment thence accruing is
+not less great, nor less real.</p>
+
+<p>In the third place, this familiarity gives occasion to vices, whence
+dangerous distempers ensue, and corruption of blood, <a name="page-97"></a> which is
+naturally highly pure in this colony. These persons, who frequently
+resort to the Indians, imagined themselves authorized to give a loose
+to their vices, from the practice of these last, which is to give
+young women to their guests upon their arrival; a practice that
+greatly injures their health, and proves a detriment to their
+merchandizing.</p>
+
+<p>In the fourth place, this resorting to the Indians puts these last
+under a constraint, as being fond of solitude; and this constraint is
+still more heightened, if the French settlement is near them; which
+procures them too frequent visits, that give them so much more
+uneasiness, as they care not on any account that people should see or
+know any of their affairs. And what fatal examples have we not of the
+dangers the settlements which are too near the Indians incur. Let but
+the massacre of the French be recollected, and it will be evident that
+this proximity is extremely detrimental to the French.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifth and last place, commerce, which is the principal
+allurement that draws us to this new world instead of flourishing, is,
+on the contrary, endangered by the too familiar resort to the Indians
+of North America. The proof of this is very simple.</p>
+
+<p>All who resort to countries beyond sea, know by experience, that when
+there is but one ship in the harbour, the Captain sells his cargo at
+what price he pleases: and then we hear it said, such a ship gained
+two, three, and sometimes as high as four hundred per cent. Should
+another ship happen to arrive in that harbour, the profit abates at
+least one half; but should three arrive, or even four successively,
+the goods then are, so to speak, thrown at the head of the buyer: so
+that in this case a merchant has often great difficulty to recover his
+very expenses of fitting out. I should therefore be led to believe,
+that it would be for the interest of commerce, if the Indians were
+left to come to fetch what merchandize they wanted, who having none
+but us in their neighbourhood, would come for it, without the French
+running any risk in their commerce, much less in their lives.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose, let us suppose a nation of Indians on the banks of
+some river or rivulet, which is always the case, as all <a name="page-98"></a> men
+whatever have at all times occasion for water. This being supposed, I
+look out for a spot proper to build a small terras-fort on, with
+fraises or stakes, and pallisadoes. In this fort I would build two
+small places for lodgings, of no great height; one to lodge the
+officers, the other the soldiers: this fort to have an advanced work,
+a half-moon, or the like, according to the importance of the post. The
+passage to be through this advanced work to the fort, and no Indian
+allowed to enter on any pretence whatever; not even to receive the
+Pipe of Peace there, but only in the advanced work; the gate of the
+fort to be kept shut day and night against all but the French. At the
+gate of the advanced work a sentinel to be posted, and that gate to be
+opened and shut on each person appearing before it. By these
+precautions we might be sure never to be surprised, either by avowed
+enemies, or by treachery. In the advanced work a small building to be
+made for the merchants, who should come thither to traffick or truck
+with the neighbouring Indians; of which last only three or four to be
+admitted at a time, all to have the merchandize at the same price, and
+no one to be favoured above another. No soldier or inhabitant to go to
+the villages of the neighbouring Indians, under severe penalties. By
+this conduct disputes would be avoided, as they only arise from too
+great a familiarity with them. These forts to be never nearer the
+villages than five leagues, or more distant than seven or eight. The
+Indians would make nothing of such a jaunt; it would be only a walk
+for them, and their want of goods would easily draw them, and in a
+little time they would become habituated to it. The merchants to pay a
+salary to an interpreter, who might be some orphan, brought up very
+young among these people.</p>
+
+<p>This fort, thus distant a short journey, might be built without
+obstruction, or giving any umbrage to the Indians: as they might be
+told it was built in order to be at hand to truck their furs, and at
+the same time to give them no manner of uneasiness. One advantage
+would be, besides that of commerce, which would be carried on there,
+that these forts would prevent the English from having any
+communication with the Indians, as these last would find a great
+facility for their truck, and in forts so near them, every thing they
+could want.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-99"></a> The examples of the surprise of the forts of the Natchez, the
+Yazoux, and the Missouris, shew but too plainly the fatal consequences
+of negligence in the service, and of a misplaced condescension in
+favour of the soldiers, by suffering them to build huts near the fort,
+and to lie in them. None should be allowed to lie out of the fort, not
+even the Officers. The Commandant of the Natchez, and the other
+Officers, and even the Serjeants, were killed in their houses without
+the fort. I should not be against the soldiers planting little fields
+of tobacco, potatoes, and other plants, too low to conceal a man: on
+the contrary, these employments would incline them to become settlers;
+but I would never allow them houses out of the fort. By this means a
+fort becomes impregnable against the most numerous; because they never
+will attack, should they have ever so much cause, as long as they see
+people on their guard.</p>
+
+<p>Should it be objected that these forts would cost a great deal: I
+answer, that though there was to be a fort for each nation, which is
+not the case, it would not cost near so much as from time to time it
+takes to support wars, which in this country are very expensive, on
+account of the long journeys, and of transporting all the implements
+of war, hitherto made use of. Besides, we have a great part of these
+forts already built, so that we only want the advanced works; and two
+new forts more would suffice to compleat this design, and prevent the
+fraudulent commerce of the English traders.</p>
+
+<p>As to the manner of carrying on the war in Louisiana, as was hitherto
+done, it is very expensive, highly fatiguing, and the risk always great;
+because you must first transport the ammunition to the landing-place;
+from thence travel for many leagues; then drag the artillery along by
+main force, and carry the ammunition on men's shoulders, a thing that
+harasses and weakens the troops very much. Moreover, there is a great
+deal of risk in making war in this manner: you have the approaches of a
+fort to make, which cannot be done without loss of lives: and should you
+make a breach, how many brave men are lost, before you can force men who
+fight like desperadoes, because they prefer death to slavery.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-100"></a> I say, should you make a breach; because in all the time I
+resided in this Province, I never saw nor heard that the cannon which
+were brought against the Indian forts, ever made a breach for a single
+man to pass: it is therefore quite useless to be at that expence, and
+to harass the troops to bring artillery, which can be of no manner of
+service.</p>
+
+<p>That cannon can make no breach in Indian forts may appear strange: but
+not more strange than true; as will appear, if we consider that the
+wooden posts or stakes which surround these forts, are too big for a
+bullet of the size of those used in these wars, to cut them down,
+though it were even to hit their middle. If the bullet gives more
+towards the edge of the tree, it glides off, and strikes the next to
+it; should the ball hit exactly between two posts, it opens them, and
+meets the post of the lining, which stops it short: another ball may
+strike the same tree, at the other joining, then it closes the little
+aperture the other had made.</p>
+
+<p>Were I to undertake such a war, I would bring only a few Indian
+allies; I could easily manage them; they would not stand me so much in
+presents, nor consume so much ammunition and provisions: a great
+saving this; and bringing no cannon with me, I should also save
+expences. I would have none but portable arms; and thus my troops
+would not be harassed. The country every where furnishes wherewithal
+to make moveable intrenchments and approaches, without opening the
+ground: and I would flatter myself to carry the fort in two days time.
+There I stop: the reader has no need of this detail, nor I to make it
+public.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-I-chapter-XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Pensacola <i>taken by Surprize by the</i> French. <i>Retaken by the</i> Spaniards.
+<i>Again retaken by the</i> French, <i>and demolished</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Before I go any farther, I think it necessary to relate what happened
+with respect to the Fort of Pensacola in Virginia.<sup><a href="#fn-33" name="fr-33">33</a></sup>
+This fort belongs to the Spaniards, and
+serves for an <a name="page-101"></a> Entrepot, or harbour for the Spanish galleons to
+put into, in their passage from La Vera Cruz to Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the beginning of the year 1719, the Commandant General having
+understood by the last ships which arrived, that war was declared
+between France and Spain, resolved to take the post of Pensacola from
+the Spaniards; which stands on the continent, about fifteen leagues
+from Isle Dauphine, is defended by a staccado-fort the entrance of the
+road: over against it stands a fortin, or small fort, on the west
+point of the Isle St. Rose; which, on that side, defends the entrance
+of the road: this fort has only a guard-house to defend it.</p>
+
+<p>The Commandant General, persuaded it would be impossible to besiege
+the place in form, wanted to take it by surprise, confiding in the
+ardor of the French, and security of the Spaniards, who were as yet
+ignorant of our being at war with them in Europe. With that view he
+assembled the few troops he had, with several Canadian and French
+planters, newly arrived, who went as volunteers. M. de Chateauguier,
+the Commandant's brother, and King's Lieutenant, commanded under him;
+and next him, M. de Richebourg, Captain. After arming this body of
+men, and getting the necessary supplies of ammunition and provisions,
+he embarked with his small army, and by the favour of a prosperous
+wind, arrived in a short time at his place of destination. The French
+anchored near the Fortin, made their descent undiscovered, seized on
+the guard-house, and clapt the soldiers in irons; which was done in
+less than half an hour. Some French soldiers were ordered to put on
+the cloaths of the Spaniards, in order to facilitate the surprising
+the enemy. The thing succeeded to their wish. On the morrow at
+day-break, they perceived the boat which carried the detachment from
+Pensacola, in order to relieve the guard of the fortin; on which the
+Spanish march was caused to be beat up; and the French in disguise
+receiving them, and clapping them in irons, put on their cloaths; and
+stepping into the same boat, surprised the sentinel, the guard-house,
+and at last the garrison, to the very Governor himself, who was taken
+in bed; so that they all were made prisoners without any bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-102"></a> The Commandant General, apprehensive of the scarcity of
+provisions, shipped off the prisoners, escorted by some soldiers,
+commanded by M. de Richebourg, in order to land them at the Havanna:
+he left his brother at Pensacola, to command there, with a garrison of
+sixty men. As soon as the French vessel had anchored at the Havanna,
+M. de Richebourg went on shore, to acquaint the Spanish Governor with
+his commission; who received him with politeness, and as a testimony
+of his gratitude, made him and his officers prisoners, put the
+soldiers in irons and in prison, where they lay for some time, exposed
+to hunger and the insults of the Spaniards, which determined many of
+them to enter into the service of Spain, in order to escape the
+extreme misery under which they groaned.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the French, newly enlisted in the Spanish troops, informed the
+Governor of the Havanna, that the French garrison left at Pensacola
+was very weak: he, in his turn, resolved to carry that fort by way of
+reprisal. For that purpose he caused a Spanish vessel, with that which
+the French had brought to the Havanna, to be armed. The Spanish vessel
+stationed itself behind the Isle St. Rose, and the French vessel came
+before the fort with French colours. The sentinel enquired, who
+commanded the vessel? They answered, M. de Richebourg. This vessel,
+after anchoring, took down her French, and hoisted Spanish colours,
+firing three guns: at which signal, agreed on by the Spaniards, the
+Spanish vessel joined the first; then they summoned the French to
+surrender. M. de Chateauguiere rejected the proposition, fired upon
+the Spaniards, and they continued cannonading each other till night.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day the cannonading was continued till noon, when the
+Spaniards ceased firing, in order to summon the Commandant anew to
+surrender the fort: he demanded four days, and was allowed two. During
+that time, he sent to ask succours of his brother, who was in no
+condition to send him any.</p>
+
+<p>The term being expired, the attack was renewed, the Commandant bravely
+defending himself till night; which two thirds of the garrison availed
+themselves of, to abandon their Governor, <a name="page-103"></a> who, having only
+twenty men left, saw himself unable to make any longer resistance,
+demanded to capitulate, and was allowed all the honours of war; but in
+going out of the place, he and all his men were made prisoners. This
+infraction of the capitulation was occasioned by the shame the
+Spaniards conceived, of being constrained to capitulate in this manner
+with twenty men only.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the Governor of the Havanna was apprised of the surrender
+of the fort, vainly imagining he had overthrown half his enemies at
+least, he caused great rejoicings to be made in the island, as if he
+had gained a decisive victory, or carried a citadel of importance. He
+also sent off several vessels to victual and refresh his warriors,
+who, according to him, must have been greatly fatigued in such an
+action as I have just described.</p>
+
+<p>The new Governor of Pensacola caused the fortifications to be repaired
+and even augmented; sent afterwards the vessel, named the Great Devil,
+armed with six pieces of cannon, to take Dauphin Island, or at least
+to strike terror into it. The vessel St. Philip, which lay in the
+road, entered a gut or narrow place, and there mooring across, brought
+all her guns to bear on the enemy; and made the Great Devil sensible,
+that Saints resist all the efforts of Hell.</p>
+
+<p>This ship, by her position, served for a citadel to the whole island,
+which had neither fortifications nor intrenchments, nor any other sort
+of defence, excepting a battery of cannon at the east point, with some
+inhabitants, who guarded the coast, and prevented a descent. The Great
+Devil, finding she made no progress, was constrained, by way of
+relaxation, to go and pillage on the continent the habitation of the
+Sieur Miragouine, which was abandoned. In the mean time arrived from
+Pensacola, a little devil, a pink, to the assistance of the Great
+Devil. As soon as they joined, they began afresh to cannonade the
+island, which made a vigorous defence.</p>
+
+<p>In the time that these two vessels attempted in vain to take the
+island, a squadron of five ships came in sight, four of them with
+Spanish colours, and the least carrying French hoisted to <a name="page-104"></a> the
+top of the staff, as if taken by the four others. In this the French
+were equally deceived with the Spaniards: the former, however, knew
+the small vessel, which was the pink, the Mary, commanded by the brave
+M. Iapy. The Spaniards, convinced by these appearances, that succours
+were sent them, deputed two officers in a shallop on board the
+commodore: but they were no sooner on board, than they were made
+prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>They were in effect three French men of war, with two ships of the
+Company, commanded by M. Champmelin. These ships brought upwards of
+eight hundred men, and thirty officers, as well superior as subaltern,
+all of them old and faithful servants of the King, in order to remain
+in Louisiana. The Spaniards, finding their error, fled to Pensacola,
+to carry the news of this succour being arrived for the French.</p>
+
+<p>The squadron anchored before the island, hoisted French colours, and
+fired a salvo, which was answered by the place. The St. Philip was
+drawn out and made to join the squadron: a new embarkation of troops
+was made, and the Mary left before Isle Dauphine.</p>
+
+<p>On September the 7th, finding the wind favourable, the squadron set
+sail for Pensacola: by the way, the troops that were to make the
+attack on the continent, were landed near Rio Perdido; after which the
+ships, preceded by a boat, which shewed the way, entered the harbour,
+and anchored, and laid their broad sides, in spite of several
+discharges of cannon from the fort, which is upon the Isle of St.
+Rose. The ships had no sooner laid their broad-sides, but the
+cannonade began on both sides. Our ships had two forts to batter, and
+seven sail of ships that lay in the harbour. But the great land fort
+fired only one gun on our army, in which the Spanish Governor, having
+observed upwards of three hundred Indians, commanded by M. de St.
+Denis, whose bravery was universally acknowledged, was struck with
+such a panick, from the fear of falling into their hands, that he
+struck, and surrendered the place.</p>
+
+<p>The fight continued for about two hours longer: but the heavy metal of
+our Commodore making great execution, the Spaniards cried out several
+times on board their ships, to <a name="page-105"></a> strike; but fear prevented their
+executing these orders: none but a French prisoner durst do it for
+them. They quitted their ships, leaving matches behind, which would
+have soon set them on fire. The French prisoners between decks, no
+longer hearing the least noise, surmised a flight, came on deck,
+discovered the stratagem of the Spaniards, removed the matches, and
+thus hindered the vessels from taking fire, acquainting the Commodore
+therewith. The little fort held out but an hour longer, after which it
+surrendered for want of gunpowder. The Commandant came himself to put
+his sword in the hands of M. Champmelin, who embraced him, returned
+him his sword, and told him, he knew how to distinguish between a
+brave officer, and one who was not. He made his own ship his place of
+confinement, whereas the Commandant of the great fort was made the
+laughing-stock of the French.</p>
+
+<p>All the Spaniards on board the ships, and those of the two forts were
+made prisoners of war: but the French deserters, to the number of
+forty, were made to cast lots; half of them were hanged at the
+yard-arms, the rest condemned to be galley-slaves to the Company for
+ten years in the country.</p>
+
+<p>M. Champmelin caused the two forts to be demolished, preserving only
+three or four houses, with a warehouse. These houses were to lodge the
+officer, and the few soldiers that were left there, and one to be a
+guard-house. The rest of the planters were transported to Isle
+Dauphine, and M. Champmelin set sail for France.<sup><a href="#fn-34" name="fr-34">34</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>The history of Pensacola is the more necessary, as it is so near our
+settlements, that the Spaniards hear our guns, when we give them
+notice by that signal of our design to come and trade with them.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-33" name="fn-33">33</a></sup>  The
+author must mean Carolina.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-34" name="fn-34">34</a></sup>  At the
+peace that soon succeeded between France and Spain, Pensacola was
+restored to the last.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-107"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<p>THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="book-II">BOOK II.</a></h2>
+
+<p><i>Of the Country, and its Products</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-I">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its Climate</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Louisiana that part of North America, which is bounded on the south by
+the Gulf of Mexico; on the east by Carolina, an English colony, and by
+a part of Canada; on the west by New Mexico; and on the north, in part
+by Canada; in part it extends, without any assignable bounds, to the
+Terrae Incognitae, adjoining to Hudson's Bay.<sup><a href="#fn-35" name="fr-35">35</a></sup>
+Its breadth is about two
+hundred leagues,<sup><a href="#fn-36" name="fr-36">36</a></sup>
+extending between the Spanish and English
+settlements; its length undetermined, as being altogether unknown.
+However, the source of the Missisippi will afford us some light on
+this head.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of Louisiana varies in proportion as it extends northward:
+all that can be said of it in general is, that its southern parts are
+not so scorching as those of Africa in the <a name="page-108"></a> same latitude; and
+that the northern parts are colder than the corresponding parts of
+Europe. New Orleans, which lies in lat. 30°, as do the more northerly
+coasts of Barbary and Egypt, enjoys the same temperature of climate as
+Languedoc. Two degrees higher-up, at the Natchez, where I resided for
+eight years, the climate is far more mild than at New Orleans, the
+country lying higher: and at the Illinois, which is between 45° and
+46°, the summer is in no respect hotter than at Rochelle; but we find
+the frosts harder, and a more plentiful fall of snow. This difference
+of climate from that of Africa and Europe, I ascribe to two causes:
+the first is, the number of woods, which, though scattered up and
+down, cover the face of this country: the second, the great number of
+rivers. The former prevent the sun from warming the earth; and the
+latter diffuse a great degree of humidity: not to mention the
+continuity of this country with those to the northward; from which it
+follows, that the winds blowing from that quarter are much colder than
+if they traversed the sea in their course. For it is well known that
+the air is never so hot, and never so cold at sea, as on land.</p>
+
+<p>We ought not therefore to be surprised, if in the southern part of
+Louisiana, a north wind obliges people in summer to be warmer
+cloathed; or if in winter a south wind admits of a lighter dress; as
+naturally owing, at the one time to the dryness of the wind, at the
+other, to the proximity of the Equator.</p>
+
+<p>Few days pass in Louisiana without seeing the sun. The rain pours down
+there in sudden heavy showers, which do not last long, but disappear
+in half an hour, perhaps. The dews are very plentiful, advantageously
+supplying the place of rain.</p>
+
+<p>We may therefore well imagine that the air is perfectly good there;
+the blood is pure; the people are healthy; subject to few diseases in
+the vigour of life, and without decrepitude in old age, which they
+carry to a far greater length than in France. People live to a long
+and agreeable old age in Louisiana, if they are but sober and
+temperate.</p>
+
+<p>This country is extremely well watered, but much more so in some
+places than in others. The Missisippi divides this <a name="page-109"></a> colony from
+north to south into two parts almost equal. The first discoverers of
+this river by the way of Canada, called it Colbert, in honour of that
+great Minister. By some of the savages of the north it is called
+Meact-Chassipi, which literally denotes, The Ancient Father of Rivers,
+of which the French have, by corruption formed Missisippi. Other
+Indians, especially those lower down the river, call it Balbancha; and
+at last the French have given it the name of St. Louis.</p>
+
+<p>Several travellers have in vain attempted to go up to its source;
+which, however, is well known, whatever some authors, misinformed, may
+alledge to the contrary. We here subjoin the accounts that may be most
+depended upon.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Charleville, a Canadian, and a relation of M. de Biainville,
+Commandant General of this colony, told me, that at the time of the
+settlement of the French, curiosity alone had led him to go up this
+river to its sources; that for this end he fitted out a canoe, made of
+the bark of the birch-tree, in order to be more portable in case of
+need. And that having thus set out with two Canadians and two Indians,
+with goods, ammunition, and provisions, he went up the river three
+hundred leagues to the north, above the Illinois: that there be found
+the Fall, called St. Antony's. This fall is a flat-rock, which
+traverses the river, and gives it only between eight or ten feet fall.
+He caused his canoe and effects to be carried over that place; and
+that embarking afterwards above the fall, he continued going up the
+river an hundred leagues more to the north, where he met the Sioux, a
+people inhabiting that country, at some distance from the Missisippi;
+some say, on each side of it.</p>
+
+<p>The Sioux, little accustomed to see Europeans, were surprized at seeing
+him, and asked whither he was going. He told them, up the Missisippi to
+its source. They answered, that the country whither he was going was
+very bad, and where he would have great difficulty to find game for
+subsistence; that it was a great way off, reckoned as far from the
+source to the fall, as from this last to the sea. According to this
+information, the Missisippi must measure from its source to its mouth
+between fifteen and sixteen hundred leagues, as they reckon eight
+hundred leagues from St. Antony's Fall to the sea. This <a name="page-110"></a> conjecture
+is the more probable, as that far to the north, several rivers of a
+pretty long course fall into the Missisippi; and that even above St.
+Antony's Fall, we find in this river between thirty and thirty-five
+fathom water, and a breadth in proportion; which can never be from a
+source at no great distance off. I may add, that all the Indians,
+informed by those nearer the source, are of the same opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Though M. de Charleville did not see the source of the Missisippi, he,
+however, learned, that a great many rivers empty their waters into it:
+that even above St. Antony's Fall, he saw rivers on each side of the
+Missisippi, having a course of upwards of an hundred leagues.</p>
+
+<p>It is proper to observe, that in going down the river from St.
+Antony's Fall, the right hand is the west, the left the east. The
+first river we meet from the fall, and some leagues lower down, is the
+river St. Peter, which comes from the west: lower down to the east, is
+the river St. Croix, both of them tolerable large rivers. We meet
+several others still less, the names of which are of no consequence.
+Afterwards we meet with the river Moingona, which comes from the west,
+about two hundred and fifty leagues below the fall, and upwards of an
+hundred and fifty leagues in length. This river is somewhat brackish.
+From that river to the Illinois, several rivulets or brooks, both to
+the right and left, fall into the Missisippi. The river of the
+Illinois comes from the east, and takes its rise on the frontiers of
+Canada; its length is two hundred leagues.</p>
+
+<p>The river Missouri comes from a source about eight hundred leagues
+distant; and running from north-west to south-east, discharges itself
+into the Missisippi, about four or five leagues below the river of the
+Illinois. This river receives several others, in particular the river
+of the Canzas, which runs above an hundred and fifty leagues. From the
+rivers of the Illinois and the Missouri to the sea are reckoned five
+hundred leagues, and three hundred to St. Antony's Fall: from the
+Missouri to the Wabache, or Ohio, an hundred leagues. By this last
+river is the passage from Louisiana to Canada. This voyage is
+performed from New Orleans by going up the Missisippi to the Wabache;
+which they go up in the same manner quite to <a name="page-111"></a> the river of the
+Miamis; in which they proceed as far as the Carrying-place; from which
+there are two leagues to a little river which falls into Lake Erie.
+Here they change their vessels; they come in pettyaugres, and go down
+the river St. Laurence to Quebec in birch canoes. On the river St.
+Laurence are several carrying-places, on account of its many falls or
+cataracts.</p>
+
+
+<p>Those who have performed this voyage, have told me they reckoned
+eighteen hundred leagues from New Orleans to Quebec.<sup><a href="#fn-37" name="fr-37">37</a></sup>
+Though the Wabache is considered in
+Louisiana, as the most considerable of the rivers which come from
+Canada, and which, uniting in one bed, form the river commonly called
+by that name, yet all the Canadian travellers assure me, that the
+river called Ohio, and which falls into the Wabache, comes a much
+longer way than this last; which should be a reason for giving it the
+name Ohio; but custom has prevailed in this respect.<sup><a href="#fn-38" name="fr-38">38</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>From the Wabache, and on the same side, to Manchac, we see but very
+few rivers, and those very small ones, which fall into the Missisippi,
+though there are nearly three hundred and fifty leagues from the
+Wabache to Manchac.<sup><a href="#fn-39" name="fr-39">39</a></sup>
+This will, doubtless, appear something extraordinary
+to those unacquainted with the country.</p>
+
+<p>The reason, that may be assigned for it, appears quite natural and
+striking. In all that part of Louisiana, which is to the east of the
+Missisippi, the lands are so high in the neighbourhood of the river,
+that in many places the rain-water runs off from the banks of the
+Missisippi, and discharges itself into rivers, which fall either
+directly into the sea, or into lakes.</p>
+
+<p>Another very probable reason is, that from the Wabache to the sea, no
+rain falls but in sudden gusts; which defect is compensated by the
+abundant dews, so that the plants lose nothing by that means. The
+Wabache has a course of three hundred <a name="page-112"></a> leagues, and the Ohio has
+its source a hundred leagues still farther off.</p>
+
+<p>In continuing to go down the Missisippi, from the Wabache to the river
+of the Arkansas, we observe but few rivers, and those pretty small.
+The most considerable is that of St. Francis, which is distant thirty
+and odd leagues from that of the Arkansas. It is on this river of St.
+Francis, that the hunters of New Orleans go every winter to make salt
+provisions, tallow, and bears oil, for the supply of the capital.</p>
+
+<p>The river of the Arkansas, which is thirty-five leagues lower down,
+and two hundred leagues from New Orleans, is so denominated from the
+Indians of that name, who dwell on its banks, a little above its
+confluence with the Missisippi. It runs three hundred leagues, and its
+source is in the same latitude with Santa-Fé, in New Mexico, in the
+mountains of which it rises. It runs up a little to the north for a
+hundred leagues, by forming a flat elbow, or winding, and returns from
+thence to the south-east, quite to the Missisippi. It has a cataract,
+or fall, about the middle of its course. Some call it the White River,
+because in its course it receives a river of that name. The Great
+Cut-point is about forty leagues below the river of the Arkansas: this
+was a long circuit which the Missisippi formerly took, and which it
+has abridged, by making its way through this point of land.</p>
+
+<p>Below this river, still going towards the sea, we observe scarce any
+thing but brooks or rivulets, except the river of the Yasous, sixty
+leagues lower down. This river runs but about fifty leagues, and will
+hardly admit of a boat for a great way: it has taken its name from the
+nation of the Yasous, and some others dwelling on its banks.
+Twenty-eight leagues below the river of the Yasous, is a great cliff
+of a reddish free-stone: over-against this cliff are the great and
+little whirlpools.</p>
+
+<p>From this little river, we meet but with very small ones, till we come
+to the Red River, called at first the Marne, because nearly as big as
+that river, which falls into the Seine. The Nachitoches dwell on its
+banks, and it was distinguished by the name of that nation; but its
+common name, and which it still bears, is that of the Red River. It
+takes its rise in New Mexico, <a name="page-113"></a> forms an elbow to the north, in
+the same manner as the river of the Arkansas, falls down afterwards
+towards the Missisippi, running south east. They generally allow it a
+course of two hundred leagues. At about ten leagues from its
+confluence it receives the Black River, or the river of the Wachitas,
+which takes its rise pretty near that of the Arkansas. This rivulet,
+or source, forms, as is said, a fork pretty near its rise, one arm of
+which falls into the river of the Arkansas; the largest forms the
+Black River. Twenty leagues below the Red River is the Little
+Cut-point, and a league below that point are the little cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>From the Red River to the sea we observe nothing but some small
+brooks: but on the east side, twenty-five leagues above New Orleans,
+we find a channel, which is dry at low water. The inundations of the
+Missisippi formed this channel (which is called Manchac) below some
+high lands, which terminate near that place. It discharges itself into
+the lake Maurepas, and from thence into that of St. Louis, of which I
+gave an account before.</p>
+
+<p>The channel runs east south-east: formerly there was a passage through
+it; but at present it is so choaked up with dead wood, that it begins
+to have no water<sup><a href="#fn-40" name="fr-40">40</a></sup>
+but at the place where it receives the river
+Amité, which is pretty large, and which runs seventy leagues in a very
+fine country.</p>
+
+<p>A very small river falls into the lake Maurepas, to the east of
+Manchac. In proceeding eastward, we may pass from this lake into that
+of St. Louis, by a river formed by the waters of the Amité. In going
+to the north of this lake, we meet to the east the little river
+Tandgipao. From thence proceeding always east, we come to the river
+Quéfoncté, which is long and beautiful, and comes from the Chactaws.
+Proceeding in the same route, we meet the river Castin-Bayouc: we may
+afterwards quit the lake by the channel, which borders the same
+country, <a name="page-114"></a> and proceeding eastward we meet with Pearl River which
+falls into this channel.</p>
+
+<p>Farther up the coast, which lies from west to east, we meet St.
+Louis's Bay, into which a little river of that name discharges itself:
+farther on, we meet the river of the Paska-Ogoulas: and at length we
+arrive at the Bay of Mobile, which runs upwards of thirty leagues into
+the country, where it receives the river of the same name, which runs
+for about a hundred and fifty leagues from north to south. All the
+rivers I have just mentioned, and which fall not into the Missisippi,
+do in like manner run from north to south.</p>
+
+<p><a name="book-II-chapter-I-section-I"><i>Description of the Lower</i> Louisiana, <i>and the Mouths of the</i>
+Missisippi.</a></p>
+
+<p>I return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi. At a little
+distance from Manchac we meet the river of the Plaqumines; it lies to
+the west, and is rather a creek than a river. Three or four leagues
+lower down is the Fork, which is channel running to the west of the
+Missisippi, through which part of the inundations of that river run
+off. These waters pass through several lakes, and from thence to the
+sea, by Ascension Bay. As to the other rivers to the west of this bay,
+their names are unknown.</p>
+
+<p>The waters which fall into those lakes consist not only of such as
+pass through this channel, but also of those that come out of the
+Missisippi, when overflowing its banks on each side: for, of all the
+water which comes out of the Missisippi over its banks, not a drop
+ever returns into its bed; but this is only to be understood of the
+low lands, that is, between fifty and sixty leagues from the sea
+eastward, and upwards of a hundred leagues westward.</p>
+
+<p>It will, doubtless, seem strange, that a river which overflows its
+banks, should never after recover its waters again, either in whole or
+in part; and this will appear so much the more singular, as every
+where else it happens otherwise in the like circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>It appeared no less strange to myself; and I have on all occasions
+endeavoured to the utmost, to find out what could <a name="page-115"></a> produce an
+effect, which really appeared to me very extraordinary, and, I
+imagine, not without success.</p>
+
+<p>From Manchac down to the sea, it is probable, and even in some degree
+certain, that all the lands thereabouts are brought down and
+accumulated by means of the ooze which the Missisippi carries along
+with it in its annual inundations; which begin in the month of March,
+by the melting of the snow to the north, and last for about three
+months. Those oozy or muddy lands easily produce herbs and reeds; and
+when the Missisippi happens to overflow the following year, these
+herbs and reeds intercept a part of this ooze, so that those at a
+distance from the river cannot retain so large a quantity of it, since
+those that grow next the river have stopt the greatest part; and by a
+necessary consequence, the others farther off, and in proportion as
+they are distant from the Missisippi, can retain a much less quantity
+of the mud. In this manner the land rising higher along the river, in
+process of time the banks of the Missisippi became higher than the
+lands about it. In like manner also these neighbouring lakes on each
+side of the river are remains of the sea, which are not yet filled up.
+Other rivers have firm banks, formed by the lands of Nature, a land of
+the same nature with the continent, and always adhering thereto: these
+sorts of banks, instead of augmenting, do daily diminish, either by
+sinking, or tumbling down into the bed of the river. The banks of the
+Missisippi, on the contrary, increase, and cannot diminish in the low
+and accumulated lands; because the ooze, alone deposited on its banks,
+increase them; which, besides, is the reason that the Missisippi
+becomes narrower, in place of washing away the earth, and enlarging
+its bed, as all other known rivers do. If we consider these facts,
+therefore, we ought no longer to be surprised that the waters of the
+Missisippi, when once they have left their bed, can never return
+thither again.</p>
+
+<p>In order to prove this augmentation of lands, I shall relate what
+happened near Orleans: one of the inhabitants caused a well to be sunk
+at a little distance from the Missisippi, in order to procure a
+clearer water. At twenty feet deep there was found a tree laid flat,
+three feet in diameter: the height of the earth was therefore
+augmented twenty feet since the fall or lodging of that tree, as well
+by the accumulated mud, as by the <a name="page-116"></a> rotting of the leaves, which
+fall every winter, and which the Missisippi carries down in vast
+quantities. In effect, it sweeps down a great deal of mud, because it
+runs for twelve hundred leagues at least across a country which is
+nothing else but earth, which the depth of the river sufficiently
+proves. It carries down vast quantities of leaves, canes and trees,
+upon its waters, the breadth of which is always above half a league,
+and sometimes a league and a quarter. Its banks are covered with much
+wood, sometimes for the breadth of a league on each side, from its
+source to its mouth. There is nothing therefore more easy to be
+conceived, than that this river carries down with its waters a
+prodigious quantity of ooze, leaves, canes and trees, which it
+continually tears up by the roots, and that the sea throwing back
+again all these things, they should necessarily produce the lands in
+question, and which are sensibly increasing. At the entrance of the
+pass or channel to the south-east, there was built a small fort, still
+called Balise. This fort was built on a little island, without the
+mouth of the river. In 1734 it stood on the same spot, and I have been
+told that at present it is half a league within the river: the land
+therefore hath in twenty years gained this space on the sea. Let us
+now resume the sequel of the Geographical Description of Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>The coast is bounded to the west by St. Bernard's Bay, where M. de la
+Salle landed; into this bay a small river falls, and there are some
+others which discharge their waters between this bay and Ascension
+bay; the planters seldom frequent that coast. On the east the coast is
+bounded by Rio Perdido, which the French corruptedly call aux Perdrix;
+Rio Perdido signifying Lost River, aptly so called by the Spaniards,
+because it loses itself under ground, and afterwards appears again,
+and discharges itself into the sea, a little to the East of Mobile, on
+which the first French planters settled.</p>
+
+<p>From the Fork down to the sea, there is no river; nor is it possible
+there should be any, after what I have related: on the contrary, we
+find at a small distance from the Fork, another channel to the east,
+called the Bayoue of le Sueur: it is full of a soft ooze or mud, and
+communicates with the lakes which lie to the east.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-117"></a> On coming nearer to the sea, we meet, at about eight leagues
+from the principal mouth of the Missisippi, the first Pass; and a
+league lower down, the Otter Pass. These two passes or channels are
+only for pettyaugres. From this place there is no land fit to tread
+on, it being all a quagmire down to the sea. There also we find a
+point, which parts the mouths of the Missisippi: that to the right is
+called the South-Pass, or Channel; the west point of which runs two
+leagues farther into the sea than the point of the South-east Pass,
+which is to the left of that of the South Pass. At first vessels
+entered by the South-east Pass, but before we go down to it, we find
+to the left the East-Pass, which is that by which ships enter at
+present.</p>
+
+<p>At each of these three Passes or Channels there is a Bar, as in all
+other rivers: these bars are three quarters of a league broad, with
+only eight or nine feet water: but there is a channel through this
+bar, which being often subject to shift, the coasting pilot is obliged
+to be always sounding, in order to be sure of the pass: this channel
+is, at low water, between seventeen and eighteen feet deep.<sup><a href="#fn-41" name="fr-41">41</a></sup></p>
+
+<p>This description may suffice to shew that the falling in with the land
+from sea is bad; the land scarce appears two leagues off; which
+doubtless made the Spaniards call the Missisippi Rio Escondido, the
+Hid River. This river is generally muddy, owing to the waters of the
+Missouri; for before this junction the water of the Missisippi is very
+clear. I must not omit mentioning that no ship can either enter or
+continue in the river when the waters are high, on account of the
+prodigious numbers of trees, and vast quantities of dead wood, which
+it carries down, and which, together with the canes, leaves, mud, and
+sand, which the sea throws back upon the coast, are continually
+augmenting the land, and make it project into the Gulf of Mexico, like
+the bill of a bird.</p>
+
+<p>I should be naturally led to divide Louisiana into the Higher and
+Lower, on account of the great difference between <a name="page-118"></a> the two
+principal parts of this vast country. The Higher I would call that
+part in which we find stone, which we first meet with between the
+river of the Natchez and that of the Yasous, between which is a cliff
+of a fine free stone; and I would terminate that part at Manchac,
+where the high lands end. I would extend the Lower Louisiana from
+thence down to the sea. The bottom of the lands on the hills is a red
+clay, and so compact, as might afford a solid foundation for any
+building whatever. This clay is covered by a light earth, which is
+almost black, and very fertile. The grass grows there knee deep; and
+in the bottoms, which separate these small eminences, it is higher
+than the tallest man. Towards the end of September both are
+successively set on fire; and in eight or ten days young grass shoots
+up half a foot high. One will easily judge, that in such pastures
+herds of all creatures fatten extraordinarily. The flat country is
+watery, and appears to have been formed by every thing that comes down
+to the sea. I shall add, that pretty near the Nachitoches, we find
+banks of muscle-shells, such as those of which Cockle-Island is
+formed. The neighbouring nation affirms, that according to their old
+tradition, the sea formerly came up to this place. The women of this
+nation go and gather these shells, and make a powder of them, which
+they mix with the earth, of which they make their pottery, or earthen
+ware. However, I would not advise the use of these shells
+indifferently for this purpose, because they are naturally apt to
+crack in the fire: I have therefore reason to think, that those found
+at the Nachitoches have acquired their good quality only by the
+discharge of their salts, from continuing for so many ages out of the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>If we may give credit to the tradition of these people, and if we
+would reason on the facts I have advanced, we shall be naturally led
+to believe, and indeed every thing in this country shews it, that the
+Lower Louisiana is a country gained on the sea, whose bottom is a
+crystal sand, white as snow, fine as flour, and such as is found both
+to the east and west of the Missisippi; and we may expect, that in
+future ages the sea and river may form another land like that of the
+Lower Louisiana. The Fort Balise shews that a century is sufficient to
+extend Louisiana two leagues towards the sea.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-35" name="fn-35">35</a></sup>  By the
+charter granted by Louis XIV. to M. Crozat, Louisiana extends only
+"from the edge of the sea as far as the Illinois," which is not above
+half the extent assigned by our author.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-36" name="fn-36">36</a></sup>  According to the best maps and accounts
+extant, the distance from the Missisippi to the mountains of New
+Mexico is about nine hundred miles, and from the Missisippi to the
+Atlantic Ocean about six hundred; reckoning sixty miles to a degree,
+and in a straight line.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-37" name="fn-37">37</a></sup>  It is
+not above nine hundred leagues.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-38" name="fn-38">38</a></sup>  But
+not among the English; we call it the Ohio.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-39" name="fn-39">39</a></sup>  That is, from the mouth of the Ohio to
+the river Iberville, which other accounts make but two hundred and
+fifty leagues.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-40" name="fn-40">40</a></sup>  Manchac is almost dry for three quarters
+of the year: but during the inundation, the waters of the river have a
+vent through it into the lakes Ponchartrain and St. Louis. <i>Dumont</i>, II.
+297.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">This is the river Iberville, which is to be the boundary of the
+British dominions.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-41" name="fn-41">41</a></sup>
+I shall make no mention of the islands, which are frequent in the
+Missisippi, as being, properly speaking, nothing but little isles,
+produced by some trees, though the soil be nothing but a sand
+bottom.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-119"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-II">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Author's Journey in</i> Louisiana, <i>from the Natchez to the River St.
+Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Ever since my arrival in Louisiana, I made it my business to get
+information in whatever was new therein, and to make discoveries of
+such things as might be serviceable to society. I therefore resolved
+to take a journey through the country. And after leaving my plantation
+to the care of my friends and neighbours, I prepared for a journey
+into the interior parts of the province, in order to learn the nature
+of the soil, its various productions, and to make discoveries not
+mentioned by others.</p>
+
+<p>I wanted to travel both for my own instruction, and for the benefit of
+the publick: but at the same time I desired to be alone, without any
+of my own countrymen with me; who, as they neither have patience, nor
+are made for fatigue, would be ever teazing me to return again, and
+not readily take up either with the fare or accommodations, to be met
+with on such a journey. I therefore pitched upon ten Indians, who were
+indefatigable, robust, and tractable, and sufficiently skilled in
+hunting, a qualification necessary on such journeys. I explained to
+them my whole design; told them, we should avoid passing through any
+inhabited countries, and would take our journeys through such as were
+unknown and uninhabited; because I travelled in order to discover what
+no one before could inform me about. This explication pleased them;
+and on their part they promised, I should have no reason to be
+dissatisfied with them. But they objected, they were under
+apprehensions of losing themselves in countries they did not know. To
+remove these apprehensions, I shewed them a mariner's compass, which
+removed all their difficulties, after I had explained to them the
+manner of using it, in order to avoid losing our way.</p>
+
+<p>We set out in the month of September, which is the best season of the
+year for beginning a journey in this country: in the first place,
+because, during the summer, the grass is too high for travelling;
+whereas in the month of September, the meadows, the grass of which is
+then dry, are set on fire, and <a name="page-120"></a> the ground becomes smooth, and
+easy to walk on: and hence it is, that at this time, clouds of smoke
+are seen for several days together to extend over a long track of
+country; sometimes to the extent of between twenty and thirty leagues
+in length, by two or three leagues in breadth, more or less, according
+as the wind sets, and is higher or lower. In the second place, this
+season is the most commodious for travelling over those countries;
+because, by means of the rain, which ordinarily falls after the grass
+is burnt, the game spread themselves all over the meadows, and delight
+to feed on the new grass; which is the reason why travellers more
+easily find provisions at this time than at any other. What besides
+facilitates these excursions in Autumn, or in the beginning of Winter,
+is, that all works in the fields are then at an end, or at least the
+hurry of them is over.</p>
+
+<p>For the first days of our journey the game was pretty rare, because
+they shun the neighbourhood of men; if you except the deer, which are
+spread all over the country, their nature being to roam indifferently
+up and down; so that at first we were obliged to put up with this
+fare. We often met with flights of partridges, which the natives
+cannot kill, because they cannot shoot flying; I killed some for a
+change. The second day I had a turkey-hen brought to regale me. The
+discoverer, who killed it, told me, there were a great many in the
+same place, but that he could do nothing without a dog. I have often
+heard of a turkey-chace, but never had an opportunity of being at one:
+I went with him and took my dog along with me. On coming to the spot,
+we soon descried the hens, which ran off with such speed, that the
+swiftest Indian would lose his labour in attempting to outrun them. My
+dog soon came up with them, which made them take to their wings, and
+perch on the next trees; as long as they are not pursued in this
+manner, they only run, and are soon out of sight. I came near their
+place of retreat, killed the largest, a second, and my discoverer a
+third. We might have killed the whole flock; for, while they see any
+men, they never quit the tree they have once perched on. Shooting
+scares them not, as they only look at the bird that drops, and set up
+a timorous cry, as he falls.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-121"></a> Before I proceed, it is proper to say a word concerning my
+discoverers, or scouts. I had always three of them out, one a-head, and
+one on each hand of me; commonly distant a league from me, and as much
+from each other. Their condition of scouts prevented not their carrying
+each his bed, and provisions for thirty-six hours upon occasion. Though
+those near my own person were more loaded, I however sent them out,
+sometimes one, sometimes another, either to a neighbouring mountain or
+valley: so that I had three or four at least, both on my right and left,
+who went out to make discoveries a small distance off. I did thus, in
+order to have nothing to reproach myself with, in point of vigilance,
+since I had begun to take the trouble of making discoveries.</p>
+
+<p>The next business was, to make ourselves mutually understood,
+notwithstanding our distance: we agreed, therefore, on certain
+signals, which are absolutely necessary on such occasions. Every day,
+at nine in the morning, at noon, and at three in the afternoon, we
+made a smoke. This signal was the hour marked for making a short halt,
+in order to know, whether the scouts followed each other, and whether
+they were nearly at the distance agreed on. These smokes were made at
+the hours I mentioned, which are the divisions of the day according to
+the Indians. They divide their day into four equal parts; the first
+contains the half of the morning; the second is at noon; the third
+comprizes the half of the afternoon; and the fourth, the other half of
+the afternoon to the evening. It was according to this usage our
+signals were mutually made, by which we regulated our course, and
+places of rendezvous.</p>
+
+<p>We marched for some days without finding any thing which could either
+engage my attention, or satisfy my curiosity. True it is, this was
+sufficiently made up in another respect; as we travelled over a
+charming country, which might justly furnish our painters of the
+finest imagination with genuine notions of landskips. Mine, I own, was
+highly delighted with the sight of fine plains, diversified with very
+extensive and highly delightful meadows. The plains were intermixed
+with thickets, planted by the hand of Nature herself; and interspersed
+with hills, running off in gentle declivities, and with <a name="page-122"></a> valleys,
+thick set, and adorned with woods, which serve for a retreat to the
+most timorous animals, as the thickets screen the buffaloes from the
+abundant dews of the country.</p>
+
+<p>I longed much to kill a buffalo with my own hand; I therefore told my
+people my intention to kill one of the first herd we should meet; nor
+did a day pass, in which we did not see several herds; the least of
+which exceeded a hundred and thirty or a hundred and fifty in number.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we espied a herd of upwards of two hundred. The wind
+stood as I could have wished, being in our faces, and blowing from the
+herd; which is a great advantage in this chace; because when the wind
+blows from you towards the buffaloes, they come to scent you, and run
+away, before you can come within gun-shot of them; whereas, when the
+wind blows from them on the hunters, they do not fly till they can
+distinguish you by sight; and then, what greatly favours your coming
+very near to them is, that the curled hair, which falls down between
+their horns upon their eyes, is so bushy, as greatly to confuse their
+sight. In this manner I came within full gun-shot of them, pitched
+upon one of the fattest, shot him at the extremity of the shoulder,
+and brought him down stone-dead. The natives, who stood looking on,
+were ready to fire, had I happened to wound him but slightly; for in
+that case, these animals are apt to turn upon the hunter, who thus
+wounds them.</p>
+
+<p>Upon seeing the buffalo drop down dead, and the rest taking to flight,
+the natives told me, with a smile: "You kill the males, do you intend
+to make tallow?" I answered, I did it on purpose, to shew them the
+manner of making him good meat, though a male. I caused his belly to
+be opened quite warm, the entrails to be taken out directly, the
+bunch, tongue, and chines to be cut out; one of the chines to be laid
+on the coals, of which I made them all taste; and they all agreed the
+meat was juicy, and of an exquisite flavour.</p>
+
+<p>I then took occasion to remonstrate to them, that if, instead of
+killing the cows, as was always their custom, they killed the bulls,
+the difference in point of profit would be very considerable: <a name="page-123"></a>
+as, for instance, a good commerce with the French in tallow, with
+which the bulls abound; bull's flesh is far more delicate and tender
+than cow's; a third advantage is, the selling of the skins at a higher
+rate, as being much better; in fine, this kind of game, so
+advantageous to the country, would thereby escape being quite
+destroyed; whereas, by killing the cows, the breed of these animals is
+greatly impaired.</p>
+
+<p>I made a soup, that was of an exquisite flavour, but somewhat fat, of
+the broth boiled from the marrow-bones of this buffalo, the rest of
+the broth serving to make maiz-gruel, called Sagamity, which to my
+taste surpassed the best dish in France: the bunch on the back would
+have graced the table of a prince.</p>
+
+<p>In the route I held, I kept more on the sides of the hills than on the
+plains. Above some of these sides, or declivities, I found, in some
+places, little eminences, which lay peeled, or bare, and disclosed a
+firm and compact clay, or pure matrix, and of the species of that of
+Lapis Calaminaris. The intelligent in Mineralogy understand what I
+would be at. The little grass, which grows there, was observed to
+droop, as also three or four misshapen trees, no bigger than one's
+leg; one of which I caused to be cut down; when, to my astonishment, I
+saw it was upwards of sixty years standing. The neighbouring country
+was fertile, in proportion to its distance from this spot. Near that
+place we saw game of every kind, and in plenty, and never towards the
+summit.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the Missisippi several times upon Cajeux (rafts, or floats,
+made of several bundles of canes, laid across each other; a kind of
+extemporaneous pontoon,) in order to take a view of mountains which
+had raised my curiosity. I observed, that both sides of the river had
+their several advantages; but that the West side is better watered;
+appeared also to be more fruitful both in minerals, and in what
+relates to agriculture; for which last it seems much more adapted than
+the East side.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding our precaution to make signals, one of my scouts
+happened one day to stray, because the weather was <a name="page-124"></a> foggy; so
+that he did not return at night to our hut; at which I was very
+uneasy, and could not sleep; as he was not returned, though the
+signals of call had been repeated till night closed. About nine the
+next morning he cast up, telling us he had been in pursuit of a drove
+of deer, which were led by one that was altogether white: but that not
+being able to come up with them, he picked up, on the side of a hill,
+some small sharp stones, of which he brought a sample.</p>
+
+<p>These stones I received with pleasure, because I had not yet seen any
+in all this country, only a hard red free-stone in a cliff on the
+Missisippi. After carefully examining those which my discoverer
+brought me, I found they were a gypsum. I took home some pieces, and
+on my return examined them more attentively; found them to be very
+clear, transparent, and friable; when calcined, they turned extremely
+white, and with them I made some factitious marble. This gave me hopes
+that this country, producing Plaster of Paris, might, besides, have
+stones for building.</p>
+
+<p>I wanted to see the spot myself: we set out about noon, and travelled
+for about three leagues before we came to it. I examined the spot,
+which to me appeared to be a large quarry of Plaster.</p>
+
+<p>As to the white deer above mentioned, I learned from the Indians, that
+some such were to be met with, though but rarely, and that only in
+countries not frequented by the hunters.</p>
+
+<p>The wind being set in for rain, we resolved to put ourselves under
+shelter. The place where the bad weather overtook us was very fit to
+set up at. On going out to hunt, we discovered at five hundred paces
+off, in the defile, or narrow pass, a brook of a very clear water, a
+very commodious watering-place for the buffaloes, which were in great
+numbers all around us.</p>
+
+<p>My companions soon raised a cabin, well-secured to the North. As we
+resolved to continue there for eight days at least, they made it so
+close as to keep out the cold: in the night, I felt nothing of the
+severity of the North wind, though I lay but lightly covered. My bed
+consisted of a bear's skin, and two robes or coats of buffalo; the
+bear skin, with the flesh side <a name="page-125"></a> undermost, being laid on leaves,
+and the pile uppermost by way of straw-bed; one of the buffalo coats
+folded double by way of feather-bed; one half of the other under me
+served for a matrass, and the other over me for a coverlet: three
+canes, or boughs, bent to a semicircle, one at the head, another in
+the middle, and a third at the feet, supported a cloth which formed my
+tester and curtains, and secured me from the injuries of the air, and
+the stings of gnats and moskitto's. My Indians had their ordinary
+hunting and travelling beds, which consist of a deer skin and a
+buffalo coat, which they always carry with them, when they expect to
+lie out of their villages. We rested nine days, and regaled ourselves
+with choice buffalo, turkey, partridge, pheasants, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>The discovery I had made of the plaster, put me to look out, during our
+stay, in all the places round about, for many leagues. I was at last
+tired of beating about such fine plains, without discovering the least
+thing, and I had resolved to go forward to the North when at the
+noon-signal the scout a-head waited to shew me a shining and sharp
+stone, of the length and size of one's thumb, and as square as a joiner
+could have made a piece of wood of the same bigness. I imagined it might
+be rock-crystal; to be assured thereof, I took a large musquet flint in
+my left hand, presenting its head, or thick end, on which I struck with
+one of the edges of the crystal, and drew much more fire than with the
+finest steel: and notwithstanding the many strokes I gave, the piece of
+crystal was not in the least scratched or streaked.</p>
+
+<p>I examined these stones, and found pieces of different magnitudes,
+some square, others with six faces, even and smooth like mirrors,
+highly transparent, without any veins or spots. Some of these pieces
+jutted out of the earth, like ends of beams, two feet and upwards in
+length; others in considerable numbers, from seven to nine inches;
+above all, those with six panes or faces. There was a great number of
+a middling and smaller sort: my people wanted to carry some with them;
+but I dissuaded them. My reason was, I apprehended some Frenchman
+might by presents prevail on them to discover the place.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-126"></a> For my part, I carefully observed the latitude, and followed, on
+setting out, a particular point of the compass, to come to a river
+which I knew. I took that route, under pretense of going to a certain
+nation to procure dry provisions, which we were in want of, and which
+are of great help on a journey.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived, after seven days march, at that nation, by whom we were
+well received. My hunters brought in daily many duck and teal. I
+agreed with the natives of the place for a large pettyaugre of black
+walnut, to go down the river, and afterwards to go up the Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>I had a strong inclination to go up still higher north, in order to
+discover mines. We embarked, and the eleventh day of our passage I
+caused the pettyaugre to be unladen of every thing, and concealed in
+the water, which was then low. I loaded seven men with the things we
+had.</p>
+
+<p>Matters thus ordered, we set out according to the intention I had to
+go to the northward. I observed every day, with new pleasure, the more
+we advanced to that quarter, the more beautiful and fertile the
+country was, abounding in game of every kind: the herds of deer are
+numerous; at every turn we meet with them; and not a day passed
+without seeing herds of buffaloes, sometimes five or six, of upwards
+of an hundred in a drove.</p>
+
+<p>In such journeys as these we always take up our night's lodging near
+wood and water, where we put up in good time: then at sun-set, when
+every thing in nature is hushed, we were charmed with the enchanting
+warbling of different birds; so that one would be inclined to say,
+they reserved this favourable moment for the melody and harmony of
+their song, to celebrate undisturbed and at their ease, the benefits
+of the Creator. On the other hand, we are disturbed in the night, by
+the hideous noise of the numberless water-fowls that are to be seen on
+the Missisippi, and every river or lake near it, such as cranes,
+flamingo's, wild geese, herons, saw-bills, ducks, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>As we proceeded further north, we began to see flocks of swans roam
+through the air, mount out of sight, and proclaim <a name="page-127"></a> their passage
+by their piercing shrill cries. We for some days followed the course
+of a river, at the head of which we found, in a very retired place, a
+beaver-dam.</p>
+
+<p>We set up our hut within reach of this retreat, or village of beavers,
+but at such a distance, as that they could not observe our fire. I put
+my people on their guard against making any noise, or firing their
+pieces, for fear of scaring those animals; and thought it even
+necessary to forbid them to cut any wood, the better to conceal
+ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>After taking all these precautions, we rose and were on foot against the
+time of moonshine, posted ourselves in a place as distant from the huts
+of the beavers, as from the causey or bank, which dammed up the waters
+of the place where they were. I took my fusil and pouch, according to my
+custom of never travelling without them. But each Indian was only to
+take with him a little hatchet, which all travellers in this country
+carry with them. I took the oldest of my retinue, after having pointed
+out to the others the place of ambush, and the manner in which the
+branches of trees we had cut were to be set to cover us. I then went
+towards the middle of the dam, with my old man, who had his hatchet, and
+ordered him softly to make a gutter or trench, a foot wide, which he
+began on the outside of the causey or dam, crossing it quite to the
+water. This he did by removing the earth with his hands. As soon as the
+gutter was finished, and the water ran into it, we speedily, and without
+any noise, retired to our place of ambush, in order to observe the
+behaviour of the beavers in repairing this breach.</p>
+
+<p>A little after we were got behind our screen of boughs, we heard the
+water of the gutter begin to make a noise: and a moment after, a beaver
+came out of his hut and plunged into the water. We could only know this
+by the noise, but we saw him at once upon the bank or dam, and
+distinctly perceived that he took a survey of the gutter, after which he
+instantly gave with all his force four blows with his tail; and had
+scarce struck the fourth, but all the beavers threw themselves pell-mell
+into the water, and came upon the dam: when they were all come thither,
+one of them muttered and mumbled to the <a name="page-128"></a> rest (who all stood very
+attentive) I know not what orders, but which they doubtless understood
+well, because they instantly departed, and went out on the banks of the
+pond, one party one way; another, another way. Those next us were
+between us and the dam, and we at the proper distance not to be seen,
+and to observe them. Some of them made mortar, others carried it on
+their tails, which served for sledges. I observed they put themselves
+two and two, side by side, the one with his head to the other's tail,
+and thus mutually loaded each other, and trailed the mortar, which was
+pretty stiff, quite to the dam, where others remained to take it, put it
+into the gutter, and rammed it with blows of their tails.</p>
+
+<p>The noise which the water made before by its fall, soon ceased, and
+the breach was closed in a short time: upon which one of the beavers
+struck two great blows with his tail, and instantly they all took to
+the water without any noise, and disappeared. We retired, in order to
+take a little rest in our hut, where we remained till day; but as soon
+as it appeared, I longed much to satisfy my curiosity about these
+creatures.</p>
+
+<p>My people together made a pretty large and deep breach, in order to
+view the construction of the dam, which I shall describe presently: we
+then made noise enough without further ceremony. This noise, and the
+water, which the beavers observed soon to lower, gave them much
+uneasiness; so that I saw one of them at different times come pretty
+near to us, in order to examine what passed.</p>
+
+<p>As I apprehended that when the water was run off they would all take
+flight to the woods, we quitted the breach, and went to conceal
+ourselves all round the pond, in order to kill only one, the more
+narrowly to examine it; especially as these beavers were of the grey
+kind, which are not so common as the brown.</p>
+
+<p>One of the beavers ventured to go upon the breach, after having
+several times approached it, and returned again like a spy. I lay in
+ambush in the bottom, at the end of the dam: I saw him return; he
+surveyed the breach, then struck four blows, which saved his life, for
+I then aimed at him. But these <a name="page-129"></a> four blows, so well struck, made
+me judge it was the signal of call for all the rest, just as the night
+before. This also made me think he might be the overseer of the works,
+and I did not choose to deprive the republic of beavers of a member
+who appeared so necessary to it. I therefore waited till others should
+appear: a little after, one came and passed close by me, in order to
+go to work; I made no scruple to lay him at his full length, on the
+persuasion he might only be a common labourer. My shot made them all
+return to their cabins, with greater speed than a hundred blows of the
+tail of their Overseer could have done. As soon as I had killed this
+beaver, I called my companions; and finding the water did not run off
+quick enough, I caused the breach to be widened, and I examined the
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>I observed these beavers to be a third less than the brown or common
+sort, but their make the same; having the same head, same sharp teeth,
+same beards, legs as short, paws equally furnished with claws, and
+with membranes or webs, and in all respects made like the others. The
+only difference is, that they are of an ash-gray, and that the long
+pile, which passes over the soft wool, is silvered, or whitish.</p>
+
+<p>During this examination, I caused my people to cut boughs, canes, and
+reeds, to be thrown in towards the end of the pond, in order to pass
+over the little mud which was in that place; and at the same time I
+caused some shot to be fired on the cabins that lay nearest us. The
+report of the guns, and the rattling of the shot on the roofs of the
+cabins, made them all fly into the woods with the greatest
+precipitation imaginable. We came at length to a cabin, in which there
+were not six inches of water. I caused to undo the roof without
+breaking any thing, during which I saw the piece of aspin-tree, which
+was laid under the cabin for their provisions.</p>
+
+<p>I observed fifteen pieces of wood, with their bark in part gnawed. The
+cabin also had fifteen cells round the hole in the middle, at which
+they went out; which made me think each had his own cell.</p>
+
+<p>I am now to give a sketch of the architecture of these amphibious
+animals, and an account of their villages; it is thus <a name="page-130"></a> I call the
+place of their abode, after the Canadians and the Indians, with whom I
+agree; and allow, these animals deserve, so much the more to be
+distinguished from others, as I find their instinct far superior to
+that of other animals. I shall not carry the parallel any farther, it
+might become offensive.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-v"><img src="images/illus05.png" alt="TOP: Beaver&mdash;MIDDLE: Beaver lodge>&mdash;BOTTOM:
+Beaver dam" height="380" width="224"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Beaver</i>&mdash;MIDDLE: <i>Beaver lodge</i>&mdash;BOTTOM:
+<i>Beaver dam</i></p>
+
+<p>The cabins of the beavers are round, having about ten or twelve feet
+in diameter, according to the number, more or <a name="page-131"></a> less, of fixed
+inhabitants. I mean, that this diameter is to be taken on the flooring
+at about a foot above the water, when it is even with the dam: but as
+the upper part runs to a point, the under is much larger than the
+flooring, which we may represent to ourselves, by supposing all the
+upright posts to resemble the legs of a great A, whose middle stroke
+is the flooring. These posts are picked out, and we might say, well
+proportioned, seeing, at the height this flooring is to be laid at,
+there is a hook for bearing bars, which by that means form the
+circumference of the flooring. The bars again bear traverses, or cross
+pieces of timber, which are the joists; canes and grass complete this
+flooring, which has a hole in the middle to go out at, when they
+please, and into this all the cells open.</p>
+
+<p>The dam is formed of timbers, in the shape of St. Andrew's cross, or
+of a great X, laid close together, and kept firm by timbers laid
+lengthwise, which are continued from one end of the dam to the other,
+and placed on the St. Andrew's crosses: the whole is filled with
+earth, clapped close by great blows of their tails. The inside of the
+dam, next the water, is almost perpendicular; but on the outside it
+has a great slope, that grass coming to grow thereon, may prevent the
+water that passes there, to carry away the earth.</p>
+
+<p>I saw them neither cut nor convey the timbers along, but it is to be
+presumed their manner is the same as that of other Beavers, who never
+cut but a soft wood; for which purpose they use their fore-teeth,
+which are extremely sharp. These timbers they push and roll before
+them on the land, as they do on the water, till they come to the place
+where they want to lay them. I observed these grey Beavers to be more
+chilly, or sensible of cold, than the other species: and it is
+doubtless for this reason they draw nearer to the south.</p>
+
+<p>We set out from this place to come to a high ground, which seemed to
+be continued to a great distance. We came the same evening to the foot
+of it, but the day was too far advanced to ascend it. The day
+following we went to its top, found it a flat, except some small
+eminences at intervals. There appeared to be very little wood on it,
+still less water, and least of all stone; though probably there may be
+some in its bowels, having <a name="page-132"></a> observed some stones in a part where
+the earth was tumbled down.</p>
+
+<p>We accurately examined all this rising ground, without discovering any
+thing; and though that day we travelled upwards of five leagues, yet
+we were not three leagues distant from the hut we set out from in the
+morning. This high ground would have been a very commodious situation
+for a fine palace; as from its edges is a very distant prospect.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, after a ramble of about two leagues and a half, I had the
+signal of call to my right. I instantly flew thither; and when I came,
+the scout shewed me a stump sticking out of the earth knee high, and
+nine inches in diameter. The Indian took it at a distance for the
+stump of a tree, and was surprised to find wood cut in a country which
+appeared to have been never frequented: but when he came near enough
+to form a judgement about it, he saw from the figure, that it was a
+very different thing: and this was the reason he made the signal of
+call.</p>
+
+<p>I was highly pleased at this discovery, which was that of a lead-ore.
+I had also the satisfaction to find my perseverance recompensed; but
+in particular I was ravished with admiration, on seeing this wonderful
+production, and the power of the soil of this province, constraining,
+as it were, the minerals to disclose themselves. I continued to search
+all around, and I discovered ore in several places. We returned to
+lodge at our last hut, on account of the convenience of water, which
+was too scarce on this high ground.</p>
+
+<p>We set out from thence, in order to come nearer to the Missisippi:
+through every place we passed, nothing but herds of buffaloes, elk,
+deer, and other animals of every kind, were to be seen; especially
+near rivers and brooks. Bears, on the other hand, keep in the thick
+woods, where they find their proper food.</p>
+
+<p>After a march of five days I espied a mountain to my right, which
+seemed so high as to excite my curiosity. Next morning I directed
+thither my course, where we arrived about three in the afternoon. We
+stopped at the foot of the mountain, where we found a fine spring
+issuing out of the rock.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-133"></a> The day following we went up to its top, where it is stony.
+Though there is earth enough for plants, yet they are so thin sown,
+that hardly two hundred could be found on an acre of ground. Trees are
+also very rare on that spot, and these poor, meagre, and cancerous.
+The stones I found there are all fit for making lime.</p>
+
+<p>We from thence took the route that should carry us to our pettyaugre,
+a journey but of a few days. We drew the pettyaugre out of the water,
+and there passed the night. Next day we crossed the Missisippi; in
+going up which we killed a she-bear, with her cubs: for during the
+winter, the banks of the Missisippi are lined with them; and it is
+rare, in going up the river, not to see many cross it in a day, in
+search of food: the want of which makes them quit the banks.</p>
+
+<p>I continued my route in going up the Missisippi quite to the Chicasaw
+Cliffs, (Ecores à Prud'homme) where I was told I should find something
+for the benefit of the colony: this was what excited my curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>Being arrived at those cliffs we landed, and concealed, after unlading
+it, the pettyaugre in the water; and from that day I sought, and at
+length found the iron-mine, of which I had some hints given me. After
+being sure of this, I carefully searched all around, to find Castine:
+but this was impossible: however, I believe it may be found higher up in
+ascending the Missisippi, but that care I leave to those who hereafter
+shall choose to undertake the working that mine. I had, however, some
+amends made me for my trouble; as in searching, I found some marks of
+pit-coal in the neighbourhood, a thing at least as useful in other parts
+of the colony as in this.</p>
+
+<p>After having made my reflections, I resolved in a little time to
+return home; but being loth to leave so fine a country, I penetrated a
+little farther into it; and in his short excursion I espied a small
+hill, all bare and parched, having on its top only two trees in a very
+drooping condition, and scarce any grass, besides some little tufts,
+distant enough asunder, which grew on a very firm clay. The bottom of
+this hill was not so barren, and the adjacent country fertile as in
+other parts. <a name="page-134"></a> These indications made me presume there might be a
+mine in that spot.</p>
+
+<p>I at length returned towards the Missisippi, in order to meet again the
+pettyaugre. As in all this country, and in all the height of the colony
+we find numbers of buffaloes, elk, deer, and other game; so we find
+numbers of wolves, some tigers, Cat-a-mounts, (Pichous) and
+carrion-crows, all of them carnivorous animals, which I shall hereafter
+describe. When we came near the Missisippi we made the signal of
+recognition, which was answered, though at some distance. It was there
+my people killed some buffaloes, to be dressed and cured in their
+manner, for our journey. We embarked at length, and went down the
+Missisippi, till we came within a league of the common landing-place.
+The Indians hid the pettyaugre, and went to their village. As for
+myself, I got home towards dusk, where I found my neighbours and slaves
+surprised, and at the same time glad, at my unexpected return, as if it
+had been from a hunting-match in the neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>I was really well pleased to have got home, to see my slaves in
+perfect health, and all my affairs in good order: But I was strongly
+impressed with the beauties of the countries I had seen. I could have
+wished to end my days in those charming solitudes, at a distance from
+the tumultuous hurry of the world, far from the pinching gripe of
+avarice and deceit. There it is, said I to myself, one relishes a
+thousand innocent delights, and which are repeated with a satisfaction
+ever new. It is there one lives exempt from the assaults of censure,
+detraction, and calumny. In those delightsome meadows, which often
+extend far out of sight, and where we see so many different species of
+animals, there it is we have occasion to admire the beneficence of the
+Creator. To conclude, there it is, that at the gentle purling of a
+pure and living water, and enchanted with the concerts of birds, which
+fill the neighbouring thickets, we may agreeably contemplate the
+wonders of nature, and examine them all at our leisure.</p>
+
+<p>I had reasons for concealing my journey, and stronger reasons still to
+suppress what I had discovered, in order to avail myself thereof
+afterwards: but the crosses I underwent, and <a name="page-135"></a> the misfortunes of
+my life, have, to this day, prevented me from profiting by these
+discoveries, in returning to that charming country, and even so much
+as to lay them before the public.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-III">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the Coast.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In order to describe the nature of this country with some method, I
+shall first speak of the place we land at, and shall therefore begin
+with the coast: I shall then go up the Missisippi; the reverse of what
+I did in the Geographical Description, in which I described that river
+from its source down to its mouth.</p>
+
+<p>The coast, which was the first inhabited, extends from Rio Perdido to
+the lake of St. Louis: this ground is a very fine land, white as snow,
+and so dry, as not to be fit to produce any thing but pine, cedar, and
+some ever-green oaks.</p>
+
+<p>The river Mobile is the most considerable of that coast to the east.<sup><a href="#fn-42" name="fr-42">42</a></sup>
+It rolls its waters
+over a pure sand, which cannot make it muddy. But if this water is
+clear, it partakes of the sterility of its bottom, so that it is far
+from abounding so much in fish as the Missisippi. Its banks and
+neighbourhood are not very fertile from its source down to the sea.
+The ground is stony, and scarce any thing but gravel, mixt with a
+little earth. Though these lands are not quite barren, there is a wide
+difference between their productions and those of the lands in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi. Mountains there are, but whether
+stone fit for building, I know not.</p>
+
+<p>In the confines of the river of the Alibamous (Creeks) the lands are
+better: the river falls into the Mobile, above the bay of the same
+name. This bay may be about thirty leagues in length, after having
+received the Mobile, which runs from <a name="page-136"></a> north to south for about
+one hundred and fifty leagues. On the banks of this river was the
+first settlement of the French in Louisiana, which stood till New
+Orleans was founded, which is at this day the capital of the colony.</p>
+
+<p>The lands and water of the Mobile are not only unfruitful in all kinds
+of vegetables and fish, but the nature of the waters and the soil
+contributes also to prevent the multiplication of animals; even women
+have experienced this. I understood by Madam Hubert, whose husband was
+at my arrival Commissary Director of the colony, that in the time the
+French were in that post, there were seven or eight barren women, who
+all became fruitful, after settling with their husbands on the banks
+of the Missisippi, where the capital was built, and whither the
+settlement was removed.</p>
+
+<p>Fort St. Louis of Mobile was the French post. This fort stands on the
+banks of that river, near another small river, called Dog River, which
+falls into the bay to the south of the fort.</p>
+
+<p>Though these countries are not so fertile as those in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi; we are, however, to observe, that the
+interior parts of the country are much better than those near the sea.</p>
+
+<p>On the coast to the west of Mobile, we find islands not worth
+mentioning.</p>
+
+<p>From the sources of the river of the Paska-Ogoulas, quite to those of
+the river of Quefoncté, which falls into the lake of St. Louis, the
+lands are light and fertile, but something gravelly, on account of the
+neighbourhood of the mountains that lie to the north. This country is
+intermixt with extensive hills, fine meadows, numbers of thickets, and
+sometimes with woods, thick set with cane, particularly on the banks
+of rivers and brooks; and is extremely proper for agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>The mountains which I said these countries have to the north, form
+nearly the figure of a chaplet, with one end pretty near the
+Missisippi, the other on the banks of the Mobile. The inner part of
+this chaplet or chain is filled with hills; which <a name="page-137"></a> are pretty
+fertile in grass, simples, fruits of the country, horse-chesnuts, and
+wild-chesnuts, as large, and at least as good as those of Lyons.</p>
+
+<p>To the north of this chain of mountains lies the country of the
+Chicasaws, very fine and free of mountains: it has only very extensive
+and gentle eminences, or rising grounds, fertile groves and meadows,
+which in springtime are all over red, from the great plenty of wood
+strawberries: in summer, the plains exhibit the most beautiful enamel,
+by the quantity and variety of the flowers: in autumn, after the
+setting fire to the grass, they are covered with mushrooms.</p>
+
+<p>All the countries I have just mentioned are stored with game of every
+kind. The buffalo is found on the most rising grounds; the partridge
+in thick open woods, such as the groves in meadows; the elks delight
+in large forests, as also the pheasant; the deer, which is a roving
+animal, is every where to be met with, because in whatever place it
+may happen to be, it always has something to browse on. The ring-dove
+here flies in winter with such rapidity, as to pass over a great deal
+of country in a few hours; ducks and other aquatick game are in such
+numbers, that wherever there is water, we are sure to find many more
+than it is possible for us to shoot, were we to do nothing else; and
+thus we find game in every place, and fish in plenty in the rivers.</p>
+
+<p>Let us resume the coast; which, though flat and dry, on account of its
+sand, abounds with delicious fish, and excellent shell-fish. But the
+crystal sand, which is pernicious to the sight by its whiteness, might
+it not be adapted for making some beautiful composition or
+manufacture? Here I leave the learned to find out what use this sand
+may be of.</p>
+
+<p>If this coast is flat, it has in this respect an advantage; as we
+might say, Nature wanted to make it so, in order to be self-defended
+against the descent of an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Coming out of the Bay of Paska-Ogoulas, if we still proceed west, we
+meet in our way with the Bay of Old Biloxi, where a fort was built,
+and a settlement begun; but a great fire, spread by a violent wind,
+destroyed it in a few moments, which in prudence ought never to have
+been built at all.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-138"></a> Those who settled at Old Biloxi could not, doubtless, think of
+quitting the sea-coast. They settled to the west, close to New-Biloxi,
+on a sand equally dry and pernicious to the sight. In this place the
+large grants happened to be laid off, which were extremely
+inconvenient to have been made on so barren a soil; where it was
+impossible to find the least plant or greens for any money, and where
+the hired servants died with hunger in the most fertile colony in the
+whole world.</p>
+
+<p>In pursuing the same route and the same coast westward, the lands are
+still the same, quite to the small Bay of St. Louis, and to the
+Channels, which lead to the lake of that name. At a distance from the
+sea the earth is of a good quality, fit for agriculture; as being a
+light soil, but something gravelly. The coast to the north of the Bay
+of St. Louis is of a different nature, and much more fertile. The
+lands at a greater distance to the north of this last coast, are not
+very distant from the Missisippi; they are also much more fruitful
+than those to the cast of this bay in the same latitude.</p>
+
+<p>In order to follow the sea-coast down to the mouth of the Missisippi,
+we must proceed almost south, quitting the Channel. I have elsewhere
+mentioned, that we have to pass between Cat-Island, which we leave to
+the left, and Cockle-Island, which we leave to the right. In making
+this ideal route, we pass over banks almost level with the water,
+covered with a vast number of islets; we leave to the left the
+Candlemas-Isles, which are only heaps of sand, having the form of a
+gut cut in pieces; they rise but little above the sea, and scarcely
+yield a dozen of plants, just as in the neighbouring islets I have now
+mentioned. We leave to the right lake Borgne, which is another outlet
+of the lake St. Louis, and continuing the same route by several
+outlets for a considerable way, we find a little open clear sea, and
+the coast to the right, which is but a quagmire, gradually formed by a
+very soft ooze, on which some reeds grow. This coast leads soon to the
+East Pass or channel, which is one of the mouths of the Missisippi,
+and this we find bordered with a like soil, if indeed it deserves the
+name of soil.</p>
+
+<p>There is, moreover, the South-east Pass, where stands Balise, and the
+South Pass, which projects farther into the sea. <a name="page-139"></a> Balise is a
+fort built on an island of sand, secured by a great number of piles
+bound with good timber-work. There are lodgings in it for the officers
+and the garrison; and a sufficient number of guns for defending the
+entrance of the Missisippi. It is there they take the bar-pilot on
+board, in order to bring the ships into the river. All the passes and
+entrances of the Missisippi are as frightful to the eye, as the
+interior part of the colony is delightful to it.</p>
+
+<p>The quagmires continue still for about seven leagues going up the
+Missisippi, at the entrance of which we meet a bar, three fourths of a
+league broad; which we cannot pass without the bar-pilot, who alone is
+acquainted with the channel.</p>
+
+<p>All the west coast resembles that which I mentioned, from Mobile to
+the bay of St. Louis; it is equally flat, formed of a like sand, and a
+bar of isles, which lengthen out the coast, and hinder a descent; the
+coast continues thus, going westward, quite to Ascension Bay, and even
+a little farther. Its soil also is also barren, and in every respect
+like to that I have just mentioned.</p>
+
+
+<p>I again enter the Missisippi, and pass with speed over these
+quagmires, incapable to bear up the traveller, and which only afford a
+retreat to gnats and moskittos, and to some water-fowl, which,
+doubtless, find food to live on, and that in security.</p>
+
+<p>On coming out of these marshes, we find a neck of land on each side of
+the Missisippi; this indeed is firm land, but lined with marshes,
+resembling those at the entrance of the river. For the space of three
+or four leagues, this neck of land is at first bare of trees, but
+comes after to be covered with them, so as to intercept the winds,
+which the ships require, in order to go up the river to the capital.
+This land, though very narrow, is continued, together with the trees
+it bears, quite to the English Reach, which is defended by two forts;
+one to the right, the other to the left of the Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>The origin of the name, English Reach, (Detour aux Anglois) is
+differently assigned. I made enquiry of the oldest of the country, to
+what circumstance this Reach might owe its <a name="page-140"></a> name. And they told
+me, that before the first settlement of the French in this colony, the
+English, having heard of the beauty of the country, which they had,
+doubtless, visited before, in going thither from Carolina by land,
+attempted to make themselves masters of the entrance of the
+Missisippi, and to go up the river, in order to fortify themselves on
+the first firm ground they could meet. Excited by that jealousy which
+is natural to them, they took such precautions as they imagined to be
+proper, in order to succeed.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians on their part, who had already seen or heard of several
+people (French) having gone up and down the Missisippi at different
+times; the Indians, I say, who, perhaps, were not so well pleased with
+such neighbours, were still more frightened at seeing a ship enter the
+river, which determined them to stop its passage; but this was
+impossible, as long as the English had any wind, of which they availed
+themselves quite to this Reach. These Indians were the Ouachas and
+Chaouachas, who dwelt to the west of the Missisippi, and below this
+Reach. There were of them on each side of the river, and they lying in
+the canes, observed the English, and followed them as they went up,
+without daring to attack them.</p>
+
+<p>When the English were come to the entrance of this Reach, the little
+wind they had failed them; observing besides, that the Missisippi made
+a great turn or winding, they despaired of succeeding; and wanted to
+moor in this spot, for which purpose they must bring a rope to land:
+but the Indians shot a great number of arrows at them, till the report
+of a cannon, fired at random, scattered them, and gave the signal to
+the English to go on board, for fear the Indians should come in
+greater numbers, and cut them to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the origin of the name of this Reach. The Missisippi in this
+place forms the figure of a crescent, almost closed; so that the same
+wind which brings up a ship, proves often contrary, when come to the
+Reach; and this is the reason that ships moor, and go up towed, or
+tacking. This Reach is six or seven leagues; some assign it eight,
+more or less, according as they happen to make way.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-141"></a> The lands on both sides of this Reach are inhabited, though the
+depth of soil is inconsiderable. Immediately above this Reach stands
+New Orleans, the capital of this colony, on the east of the
+Missisippi. A league behind the town, directly back from the river, we
+meet with a Bayouc or creek, which can bear large boats with oars. In
+following this Bayouc for the space of a league, we go to the lake St.
+Louis, and after traversing obliquely this last, we meet the Channels,
+which lead to Mobile, where I began my description of the nature of
+the soil of Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>The ground on which New Orleans is situated, being an earth accumulated
+by the ooze, in the same manner as is that both below and above, a good
+way from the capital, is of a good quality for agriculture, only that it
+is strong, and rather too fat. This land being flat, and drowned by the
+inundations for several ages, cannot fail to be kept in moisture, there
+being, moreover, only a mole or bank to prevent the river from
+over-flowing it; and would be even too moist, and incapable of
+cultivation, had not this mole been made, and ditches, close to each
+other, to facilitate the draining off the waters: by this means it has
+been put in a condition to be cultivated with success.</p>
+
+<p>From New Orleans to Manchac on the east of the Missisippi, twenty-five
+leagues above the capital, and quite to the Fork to the west, almost
+over-against Manchac, and a little way off, the lands are of the same
+kind and quality with those of New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-42" name="fn-42">42</a></sup>  This river, which they call Mobile, and which after the
+rains of winter is a fine river in spring, is but a brook in summer,
+especially towards its source. <i>Dumont</i>, II, 228.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Quality of the Lands above the</i> Fork. <i>A Quarry of Stone for building</i>.
+<i>High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility. West Coast: West Lands:
+Saltpetre</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>To the west, the Fork, the lands are pretty flat, but exempt from
+inundations. The part best known of these lands is called Baya-Ogoula,
+a name framed Bayouc and Ogoula, which signifies the nation dwelling
+near the Bayouc; there having been a nation of that name in that
+place, when the first Frenchmen <a name="page-142"></a> came down the Missisippi; it
+lies twenty-five leagues from the capital.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-vi"><img src="images/illus06.png" alt="Indians of the North leaving in the winter with their
+families for a hunt" height="202" width="331"></a><br>
+<i>Indians of the North leaving in the winter with their
+families for a hunt</i></p>
+
+<p>But to the east, the lands are a good deal higher, seeing from Manchac
+to the river Wabache they are between an hundred and two hundred feet
+higher than the Missisippi in its greatest floods. The slope of these
+lands goes off perpendicularly from the Missisippi, which on that side
+receives but few rivers, and those very small, if we except the river
+of the Yasous, whose course is not above fifty leagues.</p>
+
+<p>All these high lands are, besides, surmounted, in a good many places,
+by little eminences, or small hills, and rising grounds running off
+lengthwise, with gentle slopes. It is only when we go a little way
+from the Missisippi, that we find these high lands are over-topped by
+little mountains, which appear to be all of earth, though steep,
+without the least gravel or pebble being perceived on them.</p>
+
+<p>The soil on these high lands is very good; it is a black light mold,
+about three feet deep on the hills or rising grounds. This upper earth
+lies upon a reddish clay, very strong and stiff; the lowest places
+between these hills are of the same nature, <a name="page-143"></a> but there the black
+earth is between five and six feet deep. The grass growing in the
+hollows is of the height of a man, and very slender and fine; whereas
+the grass of the same meadow on the high lands rises scarce knee deep;
+as it does on the highest eminences, unless there is found something
+underneath, which not only renders the grass shorter, but even
+prevents its growth by the efficacy of some exhalations; which is not
+ordinarily the case on hills, though rising high, but only on the
+mountains properly so called.</p>
+
+<p>My experience in architecture having taught me, that several quarries
+have been found under a clay like this, I was always of opinion there
+must be some in those hills.</p>
+
+<p>Since I made these reflections, I have had occasion, in my journey to
+the country, to confirm these conjectures. We had set up our hut at
+the foot of an eminence, which was steep towards us, and near a
+fountain, whose water was lukewarm and pure.</p>
+
+<p>This fountain appeared to me to issue out of a hole, which was formed
+by the sinking of the earth. I stooped in order to take a better view
+of it, and I observed stone, which to the eye appeared proper for
+building, and the upper part which was this clay, which is peculiar to
+the country. I was highly pleased to be thus ascertained, that there
+was stone fit for building in this colony, where it is imagined there
+is none, because it does not come out of the earth to shew-itself.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be wondered, that there is none to be found in the Lower
+Louisiana, which is only an earth accumulated by ooze; but it is far
+more extraordinary, not to see a flint, nor even a pebble on the
+hills, for upwards of an hundred leagues sometimes; however, this is a
+thing common in this province.</p>
+
+<p>I imagine I ought to assign a reason for it, which seems pretty
+probable to me. This land has never been turned, or dug, and is very
+close above the clay, which is extremely hard, and covers the stone,
+which cannot shew itself through such a covering: it is therefore no
+such surprise, that we observe no stone out of the earth in these
+plains and on these eminences.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-144"></a> All these high lands are generally meadows and forests of tall
+trees, with grass up to the knee. Along gullies they prove to be
+thickets, in which wood of every kind is found, and also the fruits of
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>Almost all these lands on the east of the river are such as I have
+described; that is, the meadows are on those high grounds, whose slope
+is very gentle; we also find there tall forests, and thickets in the
+low bottoms. In the meadows we observe here and there groves of very
+tall and straight oaks, to the number of fourscore or an hundred at
+most: there are others of about forty or fifty, which seem to have
+been planted by men's hands in these meadows, for a retreat to the
+buffaloes, deer, and other animals, and a screen against storms, and
+the sting of the flies.</p>
+
+<p>The tall forests are all hiccory, or all oak: in these last we find a
+great many morels; but then there grows a species of mushrooms at the
+feet of felled walnut-trees, which the Indians carefully gather; I
+tasted of them, and found them good.</p>
+
+<p>The meadows are not only covered with grass fit for pasture, but
+produce quantities of wood-strawberries in the month of April; for the
+following months the prospect is charming; we scarce observe a pile of
+grass, unless what we tread under foot; the flowers, which are then in
+all their beauty, exhibit to the view the most ravishing sight, being
+diversified without end; one in particular I have remarked, which
+would adorn the most beautiful parterre; I mean the Lion's Mouth (<i>la
+gueule de Lion</i>).</p>
+
+<p>These meadows afford not only a charming prospect to the eye; they,
+moreover, plentifully produce excellent simples, (equally with tall
+woods) as well for the purposes of medicine as of dying. When all
+these plants are burnt, and a small rain comes on, mushrooms of an
+excellent flavour succeed to them, and whiten the surface of the
+meadows all over.</p>
+
+<p>Those rising meadows and tall forests abound with buffaloes, elk, and
+deer, with turkeys, partridges, and all kinds of game; consequently
+wolves, catamounts, and other carnivorous animals are found there;
+which, in following the other animals, destroy and devour such as are
+too old or too fat; and when the <a name="page-145"></a> Indians go a hunting, these
+animals are sure to have the offal, or hound's fee, which makes them
+follow the hunters.</p>
+
+<p>These high lands naturally produce mulberry-trees, the leaves of which
+are very grateful to the silk-worm. Indigo, in like manner, grows
+there along the thickets, without culture. There also a native tobacco
+is found growing wild, for the culture of which, as well as for other
+species of tobacco, these lands are extremely well adapted. Cotton is
+also cultivated to advantage: wheat and flax thrive better and more
+easily there, than lower down towards the capital, the land there
+being too fat; which is the reason that, indeed, oats come there to a
+greater height than in the lands I am speaking of; but the cotton and
+the other productions are neither so strong nor so fine there, and the
+crops of them are often less profitable, though the soil be of an
+excellent nature.</p>
+
+<p>In fine, those high lands to the east of the Missisippi, from Manchae
+to the river Wabache, may and ought to contain mines: we find in them,
+just at the surface, iron and pit-coal, but no appearance of silver
+mines; gold there may be, copper also, and lead.</p>
+
+<p>Let us return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi; which I
+shall cross, in order to visit the west side, as I have already done
+the east. I shall begin with the west coast, which resembles that to
+the east; but is still more dry and barren on the shore. On quitting
+that coast of white and crystal sand, in order to go northward, we
+meet five or six lakes, which communicate with one another, and which
+are, doubtless, remains of the sea. Between these lakes and the
+Missisippi, is an earth accumulated on the sand, and formed by the
+ooze of that river, as I said; between these lakes there is nothing
+but sand, on which there is so little earth, that the sand-bottom
+appears to view; so that we find there but little pasture, which some
+strayed buffaloes come to eat; and no trees, if we except a hill on
+the banks of one of these lakes, which is all covered with ever-green
+oaks, fit for ship-building. This spot may be a league in length by
+half a league in breadth; and was called Barataria, because enclosed
+by these lakes and their outlets, to form almost an island on dry
+land.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-146"></a> These lakes are stored with monstrous carp, as well for size as
+for length; which slip out of the Missisippi and its muddy stream,
+when overflowed, in search of clearer water. The quantity of fish in
+these lakes is very surprising, especially as they abound with vast
+numbers of alligators. In the neighbourhood of these lakes there are
+some petty nations of Indians, who partly live on this amphibious
+animal.</p>
+
+<p>Between these lakes and the banks of the Missisippi, there is some
+thin herbage, and among others, natural hemp, which grows like trees,
+and very branched. This need not surprise us, as each plant stands
+very distant from the other: hereabouts we find little wood, unless
+when we approach the Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>To the west of these lakes we find excellent lands, covered in many
+places with open woods of tall trees, through which one may easily
+ride on horseback; and here we find some buffaloes, which only pass
+through these woods because the pasture under the trees is bitter; and
+therefore they prefer the grass of the meadows, which lying exposed to
+the rays of the sun, becomes thereby more savoury.</p>
+
+<p>In going still farther west, we meet much thicker woods, because this
+country is extremely well watered; we here find numbers of rivers,
+which fall into the sea; and what contributes to the fertility of this
+land, is the number of brooks, that fall into these rivers.</p>
+
+<p>This country abounds with deer and other game; buffaloes are rare; but
+it promises great riches to such as shall inhabit it, from the
+excellent quality of its lands. The Spaniards, who bound us on that
+side, are jealous enough: but the great quantities of land they
+possess in America, have made them lose sight of settling there,
+though acquainted therewith before us: however, they took some steps
+to traverse our designs, when they saw we had some thoughts that way.
+But they are not settled there as yet; and who could hinder us from
+making advantageous settlements in that country?</p>
+
+<p>I resume the banks of the Missisippi, above the lakes, and the lands
+above the Fork, which, as I have sufficiently acquainted <a name="page-147"></a> the
+reader, are none of the best; and I go up to the north, in order to
+follow the same method I observed in describing the nature of the
+lands to the east.</p>
+
+<p>The banks of the Missisippi are of a fat and strong soil; but far less
+subject to inundations than the lands of the east. If we proceed a
+little way westward, we meet land gradually rising, and of an
+excellent quality; and even meadows, which we might well affirm to be
+boundless, if they were not intersected by little groves. These
+meadows are covered with buffaloes and other game, which live there so
+much the more peaceably, as they are neither hunted by men, who never
+frequent those countries; nor disquieted by wolves or tigers, which
+keep more to the north.</p>
+
+<p>The country I have just described is such as I have represented it,
+till we come to New Mexico: it rises gently enough, near the Red
+River, which bounds it to the north, till we reach a high land, which
+was no more than five or six leagues in breadth, and in certain places
+only a league; it is almost flat, having but some eminences at some
+considerable distance from each other: we also meet some mountains of
+a middling height, which appear to contain something more than bare
+stone.</p>
+
+<p>This high land begins at some leagues from the Missisippi, and
+continues so quite to New Mexico; it lowers towards the Red River, by
+windings, where it is diversified alternately with meadows and woods.
+The top of this height, on the contrary, has scarce any wood. A fine
+grass grows between the stones, which are common there. The buffaloes
+come to feed on this grass, when the rains drive them out of the
+plains; otherwise they go but little thither, because they find there
+neither water, nor saltpetre.</p>
+
+<p>We are to remark, by the bye, that all cloven-footed animals are
+extremely fond of salt, and that Louisiana in general contains a great
+deal of saltpetre. And thus we are not to wonder, if the buffalo, the
+elk, and the deer, have a greater inclination to some certain places
+than to others, though they are there often hunted. We ought therefore
+to conclude, that there is more saltpetre in those places, than in such
+as they <a name="page-148"></a> haunt but rarely. This is what made me remark, that these
+animals, after their ordinary repass, fail but rarely to go to the
+torrents, where the earth is cut, and even to the clay; which they lick,
+especially after rain, because they there find a taste of salt, which
+allures them thither. Most of those who have made this remark imagine
+that these animals eat the earth; whereas in such places they only go in
+quest of the salt, which to them is so strong an allurement as to make
+them bid defiance to dangers in order to get at it.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-V">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Quality of the Lands of the</i> Red River. <i>Posts of the</i> Nachitoches. <i>A
+Silver Mine. Lands of the</i> Black River.</p>
+
+
+<p>The Banks of the Red River, towards its confluence, are pretty low,
+And sometimes drowned by the inundations of the Missisippi; but above
+all, the north side, which is but a marshy land for upwards of ten
+leagues in going up to the Nachitoches, till we come to the Black
+River, which falls into the Red. This last takes its name from the
+colour of its sand, which is red in several places: it is also called
+the Marne, a name given it by some geographers, but unknown in the
+country. Some call it the River of the Nachitoches, because they dwell
+on its banks: but the appellation, Red River, has remained to it.</p>
+
+
+<p>Between the Black River and the Red River the soil is but very light,
+and even sandy, where we find more firs than other trees; we also
+observe therein some marshes. But these lands, though not altogether
+barren, if cultivated, would be none of the best. They continue such
+along the banks of the river, only to the rapid part of it, thirty
+leagues from the Missisippi. This rapid part cannot justly be called a
+fall; however, we can scarce go up with oars, when laden, but must
+land and tow. I imagine, if the waterman's pole was used, as on the
+Loire and other rivers in France, this obstacle would be easily
+surmounted.</p>
+
+<p>The south side of this river, quite to the rapid part, is entirely
+different from the opposite side; it is something higher, <a name="page-149"></a> and
+rises in proportion as it approaches to the height I have mentioned;
+the quality is also very different. This land is good and light, and
+appears disposed to receive all the culture imaginable, in which we
+may assuredly hope to succeed. It naturally produces beautiful fruit
+trees and vines in plenty; it was on that side muscadine grapes were
+found. The back parts have neater woods, and the meadows intersected
+with tall forests. On that side the fruit trees of the country are
+common; above all, the hiccory and walnut-trees, which are sure
+indications of a good soil.</p>
+
+<p>From the rapid part to the Nachitoches, the lands on both sides of
+this river sufficiently resemble those I have just mentioned. To the
+left, in going up, there is a petty nation, called the Avoyelles, and
+known only for the services they have done the Colony by the horses,
+oxen, and cows they have brought from New Mexico for the service of
+the French in Louisiana. I am ignorant what view the Indians may have
+in that commerce: but I well know, that notwithstanding the fatigues
+of the journey, these cattle, one with another, did not come, after
+deducting all expenses, and even from the second hand, but to about
+two pistoles a head; whence I ought to presume, that they have them
+cheap in New Mexico. By means of this nation we have in Louisiana very
+beautiful horses, of the species of those of Old Spain, which, if
+managed or trained, people of the first rank might ride. As to the
+oxen and cows, they are the same as those of France, and both are at
+present very common in Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>The south side conveys into the Red River only little brooks. On the
+north side, and pretty near the Nachitoches, there is, as is said, a
+spring of water very salt, running only four leagues. This spring, as
+it comes out of the earth, forms a little river, which, during the
+heats, leaves some salt on its banks. And what may render this more
+credible is, that the country whence it takes its rise contains a
+great deal of mineral salt, which discovers itself by several springs
+of salt water, and by two salt lakes, of which I shall presently
+speak. In fine, in going up we come to the French fort of the
+Nachitoches, built in an island, formed by the Red River.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-150"></a> This island is nothing but sand, and that so fine, that the wind
+drives it like dust; so that the tobacco attempted to be cultivated
+there at first was loaded with it. The leaf of the tobacco having a
+very fine down, easily retains this sand, which the least breath of
+air diffuses every where; which is the reason that no more tobacco is
+raised in this island, but provisions only, as maiz, potatoes,
+pompions, &amp;c. which cannot be damaged by the sands.</p>
+
+<p>M. de St. Denis commanded at this place, where he insinuated himself
+into the good graces of the natives in such a manner, that, altho'
+they prefer death to slavery, or even to the government of a
+sovereign, however mild, yet twenty or twenty-five nations were so
+attached to his person, that, forgetting they were born free, they
+willingly surrendered themselves to him; the people and their Chiefs
+would all have him for their Grand Chief; so that at the least signal,
+he could put himself at the head of thirty thousand men, drawn out of
+those nations, which had of their own accord submitted themselves to
+his orders; and that only by sending them a paper on which he drew the
+usual hieroglyphics that represent war among them, with a large leg,
+which denoted himself. This was still the more surprising, as the
+greatest part of these people were on the Spanish territories, and
+ought rather to have attached themselves to them, than to the French,
+if it had not been for the personal merits of this Commander.</p>
+
+<p>At the distance of seven leagues from the French Post, the Spaniards
+have settled one, where they have resided ever since M. de la Motte,
+Governor of Louisiana, agreed to that settlement. I know not by what
+fatal piece of policy the Spaniards were allowed to make this
+settlement; but I know, that, if it had not been for the French, the
+natives would never have suffered the Spaniards to settle in that
+place.</p>
+
+<p>However, several French were allured to this Spanish settlement,
+doubtless imagining, that the rains which come from Mexico, rolled and
+brought gold along with them, which would cost nothing but the trouble
+of picking up. But to what purpose serves this beautiful metal, but to
+make the people vain and idle among whom it is so common, and to make
+them <a name="page-151"></a> neglect the culture of the earth, which constitutes true
+riches, by the sweets it procures to man, and by the advantages it
+furnishes to commerce.</p>
+
+<p>Above the Nachitoches dwell the Cadodaquious, whose scattered villages
+assume different names. Pretty near one of these villages was
+discovered a silver mine, which was found to be rich, and of a very
+pure metal. I have seen the assay of it, and its ore is very fine.
+This silver lies concealed in small invisible particles, in a stone of
+a chesnut colour, which is spongy, pretty light, and easily
+calcinable: however, it yields a great deal more than it promises to
+the eye. The assay of this ore was made by a Portuguese, who had
+worked at the mines of New Mexico, whence he made his escape. He
+appeared to be master of his business, and afterwards visited other
+mines farther north, but he ever gave the preference to that of the
+Red River.</p>
+
+<p>This river, according to the Spaniards, takes its rise in 32 degrees
+of north latitude; runs about fifty leagues north-east; forms a great
+elbow, or winding to the east; then proceeding thence south-east, at
+which place we begin to know it, it comes and falls into the
+Missisippi, about 31° and odd minutes.</p>
+
+<p>I said above, that the Black River discharges itself into the Red, ten
+leagues above the confluence of this last with the Missisippi: we now
+proceed to resume that river, and follow its course, after having
+observed, that the fish of all those rivers which communicate with the
+Missisippi, are the same as to species, but far better in the Red and
+Black Rivers, because their water is clearer and better than that of
+the Missisippi, which they always quit with pleasure. Their delicate
+and finer flavour may also arise from the nourishment they take in
+those rivers.</p>
+
+<p>The lands of which we are going to speak are to the north of the Red
+River. They may be distinguished into two parts; which are to the
+right and left of the Black River, in going up to its source, and even
+as far as the river of the Arkansas. It is called the Black River,
+because its depth gives it that colour, <a name="page-152"></a> which is, moreover,
+heightened by the woods which line it throughout the Colony. All the
+rivers have their banks covered with woods; but this river, which is
+very narrow, is almost quite covered by the branches, and rendered of
+a dark colour in the first view. It is sometimes called the river of
+the Wachitas, because its banks were occupied by a nation of that
+name, who are now extinct. I shall continue to call it by its usual
+name.</p>
+
+<p>The lands which we directly find on both sides are low, and continue
+thus for the space of three or four leagues, till we come to the river
+of the Taensas, thus denominated from a nation of that name, which
+dwelt on its banks. This river of the Taensas is, properly speaking,
+but a channel formed by the overflowings of the Missisippi, has its
+course almost parallel thereto, and separates the low lands from the
+higher. The lands between the Missisippi and the river of the Taensas
+are the same as in the Lower Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>The lands we find in going up the Black River are nearly the same, as
+well for the nature of the soil, as for their good qualities. They are
+rising grounds, extending in length, and which in general may be
+considered as one very extensive meadow, diversified with little
+groves, and cut only by the Black River and little brooks, bordered
+with wood up to their sources. Buffaloes and deer are seen in whole
+herds there. In approaching to the river of the Arkansas, deer and
+pheasants begin to be very common; and the same species of game is
+found there, as is to the east of the Missisippi; in like manner
+wood-strawberries, simples, flowers, and mushrooms. The only
+difference is, that this side of the Missisippi is more level, there
+being no lands so high and so very different from the rest of the
+country. The woods are like those to the east of the Missisippi,
+except that to the west there are more walnut and hiccory trees. These
+last are another species of walnut, the nuts of which are more tender,
+and invite to these parts a greater number of parrots. What we have
+just said, holds in general of this west side; let us now consider
+what is peculiar thereto.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-153"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>A Brook of Salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River of the</i> Arkansas.
+<i>Red veined Marble: Slate: Plaster. Hunting the Buffalo. The dry
+Sand-banks in the</i> Missisippi.</p>
+
+
+<p>After we have gone up the Black River about thirty leagues, we find to
+the left a brook of salt water, which comes from the west. In going up
+this brook about two leagues, we meet with a lake of salt water, which
+may be two leagues in length, by one in breadth. A league higher up to
+the north, we meet another lake of salt water, almost as long and
+broad as the former.</p>
+
+<p>This water, doubtless, passes through some mines of salt; it has the
+taste of salt, without that bitterness of the sea-water. The Indians
+come a great way off to this place, to hunt in winter, and make salt.
+Before the French trucked coppers with them, they made upon the spot
+pots of earth for this operation: and they returned home loaded with
+salt and dry provisions.</p>
+
+<p>To the east of the Black River we observe nothing that indicates
+mines; but to the west one might affirm there should be some, from
+certain marks, which might well deceive pretended connoisseurs. As for
+my part, I would not warrant that there were two mines in that part of
+the country, which seems to promise them. I should rather be led to
+believe that they are mines of salt, at no great depth from the
+surface of the earth, which, by their volatile and acid spirits,
+prevent the growth of plants in those spots.</p>
+
+<p>Ten or twelve leagues above this brook is a creek, near which those
+Natchez retreated, who escaped being made slaves with the rest of
+their nation, when the Messrs. Perier extirpated them on the east side
+of the river, by order of the Court.</p>
+
+<p>The Black River takes its rise to the north-west of its confluence,
+and pretty near the river of the Arkansas, into which falls a branch
+from this rise or source; by means of which we may have a
+communication from the one to the other with a middling carriage. This
+communication with the river of the <a name="page-154"></a> Arkansas is upwards of an
+hundred leagues from the Post of that name. In other respects, this
+Black River might carry a boat throughout, if cleared of the wood
+fallen into its bed, which generally traverses it from one side to the
+other. It receives some brooks, and abounds in excellent fish, and in
+alligators.</p>
+
+<p>I make no doubt but these lands are very fit to bear and produce every
+thing that can be cultivated with success on the east of the
+Missisippi, opposite to this side, except the canton or quarter
+between the river of the Taensas and the Missisippi; that land, being
+subject to inundations, would be proper only for rice.</p>
+
+<p>I imagine we may now pass on to the north of the river of the
+Arkansas, which takes its rise in the mountains adjoining to the east
+of Santa Fé. It afterwards goes up a little to the north, from whence
+it comes down to the south, a little lower than its source. In this
+manner it forms a line parallel almost with the Red River.</p>
+
+<p>That river has a cataract or fall, at about an hundred and fifty
+leagues from its confluence. Before we come to this fall, we find a
+quarry of red-veined marble, one of slate, and one of plaster. Some
+travellers have there observed grains of gold in a little brook: but
+as they happened to be going in quest of a rock of emeralds, they
+deigned not to amuse themselves with picking up particles of gold.</p>
+
+<p>This river of the Arkansas is stored with fish; has a great deal of
+water; having a course of two hundred and fifty leagues, and can carry
+large boats quite to the cataract. Its banks are covered with woods,
+as are all the other rivers of the country. In its course it receives
+several brooks or rivulets, of little consequence, unless we except
+that called the White River, and which discharges itself into the
+curve or elbow of that we are speaking of, and below its fall.</p>
+
+<p>In the whole tract north of this river, we find plains that extend out
+of sight, which are vast meadows, intersected by groves, at no great
+distance from one another, which are all tall woods, where we might
+easily hunt the stag; great numbers <a name="page-155"></a> of which, as also of
+buffaloes, are found here. Deer also are very common.</p>
+
+<p>From having seen those animals frightened at the least noise,
+especially at the report of a gun, I have thought of a method to hunt
+them, in the manner the Spaniards of New Mexico do, which would not
+scare them at all, and which would turn to the great advantage of the
+inhabitants, who have this game in plenty in their country. This
+hunting might be set about in winter, from the beginning of October,
+when the meadows are burnt, till the month of February.</p>
+
+<p>This hunting is neither expensive nor fatiguing: horses are had very
+cheap in that country, and maintained almost for nothing. Each hunter
+is mounted on horseback, and armed with a crescent somewhat open,
+whose inside should be pretty sharp; the top of the outside to have a
+socket, to put in a handle: then a number of people on horseback to go
+in quest of a herd of buffaloes, and always attack them with the wind
+in their backs. As soon as they smell a man, it is true, they run
+away; but at the sight of the horses they will moderate their fears,
+and thus not precipitate their flight; whereas the report of a gun
+frightens them so as to make them run at full speed. In this chace,
+the lightest would run fast enough; but the oldest, and even the young
+of two or three years old, are so fat, that their weight would make
+them soon be overtaken: then the armed hunter may strike the buffalo
+with his crescent above each ham, and cut his tendons; after which he
+is easily mastered. Such as never saw a buffalo, will hardly believe
+the quantity of fat they yield: but it ought to be considered, that,
+continuing day and night in plentiful pastures of the finest and most
+delicious grass, they must soon fatten, and that from their youth. Of
+this we have an instance in a bull at the Natchez, which was kept till
+he was two years old, and grew so fat, that he could not leap on a
+cow, from his great weight; so that we were obliged to kill him, and
+got nigh an hundred and fifty pounds of tallow from him. His neck was
+near as big as his body.</p>
+
+<p>From what I have said, it may be judged what profit such hunters might
+make of the skins and tallow of those buffaloes; <a name="page-156"></a> the hides would
+be large, and their wool would be still an additional benefit. I may
+add, that this hunting of them would not diminish the species, those
+fat buffaloes being ordinarily the prey of wolves, as being too heavy
+to be able to defend themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, the wolves would not find their account in attacking them in
+herds. It is well known that the buffaloes range themselves in a ring,
+the strongest without, and the weakest within. The strong standing
+pretty close together, present their horns to the enemy, who dare not
+attack them in this disposition. But wolves, like all other animals,
+have their particular instinct, in order to procure their necessary
+food. They come so near that the buffaloes smell them some way off,
+which makes them run for it. The wolves then advance with a pretty
+equal pace, till they observe the fattest out of breath. These they
+attack before and behind; one of them seizes on the buffalo by the
+hind-quarter, and overturns him, the others strangle him.</p>
+
+<p>The wolves being many in a body, kill not what is sufficient for one
+alone, but as many as they can, before they begin to eat. For this is
+the manner of the wolf, to kill ten or twenty times more than he
+needs, especially when he can do it with ease, and without
+interruption.</p>
+
+<p>Though the country I describe has very extensive plains, I pretend not
+to say that there are no rising grounds or hills; but they are more
+rare there than elsewhere, especially on the west side. In approaching
+to New Mexico we observe great hills and mountains, some of which are
+pretty high.</p>
+
+<p>I ought not to omit mentioning here, that from the low lands of
+Louisiana, the Missisippi has several shoal banks of sand in it, which
+appear very dry upon the falling of the waters, after the inundations.
+These banks extend more or less in length; some of them half a league,
+and not without a considerable breadth. I have seen the Natchez, and
+other Indians, sow a sort of grain, which they called Choupichoul, on
+these dry sand-banks. This sand received no manner of culture; and the
+women and children covered the grain any how with their feet, without
+taking any great pains about it. After this sowing, <a name="page-157"></a> and manner
+of culture, they waited till autumn, when they gathered a great
+quantity of the grain. It was prepared like millet, and very good to
+eat. This plant is what is called Belle Dame Sauvage,<sup><a href="#fn-43" name="fr-43">43</a></sup>
+which thrives in all countries, but
+requires a good soil: and whatever good quality the soil in Europe may
+have, it shoots but a foot and a half high; and yet, on this sand of
+the Missisippi, it rises, without any culture, three feet and a half,
+and four feet high. Such is the virtue of this sand all up the
+Missisippi; or, to speak more properly, for the whole length of its
+course; if we except the accumulated earth of the Lower Louisiana,
+across which it passes, and where it cannot leave any dry sand-banks;
+because it is straitened within its banks, which the river itself
+raises, and continually augments.</p>
+
+<p>In all the groves and little forests I have mentioned, and which lie
+to the north of the Arkansas, pheasants, partridges, snipes, and
+woodcocks, are in such great numbers, that those who are most fond of
+this game, might easily satisfy their longing, as also every other
+species of game. Small birds are still vastly more numerous.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-43" name="fn-43">43</a></sup>  He
+seems to mean Buck-wheat.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Lands of the River</i> St. Francis. <i>Mine of</i> Marameg, <i>and other
+Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone resembling Porphyry. Lands of the</i>
+Missouri. <i>The Lands north of the </i> Wabache. <i>The Lands of the
+Illinois</i>. De la Mothe's <i>Mine, and other Mines.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Thirty leagues above the river of the Arkansas, to the north, and on
+the same side of the Missisippi, we find the river St. Francis.</p>
+
+<p>The lands adjoining to it are always covered with herds of buffaloes,
+nothwithstanding they are hunted every winter in those parts: for it
+is to this river, that is, in its neighbourhood, that the French and
+Canadians go and make their salt provisions for the inhabitants of the
+capital, and of the neighbouring <a name="page-158"></a> plantations, in which they are
+assisted by the native Arkansas, whom they hire for that purpose. When
+they are upon the spot, they chuse a tree fit to make a pettyaugre,
+which serves for a salting or powdering-tub in the middle, and is
+closed at the two ends, where only is left room for a man at each
+extremity.</p>
+
+<p>The trees they choose are ordinarily the poplar, which grow on the
+banks of the water. It is a white wood, soft and binding. The
+pettyaugres might be made of other wood, be cause such are to be had
+pretty large; but either too heavy for pettyaugres, or too apt to
+split.</p>
+
+<p>The species of wood in this part of Louisiana is tall oak; the fields
+abound with four sorts of walnut, especially the black kind; so
+called, because it is of a dark brown colour, bordering on black; this
+sort grows very large.</p>
+
+<p>There are besides fruit trees in this country, and it is there we
+begin to find commonly Papaws. We have also here other trees of every
+species, more or less, according as the soil is favourable. These
+lands in general are fit to produce every thing the low lands can
+yield, except rice and indigo. But in return, wheat thrives there
+extremely well: the vine is found every where; the mulberry-tree is in
+plenty; tobacco grows fine, and of a good quality; as do cotton and
+garden plants: so that by leading an easy and agreeable life in that
+country, we may at the same time be sure of a good return to France.</p>
+
+<p>The land which lies between the Missisippi and the river St. Francis,
+is full of rising grounds, and mountains of a middling height, which,
+according to the ordinary indications, contain several mines: some of
+them have been assayed; among the rest, the mine of Marameg, on the
+little river of that name; the other mines appear not to be so rich,
+nor so easy to be worked. There are some lead mines, and others of
+copper, as is pretended.</p>
+
+<p>The mine of Marameg, which is silver, is pretty near the confluence of
+the river which gives it name; which is a great advantage to those who
+would work it, because they might <a name="page-159"></a> easily by that means have
+their goods from Europe. It is situate about five hundred leagues from
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>I shall continue on the west side of the Missisippi, and to the north
+of the famous river of Missouri, which we are now to cross. This river
+takes its rise at eight hundred leagues distance, as is alledged, from
+the place where it discharges itself into the Missisippi. Its waters
+are muddy, thick, and charged with nitre; and these are the waters
+that make the Missisippi muddy down to the sea, its waters being
+extremely clear above the confluence of the Missouri: the reason is,
+that the former rolls its waters over a sand and pretty firm soil; the
+latter, on the contrary, flows across rich and clayey lands, where
+little stone is to be seen; for though the Missouri comes out of a
+mountain, which lies to the north-west of New Mexico, we are told,
+that all the lands it passes through are generally rich; that is, low
+meadows, and lands without stone.</p>
+
+<p>This great river, which seems ready to dispute the pre-eminence with
+the Missisippi, receives in its long course many rivers and brooks,
+which considerably augment its waters. But except those that have
+received their names from some nation of Indians who inhabit their
+banks, there are very few of their names we can be well assured of,
+each traveller giving them different appellations. The French having
+penetrated up the Missouri only for about three hundred leagues at
+most, and the rivers which fall into its bed being only known by the
+Indians, it is of little importance what names they may bear at
+present, being besides in a country but little frequented. The river
+which is the best known is that of the Osages, so called from a nation
+of that name, dwelling on its banks. It falls into the Missouri,
+pretty near its confluence.</p>
+
+<p>The largest known river which falls into the Missouri, is that of the
+Canzas; which runs for near two hundred leagues in a very fine
+country. According to what I have been able to learn about the course
+of this great river, from its source to the Canzas, it runs from west
+to east; and from that nation it falls down to the southward, where it
+receives the river of the Canzas, which comes from the west; there it
+forms a great elbow, which terminates in the neighbourhood of the
+Missouri; <a name="page-160"></a> then it resumes its course to the south-east, to lose
+at last both its name and waters in the Missisippi, about f our
+leagues lower down than the river of the Illinois.</p>
+
+<p>There was a French Post for some time in an island a few leagues in
+length, overagainst the Missouris; the French settled in this fort at
+the east-point, and called it Fort Orleans. M. de Bourgmont commanded
+there a sufficient time to gain the friendship of the Indians of the
+countries adjoining to this great river. He brought about a peace
+among all those nations, who before his arrival were all at war; the
+nations to the north being more war-like than those to the south.</p>
+
+<p>After the departure of that commandant, they murdered all the
+garrison, not a single Frenchman having escaped to carry the news: nor
+could it be ever known whether it happened through the fault of the
+French, or through treachery.</p>
+
+<p>As to the nature of that country, I refer to M. de Bourgmont's
+Journal, an extract from which I have given above. That is an original
+account, signed by all the officers, and several others of the
+company, which I thought was too prolix to give at full length, and
+for that reason I have only extracted from it what relates to the
+people and the quality of the soil, and traced out the route to those
+who have a mind to make that journey; and even this we found necessary
+to abridge in this translation.</p>
+
+<p>In this journey of M. de Bourgmont, mention is only made of what we
+meet with from Fort Orleans, from which we set out, in order to go to
+the Padoucas: wherefore I ought to speak of a thing curious enough to
+be related, and which is found on the banks of the Missouri; and that
+is, a pretty high cliff, upright from the edge of the water. From the
+middle of this cliff juts out a mass of red stone with white spots,
+like porphyry, with this difference, that what we are speaking of is
+almost soft and tender, like sand-stone. It is covered with another
+sort of stone of no value; the bottom is an earth, like that on other
+rising grounds. This stone is easily worked, and bears the most
+violent fire. The Indians of the country have contrived to strike off
+pieces thereof with their arrows, <a name="page-161"></a> and after they fall in the
+water plunge for them. When they can procure pieces thereof large
+enough to make pipes, they fashion them with knives and awls. This
+pipe has a socket two or three inches long, and on the opposite side
+the figure of a hatchet; in the middle of all is the boot, or bowl of
+the pipe, to put the tobacco in. These sort of pipes are highly
+esteemed among them.</p>
+
+<p>All to the north of the Missouri is entirely unknown, unless we give
+credit to the relations of different travellers; but to which of them
+shall we give the preference? In the first place, they almost all
+contradict each other: and then, men of the most experience treat them
+as impostors; and therefore I choose to pay no regard to any of them.</p>
+
+<p>Let us therefore now repass the Missisippi, in order to resume the
+description of the lands to the east, and which we quitted at the
+river Wabache. This river is distant from the sea four hundred and
+sixty (three hundred) leagues; it is reckoned to have four hundred
+leagues in length, from its source to its confluence into the
+Missisippi. It is called Wabache, though, according to the usual
+method, it ought to be called the Ohio, or Beautiful River; seeing the
+Ohio is known under that name in Canada, before its confluence was
+known: and as the Ohio takes its rise at a greater distance off than
+the three others, which mix together, before they empty themselves
+into the Missisippi, this should make the others lose their names; but
+custom has prevailed on the occasion.<sup><a href="#fn-44" name="fr-44">44</a></sup>
+The first river known to us, which
+falls into the Ohio, is that of the Miamis, which takes its rise
+towards lake Erié.</p>
+
+<p>It is by this river of the Miamis that the Canadians come to
+Louisiana. For this purpose they embark on the river St. Laurence, go
+up this river, pass the cataracts quite to the bottom of Lake Erié,
+where they find a small river, on which they also go up to a place
+called the Carriage of the Miamis; because that people come and take
+their effects, and carry them on their backs for two leagues from
+thence to the banks of the river of their name, which I just said
+empties itself into <a name="page-162"></a> the Ohio. From thence the Canadians go down
+that river, enter the Wabache, and at last the Missisippi, which
+brings them to New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana. They reckon
+eighteen hundred leagues<sup><a href="#fn-45" name="fr-45">45</a></sup>
+from the capital of Canada to that of Louisiana, on account of the
+great turns and windings they are obliged to take.</p>
+
+<p>The river of the Miamis is thus the first to the north, which falls
+into the Ohio; then that of the Chaouanons to the south; and lastly,
+that of the Cherakees; all which together empty themselves into the
+Missisippi. This is what we call the Wabache, and what in Canada and
+New England they call the Ohio. This river is beautiful, greatly
+abounding in fish, and navigable almost up to its source.</p>
+
+<p>To the north of this river lies Canada, which inclines more to the
+east than the source of the Ohio, and extends to the country of the
+Illinois. It is of little importance to dispute here about the limits
+of these two neighbouring colonies, as they both appertain to France.
+The lands of the Illinois are reputed to be a part of Louisiana; we
+have there a post near a village of that nation, called Tamaroüas.</p>
+
+<p>The country of the Illinois is extremely good, and abounds with
+buffalo and other game. On the north of the Wabache we begin to see
+the Orignaux; a species of animals which are said to partake of the
+buffalo and the stag; they have, indeed, been described to me to be
+much more clumsy than the stag. Their horns have something of the
+stag, but are shorter and more massy; the meat of them, as they say,
+is pretty good. Swans and other water-fowl are common in these
+countries.</p>
+
+<p>The French Post of the Illinois is, of all the colony, that in which
+with the greatest ease they grow wheat, rye, and other like grain, for
+the sowing of which you need only to turn the earth in the slightest
+manner; that slight culture is sufficient to make the earth produce as
+much as we can reasonably desire. I have been assured, that in the
+last war, when the flour from France was scarce, the Illinois sent
+down to New Orleans upwards of eight hundred thousand weight thereof
+in <a name="page-163"></a> one winter. Tobacco also thrives there, but comes to maturity
+with difficulty. All the plants transported thither from France
+succeed well, as do also the fruits.</p>
+
+<p>In those countries there is a river, which takes its name from the
+Illinois. It was by this river that the first travellers came from
+Canada into the Missisippi. Such as come from Canada, and have
+business only on the Illinois, pass that way yet: but such as want to
+go directly to the sea, go down the river of the Miamis into the
+Wabache, or Ohio, and from thence into the Missisippi.</p>
+
+<p>In this country there are mines, and one in particular, called De la
+Mothe's mine, which is silver, the assay of which has been made; as
+also of two lead-mines, so rich at first as to vegetate, or shoot a
+foot and a half at least out of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The whole continent north of the river of the Illinois is not much
+frequented, consequently little known. The great extent of Louisiana
+makes us presume, that these parts will not soon come to our
+knowledge, unless some curious person should go thither to open mines,
+where they are said to be in great numbers, and very rich.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-44" name="fn-44">44</a></sup>  But not among the
+English; we call it the Ohio.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-45" name="fn-45">45</a></sup>  It is but nine hundred leagues.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering, and
+manufacturing the Commodities that are proper Articles of Commerce. Of
+the Culture of</i> Maiz, Rice, <i>and other Fruits of the Country. Of the</i>
+Silk-worm.</p>
+
+
+<p>In order to give an account of the several sorts of plants cultivated
+in Louisiana, I begin with Maiz, as being the most useful grain,
+seeing it is the principal food of the people of America, and that the
+French found it cultivated by the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Maiz, which in France we call Turkey corn, (and we Indian-corn) is a
+grain of the size of a pea; there is of it as large as our sugar-pea:
+it grows on a sort of husks, (Quenouille) in ascending rows: some of
+these husks have to the <a name="page-164"></a> number of seven hundred grains upon
+them, and I have counted even to a greater number. This husk may be
+about two inches thick, by seven or eight inches and upwards in
+length: it is wrapped up in several covers or thin leaves, which
+screen it from the avidity of birds. Its foot or stalk is often of the
+same size: it has leaves about two inches and upwards broad, by two
+feet and a half long, which are chanelled, or formed like gutters, by
+which they collect the dew which dissolves at sun-rising, and trickles
+down to the stalk, sometimes in such plenty, as to wet the earth
+around them for the breadth of six or seven inches. Its flower is on
+the top of the stalk, which is sometimes eight feet high. We
+ordinarily find five or six ears on each stalk, and in order to
+procure a greater crop, the part of the stalk above the ears ought to
+be cut away.</p>
+
+<p>For sowing the Maiz in a field already cleared and prepared, holes are
+made four feet asunder every way, observing to make the rows as
+straight as may be, in order to weed them the easier: into every hole
+five or six grains are put, which are previously to be steeped for
+twenty-four hours at least, to make them rise or shoot the quicker,
+and to prevent the fox and birds from eating such quantities of them:
+by day there are people to guard them against birds; by night fires
+are made at proper distances to frighten away the fox, who would
+otherwise turn up the ground, and eat the corn of all the rows, one
+after another, without omitting one, till he has his fill, and is
+therefore the most pernicious animal to this corn. The corn, as soon
+as shot out of the earth, is weeded: when it mounts up, and its stalks
+are an inch big, it is hilled, to secure it against the wind. This
+grain produces enough for two negroes to make fifty barrels, each
+weighing an hundred and fifty pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Such as begin a plantation in woods, thick set with cane, have an
+advantage in the Maiz, that makes amends for the labour of clearing
+the ground; a labour always more fatiguing than cultivating a spot
+already cleared. The advantage is this: they begin with cutting down
+the canes for a great extent of ground; the trees they peel two feet
+high quite round: this operation is performed in the beginning of
+March, as then the sap is in motion in that country: about fifteen
+days after, the canes, <a name="page-165"></a> being dry, are set on fire: the sap of
+the trees are thereby made to descend, and the branches are burnt,
+which kills the trees.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day they sow the corn in the manner I have just
+shewn: the roots of the cane, which are not quite dead, shoot fresh
+canes, which are very tender and brittle; and as no other weeds grow
+in the field that year, it is easy to be weeded of these canes, and as
+much corn again may be made, as in a field already cultivated.</p>
+
+<p>This grain they eat in many different ways; the most common way is to
+make it into Sagamity, which is a kind of gruel made with water, or
+strong broth. They bake bread of it like cakes (by baking it over the
+fire on an iron plate, or on a board before the fire,) which is much
+better than what they bake in the oven, at least for present use; but
+you must make it every day; and even then it is too heavy to soak in
+soup of any kind. They likewise make Parched Meal<sup><a href="#fn-46" name="fr-46">46</a></sup>
+of it, which is a dish of the natives, as well as the
+Cooedlou, or bread mixt with beans. The ears of corn roasted are
+likewise a peculiar dish of theirs; and the small corn dressed in that
+manner is as agreeable to us as to them. A light and black earth
+agrees much better with the Maiz than a strong and rich one.</p>
+
+<p>The Parched Meal is the best preparation of this corn; the French like
+it extremely well, no less than the Indians themselves: I can affirm
+that it is a very good food, and at the same time the best sort of
+provision that can be carried on a journey, because it is refreshing
+and extremely nourishing.</p>
+
+<p>As for the small Indian corn, you may see an account of it in the
+first chapter of the third Book; where you will likewise find an
+account of the way of sowing wheat, which if you do not observe, you
+may as well sow none.</p>
+
+<p>Rice is sown in a soil well laboured, either by the plough or hoe, and
+in winter, that it may be sowed before the time of the inundation. It
+is sown in furrows of the breadth of a hoe: when shot, and three or
+four inches high, they let water into the furrows, but in a small
+quantity, in proportion as it grows, and then give water in greater
+plenty.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-166"></a> The ear of this grain nearly resembles that of oats; its grains
+are fastened to a beard, and its chaff is very rough, and full of
+those fine and hard beards: the bran adheres not to the grain, as that
+of the corn of France; it consists of two lobes, which easily separate
+and loosen, and are therefore readily cleaned and broke off.</p>
+
+<p>They eat their rice as they do in France, but boiled much thicker, and
+with much less cookery, although it is not inferior in goodness to
+ours: they only wash it in warm water, taken out of the same pot you
+are to boil it in, then throw it in all at once, and boil it till it
+bursts, and so it is dressed without any further trouble. They make
+bread of it that is very white and of a good relish; but they have
+tried in vain to make any that will soak in soup.</p>
+
+<p>The culture of the Water-melon is simple enough. They choose for the
+purpose a light soil, as that of a rising ground, well exposed: they
+make holes in the earth, from two and a half to three feet in
+diameter, and distant from each other fifteen feet every way, in each
+of which holes they put five or six seeds. When the seeds are come up,
+and the young plants have struck out five or six leaves, the four most
+thriving plants are pitched upon, and the others plucked up to prevent
+their starving each other, when too numerous. It is only at that time
+that they have the trouble of watering them, nature alone performing
+the rest, and bringing them to maturity; which is known by the green
+rind beginning to change colour. There is no occasion to cut or prune
+them. The other species of melons are cultivated in the same manner,
+only that between the holes the distance is but five or six feet.</p>
+
+<p>All sorts of garden plants and greens thrive extremely well in
+Louisiana, and grow in much greater abundance than in France: the
+climate is warmer, and the soil much better. However, it is to be
+observed, that onions and other bulbous plants answer not in the low
+lands, without a great deal of pains and labour; whereas in the high
+grounds they grow very large and of a fine flavour.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of Louisiana may very easily make Silk, having
+mulberries ready at hand, which grow naturally in the <a name="page-167"></a> high
+lands, and plantations of them may be easily made. The leaves of the
+natural mulberries of Louisiana are what the silk-worms are very fond
+of; I mean the more common mulberries with a large leaf, but tender,
+and the fruit of the colour of Burgundy wine. The province produces
+also the White Mulberry, which has the same quality with the red.</p>
+
+<p>I shall next relate some experiments that have been made on this
+subject, by people who were acquainted with it. Madam Hubert, a native
+of Provence, where they make a great deal of silk, which she
+understood the management of, was desirous of trying whether they
+could raise silk-worms with the mulberry leaves of this province, and
+what sort of silk they would afford. The first of her experiments was,
+to give some large silk-worms a parcel of the leaves of the Red
+Mulberry, and another parcel of the White Mulberry both upon the same
+frame. She observed the worms went over the leaves of both sorts,
+without shewing any greater liking to the one than to the other: then
+she put to the other two sorts of leaves some of the leaves of the
+White-sweet or Sugar-Mulberry, and she found that the worms left the
+other sorts to go to these, and that they preferred them to the leaves
+of the common Red and White Mulberry.<sup><a href="#fn-47" name="fr-47">47</a></sup> </p>
+
+<p>The second experiment of Madam Hubert was, to raise and feed some
+silk-worms separately. To some she gave the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, and to others the leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry; in
+order to see the difference of the silk from the difference of their
+food. Moreover, she raised and fed some of the native silk-worms of
+the country, which were taken very young from the mulberry-trees; but
+she observed that these last were very flighty, and did nothing but
+run up and down, their nature being, without doubt, to live upon
+trees: she then changed their place, that they might not mix with the
+other worms that came from France, and gave them little branches with
+the leaves on them, which made them a little more settled.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-168"></a> This industrious lady waited till the cocoons were perfectly
+made, in order to observe the difference between them in unwinding the
+silk; the success of which, and of all her other experiments, she was
+so good as to give me a particular account of. When the cocoons were
+ready to be wound, she took care of them herself, and found that the
+wild worms yielded less silk than those from France; for although they
+were of a larger size, they were not so well furnished with silk,
+which proceeded, no doubt, from their not being sufficiently
+nourished, by their running incessantly up and down; and accordingly
+she observed that they were but meagre; but notwithstanding, their
+silk was strong and thick, though coarse.</p>
+
+<p>Those who were fed with the leaves of the Red Mulberry made cocoons
+well furnished with silk; which was stronger and finer than that of
+France. Those that were fed upon the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, had the same silk with those that were fed on the leaves of
+the Red Mulberry. The fourth sort, again, that had been fed with the
+leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry, had but little silk; it was indeed
+as fine as the preceding, but it was so weak and so brittle, that it
+was with great difficulty they could wind it.</p>
+
+<p>These are the experiments of this lady on silk-worms, which every one
+may make his own uses of, in order to have the sorts of silk,
+mulberries, or worms, that are most suitable to his purpose, and most
+likely to turn to his account: which we are very glad of this
+opportunity to inform them of, that they may see how much society owes
+to those persons who take care to study nature, in order to promote
+industry and public utility.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-46" name="fn-46">46</a></sup>  See Book
+III, Chap. I.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-47" name="fn-47">47</a></sup>  See an account of
+these different sorts of Mulberry, in the notes at the end of this
+Volume.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of</i> Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, <i>and</i> Saffron.</p>
+
+
+<p>The high lands of Louisiana produce a natural Indigo: what I saw in
+two or three places where I have observed it, grew at the edges of the
+thick woods, which shews it delights in a good, but light soil. One of
+these stalks was but ten or twelve inches high, its wood at least
+three lines in diameter, and of as <a name="page-169"></a> fine a green as its leaf; it
+was as tender as the rib of a cabbage leaf; when its head was blown a
+little, the two other stalks shot in a few days, the one seventeen,
+the other nineteen inches high; the stem was six lines thick below,
+and of a very lively green, and still very tender, the lower part only
+began to turn brown a little; the tops of both were equally ill
+furnished with leaves, and without branches; which makes it to be
+presumed, that being so thriving and of so fine a growth, it would
+have shot very high, and surpass in vigour and heighth the cultivated
+Indigo. The stalk of the Indigo, cultivated by the French at the
+Natchez, turned brown before it shot eleven or twelve inches; when in
+seed it was five feet high and upwards, and surpassed in vigour what
+was cultivated in the Lower Louisiana, that is, in the quarter about
+New Orleans: but the natural, which I had an opportunity of seeing
+only young and tender, promised to become much taller and stouter than
+ours, and to yield more.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-vii"><img src="images/illus07.png" alt="Indigo." height="186" width="327"></a><br>
+Indigo.</p>
+
+<p>The Indigo cultivated in Louisiana comes from the islands; its grain is
+of the bigness of one line, and about a quarter longer, brown and hard,
+flatted at the extremities, because it is compressed in its pod. This
+grain is sown in a soil prepared like a garden, and the field where it
+is cultivated is called the Indigo-garden. In order to sow it, holes are
+made on a straight line with a small hoe, a foot asunder; in each hole
+four or five <a name="page-170"></a> seeds are put, which are covered with earth; great
+care is had not to suffer any strange plants to grow near it, which
+would choak it; and it is sown a foot asunder, to the end it may draw
+the fuller nourishment, and be weeded without grazing or ruffling the
+leaf, which is that which gives the Indigo. When its leaf is quite come
+to its shape, it resembles exactly that of the Acacia, so well known in
+France, only that it is smaller.</p>
+
+<p>It is cut with large pruning-knives, or a sort of sickles, with about
+six or seven inches aperture, which should be pretty strong. It ought
+to be cut before its wood hardens; and to be green as its leaf, which
+ought, however, to have a bluish eye or cast. When cut it is conveyed
+into the rotting-tub, as we shall presently explain. According as the
+soil is better or worse, it shoots higher or lower; the tuft of the
+first cutting, which grows round, does not exceed eight inches in
+heighth and breadth: the second cutting rises sometimes to a foot. In
+cutting the Indigo you are to set your foot upon the root, in order to
+prevent the pulling it out of the earth; and to be upon your guard not
+to cut yourself, as the tool is dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>In order to make an Indigo-work, a shed is first of all to be built:
+this building is at least twenty feet high, without walls or flooring,
+but only covered. The whole is built upon posts, which may be closed
+with mats, if you please: this building has twenty feet in breadth,
+and at least thirty in length. In this shed three vats or large tubs
+are set in such a manner, that the water may be easily drained off
+from the first, which is the lowermost and smallest. The second rests
+with the edge of its bottom on the upper edge of the first, so that
+the water may easily run from it into the one below. This second vat
+is not broader but deeper than the first, and is called the Battery;
+for this reason it has its beaters, which are little buckets formed of
+four ends of boards, about eight inches long, which together have the
+figure of the hopper of a mill; a stick runs across them, which is put
+into a wooden fork, in order to beat the Indigo: there are two of them
+on each side, which in all make four.</p>
+
+<p>The third vat is placed in the same manner over the second, and is as
+big again, that it may hold the leaves; it is called the <a name="page-171"></a>
+Rotting-tub, because the leaves which are put into it are deadened,
+not corrupted or spoiled therein. The Indigo-operator, who conducts
+the whole work, knows when it is time to let the water into the second
+vat; then he lets go the cock; for if the leaves were left too long,
+the Indigo would be too black; it must have no more time than what is
+sufficient to discharge a kind of flower or froth that is found upon
+the leaf.</p>
+
+<p>The water, when it is all in the second vat, is beat till the
+Indigo-operator gives orders to cease; which he does not before he has
+several times taken up some of this water with a silver cup, by way of
+assay, in order to know the exact time in which they ought to give
+over beating the water: and this is a secret which practice alone can
+teach with certainty.</p>
+
+<p>When the Indigo-operator finds that the water is sufficiently beaten,
+he lets it settle till he can draw off the water clear; which is done
+by means of several cocks one above another, for fear of losing the
+Indigo. For this purpose, if the water is clear, the highest cock is
+opened, the second in like manner, till the water is observed to be
+tinged; then they shut the cock: the same is done in all the cocks
+till all the Indigo be in a pap at the bottom of the second vat. The
+first, or small vat, serves only to purify the water which is found to
+be tinged, and let run while clear.</p>
+
+<p>When the Indigo is well settled, they put it in cloth bags a foot and
+six inches wide, with a small circle at top, which helps to receive
+the Indigo with ease; it is suffered to drain till it gives no more
+water: however, it must be moist enough to spread it in the mould with
+a wooden knife or spatula.</p>
+
+<p>In order to have the seed, they suffer it to run up as many feet as
+they foresee shall be necessary for seed; it shoots four or five feet
+high, according to the quality of the soil. There are four cuttings of
+it in the islands, where the climate is warmer; three good cuttings
+are made in Louisiana, and of as good a quality at least as in the
+islands.</p>
+
+<p>Tobacco, which was found among the Indians of Louisiana, seems also to
+be a native of the country, seeing their ancient tradition informs us,
+that from time immemorial they <a name="page-172"></a> have, in their treaties of peace
+and in their embassies, used the pipe, the principal use of which is
+that the deputies shall all smoke therein. This native Tobacco is very
+large; its stalk, when suffered to run to seed, shoots to five feet
+and a half and six feet; the lower part of its stem is at least
+eighteen lines in diameter, and its leaves often near two feet long,
+which are thick and succulent, its juice is strong, but never
+disorders the head. The Tobacco of Virginia has a broader but shorter
+leaf; its stalk is smaller, and runs not up so high; its smell is not
+disagreeable, but not so strong; it takes more plants to make a pound,
+because its leaf is thinner, and not so full of sap as the native.
+What is cultivated in the Lower Louisiana is smaller, and not so
+strong; but that made in the islands is thinner than that of
+Louisiana, but much stronger, and disorders the head.</p>
+
+<p>In order to sow Tobacco, you make a bed on the best piece of ground
+you are master of, and give it six inches in heighth; this earth you
+beat and make level with the back of a spade; you afterwards sow the
+seed, which is extremely fine, nearly resembling poppy seed. It must
+be sown thin, and notwithstanding that attention, it often happens to
+be too thick. When the seed is sown, the earth is no longer stirred,
+but the seed is covered with ashes the thickness of a farthing, to
+prevent the worms from eating the tobacco when it is just shooting out
+of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the tobacco has four leaves, it is transplanted into a soil
+prepared for it, put into holes a foot broad made in a line, and
+distant three feet every way; a distance not too great, in order to
+weed it with ease, without breaking the leaves.</p>
+
+<p>The best time for transplanting it is after rain, otherwise you must
+water it: in like manner, when the seed is in the earth, if it rains
+not, you must gently sprinkle it towards evening, because it is
+somewhat slow in rising, and when it is sprouted it requires a little
+water. You must lightly cover the plant in the day time with some
+leaves plucked the night before; a precaution on no account to be
+dispensed with, till the young plant has fully struck root. You must
+also daily visit the <a name="page-173"></a> tobacco, to clear it of caterpillars, which
+fasten upon it, and would entirely eat it up, if they are not
+destroyed. The tobacco-caterpillar is of the shape of a silk-worm, has
+a prickle on its back towards its extremity; its colour is of the most
+beautiful sea-green, striped with silver-streaks; in a word, it is as
+beautiful to the eye as it is fatal to the plant it is fond of.</p>
+
+<p>I gave great attention to keep my plantation clear of all weeds,
+observing in weeding it with the hoe not to touch the stalks, about
+which I caused to lay new earth, as well to secure them against gusts
+of wind, as to enable them to draw from the earth a more abundant
+nourishment. When the tobacco began to put forth suckers, I plucked
+them off, because they would have shot into branches, which would
+impoverish the leaves, and for the same reason stopped the tobacco
+from shooting above the twelfth leaf, afterwards stripping off the
+four lowermost, which never come to any thing. Hitherto I did nothing
+but what was ordinarily done by those who cultivate tobacco with some
+degree of care; but my method of proceeding afterwards was different.</p>
+
+<p>I saw my neighbours strip the leaves of tobacco from the stalk, string
+them, set them to dry, by hanging them out in the air, then put them
+in heaps, to make them sweat. As for me, I carefully examined the
+plant, and when I observed the stem begin to turn yellow here and
+there, I caused the stalk to be cut with a pruning-knife, and left it
+for some time on the earth to deaden. Afterwards it was carried off,
+on handbarrows, because it is thus less exposed to be broken than on
+the necks of negroes. When it was brought to the house, I caused it to
+be hung up, with the big end of the stem turned upwards, the leaves of
+each stalk slightly touching one another, being well assured they
+would shrivel in drying, and no longer touch each other. It hereby
+happened, that the juice contained in the pith (sometimes as big as
+one's finger) of the stem of the plant, flowed into the leaves, and
+augmenting their sap, made them much more mild and waxy. As fast as
+these leaves assumed a bright chesnut colour, I stripped them from the
+stalk, and made them directly into bundles, which I wrapped up in a
+cloth, and bound it close with a cord for twenty four hours; <a name="page-174"></a>
+then undoing the cloth, they were tied up closer still. This tobacco
+turned black and so waxy, that it could not be rasped in less than a
+year; but then it had a substance and flavour so much the more
+agreeable, as it never affected the head; and so I sold it for double
+the price of the common.</p>
+
+<p>The cotton which is cultivated in Louisiana, is of the species of the
+white Siam,<sup><a href="#fn-48" name="fr-48">48</a></sup>
+though not so
+soft, nor so long as the silk-cotton; it is extremely white and very
+fine, and a very good use may be made of it. This cotton is produced,
+not from a tree, as in the East-Indies, but from a plant, and thrives
+much better in light than in strong and fat lands, such as those of
+the Lower Louisiana, where it is not so fine as on the high grounds.</p>
+
+<p>This plant may be cultivated in lands newly cleared, and not yet
+proper for tobacco, much less for indigo, which requires a ground well
+worked like a garden. The seeds of cotton are planted three feet
+asunder, more or less according to the quality of the soil: the field
+is weeded at the proper season, in order to clear it of the noxious
+weeds, and fresh earth laid to the root of the plant, to secure it
+against the winds. The cotton requires weeding, neither so often, nor
+so carefully as other plants; and the care of gathering is the
+employment of young people, incapable of harder labour.</p>
+
+<p>When the root of the cotton is once covered with fresh earth, and the
+weeds are removed, it is suffered to grow without further touching it,
+till it arrives to maturity. Then its heads or pods open into five
+parts, and expose their cotton to view. When the sun has dried the
+cotton well, it is gathered in a proper manner, and conveyed into the
+conservatory; after which comes on the greatest task, which is to
+separate it from the grain or seed to which it closely adheres; and it
+is this part of the work, which disgusts the inhabitants in the
+cultivation <a name="page-175"></a> of it. I contrived a mill for the purpose, tried it,
+and found it to succeed, so as to dispatch the work very much.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-viii"><img src="images/illus08.png" alt="Top: Cotton on the stalk&mdash;Bottom: Rice on the stalk" height="220" width="382"></a><br>
+Top: Cotton on the stalk&mdash;Bottom: Rice on the stalk</p>
+
+<p>The culture of indigo, tobacco, and cotton, may be easily carried on
+without any interruption to the making of silk, as any one of these is
+no manner of hindrance to the other. In the first place, the work
+about these three plants does not come on till after the worms have
+spun their silk: in the second place, <a name="page-176"></a> the feeding and cleaning
+the silk-worm requires no great degree of strength; and thus the care
+employed about them interrupts no other sort of work, either as to
+time, or as to the persons employed therein. It suffices for this
+operation to have a person who knows how to feed and clean the worms;
+young negroes of both sexes might assist this person, little skill
+sufficing for this purpose: the oldest of the young negroes, when
+taught, might shift the worms and lay the leaves; the other young
+negroes gather and fetch them; and all this labour, which takes not up
+the whole day, lasts only for about six weeks. It appears therefore,
+that the profit made of the silk is an additional benefit, so much the
+more profitable, as it diverts not the workmen from their ordinary
+tasks. If it be objected, that buildings are requisite to make silk to
+advantage; I answer, buildings for the purpose cost very little in a
+country where wood may be had for taking; I add farther, that these
+buildings may be made and daubed with mud by any persons about the
+family; and besides, may serve for hanging tobacco in, two months
+after the silk-worms are gone.</p>
+
+<p>I own I have not seen the wax-tree cultivated in Louisiana; people
+content themselves to take the berries of this tree, without being at
+pains to rear it; but as I am persuaded it would be very advantageous
+to make plantations of it, I shall give my sentiments on the culture
+proper for this tree, after the experiments I made in regard to it.</p>
+
+<p>I had some seeds of the wax-tree brought me to Fontenai le Comte, in
+Poictou, some of which I gave to several of my friends, but not one of
+them came up. I began to reflect, that Poictou not being by far so
+warm as Louisiana, these seeds would have difficulty to shoot; I
+therefore thought it was necessary to supply by art the defect of
+nature; I procured horse, cow, sheep, and pigeon's dung in equal
+quantity, all which I put in a vessel of proportionable size, and
+poured on them water, almost boiling, in order to dissolve their
+salts: this water I drew off, and steeped the grains in a sufficient
+quantity thereof for forty-eight hours; after which I sowed them in a
+box full of good earth; seven of them came up, and made shoots between
+seven and eight inches high, but they were all <a name="page-177"></a> killed by the
+frost for want of putting them into the greenhouse.</p>
+
+<p>This seed having such difficulty to come up, I presume that the wax,
+in which it is wrapped up, hinders the moisture from penetrating into,
+and making its kernel shoot; and there fore I should think that those
+who choose to sow it, would do well if they previously rolled it
+lightly between two small boards just rough from the saw; this
+friction would cause the pellicle of wax to scale off with so much the
+greater facility, as it is naturally very dry; and then it might be
+put to steep.</p>
+
+<p>Hops grow naturally in Louisiana, yet such as have a desire to make
+use of them for themselves, or sell them to brewers, cultivate this
+plant. It is planted in alleys, distant asunder six feet, in holes two
+feet and one foot deep, in which the root is lodged. When shot a good
+deal, a pole of the size of one's arm, and between twelve and fifteen
+feet long, is fixed in the hole; care is had to direct the shoots
+towards it, which fail not to run up the pole. When the flower is ripe
+and yellowish, the stem is cut quite close to the earth and the pole
+pulled out, in order to pick the flowers, which are saved.</p>
+
+<p>If we consider the climate of Louisiana, and the quality of the high
+lands of that province, we might easily produce saffron there. The
+culture of this plant would be so much the more advantageous to the
+planters, as the neighbourhood of Mexico would procure a quick and
+useful vent for it.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-48" name="fn-48">48</a></sup>  This East-India annual cotton has been found to
+be much better and whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies,
+which is of the Turkey kind. Both of them keep their colour better in
+washing, and are whiter than the perennial cotton that comes from the
+islands, although this last is of a longer staple.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-X">CHAPTER X.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the Commerce that, and may be carried on in</i> Louisiana. <i>Of the
+Commodities which that Province may furnish in return for those of</i>
+Europe. <i>Of the Commerce of</i> Louisiana <i>with the Isles</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>I have often reflected on the happiness of France in the portion which
+Providence has allotted her in America. She has found in her lands
+neither the gold nor silver of Mexico and Peru, nor the precious
+stones and rich stuffs of the East-Indies; but she will find therein,
+when she pleases, mines of iron, lead, and copper. She is there
+possessed of a fertile soil, <a name="page-178"></a> which only requires to be occupied
+in order to produce not only all the fruits necessary and agreeable to
+life, but also all the subjects on which human industry may exercise
+itself in order to supply our wants. What I have already said of
+Louisiana ought to make this very plain; but to bring the whole
+together, in order, and under one point of view, I shall next relate
+every thing that regards the commerce of this province.</p>
+
+<p><i>Commodities which</i> Louisiana <i>may furnish in return for those
+of</i> Europe.</p>
+
+<p>France might draw from this colony several sorts of furs, which would
+not be without their value, though held cheap in France; and by their
+variety, and the use that might be made of them, would yield
+satisfaction. Some persons have dissuaded the traders from taking any
+furs from the Indians, on a supposition that they would be moth-eaten
+when carried to New-Orleans, on account of the heat of the climate:
+but I am acquainted with people of the business, who know how to
+preserve them from such an accident.</p>
+
+<p>Dry buffalo hides are of sufficient value to encourage the Indians to
+procure them, especially if they were told, that only their skins and
+tallow were wanted; they would then kill the old bulls, which are so
+fat as scarce to be able to go: each buffalo would yield at least a
+hundred pounds of tallow; the value of which, with the skin, would
+make it worth their while to kill them, and thus none of our money
+would be sent to Ireland in order to have tallow from that country;
+besides the species of buffaloes would not be diminished, because
+these fat buffaloes are always the prey of wolves.</p>
+
+<p>Deer-skins, which were bought of the Indians at first, did not please
+the manufacturers of Niort, where they are dressed, because the
+Indians altered the quality by their way of dressing them; but since
+these skins have been called for without any preparation but taking
+off the hair, they make more of them, and sell them cheaper than
+before.</p>
+
+<p>The wax-tree produces wax, which being much drier than bees-wax, may
+bear mixture, which will not hinder its lasting longer than bees-wax.
+Some of this wax was sent to Paris to <a name="page-179"></a> a factor of Louisiana, who
+set so low a price upon it as to discourage the planters from sowing
+any more. The sordid avarice of this factor has done a service to the
+islands, where it gives a higher price than that of France.</p>
+
+<p>The islands also draw timber for building from Louisiana, which might
+in time prevent France from making her profits of the beauty,
+goodness, and quantity of wood of this province. The quality of the
+timber is a great inducement to build docks there for the construction
+of ships: the wood might be had at a low price of the inhabitants,
+because they would get it in winter, which is almost an idle time with
+them. This labour would also clear the grounds, and so this timber
+might be had almost for nothing. Masts might be also had in the
+country, on account of the number of pines which the coast produces;
+and for the same reason pitch and tar would be common. For the planks
+of ships, there is no want of oak; but might not very good one be made
+of cypress? this wood is, indeed, softer than oak, but endowed with
+qualities surpassing this last: it is light, not apt to split or warp,
+is supple and easily worked; in a word, it is incorruptible both in
+air and water; and thus making the planks stouter than ordinary, there
+would be no inconvenience from the use of cypress. I have observed,
+that this wood is not injured by the worm, and ship-worms might
+perhaps have the same aversion to it as other worms have.</p>
+
+<p>Other wood fit for the building of ships is very common in this
+country; such as elm, ash, alder, and others. There are likewise in
+this country several species of wood, which might sell in France for
+joiners work and fineering, as the cedar, the black walnut, and the
+cotton-tree. Nothing more would therefore be wanting for compleating
+ships but cordage and iron. As to hemp, it grows so strong as to be
+much fitter for making cables than cloth. The iron might be brought
+from France, as also sails; however, there needs only to open the iron
+mine at the cliffs of the Chicasaws, called Prud'homme, to set up
+forges, and iron will be readily had. The king, therefore, might cause
+all sorts of shipping to be built there at so small a charge, that a
+moderate expence would procure a numerous fleet. If the English build
+ships in their colonies <a name="page-180"></a> from which they draw great advantages,
+why might not we do the same in Louisiana?</p>
+
+<p>France fetches a great deal of saltpetre from Holland and Italy; she
+may draw from Louisiana more than she will have occasion for, if once
+she sets about it. The great fertility of the country is an evident
+proof thereof, confirmed by the avidity of cloven-footed animals to
+lick the earth, in all places where the torrents have broke it up: it
+is well known how fond these creatures are of salt. Saltpetre might be
+made there with all the ease imaginable, on account of the plenty of
+wood and water; it would besides be much more pure than what is
+commonly had, the earth not being fouled with dunghills; and on the
+other hand, it would not be dearer than what is now purchased by
+France in other places.</p>
+
+<p>What commerce might not be made with Silk? The silk-worms might be
+reared with much greater success in this country than in France, as
+appears from the trials that have been made, and which I have above
+related.</p>
+
+<p>The lands of Louisiana are very proper for the culture of Saffron, and
+the climate would contribute to produce it in great abundance; and,
+what would still be a considerable advantage, the Spaniards of Mexico,
+who consume a great deal of it, would enhance its price.</p>
+
+<p>I have spoken of Hemp, in respect to the building of ships: but such
+as might be built there, would never be sufficient to employ all the
+hemp which might be raised in that colony, did the inhabitants
+cultivate as much of it as they well might. But you will say, Why do
+they not? My answer is, the inhabitants of this colony only follow the
+beaten track they have got into: but if they saw an intelligent person
+sow hemp without any great expence or labour, as the soil is very fit
+for it; if, I say, they saw that it thrives without weeding; that in
+the winter evenings the negroes and their children can peel it; in a
+word, if they saw that there is good profit to be had by the sale of
+it; they then would all make hemp. They think and act in the same
+manner as to all the other articles of culture in this country.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-181"></a> Cotton is also a good commodity for commerce; and the culture of
+it is attended with no difficulty. The only impediment to the culture
+of it in a greater quantity, is the difficulty of separating it from
+the seed. However, if they had mills, which would do this work with
+greater dispatch, the profit would considerably increase.</p>
+
+<p>The Indigo of Louisiana, according to intelligent merchants, is as
+good as that of the islands; and has even more of the copper colour.
+As it thrives extremely well, and yields more herb than in the
+islands, as much Indigo may be made as there, though they have four
+cuttings, and only three in Louisiana. The climate is warmer in the
+islands, and therefore they make four gatherings; but the soil is
+drier, and produces not so much as Louisiana: so that the three
+cuttings of this last are as good as the four cuttings in the islands.</p>
+
+<p>The Tobacco of this colony is so excellent, that if the commerce
+thereof was free, it would sell for one hundred sols and six livres
+the pound, so fine and delicate is its juice and flavour. Rice may
+also form a fine branch of trade. We go to the East-Indies for the
+rice we consume in France; and why should we draw from foreign
+countries, what we may have of our own countrymen? We should have it
+at less trouble, and with more security. Besides, as sometimes,
+perhaps too often, years of scarcity happen, we might always depend
+upon finding rice in Louisiana, because it is not subject to fail, an
+advantage which few provinces enjoy.</p>
+
+<p>We may add to this commerce some drugs, used in medicine and dying. As
+to the first, Louisiana produces Sassafras, Sarsaparilla, Esquine, but
+above all the excellent balm of Copalm (Sweet-gum) the virtues of
+which, if well known, would save the life of many a person. This
+colony also furnishes us with bears oil, which is excellent in all
+rheumatic pains. For dying, I find only the wood Ayac, or Stinking
+Wood, for yellow; and the Achetchi for red; of the beauty of which
+colours we shall give an account in the third book.</p>
+
+<p>Such are the commodities which may form a commerce of this colony with
+France, which last may carry in exchange all <a name="page-182"></a> sorts of European
+goods and merchandize; the vent whereof is certain, as every thing
+answers there, where luxury reigns equally as in France. Flour, wines,
+and strong liquors sell well; and though I have spoken of the manner
+of growing wheat in this country, the inhabitants, towards the lower
+part of the river especially, will never grow it, any more than they
+will cultivate the vine, because in these sorts of work a negro will
+not earn his master half as much as in cultivating Tobacco; which,
+however, is less profitable than Indigo.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Commerce of</i> Louisiana <i>with the Islands.</i></p>
+
+<p>From Louisiana to the Islands they carry cypress wood squared for
+building, of different scantlings: sometimes they transport houses,
+all framed and marked out, ready to set up, on landing at their place
+of destination.</p>
+
+<p>Bricks, which cost fourteen or fifteen livres the thousand, delivered
+on board the ship.</p>
+
+
+<p>Tiles for covering houses and sheds, of the same price.</p>
+
+<p>Apalachean beans, (Garavanzas) worth ten livres the barrel, of two
+hundred weight.</p>
+
+<p>Maiz, or Indian corn.</p>
+
+<p>Cypress plank of ten or twelve feet.</p>
+
+<p>Red peas, which cost in the country twelve or thirteen livres the
+barrel.</p>
+
+<p>Cleaned rice, which costs twenty livres the barrel, of two hundred
+weight.</p>
+
+<p>There is a great profit to be made in the islands, by carrying thither
+the goods I have just mentioned: this profit is generally <i>cent. per
+cent.</i> in returns. The shipping which go from the colony bring back
+sugar, coffee, rum, which the negroes consume in drink; besides other
+goods for the use of the country.</p>
+
+<p>The ships which come from France to Louisiana put all in at Cape
+François. Sometimes there are ships, which not having a lading for
+France, because they may have been paid in money or bills of exchange,
+are obliged to return by Cape François, in order to take in their
+cargo for France.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-183"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-II-chapter-XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the Commerce with the</i> Spaniards. <i>The Commodities they bring to the
+Colony, if there is a Demand for them. Of such as may be given in
+return, and may suit them. Reflections on the Commerce of this
+Province, and the great Advantage which the State and particular
+Persons may derive therefrom.</i></p>
+
+
+<p><i>The Commerce with the</i> Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>The commodities which suit the Spaniards are sufficiently known by
+traders, and therefore it is not necessary to give an account of them:
+I have likewise forebore to give the particulars of the commodities
+which they carry to this colony, though I know them all: that is not
+our present business. I shall only apprise such as shall settle in
+Louisiana, in order to traffick with the Spaniards, that it is not
+sufficient to be furnished with the principal commodities which suit
+their commerce, but they should, besides, know how to make the proper
+assortments; which are most advantageous to us, as well as to them,
+when they carry them to Mexico.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Commodities which the</i> Spaniards <i>bring to</i> Louisiana, <i>if there is
+a demand for them</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Campeachy wood, which is generally worth from ten to fifteen livres
+the hundred weight.</p>
+
+<p>Brasil wood, which has a quality superior to that of Campeachy.</p>
+
+<p>Very good Cacoa, which is to be met with in all the ports of Spain,
+worth between eighteen and twenty livres the quintal, or hundred
+weight.</p>
+
+<p>Cochineal, which comes from Vera Cruz: there is no difficulty to have
+as much of it as one can desire, because so near; it is worth fifteen
+livres the pound: there is an inferior sort, called Sylvester.</p>
+
+<p>Tortoise-shell, which is common in the Spanish islands, is worth seven
+or eight livres the pound.</p>
+
+<p>Tanned leather, of which they have great quantities; that marked or
+stamped is worth four livres ten sols the levee.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-184"></a> Marroquin, or Spanish leather, of which they have great
+quantities, and cheap.</p>
+
+<p>Turned calf, which is also cheap.</p>
+
+<p>Indigo, which is manufactured at Guatimala, is worth three or four
+livres the pound: there is of it of a perfect good quality, and
+therefore sells at twelve livres the pound.</p>
+
+<p>Sarsaparilla, which they have in very great quantities, and sell at
+thirteen or fifteen sols.</p>
+
+<p>Havanna snuff, which is of different prices and qualities: I have seen
+it at three shillings the pound, which in our money make thirty-seven
+sols six deniers.</p>
+
+<p>Vanilla, which is of different prices. They have many other things
+very cheap, on which great profits might be made, and for which an
+easy vent may be found in Europe; especially for their drugs: but a
+particular detail would carry me too far, and make me lose sight of
+the object I had in view.</p>
+
+<p>What I have just said of the commerce of Louisiana, may easily shew
+that it will necessarily encrease in proportion as the country is
+peopled; and industry also will be brought to perfection. For this
+purpose nothing more is requisite than some inventive and industrious
+geniuses, who coming from Europe, may discover such objects of
+commerce as may turn to account. I imagine a good tanner might in this
+colony tan the leather of the country, and cheaper than in France; I
+even imagine that the leather might there be brought to its perfection
+in less time; and what makes me think so, is, that I have heard it
+averred, that the Spanish leather is extremely good, and is never
+above three or four months in the tan-pit.</p>
+
+<p>The same will hold of many other things, which would prevent money
+going out of the kingdom to foreign countries. Would it not be more
+suitable and more useful, to devise means of drawing the same
+commodities from our own colonies? As these means are so easy, at
+least money would not go out of our hands; France and her colonies
+would be as two families who traffick together, and render each other
+mutual service. Besides, there would not be occasion for so much money
+to carry on a commerce to Louisiana, seeing the inhabitants have need
+of European goods. It would therefore be a commerce <a name="page-185"></a> very
+different from that which, without exporting the merchandise of the
+kingdom, exports the money; a commerce still very different from that
+which carries to France commodities highly prejudicial to our own
+manufactures.</p>
+
+<p>I may add to all that I have said on Louisiana, as one of the great
+advantages of this country, that women are very fruitful in it, which
+they attribute to the waters of the Missisippi. Had the intentions of
+the Company been pursued, and their orders executed, there is no doubt
+but this colony had at this day been very strong, and blessed with a
+numerous young progeny, whom no other climate would allure to go and
+settle in; but being retained by the beauty of their own, they would
+improve its riches, and multiplied anew in a short time, could offer
+their mother-country succours in men and ships, and in many other
+things that are not to be contemned.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot too much shew the importance of the succours in corn, which
+this colony might furnish in a time of scarcity. In a bad year we are
+obliged to carry our money to foreigners for corn, which has been
+oftentimes purchased in France, because they have had the secret of
+preserving their corn; but if the colony of Louisiana was once well
+settled, what supplies of corn might not be received from that
+fruitful country? I shall give two reasons which will confirm my
+opinion.</p>
+
+<p>The first is, That the inhabitants always grow more corn than is
+necessary for the subsistence of themselves, their workmen, and
+slaves. I own, that in the lower part of the colony only rice could be
+had, but this is always a great supply. Now, were the colony gradually
+settled to the Arkansas, they would grow wheat and rye in as great
+quantities as one could well desire, which would be of great service
+to France, when her crops happen to fail.</p>
+
+<p>The second reason is, That in this colony a scarcity is never to be
+apprehended. On my arrival in it, I informed myself of what had happened
+therein from 1700, and I myself remained in it till 1734; and since my
+return to France I have had accounts from it down to this present year
+1757; and from these accounts I can aver, that no intemperature of
+season has caused <a name="page-186"></a> any scarcity since the beginning of this
+century. I was witness to one of the severest winters that had been
+known in that country in the memory of the oldest people living; but
+provisions were then not dearer than in other years. The soil of this
+province being excellent, and the seasons always suitable, the
+provisions and other commodities cultivated in it never fail to thrive
+surprizingly.</p>
+
+<p>One will, perhaps, be surprized to hear me promise such fine things of
+a country which has been reckoned to be so much inferior to the
+Spanish or Portuguese colonies in America; but such as will take the
+trouble to reflect on that which constitutes the genuine strength of
+states, and the real goodness of a country, will soon alter their
+opinion, and agree with me, that a country fertile in men, in
+productions of the earth, and in necessary metals, is infinitely
+preferable to countries from which men draw gold, silver, and
+diamonds: the first effect of which is to pamper luxury and render the
+people indolent; and the second to stir up the avarice of neighbouring
+nations. I therefore boldly aver, that Louisiana, well governed, would
+not long fail to fulfil all I have advanced about it; for though there
+are still some nations of Indians who might prove enemies to the
+French, the settlers, by their martial character, and their zeal for
+their king and country, aided by a few troops, commanded, above all,
+by good officers, who at the same time know how to command the
+colonists: the settlers, I say, will be always match enough for them,
+and prevent any foreigners whatever from invading the country. What
+would therefore be the consequence if, as I have projected, the first
+nation that should become our enemy were attacked in the manner I have
+laid down in my reflections on an Indian war? They would be directly
+brought to such a pass as to make all other nations tremble at the
+very name of the French, and to be ever cautious of making war upon
+them. Not to mention the advantage there is in carrying on wars in
+this manner; for as they cost little, as little do they hazard the
+loss of lives.</p>
+
+<p>In 1734, M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was relieved by M. de
+Biainville, and the King's plantation put on a new footing, by an
+arrangement suitable to the notions of the person <a name="page-187"></a> who advised
+it. A sycophant, who wanted to make his court to Cardinal Fleury,
+would persuade that minister, that the plantation cost his Majesty ten
+thousand livres a year, and that this sum might be well saved; but
+took care not to tell his Eminence, that for these ten thousand it
+saved at least fifty thousand livres.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this, my place of Director of the public plantations was
+abolished, and I at length resolved to quit the colony and return to
+France, nothwithstanding all the fair promises and warm solicitations
+of my superiors to prevail upon me to stay. A King's ship, La Gironde,
+being ready to sail, I went down the river in her to Balise, and from
+thence we set sail, on the 10th of May, 1734. We had tolerable fine
+weather to the mouth of the Bahama Streights; afterwards we had the
+wind contrary, which retarded our voyage for a week about the banks of
+Newfoundland, to which we were obliged to stretch for a wind to carry
+us to France: from thence we made the passage without any cross
+accident, and happily arrived in the road of Chaidbois before
+Rochelle, on the 25th of June following, which made it a passage of
+forty-five days from Louisiana to France.</p>
+
+<p>       *       *       *       *       *</p>
+
+<p><a name="book-II-chapter-XII"><i>Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, by</i></a> M. Du
+Mont.</p>
+
+<p><a name="book-II-chapter-XII-section-I">I.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Of</i> Tobacco, <i>with the way of cultivating and curing it.</i></p>
+
+<p>The lands of Louisiana are as proper as could be desired, for the
+culture of tobacco; and, without despising what is made in other
+countries, we may affirm that the tobacco which grows in the country
+of the Natchez, is even preferable to that of Virginia or St. Domingo;
+I say, in the country of the Natchez, because the soil at that post
+appears to be more suitable to this plant than any other: although it
+must be owned, that there is but very little difference betwixt the
+tobacco which grows there and in some other parts of the colony, as at
+the Cut-point, at the Nachitoches, and even at New Orleans; but
+whether it is owing to the exposure, or to the goodness of <a name="page-188"></a> the
+soil, it is allowed that the tobacco of the Natchez and Yasous is
+preferable to the rest.</p>
+
+<p>The way of planting and curing tobacco in this country, is as follows:
+they sow it on beds well worked with the hoe or spade in the months of
+December, January, or February; and because the seed is very small,
+they mix it with ashes, that it may be thinner sowed: then they rake
+the beds, and trample them with their feet, or clap them with a plank,
+that the seed may take sooner in the ground. The tobacco does not come
+up till a month afterwards, or even for a longer time; and then they
+ought to take great care to cover the beds with straw or cypress-bark,
+to preserve the plants from the white frosts, that are very common in
+that season. There are two sorts of tobacco; the one with a long and
+sharp-pointed leaf, the other has a round and hairy leaf; which last
+they reckon the best sort.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of April, and about St. George's day, the plants have about
+four leaves, and then they pull the best and strongest of them: these
+they plant out on their tobacco-ground by a line stretched across it,
+and at three feet distance one from another: this they do either with
+a planting-stick, or with their finger, leaving a hole on one side of
+the plant, to receive the water, with which they ought to water it.
+The tobacco being thus planted, it should be looked over evening and
+morning, in order to destroy a black worm, which eats the bud of the
+plant, and afterwards buries itself in the ground. If any of the
+plants are eat by this worm, you must set another one by it. You must
+choose a rainy season to plant your tobacco, and you should water it
+three times to make it take root. But they never work their ground in
+this country to plant their tobacco; they reckon it sufficient to stir
+it a little about four inches square round the plant.</p>
+
+<p>When the tobacco is about four or five inches high, they weed it, and
+clean the ground all about it, and hill up every plant. They do the
+same again, when it is about a foot and a half high. And when the
+plant has, about eight or nine leaves, and is ready to put forth a
+stalk, they nip off the top, which they call topping the tobacco: this
+amputation makes the <a name="page-189"></a> leaves grow longer and thicker. After this,
+you must look over every plant, and every leaf, in order to sucker it,
+or to pull off the buds, which grow at the joints of the leaves; and
+at the same time you must destroy the large green worms that are found
+on the tobacco, which are often as large as a man's finger, and would
+eat up the whole plant in a night's time.</p>
+
+<p>After this, you must take care to have ready a hanger (or
+tobacco-house,) which in Louisiana they make in the following manner:
+they set several posts in the ground, at equal distances from one
+another, and lay a beam or plate on the top of them, making thus the
+form of a house of an oblong square. In the middle of this square they
+set up two forks, about one third higher than the posts, and lay a pole
+cross them, for the ridge-pole of the building; upon which they nail the
+rafters, and cover them with cypress-bark, or palmetto-leaves. The first
+settlers likewise build their dwelling-houses in this manner, which
+answer the purpose very well, and as well as the houses which their
+carpenters build for them, especially for the curing of tobacco; which
+they hang in these houses upon sticks or canes, laid across the
+building, and about four feet and a half asunder, one above another.</p>
+
+<p>The tobacco-house being ready, you wait till your tobacco is ripe, and
+fit to be cut; which you may know by the leaves being brittle, and
+easily broke between the fingers, especially in the morning before
+sun-rising; but those versed in it know when the tobacco is fit to cut
+by the looks of it, and at first sight. You cut your tobacco with a
+knife as nigh the ground as you can, after which you lay it upon the
+ground for some time, that the leaves may fall, or grow tender, and
+not break in carrying. When you carry your tobacco to the house, you
+hang it first at the top by pairs, or two plants together, thus
+continuing from story to story, taking care that the plants thus hung
+are about two inches asunder, and that they do not touch one another,
+lest they should rot. In this manner they fill their whole house with
+tobacco, and leave it to sweat and dry.</p>
+
+<p>After the tobacco is cut, they weed and clean the ground on which it
+grew: each root then puts out several suckers, which are all pulled
+off, and only one of the best is left to <a name="page-190"></a> grow, of which the same
+care is taken as of the first crop. By this means a second crop is
+made on the same ground, and sometimes a third. These seconds, indeed,
+as they are called, do not usually grow so high as the first plant,
+but notwithstanding they make very good tobacco.<sup><a href="#fn-49" name="fr-49">49</a></sup> </p>
+
+<p>If you have a mind to make your tobacco into rolls, there is no
+occasion to wait till the leaves are perfectly dry; but as soon as
+they have acquired a yellowish brown colour, although the stem is
+green, you unhang your tobacco, and strip the leaves from the stalks,
+lay them up in heaps, and cover them with woolen cloths, in order to
+sweat them. After that you stem the tobacco, or pull out the middle
+rib of the leaf, which you throw away with the stalks, as good for
+nothing; laying by the longest and largest of the leaves, that are of
+a good blackish brown colour, and keep them for a covering for your
+rolls. After this you take a piece of coarse linen, at least eight
+inches broad and a foot long, which you spread on the ground, and on
+it lay the large leaves you have picked out, and the others over them
+in handfuls, taking care always to have more in the middle than at the
+ends: then you roll the <a name="page-191"></a> tobacco up in the cloth, tying it in the
+middle and at each end. When you have made a sufficient number of
+these bundles, the negroes roll them up as hard as they can with a
+cord about as big as the little finger, which is commonly about
+fifteen or sixteen fathom long: you tighten them three times, so as to
+make them as hard as possible; and to keep them so, you might tie them
+up with a string.</p>
+
+<p>But since the time of the West India company, we have seldom cured our
+tobacco in this manner, if it is not for our own use; we now cure it
+in hands, or bundles of the leaves, which they pack in hogsheads, and
+deliver it thus in France to the farmers general. In order to cure the
+tobacco in this manner, they wait till the leaves of the stem are
+perfectly dry, and in moist, giving weather, they strip the leaves
+from the stalk, till they have a handful of them, called a hand, or
+bundle of tobacco, which they tie up with another leaf. These bundles
+they lay in heaps, in order to sweat them, for which purpose they
+cover those heaps with blankets, and lay boards or planks over them.
+But you should take care that the tobacco is not over-heated, and does
+not take fire, which may easily happen; for which purpose you uncover
+your heaps from time to time, and give the tobacco air, by spreading
+it abroad. This you continue to do till you find no more heat in the
+tobacco; then you pack it in hogsheads, and may transport it any
+where, without danger either of its heating or rotting.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-49" name="fn-49">49</a></sup>  This is an
+advantage that they have in Louisiana over our tobacco planters, who
+are prohibited by law to cultivate these seconds; the summers are so
+short, that they do not come to due maturity in our tobacco colonies;
+whereas in Louisiana the summers are two or three months longer, by
+which they make two or three crops of tobacco a year upon the same
+ground, as early as we make one. Add to this, their fresh lands will
+produce three times as much of that commodity, as our old plantations;
+which are now worn out with culture, by supplying the whole world
+almost with tobacco for a hundred and fifty years. Now if their
+tobacco is worth five and six shillings a pound, as we are told above,
+or even the tenth part of it, when ours is worth but two pence or
+three pence, and they give a bounty upon ships going to the
+Missisippi, when our tobacco is loaded with a duty equal to seven
+times its prime cost; they may, with all these advantages, soon get
+this trade from us, the, only one this nation has left entire to
+itself. These advantages enable the planters to give a much better
+price for servants and slaves, and thereby to engross the trade. It
+was by these means, that the French got the sugar trade from us, after
+the treaty of Utrecht, by being allowed to transport their people from
+St. Christopher's to the rich and fresh lands of St. Domingo; and by
+removing from Canada to Louisiana, they may in the like manner get not
+only this, but every other branch of the trade of North America.</p>
+
+<p><a name="book-II-chapter-XII-section-II">II.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Of the way of making</i> Indigo.</p>
+
+<p>The blue stone, known by the name of Indigo, is the extract of a plant
+which they who have a sufficient number of slaves to manage it, make
+some quantities throughout all this colony. For this purpose they
+first weed the ground, and make small holes in it with a hoe, about
+five inches asunder, and on a straight line. In each of these holes
+they put five or six seeds of the indigo, which are small, long, and
+hard. When they come up, they put forth leaves somewhat like those of
+box, but a little longer and broader, and not so thick and indented.
+When the plant is five or six inches high, they take <a name="page-192"></a> care to
+loosen the earth about the root, and at the same time to weed it. They
+reckon it has acquired a proper maturity, when it is about three feet
+and a half high: this you may likewise know, if the leaf cracks as you
+squeeze the plant in your hand.</p>
+
+<p>Before you cut it, you get ready a place that is covered in the same
+manner with the one made for tobacco, about twenty-five feet high; in
+which you put three vats, one above another, as it were in different
+stories, so that the highest is the largest; that in the middle is
+square, and the deepest; the third, at bottom, is the least.</p>
+
+<p>After these operations, you cut the indigo, and when you have several
+arms-full, or bundles of the plant, to the quantity judged necessary
+for one working, you fill the vat at least three quarters full; after
+which you pour water thereon up to the brim, and the plant is left to
+steep, in order to rot it; which is the reason why this vat is called
+the rotting-tub. For the three or four hours which the plant takes to
+rot, the water is impregnated with its virtue; and, though the plant
+is green, communicates thereto a blue colour.</p>
+
+<p>At the bottom of the great vat, and where it bears on the one in the
+middle (which, as was said, is square) is a pretty large hole, stopped
+with a bung; which is opened when the plant is thought to be
+sufficiently rotten, and all the water of this vat, mixed with the
+mud, formed by the rotting of the plant, falls by this hole into the
+second vat; on the edges of which are placed, at proper distances,
+forks of iron or wood, on which large long poles are laid, which reach
+from the two sides to the middle of the water in the vat; the end
+plunged in the water is furnished with a bucket without a bottom. A
+number of slaves lay hold on these poles, by the end which is out of
+the water; and alternately pulling them down, and then letting the
+buckets fall into the vat, they thus continue to beat the water; which
+being thus agitated and churned, comes to be covered with a white and
+thick scum; and in such quantity as that it would rise up and flow
+over the brim of the vat, if the operator did not take care to throw
+in, from time to time, some fish-oil, which he sprinkles with a
+feather upon this scum. For these reasons this vat is called the
+battery.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-193"></a> They continue to beat the water for an hour and a half, or two
+hours; after which they give over, and the water is left to settle.
+However, they from time to time open three holes, which are placed at
+proper distances from top to bottom in one of the sides of this second
+vat in order to let the water run off clear. This is repeated for
+three several times; but when at the third time the muddy water is
+ready to come out at the lowermost hole, they stop it, and open
+another pierced in the lower part of that side, which rests on the
+third vat. Then all the muddy water falls through that hole of the
+second vat, into the third, which is the least, and is called the
+<i>deviling (diablotin.)</i></p>
+
+<p>They have sacks, a foot long, made of a pretty close cloth, which they
+fill with this liquid thick matter, and hang them on nails round the
+indigo-house. The water drains out gradually; and the matter which is
+left behind, resembles a real mud, which they take out of these sacks,
+and put in moulds, made like little drawers, two feet long by half a
+foot broad, and with a border, or ledge, an inch and a half high. Then
+they lay them out in the sun, which draws off all the moisture: and as
+this mud comes to dry, care is taken to work it with a mason's trowel:
+at length it forms a body, which holds together, and is cut in pieces,
+while fresh, with wire. It is in this manner that they draw from a
+green herb this fine blue colour, of which there are two sorts, one of
+which is of a purple dove colour.</p>
+
+<p><a name="book-II-chapter-XII-section-III">III.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Of Tar; the way of making it; and of making it into Pitch</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have said, that they made a great deal of tar in this colony, from
+pines and firs; which is done in the following manner. It is a common
+mistake, that tar is nothing but the sap or gum of the pine, drawn
+from the tree by incision; the largest trees would not yield two
+pounds by this method; and if it were, to be made in that manner, you
+must choose the most thriving and flourishing trees for the purpose;
+whereas it is only made from the trees that are old, and are beginning
+to decay, because the older they are, the greater quantities they
+contain of that fat bituminous substance, which yields tar; it <a name="page-194"></a>
+is even proper that the tree should be felled a long time, before they
+use them for this purpose. It is usually towards the mouth of the
+river, and along the sea-coasts, that they make tar; because it is in
+those places that the pines chiefly grow.</p>
+
+<p>When they have a sufficient number of these trees, that are fit for
+the purpose, they saw them in cuts with a cross-cut saw, about two
+feet in length; and while the slaves are employed in sawing them,
+others split these cuts lengthwise into small pieces, the smaller the
+better. They sometimes spend three or four months in cutting and
+preparing the trees in this manner. In the mean time they make a
+square hollow in the ground, four or five feet broad, and five or six
+inches deep: from one side of which goes off a canal or gutter, which
+discharges itself into a large and pretty deep pit, at the distance of
+a few paces. From this pit proceeds another canal, which communicates
+with a second pit; and even from the first square you make three or
+four such trenches, which discharge themselves into as many pits,
+according to the quantity of wood you have, or the quantity of tar you
+imagine you may draw from it. Then you lay over the square hole four
+or five pretty strong bars of iron, and upon these bars you arrange
+crosswise the split pieces of pine, of which you should have a
+quantity ready; laying them so, that there may be a little air between
+them. In this manner you raise a large and high pyramid of the wood,
+and when it is finished, you set fire to it at the top. As the wood
+burns, the fire melts the resin in the pine, and this liquid tar
+distills into the square hole, and from thence runs into the pits made
+to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>If you would make pitch of this tar, take two or three red-hot cannon
+bullets, and throw them into the pits, full of the tar, which you
+intend for this purpose: immediately upon which, the tar takes fire
+with a terrible noise and a horrible thick smoke, by which the
+moisture that may remain in the tar is consumed and dissipated, and
+the mass diminishes in proportion; and when they think it is
+sufficiently burnt, they extinguish the fire, not with water, but with
+a hurdle covered with turf and earth. As it grows cold, it becomes
+hard and shining, so that you cannot take it out of the pits, but by
+cutting it with an axe.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-195"></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="book-II-chapter-XII-section-IV">IV.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Of the Mines of</i> Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>Before we quit this subject, I shall conclude this account by
+answering a question, which has often been proposed to me. Are there
+any Mines, say they, in this province? There are, without all dispute;
+and that is so certain, and so well known, that they who have any
+knowledge of this country never once called it in question. And it is
+allowed by all, that there are to be found in this country quarries of
+plaster of Paris, slate, and very fine veined marble; and I have
+learned from one of my friends, who as well as myself had been a great
+way on discoveries, that in travelling this province he had found a
+place full of fine stones of rock-crystal. As for my share, I can
+affirm, without endeavoring to impose on any one, that in one of my
+excursions I found, upon the river of the Arkansas, a rivulet that
+rolled down with its waters gold-dust; from which there is reason to
+believe that there are mines of this metal in that country. And as for
+silver-mines, there is no doubt but they might be found there, as well
+as in New Mexico, on which this province borders. A Canadian
+traveller, named Bon Homme, as he was hunting at some distance from
+the Post of the Nachitoches, melted some parcels of a mine, that is
+found in rocks at a very little distance from that Post, which
+appeared to be very good silver, without any farther purification.<sup><a href="#fn-50" name="fr-50">50</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>It will be objected to me, perhaps, that if there is any truth in what
+I advance, I should have come from that country laden with silver and
+gold; and that if these precious metals are to be found there, as I
+have said, it is surprizing that the French have never thought of
+discovering and digging them in thirty years, in which they have been
+settled in Louisiana. To this I answer, that this objection is only
+founded on the ignorance of those who make it; and that a traveller,
+or an officer, ordered by his superiors to go to reconnoitre the
+country, to draw plans, and give an account of what he has seen, in
+nothing but immense woods and deserts, where they cannot so <a name="page-196"></a> much
+as find a path, but what is made by the wild beasts; I say, that such
+people have enough to do to take care of themselves and of their
+present business, instead of gathering riches; and think it
+sufficient, that they return in a whole skin.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the negligence that the French seem hitherto to have
+shewn in searching for these mines, and in digging them, we ought to
+take due notice, that in order to open a silver-mine, for example, you
+must advance at least a hundred thousand crowns, before you can expect
+to get a penny of profit from it, and that the people of the country
+are not in a condition to be at any such charge. Add to this, that the
+inhabitants are too ignorant of these mines; the Spaniards, their
+neighbours, are too discreet to teach them; and the French in Europe
+are too backward and timorous to engage in such an undertaking. But
+notwithstanding, it is certain that the thing has been already done,
+and that just reasons, without doubt, but different from an
+impossibility, have caused it to be laid aside.</p>
+
+<p>This author gives a like account of the culture of Rice in Louisiana,
+and of all the other staple commodities of our colonies in North
+America.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-50" name="fn-50">50</a></sup>  See a farther account and assay of this mine above.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-197"></a><a name="book-II-chapter-XII-section-V"></a><i>Extract from a late</i> French <i>Writer, concerning the Importance
+of</i> Louisiana <i>to France</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"One cannot help lamenting the lethargic state of that colony,
+(Louisiana) which carries in its bosom the bed of the greatest riches;
+and in order to produce them, asks only arms proper for tilling the
+earth, which is wholly disposed to yield an hundred fold. Thanks to
+the fertility of our islands, our Sugar plantations are infinitely
+superior to those of the English, and we likewise excel them in our
+productions of Indigo, Coffee, and Cotton.</p>
+
+<p>"Tobacco is the only production of the earth which gives the English
+an advantage over us. Providence, which reserved for us the discovery
+of Louisiana, has given us the possession of it, that we may be their
+rivals in this particular, or at least that we may be able to do
+without their Tobacco. Ought we to continue tributaries to them in
+this respect, when we can so easily do without them?</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot help remarking here, that among several projects presented
+of late years for giving new force to this colony, a company of
+creditable merchants proposed to furnish negroes to the inhabitants,
+and to be paid for them in Tobacco alone at a fixed valuation.</p>
+
+<p>"The following advantages, they demonstrated, would attend their
+scheme. I. It would increase a branch of commerce in France, which
+affords subsistence to two of the English colonies in America, namely
+Virginia and Maryland, the inhabitants of which consume annually a
+very considerable quantity of English stuffs, and employ a great
+number of ships in the transportation of their Tobacco. The
+inhabitants of those two provinces are so greatly multiplied, in
+consequence of the riches they have acquired by their commerce with
+us, that they begin to spread themselves upon territories that belong
+to us. II. The second advantage arising from the scheme would be, to
+carry the cultivation of Tobacco to its greatest extent and
+perfection. III. To diminish in proportion the cultivation of the
+English plantations, as well as lessen their navigation in that part.
+IV. To put an end entirely to the <a name="page-198"></a> importation of any Tobacco
+from Great-Britain into France, in the space of twelve years. V. To
+diminish annually, and in the same space of time finally put an end
+to, the exportation of specie from France to Great-Britain, which
+amounts annually to five millions of our money for the purchase of
+Tobacco, and the freightage of English ships, which bring it into our
+ports. VI. By diminishing the cause of the outgoing specie, to augment
+the balance of commerce in favour of the nation. These are the
+principal advantages which France would have reason to have expected
+from the establishment of this company, if it had been effected."
+<i>Essai sur les Interêts du Commerce Maritime, par</i> M. du Haye. 1754.</p>
+
+<p>The probability of succeeding in such a scheme will appear from the
+foregoing accounts of Tobacco in Louisiana, pag. 172, 173, 181, 188,
+&amp;c. They only want hands to make any quantities of Tobacco in
+Louisiana. The consequences of that will appear from the following
+account.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-199"></a> <i>An Account of the Quantity of Tobacco imported into</i> Britain,
+<i>and exported from it, in the four Years of Peace, after the late
+Tobacco-Law took place, according to the Custom-House Accounts.</i></p>
+
+<pre>
+                                 Imported     Exported
+                                  Hhds.        Hhds.
+                       1752 - - - 55,997 - -  48,922
+    England,           1753 - - - 70,925 - -  57,353
+                       1754 - - - 59,744 - -  50,476
+                       1755 - - - 71,881 - -  54,384
+                                &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-   &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+                                 258,547 - - 211,135
+                                &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-   &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+                       1752 - - - 22,322 - -  21,642
+    Scotland,          1753 - - - 26,210 - -  24,728
+                       1754 - - - 22,334 - -  21,764
+                       1755 - - - 20,698 - -  19,711
+                                &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-   &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+                                  91,564 - -  87,845
+                                &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-   &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+                     Total - - - 350,111 - - 298,980
+                     Average - -  87,528 - -  74,745
+                 Imported yearly - - -  hhds  87,528
+                 Exported - - - - - - - - -   74,745
+                                            &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+                  Home consumption - - - - -  12,783
+  To 87,528 hogsheads, at 10£ per hogshead, £875,280
+  To duty on 12,783 hogsheads at 20£ - - -   255,660
+                                           &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+  Annual income from Tobacco - - - - -     1,130,940
+</pre>
+
+<p>The number of seamen employed in the Tobacco trade is computed at
+4500;&mdash;in the Sugar trade 3600;&mdash;and in the Fishery of Newfoundland
+4000, from Britain.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-201"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<p>THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="book-III">BOOK III.</a></h2>
+
+<p><i>The Natural History of</i> Louisiana.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-I">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of Corn and Pulse</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Having, in the former part of this work, given an account of the
+nature of the soil of Louisiana, and observed that some places were
+proper for one kind of plants, and some for another; and that almost
+the whole country was capable of producing, and bringing to the utmost
+maturity, all kinds of grain, I shall now present the industrious
+planter with an account of the trees and plants which may be
+cultivated to advantage in those lands with which he is now made
+acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>During my abode in that country, where I myself have a grant of lands,
+and where I lived sixteen years, I have had leisure to study this
+subject, and have made such progress in it, that I have sent to the
+West-India Company in France no less than three hundred medicinal
+plants, found in their possessions, and worthy of the attention of the
+public. The reader may depend upon my being faithful and exact; he
+must not however here expect a description of every thing that
+Louisiana produces of the vegetable kind. Its prodigious fertility
+makes it impracticable for me to undertake so extensive a work. I
+shall chiefly describe those plants and fruits that are most useful to
+the inhabitants, either in regard to their own subsistence or
+preservation, or in regard to their foreign commerce; <a name="page-202"></a> and I
+shall add the manner of cultivating and managing the plants that are
+of greatest advantage to the colony.</p>
+
+<p>Louisiana produces several kinds of Maiz, namely Flour-maiz, which is
+white, with a flat and shrivelled surface, and is the softest of all
+the kinds; Homony corn, which is round, hard, and shining; of this
+there are four sorts, the white, the yellow, the red, and the blue;
+the Maiz of these two last colours is more common in the high lands
+than in the Lower Louisiana. We have besides small corn, or small
+Maiz, so called because it is smaller than the other kinds. New
+settlers sow this corn upon their first arrival, in order to have
+whereon to subsist as soon as possible; for it rises very fast, and
+ripens in so short a time, that from the same field they may have two
+crops of it in one year. Besides this, it has the advantage of being
+more agreeable to the taste than the large kind.</p>
+
+<p>Maiz, which in France is called Turkey Corn, (and in England Indian
+Corn) is the natural product of this country; for upon our arrival we
+found it cultivated by the natives. It grows upon a stalk six, seven,
+and eight feet high; the ear is large, and about two inches diameter,
+containing sometimes seven hundred grains and upwards; and each stalk
+bears sometimes six or seven ears, according to the goodness of the
+ground. The black and light soil is that which agrees best with it;
+but strong ground is not so favourable to it.</p>
+
+<p>This corn, it is well known, is very wholesome both for man and other
+animals, especially for poultry. The natives, that they may have
+change of dishes, dress it in various ways. The best is to make it
+into what is called Parched Meal, (Farine Froide.) As there is nobody
+who does not eat of this with pleasure, even though not very hungry, I
+will give the manner of preparing it, that our provinces of France,
+which reap this grain, may draw the same advantage from it.</p>
+
+<p>The corn is first parboiled in water; then drained and well dried.
+When it is perfectly dry, it is then roasted in a plate made for that
+purpose, ashes being mixed with it to hinder it from burning; and they
+keep continually stirring it, that it may take only the red colour
+which they want. When it has taken that colour, they remove the ashes,
+rub it well, and then <a name="page-203"></a> put it in a mortar with the ashes of dried
+stalks of kidney beans, and a little water; they then beat it gently,
+which quickly breaks the husk, and turns the whole into meal. This
+meal, after being pounded, is dried in the sun, and after this last
+operation it may be carried any where, and will keep six months, if
+care be taken from time to time to expose it to the sun. When they
+want to eat of it, they mix in a vessel two thirds water with one
+third meal, and in a few minutes the mixture swells greatly in bulk,
+and is fit to eat. It is a very nourishing food, and is an excellent
+provision for travellers, and those who go to any distance to trade.</p>
+
+<p>This parched meal, mixed with milk and a little sugar, may be served
+up at the best tables. When mixed with milk-chocolate it makes a very
+lasting nourishment. From Maiz they make a strong and agreeable beer;
+and they likewise distil brandy from it.</p>
+
+<p>Wheat, rye, barley, and oats grow extremely well in Louisiana; but I
+must add one precaution in regard to wheat; when it is sown by itself,
+as in France, it grows at first wonderfully; but when it is in flower,
+a great number of drops of red water may be observed at the bottom of
+the stalk within six inches of the ground, which are collected there
+during the night, and disappear at sun-rising. This water is of such
+an acrid nature, that in a short time it consumes the stalk, and the
+ear falls before the grain is formed. To prevent this misfortune,
+which is owing to the too great richness of the soil, the method I
+have taken, and which has succeeded extremely well, is to mix with the
+wheat you intend to sow, some rye and dry mould, in such a proportion
+that the mould shall be equal to the rye and wheat together. This
+method I remember to have seen practised in France; and when I asked
+the reason of it, the farmer told me that as the land was new, and had
+lately been a wood, it contained an acid that was prejudicial to the
+wheat; and that as the rye absorbed that acid without being hurt, it
+thereby preserved the other grain. I have seen barley and oats in that
+country three feet high.</p>
+
+<p>The rice which is cultivated in that country was brought from
+Carolina. It succeeds surprizingly well, and experience <a name="page-204"></a> has
+there proved, contrary to the common notion, that it does not want to
+have its foot always in the water. It has been sown in the flat
+country without being flooded, and the grain that was reaped was full
+grown, and of a very delicate taste. The fine relish need not surprise
+us; for it is so with all plants and fruits that grow without being
+watered, and at a distance from watery places. Two crops may be reaped
+from the same plant; but the second is poor if it be not flooded. I
+know not whether they have attempted, since I left Louisiana, to sow
+it upon the sides of hills.</p>
+
+<p>The first settlers found in the country French-beans of various
+colours, particularly red and black, and they have been called beans
+of forty days, because they require no longer time to grow and to be
+fit to eat green. The Apalachean beans are so called because we
+received them from a nation of the natives of that name. They probably
+had them from the English of Carolina, whither they had been brought
+from Guinea. Their stalks spread upon the ground to the length of four
+or five feet. They are like the other beans, but much smaller, and of
+a brown colour, having a black ring round the eye, by which they are
+joined to the shell. These beans boil tender, and have a tolerable
+relish, but they are sweetish, and somewhat insipid.</p>
+
+<p>The potatoes are roots more commonly long than thick; their form is
+various, and their fine skin is like that of the Topinambous (Irish
+potatoes.) In their substance and taste they very much resemble sweet
+chesnuts. They are cultivated in the following manner; the earth is
+raised in little hills or high furrows about a foot and a half broad,
+that by draining the moisture, the roots may have a better relish. The
+small potatoes being cut in little pieces with an eye in each, four or
+five of those pieces are planted on the head of the hills. In a short
+time they push out shoots, and these shoots being cut off about the
+middle of August within seven or eight inches of the ground, are
+planted double, cross-ways, in the crown of other hills. The roots of
+these last are the most esteemed, not only on account of their fine
+relish, but because they are easier kept during the winter. In order to
+preserve them during <a name="page-205"></a> that season, they dry them in the sun as
+soon as they are dug up, and then lay them up in a close and dry place,
+covering them first with ashes, over which they lay dry mould. They
+boil them, or bake them, or roast them on hot coals like chesnuts; but
+they have the finest relish when baked or roasted. They are eat dry, or
+cut into small slices in milk without sugar, for they are sweet of
+themselves. Good sweetmeats are also <a name="page-206"></a> made of them, and some
+Frenchmen have drawn brandy from them.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-ix"><img src="images/illus09.png" alt="Top: Appalachean Beans,&mdash;Bottom: Sweet Potatoes
+(on p. 205)" height="380" width="225"></a><br>
+Top: <i>Appalachean Beans,</i>&mdash;Bottom: <i>Sweet Potatoes</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>The Cushaws are a kind of pompion. There are two sorts of them, the
+one round, and the other in the shape of a hunting horn. These last
+are the best, being of a more firm substance, which makes them keep
+much better than the others; their sweetness is not so insipid, and
+they have fewer seeds. They make sweetmeats of these last, and use
+both kinds in soup; they make fritters of them, fry them, bake them,
+and roast them on the coals, and in all ways of cooking they are good
+and palatable.</p>
+
+<p>All kinds of melons grow admirably well in Louisiana. Those of Spain,
+of France, of England, which last are called white melons, are there
+infinitely finer than in the countries from whence they have their
+name; but the best of all are the water melons. As they are hardly
+known in France, except in Provence, where a few of the small kind
+grow, I fancy a description of them will not be disagreeable to the
+reader.</p>
+
+<p>The stalk of this melon spreads like ours upon the ground, and extends
+to the length of ten feet. It is so tender, that when it is any way
+bruised by treading upon it, the fruit dies; and if it is rubbed in
+the least, it grows warm. The leaves are very much indented, as broad
+as the hand when they are spread out, and are somewhat of a sea-green
+colour. The fruit is either round like a pompion, or long. There are
+some good melons of this last kind, but the first sort are most
+esteemed, and deservedly so. The weight of the largest rarely exceeds
+thirty pounds, but that of the smallest is always above ten pounds.
+Their rind is of a pale green colour, interspersed with large white
+spots. The substance that adheres to the rind is white, crude, and of
+a disagreeable tartness, and is therefore never eaten. The space
+within that is filled with a light and sparkling substance, that may
+be called for its properties a rose-coloured snow. It melts in the
+mouth as if it were actually snow, and leaves a relish like that of
+the water prepared for sick people from gooseberry jelly. This fruit
+cannot fail therefore of being very refreshing, and is so wholesome,
+that persons in all kinds of distempers may satisfy their <a name="page-207"></a>
+appetite with it, without any apprehension of being the worse for it.
+The water-melons of Africa are not near so relishing as those of
+Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-x"><img src="images/illus10.png" alt="Watermelon" height="386" width="225"></a><br>
+Watermelon</p>
+
+<p>The seeds of water-melons are placed like those of the French melons.
+Their shape is oval and flat, being as thick at the ends as towards
+the middle; their length is about six lines, and their breadth four.
+Some are black and others red; but the black are the best, and it is
+those you ought to choose <a name="page-208"></a> for sowing, if you would wish to have
+good fruit; which you cannot fail of, if they are not planted in
+strong ground, where they would degenerate and become red.</p>
+
+<p>All kinds of greens and roots which have been brought from Europe into
+that colony succeed better there than in France, provided they be
+planted in a soil suited to them; for it is certainly absurd to think
+that onions and other bulbous plants should thrive there in a soft and
+watery soil, when every where else they require a light and dry earth.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-II">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the Fruit Trees of</i> Louisiana.</p>
+
+
+<p>I shall now proceed to give an account of the fruit trees of this
+colony, and shall begin with the Vine, which is so common in
+Louisiana, that whatever way you walk from the sea coast for five
+hundred leagues northwards, you cannot proceed an hundred steps
+without meeting with one; but unless the vine-shoots should happen to
+grow in an exposed place, it cannot be expected that their fruit
+should ever come to perfect maturity. The trees to which they twine
+are so high, and so thick of leaves, and the intervals of underwood
+are so filled with reeds, that the sun cannot warm the earth, or ripen
+the fruit of this shrub. I will not undertake to describe all the
+kinds of grapes which this country produces; it is even impossible to
+know them all; I shall only speak of three or four.</p>
+
+<p>The first sort that I shall mention does not perhaps deserve the name
+of a grape, although its wood and its leaf greatly resemble the vine.
+This shrub bears no bunches, and you hardly ever see upon it above two
+grapes together. The grape in substance and colour is very like a
+violet damask plum, and its stone, which is always single, greatly
+resembles a nut. Though not very relishing, it has not however that
+disagreeable sharpness of the grape that grows in the neighbourhood of
+New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>On the edge of the savannahs or meadows we meet with a grape, the
+shoots of which resemble those of the Burgundy <a name="page-209"></a> grape. They make
+from this a tolerable good wine, if they take care to expose it to the
+sun in summer, and to the cold in winter. I have made this experiment
+myself, and must say that I never could turn it into vinegar.</p>
+
+<p>There is another kind of grape which I make no difficulty of classing
+with the grapes of Corinth, commonly called currants. It resembles
+them in the wood, the leaf, the tree, the size, and the sweetness. Its
+tartness is owing to its being prevented from ripening by the thick
+shade of the large trees to which it twines. If it were planted and
+cultivated in an open field, I make not the least doubt but it would
+equal the grape of Corinth, with which I class it.</p>
+
+<p>Muscadine grapes, of an amber colour, of a very good kind, and very
+sweet, have been found upon declivities of a good exposure, even so
+far north as the latitude of 31 degrees. There is the greatest
+probability that they might make excellent wine of these, as it cannot
+be doubted but the grapes might be brought to great perfection in this
+country, since in the moist soil of New Orleans, the cuttings of the
+grape which some of the inhabitants of that city brought from France,
+have succeeded extremely well, and afforded good wine.</p>
+
+<p>As a proof of the fertility of Louisiana, I cannot forbear mentioning
+the following fact; an inhabitant of New Orleans having planted in his
+garden a few twigs of this Muscadine vine, with a view of making an
+arbour of them, one of his sons, with another negro boy, entered the
+garden in the month of June, when the grapes are ripe, and broke off
+all the bunches they could find. The father, after severely chiding
+the two boys, pruned the twigs that had been broken and bruised; and
+as several months of summer still remained, the vine pushed out new
+shoots, and new bunches, which ripened and were as good as the former.</p>
+
+<p>The Persimmon, which the French of the colony call Placminier, very
+much resembles our medlar-tree in its leaf and wood: its flower, which
+is about an inch and a half broad, is white, and is composed of five
+petals; its fruit is about the size of a large hen's egg; it is shaped
+like our medlar, but its substance is sweeter and more delicate. This
+fruit is astringent; <a name="page-210"></a> when it is quite ripe the natives make
+bread of it, which they keep from year to year; and the bread has this
+remarkable property that it will stop the most violent looseness or
+dysentery; therefore it ought to be used with caution, and only after
+physic. The natives, in order to make this bread, squeeze the fruit
+over fine sieves to separate the pulp from the skin and the kernels.
+Of this pulp, which is like paste or thick pap, they make cakes about
+a foot and a half long, a foot broad, and a finger's breadth in
+thickness: these they dry in an oven, upon gridirons, or else in the
+sun; which last method of drying gives a greater relish to the bread.
+This is one of their articles of traffick with the French.</p>
+
+<p>Their plum-trees are of two sorts: the best is that which bears
+violet-coloured plums, quite like ours, which are not disagreeable,
+and which certainly would be good if they did not grow in the middle
+of woods. The other kind bears plums of the colour of an unripe
+cherry, and these are so tart that no body can eat them; but I am of
+opinion they might be preserved like gooseberries; especially if pains
+were taken to cultivate them in open grounds. The small cherries,
+called the Indian cherry, are frequent in this country. Their wood is
+very beautiful, and their leaves differ in nothing from those of the
+cherry tree.</p>
+
+<p>The Papaws are only to be found far up in Higher Louisiana. These
+trees, it would seem, do not love heat; they do not grow so tall as
+the plum-trees; their wood is very hard and flexible; for the lower
+branches are sometimes so loaded with fruit that they hang
+perpendicularly downwards; and if you unload them of their fruit in
+the evening, you will find them next morning in their natural erect
+position. The fruit resembles a middle-sized cucumber; the pulp is
+very agreeable and very wholesome; but the rind, which is easily
+stripped off, leaves on the fingers so sharp an acid, that if you
+touch your eye with them before you wash them, it will be immediately
+inflamed, and itch most insupportably for twenty-four hours after.</p>
+
+<p>The natives had doubtless got the peach-trees and fig-trees from the
+English colony of Carolina, before the French <a name="page-211"></a> established
+themselves in Louisiana. The peaches are of the kind which we call
+Alberges; are of the size of the fist, adhere to the stone, and
+contain so much water that they make a kind of wine of it. The figs
+are either blue or white; are large and well enough tasted. Our
+colonists plant the peach stones about the end of February, and suffer
+the trees to grow exposed to all weathers. In the third year they will
+gather from one tree at least two hundred peaches, and double that
+number for six <a name="page-212"></a> or seven years more, when the tree dies
+irrecoverably. As new trees are so easily produced, the loss of the
+old ones is not in the least regretted.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xi"><img src="images/illus11.png" alt="Top: Pawpaw&mdash;Bottom: Blue Whortle-berry (on p. 211)" height="391" width="224"></a><br>
+Top: <i>Pawpaw</i>&mdash;Bottom: <i>Blue Whortle-berry</i></p>
+
+<p>The orange-trees and citron-trees that were brought from Cape François
+have succeeded extremely well; however I have seen so severe a winter
+that those kinds of trees were entirely frozen to the very trunk. In
+that case they cut the trees down to the ground, and the following
+summer they produced shoots that were better than the former. If these
+trees have succeeded in the flat and moist soil of New Orleans, what
+may we not expect when they are planted in better soil, and upon
+declivities of a good exposure? The oranges and citrons are as good as
+those of other countries; but the rind of the orange in particular is
+very thick, which makes it the better for a sweet-meat.</p>
+
+<p>There is plenty of wild apples in Louisiana, like those in Europe; and
+the inhabitants have got many kind of fruit trees from France, such as
+apples, pears, plums, cherries, &amp;c. which in the low grounds run more
+into wood than fruit; the few I had at the Natches proved that high
+ground is much more suited to them than the low.</p>
+
+<p>The blue Whortle-berry is a shrub somewhat taller than our largest
+gooseberry bushes, which are left to grow as they please. Its berries
+are of the shape of a gooseberry, grow single, and are of a blue
+colour: they taste like a sweetish gooseberry, and when infused in
+brandy it makes a good dram. They attribute several virtues to it,
+which, as I never experienced, I cannot answer for. It loves a poor
+gravelly soil.</p>
+
+<p>Louisiana produces no black mulberries: but from the sea to the
+Arkansas, which is an extent of navigation upon the river of two
+hundred leagues, we meet very frequently with three kinds of
+mulberries; one a bright red, another perfectly white, and a third
+white and sweetish. The first of these kinds is very common, but the
+two last are more rare. Of the red mulberries they make excellent
+vinegar, which keeps a long time, provided they take care in the
+making of it to keep it in the shade in a vessel well stopped,
+contrary to the practice in France. They make vinegar also of bramble
+berries, but this <a name="page-213"></a> is not so good as the former. I do not doubt
+but the colonists at present apply themselves seriously to the
+cultivation of mulberries, to feed silk-worms, especially as the
+countries adjoining to France, and which supplied us with silk, have
+now made the exportation of it difficult.</p>
+
+<p>The olive-trees in this colony are surprisingly beautiful. The trunk
+is sometimes a foot and a half diameter, and thirty feet high before
+it spreads out into branches. The Provençals settled in the colony
+affirm, that its olives would afford as good an oil as those of their
+country. Some of the olives that were prepared to be eat green, were
+as good as those of Provence. I have reason to think, that if they
+were planted on the coasts, the olives would have a finer relish.</p>
+
+<p>They have great numbers and a variety of kinds of walnut-trees in
+this country. There is a very large kind, the wood of which is almost
+as black as ebony, but very porous. The fruit, with the outer shell,
+is of the size of a large hen's egg: the shell has no cleft, is very
+rough and so hard as to require a hammer to break it. Though the fruit
+be very relishing, yet it is covered with such a thick film, that few
+can bestow the pains of separating the one from the other. The natives
+make bread of it, by throwing the fruit into water, and rubbing it
+till the film and oil be separated from it. If those trees were
+engrafted with the French walnut, their fruit would probably be
+improved.</p>
+
+<p>Other walnut-trees have a very white and flexible wood. Of this wood
+the natives make their crooked spades for hoeing their fields. The nut
+is smaller than ours, and the shell more tender; but the fruit is so
+bitter that none but perroquets can put up with it.</p>
+
+<p>The Hicori bears a very small kind of nut, which at first sight one
+would take for filberts, as they have the same shape and colour, and
+their shell is as tender, but within they are formed like walnuts.
+They have such an excellent relish, that the French make fried cakes
+of them as good as those of almonds.</p>
+
+<p>Louisiana produces but a few filberts, as the filbert requires a poor
+gravelly soil which is not to be met with in this <a name="page-214"></a> province,
+except in the neighbourhood of the sea, especially near the river
+Mobile.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xii"><img src="images/illus12.png" alt="Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber" height="381" width="220"></a><br>
+Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber</p>
+
+<p>The large chesnuts are not to be met with but at the distance of one
+hundred leagues from the sea, and far from rivers in the heart of the
+woods, between the country of the Chactaws and that of the Chicasaws.
+The common chesnuts succeed best upon high declivities, and their
+fruit is like the chesnuts that grow in our woods. There is another
+kind of chesnuts, which are called the Acorn chesnuts, as they are
+shaped like an acorn, <a name="page-215"></a> and grow in such a cup. But they have the
+colour and taste of a chesnut; and I have often thought that those
+were the acorns which the first of men were said to have lived upon.</p>
+
+<p>The Sweet-Gum, or Liquid-Ambar (Copalm) is not only extremely common,
+but it affords a balm, the virtues of which are infinite. Its bark is
+black and hard, and its wood so tender and supple, that when the tree
+is felled you may draw from the middle of it rods of five or six feet
+in length. It cannot be employed in building or furniture, as it warps
+continually; nor is it fit for burning on account of its strong smell;
+but a little of it in a fire yields an agreeable perfume. Its leaf is
+indented with five points like a star.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not undertake to particularize all the virtues of this
+Sweet-Gum or Liquid-Ambar, not having learned all of them from the
+natives of the country, who would be no less surprised to find that we
+used it only as a varnish, than they were to see our surgeons bleed
+their patients. This balm, according to them, is an excellent
+febrifuge; they take ten or a dozen drops of it in gruel fasting, and
+before their meals; and if they should take a little more, they have
+no reason to apprehend any danger. The physicians among the natives
+purge their patients before they give it them. It cures wounds in two
+days without any bad consequences: it is equally sovereign for all
+kinds of ulcers, after having applied to them for some days a plaster
+of bruised ground-ivy. It cures consumptions, opens obstructions; it
+affords relief in the colic and all internal diseases; it comforts the
+heart; in short, it contains so many virtues, that they are every day
+discovering some new property that it has.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-III">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Of Forest Trees.</p>
+
+
+<p>Having described the most remarkable of their fruit trees, I shall now
+proceed to give an account of their forest trees. White and red cedars
+are very common upon the coast. The incorruptibility of the wood, and
+many other excellent properties which are well known, induced the
+first French settlers to build their houses of it; which were but very
+low.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-216"></a> <a name="illustration-xiii"><img src="images/illus13.png" alt="Cypress" height="388" width="227"></a><br>
+Cypress</p>
+
+<p>Next to the cedar the cypress-tree is the most valuable wood. Some
+reckon it incorruptible; and if it be not, it is at least a great many
+years in rotting. The tree that was found twenty feet deep in the
+earth near New Orleans was a cypress, and was uncorrupted. Now if the
+lands of Lower Louisiana are augmented two leagues every century, this
+tree must have been buried at least twelve centuries. The cypress
+grows very straight and tall, with a proportionable thickness. They
+commonly <a name="page-217"></a> make their pettyaugres of a single trunk of this tree,
+which will carry three or four thousand weight, and sometimes more. Of
+one of those trees a carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+which carried sixteen ton, and the other fourteen. There is a cypress
+at Baton Rouge, a French settlement twenty-six leagues above New
+Orleans, which measures twelve yards round, and is of a prodigious
+height. The cypress has few branches, and its leaf is long and narrow.
+The trunk close by the ground sometimes sends off two or three stems,
+which enter the earth obliquely, and serve for buttresses to the tree.
+Its wood is of a beautiful colour, somewhat reddish; it is soft,
+light, and smooth; its grain is straight, and its pores very close. It
+is easily split by wedges, and though used green it never warps. It
+renews itself in a very extraordinary manner: a short time after it is
+cut down, a shoot is observed to grow from one of its roots exactly in
+the form of a sugar-loaf, and this sometimes rises ten feet high
+before any leaf appears: the branches at length arise from the head of
+this conical shoot.<sup><a href="#fn-51" name="fr-51">51</a></sup> </p>
+
+<p>The cypresses were formerly very common in Louisiana; but they have
+wasted them so imprudently, that they are now somewhat rare. They
+felled them for the sake of their bark, with which they covered their
+houses, and they sawed the wood into planks which they exported at
+different places. The price of the wood now is three times as much as
+it was formerly.</p>
+
+<p>The Pine-tree, which loves a barren soil, is to be found in great
+abundance on the sea coasts, where it grows very high and very
+beautiful. The islands upon the coast, which are formed wholly of
+shining sand, bear no other trees, and I am persuaded that as fine
+masts might be made of them as of the firs of Sweden.</p>
+
+<p>All the south parts of Louisiana abound with the Wild Laurel, which
+grows in the woods without any cultivation: the same may be said of
+the stone laurel, but if a person is not upon his guard he may take
+for the laurel a tree natural to the country, which would communicate
+its bad smell to every thing it is applied to. Among the laurels the
+preference ought to be <a name="page-218"></a> given to the tulip laurel (magnolia)
+which is not known in Europe. This tree is of the height and bulk of
+one of our common walnut-trees. Its head is naturally very round, and
+so thick of leaves that neither the sun nor rain can penetrate it. Its
+leaves are full four inches long, near three inches broad, and very
+thick, of a beautiful sea-green on the upperside, and resembling white
+velvet on the under-side: its bark is smooth and of a grey colour; its
+wood is white, soft and flexible, and <a name="page-219"></a> the grain interwoven. It
+owes its name to the form of its great white flowers, which are at
+least two inches broad. These appearing in the spring amidst the
+glossy verdure of the leaves, have a most beautiful effect. As the top
+is naturally round, and the leaves are ever-green, avenues of this
+tree would doubtless be worthy of a royal garden. After it has shed
+its leaves, its fruit appears in the form of a pine apple, and upon
+the first approach of the cold its grain turns into a lively red. Its
+<a name="page-220"></a> kernel is very bitter, and it is said to be a specific against
+fevers.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xiv"><img src="images/illus14.png" alt="Magnolia (on p. 218)" height="386" width="232"></a><br>
+<i>Magnolia</i></p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xv"><img src="images/illus15.png" alt="Sassafras (on p. 219)" height="382" width="214"></a><br>
+<i>Sassafras</i></p>
+
+<p>The sassafras, the name of which is familiar to botanists on account
+of its medicinal qualities, is a large and tall tree. Its bark is
+thick, and cracked here and there; its wood is some what of the colour
+of cinnamon, and has an agreeable smell. It will not burn in the fire
+without the mixture of other wood, and even in the fire, if it should
+be separated from the flaming wood, it is immediately extinguished as
+if it were dipped in water.</p>
+
+<p>The maple grows upon declivities in cold climates, and is much more
+plentiful in the northern than the southern parts of the colony. By
+boring it they draw from it a sweet syrup which I have drunk of, and
+which they alledge is an excellent stomachic.</p>
+
+<p>The myrtle wax-tree is one of the greatest blessings with which nature
+has enriched Louisiana, as in this country the bees lodge their honey
+in the earth to save it from the ravages of the bears, who are very
+fond of it, and do not value their stings. One would be apt to take it
+at first sight, both from its bark and its height, for that kind of
+laurel used in the kitchens. It rises in several stems from the root;
+its leaf is like that of the laurel, but not so thick nor of such a
+lively green. It bears its fruit in bunches like a nosegay, rising
+from the same place in various stalks about two inches long: at the
+end of each of those stalks is a little pea, containing a kernel in a
+nut, which last is wholly covered with wax. The fruit, which is very
+plentiful, is easily gathered, as the shrub is very flexible. The tree
+thrives as well in the shade of other trees as in the open air; in
+watry places and cold countries, as well as in dry grounds and hot
+climates; for I have been told that some of them have been found in
+Canada, a country as cold as Denmark.</p>
+
+<p>This tree yields two kinds of wax, one a whitish yellow, and the
+other green. It was a long time before they learned to separate them,
+and they prepared the wax at first in the, following manner. They
+threw the grains and the stalks into a large kettle of boiling water,
+and when the wax was detached <a name="page-221"></a> from them, they scummed off the
+grains. When the water cooled the wax floated in a cake at the top,
+and being cut small, bleached in a shorter time than bees wax. They
+now prepare it in this manner; they throw boiling water upon the
+stalks and grains till they are entirely floated, and when they have
+stood thus a few minutes, they pour off the water, which carries the
+finest wax with it. This wax when cold is of a <a name="page-222"></a> pale yellow
+colour, and may be bleached in six or seven days. Having separated the
+best wax, they pour the water again upon the stalks and grains, and
+boil all together till they think they have separated all the wax.
+Both kinds are exported to our sugar islands, where the first is sold
+for a hundred sols the pound, and the second for forty.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xvi"><img src="images/illus16.png" alt="TOP: Myrtle Wax Tree--BOTTOM: Vinegar tree (Acacia or
+Locust) (on p. 221)" height="386" width="228"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Myrtle Wax Tree</i>--BOTTOM: <i>Vinegar tree (Acacia or
+Locust)</i></p>
+
+<p>This wax is so brittle and dry that if it falls it breaks into several
+pieces; on this account however it lasts longer than that of France, and
+is preferred to it in our sugar islands, where the latter is softened by
+the great heats, and, consumes like tallow. I would advise those who
+prepare this wax to separate the grain from the short stalk before they
+boil it, as the stalk is greener than the grain, and seems to part easily
+with its colour. The water which serves to melt and separate the wax is
+far from being useless. The fruit communicates to it such an astringent
+virtue, as to harden the tallow that is melted in it to such a degree,
+that the candles made of that tallow are as firm as the wax candles of
+France. This astringent quality likewise renders it an admirable specific
+against a dysentery or looseness. From what I have said of the myrtle
+wax-tree, it may well be believed that the French of Louisiana cultivate
+it carefully, and make plantations of it.</p>
+
+<p>The cotton-tree (a poplar) is a large tree which no wise deserves the
+name it bears, unless for some beards that it throws out. Its fruit
+which contains the grain is about the size of a walnut, and of no use;
+its wood is yellow, smooth, somewhat hard, of a fine grain, and very
+proper for cabinet work. The bark of its root is a sovereign remedy
+for cuts, and so red that it may even serve to dye that colour.</p>
+
+<p>The acacia (locust) is the same in Louisiana as in France, much more
+common, and less streight. The natives call it by a name that
+signifies hard wood, and they make their bows of it because it is very
+stiff. They look upon it as an incorruptible wood, which induced the
+French settlers to build their houses of it. The posts fixed in the
+earth must be entirely <a name="page-223"></a> stripped of their bark, for
+notwithstanding their hardness, if the least bark be left upon them
+they will take root.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xvii"><img src="images/illus17.png" alt="Poplar (''Cotton Tree'')" height="386" width="222"></a><br>
+<i>Poplar ("Cotton Tree")</i></p>
+
+<p>The holm-oak grows to a surprising bulk and height in this country; I
+have seen of them a foot and a half diameter, and about 30 feet from
+the ground to the lowest branches.</p>
+
+<p>The mangrove is very common all over America. it grows in Louisiana
+near the sea, even to the bounds of low water mark. It is more
+prejudicial than useful, inasmuch as <a name="page-224"></a> it occupies a great deal of
+good land, prevents sailors from landing, and affords shelter to the
+fish from the fishermen.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xviii"><img src="images/illus18.png" alt="Black Oak" height="383" width="223"></a><br>
+<i>Black Oak</i></p>
+
+<p>Oak-trees abound in Louisiana; there are some red, some white, and
+some ever-green. A ship-builder of St. Maloes assured me that the red
+is as good as the ever-green upon which we set so high a value in
+France. The ever-green oak is most common toward the sea-coasts, and
+near the banks of rivers, consequently may be transported with great
+ease, and <a name="page-225"></a> become a great resource for the navy of France.<sup><a href="#fn-52" name="fr-52">52</a></sup>
+I forgot to mention a fourth kind of oak, namely the black oak, so
+called from the colour of its bark. Its wood is very hard, and of a
+<a name="page-226"></a> deep red. It grows upon the declivities of hills and in the
+savannahs. Happening after a shower of rain to examine one of these
+which I cut down, I observed some water to come from it as red as
+blood, which made me think that it might be used for dying.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xix"><img src="images/illus19.png" alt="Linden or Bass Tree (on p. 225)" height="386" width="223"></a><br>
+<i>Linden or Bass Tree</i></p>
+
+<p>The ash is very common in this country; but more and better upon the
+sea-coasts than in the inland parts. As it is easy to be had, and is
+harder than the elm, the wheel-wrights make use of it for wheels,
+which it is needless to, ring with iron in a country where there are
+neither stones nor gravel.</p>
+
+<p>The elm, beech, lime, and hornbeam, are exactly the same in Louisiana
+as in France; the last of these trees is very common here. The bark of
+the lime-tree of this country is equally proper for the making of
+ropes, as the bark of the common lime; but its leaf is twice as large,
+and shaped like an oblong trefoil leaf with the point cut off.</p>
+
+<p>The white woods are the aspen, willow, alder and liart. This last
+grows very large, its wood is white and light, and its fibres are
+interwoven; it is very flexible and is easily cut, on which account
+they make their large pettyaugres of it.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-51" name="fn-51">51</a></sup>  This is a mistake, according to
+Charlevoix.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-52" name="fn-52">52</a></sup>  Eleven leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi, on the
+west side, there is great plenty of ever-green oaks, the wood of which
+is very proper for the timbers of ships, as it does not rot in water.
+<i>Dumont</i>, I. &amp; 50.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">Accordingly the best ships built in America are well known to be those
+that have their timbers of ever-green oak, and their plank of cedar,
+of both which there are great plenty on all the coasts of Louisiana.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Of Shrubs and Excrescences.</p>
+
+
+<p>The ayac, or stinking-wood, is usually a small tree, seldom exceeding
+the thickness of a man's leg; its leaf is of a yellowish green,
+glossy, and of an oval form, being about three inches in length. The
+wood is yellow, and yields a water of the same colour, when it is cut
+in the sap: but both the wood and the water that comes from it have a
+disagreeable, smell. The natives use the wood for dying; they cut it
+into small bits, pound them, and then boil them in water. Having
+strained this water, they dip the feathers and hair into it, which it
+is their custom to dye first yellow, and then red. When they intend to
+use it for the yellow dye, they take care to cut the wood in the
+winter, but if they want only a slight colour they never mind the
+season of cutting it.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-227"></a> <a name="illustration-xx"><img src="images/illus20.png" alt="Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree" height="387" width="225"></a><br>
+<i>Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree</i></p>
+
+<p>The machonchi, or vinegar-tree, is a shrub with leaves, somewhat
+resembling those of the ash; but the foot-stalk from which the leaves
+hang is much longer. When the leaves are dry the natives mix them with
+their tobacco to weaken it a little, for they do not love strong
+tobacco for smoaking. The wood is of an astringent nature, and if put
+into vinegar makes it stronger.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-228"></a> <a name="illustration-xxi"><img src="images/illus21.png" alt="TOP: Cassine or Yapon&mdash;BOTTOM: Tooth-ache Tree or
+Prickly Ash" height="376" width="217"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Cassine or Yapon</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Tooth-ache Tree or
+Prickly Ash</i></p>
+
+<p>The cassine, or yapon, is a shrub which never grows higher than 15
+feet; its bark is very smooth, and the wood flexible. Its leaf is very
+much indented, and when used as tea is reckoned good for the stomach.
+The natives make an intoxicating liquor from it, by boiling it in
+water till great part of the liquor evaporate.</p>
+
+<p>The tooth-ache tree does not grow higher than 10 to 12 feet. The
+trunk, which is not very large, is wholly covered over with <a name="page-229"></a>
+short thick prickles, which are easily rubbed off. The pith of this
+shrub is almost as large as that of the elder, and the form of the
+leaf is almost the same in both. It has two barks, the outer almost
+black, and the inner white, with somewhat of a pale reddish hue. This
+inner bark has the property of curing the tooth-ach. The patient rolls
+it up to the size of a bean, puts it upon the aching tooth, and chews
+it till the pain ceases. Sailors and other such people powder it, and
+use it as pepper.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxii"><img src="images/illus22.png" alt="TOP: Passion Thorn or Honey Locust&mdash;BOTTOM: Bearded
+Creeper" height="381" width="222"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Passion Thorn or Honey Locust</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Bearded
+Creeper</i></p>
+
+<p><a name="page-230"></a> <a name="illustration-xxiii"><img src="images/illus23.png" alt="Palmetto" height="382" width="224"></a><br>
+<i>Palmetto</i></p>
+
+<p>The passion-thorn does not rise above the height of a shrub; but its
+trunk is rather thick for its height. This shrub is in great esteem
+among the Natches; but I never could learn for what reason. Its leaf
+resembles that of the black thorn; and its wood while it is green is
+not very hard. Its prickles are at least two inches long, and are very
+hard and piercing; within half an inch of their root two other small
+prickles grow out from them so as to form a cross. The whole trunk is
+covered <a name="page-231"></a> with these prickles, so that you must be very wary how
+you approach it, or cut it.</p>
+
+<p>The elder-tree is exactly like that of France, only that its leaf is a
+little more indented. The juice of its leaves mixed with hog's lard is
+a specific against the haemorrhoids.</p>
+
+<p>The palmetto has its leaves in the form of an open fan, scolloped at
+the end of each of its folds. Its bark is more rough and knotty than
+that of the palm-tree. Although it is less than that of the East
+Indies, it may however serve to the same purposes. Its wood is not
+harder than that of a cabbage, and its trunk is so soft that the least
+wind overturns it, so that I never saw any but what were lying on the
+ground. It is very common in Lower Louisiana, where there are no wild
+oxen; for those animals who love it dearly, and are greatly fattened
+by it, devour it wherever they can find it. The Spanish women make
+hats of its leaves that do not weigh an ounce, riding-hoods, and other
+curious works.</p>
+
+<p>The birch-tree is the same with that of France. In the north they make
+canoes of its bark large enough to hold eight persons. When the sap
+rises they strip off the bark from the tree in one piece with wedges,
+after which they sew up the two ends of it to serve for stem and
+stern, and anoint the whole with gum.</p>
+
+<p>I make not the least doubt but that there are great numbers of other
+trees in the forests of Louisiana that deserve to be particularly
+described; but I know of none, nor have I heard of any, but what I
+have already spoken of. For our travellers, from whom alone we can get
+any intelligence of those things, are more intent upon discovering
+game which they stand in need of for their subsistence, than in
+observing the productions of nature in the vegetable kingdom. To what
+I have said of trees, I shall only add, from my own knowledge, an
+account of two singular excrescences.</p>
+
+<p>The first is a kind of agaric or mushroom, which grows from the root
+of the walnut-tree, especially when it is felled. The natives, who are
+very careful in the choice of their food, gather it with great
+attention, boil it in water, and eat it with <a name="page-232"></a> their gruel. I had
+the curiosity to taste of it, and found it very delicate, but rather
+insipid, which might easily be corrected with a little seasoning.</p>
+
+<p>The other excrescence is commonly found upon trees near the banks of
+rivers and lakes. It is called Spanish beard, which name was given it
+by the natives, who, when the Spaniards first appeared in their
+country about 240 years ago, were greatly surprised at their
+mustachios and beards. This excrescence appears like a bunch of hair
+hanging from the large branches of trees, and might at first be easily
+mistaken for an old perruque, especially when it is dancing with the
+wind. As the first settlers of Louisiana used only mud walls for their
+houses, they commonly mixed it with the mud for strengthening the
+building. When gathered it is of a grey colour, but when it is dry its
+bark falls off, and discovers black filaments as long and as strong as
+the hairs of a horse's tail. I dressed some of it for stuffing a
+mattress, by first laying it up in a heap to make it part with the
+bark, and afterwards beating it to take off some small branches that
+resemble so many little hooks. It is affirmed by some to be
+incorruptible: I myself have seen of it under old rotten trees that
+was perfectly fresh and strong.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-V">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of Creeping Plants.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The great fertility of Louisiana renders the creeping plants extremely
+common, which, exclusive of the ivy, are all different from those
+which we have in France. I shall only mention the most remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>The bearded-creeper is so called from having its whole stalk covered
+with a beard about an inch long, hooked at the end, and somewhat thicker
+than a horse's hair. There is no tree which it loves to cling to so much
+as to the sweet gum; and so great is its sympathy, if I may be allowed
+the expression, for that tree, that if it grow between it and any other
+tree, it turns solely towards the sweet gum, although it should be at
+the greatest distance from it. This is likewise the tree upon which
+<a name="page-233"></a> it thrives best. It has the same virtue with its balm of being a
+febrifuge, and this I affirm after a great number of proofs. The
+physicians among the natives use this simple in the following manner.
+They take a piece of it, above the length of the finger, which they
+split into as many threads as possible; these they boil in a quart of
+water, till one third of the decoction evaporate, and the remainder is
+strained clear. They then purge the patient, and the next day, upon the
+approach of the fit, they give a third of the decoction to drink. If the
+patient be not cured with the first dose, he is again purged and drinks
+another third, which seldom fails of having the wished-for effect. This
+medicine is indeed very bitter, but it strengthens the stomach; a
+singular advantage it has over the Jesuits bark, which is accused of
+having a contrary effect.</p>
+
+<p>There is another creeper very like salsaparilla, only that it bears
+its leaves by threes. It bears a fruit smooth on one side like a
+filbert, and on the other as rough as the little shells which serve
+for money on the Guinea coast. I shall not speak of its properties;
+they are but too well known by the women of Louisiana, especially the
+girls, who very often have recourse to it.</p>
+
+<p>Another creeper is called by the native physicians the remedy against
+poisoned arrows. It is large and very beautiful; its leaves are pretty
+long, and the pods it bears are narrow, about an inch broad, and eight
+inches long.</p>
+
+<p>The salsaparilla grows naturally in Louisiana, and it is not inferior
+in its qualities to that of Mexico. It is so well known that it is
+needless to enlarge upon it.</p>
+
+<p>The esquine partly resembles a creeper and partly a bramble. It is
+furnished with hard spikes like prickles, and its oblong leaves are
+like those of the common creeper (liane;) its stalk is straight, long,
+shining, and hard, and it runs up along the reeds: its root is spungy,
+and sometimes as large as one's head, but more long than round.
+Besides the sudorific virtue which the esquine possesses in common
+with the salsaparilla, it has the property of making the hair grow,
+and the women among the natives use it successfully with this view.
+<a name="page-234"></a> They cut the root into small bits, boil them in water, and wash
+their heads with the decoction. I have seen several of them whose hair
+came down below their knees, and one particularly whose hair came
+lower than the ankle bones.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxiv"><img src="images/illus24.png" alt="TOP: Bramble&mdash;BOTTOM: Sarsaparilla" height="385" width="225"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Bramble</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Sarsaparilla</i></p>
+
+<p>Hops grow naturally in the gullies in the high lands.</p>
+
+<p>Maiden-hair grows in Louisiana more beautiful, at least as good as
+that of Canada, which is in so great repute. It <a name="page-235"></a> grows in gullies
+upon the sides of hills, in places that are absolutely impenetrable to
+the most ardent rays of the sun. It seldom rises above a foot, and it
+bears a thick shaggy head. The native physicians know more of its
+virtues than we do in France.</p>
+
+<p>The canes or reeds which I have mentioned so often may be divided into
+two kinds. One kind grows in moist places to the height of eighteen
+feet, and the thickness of the wrist. The natives makes matts, sieves,
+small boxes, and other works of it. Those that grow in dry places are
+neither so high nor so thick, but are so hard, that before the arrival
+of the French, the natives used splits of those canes to cut their
+victuals with. After a certain number of years, the large canes bear a
+great abundance of grain, which is somewhat like oats, but about three
+times as large. The natives carefully gather these grains and make
+bread or gruel of them. This flour swells as much as that of wheat.
+When the reeds have yielded the grain they die, and none appear for a
+long time after in the same place, especially if fire has been set to
+the old ones.</p>
+
+<p>The flat-root receives its name from the form of its root, which is
+thin, flat, pretty often indented, and sometimes even pierced through:
+it is a line or sometimes two lines in thickness, and its breadth is
+commonly a foot and a half. From this large root hang several other
+small straight roots, which draw the nourishment from the earth. This
+plant, which grows in meadows that are not very rich, sends up from
+the same root several straight stalks about eighteen inches high,
+which are as hard as wood, and on the top of the stalks it bears small
+purplish, flowers, in their figure greatly resembling those of heath;
+its seed is contained in a deep cup closed at the head, and in a
+manner crowned. Its leaves are about an inch broad, and about two
+long, without any indenting, of a dark green, inclining to a brown. It
+is so strong a sudorific, that the natives never use any other for
+promoting sweating, although they are perfectly acquainted with
+sassafras, salsaparilla, the esquine and others.</p>
+
+<p>The rattle-snake-herb has a bulbous root, like that of the tuberose,
+but twice as large. The leaves of both have the same <a name="page-236"></a> shape and
+the same colour, and on the under side have some flame-coloured spots;
+but those of the rattle-snake plant are twice as large as the others,
+end in a very firm point, and are armed with very hard prickles on
+both sides. Its stalk grows to the height of about three feet, and
+from the head rise five or six sprigs in different directions, each of
+which bears a purple flower an inch broad, with five leaves in the
+form of a <a name="page-237"></a> cup. After these leaves are shed there remains a head
+about the size of a small nut, but shaped like the head of a poppy.
+This head is separated into four divisions, each of which contains
+four black seeds, equally thick throughout, and about the size of a
+large lentil. When the head is ripe, it will, when shaken, give the
+same sound as the tail of a rattle-snake, which seems to indicate the
+property of the plant; for it is the specific remedy against the bite
+of that dangerous reptile. The person who has been bit ought
+immediately to take a root, bite off part of it, chew it for some
+time, and apply it to the wound. In five or six hours it will extract
+the whole poison, and no bad consequences need be apprehended.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxv"><img src="images/illus25.png" alt="Rattlesnake herb (on p. 236)" height="381" width="219"></a><br>
+<i>Rattlesnake herb</i></p>
+
+<p>Ground-ivy is said by the natives to possess many more virtues than
+are known to our botanists. It is said to ease women in labour when
+drank in a decoction; to cure ulcers, if bruised and laid upon the
+ulcered part; to be a sovereign remedy for the head-ach; a
+considerable quantity of its leaves bruised, and laid as a cataplasm.
+upon the head, quickly removes the pain. As this is an inconvenient
+application to a person that wears his hair, I thought of taking the
+salts of the plant, and I gave some of them in vulnerary water to a
+friend of mine who was often attacked with the head-ach, advising him
+likewise to draw up some drops by the nose: he seldom practised this
+but he was relieved a few moments after.</p>
+
+<p>The Achechy is only to be found in the shade of a wood, and never
+grows higher than six or seven inches. It has a small stalk, and its
+leaves are not above three lines long. Its root consists of a great
+many sprigs a line in diameter, full of red juice like chickens blood.
+Having transplanted this plant from an overshadowed place into my
+garden, I expected to see it greatly improved; but it was not above an
+inch taller, and its head was only a little bushier than usual. It is
+with the juice of this plant that the natives dye their red colour.
+Having first dyed their feathers or hair yellow or a beautiful citron
+colour with the ayac wood, they boil the roots of the achechy in
+water, then squeeze them with all their force, and the expressed
+liquor serves for the red dye. That which was naturally white before
+it was dyed yellow, takes a beautiful scarlet; <a name="page-238"></a> that which was
+brown, such as buffalo's hair, which is of a chesnut colour, becomes a
+reddish brown.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxvi"><img src="images/illus26.png" alt="TOP: Red Dye Plant&mdash;BOTTOM: Flat Root" height="389" width="225"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Red Dye Plant</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Flat Root</i></p>
+
+<p>I shall not enlarge upon the strawberries, which are of an excellent
+flavour, and so plentiful, that from the beginning of April the
+savannahs or meadows appear quite red with them. I shall also only
+just mention the tobacco, which I reserve for the article of
+agriculture; but I ought not to omit to take notice, that hemp grows
+naturally on the lands adjoining to the lakes <a name="page-239"></a> on the west of the
+Missisippi. The stalks are as thick as one's finger, and about six
+feet long. They are quite like ours both in the wood, the leaf, and
+the rind. The flax which was sown in this country rose three feet
+high.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot affirm from my own knowledge that the soil in this province
+produces either white mushrooms or truffles. But morelles in their
+season are to be found in the greatest abundance, and round mushrooms
+in the autumn.</p>
+
+<p>When I consider the mild temperature of this climate, I am persuaded
+that all our flowers would succeed extremely well in it. The country
+has flowers peculiar to itself, and, in such abundance, that from the
+month of May till the end of summer, you can hardly see the grass in
+the meadows; and of such various hues that one is at a loss which to
+admire most and declare to be the most beautiful. The number and
+diversity of those flowers quite enchant the sight. I will not however
+attempt to give a particular account of them, as I am not qualified on
+this head to satisfy the desires of the curious, from my having
+neglected to consider the various flowers themselves. I have seen
+single and small roses without any smell; and another kind of rose
+with four white petals, which in its smell, chives, and pointal,
+differed in nothing from our damask roses. But of all the flowers of
+this country, that which struck me most, as it is both very common and
+lasts a long time, is the flower called Lion's Mouth. The flowers
+which decorate its stalk, its shady colours, its blowing for more than
+three months, justly entitle it to the preference before all other
+flowers. It forms of itself an agreeable nosegay; and in my opinion,
+it deserves to be ranked with the finest flowers, and to be cultivated
+with attention in the gardens of our kings.</p>
+
+<p>As to cotton and indigo, I defer speaking of them till I come to the
+chapter of agriculture.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-240"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the Quadrupedes.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Before I speak of the animals which the first settlers found in
+Louisiana, it is proper to observe, that all those which were brought
+hither from France, or from New Spain and Carolina, such as horses,
+oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, and others, have multiplied and
+thriven perfectly well. However it ought to be remarked, that in Lower
+Louisiana, where the ground is moist and much covered with wood, they
+can neither be so good nor so beautiful as in Higher Louisiana, where
+the soil is dry, where there are most extensive meadows, and where the
+sun warms the earth to a much greater degree.</p>
+
+<p>The buffalo is about the size of one of our largest oxen, but he
+appears rather bigger, on account of his long curled wool, which makes
+him appear to the eye much larger than he really is. This wool is very
+fine and very thick, and is of a dark chesnut colour, as are likewise
+his bristly hairs, which are also curled, and so long, that the bush
+between his horns often falls over his eyes, and hinders him from
+seeing before him; but his sense of hearing and smelling is so
+exquisite as in some measure to supply the want of the other. A pretty
+large bunch rises on his shoulders in the place where they join to the
+neck. His horns are thick, short, and black; and his hoof is also
+black. The cows of this species have small udders like those of a
+mare.</p>
+
+<p>This buffalo is the chief food of the natives, and of the French also
+for a long time past; the best piece is the bunch on the shoulders,
+the taste of which is extremely delicate. They hunt this animal in the
+winter; for which purpose they leave Lower Louisiana, and the river
+Missisippi, as he cannot penetrate thither on account of the thickness
+of the woods; and besides loves to feed on long grass, which is only
+to be found in the meadows of the high lands. In order to get near
+enough to fire upon him, they go against the wind, and they take aim
+at the hollow of the shoulder, that they may bring him to the ground
+at once, for if he is only slightly wounded, he runs against his
+enemy. The natives when hunting seldom <a name="page-241"></a> choose to kill any but
+the cows, having experienced that the flesh of the male smells rank;
+but this they might easily prevent, if they did but cut off the
+testicles from the beast as soon as he is dead, as they do from stags
+and wild boars. By killing the males there is less hazard of
+diminishing the species than by killing the females; and besides, the
+males have much more tallow, and their skins are the largest and best.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxvii"><img src="images/illus27.png" alt="Top: Panther or Catamount&mdash;BOTTOM: Bison or Buffalo" height="385" width="215"></a><br>
+Top: <i>Panther or Catamount</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Bison or Buffalo</i></p>
+
+<p><a name="page-242"></a> These skins are an object of no small consideration. The natives
+dress them with their wool on, to such great perfection, as to render
+them more pliable than our buff. They dye them different colours, and
+cloath themselves therewith. To the French they supply the place of
+the best blankets, being at the same time very warm and very light.</p>
+
+<p>The stag is entirely the same with that of France, only he is a little
+larger. They are only to be found in Upper Louisiana, where the woods
+are much thinner than in Lower Louisiana, and the chesnuts which the
+stag greatly loves are very common.</p>
+
+<p>The deer is very frequent in this province, notwithstanding the great
+numbers of them that are killed by the natives. According to the
+hunters, he partly resembles the stag, the rein-deer, and the
+roe-buck. As to myself, I can only say what I have seen; that he is
+about four feet high, has large horns bending forwards, and decorated
+with several antlers, the ends of which are formed somewhat like a
+rose; that his flesh is dry like that of ours, and when he is fat
+tastes like mutton. They feed in herds, and are not in the least of a
+fierce nature. They are excessively capricious, hardly remain a moment
+in one place, but are coming and going continually. The natives dress
+the skin extremely well, like buff, and afterwards paint it. Those
+skins that are brought to France are often called does skins.</p>
+
+<p>The natives hunt the deer sometimes in companies, and sometimes alone.
+The hunter who goes out alone, furnishes himself with the dried head of
+a deer, with part of the skin of the neck fastened to it, and this skin
+is stretched out with several hoops made of split cane, which are kept
+in their places by other splits placed along the inside of the skin, so
+that the hands and arms may be easily put within the neck. Being thus
+provided, he goes in quest of the deer, and takes all necessary
+precautions not to be discovered by that animal: when he sees one, he
+approaches it as gently as possible, hiding himself behind a bush which
+he carries in his hand, till he be within shot of it. But if, before he
+can come near enough, the buck shakes its head, which is a sign that he
+is going to make some <a name="page-243"></a> capers and run away, the hunter immediately
+counterfeits the cries of those animals when they call each other, in
+which case the buck frequently comes up towards him. He then shews the
+head which he holds in his hand, and by lowering and lifting his arm by
+turns, it makes the appearance of a buck feeding, and lifting his head
+from time to time to graze. The hunter still keeps himself behind the
+bush, till the buck comes near enough to him, and the moment he turns
+his side, he fires at the hollow of his shoulder, and lays him dead.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxviii"><img src="images/illus28.png" alt="Indian Deer Hunt" height="383" width="215"></a><br>
+<i>Indian Deer Hunt</i></p>
+
+<p><a name="page-244"></a> When the natives want to make the dance of the deer; or if they
+want to exercise themselves merrily; or if it should happen that the
+Great Sun inclines to such sport, they go about an hundred of them in
+a company to the hunting of this animals, which they must bring home
+alive. As it is a diverting exercise, many young men are generally of
+the party, who disperse themselves in the meadows among the thickets
+in order to discover the deer. They no sooner perceive one than they
+advance towards him in a wide crescent, one point of which may be a
+quarter of a league from the other. Part of the crescent draws near to
+him, which frightens him away to another point; that part likewise
+advancing, he immediately flies back to the other sidee. He is kept
+thus running from one side to another a considerable time, on purpose
+to exercise the young men, and afford diversion to the Great Sun, or
+to another Little Sun, who is nominated to supply his place. The deer
+sometimes attempts to get out and escape by the openings of the
+crescent, in which case those who are at the points run forwards, and
+oblige him to go back. The crescent then gradually forms a circle; and
+when they perceive the deer beginning to be tired, part of them stoop
+almost to the ground, and remain in that posture till he approaches
+them, when they rise and shout: he instantly flies off to the other
+side, where they do the same; by which means he is at length so
+exhausted, that he is no longer able to stand on his legs, and suffers
+himself to be taken like a lamb. Sometimes, however, he defends
+himself on the ground with his antlers and forefeet; they therefore
+use the precaution to seize upon him behind, and even in that case
+they are sometimes wounded.</p>
+
+<p>The hunters having seized the deer present it to the Great Sun, or in
+his absence, to the person whom he sent to represent him. If he says,
+<i>well</i>, the roe-buck is immediately opened, and its four quarters
+carried to the hut of the Great Sun, who gives portions of them to the
+chief men among the hunters.</p>
+
+<p>The wolf is not above fifteen inches high, and of a proportionable
+length. He is not so brown as our wolves, nor so fierce and dangerous;
+he is therefore more like a dog than a wolf, especially the dog of the
+natives, who differs from him <a name="page-245"></a> in nothing, but that he barks. The
+wolf is very common in the hunting countries; and when the hunter
+makes a hut for himself in the evening upon the bank of a river, if he
+sees the wolf, he may be confident that the buffaloes are not at a
+very great distance. It is said, that this animal, not daring to
+attack the buffalo when in a herd, will come and give notice to the
+hunter that he may kill him, in hopes of coming in for the offals. The
+wolves are actually so familiar, that they come and go on all sides
+when looking for something to eat, without minding in the least
+whether they be near or at a distance from the habitations of men.</p>
+
+<p>In my time two very large black wolves were seen in Louisiana. The
+oldest inhabitants, and those who travel to the remotest parts of the
+colony, declared that they had never before seen any such; from whence
+it was concluded, that they were foreign wolves which had lost their
+way. Fortunately they killed them both; for one of them was a she-wolf
+big with young.</p>
+
+<p>The bear appears in Louisiana in winter, as the snows, which then
+cover the northern climates, hinder him from procuring a subsistence
+there, and force him southwards. If some few are seen in the summer
+time, they are only the slow young bears, that have not been strong
+enough to follow the herd northwards. The bear lives upon roots and
+fruits, particularly acorns; but this most delicate food is honey and
+milk. When he meets with either of these last, he will suffer himself
+to be killed than quit his prize. Our colonists have sometimes
+diverted themselves by burying a small pail with some milk in it
+almost up to the edge in the ground, and setting two young bears to
+it. The contest then was which of the two should hinder the other from
+tasting the milk, and both of them so tore the earth with their paws,
+and pulled at the pail, that they generally overturned the milk,
+before either of them had tasted of it.</p>
+
+<p>In opposition to the general opinion, which supposes the bear a
+carnivorous animal, I affirm, with all the inhabitants of this colony,
+and the neighbouring countries, that he never feeds upon flesh. It is
+indeed to be lamented that the first <a name="page-246"></a> travellers had the
+impudence to publish to the world a thousand false stories, which were
+easily believed because they were new. People, so far from wishing to
+be undeceived, have even been offended with those who attempted to
+detect the general errors; but it is my duty to speak the truth, for
+the sake of those who are willing to hear it. What I maintain here is
+not a mere conjectural supposition, but a known fact over all North
+America, which may be attested by the evidence of a great number of
+people who have lived there, and by the traders who are going and
+coming continually. There is not one instance can be given of their
+having devoured men, notwithstanding their great multitudes, and the
+extreme hunger which they must sometimes have suffered; for even in
+that case they never so much as touch the butchers meat which they
+meet with.</p>
+
+<p>The bears seldom quit the banks of the Missisippi, as it is there that
+they can best procure a subsistence; but when I lived at the Natchez
+there happened so severe a winter, that those animals came from the
+north in such numbers that they starved each other, and were very
+lean. Their great hunger obliged them to quit the woods which line the
+banks of the river: they were seen at night running among the
+settlements; and they sometimes even entered those court-yards that
+were not well shut; they there found butchers meat exposed to the open
+air, but they never touched it, and eat only the corn or roots they
+could meet with. Certainly on such occasion as this, and in such a
+pressing want, they would have proved carnivorous, if it had been in
+the least degree their natural disposition.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps one will say, "It is true they never touch dead flesh; it
+is only living flesh that they devour." That is being very delicate
+indeed, and what I can by no means allow them: for if they were
+flesh-eaters, I greatly suspect that, in the severe famine which I
+have spoken of, they would have made a hearty meal of the butchers
+meat which they found in the court-yards; or at least would have
+devoured several persons, who fell in their way, which they never did.
+The following fact however will be a more compleat answer to this
+objection.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-247"></a> Two Canadians, who were on a journey, landed on a sand-bank,
+when they perceived a bear crossing the river. As he appeared fat, and
+consequently would yield a great deal of oil, one of the travellers
+ran forwards and fired at him. Unhappily however he only slightly
+wounded him; and as the bears in that case always turn upon their
+enemy, the hunter was immediately seized by the wounded bear, who in a
+few moments squeezed him to death, without wounding him in the least
+with his teeth, although his muzzle was against his face, and he must
+certainly have been exasperated. The other Canadian, who was not above
+three hundred paces distance, ran to save his comrade with the utmost
+speed, but he was dead before he came up to him; and the bear escaped
+into the wood. Upon examining the corpse he found the place, where the
+bear had squeezed it, pressed in two inches more than the rest of the
+breast.</p>
+
+<p>Some perhaps may still add, that the mildness of the climate of
+Louisiana may have an effect upon the disposition of the bears, and
+prevent them from being so voracious as those of our continent; but I
+affirm that carnivorous animals retain the same disposition in all
+countries. The wolves of Louisiana are carnivorous as well as those of
+Europe, although they differ in other particulars. The tigers of
+Africa, and those of America, are equally mischievous animals. The
+wild-cats of America, though very different from those of Europe,
+have however the same appetite for mice when they are tamed. It is the
+same with other species, naturally inclined to live upon other
+animals; and the bears of America, if flesh-eaters, would not quit the
+countries covered with snow, where they would find men and other
+animals in abundance, to come so far in search of fruits and roots;
+which kind of nourishment carnivorous animals refuse to taste.<sup><a href="#fn-53" name="fr-53">53</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Bears are seen very frequently in Louisiana in the winter time, and
+they are so little dreaded, that the people sometimes <a name="page-248"></a> make it a
+diversion to hunt them. When they are fat, that is about the end of
+December, they cannot run so fast as a man; therefore the hunters are
+in no danger if they should turn upon them. The she-bears are
+tolerably fat when they are big with young; but after they have
+littered they quickly become lean.</p>
+
+<p>The bears usually arrive in Louisiana towards the end of autumn; and
+then they are very lean, as they do not leave the north till the earth
+be wholly covered with snow, and find often but a very scanty
+subsistence in their way southwards. I said above, that those animals
+seldom go to any great distance from the river; and on both banks
+travellers meet with such a beaten path in winter, that to those who
+are not acquainted with it, it appears like the track of men. I
+myself, the first time I observed it, was deceived by it. I was then
+near two hundred miles from any human dwelling, yet the path at first
+appeared to me as if it had been made by thousands of men, who had
+walked that way bare-footed. Upon a narrower inspection however, I
+observed, that the prints of the feet were shorter than that of a man,
+and that there was the impression of a claw at the end of each toe. It
+is proper to observe that in those paths the bear does not pique
+himself upon politeness, and will yield the way to nobody; therefore
+it is prudent in a traveller not to fall out with him for such a
+trifling affair.</p>
+
+<p>The bears, after they have been a short time in the country, and found
+abundance of fruits, turn fat and lazy, and it is then the natives go
+out to hunt them. The bear, when he is fat, huts himself, that is,
+retires into the hollow trunk of some rotten tree that has died on
+end. The natives, when they meet with any of those trees, which they
+suspect contains a bear in it, give two or three strong blows against
+the trunk, and immediately run behind the next tree opposite to the
+lowest breach. If there be a bear within, he appears in a few minutes
+at the breach, to look out and spy the occasion of the disturbance;
+but upon observing nothing likely to annoy him, he goes down again to
+the bottom of his castle.</p>
+
+<p>The natives having once seen their prey, gather a heap of dried canes,
+which they bruise with their feet, that they may <a name="page-249"></a> burn the
+easier, and one of them mounting upon a tree adjoining to that in
+which the bear is, sets fire to the reeds, and darts them one after
+another into the breach; the other hunters having planted themselves
+in ambuscade upon other trees. The bear is quickly burned out of his
+habitation, and he no sooner appears on the outside, than they let fly
+their arrows at him, and often kill him before he gets to the bottom
+of the tree.</p>
+
+<p>He is no sooner dead than some of the hunters are dispatched to look
+for a deer, and they seldom fail of bringing in one or two. When a
+deer is brought, they cut off the head, and then take off the skin
+whole, beginning at the neck, and rolling it down, as they cut it,
+like a stocking. The legs they cut off at the knee-joints, and having
+cleaned and washed the skin, they stop all the holes except the neck,
+with a kind of paste made of the fat of the deer mixed with ashes,
+over which they tie several bindings with the bark of the lime-tree.
+Having thus provided a kind of cask, they fill it with the oil of the
+bear, which they prepare by boiling the flesh and fat together. This
+Deer of Oil, as it is called, they sell to the French for a gun, a
+yard of cloth, or any other thing of that value. The French, before
+they use it, purify it, by putting it into a large kettle, with a
+handful of laurel leaves; and sprinkling it when it begins to be hot
+with some water, in which they have dissolved a large quantity of
+salt. The smoke that rises upon this sprinkling carries off with it
+any bad smell the fat may have; they next pour it off into a vessel,
+and eight days after there is found on the top of it a clear oil which
+serves all the purposes of olive oil; what remains below is a fine
+kind of lard, proper for the kitchen, and a sovereign remedy for all
+kinds of pains. I myself was cured of the rheumatism in my shoulder by
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The Tiger is not above a foot and a half high, and long in proportion:
+his hair is somewhat of a bright bay colour, and he is brisk as all
+tigers naturally are. His flesh when boiled tastes like veal, only it
+is not so insipid. There are very few of them to be seen; I never saw
+but two near my settlement; and I have great reason to think that it
+was the same beast I saw both times. The first time he laid hold of my
+dog, who barked and howled; but upon my running towards him the <a name="page-250"></a>
+tiger left him. The next time he seized a pig; but this I likewise
+rescued, and his claws had gone no deeper than the fat. This animal is
+not more carnivorous than fearful; he flies at the sight of a man, and
+makes off with greater speed, if you shout and halloo as he runs.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxix"><img src="images/illus29.png" alt="TOP: Wild Cat&mdash;MIDDLE: Opossum>&mdash;BOTTOM: Skunk" height="385" width="223"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Wild Cat</i>&mdash;MIDDLE: <i>Opossum</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Skunk</i></p>
+
+<p>The Cat-a-mount is a kind of wild cat, as high as the tiger, but not
+so thick, and his skin is extremely beautiful. He is a great destroyer
+of poultry, but fortunately his species is rare.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-251"></a> Foxes are so numerous, that upon the woody heights you
+frequently see nothing but their holes. As the woods afford them
+plenty of game, they do not molest the poultry, which are always
+allowed to run at large. The foxes are exactly shaped like ours, but
+their skin is much more beautiful. Their hair is fine and thick, of a
+deep brown colour, and over this rise several long silver-coloured
+hairs, which have a fine effect.</p>
+
+<p>The Wild Cat has been improperly so called by the first French
+settlers in Louisiana; for it has nothing of the cat but its nimble
+activity, and rather resembles a monkey. It is not above eight or ten
+inches high, and about fifteen long. Its head is like that of a fox;
+it has long toes, but very short claws, not made for seizing game;
+accordingly it lives upon fruit, bread, and other such things. This
+animal may be tamed, and then becomes very frolicksome and full of
+tricks. The hair of those that are tame is grey; but of the wild is
+reddish; neither of them is so beautiful as that of the fox; it grows
+very fat, and its flesh is good to eat. I shall not describe the real
+wild cat, as it is entirely like ours.</p>
+
+<p>The Rabbit is extremely common over all Louisiana; it is particular in
+this, that its pile is like that of the hare, and it never burrows.
+Its flesh is white and delicate, and has the usual taste, without any
+rankness. There is no other kind of rabbit or hare, if you please to
+call it, in all the colony, than that above described.</p>
+
+<p>The Wood-Rat has the head and tail of a common rat, but has the bulk
+and length of a cat. Its legs are short, its paws long, and its toes
+are armed with claws: its tail is almost without hair, which serves
+for hooking itself to any thing; for when you take hold of it by that
+part, it immediately twists itself round your finger. Its pile is
+grey, and though very fine, yet is never smooth. The women among the
+natives spin it and dye it red. It hunts by night, and makes war upon
+the poultry, only sucking their blood and leaving their flesh. It is
+very rare to see any creature walk so slow; and I have often catched
+them when walking my ordinary pace. When he sees himself upon the
+point of being caught, instinct prompts him to counterfeit being dead;
+and in this he perseveres with such <a name="page-252"></a> constancy, that though laid
+on a hot gridiron, he will not make the least sign of life. He never
+moves, unless the person go to a distance or hide himself, in which
+case he endeavors as fast as possible to escape into some hole or
+bush.</p>
+
+<p>When the she-one is about to litter, she chooses a place in the thick
+bushes at the foot of a tree, after which she and the male crop a
+great deal of fine dry grass, which is loaded upon her belly, and then
+the male drags her and her burden by the tail to the littering-place.
+She never quits her young a moment; but when she is obliged to change
+her lodging, carries them with her in a pouch or double skin that
+wraps round her belly, and there they may sleep or suck at their ease.
+The two sides of this pouch lap so close that the joining can hardly
+be observed; nor can they be separated without tearing the skin. If
+the she-one be caught carrying her young thus with her, she will
+suffer herself to be roasted alive, without the least sign of life,
+rather than open the pouch and expose her young ones. The flesh of
+this animal is very good, and tastes somewhat like that of a sucking
+pig, when it is first broiled, and afterwards roasted on the spit.</p>
+
+<p>The Pole-cat or Skunk is about the size of a kitten eight months old.
+The male is of a beautiful black, but the female has rings of white
+intermixed with the black. Its ear and its paw are like that of a
+mouse, and it has a very lively eye. I suppose it lives upon fruits
+and seeds. It is most justly called the Stinking Beast, for its odour
+is so strong, that it may be pursued upon the track twenty-four hours
+after it has passed. It goes very slow, and when the hunter approaches
+it, it squirts out, far and wide such a stinking urine, that neither
+man nor beast can hardly approach it. A drop of this creature's blood,
+and probably some of its urine, having one day fallen upon my coat
+when I was hunting, I was obliged as fast as possible to go home and
+change my cloaths; and before I, could use my coat, it was scoured and
+exposed for several days to the dew.</p>
+
+<p>The Squirrels of Louisiana are like those of France, excepting one
+kind, which are called Flying-Squirrels, because they leap from one
+tree to another, though the distance between them be twenty-five or
+thirty feet. It is about the size of a <a name="page-253"></a> rat, and of a deep
+ash-colour. Its two fore-legs are joined to its two hind-legs by two
+membranes, so that when it leaps it seems to fly, though it always
+leaps somewhat downwards. This animal may be very easily tamed; but
+even then it is best to chain it. There is another sort, not much
+bigger than a mouse, and of a bright bay-colour. These are so familiar
+that they will come out of the woods, will enter the houses, and sit
+within two yards of the people of the house, if they do not make any
+motion; and there they will feed on any maiz within their reach. I
+never was so well diverted in my life with the frolics of any animal,
+as I have been with the vivacity and attitudes of this little
+squirrel.</p>
+
+<p>The Porcupine is large and fine of this kind; but as he lives only
+upon fruit, and loves cold, is most common about the river Illinois,
+where the climate is somewhat cold, and there is plenty of wild
+fruits. The skin, when stripped of the quills, is white and brown. The
+natives dye part of the white, yellow and red, and the brown they dye
+black. They have likewise the art of splitting the skin, and applying
+it to many curious works, particularly to trim the edges of their
+deer-skin, and to line small bark-boxes, which are very neat.</p>
+
+<p>The Hedge-hog of Louisiana is in every respect the same with that of
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not enlarge upon the Beavers, which are universally known,
+from the many descriptions we have of them.</p>
+
+<p>The Otters are the same with those of France, and there are but few of
+them to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>Some Turtle are seen in this country; but very rarely. In the many
+hundred leagues of country that I have passed over, I have hardly seen
+above a hundred.</p>
+
+<p>Frogs are very common, especially in Lower Louisiana, notwithstanding
+the great number of snakes that destroy them. There are some that grow
+very large, sometimes above a foot and a half long, and astonish
+strangers at first by their croaking especially if they are in a
+hollow tree.</p>
+
+<p>The Crocodile is very common in the river Missisippi. Although this
+amphibious animal be almost as well known as <a name="page-254"></a> those I have just
+mentioned, I cannot however omit taking some notice of it. Without
+troubling the reader with a description of it, which he will meet with
+every where, I shall observe that it shuns the banks of the river
+frequented by men. It lays its eggs in the months of May, when the sun
+is already hot in that country, and it deposits them in the most
+concealed place it can find among grass exposed to the heats of the
+south. The eggs are about the size of those of a goose, but longer in
+proportion. Upon breaking them you will find hardly any thing but
+white, the yolk being about the size of that of a young hen. I never
+saw any that were new hatched. The smallest I ever met with, which I
+concluded to be about three months old, was as long as a middle-sized
+eel, and an inch and a half thick. I have killed one nineteen feet
+long, and three feet and a half in its greatest breadth. A friend of
+mine killed one twenty-two feet long, and the legs of both these,
+which on land seemed to move with great difficulty, were not above a
+foot in length. But however sluggish they be on land, in the water
+they move with great agility.</p>
+
+<p>This animal has his body always covered with slime, which is the case
+with all fishes that live in muddy waters. When he comes on shore his
+track is covered with that slime, as his belly trails on the ground,
+and this renders the earth very slippery in that part, especially as
+he returns by the same path to the water. He never hunts the fish upon
+which he subsists; but places himself in ambuscade, and catches them
+as they pass. For that purpose he digs a hole in the bank of the
+river, below the surface of the water, where the current is strong,
+having a small entrance, but large enough within to turn himself round
+in. The fish, which are fatigued with the strong current, are glad to
+get into the smooth water in that corner, and there they are
+immediately seized by the crocodile.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not contradict the accounts of venerable antiquity about the
+crocodiles of the Nile, who fall upon men and devour them; who cross
+the roads, and make a slippery path upon them to trip passengers, and
+make them slide into the river; who counterfeit the voice of an
+infant, to draw children into their snares; neither shall I contradict
+the travellers who have <a name="page-255"></a> confirmed those stories from mere
+hearsays. But as I profess to speak the truth, and to advance nothing
+but what I am certain of from my own knowledge, I may safely affirm
+that the crocodiles of Louisiana are doubtless of another species than
+those of other countries. In fact, I never heard them imitate the
+cries of an infant, nor is it at all probable that they can
+counterfeit them. Their voice is as strong as that of a bull. It is
+true they attack men in the water, but never on land, where they are
+not at all formidable. Besides, there are nations that in great part
+subsist upon this animal, which is hunted out by the fathers and
+mothers, and killed by the children. What can we then believe of those
+stories that have been told us of the crocodile? I myself killed all
+that ever I met of them; and they are so much the less to be dreaded,
+in that they can neither run nor rise up against a man. In the water
+indeed, which is their favourite element, they are dangerous; but in
+that case it is easy to guard against them.</p>
+
+<p>The largest of all the reptiles of Louisiana, is the Rattle-Snake:
+some of them have been seen fifteen inches thick, and long in
+proportion; but this species is naturally shorter in proportion to
+their thickness than the other kinds of serpents. This serpent gets
+its name from several hollow knots at its tail, very thin and dry,
+which make a rattling noise. These knots, though inserted into each
+other, are yet quite detached, and only the first of them is fastened
+to the skin. The number of the knots, it is said, marks the age of the
+serpent, and I am much inclined to believe it; for as I have killed a
+great number of them, I always observed, that the longer and thicker
+the serpent was, it had the more knots. Its skin is almost black; but
+the lower part of its belly is striped black and white.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as it hears or sees a man, it rouses itself by shaking its
+tail, which makes a rattling noise that may be heard at several paces
+distance, and gives warning to the traveller to be upon his guard. It
+is much to be dreaded when it coils itself up in a spiral line, for
+then it may easily dart upon a man. It shuns the habitations of men,
+and by a singular providence, wherever it retires to, there the herb
+which cures its bite, is likewise to be found.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-256"></a> <a name="illustration-xxx"><img src="images/illus30.png" alt="TOP: Alligator&mdash;MIDDLE: Rattle Snake&mdash;BOTTOM:
+Green Snake" height="381" width="223"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Alligator</i>&mdash;MIDDLE: <i>Rattle Snake</i>&mdash;BOTTOM:
+<i>Green Snake</i></p>
+
+<p>There are several other kinds of serpents to be seen here, some of
+which resemble those of France, and attempt to slip into the
+hen-houses to devour the eggs and new-hatched chickens. Others are
+green, about two feet long, and not thicker than a goose-quill; they
+frequent the meadows, and may be seen running over the spires of
+grass, such is their lightness and nimbleness.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-257"></a> Vipers are very rare in Lower Louisiana, as that reptile loves
+stoney grounds. In the highlands they are now-and-then to met with,
+and there they quite resemble ours.</p>
+
+<p>Lizards are very common: there is a small kind of these that are
+called Cameleons, because they change their colour according to that
+of the place they pass over.<sup><a href="#fn-54" name="fr-54">54</a></sup> </p>
+
+<p>Among the spiders of Louisiana there is one kind that will appear very
+extraordinary. It is as large, but rather longer than a pigeon's egg,
+black with gold-coloured specks. Its claws are pierced through above
+the joints. It does not carry its eggs like the rest, but encloses
+them in a kind of cup covered with its silk. It lodges itself in a
+kind of nut made of the same silk, and hung to the branches of the
+trees. The web which this insect weaves is so strong, that it not only
+stops birds, but cannot even be broken by men without a considerable
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>I never saw any Moles in Louisiana, nor heard of any being seen by
+others.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-53" name="fn-53">53</a></sup>  Since I wrote the above account of the bears, I have been
+certainly informed, that in the mountains of Savoy there are two sorts
+of bears. The one black, like that of Louisiana, and not carnivorous;
+the other red, and no less carnivorous than the wolves. Both turn upon
+their enemy when wounded.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-54" name="fn-54">54</a></sup>  When the Cameleon is angry, a
+nerve rises arch-wise from his mouth to the middle of his throat; and
+the skin which covers it is so stretched as to remain red, whatever
+colour the rest of the body be. He never does any hurt, and always
+runs away when observed.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of Birds, and Flying Insects</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Birds are so very numerous in Louisiana, that if all the different
+kinds of them were known, which is far from being the case at present,
+the description of them alone would require an entire volume. I only
+undertake the description of all those which have come within my
+knowledge, the number of which, I am persuaded, will be sufficient to
+satisfy the curious reader.</p>
+
+<p>The Eagle, the king of the birds, is smaller than the eagle of the
+Alps; but he is much more beautiful, being entirely white, excepting
+only the tips of his wings, which are black. As he is also very rare,
+this is another reason for heightening his value to the native, who
+purchase at a great price the large <a name="page-258"></a> feathers of his wings, with
+which they ornament the Calumet, or Symbol of Peace, as I have
+elsewhere described.</p>
+
+<p>When speaking of the king of birds, I shall take notice of the Wren,
+called by the French Roitelet (Petty King) which is the same in
+Louisiana as in France. The reason of its name in French will plainly
+enough appear from the following history. A magistrate, no less
+remarkable for his probity than for the rank he holds in the law,
+assured me that, when he was at Sables d'Olonne in Poitou, on account
+of an estate which he had in the neighbourhood of that city, he had
+the curiosity to go and see a white eagle which was then brought from
+America. After he had entered the house a wren was brought, and let
+fly in the hall where the eagle was feeding. The wren perched upon a
+beam, and was no sooner perceived by the eagle, than he left off
+feeding, flew into a corner, and hung down his head. The little bird,
+on the other hand, began to chirp and appear angry, and a moment after
+flew upon the neck of the eagle, and pecked him with the greatest
+fury, the eagle all the while hanging his head in a cowardly manner,
+between his feet. The wren, after satisfying its animosity, returned
+to the beam.</p>
+
+<p>The Falcon, the Hawk, and the Tassel are the same as in France; but
+the falcons are much more beautiful than ours.</p>
+
+<p>The Carrion-Crow, or Turky Bustard, is of the size and shape of a
+Turky-cock; his head is covered with red flesh, and his plumage is
+black: he has a hooked beak, but his toes are armed with very small
+talons, and are therefore very improper for seizing live game, which
+indeed he does not chuse to attack, as his want of agility prevents
+him from darting upon it with the rapidity of a bird of prey.
+Accordingly he lives only upon the dead beasts that he happens to meet
+with, and yet notwithstanding this kind of food he smells of musk.
+Several people maintain, that the Carrion-Crow, or Carancro, is the
+same with our Vulture. The Spaniards forbid the killing of it under
+pain of corporal punishment; for as they do not use the whole carcase
+of the buffaloes which they kill, those birds eat what they leave,
+which otherwise, by rotting on the ground, would, according to them,
+infect the air.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-259"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Cormorant is shaped very much like a duck, but its plumage is
+different and much more beautiful. This bird frequents the shores of
+the sea and of lakes, but rarely appears in rivers. Its usual food is
+fish; but as it is very voracious, it likewise eats dead flesh; and
+this it can tear to pieces by means of a notch in its bill, which is
+about the size of that of a duck.</p>
+
+<p>The Swan of Louisiana are like those of France, only they are larger.
+However, notwithstanding their bulk and their weight, they often rise
+so high in the air, that they cannot be distinguished but by their
+shrill cry. Their flesh is very good to eat, and their fat is a
+specific against cold humours. The natives set a great value upon the
+feathers of the Swan. Of the large ones they make the diadems of their
+sovereigns, hats, and other ornaments; and they weave the small ones
+as the peruke-makers weave hair, and make coverings of them for their
+noble women. The young people of both sexes make tippets of the skin,
+without stripping it of its down.</p>
+
+<p>The Canada-Goose is a water-fowl, of the shape of a goose; but twice
+as large and heavy. Its plumage is ash-coloured; its eyes are covered
+with a black spot; its cries are different from those of a goose, and
+shriller; its flesh is excellent.</p>
+
+<p>The Pelican is so called from its large head, its large bill, and
+above all for its large pouch, which hangs from its neck, and has
+neither feather nor down. It fills this pouch with fish, which it
+afterwards disgorges for the nourishment of its young. It never
+removes from the shores of the sea, and is often killed by sailors for
+the sake of the pouch, which when dried serves them as a purse for
+their tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>The Geese are the same with the wild geese of France. They abound upon
+the shores of the sea and of lakes, but are rarely seen in rivers.</p>
+
+<p>In this country there are three kinds of Ducks; first, the Indian
+Ducks, so called because they came originally from that country. These
+are almost entirely white, having but a very few grey feathers. On
+each side of their head they have flesh of a more lively red than that
+of the Turky-cock, and they are larger than our tame ducks. They are
+as tame as those of <a name="page-260"></a> Europe, and their flesh when young is
+delicate, and of a fine flavour. The Wild Ducks are fatter, more
+delicate, and of better taste than those of France; but in other
+respects they are entirely the same. For one you see in France you may
+here count a thousand. The Perching-Ducks, or Carolina Summer-Ducks,
+are somewhat larger than our teals. Their plumage is quite beautiful,
+and so changeable that no painting can imitate it. Upon their head
+they have a beautiful tuft of the most <a name="page-261"></a> lively colours, and their
+red eyes appear like flames. The natives ornament their calumets or
+pipes with the skin of their neck. Their flesh is very good, but when
+it is too fat it tastes oily. These ducks are to be met with the whole
+year round; they perch upon the branches of trees, which the others do
+not, and it is from this they have their name.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxi"><img src="images/illus31.png" alt="TOP: Pelican&mdash;BOTTOM: Wood Stock (on p. 260)" height="382" width="219"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Pelican</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Wood Stock</i></p>
+
+<p>The Teal are found in every season; and they differ nothing from those
+of France but in having a finer relish.</p>
+
+<p>The Divers of Louisiana are the same with those of France: they no
+sooner see the fire in the pan, than they dive so suddenly that the
+shot cannot touch them, and they are therefore called Lead-Eaters.</p>
+
+<p>The Saw-bill has the inside of its beak indented like the edge of a
+saw: it is said to live wholly upon shrimps, the shells of which it
+can easily break.</p>
+
+<p>The Crane is a very common water-fowl; it is larger than a turkey,
+very lean, and of an excellent taste. It eats somewhat like beef, and
+makes very good soup.</p>
+
+<p>The Flamingo has only a little down upon its head; its plumage is
+grey, and its flesh good.</p>
+
+<p>The Spatula has its name from the form of its bill, which is about
+seven or eight inches long, an inch broad towards the head, and two
+inches and a half towards the extremity; it is not quite so large as a
+wild goose; its thighs and legs are about the height of those of a
+turkey. Its plumage is rose-coloured, the wings being brighter than
+any other part. This is a water-fowl, and its flesh is very good.</p>
+
+<p>The Heron of Louisiana is not in the least different from that of
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The Egret, or White Heron, is so called from tufts of feathers upon
+the wings near the body, which hinder it from flying high; it is a
+water-fowl with white plumage; but its flesh tastes very oily.</p>
+
+<p>The Bec-croche, or Crook-bill, has indeed a crooked bill, with which
+it seizes the cray-fish upon which it subsists. Its <a name="page-262"></a> flesh has
+that taste, and is red. Its plumage is a whitish grey; and it is about
+the size of a capon.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxii"><img src="images/illus32.png" alt="TOP: Flying Squirrel&mdash;MIDDLE: Roseate
+Spoon-bill&mdash;BOTTOM: Snowy Heron" height="380" width="220"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>Flying Squirrel</i>&mdash;MIDDLE: <i>Roseate
+Spoon-bill</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Snowy Heron</i></p>
+
+<p>The Indian Water-Hen, and the Green-Foot, are the same as in France.</p>
+
+<p>The Hatchet-Bill is so called on account of its bill, which is red,
+and formed like the edge of an ax. Its feet are also Of a beautiful
+red, and it is therefore often called Red-Foot. As <a name="page-263"></a> it lives upon
+shell-fish, it never removes from the sea-coast, but upon the approach
+of a storm, which is always sure to follow its retiring into the
+inland parts.</p>
+
+<p>The King-Fisher excels ours in nothing but in the beauty of its
+plumage, which is as various as the rainbow. This bird, it is well
+known, goes always against the wind; but perhaps few people know that
+it preserves the same property when it is dead. I myself hung a dead
+one by a silk thread directly over a sea-compass, and I can declare it
+as a fact, that the bill was always turned towards the wind.</p>
+
+<p>The Sea-Lark and Sea-Snipe never quit the sea; their flesh may be eat,
+as it has very little of the oily taste.</p>
+
+<p>The Frigate-Bird is a large bird, which in the day-time keeps itself
+in the air above the shore of the sea. It often rises very high,
+probably for exercise; for it feeds upon fish, and every night retires
+to the coast. It appears larger than it really is, as it is covered
+with a great many feathers of a grey colour. Its wings are very long,
+its tail forked, and it cuts the air with great swiftness.</p>
+
+<p>The Draught-Bird is a large bird, not much unlike the Frigate-Bird, as
+light, but not so swift. The under-part of its plumage is chequered
+brown and white, but the upper-part is of greyish brown.</p>
+
+<p>The Fool is of a yellowish colour, and about the size of a hen; it is
+so called, because it will suffer a man to approach it so near as to
+seize it with his hand: but even then it is too soon to cry victory;
+for if the person who seizes it does not take the greatest precaution,
+it will snap off his finger at one bite.</p>
+
+<p>When those three last birds are observed to hover very low over the
+shore, we may most certainly expect an approaching storm. On the other
+hand, when the sailors see the Halcyons behind their vessel, they
+expect and generally meet with fine weather for some days.</p>
+
+<p>Since I have mentioned the Halcyon, I shall here describe it. It is a
+small bird, about the size of a swallow, but its beak <a name="page-264"></a> is longer,
+and its plumage is violet-coloured. It has two streaks of a yellowish
+brown at the end of the feathers of its wings, which when it sits
+appear upon its back. When we left Louisiana, near an hundred halcyons
+followed our vessel for near three days: they kept at the distance of
+about a stone-cast, and seemed to swim, yet I could never discover
+that their feet were webbed, and was therefore greatly surprised. They
+probably live upon the small insects that drop from the outside of the
+vessel when sailing; for they now-and-then dived, and came up in the
+same place. I have some suspicion that, by keeping in the wake of the
+ship, they float after it without swimming; for when they happened to
+be out of the wake of the ship, they were obliged to fly, in order to
+come up with the ship again. This bird is said to build its nest of
+the glutinous froth of the sea close upon the shore, and to launch it
+when a land breeze arises, raising one of its wings in the form of a
+sail, which receiving the wind, helps to carry it out to sea.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now proceed to speak of the fowls which frequent the woods,
+and shall begin with the Wild-Turky, which is very common all over the
+colony. It is finer, larger, and better than that in France. The
+feathers of the turky are of a duskish grey, edged with a streak of
+gold colour, near half an inch broad. In the small feathers the
+gold-coloured streak is not above one tenth of an inch broad. The
+natives make fans of the tail, and of four tails joined together, the
+French make an umbrella. The women among the natives weave the
+feathers as our peruke-makers weave their hair, and fasten them to an
+old covering of bark, which they likewise line with them, so that it
+has down on both sides. Its flesh is more delicate, fatter, and more
+juicy than that of ours. They go in flocks, and with a dog one may
+kill a great many of them. I never could procure any of the turky's
+eggs, to try to hatch them, and discover whether they were as
+difficult to bring up in this country as in France, since the climate
+of both countries is almost the same. My slave told me, that in his
+nation they brought up the young turkies as easily as we do chickens.</p>
+
+<p>The Pheasant is the most beautiful bird that can be painted, and in
+every respect entirely like that of Europe. <a name="page-265"></a> Their rarity, in my
+opinion, makes them more esteemed than they deserve. I would at any
+time prefer a slice off the fillet of a buffalo to any pheasant.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxiii"><img src="images/illus33.png" alt="TOP: White Ibis&mdash;MIDDLE: Tobacco Worm&mdash;BOTTOM: Cock
+Roach" height="385" width="223"></a><br>
+TOP: <i>White Ibis</i>&mdash;MIDDLE: <i>Tobacco Worm</i>&mdash;BOTTOM: <i>Cock
+Roach</i></p>
+
+<p>The Partridges of Louisiana are not larger than a wood-pigeon. Their
+plumage is exactly the same with that of our grey partridges; they
+have also the horse-shoe upon the breast; they perch upon trees, and
+are seldom seen in flocks. Their <a name="page-266"></a> cry consists only of two strong
+notes, somewhat resembling the name given them by the natives, who
+call them Ho-ouy. Their flesh is white and delicate, but, like all the
+other game in this country, it has no <i>fumet</i>, and only excels in the
+fine taste.</p>
+
+<p>The Woodcock is very rare, because it is only to be met with in
+inhabited countries. It is like that of France; its flesh is white,
+but rather plumper and more delicate than that of ours, which is owing
+to the plenty and goodness of its fruit.</p>
+
+<p>The Snipe is much more common than the woodcock, and in this country
+is far from being shy. Its flesh is white, and of a much better relish
+than that of ours.</p>
+
+<p>I am of opinion that the Quail is very rare in Louisiana; I have
+sometimes heard it, but never saw it, nor know any Frenchman that ever
+did.</p>
+
+<p>Some of our colonists have thought proper to give the name of Ortolan
+to a small bird which has the same plumage, but in every other respect
+does not in the least resemble it.</p>
+
+<p>The Corbijeau is as large as the woodcock, and very common. Its
+plumage is varied with several shady colours, and is different from
+that of the woodcock; its feet and beak are also longer, which last is
+crooked and of a reddish yellow colour; its flesh is likewise firmer
+and better tasted.</p>
+
+<p>The Parroquet of Louisiana is not quite so large as those that are
+usually brought to France. Its plumage is usually of a fine sea-green,
+with a pale rose-coloured spot upon the crown, which brightens into
+red towards the beak, and fades off into green towards the body. It is
+with difficulty that it learns to speak, and even then it rarely
+practices it, resembling in this the natives themselves, who speak
+little. As a silent parrot would never make its fortune among our
+French ladies, it is doubtless on this account that we see so few of
+these in France.</p>
+
+<p>The Turtle-Dove is the same with that of Europe, but few of them are
+seen here.</p>
+
+<p>The Wood-Pigeons are seen in such prodigious numbers, that I do not
+fear to exaggerate, when I affirm that they sometimes <a name="page-267"></a> cloud the
+sun. One day on the banks of the Missisippi I met with a flock of them
+which was so large, that before they all passed, I had leisure to fire
+with the same piece four times at them. But the rapidity of their
+flight was so great, that though I do not fire ill, with my four shots
+I brought down but two.</p>
+
+<p>These birds come to Louisiana only in the winter, and remain in Canada
+during the summer, where they devour the corn, as they eat the acorns
+in Louisiana. The Canadians have used every art to hinder them from
+doing so much mischief, but without success. But if the inhabitants of
+those colonies were to go a fowling for those birds in the manner that
+I have done, they would insensibly destroy them. When they walk among
+the high forest trees, they ought to remark under the trees the
+largest quantity of dung is to be seen. Those trees being once
+discovered, the hunters ought to go out when it begins to grow dark,
+and carry with them a quantity of brimstone which they must set fire
+to in so many earthen plates placed at regular distances under the
+trees. In a very short time they will hear a shower of wood-pigeons
+falling to the ground, which, by the light of some dried canes, they
+may gather into sacks, as soon as the brimstone is extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>I shall here give an instance that proves not only the prodigious number
+of those birds, but also their singular instinct. In one of my journeys
+at land, when I happened to be upon the bank of the river, I heard a
+confused noise which seemed to come along the river from a considerable
+distance below us. As the sound continued uniformly I embarked, as fast
+as I could, on board the pettyaugre, with four other men, and steered
+down the river, keeping in the middle, that I might go to any side that
+best suited me. But how great was my surprise when I approached the
+place from whence the noise came, and observed it to proceed from a
+thick short pillar on the bank of the river. When I drew still nearer to
+it, I perceived that it was formed by a legion of wood-pigeons, who kept
+continually flying up and down successively among the branches of an
+ever-green oak, in order to beat down the acorns with their wings. Every
+now and then some alighted to eat the <a name="page-268"></a> acorns which they themselves
+or the others had beat down; for they all acted in common, and eat in
+common; no avarice nor private interest appearing among them, but each
+labouring as much for the rest as for himself.</p>
+
+<p>Crows are common in Louisiana, and as they eat no carrion their flesh
+is better tasted than that of the crows of France. Whatever their
+appetite may be, they dare not for the carrion crow approach any
+carcass.</p>
+
+<p>I never saw any Ravens in this country, and if there be any they must
+be very rare.</p>
+
+<p>The Owls are larger and whiter than in France, and their cry is much
+more frightful. The Little Owl is the same with ours, but much more
+rare. These two birds are more common in Lower Louisiana than in the
+higher.</p>
+
+<p>The Magpye resembles those of Europe in nothing but its cry; it is
+more delicate, is quite black, has a different manner of flying, and
+chiefly frequents the coasts.</p>
+
+<p>The Blackbirds are black all over, not excepting their bills nor their
+feet, and are almost as large again as ours. Their notes are
+different, and their flesh is hard.</p>
+
+<p>There are two sorts of Starlings in this country; one grey and
+spotted, and the other black. In both the tip of the shoulder is of a
+bright red. They are only to be seen in winter; and then they are so
+numerous, that upwards of three hundred of them have been taken at
+once in a net. A beaten path is made near a wood, and after it is
+cleaned and smoothed, it is strewed with rice. On each side of this
+path is stretched a long narrow silken net, with very small meshes,
+and made to turn over at once by strings fastened to the stick that
+stretches the end of it. The starlings no sooner alight to pick up the
+grain, than the fowler, who lies concealed with the strings in his
+hand, pulls the net over them.</p>
+
+<p>The Wood-pecker is much the same as in France; but here there are two
+kinds of them; one has grey feathers spotted with black; the other has
+the head and the neck of a bright red, and the rest of the body as the
+former. This bird lives upon the <a name="page-269"></a> worms which it finds in rotten
+wood, and not upon ants, as a modern author would have us believe, for
+want of having considered the nature of the things which he relates.
+The bird, when looking for its food, examines the trunks of trees that
+have lost their bark; it clasps by its feet with its belly close to
+the tree, and hearkens if it can hear a worm eating the wood; in this
+manner it leaps from place to place upon the trunk till it hears a
+worm, then it pierces the wood in that part, pricks the worm with its
+hard and pointed tongue, and draws it out. The arms which nature has
+furnished it with are very proper for this kind of hunting; its claws
+are hard and very sharp; its beak is formed like a little ax, and is
+very hard; its neck is long and flexible, to give proper play to its
+beak; and its hard tongue, which it can extend three or four inches,
+has a most sharp point with several beards that help to hold the prey.</p>
+
+<p>The Swallows of this country have that part yellow which ours have
+white, and they, as well as the martins, live in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>The Nightingale differs in nothing from ours in respect to its shape
+or plumage, unless that it has the bill a little longer. But in this
+it is particular that it is not shy, and sings through the whole year,
+though rarely. It is very easy to entice them to your roof, where it
+is impossible for the cats to reach them, by laying something for them
+to eat upon a lath, with a piece of the shell of a gourd which serves
+to hold their nest. You may in that case depend upon their not
+changing their habitation.</p>
+
+<p>The Pope is a bird that has a red and black plumage. It has got that
+name perhaps because its colour makes it look somewhat old, and none
+but old men are promoted to that dignity; or because its notes are
+soft, feeble, and rare; or lastly, because they wanted a bird of that
+name in the colony, having two other kinds named cardinals and
+bishops.</p>
+
+<p>The Cardinal owes its name to the bright red of the feathers, and to a
+little cowl on the hind part of the head, which resembles that of the
+bishop's ornament, called a camail. It is as large as a black-bird,
+but not so long. Its bill and toes are <a name="page-270"></a> large, strong, and black.
+Its notes are so strong and piercing that they are only agreeable in
+the woods. It is remarkable for laying up its winter provision in the
+summer, and near a Paris bushel of maiz has been found in its retreat,
+artfully covered, first with leaves and then with small branches, with
+only a little opening for the bird itself to enter.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop is a bird smaller than the linnet; its plumage is a
+violet-coloured blue, and its wings, which serve it for a cope, are
+entirely violet-colour. Its notes are so sweet, so variable, and
+tender, that those who have once heard it, are apt to abate in their
+praises of the nightingale. I had such great pleasure in hearing this
+charming bird, that I left an oak standing very near my apartment,
+upon which he used to come and perch, though I very well knew, that
+the tree, which stood single, might be overturned by a blast of wind,
+and fall upon my house to my great loss.</p>
+
+<p>The Humming-Bird is not larger even with its feathers than a large
+beetle. The colour of its feathers is variable, according to the light
+they are exposed in; in the sun they appear like enamel upon a gold
+ground, which delights the eyes. The longest feathers of the wings of
+this bird are not much more than half an inch long; its bill is about
+the same length, and pointed like an awl; and its tongue resembles a
+sowing-needle; its feet are like those of a large fly. Notwithstanding
+its little size, its flight is so rapid, that it is always heard
+before it be seen. Although like the bee it sucks the flowers, it
+never rests upon them, but supports itself upon its wings, and passes
+from one flower to another with the rapidity of lightening. It is a
+rare thing to catch a humming-bird alive; one of my friends however
+had the happiness to catch one. He had observed it enter the flower of
+a convolvulus, and as it had quite buried itself to get at the bottom,
+he ran forwards, shut the flower, cut it from the stalk, and carried
+off the bird a prisoner. He could not however prevail upon it to eat,
+and it died four days after.</p>
+
+<p>The Troniou is a small bird about the size of a sparrow; its plumage
+is likewise the same; but its beak is slenderer. Its notes seem to
+express its name.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-271"></a> The French settlers raise in this province turkies of the same
+kind with those of France, fowls, capons, &amp;c. of an excellent taste.
+The pigeons for their fine flavour and delicacy are preferred by
+Europeans to those of any other country. The Guinea fowl is here
+delicious.</p>
+
+<p>In Louisiana we have two kinds of Silk-worms; one was brought from
+France, the other is natural to the country. I shall enlarge upon them
+under the article of agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>The Tobacco-worm is a caterpillar of the size and figure of a
+silk-worm. It is of a fine sea-green colour, with rings of a silver
+colour; on its rump it has a sting near a quarter of an inch long.
+These insects quickly do a great deal of mischief, therefore care is
+taken every day, while the tobacco is rising, to pick them off and
+kill them.</p>
+
+<p>In summer Caterpillars are sometimes found upon the plants, but these
+insects are very rare in the colony. Glow-worms are here the same as
+in France.</p>
+
+<p>Butterflies are not near so common as in France; the consequence of
+there being fewer caterpillars; but they are of incomparable beauty,
+and have the most brilliant colours. In the meadows are to be seen
+black grasshoppers, which almost always walk, rarely leap, and still
+seldomer fly. They are about the size of a finger or thum, and their
+head is shaped somewhat like that of a horse. Their four small wings
+are of a most beautiful purple. Cats are very fond of grasshoppers.</p>
+
+<p>The Bees of Louisiana lodge in the earth, to secure their honey from
+the ravages of the bears. Some few indeed build their combs in the
+trunks of trees, as in Europe; but by far the greatest number in the
+earth in the lofty forests, where the bears seldom go.</p>
+
+<p>The Flies are of two kinds, one a yellowish brown, as in France, and
+the other black.</p>
+
+<p>The Wasps in this country take up their abode near the houses where
+they smell victuals. Several French settlers endeavored to root them
+out of their neighbourhood; but I acted otherwise; for reflecting,
+that no flies are to be seen where the <a name="page-272"></a> wasps frequent, I invited
+them by hanging up a piece of flesh in the air.</p>
+
+<p>The quick-stinger is a long and yellowish fly, and it receives its
+name from its stinging the moment it lights. The common flies of
+France are very common also in Louisiana.</p>
+
+<p>The Cantharides, or Spanish flies, are very numerous, and larger than
+in Europe; they are of such an acid nature, that if they but slightly
+touch the skin as they pass, a pretty large blister instantly rises.
+These flies live upon the leaves of the oak.</p>
+
+<p>The Green-flies appear only every other year, and the natives
+superstitiously look upon their appearance as a presage of a good
+crop. It is a pity that the cattle are so greatly molested by them,
+that they cannot remain in the fields; for they are extremely
+beautiful and twice as large as bees.</p>
+
+<p>Fire flies are very common; when the night is serene they are so very
+numerous, that if the light they dart out were constant, one might see
+as clearly as in fine moonshine.</p>
+
+<p>The Fly-ants, which we see attach themselves to the flower of the
+acacia, and which disappear when that flower is gone, do not proceed
+from the common ants. The fly ants, though shaped like the other kind,
+are however longer and larger. They have a square head; their colour
+is a brownish red bordered with black; they have four red and grey
+wings, and fly like common flies, which the other ants do not even
+when they have wings.</p>
+
+<p>The Dragon-flies are pretty numerous; they do not want to destroy them
+because they feed upon moskitos, which is one of the most troublesome
+kind of insects.</p>
+
+
+<p>The Moskitos are famous all over America, for their multitude, the
+troublesomeness of their buzzing and the venom of their stings, which
+occasion an insupportable itching, and often form so many ulcers, if
+the person stung does not immediately put some spittle on the wound.
+In open places they are less tormenting; but still they are
+troublesome; and the best way of driving them out of the houses is to
+burn a little brimstone in <a name="page-273"></a> the mornings and evenings. The smoke
+of this infallibly kills them, and the smell keeps others away for
+several days. An hour after the brimstone has been burnt, the
+apartments may be safely entered into by men.</p>
+
+<p>By the same means we may rid ourselves of the flies and moskitos,
+whose sting is so painful and so frequent during the short time they
+fly about; for they do not rise till about sun-set, and they retire at
+night. This is not the case with the Burning-fly. These, though not
+much larger than the point of a pin, are insupportable to the people
+who labour in the fields. They fly from sun-rising to sun-setting, and
+the wounds they give burn like fire.</p>
+
+<p>The Lavert is an insect about an inch and a quarter long, a little
+more than a quarter broad, and a tenth part of an inch thick. It
+enters the houses by the smallest crevices and in the night-time it
+falls upon dishes that are covered even with a plate, which renders it
+very troublesome to those whose houses are only built of wood. Bue
+they are so relishing to the cats, that these last quit everything to
+fall upon them wherever they perceive them. When a new settler has
+once cleared the ground about his house, and is at some distance from
+the woods, he is quickly freed from them.</p>
+
+<p>In Louisiana there are white ants, which seem to love dead wood.
+Persons who have been in the East-Indies have assured me, that they
+are quite like those which in that country are called <i>cancarla</i>, and
+that they would eat through glass, which I never had the experience
+of. There are in Louisiana, as in France, red, black, and flying ants.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-274"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-III-chapter-VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of Fishes and Shell-Fish</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Though there is an incredible quantity of fishes in this country, I
+shall however be very concise in my account of them; because during my
+abode in the country they were not sufficiently known; and the people
+were not experienced enough in the art of catching them. The most of
+the rivers being very deep, and the Missisippi, as I have mentioned,
+being between thirty-eight and forty fathoms, from its mouth to the
+fall of St. Anthony, it may be easily conceived that the instruments
+used for fishing in France, cannot be of any use in Louisiana, because
+they cannot go to the bottom of the rivers, or at least so deep as to
+prevent the fish from escaping. The line therefore can be only used
+and it is with it they catch all the fish that are eaten by the
+settlers upon the river. I proceed to an account of those fish.</p>
+
+<p>The Barbel is of two sorts, the large and the small. The first is
+about four feet long, and the smallest of this sort that is ever seen
+is two feet long, the young ones doubtless keeping at the bottom of
+the water. This kind has a very large head, and a round body, which
+gradually lessens toward the tail. The fish has no scales, nor any
+bones, excepting that of the middle: its flesh is very good and
+delicate, but in a small degree vary insipid, which is easily
+remedied; in other respects it eats very like the fresh cod of the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The small is from a foot to two in length. Its head is shaped like
+that of the other kind; but its body is not so round, nor so pointed
+at the tail.</p>
+
+<p>The Carp of the river Missisippi is monstrous. None are seen under two
+feet long; and many are met with three and four feet in length. The
+carps are not so very good in the lower part of the river; but the
+higher one goes the finer they are, on account of the plenty of sand
+in those parts. A great number of carps are carried into the lakes
+that are filled by the overflowing of the river, and in those lakes
+they are found <a name="page-275"></a> of all sizes, in great abundance, and of a better
+relish than those of the river.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxiv"><img src="images/illus34.png" alt="Top: Cat Fish&mdash;Middle: Gar Fish&mdash;Bottom: Spoonbill
+Catfish" height="382" width="221"></a><br>
+Top: <i>Cat Fish</i>&mdash;Middle: <i>Gar Fish</i>&mdash;Bottom: <i>Spoonbill
+Catfish</i></p>
+
+<p>The Burgo-Breaker is an excellent fish; it is usually a foot and a
+foot and a half long: it is round, with gold-coloured scales. In its
+throat it has two bones with a surface like that of a file to break
+the shell-fish named Burgo. Though delicate, it is nevertheless very
+firm. It is best when not much boiled.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-276"></a> The Ring-Skate is found in the river up as far as New Orleans,
+but no higher. It is very good, and no way tough. In other respects it
+is exactly like that of France.</p>
+
+<p>The Spatula is so called, because from its snout a substance extends
+about a foot in length, in the form of an apothecary's Spatula. This
+fish, which is about two feet in length, is neither round or flat, but
+square, having at its sides and in the under part bones that forman
+angle like those of the back.</p>
+
+<p>No Pikes are caught above a foot and a half long. As this is a
+voracious fish, perhaps the Armed-fish pursues it, both from jealousy
+and appetite. The pike, besides being small, is very rare.</p>
+
+<p>The Choupic is a very beautiful fish; many people mistake it for the
+trout, as it takes a fly in the same manner. But it is very different
+from the trout, as it prefers muddy and dead water to a clear stream,
+and its flesh is so soft that it is only good when fried.</p>
+
+<p>The Sardine or small Pilchard of the river Missisippi, is about three
+or four fingers in breadth, and between six and seven inches long; it
+is good and delicate. One year I salted about the quantity of forty
+pints of them, and all the French who eat of them acknowledged them to
+be Sardines from their flesh, their bones, and their taste. They
+appear only for a short season, and are caught by the natives, when
+swimming against the strongest current, with nets made for that
+purpose only.</p>
+
+<p>The Patassa, so called by the natives for its flatness, is the roach
+or fresh-water mullet of this country.</p>
+
+<p>The Armed-Fish has its name from its arms, and its scaly mail. Its
+arms are its very sharp teeth, about the tenth of an inch in diameter,
+and as much distant from each other, and near half an inch long. The
+interval of the larger teeth is filled with shorter teeth. These arms
+are a proof of its voracity. Its mail is nothing but its scales, which
+are white, as hard as ivory, and about the tenth of an inch in
+thickness. They are near an inch long, about half as much in breadth,
+end in a <a name="page-277"></a> point, and have two cutting sides. There are two ranges
+of them down the back, shaped exactly like the head of a spontoon, and
+opposite to the point of the scale has a little shank, about three
+tenths of an inch long, which the natives insert into the end of their
+arrows, making the scale serve for a head. The flesh of this fish is
+hard and not relishing.</p>
+
+<p>There are a great number of Eels in the river Missisippi, and very
+large ones are found in all the rivers and creeks.</p>
+
+<p>The whole lower part of the river abounds in Crayfish. Upon my first
+arrival in the colony the ground was covered with little hillocks,
+about six or seven inches high, which the crayfish had made for taking
+the air out of the water; but since dikes have been raised for keeping
+off the river from the low grounds, they no longer shew themselves.
+Whenever they are wanted, they fish for them with the leg of a frog,
+and in a few moments they will catch a large dish of them.</p>
+
+<p>The Shrimps are diminutive crayfish; they are usually about three
+inches long, and of the size of the little finger. Although in other
+countries they are generally found in the sea only, yet in Louisiana
+you will meet with great numbers of them more than an hundred leagues
+up the river. In the lake St. Louis, about two leagues from New
+Orleans, the waters of which, having a communication with the sea, are
+somewhat brackish, are found several sorts both of sea fish, and fresh
+water fish. As the bottom of the lake is very level, they fish in it
+with large nets lately brought from France.</p>
+
+<p>Near the lake, when we pass by the outlets to the sea, and continue
+along the coasts, we meet with small oysters in great abundance, that
+are very well tasted. On the other hand, when we quit the lake by
+another lake that communicates with one of the mouths of the river, we
+meet with oysters four or five inches broad, and six or seven long.
+These large oysters eat best fried, having hardly any saltness, but in
+other respects are large and delicate.</p>
+
+<p>Having spoken of the oysters of Louisiana, I shall take some notice of
+the oysters that are found on the trees at St. Domingo. When I arrived
+at the harbour of Cape François in <a name="page-278"></a> my way to Louisiana, I was
+much surprised to see oysters hanging to the branches of some shrubs;
+but M. Chaineau, who was our second captain, explained the phaenomenon
+to me. According to him, the twigs of the shrubs are bent down at high
+water, to the very bottom of the shore, whenever the sea is any ways
+agitated. The oysters in that place no sooner feel the twigs than they
+lay hold of them, and when the sea retires they appear suspended upon
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the mouths of the river we meet with mussels no salter than
+the large oysters above mentioned; and this is owing to the water
+being only brackish in those parts, as the river there empties itself
+by three large mouths, and five other small ones, besides several
+short creeks, which all together throw at once an immense quantity of
+water into the sea; the whole marshy ground occupies an extent of ten
+or twelve leagues.</p>
+
+
+<p>There are likewise excellent mussels upon the northern shore of the
+lake St. Louis, especially in the river of Pearls; they may be about
+six or seven inches long, and sometimes contain pretty large pearls,
+but of no great value.</p>
+
+<p>The largest of the shell-fish on the coast is the Burgo, well known in
+France. There is another fish much smaller and of a different shape.
+Its hollow shell is strong and beautiful, and the flat one is
+generally black; some blue ones are found, and are much esteemed.
+These shells have long been in request for tobacco-boxes.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-279"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<p>THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="book-IV">BOOK IV.</a></h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-IV-chapter-I">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>The Origin of the Americans.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The remarkable difference I observed between the Natchez, including in
+that name the nations whom they treat as brethren, and the other
+people of Louisiana, made me extremely desirous to know whence both of
+them might originally come. We had not then that full information
+which we have since received from the voyages and discoveries of M. De
+Lisle in the eastern parts of the Russian empire. I therefore applied
+myself one day to put the keeper of the temple in good humour, and
+having succeeded in that without much difficulty, I then told him,
+that from the little resemblance I observed between the Natchez and
+the neighbouring nations, I was inclined to believe that they were not
+originally of the country which they then inhabited; and that if the
+ancient speech taught him any thing on that subject, he would do me a
+great pleasure to inform me of it. At these words he leaned his head
+on his two hands, with which he covered his eyes, and having remained
+in that posture about a quarter of an hour, as if to recollect
+himself, he answered to the following effect:</p>
+
+<p>"Before we came into this land we lived yonder under the sun,
+(pointing with his finger nearly south-west, by which I understood
+that he meant Mexico;) we lived in a fine country where the earth is
+always pleasant; there our Suns had their abode, and our nation
+maintained itself for a long time against the ancients of the country,
+who conquered some of our villages <a name="page-280"></a> in the plains, but never
+could force us from the mountains. Our nation extended itself along
+the great water where this large river loses itself; but as our
+enemies were become very numerous, and very wicked, our Suns sent some
+of their subjects who lived near this river, to examine whether we
+could retire into the country through which it flowed. The country on
+the east side of the river being found extremely pleasant, the Great
+Sun, upon the return of those who had examined it, ordered all his
+subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselves
+against the antients of this country, to remove into this land, here
+to build a temple, and to preserve the eternal fire.</p>
+
+<p>"A great part of our nation accordingly settled here, where they lived
+in peace and abundance for several generations. The Great Sun, and
+those who had remained with him, never thought of joining us, being
+tempted to continue where they were by the pleasantness of the
+country, which was very warm, and by the weakness of their enemies,
+who had fallen into civil dissentions, in consequence of the ambition
+of one of their chiefs, who wanted to raise himself from a state of
+equality with the other chiefs of the villages, and to treat all the
+people of his nation as slaves. During those discords among our
+enemies, some of them even entered into an alliance with the Great
+Sun, who still remained in our old country, that he might conveniently
+assist our other brethren who had settled on the banks of the Great
+Water to the east of the large river, and extended themselves so far
+on the coast and among the isles, that the Great Sun did not hear of
+them sometimes for five or six years together.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not till after many generations that the Great Suns came and
+joined us in this country, where, from the fine climate, and the peace
+we had enjoyed, we had multiplied like the leaves of the trees.
+Warriors of fire, who made the earth to tremble, had arrived in our
+old country, and having entered into an alliance with our brethren,
+conquered our ancient enemies; but attempting afterwards to make
+slaves of our Suns, they, rather than submit to them, left our
+brethren who refused to follow them, and came hither attended only
+with their slaves."</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-281"></a> Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he replied,
+that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a brownish colour, who
+carried arms that darted out fire with a great noise, and killed at a
+great distance; that they had likewise heavy arms which killed a great
+many men at once, and like thunder made the earth tremble; and that
+they came from the sun-rising in floating villages.</p>
+
+<p>The ancients of the country he said were very numerous, and inhabited
+from the western coast of the great water to the northern countries on
+his side the sun, and very far upon the same coast beyond the sun.
+They had a great number of large and small villages, which were all
+built of stone, and in which there were houses large enough to lodge a
+whole village. Their temples were built with great labour and art, and
+they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials.</p>
+
+<p>But ye yourselves, said I, whence are ye come? The ancient speech, he
+replied, does not say from what land we came; all that we know is,
+that our fathers, to come hither, followed the sun, and came with him
+from the place where he rises; that they were a long time on their
+journey, were all on the point of perishing, and were brought into
+this country without seeking it.</p>
+
+<p>To this account of the keeper of the temple, which was afterwards
+confirmed to me by the Great Sun, I shall add the following passage of
+Diodorus Siculus, which seems to confirm the opinion of those who
+think the eastern Americans are descended from the Europeans, who may
+have been driven by the winds upon the coasts of Guiana or Brazil.</p>
+
+<p>"To the west of Africa, he says, lies a very large island, distant
+many days sail from that part of our continent. Its fertile soil is
+partly plain, and partly mountainous. The plain country is most sweet
+and pleasant, being watered every where with rivulets, and navigable
+rivers; it is beautified with many gardens, which are planted with all
+kinds of trees, and the orchards particularly are watered with
+pleasant streams. The villages are adorned with houses built in a
+magnificent taste, having parterres ornamented with arbours covered
+with flowers. Hither the inhabitants retire during the summer to enjoy
+the fruits which the country furnishes them with in the greatest <a name="page-282"></a>
+abundance. The mountainous part is covered with large woods, and all
+manner of fruit trees, and in the vallies, which are watered with
+rivulets, the inhabitants meet with every thing that can render life
+agreeable. In a word, the whole island, by its fertility and the
+abundance of its springs, furnishes the inhabitants not only with
+every thing that may flatter their wishes, but with what may also
+contribute to their health and strength of body. Hunting furnishes
+them with such an infinite number of animals, that in their feasts
+they have nothing to wish for in regard either to plenty or delicacy.
+Besides, the sea, which surrounds the island, supplies them
+plentifully with all kinds of fish, and indeed the sea in general is
+very abundant. The air of this island is so temperate that the trees
+bear leaves and fruit almost the whole year round. In a word, this
+island is so delicious, that it seems rather the abode of the gods
+than of men.</p>
+
+<p>"Anciently, on account of its remote situation, it was altogether
+unknown; but afterwards it was discovered by accident. It is well
+known, that from the earliest ages the Phenicians undertook long
+voyages in order to extend their commerce, and in consequence of those
+voyages established several colonies in Africa and the western parts
+of Europe. Every thing succeeding to their wish, and being become very
+powerful, they attempted to pass the pillars of Hercules and enter the
+ocean. They accordingly passed those pillars, and in their
+neighbourhood built a city upon a peninsula of Spain, which they named
+Gades. There, amongst the other buildings proper for the place, they
+built a temple to Hercules, to whom they instituted splendid
+sacrifices after the manner of their country. This temple is in great
+veneration at this day, and several Romans who have rendered
+themselves illustrious by their exploits, have performed their vows to
+Hercules for the success of their enterprizes.</p>
+
+<p>"The Phenicians accordingly having passed the Streights of Spain,
+sailed along Africa, when by the violence of the winds they were
+driven far out to sea, and the storm continuing several days, they
+were at length thrown on this island. Being the first who were
+acquainted with its beauty and fertility, they <a name="page-283"></a> published them to
+other nations. The Tuscans, when they were masters at sea, designed to
+send a colony thither, but the Carthaginians found means to prevent
+them on the two following accounts; first, they were afraid lest their
+citizens, tempted by the charms of that island, should pass over
+hither in too great numbers, and desert their own country; next they
+looked upon it as a secure asylum for themselves, if ever any terrible
+disaster should befal their republic."</p>
+
+<p>This description of Diodorus is very applicable in many circumstances
+to America, particularly in the agreeable temperature of the climate
+to Africans, the prodigious fertility of the earth, the vast forests,
+the large rivers, and the multitude of rivulets and springs. The
+Natchez may then justly be supposed to be descended from some
+Phenicians or Carthaginians, who had been wrecked on the shores of
+South America, in which case they might well be imagined to have but
+little acquaintance with the arts, as those who first landed would be
+obliged to apply all their thoughts to their immediate subsistence,
+and consequently would soon become rude and barbarous. Their worship
+of the eternal fire likewise implies their descent from the
+Phenicians; for every body knows that this superstition, which first
+took its rise in Egypt, was introduced by the Phenicians into all the
+countries that they visited. The figurative stile, and the bold and
+Syriac expressions in the language of the Natchez, is likewise another
+proof of their being descended from the Phenicians.<sup><a href="#fn-55" name="fr-55">55</a></sup> </p>
+
+<p>As to those whom the Natchez, long after their first establishment,
+found inhabiting the western coasts of America, and whom we name
+Mexicans, the arts which they possessed and cultivated with success,
+obliged me to give them a different origin. Their temples, their
+sacrifices, their buildings, their form of government, and their
+manner of making war, all denote a people who have transmigrated in a
+body, and brought with them the arts, the sciences, and the customs of
+their country. Those people had the art of writing, and also of <a name="page-284"></a>
+painting. Their archives consisted of cloths of cotton, whereon they
+had painted or drawn all those transactions which they thought worthy
+of being transmitted to posterity. It were greatly to be wished that
+the first conquerors of this new world had preserved to us the figures
+of those drawings; for by comparing them with the characters used by
+other nations, we might perhaps have discovered the origin of the
+inhabitants. The knowledge which we have of the Chinese characters,
+which are rather irregular drawings than characters, would probably
+have facilitated such a discovery; and perhaps those of Japan would
+have been found greatly to have resembled the Mexican; for I am
+strongly of opinion that the Mexicans are descended from one of those
+two nations.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, where is the impossibility, that some prince in one of those
+countries, upon failing in an attempt to raise himself to the
+sovereign power, should leave his native country with all his
+partizans, and look for some new land, where, after he had established
+himself, he might drop all foreign correspondence? The easy navigation
+of the South Sea renders the thing probable; and the new map of the
+eastern bounds of Asia, and the western of North America, lately
+published by Mr. De Lisle, makes it still more likely. This map makes
+it plainly appear, that between the islands of Japan, or northern
+coasts of China, and those of America, there are other lands, which to
+this day have remained unknown; and who will take upon him to say
+there is no land, because it has never yet been discovered? I have
+therefore good grounds to believe, that the Mexicans came originally
+from China or Japan, especially when I consider their reserved and
+uncommunicative disposition, which to this day prevails among the
+people of the eastern parts of Asia. The great antiquity of the
+Chinese nation likewise makes it possible that a colony might have
+gone from thence to America early enough to be looked upon as <i>the
+Ancients of the country</i>, by the first of the Phenicians who could be
+supposed to arrive there. As a further corroboration of my
+conjectures, I was informed by a man of learning in 1752, that in the
+king's library there is a Chinese manuscript, which positively affirms
+that America was peopled by the inhabitants of Corea.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-285"></a> When the Natchez retired to this part of America, where I saw
+them, they there found several nations, or rather the remains of
+several nations, some on the east, others on the west of the
+Missisippi. These are the people who are distinguished among the
+natives by the name of Red Men; and their origin is so much the more
+obscure, as they have not so distinct a tradition, as the Natchez, nor
+arts and sciences like the Mexicans, from whence we might draw some
+satisfactory inferences. All that I could learn from them was, that
+they came from between the north and the sun-setting; and this account
+they uniformly adhered to whenever they gave any account of their
+origin. This lame tradition no ways satisfying the desire I had to be
+informed on this point, I made great inquiries to know if there was
+any wise old man among the neighbouring nations, who could give me
+further intelligence about the origin of the natives. I was happy
+enough to discover one, named Moncacht-apé among the Yazous, a nation
+about forty leagues north from the Natchez. This man was remarkable
+for his solid understanding and elevation of sentiments; and I may
+justly compare him to those first Greeks, who travelled chiefly into
+the east to examine the manners and customs of different nations, and
+to communicate to their fellow-citizens, upon their return, the
+knowledge which they had acquired. Moncacht-apé, indeed, never
+executed so noble a plan; but he had however conceived it, and had
+spared no labour and pains to effectuate it. He was by the French
+called the Interpreter, because he understood several of the North
+American languages; but the other name which I have mentioned was
+given him by his own nation, and signifies <i>the killer of pain and
+fatigue</i>. This name was indeed most justly applicable to him; for, to
+satisfy his curiosity, he had made light of the most dangerous and
+painful journeys, in which he had spent several years of his life. He
+stayed two or three days with me; and upon my desiring him to give me
+an account of his travels, he very readily complied with my request,
+and spoke to the following effect:</p>
+
+<p>"I had lost my wife, and all the children whom I had by her, when I
+undertook my journey towards the sun-rising. I set out from my village
+contrary to the inclinations of all my <a name="page-286"></a> relations, and went first
+to the Chicasaws, our friends and neighbours. I continued among them
+several days to inform myself whether they knew whence we all came, or
+at least whence they themselves came; they, who were our elders; since
+from them came the language of the country. As they could not inform
+me, I proceeded on my journey. I reached the country of the
+Chaouanous, and afterwards went up the Wabash or Ohio, almost to its
+source, which is in the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. I
+left them however towards the north; and during the winter, which in
+that country is very severe and very long, I lived in a village of the
+Abenaquis, where I contracted an acquaintance with a man somewhat
+older than myself, who promised to conduct me the following spring to
+the Great Water. Accordingly when the snows were melted, and the
+weather was settled, we proceeded eastward, and, after several days
+journey, I at length saw the Great Water, which filled me with such
+joy and admiration that I could not speak. Night drawing on, we took
+up our lodging on a high bank above the water, which was sorely vexed
+by the wind, and made so great a noise that I could not sleep. Next
+day the ebbing and flowing of the water filled me with great
+apprehension; but my companion quieted my fears, by assuring me that
+the water observed certain bounds both in advancing and retiring.
+Having satisfied our curiosity in viewing the Great Water, we returned
+to the village of the Abenaquis, where I continued the following
+winter; and after the snows were melted, my companion and I went and
+viewed the great fall of the river St. Laurence at Niagara, which was
+distant from the village several days journey. The view of this great
+fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out
+of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, I had the courage to
+walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio, and my
+companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we
+formed it into a pettiaugre, which served to conduct me down the Ohio
+and the Missisippi, after which, with much difficulty I went up our
+small river; and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were
+rejoiced to see me in good health.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-287"></a> "This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my
+curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the
+antient speech informed them that the Red Men of the north came
+originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river
+Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from
+whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey
+westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up
+along the eastern bank of the river Missisippi, till I came to the
+Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river about the fourth
+part of a day's journey, that I might be able to cross it without
+being carried into the Missisippi. There I formed a Cajeux or raft of
+canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next
+day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat
+one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon
+after I arrived among the Tamaroas, a village of the nation of the
+Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards
+to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river,
+runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with
+the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Missisippi, I went
+up the Missouri along its northern bank, and after several days
+journey I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long
+time to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along
+the Missouri I passed through meadows a whole day's journey in length,
+which were quite covered with buffaloes.</p>
+
+<p>"When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my
+journey up along the Missouri till I came to the nation of the West,
+or the Canzas. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I
+proceeded in the same course near thirty days, and at length I met
+with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that
+neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone. I continued with
+the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them and
+his wife, who was near her time of lying-in, to their village, which
+lay far off betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along
+the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched <a name="page-288"></a> directly
+northwards for five days more, when we came to the Fine River, which
+runs westwards in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We
+proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village
+of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been
+of their own nation. A few days after I joined a party of the Otters,
+who were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them,
+and we embarked in a pettiaugre, and went down the river for eighteen
+days, landing now and then to supply ourselves with provisions. When I
+arrived at the nation who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with
+them till the cold was passed, that I might learn their language,
+which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.</p>
+
+<p>"The cold was hardly gone, when I again embarked on the Fine River,
+and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally
+staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one
+day's journey from the Great Water on the west. This nation live in
+the woods about the distance of a league from the river, from their
+apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating
+villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These
+men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down
+to their breasts; they were thick and short, had large heads, which
+were covered with cloth; they were always dressed, even in the
+greatest heats; their cloaths fell down to the middle of their legs,
+which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their
+arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves
+outnumbered by Red Men, they retired on board their large pettiaugre,
+their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.</p>
+
+<p>"Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow
+stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this
+nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed
+all those kind of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood
+however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were
+still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them,
+had invited their allies to assist them in making an attack upon them
+the next <a name="page-289"></a> time they should return. The following summer I
+accordingly joined in this expedition, and after traveling five long
+days journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually
+landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red Men,
+by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprize the
+strangers, and accordingly when they landed to cut the wood, we were
+so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping
+on board two large pettiaugres, and flying westward upon the Great
+Water.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller
+than ourselves, and very white; they had a large head, and in the
+middle of the crown the hair was very long; their head was wrapt in a
+great many folds of stuff, and their cloaths seemed to be made neither
+of wool nor silk; they were very soft, and of different colours. Two
+only of the eleven who were slain had fire-arms with powder and ball.
+I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than
+yours, and did not kill at so great a distance.</p>
+
+<p>"After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my
+journey, and with that design I let the Red Men return home, and
+joined myself to those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with
+whom I travelled along the shore of the Great Water, which bends
+directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the
+villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long and
+the night very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all
+thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended
+still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting,
+after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great
+Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young,
+he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was
+eat away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low,
+many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it therefore
+impracticable to proceed much further, on account of the severity of
+the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by
+which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westward to days
+journeys, I compute that they would have employed <a name="page-290"></a> me thirty-six
+moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before
+I returned to my relations among the Yazous."</p>
+
+<p>Moncacht-apé, after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or
+five days visiting among the Natchez, and then returned to take leave
+of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value,
+among which was a concave mirror about two inches and a half diameter,
+which had cost me about three halfpence. As this magnified the face to
+four or five times its natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with
+it, and would not have exchanged it with the best mirror in France.
+After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly
+satisfied to his own nation.</p>
+
+<p>Moncacht-apé's account of the junction of America with the eastern
+parts of Asia seems confirmed from the following remarkable fact. Some
+years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were
+discovered in a marsh near the river Ohio; and as they were not much
+consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many
+years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the
+manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will
+appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the
+north-east parts of Asia.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a href="#fr-55" name="fn-55">55</a></sup>  The
+author might have mentioned a singular custom, in which both nations
+agree; for it appears from <i>Polybius</i>, 1 I. c. 6. that Carthaginians
+practised scalping.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-IV-chapter-II">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>An Account of the Several Nations of</i> Indians <i>in</i> Louisiana.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-II-section-I">SECTION I.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the</i> Missisippi.</p>
+
+
+<p>If to the history of the discoveries and conquests of the Spaniards we
+join the tradition of all the nations of America, we shall be fully
+persuaded, that this quarter of the world, before it was discovered by
+Christopher Columbus, was very populous, not only on the continent but
+also in the islands.</p>
+
+<p>However, by an incomprehensible fatality, the arrival of the Spaniards
+in this new world seems to have been the unhappy epoch of the
+destruction of all the nations of America, <a name="page-291"></a> not only by war, but
+by nature itself. As it is but too well known how many millions of
+natives were destroyed by the Spanish sword, I shall not therefore
+present my readers with that horrible detail; but perhaps many people
+do not know that an innumerable multitude of the natives of Mexico and
+Peru voluntarily put an end to their own lives, some by sacrificing
+themselves to the manes of their sovereigns who had been cut off, and
+whose born victims they, according to their detestable customs, looked
+upon themselves to be; and others, to avoid falling under the
+subjection of the Spaniards, thinking death a less evil by far than
+slavery.</p>
+
+<p>The same effect has been produced among the people of North America by
+two or three warlike nations of the natives. The Chicasaws have not
+only cut off a great many nations who were adjoining to them, but have
+even carried their fury as far as New Mexico, near six hundred miles
+from the place of their residence, to root out a nation that had
+removed at that distance from them, in a firm expectation that their
+enemies would not come so far in search of them. They were however
+deceived and cut off. The Iroquois have done the same in the east
+parts of Louisiana; and the Padoucas and others have acted in the same
+manner to nations in the west of the colony. We may here observe, that
+those nations could not succeed against their enemies without
+considerable loss to themselves, and that they have therefore greatly
+lessened their own numbers by their many warlike expeditions.</p>
+
+<p>I mentioned that nature had contributed no less than war to the
+destruction of these people. Two distempers, that are not very fatal
+in other parts of the world, make dreadful ravages among them; I mean
+the small-pox and a cold, which baffle all the art of their
+physicians, who in other respects are very skilful. When a nation is
+attacked by the small-pox, it quickly makes great havock; for as a
+whole family is crowded into a small hut, which has no communications
+with the external air, but by a door about two feet wide and four feet
+high, the distemper, if it seizes one, is quickly communicated to all.
+The aged die in consequence of their advanced years and the bad
+quality of their food; and the young, if they are not <a name="page-292"></a> strictly
+watched, destroy themselves, from an abhorrence of the blotches in
+their skin. If they can but escape from their hut, they run out and
+bathe themselves in the river, which is certain death in that
+distemper. The Chatkas, being naturally not very handsome, are not so
+apt to regret the loss of their beauty; consequently suffer less, and
+are much more numerous than the other nations.</p>
+
+<p>Colds, which are very common in the winter, likewise destroy great
+numbers of the natives. In that season they keep fires in their huts
+day and night; and as there is no other opening but the door, the air
+within the hut is kept excessive warm without any free circulation; so
+that when they have occasion to go out, the cold seizes them, and the
+consequences of it are almost always fatal.</p>
+
+<p>The first nations that the French were acquainted with in this part of
+North America, were those on the east of the colony; for the first
+settlement we made there was at Fort Louis on the river Mobile. I
+shall therefore begin my account of the different nations of Indians
+on this side of the colony, and proceed westwards in the same order as
+they are situated.</p>
+
+<p>But however zealous I may be in displaying not only the beauties, but
+the riches and advantages of Louisiana, yet I am not at all inclined
+to attribute to it what it does not possess; therefore I warn my
+reader not to be surprised, if I make mention of a few nations in this
+colony, in comparison of the great number which he may perhaps have
+seen in the first maps of this country. Those maps were made from
+memoirs sent by different travellers, who noted down all the names
+they heard mentioned, and then fixed upon a spot for their residence;
+so that a map appeared stiled with the names of nations, many of whom
+were destroyed, and others were refugees among nations who had adopted
+them and taken them under their protection. Thus, though the nations
+on this continent were formerly both numerous and populous, they are
+now so thinned and diminished, that there does not exist at present a
+third part of the nations whose names are to be found in the maps.</p>
+
+<p>The most eastern nation of Louisiana is that called the Apalaches,
+which is a branch of the great nation of the Apalaches, <a name="page-293"></a> who
+inhabited near the mountains to which they have given their name. This
+great nation is divided into several branches, who take different
+names. The branch in the neighbourhood of the river Mobile is but
+inconsiderable, and part of it is Roman Catholic.</p>
+
+<p>On the north of the Apalaches are the Alibamous, a pretty considerable
+nation; they love the French, and receive the English rather out of
+necessity than friendship. On the first settling of the colony we had
+some commerce with them; but since the main part of the colony has
+fixed on the river, we have somewhat neglected them, on account of the
+great distance.</p>
+
+<p>East from the Alibamous are the Caouitas, whom M. de Biainville,
+governor of Louisiana, wanted to distinguish above the other nations,
+by giving the title of emperor to their sovereign, who then would have
+been chief of all the neighbouring nations; but those nations refused
+to acknowledge him as such, and said that it was enough if each nation
+obeyed its own chief; that it was improper for the chiefs themselves
+to be subject to other chiefs, and that such a custom had never
+prevailed among them, as they chose rather to be destroyed by a great
+nation than to be subject to them. This nation is one of the most
+considerable; the English trade with them, and they suffer the traders
+to come among them from policy.</p>
+
+<p>To, the north of the Alibamous are the Abeikas and Conchacs, who, as
+far as I can learn, are the same people; yet the name of Conchac seems
+appropriated to one part more than another. They are situated at a
+distance from the great rivers and consequently have no large canes in
+their territory. The canes that grow among them are not thicker than
+one's finger, and are at the same time so very hard, that when they
+are split, they cut like knives, which these people call <i>conchacs</i>. The
+language of this nation is almost the same with that of the Chicasaws,
+in which the word <i>conchac</i> signifies a knife.</p>
+
+<p>The Abeikas, on the east of them, have the Cherokees, divided into
+several branches, and situated very near the Apalachean mountains. All
+the nations whom I have mentioned <a name="page-294"></a> have been united in a general
+alliance for a long time past, in order to defend themselves against the
+Iroquois, or Five Nations, who, before this alliance was formed, made
+continual war upon them; but have ceased to molest them since they have
+seen them united. All these nations, and some small ones intermixed
+among them, have always been looked upon as belonging to no colony,
+excepting the Apalaches; but since the breaking out of the war with the
+English in 1756, it is said they have voluntarily declared for us.</p>
+
+<p>The nations in the neighbourhood of the Mobile, are first the Chatots,
+a small nation consisting of about forty huts, adjoining to the river
+and the sea. They are Roman Catholics, or reputed such; and are
+friends to the French, whom they are always ready to serve upon being
+paid for it. North from the Chatots, and very near them, is the French
+settlement of Fort Louis on the Mobile.</p>
+
+<p>A little north from Fort Louis are situated the Thomez, which are not
+more numerous than the Chatots, and are said to be Roman Catholics.
+They are our friends to to such a degree as even to teaze us with
+their officiousness.</p>
+
+<p>Further north live the Taensas, who are a branch of the Natchez, of
+whom I shall have occasion to speak more at large. Both of these
+nations keep the eternal fire with the utmost care; but they trust the
+guard of it to men, from a persuasion that none of their daughters
+would sacrifice their liberty for that office. The whole nation of the
+Taensas consists only of about one hundred huts.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding still northwards along the bay, we meet with the nation of
+the Mobiliens, near the mouth of the river Mobile, in the bay of that
+name. The true name of this nation is Mouvill, which the French have
+turned into Mobile, calling the river and the bay from the nation that
+inhabited near them. All these small nations were living in peace upon
+the arrival of the French, and still continue so; the nations on the
+east of the Mobile serving as a barrier to them against the incursions
+of the Iroquois. Besides, the Chicasaws look upon them as their
+brethren, as both they, and their neighbours on the east of the <a name="page-295"></a>
+Mobile, speak a language which is nearly the same with that of the
+Chicasaws.</p>
+
+<p>Returning towards the sea, on the west of the Mobile, we find the
+small nation of the Pacha-Ogoulas, that is, Nation of Bread, situated
+upon the bay of the same name. This nation consists only of one
+village of about thirty huts. Some French Canadians have settled in
+their neighbourhood, and they live together like brethren, as the
+Canadians, who are naturally of a peaceable disposition, know the
+character of the natives, and have the art of living with the nations
+of America. But what chiefly renders the harmony betwixt them durable,
+is the absence of soldiers, who never appear in this nation.</p>
+
+<p>Further northwards, near the river Pacha-Ogoulas, is situated the
+great nation of the Chatkas, or Flat-heads. I call them the great
+nation, for I have not known or heard of any other near so numerous.
+They reckon in this nation twenty-five thousand warriors. There may
+perhaps be such a number of men among them, who take that name; but I
+am far from thinking that all these have a title to the character of
+warriors.</p>
+
+<p>According to the tradition of the natives, this nation arrived so
+suddenly, and passed so rapidly through the territories of others,
+that when I asked them, whence came the Chatkas? they answered me,
+that they sprung out of the ground; by which they meant to express
+their great surprize at seeing them appear so suddenly. Their great
+numbers awed the natives near whom they passed; their character being
+but little inclined to war, did not inspire them with the fury of
+conquest; thus they at length arrived in an uninhabited country which
+nobody disputed with them. They have since lived without any disputes
+with their neighbours; who on the other hand have never dared to try
+whether they were brave or not. It is doubtless owing to this that
+they have increased to their present numbers.</p>
+
+<p>They are called Flat-heads; but I do not know why that name has been
+given to them more than to others, since all the nations of Louisiana
+have their heads as flat, or nearly so. They are situated about two
+hundred and fifty miles north <a name="page-296"></a> from the sea, and extend more from
+east to west than from south to north.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxv"><img src="images/illus35.png" alt="Indian Buffalo Hunt on foot" height="375" width="220"></a><br>
+<i>Indian Buffalo Hunt on foot</i></p>
+
+<p>Those who travel from the Chatkas to the Chicasaws, seldom go by the
+shortest road, which extends about one hundred and eighty miles, and
+is very woody and mountainous. They choose rather to go along the
+river Mobile, which is both the easiest and most pleasant route. The
+nation of the Chicasaws is very warlike. The men have very regular
+features, <a name="page-297"></a> are large, well-shaped, and neatly dressed; they are
+fierce, and have a high opinion of themselves. They seem to be the
+remains of a populous nation, whose warlike disposition had prompted
+them to invade several nations, whom they have indeed destroyed, but
+not without diminishing their own numbers by those expeditions. What
+induces me to believe that this nation has been formerly very
+considerable, is that the nations who border upon them, and whom I
+have just mentioned, speak the Chicasaw language, though somewhat
+corrupted, and those who speak it best value themselves upon it.</p>
+
+<p>I ought perhaps to except out of this number the Taensas, who being a
+branch of the Natchez, have still preserved their peculiar language;
+but even these speak, in general, the corrupted Chicasaw language,
+which our French settlers call the Mobilian language. As to the
+Chatkas, I suppose, that being very numerous, they have been able to
+preserve their own language in a great measure; and have only adopted
+some words of the Chicasaw language. They always spoke to me in the
+Chicasaw tongue.</p>
+
+<p>In returning towards the coast next the river Missisippi, we meet with
+a small nation of about twenty huts, named Aquelou-Pissas, that is,
+<i>Men who understand and see</i>. This nation formerly lived within three of
+four miles of the place where New Orleans is built; but they are
+further north at present, and not far from the lake St. Lewis, or
+Pontchartrain. They speak a language somewhat approaching to that of
+the Chicasaws. We have never had great dealings with them.</p>
+
+<p>Being now arrived at the river Missisippi, I shall proceed upwards
+along its banks as far as to the most distant nations that are known
+to us.</p>
+
+<p>The first nation that I meet with is the Oumas, which signifies the
+Red Nation. They are situated about twenty leagues from New Orleans,
+where I saw some of them upon my arrival in this province. Upon the
+first establishment of the colony, some French went and settled near
+them; and they have been very fatal neighbours, by furnishing them
+with brandy, which they drink to great excess.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-298"></a> Crossing the Red River, and proceeding still upwards, we find
+the remains of the nation of the Tonicas, who have always been very
+much attached to the French, and have even been our auxiliaries in
+war. The Chief of this nation was our very zealous friend; and as he
+was full of courage, and always ready to make war on the enemies of
+the French, the king sent him a brevet of brigadier of the red armies,
+and a blue ribbon, from whence hung a silver medal, which on one side
+represented the marriage of the king, and on the reverse had the city
+of Paris. He likewise sent him a gold-headed cane; and the Indian
+Chief was not a little proud of wearing those honourable distinctions,
+which were certainly well bestowed. This nation speaks a language so
+far different from that of their neighbours, in that they pronounce
+the letter R, which the others have not. They have likewise different
+customs.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez in former times appear to have been one of the most
+respectable nations in the colony, not only from their own tradition,
+but from that of the other nations, in whom their greatness and
+civilized customs raised no less jealousy than admiration. I could
+fill a volume with what relates to this people alone; but as I am now
+giving a concise account of the people of Louisiana, I shall speak of
+them as of the rest, only enlarging a little upon some important
+transactions concerning them.</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived in 1720 among the Natchez, that nation was situated
+upon a small river of the same name; the chief village where the Great
+Sun resided was built along the banks of the river, and the other
+villages were planted round it. They were two leagues above the
+confluence of the river, which joins the Missisippi at the foot of the
+great precipices of the Natchez. From thence are four leagues to its
+source, and as many to Rosalie, and they were situated within a league
+of the fort.</p>
+
+<p>Two small nations lived as refugees among the Natchez. The most
+ancient of these adopted nations were the Grigras, who seem to have
+received that name from the French, because when talking with one
+another they often pronounce those two syllables, which makes them be
+remarked as strangers among the Natchez, who, as well as the
+Chicasaws, and all the nations <a name="page-299"></a> that speak the Chicasaw language,
+cannot pronounce the letter R.</p>
+
+<p>The other small nation adopted by the Natchez, are the Thioux, who
+have also the letter R in their language. These were the weak remains
+of the Thioux nation, formerly one of the strongest in the country.
+However, according to the account of the other nations, being of a
+turbulent disposition, they drew upon themselves the resentment of the
+Chicasaws, which was the occasion of their ruin; for by their many
+engagements they were at length so weakened that they durst not face
+their enemy, and consequently were obliged to take refuge among the
+Natchez.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez, the Grigras, and the Thioux, may together raise about
+twelve hundred warriors; which is but a small force in comparison of
+what the Natchez could formerly have raised alone; for according to
+their traditions they were the most powerful nation of all North
+America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors,
+and on that account respected by them. To give an idea of their power,
+I shall only mention, that formerly they extended from the river
+Manchac, or Iberville, which is about fifty leagues from the sea, to
+the river Wabash, which is distant from the sea about four hundred and
+sixty leagues; and that they had about five hundred Suns or princes.
+From these facts we may judge how populous this nation formerly has
+been; but the pride of their Great Suns, or sovereigns, and likewise
+of their inferior Suns, joined to the prejudices of the people, has
+made greater havock among them, and contributed more to their
+destruction, than long and bloody wars would have done.</p>
+
+<p>As their sovereigns were despotic, they had for a long time past
+established the following inhuman and impolitic custom, that when any
+of them died, a great number of their subjects, both men and women,
+should likewise be put to death. A proportionable number of subjects
+were likewise killed upon the death of any of the inferior Suns; and
+the people on the other hand had imbibed a belief that all those who
+followed their princes into the other world, to serve them there,
+would be eternally happy. It is easy to conceive how ruinous such an
+<a name="page-300"></a> inhuman custom would be among a nation who had so many princes
+as the Natchez.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem that some of the Suns, more humane than the rest, had
+disapproved of this barbarous custom, and had therefore retired to
+places at a remote distance from the centre of their nation. For we
+have two branches of this great nation settled in other parts of the
+colony, who have preserved the greatest part of the customs of the
+Natchez. One of these branches is the nation of the Taensas on the
+banks of the Mobile, who preserve the eternal fire, and several other
+usages of the nation from whom they are descended. The other branch is
+the nation of the Chitimachas, whom the Natchez have always looked
+upon as their brethren.</p>
+
+<p>Forty leagues north from the Natchez is the river Yasous, which runs
+into the Missisippi, and is so called from a nation of the same name
+who had about a hundred huts on its banks.</p>
+
+<p>Near the Yazous, on the same river, lived the Coroas, a nation
+consisting of about forty huts. These two nations pronounce the letter
+R.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the same river likewise lived the Chacchi-Oumas, a name which
+signifies <i>red Cray-fish</i>. These people had not above fifty huts.</p>
+
+<p>Near the same river dwelt the Ouse-Ogoulas, or the Nation of the Dog,
+which might have about sixty huts.</p>
+
+<p>The Tapoussas likewise inhabited upon the banks of this river, and had
+not above twenty-five huts. These three last nations do not pronounce
+the letter R, and seem to be branches of the Chicasaws, especially as
+they speak their language. Since the massacre of the French settlers
+at the Natchez, these five small nations, who had joined in the
+conspiracy against us, have all retired among the Chicasaws, and make
+now but one nation with them.</p>
+
+<p>To the north of the Ohio, not far from the banks of the Missisippi,
+inhabit the Illinois, who have given their name to the river on the
+banks of which they have settled. They are divided into several
+villages, such as the Tamaroas, the Caskaquias, <a name="page-301"></a> the Caouquias,
+the Pimiteouis, and some others. Near the village of the Tamaroas is a
+French post, where several French Canadians have settled.</p>
+
+<p>This is one of the most considerable posts in all Louisiana, which
+will appear not at all surprising, when we consider that the Illinois
+were one of the first nations whom we discovered in the colony, and
+that they have always remained most faithful allies of the French; an
+advantage which is in a great measure owing to the proper manner of
+living with the natives of America, which the Canadians have always
+observed. It is not their want of courage that renders them so
+peaceable, for their valour is well known. The letter R is pronounced
+by the Illinois.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding further northwards we meet with a pretty large nation,
+known by the name of the Foxes, with whom we have been at war near
+these forty years past, yet I have not heard that we have had any
+blows with them for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>From the Foxes to the fall of St. Anthony, we meet with no nation, nor
+any above the Fall for near an hundred leagues. About that distance
+north of the Fall, the Sioux are settled, and are said to inhabit
+several scattered villages both on the east and west of the
+Missisippi.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-II-section-II">SECTION II.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the</i> Missisippi.</p>
+
+
+<p>Having described as exactly as possible all the nations on the east of
+the Missisippi, as well those who are included within the bounds of
+the colony, as those who are adjoining to it, and have some connection
+with the others; I shall now proceed to give an account of those who
+inhabit on the west of the river, from the sea northwards.</p>
+
+<p>Between the river Missisippi, and those lakes which are filled by its
+waters upon their overflowing, is a small nation named Chaouchas, or
+Ouachas, who inhabit some little villages, but are of so little
+consequences that they are no otherwise known to our colonists but by
+their name.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-302"></a> In the neighbourhood of the lakes abovementioned live the
+Chitimachas. These are the remains of a nation which was formerly
+pretty considerable; but we have destroyed part of them by exciting
+our allies to attack them. I have already observed that they were a
+branch of the Natchez, and upon my first settling among these, I found
+several Chitimachas, who had taken refuge among them to avoid the
+calamities of the war which had been made upon them near the lakes.</p>
+
+<p>Since the peace that was concluded with them in 1719, they have not
+only remained quiet, but kept themselves so prudently retired, that,
+rather than have any intercourse with the French, or traffic with them
+for what they look upon as superfluities, they choose to live in the
+manner they did an hundred years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Along the west coast, not far from the sea, inhabit the nation named
+Atacapas, that is, Man-eaters, being so called by the other nations on
+account of their detestable custom of eating their enemies, or such as
+they believe to be their enemies. In this vast country there are no
+other cannibals to be met with besides the Atacapas; and since the
+French have gone among them, they have raised in them so great an
+horror of that abominable practice of devouring creatures of their own
+species, that they have promised to leave it off; and accordingly for
+a long time past we have heard of no such barbarity among them.</p>
+
+<p>The Bayouc-Ogoulas were formerly situated in the country that still
+bears their name. This nation is now confounded with the others to
+whom it is joined.</p>
+
+<p>The Oque-Loussas are a small nation situated north-west from the Cut
+Point. They live on the banks of two small lakes, the waters of which
+appear black by reason of the great number of leaves which cover the
+bottom of them, and have given name to the nation, Oque-Loussas in
+their language signifying Black Water.</p>
+
+<p>From the Oque-Loussas to the Red River, we meet with no other nation;
+but upon the banks of this river, a little above the Rapid, is seated
+the small nation of the Avoyels. These are the people who bring to our
+settlers horses, oxen, and cows. <a name="page-303"></a> I know not in what fair they
+buy them, nor with what money they pay for them; but the truth is,
+they sell them to us for about seventeen shillings a-piece. The
+Spaniards of New-Spain have such numbers of them that they do not know
+what to do with them, and are obliged to those who will take them off
+their hands. At present the French have a greater number of them than
+they want, especially of horses.</p>
+
+<p>About fifty leagues higher up the Red River, live the Nachitoches,
+near a French post of the same name. They are a pretty considerable
+nation, having about two hundred huts. They have always been greatly
+attached to the French; but never were friends to the Spaniards. There
+are some branches of this nation situated further westward; but the
+huts are not numerous.</p>
+
+<p>Three hundred miles west from the Missisippi, upon the Red River, we
+find the great nation of the Cadodaquioux. It is divided into several
+branches which extend very widely. This people, as well as the
+Nachitoches, have a peculiar language; however, there is not a village
+in either of the nations, nor indeed in any nation of Louisiana, where
+there are not some who can speak the Chicasaw language, which is
+called the vulgar tongue, and is the same here as the Lingua Franca is
+in the Levant.</p>
+
+<p>Between the Red River and the Arkansas there is at present no nation.
+Formerly the Ouachites lived upon the Black River, and gave their name
+to it; but at this time there are no remains of that nation; the
+Chicasaws having destroyed great part of them, and the rest took
+refuge among the Cadodaquioux, where their enemies durst not molest
+them. The Taensas lived formerly in this neighbourhood upon a river of
+their name; but they took refuge on the banks of the Mobile near the
+allies of the Chicasaws, who leave them undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>The nation of the Arkansas have given their name to the river on which
+they are situated, about four leagues from its confluence with the
+Missisippi. This nation is pretty considerable, and its men are no
+less distinguished for being good hunters than stout warriors. The
+Chicasaws, who are of a <a name="page-304"></a> restless disposition, have more than
+once wanted to make trial of the bravery of the Arkansas; but they
+were opposed with such firmness, that they have now laid aside all
+thoughts of attacking them, especially since they have been joined by
+the Kappas, the Michigamias, and a part of the Illinois, who have
+settled among them. Accordingly there is no longer any mention either
+of the Kappas or Michigamias, who are now all adopted by the Arkansas.</p>
+
+<p>The reader may have already observed in this account of the natives of
+Louisiana, that several nations of those people had joined themselves
+to others, either because they could no longer resist their enemies,
+or because they hoped to improve their condition by intermixing with
+another nation. I am glad to have this occasion of observing that
+those people respect the rights of hospitality, and that those rights
+always prevail, notwithstanding any superiority that one nation may
+have over another with whom they are at war, or even over those people
+among whom their enemies take refuge. For example, a nation of two
+thousand warriors makes war upon, and violently pursues another nation
+of five hundred warriors, who retire among a nation in alliance with
+their enemies. If this last nation adopt the five hundred, the first
+nation, though two thousand in number, immediately lay down their
+arms, and instead of continuing hostilities, reckon the adopted nation
+among the number of their allies.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the Arkansas, some authors place other nations upon their
+river. I cannot take upon me to say that there never were any; but I
+can positively affirm, from my own observation upon the spot, that no
+other nation is to be met with at present on this river, or even as
+far as the Missouri.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the river Missouri is situated the nation of the Osages,
+upon a small river of the same name. This nation is said to have been
+pretty considerable formerly, but at present they can neither be said
+to be great nor small.</p>
+
+<p>The nation of the Missouris is very considerable, and has given its
+name to the large river that empties itself into the Missisippi. It is
+the first nation we meet with from the confluence <a name="page-305"></a> of the two
+rivers, and yet it is situated above forty leagues up the Missouri.
+The French had a settlement pretty near this nation, at the time when
+M. de Bourgmont was commandant in those parts; but soon after he left
+them, the inhabitants massacred the French garrison.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards, as well as our other neighbours, being continually
+jealous of our superiority over them, formed a design of establishing
+themselves among the Missouris, about forty leagues from the Illinois,
+in order to limit our boundaries westward. They judged it necessary,
+for the security of their colony, entirely to cut off the Missouris,
+and for that purpose they courted the friendship of the Osages, whose
+assistance they thought would be of service to them in their
+enterprize, and who were generally at enmity with the Missouris. A
+company of Spaniards, men, women, and soldiers, accordingly set out
+from Santa Fe, having a Dominican for their chaplain, and an engineer
+for their guide and commander. The caravan was furnished with horses,
+and all other kinds of beasts necessary; for it is one of their
+prudent maxims, to send off all those things together. By a fatal
+mistake the Spaniards arrived first among the Missouris, whom they
+mistook for the Osages, and imprudently discovering their hostile
+intentions, they were themselves surprised and cut off by those whom
+they intended for destruction. The Missouris some time afterwards
+dressed themselves with the ornaments of the chapel; and carried them
+in a kind of triumphant procession to the French commandant among the
+Illinois. Along with the ornaments they brought a Spanish map, which
+seemed to me to be a better draught of the west part of our colony,
+towards them, than of the countries we are most concerned with. From
+this map it appears, that we ought to bend the Red River, and that of
+the Arkansas, somewhat more, and place the source of the Missisippi
+more westerly than our geographers do.</p>
+
+<p>The principal nations who inhabit upon the banks, or in the
+neighbourhood of the Missouri, are, besides those already mentioned,
+the Canzas, the Othoues, the White Panis, the Black Panis, the
+Panimachas, the Aiouez, and the Padoucas. The most numerous of all
+those nations are the Padoucas, the smallest <a name="page-306"></a> are the Aiouez, the
+Othoues, and the Osages; the others are pretty considerable.</p>
+
+<p>To the north of all those nations, and near the river Missisippi, it
+is pretended that a part of the nation of the Sioux have their
+residence. Some affirm that they inhabit now on one side of the river,
+now on another. From what I could learn from travellers, I am inclined
+to think, that they occupy at the same time both sides of the
+Missisippi, and their settlements, as I have elsewhere observed, are
+more than an hundred leagues above the Fall of St. Anthony. But we
+need not yet disquiet ourselves about the advantages which might
+result to us from those very remote countries. Many ages must pass
+before we can penetrate into the northern parts of Louisiana.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-IV-chapter-III">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>A Description of the natives of</i> Louisiana; <i>of their manners and
+customs, particularly those of the</i> Natchez: <i>of their language, their
+religion, ceremonies</i>, Rulers <i>or</i> Suns, <i>feasts, marriages, &amp;c.</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-III-section-I">SECTION I.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>A description of the natives; the different employments of the two
+sexes; and their manner of bringing up their children.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In the concise history which I have given of the people of Louisiana,
+and in several other places where I have happened to mention them, the
+reader may have observed that these nations have not all the same
+character, altho' they live adjoining to each other. He therefore
+ought not to expect a perfect uniformity in their manners, or that I
+should describe all the different usages that prevail in different
+parts, which would create a disagreeable medley, and tend only to
+confound his ideas which cannot be too clear. My design is only to
+shew in general, from the character of those people, what course we
+ought to observe, in order to draw advantage from our intercourse with
+them. I shall however be more full in speaking of the Natchez, a
+populous nation, among whom I lived the space of eight years, and
+whose sovereign, the chief of war, and the chief of the keepers of the
+temple, were among my most intimate <a name="page-307"></a> friends. Besides, their
+manners were more civilized, their manner of thinking more just and
+fuller of sentiment, their customs more reasonable, and their
+ceremonies more natural and serious; on all which accounts they were
+eminently distinguished above the other nations.</p>
+
+<p>All the natives of America in general are extremely well made; very
+few of them are to be seen under five feet and a half, and very many
+of them above that; their leg seems as if it was fashioned in a mould;
+it is nervous, and the calf is firm; they are long waisted; their head
+is upright and somewhat flat in the upper part, and their features are
+regular; they have black eyes, and thick black hair without curls. If
+we see none that are extremely fat and pursy, neither do we meet with
+any that are so lean as if they were in a consumption. The men in
+general are better made than the women; they are more nervous, and the
+women more plump and fleshy; the men are almost all large, and the
+women of a middle size. I have always been inclined to think, that the
+care they take of their children in their infancy contributes greatly
+to their fine shapes, tho' the climate has also its share in that, for
+the French born in Louisiana are all large, well shaped, and of good
+flesh and blood.</p>
+
+<p>When any of the women of the natives is delivered, she goes
+immediately to the water and washes herself and the infant; she then
+comes home and lies down, after having disposed her infant in the
+cradle, which is about two feet and a half long, nine inches broad,
+and half a foot deep, being formed of straight pieces of cane bent up
+at one end, to serve for a foot or stay. Betwixt the canes and the
+infant is a kind of matrass of the tufted herb called Spanish Beard,
+and under its head is a little skin cushion, stuffed with the same
+herb. The infant is laid on its back in the cradle, and fastened to it
+by the shoulders, the arms, the legs, the thighs, and the hips; and
+over its forehead are laid two bands of deer-skin which keeps its head
+to the cushion, and renders that part flat. As the cradle does not
+weigh much above two pounds, it generally lies on the mother's bed,
+who suckles the infant occasionally. The infant is rocked not
+side-ways but end-ways, and when it is a <a name="page-308"></a> month old they put
+under its knees garters made of buffalo's wool which is very soft, and
+above the ankle bones they bind the legs with threads of the same wool
+for the breadth of three or four inches. And these ligatures the child
+wears till it be four or five years old.</p>
+
+<p>The infants of the natives are white when they are born, but they soon
+turn brown, as they are rubbed with bear's oil and exposed to the sun.
+They rub them with oil, both to render their nerves more flexible, and
+also to prevent the flies from stinging them, as they suffer them to
+roll about naked upon all fours, before they are able to walk upright.
+They never put them upon their legs till they are a year old, and they
+suffer them to suck as long as they please, unless the mother prove
+with child, in which case she ceases to suckle.</p>
+
+<p>When the boys are about twelve years of age, they give them a bow and
+arrows proportioned to their strength, and in order to exercise them
+they tie some hay, about twice as large as the fist, to the end of a
+pole about ten feet high. He who brings down the hay receives the
+prize from an old man who is always present: the best shooter is
+called the young warrior, the next best is called the apprentice
+warrior, and so on of the others, who are prompted to excel more by
+sentiments of honour than by blows.</p>
+
+<p>As they are threatened from their most tender infancy with the
+resentment of the old man, if they are any ways refractory or do any
+mischievous tricks, which is very rare, they fear and respect him above
+every one else. This old man is frequently the great-grandfather, or
+the great-great-grand-father of the family, for those natives live to a
+very great age. I have seen some of them not able to walk, without
+having any other distemper or infirmity than old age, so that when the
+necessities of nature required it, or they wanted to take the air, they
+were obliged to be carried out of their hut, an assistance which is
+always readily offered to the old men. The respect paid to them by
+their family is so great, that they are looked upon as the judges of
+all differences, and their counsels are decrees. An old man who is the
+head of a family is called father, even by his grand-children, and
+great-grand-children, <a name="page-309"></a> who to distinguish their immediate father
+call him their true father.</p>
+
+<p>If any of their young people happen to fight, which I never saw nor
+heard of during the whole time I resided in their neighbourhood, they
+threaten to put them in a hut at a great distance from their nation,
+as persons unworthy to live among others; and this is repeated to them
+so often, that if they happen to have had a battle, they take care
+never to have another. I have already observed that I studied them a
+considerable number of years; and I never could learn that there ever
+were any disputes or boxing matches among either their boys or men.</p>
+
+<p>As the children grow up, the fathers and mothers take care each to
+accustom those of their own sex to the labours and exercises suited to
+them, and they have no great trouble to keep them employed; but it
+must be confessed that the girls and the women work more than the men
+and the boys. These last go a hunting and fishing, cut the wood, the
+smallest bits of which are carried home by the women; they clear the
+fields for corn, and hoe it; and on days when they cannot go abroad
+they amuse themselves with making, after their fashion, pickaxes,
+oars, paddles, and other instruments, which once made last a long
+while. The women on the other hand have their children to bring up,
+have to pound the maiz for the subsistence of the family, have to keep
+up the fire, and to make a great many utensils, which require a good
+deal of work, and last but a short time, such as their earthen ware,
+their matts, their clothes, and a thousand other things of that kind.</p>
+
+<p>When the children are about ten or twelve years of age they accustom
+them by degrees to carry small loads, which they increase with their
+years. The boys are from time to time exercised in running; but they
+never suffer them to exhaust themselves by the length of the race,
+lest they should overheat themselves. The more nimble at that exercise
+sometimes sportfully challenges those who are more slow and heavy; but
+the old man who presides hinders the raillery from being carried to
+any excess, carefully avoiding all subjects of quarrel and dispute, on
+which account doubtless it is that they will never suffer them to
+wrestle.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-310"></a> Both boys and girls are early accustomed to bathe every morning,
+in order to strengthen the nerves, and harden them against cold and
+fatigue, and likewise to teach them to swim, that they may avoid or
+pursue an enemy, even across a river. The boys and girls, from the
+time they are three years of age, are called out every morning by an
+old man, to go to the river; and here is some more employment for the
+mothers who accompany them thither to teach them to swim. Those who
+can swim tolerably well, make a great noise in winter by beating the
+water in order to frighten away the crocodiles, and keep themselves
+warm.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will have observed that most of the labour and fatigue
+falls to the share of the women; but I can declare that I never heard
+them complain of their fatigues, unless of the trouble their children
+gave them, which complaint arose as much from maternal affection, as
+from any attention that the children required. The girls from their
+infancy have it instilled into them, that if they are sluttish or
+unhandy they will have none but a dull aukward fellow for their
+husband; I observed in all the nations I visited, that this
+threatening was never lost upon the young girls.</p>
+
+<p>I would not have it thought however, that the young men are altogether
+idle. Their occupations indeed are not of such a long continuance; but
+they are much more laborious. As the men have occasion for more
+strength, reason requires that they should not exhaust themselves in
+their youth; but at the same time they are not exempted from those
+exercises that fit them for war and hunting. The children are educated
+without blows; and the body is left at full liberty to grow, and to
+form and strengthen itself with their years. The youths accompany the
+men in hunting, in order to learn the wiles and tricks necessary to be
+practised in the field, and accustom themselves to suffering and
+patience. When they are full grown men, they dress the field or waste
+land, and prepare it to receive the seed; they go to war or hunting,
+dress the skins, cut the wood, make their bows and arrows, and assist
+each other in building their huts.</p>
+
+<p>They have still I allow a great deal of more spare time than the
+women; but this is not all thrown away. As these <a name="page-311"></a> people have not
+the assistance of writing, they are obliged to have recourse to
+tradition, in order to preserve the remembrance of any remarkable
+transactions; and this tradition cannot be learned but by frequent
+repetitions, consequently many of the youths are often employed in
+hearing the old men narrate the history of their ancestors, which is
+thus transmitted from generation to generation. In order to preserve
+their traditions pure and uncorrupt, they are careful not to deliver
+them indifferently to all their young people, but teach them only to
+those young men of whom they have the best opinion.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-III-section-II">SECTION II.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the language, government, religion, ceremonies, and feasts of the
+natives.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>During my residence among the Natchez I contracted an intimate
+friendship, not only with the chiefs or guardians of the temple, but
+with the Great Sun, or the sovereign of the nation, and his brother
+the Stung Serpent, the chief of the warriors; and by my great intimacy
+with them, and the respect I acquired among the people, I easily
+learned the peculiar language of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>This language is easy in the pronunciation, and expressive in the
+terms. The natives, like the Orientals, speak much in a figurative
+stile, the Natchez in particular more than any other people of
+Louisiana. They have two languages, that of the nobles and that of the
+people, and both are very copious. I will give two or three examples
+to shew the difference of these two languages. When I call one of the
+common people, I say to him <i>aquenan</i>, that is, hark ye: if, on the
+other hand, I want to speak to a Sun, or one of their nobles, I say to
+him, <i>magani</i>, which signifies, hark ye. If one of the common people
+call at my house, I say to him, <i>tachte-cabanacte, are you there</i>, or I
+am glad to see you, which is equivalent to our goodmorrow. I express
+the same thing to a Sun by the word <i>apapegouaiché</i>. Again, according to
+their custom, I say to one of the common people, <i>petchi, sit you down</i>;
+but to a Sun, when I desire him to sit down, I say, <i>caham</i>. The two
+languages are <a name="page-312"></a> nearly the same in all other respects; for the
+difference of expression seems only to take place in matters relating
+to the persons of the Suns and nobles, in distinction from those of
+the people.</p>
+
+<p>Tho' the women speak the same language with the men, yet, in their
+manner of pronunciation, they soften and smooth the words, whereas the
+speech of the men is more grave and serious. The French, by chiefly
+frequenting the women, contracted their manner of speaking, which was
+ridiculed as an effeminacy by the women, as well as the men, among the
+natives.</p>
+
+
+<p>From my conversations with the chief of the guardians of the temple, I
+discovered that they acknowledged a supreme being, whom they called
+<i>Coyococop-Chill</i>, or <i>Great Spirit</i>. The <i>Spirit infinitely great</i>, or
+the <i>Spirit</i> by way of excellence. The word <i>chill</i>, in their language,
+signifies the most superlative degree of perfection, and is added by
+them to the word which signifies <i>fire</i>, when they want to mention the
+Sun; thus <i>Oua</i> is <i>fire</i>, and <i>Oua-chill</i> is the <i>supreme fire</i>, or the
+<i>Sun</i>; therefore, by the word <i>Coyocop-Chill</i> they mean a spirit that
+surpasses other spirits as much as the sun does common fire.</p>
+
+<p>"God," according to the definition of the guardian of the temple, "was
+so great and powerful, that, in comparison with him, all other things
+were as nothing; he had made all that we see, all that we can see, and
+all that we cannot see; he was so good, that he could not do ill to
+any one, even if he had a mind to it. They believe that God had made
+all things by his will; that nevertheless the little spirits, who are
+his servants, might, by his orders, have made many excellent works in
+the universe, which we admire; but that God himself had formed man
+with his own hands."</p>
+
+<p>The guardian added, that they named those little spirits,
+<i>Coyocop-techou</i>, that is, a <i>free servant</i>, but as submissive and as
+respectful as a slave; that those spirits were always present before
+God, ready to execute his pleasure with an extreme diligence; that the
+air was filled with other spirits, some good some wicked; and that the
+latter had a chief, who was more <a name="page-313"></a> wicked than them all; that God
+had found him so wicked, that he had bound him for ever, so that the
+other spirits of the air no longer did so much harm, especially when
+they were by prayers entreated not to do it; for it is one of the
+religious customs of those people to invoke the spirits of the air for
+rain or fine weather, according as each is needed. I have seen the
+Great Sun fast for nine days together, eating nothing but maiz-corn,
+without meat or fish, drinking nothing but water, and abstaining from
+the company of his wives during the whole time. He underwent this
+rigorous fast out of complaisance to some Frenchmen, who had been
+complaining that it had not rained for a long time. Those
+inconsiderate people had not remarked, that notwithstanding the want
+of rain, the fruits of the earth had not suffered, as the dew is so
+plentiful in summer as fully to supply that deficiency.</p>
+
+<p>The guardian of the temple having told me that God had made man with
+his own hands, I asked him if he knew how that was done. He answered,
+"that God had kneaded some clay, such as that which potters use, and
+had made it into a little man; and that after examining it, and
+finding it well formed, he blew up his work, and forthwith that little
+man had life, grew, acted, walked, and found himself a man perfectly
+well shaped." As he made no mention of the woman, I asked him how he
+believed she was made; he told me, "that probably in the same manner
+as the man; that their <i>antient speech</i> made no mention of any
+difference, only told them that the man was made first, and was the
+strongest and most courageous, because he was to be the head and
+support of the woman, who was made to be his companion."</p>
+
+<p>Here I did not omit to rectify his notions on the subjects we had been
+talking about, and to give him those just ideas which religion teaches
+us, and the sacred writings have transmitted to us. He hearkened to me
+with great attention, and promised to repeat all that I had told him
+to the old men of his nation, who certainly would not forget it;
+adding, that we were very happy in being able to retain the knowledge
+of such fine things by means of the speaking cloth, so they name books
+and manuscripts.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-314"></a> I next proceeded to ask him, who had taught them to build a
+temple; whence had they their eternal fire, which they preserved with
+so much care; and who was the person that first instituted their
+feasts? He replied, "The charge I am entrusted with obliges me to know
+all these things you ask of me; I will therefore satisfy you: hearken
+to me. A great number of years ago there appeared among us a man and
+his wife, who came down from the sun. Not that we believe that the sun
+had a wife who bore him children, or that these were the descendants
+of the sun; but when they first appeared among us they were so bright
+and luminous that we had no difficulty to believe that they came down
+from the sun. This man told us, that having seen from on high that we
+did not govern ourselves well; that we had no master; that each of us
+had presumption enough to think himself capable of governing others,
+while he could not even conduct himself; he had thought fit to come
+down among us to teach us to live better.</p>
+
+<p>"He moreover told us, that in order to live in peace among ourselves,
+and to please the supreme Spirit, we must indispensably observe the
+following points; we must never kill any one but in defence of our own
+lives; we must never know any other woman besides our own; we must
+never take any thing that belongs to another; we must never lye nor
+get drunk; we must not be avaricious, but must give liberally, and
+with joy, part of what we have to others who are in want, and
+generously share our subsistence with those who are in need of it."</p>
+
+<p>"The words of this man deeply affected us, for he spoke them with
+authority, and he procured the respect even of the old men themselves,
+tho' he reprehended them as freely as the rest. Next day we offered to
+acknowledge him as our sovereign. He at first refused, saying that he
+should not be obeyed, and that the disobedient would infallibly die;
+but at length he accepted the offer that was made him on the following
+condition:</p>
+
+<p>"That we would go and inhabit another country, better than that in
+which we were, which he would shew us; that we would afterwards live
+conformable to the instructions he had given us; that we would promise
+never to acknowledge any <a name="page-315"></a> other sovereigns but him and his
+descendants; that the nobility should be perpetuated by the women
+after this manner; if I, said he, have male and female children, they
+being brothers and sisters cannot marry together; the eldest boy may
+chuse a wife from among the people, but his sons shall be only nobles;
+the children of the eldest girl, on the other hand, shall be princes
+and princesses, and her eldest son be sovereign; but her eldest
+daughter be the mother of the next sovereign, even tho' she should
+marry one of the common people; and, in defect of the eldest daughter,
+the next female relation to the person reigning shall be the mother of
+the future sovereign; the sons of the sovereign and princes shall lose
+their rank, but the daughters shall preserve theirs."</p>
+
+<p>"He then told us, that in order to preserve the excellent precepts he
+had given us, it was necessary to build a temple, into which it should
+be lawful for none but the princes and princesses to enter, to speak
+to the Spirit. That in the temple they should eternally preserve a
+fire, which he would bring down from the sun, from whence he himself
+had descended, that the wood with which the fire was supplied should
+be pure wood without bark; that eight wise men of the nation should be
+chosen for guarding the fire night and day; that those eight men
+should have a chief, who should see them do their duty, and that if
+any of them failed in it he should be put to death. He likewise
+ordered another temple to be built in a distant part of our nation,
+which was then very populous, and the eternal fire to be kept there
+also, that in case it should be extinguished in the one it might be
+brought from the other; in which case, till it was again lighted, the
+nation would be afflicted with a great mortality."</p>
+
+<p>"Our nation having consented to these conditions, he agreed to be our
+sovereign; and in presence of all the people he brought down the fire
+from the sun, upon some wood of the walnut-tree which he had prepared,
+which fire was deposited in both the temples. He lived a long time,
+and saw his children's children. To conclude, he instituted our feasts
+such as you see them."</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez have neither sacrifices, libations, nor offerings: their
+whole worship consists in preserving the eternal <a name="page-316"></a> fire, and this
+the Great Sun watches over with a peculiar attention. The Sun, who
+reigned when I was in the country, was extremely solicitous about it,
+and visited the temple every day. His vigilance had been awakened by a
+terrible hurricane which some years before had happened in the
+country, and was looked upon as an extraordinary event, the air being
+generally clear and serene in that climate. If to that calamity should
+be joined the extinction of the eternal fire, he was apprehensive
+their whole nation would be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when the Great Sun called upon me, he gave me an account of a
+dreadful calamity that had formerly befallen the nation of the
+Natchez, in consequence, as he believed, of the extinction of the
+eternal fire. He introduced his account in the following manner: "Our
+nation was formerly very numerous and very powerful; it extended more
+than twelve days journey from east to west, and more than fifteen from
+south to north. We reckoned then 500 Suns, and you may judge by that
+what was the number of the nobles, of the people of rank, and the
+common people. Now in times past it happened, that one of the two
+guardians, who were upon duty in the temple, left it on some business,
+and the other fell asleep, and suffered the fire to go out. When he
+awaked and saw that he had incurred the penalty of death, he went and
+got some profane fire, as tho' he had been going to light his pipe,
+and with that he renewed the eternal fire. His transgression was by
+that means concealed; but a dreadful mortality immediately ensued, and
+raged for four years, during which many Suns and an infinite number of
+the people died.</p>
+
+<p>"The guardian at length sickened, and found himself dying, upon which
+he sent for the Great Sun, and confessed the heinous crime he had been
+guilty of. The old men were immediately assembled, and, by their
+advice, fire being snatched from the other temple, and brought into
+this, the mortality quickly ceased." Upon my asking him what he meant
+by "snatching the fire," he replied, "that it must always be brought
+away by violence, and that some blood must be shed, unless some tree
+on the road was set on fire by lightning, and <a name="page-317"></a> then the fire
+might be brought from thence; but that the fire of the sun was always
+preferable."</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to express his astonishment when I told him, that it
+was a trifling matter to bring down fire from the sun, and that I had it
+in my power to do it whenever I pleased. As he was extremely desirous to
+see me perform that seeming miracle, I took the smallest of two burning
+glasses which I had brought from France, and placing some dry punk (or
+agaric) upon a chip of wood, I drew the focus of the glass upon it, and
+with a tone of authority pronounced the word <i>Caheuch</i>, that is, <i>come</i>,
+as tho' I had been commanding the fire to come down. The punk
+immediately smoking, I blew a little and made it flame to the utter
+astonishment of the Great Sun and his whole retinue, some of whom stood
+trembling with amazement and religious awe. The prince himself could not
+help exclaiming, "Ah, what an extraordinary thing is here!" I confirmed
+him in his idea, by telling him, that I greatly loved and esteemed that
+useful instrument, as it was most valuable, and was given to me by my
+grandfather, who was a very learned man.</p>
+
+<p>Upon his asking me, if another man could do the same thing with that
+instrument that he had seen me do, I told him that every man might do
+it, and I encouraged him to make the experiment himself. I accordingly
+put the glass in his hand, and leading it with mine over another piece
+of agaric, I desired him to pronounce the word <i>Caheuch</i>, which he did,
+but with a very faint and diffident tone; nevertheless, to his great
+amazement, he saw the agaric begin to smoke, which so confounded him
+that he dropt both the chip on which it was laid and the glass out of
+his hands, crying out, "Ah, what a miracle!"</p>
+
+<p>Their curiosity being now fully raised, they held a consultation in my
+yard, and resolved to purchase at any rate my wonderful glass, which
+would prevent any future mortality in their nation, in consequence of
+the extinction of the eternal fire. I, in the mean time, had gone out
+to my field, as if about some business; but in reality to have a
+hearty laugh at the comical scene which I had just occasioned. Upon my
+return the Great Sun entered my apartment with me, and laying his hand
+upon mine, told me, that tho' he loved all the French, he <a name="page-318"></a> was
+more my friend than of any of the rest, because most of the French
+carried all their understanding upon their tongue, but that I carried
+mine in my whole head and my whole body. After this preamble he
+offered to bargain for my glass, and desired me to set what value I
+pleased upon it, adding that he would not only cause the price to be
+paid by all the families of the nation, but would declare to them that
+they lay under an obligation to me for giving up to them a thing which
+saved them from a general mortality. I replied, that tho' I bore his
+whole nation in my heart, yet nothing made me part with my glass, but
+my affection for him and his brother; that, besides, I asked nothing
+in return but things necessary for my subsistence, such as corn,
+fowls, game, and fish, when they brought him any of these. He offered
+me twenty barrels of maiz, of 150 pounds each, twenty fowls, twenty
+turkies, and told me that he would send me game and fish every time
+his warriors brought him any, and his promise was punctually
+fulfilled. He engaged likewise not to speak any thing about it to the
+Frenchmen, lest they should be angry with me for parting with an
+instrument of so great a value. Next day the glass was tried before a
+general assembly of all the Suns, both men and women, the nobles, and
+the men of rank, who all met together at the temple; and the same
+effect being produced as the day before, the bargain was ratified; but
+it was resolved not to mention the affair to the common people, who,
+from their curiosity to know the secrets of their court, were
+assembled in great numbers not far from the temple, but only to tell
+them, that the whole nation of the Natchez were under great
+obligations to me.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez are brought up in a most perfect submission to their
+sovereign; the authority which their princes exercise over them is
+absolutely despotic, and can be compared to nothing but that of the
+first Ottoman emperors. Like these, the Great Sun is absolute master
+of the lives and estates of his subjects, which he disposes of at his
+pleasure, his will being the only law; but he has this singular
+advantage over the Ottoman princes, that he has no occasion to fear
+any seditious tumults, or any conspiracy against his person. If he
+orders a man guilty of a capital crime to be put to death, the
+criminal <a name="page-319"></a> neither supplicates, nor procures intercession to be
+made for his life, nor attempts to run away. The order of the
+sovereign is executed on the spot, and nobody murmurs. But however
+absolute the authority of the Great Sun may be, and although a number
+of warriors and others attach themselves to him, to serve him, to
+follow him wherever he goes, and to hunt for him, yet he raises no
+stated impositions; and what he receives from those people appears
+given, not so much as a right due, as a voluntary homage, and a
+testimony of their love and gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>The Natchez begin their year in the month of March, as was the
+practice a long time in Europe, and divide it into thirteen moons. At
+every new moon they celebrate a feast, which takes its name from the
+principal fruits reaped in the preceding moon, or from animals that
+are then usually hunted. I shall give an account of one or two of
+these feasts as concisely as I can.</p>
+
+<p>The first moon is called that of the Deer, and begins their new year,
+which is celebrated by them with universal joy, and is at the same
+time an anniversary memorial of one of the most interesting events in
+their history. In former times a Great Sun, upon hearing a sudden
+tumult in his village, had left his hut in a great hurry, in order to
+appease it, and fell into the hands of his enemies; but was quickly
+after rescued by his warriors, who repulsed the invaders, and put them
+to flight.</p>
+
+<p>In order to preserve the remembrance of this honourable exploit, the
+warriors divide themselves into two bodies, distinguished from each
+other by the colour of their feathers. One of these bodies represents
+the invaders, and after raising loud shouts and cries, seize the Great
+Sun, who comes out of his hut undressed, and rubbing his eyes, as
+though he were just awake. The Great Sun defends himself intrepidly
+with a wooden tomahawk, and lays a great many of his enemies upon the
+ground, without however giving them a single blow, for he only seems
+to touch them with his weapon. In the mean time the other party come
+out of their ambuscade, attack the invaders, and, after fighting with
+them for some time, rescue their prince, and drive them into a wood,
+which is represented by an arbour <a name="page-320"></a> made of canes. During the
+whole time of the skirmish, the parties keep up the war-cry, or the
+cry of terror, as each of them seem to be victors or vanquished. The
+Great Sun is brought back to his hut in a triumphant manner; and the
+old men, women, and children, who were spectators of the engagement,
+rend the sky with their joyful acclamations. The Great Sun continues
+in his hut about half an hour, to repose himself after his great
+fatigues, which are such that an actor of thirty years of age would
+with difficulty have supported them, and he however, when I saw this
+feast, was above ninety. He then makes his appearance again to the
+people, who salute him with loud acclamations, which cease upon his
+proceeding towards the temple. When he is arrived in the middle of the
+court before the temple, he makes several gesticulations, then
+stretches out his arms horizontally, and remains in that posture
+motionless as a statute for half an hour. He is then relieved by the
+master of the ceremonies, who places himself in the same attitude, and
+half an hour after is relieved by the great chief of war, who remains
+as long in the same posture. When this ceremony is over, the Great
+Sun, who, when he was relieved, had returned to his hut, appears again
+before the people in the ornaments of his dignity, is placed upon his
+throne, which is a large stool with four feet cut out of one piece of
+wood, has a fine buffalo's skin thrown over his shoulders, and several
+furs laid upon his feet, and receives various presents from the women,
+who all the while continue to express their joy by their shouts and
+acclamations. Strangers are then invited to dine with the Great Sun,
+and in the evening there is a dance in his hut, which is about thirty
+feet square, and twenty feet high, and like the temple is built upon a
+mount of earth, about eight feet high, and sixty feet over on the
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>The second moon, which answers to our April, is called the Strawberry
+moon, as that fruit abounds then in great quantities.</p>
+
+<p>The third moon is that of the Small Corn. This moon is often
+impatiently looked for, their crop of large corn never sufficing to
+nourish them from one harvest to another.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-321"></a> The fourth is that of Water-melons, and answers to our June.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth moon is that of the Fishes: in this month also they gather
+grapes, if the birds have suffered them to ripen.</p>
+
+<p>The sixth, which answers to our August, is that of the Mulberries. At
+this feast they likewise carry fowls to the Great Sun.</p>
+
+<p>The seventh, which is that of Maiz, or Great Corn. This feast is
+beyond dispute the most solemn of all. It principally consists in
+eating in common, and in a religious manner, of new corn, which had
+been sown expressly with that design, with suitable ceremonies. This
+corn is sown upon a spot of ground never before cultivated; which
+ground is dressed and prepared by the warriors alone, who also are the
+only persons that sow the corn, weed it, reap it, and gather it. When
+this corn is near ripe, the warriors fix on a place proper for the
+general feast, and close adjoining to that they form a round granary,
+the bottom and sides of which are of cane; this they fill, with the
+corn, and when they have finished the harvest, and covered the
+granary, they acquaint the Great Sun, who appoints the day for the
+general feast. Some days before the feast, they build huts for the
+Great Sun, and for all the other families, round the granary, that of
+the Great Sun being raised upon a mount of earth about two feet high.
+On the feast-day the whole nation set out from their village at
+sun-rising, leaving behind only the aged and infirm that are not able
+to travel, and a few warriors, who are to carry the Great Sun on a
+litter upon their shoulders. The seat of this litter is covered with
+several deer skins, and to its four sides are fastened four bars which
+cross each other, and are supported by eight men, who at every hundred
+paces transfer their burden to eight other men, and thus successively
+transport it to the place where the feast is celebrated, which may be
+near two miles from the village. About nine o'clock the Great Sun
+comes out of his hut dressed in the ornaments of his dignity, and
+being placed in his litter, which has a canopy at the head formed of
+flowers, he is carried in a few minutes to the sacred granary, shouts
+of <a name="page-322"></a> joy re-echoing on all sides. Before he alights he makes the
+tour of the whole place deliberately, and when he comes before the
+corn, he salutes it thrice with the words, <i>hoo, hoo, hoo</i>, lengthened
+and pronounced respectfully. The salutation is repeated by the whole
+nation, who pronounce the word <i>hoo</i> nine times distinctly, and at the
+ninth time he alights and places himself on his throne.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after they light a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood
+violently against each other, and when every thing is prepared for
+dressing the corn, the chief of war, accompanied by the warriors
+belonging to each family, presents himself before the throne, and
+addresses the Sun in these words, "speak, for I hear thee." The
+sovereign then rises up, bows towards the four quarters of the world,
+and advancing to the granary, lifts his eyes and hands to heaven, and
+says, "Give us corn:" upon which the great chief of war, the princes
+and princesses, and all the men, thank him separately, by pronouncing
+the word <i>hoo</i>. The corn is then distributed, first to the female Suns,
+and then to all the women, who run with it to their huts, and dress it
+with the utmost dispatch. When the corn is dressed in all the huts, a
+plate of it is put into the hands of the Great Sun, who presents it to
+the four quarters of the world, and then says to the chief of war,
+<i>eat</i>; upon this signal the warriors begin to eat in all the huts; after
+them the boys of whatever age, excepting those who are on the breast;
+and last of all the women. When the warriors have finished their
+repast, they form themselves into two choirs before the huts, and sing
+war songs for half an hour; after which the chief of war, and all the
+warriors in succession, recount their brave exploits, and mention, in
+a boasting manner, the number of enemies they have slain. The youths
+are next allowed to harangue, and each tells in the best manner he
+can, not what he has done, but what he intends to do; and if his
+discourse merits approbation, he is answered by a general <i>hoo</i>; if not,
+the warriors hang down their heads and are silent.</p>
+
+<p>This great solemnity is concluded with a general dance by torch-light.
+Upwards of two hundred torches of dried canes, each of the thickness
+of a child, are lighted round the place, <a name="page-323"></a> where the men and women
+often continue dancing till day-light; and the following is the
+disposition of their dance. A man places himself on the ground with a
+pot covered with a deer-skin, in the manner of a drum, to beat time to
+the dances; round him the women form themselves into a circle, not
+joining hands, but at some distance from each other; and they are
+inclosed by the men in another circle, who have in each hand a
+chichicois, or calabash, with a stick thrust through it to serve for a
+handle. When the dance begins, the women move round <a name="page-324"></a> the men in
+the centre, from left to right, and the men contrariwise from right to
+left, and they sometimes narrow and sometimes widen their circles. In
+this manner the dance continues without intermission the whole night,
+new performers successively taking the place of those who are wearied
+and fatigued.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxvi"><img src="images/illus36.png" alt="Dance of the Natchez indians (on p. 323)" height="380" width="222"></a><br>
+<i>Dance of the Natchez indians</i></p>
+
+<p>Next morning no person is seen abroad before the Great Sun comes out
+of his hut, which is generally about nine o'clock, and then upon
+signal made by the drum, the warriors make their appearance
+distinguished into two troops, by the feathers which they wear on
+their heads. One of these troops is headed by the Great Sun, and the
+other by the chief of war, who begin a new diversion by tossing a ball
+of deer-skin stuffed with Spanish beard from the one to the other. The
+warriors quickly take part in the sport, and a violent contest ensues
+which of the two parties shall drive the ball to the hut of the
+opposite chief. The diversion generally lasts two hours, and the
+victors are allowed to wear the feathers of superiority till the
+following year, or till the next time they play at the ball. After
+this the warriors perform the war dance; and last of all they go and
+bathe; an exercise which they are very fond of when they are heated or
+fatigued.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of that day is employed as the preceding; for the feasts
+holds as long as any of the corn remains. When it is all eat up, the
+Great Sun is carried back in his litter, and they all return to the
+village, after which he sends the warriors to hunt both for themselves
+and him.</p>
+
+<p>The eighth moon is that of Turkies, and answers to our October.</p>
+
+<p>The ninth moon is that of the Buffalo; and it is then they go to hunt
+that animal. Having discovered whereabouts the herd feeds, they go out
+in a body to hunt them. Young and old, girls and married women, except
+those who are with child, are all of the party, for there is generally
+work for them all. Some nations are a little later in going out to
+this hunting, that they may find the cows fatter, and the herds more
+numerous.</p>
+
+<p>The tenth moon is that of Bears; at this time of hunting the feasts
+are not so grand and solemn, because great part of the nations are
+accompanying the hunters in their expeditions.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-325"></a> The eleventh answers to our January, and is named as Cold-meal
+Moon. The twelfth is that of Chesnuts. That fruit has been gathered
+long before, nevertheless it gives its name to this moon.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, the thirteenth is that of Walnuts, and it is added to compleat
+the year. It is then they break the nuts to make bread of them by
+mixing with them the flour of Maiz.</p>
+
+<p>The feasts which I saw celebrated in the chief village of the Natchez,
+which is the residence of the Great Sun, are celebrated in the same
+manner in all the villages of the nation, which are each governed by a
+Sun, who is subordinate to the Great Sun, and acknowledge his absolute
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be conceived how exact these people are in assigning the
+pre-eminence to the men. In every assembly, whether of the whole
+nation in general, or of several families together, or of one family,
+the youngest boys have the preference to the women of the most
+advanced age; and at their meals, when their food is distributed, none
+is presented to the women, till all the males have received their
+share, so that a boy of two years old is served before his mother.</p>
+
+<p>The women being always employed, without ever being diverted from
+their duty, or seduced by the gallantries of lovers, never think of
+objecting to the propriety of a custom, in which they have been
+constantly brought up. Never having seen any example that contradicted
+it, they have not the least idea of varying from it. Thus being
+submissive from the habit, as well as from reason, they, by their
+docility, maintain that peace in their families, which they find
+established upon entering them.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-326"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-III-section-III">SECTION III.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Paternal authority, as I have elsewhere observed, is not less sacred
+and inviolable than the pre-eminence of the men. It still subsists
+among the Natchez, such as it was in the first ages of the world. The
+children belong to the father, and while he lives they are under his
+power. They live with him, they, their wives, and their children; the
+same hut contains the whole family. The old man alone commands there,
+and nothing but death puts an end to his empire. As these people have
+seldom or rather never any differences among them, the paternal
+authority appears in nothing more conspicuous than in the marriages.</p>
+
+<p>When the boys and girls arrive at the perfect age of puberty, they
+visit each other familiarly, and are suffered so to do. The girls,
+sensible that they will be no longer mistresses of their heart, when
+once they are married, know how to dispose of it to advantage, and
+form their wardrobe by the sale of their favours; for there, as well
+as in other countries, nothing for nothing. The lover, far from having
+any thing to object to this, on the contrary, rates the merit of his
+future spouse, in proportion to the fruits she has produced. But when
+they are married they have no longer any intrigues, neither the
+husband nor the wife, because their heart is no longer their own. They
+may divorce their wives; it is, however, so rare to see the man and
+wife part, that during the eight years I lived in their neighbourhood,
+I knew but one example of it, and then each took with them the
+children of their own sex.</p>
+
+<p>If a young man has obtained a girl's consent, and they desire to marry,
+it is not their fathers, and much less their mothers, or male or female
+relations who take upon them to, conclude the match; it is the heads of
+the two families alone, who are usually great-grandfathers, and
+sometimes more. These two old men have an interview, in which, after the
+young man has formally made a demand of the girl, they examine if there
+be any relation between the two parties, and if any, what degree <a name="page-327"></a>
+it is; for they do not marry within the third degree. Notwithstanding
+this interview, and the two parties be found not within the prohibited
+degrees, yet if the proposed wife be disagreeable to the father,
+grandfather, &amp;c. of the husband, the match is never concluded. On the
+other hand, ambition, avarice, and the other passions, so common with
+us, never stifle in the breasts of the fathers those dictates of nature,
+which make us desire to see ourselves perpetuated in our offspring, nor
+influence them to thwart their children, improperly, and much less to
+force their inclinations. By an admirable harmony, very worthy of our
+imitation, they only marry those who love one another, and those who
+love one another, are only married when their parents agree to it. It is
+rare for young men to marry before they be five-and-twenty. Till they
+arrive at that age they are looked upon as too weak, without
+understanding and experience.</p>
+
+<p>When the marriage-day is once fixed, preparations are made for it both
+by the men and women; the men go a hunting, and the women prepare the
+maiz, and deck out the young man's cabin to the best of their power.
+On the wedding-day the old man on the part of the girl leaves his hut,
+and conducts the bride to the hut of the bridegroom; his whole family
+follow him in order and silence; those who are inclined to laugh or be
+merry, indulging themselves only in a smile.</p>
+
+<p>He finds before the other hut all the relations of the bridegroom, who
+receive and salute him with their usual expression of congratulation,
+namely, <i>hoo, hoo</i>, repeated several times. When he enters the hut, the
+old man on the part of the bridegroom says to him in their language,
+<i>are you there?</i> to which he answers, <i>yes</i>. He is next desired to sit
+down, and then not a word passes for near ten minutes, it being one of
+their prudent customs to suffer a guest to rest himself a little after
+his arrival, before they begin a conversation; and besides, they look
+upon the time spent in compliments as thrown away.</p>
+
+<p>After both the old men are fully rested, they rise, and the bridegroom
+and bride appearing before them, they ask them, if they love each
+other? and if they are willing to take one another for man and wife?
+observing to them at the same time, <a name="page-328"></a> that they ought not to marry
+unless they propose to live amicably together; that nobody forces
+them, and that as they are each other's free choice, they will be
+thrust out of the family if they do not live in peace. After this
+remonstrance the father of the bridegroom delivers the present which
+his son is to make into his hands, the bride's father at the same time
+placing himself by her side. The bridegroom then addresses the bride;
+"Will you have me for your husband?" she answers, "Most willingly, and
+it gives me joy; love me, as well as I love you; for I love, and ever
+will love none but you." At these words the bridegroom covers the head
+of the bride with the present which he received from his father, and
+says to her, "I love you, and have therefore taken you for my wife,
+and this I give to your parents, to purchase you." He then gives the
+present to the bride's father.</p>
+
+<p>The husband wears a tuft of feathers fastened to his hair, which is in
+the form of a cue, and hangs over his left ear, to which is fastened a
+sprig of oak with the leaves on, and in his left hand he bears a bow
+and arrows. The young wife bears in her left hand a small branch of
+laurel, and in her right a stalk of maiz, which was delivered to her
+by her mother at the time she received the present from her husband.
+This stalk she presents to her husband, who takes it from her with his
+right hand, and says, "I am your husband;" she answers, and "I am your
+wife." They then shake hands reciprocally with each other's relations;
+after which he leads her towards the bed, and says, "There is our bed,
+keep it tight;" which is as much as to say, do not defile the nuptial
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage ceremony being thus concluded, the bridegroom and the
+bride, with their friends, sit down to a repast, and in the evening
+they begin their dances, which continue often till day-light.</p>
+
+<p>The nation of the Natchez is composed of nobility and common people.
+The common people are named in their language <i>Miche-Miche-Quipy</i>, that
+is, <i>Stinkards</i>; a name however which gives them great offense, and
+which it is proper to avoid pronouncing before them, as it would not
+fail to put them into a very bad humour. The common people are to the
+<a name="page-329"></a> last degree submissive to the nobility, who are divided into
+Suns, nobles, and men of rank.</p>
+
+<p>The Suns are the descendants of the man and woman who pretended to
+have come down from the sun. Among the other laws they gave to the
+Natchez, they ordained that their race should always be distinguished
+from the bulk of the nation, and that none of them should ever be put
+to death upon any account. They established likewise another usage
+which is found among no other people, except a nation of Scythians
+mentioned by Herodotus. They ordained that nobility should only be
+transmitted by the women. Their male and female children were equally
+named Suns, and regarded as such, but with this difference, that the
+males enjoyed this privilege only in their own person, and during
+their own lives. Their children had only the title of nobles, and the
+male children of those nobles were only men of rank. Those men of
+rank, however, if they distinguished themselves by their war-like
+exploits, might raise themselves again to the rank of nobles; but
+their children became only men of rank, and the children of those men
+of rank, as well as of the others, were confounded with the common
+people, and classed among the Stinkards. Thus as these people are very
+long-lived, and frequently see the fourth generation, it often happens
+that a Sun sees some of his posterity among the Stinkards; but they
+are at great pains to conceal this degradation of their race,
+especially from strangers, and almost totally disown those great-grand
+children; for when they speak of them they only say, they are dear to
+them. It is otherwise with the female posterity of the Suns, for they
+continue through all generations to enjoy their rank. The descendants
+of the Suns being pretty numerous, it might be expected that those who
+are out of the prohibited degrees might intermarry, rather than ally
+with the Stinkards; but a most barbarous custom obliges them to their
+mis-alliances. When any of the Suns, either male or female, die, their
+law ordains that the husband or wife of the Sun shall be put to death
+on the day of the interment of the deceased: now as another law
+prohibits the issue of the Suns from being put to death, it is
+therefore impossible for the descendants of the Suns to match with
+each other.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-330"></a> Whether it be that they are tired of this law, or that they with
+their Suns descended of French blood, I shall not determine; but the
+wife of the Great Sun came one day to visit me so early in the morning
+that I was not got out of bed. She was accompanied with her only
+daughter, a girl between fourteen and fifteen years of age, handsome
+and well shaped; but she only sent in her own name by my slave; so
+that without getting up, I made no scruple of desiring her to come in.
+When her daughter appeared I was not a little surprized; but I shook
+hands with them both, and desired them to sit down. The daughter sat
+down on the foot of my bed, and kept her eyes continually fixed on me,
+while the mother addressed herself to me in the most serious and
+pathetic tone. After some compliments to me, and commendations of our
+customs and manners, she condemned the barbarous usages that prevailed
+among themselves, and ended with proposing me as a husband for her
+daughter, that I might have it in my power to civilize their nation by
+abolishing their inhuman customs, and introducing those of the French.
+As I foresaw the danger of such an alliance, which would be opposed by
+the whole nation of the Natchez, and at the same time was sensible
+that the resentment of a slighted woman is very formidable, I returned
+her such an answer as might shew my great respect for her daughter,
+and prevent her from making the same application to some brainless
+Frenchman, who, by accepting the offer, might expose the French
+settlement to some disastrous event. I told her that her daughter was
+handsome, and pleased me much, as she had a good heart, and a well
+turned mind; but the laws we received from the Great Spirit, forbad us
+to marry women who did not pray; and that those Frenchmen who lived
+with their daughters took them only for a time; but it was not proper
+that the daughter of the Great Sun should be disposed of in that
+manner. The mother acquiesced in my reasons; but when they took their
+leave I perceived plainly that the daughter was far from being
+satisfied. I never saw her from that day forwards; and I heard she was
+soon after married to another.</p>
+
+<p>From this relation the reader may perceive that there needs nothing
+but prudence and good sense to persuade those people <a name="page-331"></a> to what is
+reasonable, and to preserve their friendship without interruption. We
+may safely affirm that the differences we have had with them have been
+more owing to the French than to them. When they are treated
+insolently or oppressively, they have no less sensibility of injuries
+than others. If those who have occasion to live among them, will but
+have sentiments of humanity, they will in them meet with men.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-III-section-IV">SECTION IV.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious Ceremonies of the
+People of</i> Louisiana.</p>
+
+
+<p>I shall now proceed to give some account of the customs that prevail
+in general among all the nations of North America; and these have a
+great resemblance to each other, as there is hardly any difference in
+the manner of thinking and acting among the several nations. These
+people have no religion expressed by any external worship. The
+strongest evidences that we discover of their having any religion at
+all, are their temples, and the eternal fire therein kept up by some
+of them. Some of them indeed do not keep up the eternal fire, and have
+turned their temples into charnel-houses.</p>
+
+<p>However, all those people, without exception, acknowledge a supreme
+Being, but they never on any account address their prayers to him,
+from their fixt belief that God, whom they call the Great Spirit, is
+so good, that he cannot do evil, whatever provocation he may have.
+They believe the existence of two Great Spirits, a good and a bad.
+They do not, as I have said, invoke the Good Spirit; but they pray to
+the bad, in order to avert from their persons and possessions the
+evils which he might inflict upon them. They pray to the evil spirit,
+not because they think him almighty; for it is the Good Spirit whom
+they believe so; but because, according to them, he governs the air,
+the seasons, the rain, the fine weather, and all that may benefit or
+hurt the productions of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>They are very superstitious in respect to the flight of birds, and the
+passage of some animals that are seldom seen in their country. They
+are much inclined to hear and believe <a name="page-332"></a> diviners, especially in
+regard to discovering things to come; and they are kept in their
+errors by the Jongleurs, who find their account in them.</p>
+
+<p>The natives have all the same manner of bringing up their children,
+and are in general well shaped, and their limbs are justly
+proportioned. The Chicasaws are the most fierce and arrogant, which
+they undoubtedly owe to their frequent intercourse with the English of
+Carolina. They are brave; a disposition they may have inherited as the
+remains of that martial spirit that prompted them to invade their
+neighbouring nations, by which they themselves were at length greatly
+weakened. All the nations on the north of the colony are likewise
+brave, but they are more humane than the Chicasaws, and have not their
+high-spirited pride. All these nations of the north, and all those of
+Louisiana, have been inviolably attached to us ever since our
+establishment in this colony. The misfortune of the Natchez, who,
+without dispute, were the finest of all those nations, and who loved
+us, ought not in the least to lessen our sentiments of those people,
+who are in general distinguished for their natural goodness of
+character. All those nations are prudent, and speak little; they are
+sober in their diet, but they are passionately fond of brandy, though
+they are singular in never tasting any wine, and neither know nor care
+to learn any composition of liquors. In their meals they content
+themselves with maiz prepared various ways, and sometimes they use
+fish and flesh. The meat that they eat is chiefly recommended to them
+for being wholesome; and therefore I have conjectured that dog's
+flesh, for which we have such an aversion, must however be as good as
+it is beautiful, since they rate it so highly as to use it by way of
+preference in their feasts of ceremony. They eat no young game, as
+they find plenty of the largest size, and do not think delicacy of
+taste alone any recommendation; and therefore, in general, they would
+not taste our ragouts, but, condemning them as unwholesome, prefer to
+them gruel made of maiz, called in the colony Sagamity.</p>
+
+<p>The Chactaws are the only ugly people among all the nations in
+Louisiana; which is chiefly owing to the fat with which <a name="page-333"></a> they rub
+their skin and their hair, and to their manner of defending themselves
+against the moskitos, which they keep off by lighting fires of
+fir-wood, and standing in the smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Although all the people of Louisiana have nearly the same usages and
+customs, yet as any nation is more or less populous, it has
+proportionally more or fewer ceremonies. Thus when the French first
+arrived in the colony, several nations kept up the eternal fire, and
+observed other religious ceremonies, which they have now disused,
+since their numbers have been greatly diminished. Many of them still
+continue to have temples, but the common people never enter these, nor
+strangers, unless peculiarly favoured by the nation. As I was an
+intimate friend of the sovereign of the Natchez, he shewed me their
+temple, which is about thirty feet square, and stands upon an
+artificial mount about eight feet high, by the side of a small river.
+The mount slopes insensibly from the main front, which is northwards,
+but on the other sides it is somewhat steeper. The four corners of the
+temple consist of four posts, about a foot and an half diameter, and
+ten feet high, each made of the heart of the cypress tree, which is
+incorruptible. The side-posts are of the same wood, but only about a
+foot square; and the walls are of mud, about nine inches thick; so
+that in the inside there is a hollow between every post. The inner
+space is divided from east to west into two apartments one of which is
+twice as large as the other. In the largest apartment the eternal fire
+is kept, and there is likewise a table or altar in it, about four feet
+high, six long, and two broad. Upon this table lie the bones of the
+late Great Sun in a coffin of canes very neatly made. In the inner
+apartment, which is very dark, as it receives no light but from the
+door of communication, I could meet with nothing but two boards, on
+which were placed some things like small toys, which I had not light
+to peruse. The roof is in the form of a pavilion, and very neat both
+within and without, and on the top of it are placed three wooden
+birds, twice as large as a goose, with their heads turned towards the
+east. The corner and side-posts, as has been mentioned, rise above the
+earth ten feet high, and it is said they are as much sunk under
+ground; it cannot therefore but appear surprising how the natives
+could transport such large beams, fashion them, and raise them <a name="page-334"></a>
+upright, when we know of no machines they had for that purpose.
+Besides the eight guardians of the temple, two of whom are always on
+watch, and the chief of those guardians, there also belongs to the
+service of the temple a master of the ceremonies, who is also master
+of the mysteries; since, according to them, he converses very
+familiarly with the Spirit. Above all these persons is the Great Sun,
+who is at the same time chief priest and sovereign of the nation. The
+temples of some of the nations of Louisiana are very mean, and one
+would often be apt to mistake them for the huts of private persons,
+but to those who are acquainted with their manners, they are easily
+distinguishable, as they have always before the door two posts formed
+like the ancient Termini, that is, having the upper part cut into the
+shape of a man's head. The door of the temple, which is pretty
+weighty, is placed between the wall and those two posts, so that
+children may not be able to remove it, to go and play in the temple.
+The private huts have also posts before their doors, but these are
+never formed like Termini.</p>
+
+<p>None of the nations of Louisiana are acquainted with the custom of
+burning their dead, which was practised by the Greeks and Romans; nor
+with that of the Egyptians, who studied to preserve them to
+perpetuity. The different American nations have a most religious
+attention for their dead, and each have some peculiar customs in
+respect to them; but all of them either inter them, or place them in
+tombs, and carefully carry victuals to them for some time. These tombs
+are either within their temples, or close adjoining to them, or in
+their neighbourhood. They are raised about three feet above the earth,
+and rest upon four pillars, which are forked stakes fixed fast in the
+ground. The tomb, or rather bier, is about eight feet long, and a foot
+and a half broad; and after the body is placed upon it, a kind of
+basket-work of twigs is wove round it, and covered with mud, an
+opening being left at the head for placing the victuals that are
+presented to the dead person. When the body is all rotted but the
+bones, these are taken out of the tomb, and placed in a box of canes,
+which is deposited in the temple. They usually weep and lament for
+their dead three days; but for those who are killed in war, they make
+a much longer and more grievous lamentation.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-335"></a> Among the Natchez the death of any of their Suns, as I have
+before observed, is a most fatal event; for it is sure to be attended
+with the destruction of a great number of people of both sexes. Early
+in the spring 1725, the Stung Serpent, who was the brother of the
+Great Sun, and my intimate friend, was seized with a mortal distemper,
+which filled the whole nation of the Natchez with the greatest
+consternation and terror; for the two brothers had mutually engaged to
+follow each other to the land of spirits; and if the Great Sun should
+kill himself for the sake of his brother, very many people would
+likewise be put to death. When the Stung Serpent was despaired of, the
+chief of the guardians of the temple came to me in the greatest
+confusion, and acquainting me with the mutual engagements of the two
+brothers, begged of me to interest myself in preserving the Great Sun,
+and consequently a great part of the nation. He made the same request
+to the commander of the fort. Accordingly we were no sooner informed
+of the death of the Stung Serpent, than the commander, some of the
+principal Frenchmen, and I, went in a body to the hut of the Great
+Sun. We found him in despair; but, after some time, he seemed to be
+influenced by the arguments I used to dissuade him from putting
+himself to death. The death of the Stung Serpent was published by the
+firing of two muskets, which were answered by the other villages, and
+immediately cries and lamentations were heard on all sides. The Great
+Sun, in the mean time, remained inconsolable, and sat bent forwards,
+with his eyes towards the ground. In the evening, while we were still
+in his hut, he made a sign to his favourite wife; who in consequence
+of that threw a pailful of water on the fire, and extinguished it.
+This was a signal for extinguishing all the fires of the nation, and
+filled every one with terrible alarms, as it denoted that the Great
+Sun was still resolved to put himself to death. I gently chided him
+for altering his former resolution, but he assured me he had not, and
+desired us to go and sleep securely. We accordingly left him,
+pretending to rely on the assurance he had given us; but we took up
+our lodging in the hut of his chief servants, and stationed a soldier
+at the door of his hut, whom we ordered to give us notice of whatever
+happened. There was no need to fear our being betrayed by the wife of
+<a name="page-336"></a> the Great Sun, or any others about him; for none of them had the
+least inclination to die, if they could help it. On the contrary, they
+all expressed the greatest thankfulness and gratitude to us for our
+endeavors to avert the threatened calamity from their nation.</p>
+
+<p>Before we went to our lodgings we entered the hut of the deceased, and
+found him on his bed of state, dressed in his finest cloaths, his face
+painted with vermilion, shod as if for a journey, with his
+feather-crown on his head. To his bed were fastened his arms, which
+consisted of a double-barreled gun, a pistol, a bow, a quiver full of
+arrows, and a tomahawk. Round his bed were placed all the calumets of
+peace he had received during his life, and on a pole, planted in the
+ground near it, hung a chain of forty-six rings of cane painted red,
+to express the number of enemies he had slain. All his domesticks were
+round him, and they presented victuals to him at the usual hours, as
+if he were alive. The company in his hut were composed of his
+favourite wife, of a second wife, which he kept in another village,
+and visited when his favourite was with child; of his chancellor, his
+physician, his chief domestic, his pipe-bearer, and some old women,
+who were all to be strangled at his interment. To these victims a
+noble woman voluntarily joined herself, resolving, from her friendship
+to the Stung Serpent, to go and live with him in the country of
+spirits. I regretted her on many accounts, but particularly as she was
+intimately acquainted with the virtues of simples, had by her skill
+saved many of our people's lives, and given me many useful
+instructions. After we had satisfied our curiosity in the hut of the
+deceased, we retired to our hut, where we spent the night. But at
+day-break we were suddenly awaked, and told that it was with
+difficulty the Great Sun was kept from killing himself. We hastened to
+his hut, and upon entering it I remarked dismay and terror painted
+upon the countenances of all who were present. The Great Sun held his
+gun by the butt-end, and seemed enraged that the other Suns had seized
+upon it, to prevent him from executing his purpose. I addressed myself
+to him, and after opening the pan of the lock, to let the priming fall
+out, I chided him gently for his not acting according to his former
+resolution. He pretended at first <a name="page-337"></a> not to see me; but, after some
+time, he let go his hold of the musket, and shook hands with me
+without speaking a word. I then went towards his wife, who all this
+while had appeared in the utmost agony and terror, and I asked her if
+she was ill. She answered me, "Yes, very ill," and added, "if you
+leave us, my husband is a dead man, and all the Natchez will die; stay
+then, for he opens his ears only to your words, which have the
+sharpness and strength of arrows. You are his true friend, and do not
+laugh when you speak, like most of the Frenchmen." The Great Sun at
+length consented to order his fire to be again lighted, which was the
+signal for lighting the other fires of the nation, and dispelled all
+their apprehensions.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the natives begun the dance of death, and prepared for the
+funeral of the Stung Serpent. Orders were given to put none to death
+on that occasion, but those who were in the hut of the deceased. A
+child however had been strangled already by its father and mother,
+which ransomed their lives upon the death of the Great Sun, and raised
+them from the rank of Stinkards to that of Nobles. Those who were
+appointed to die were conducted twice a day, and placed in two rows
+before the temple, where they acted over the scene of their death,
+each accompanied by eight of their own relations who were to be their
+executioners, and by that office exempted themselves from dying upon
+the death of any of the Suns, and likewise raised themselves to the
+dignity of men of rank.</p>
+
+<p>Mean while thirty warriors brought in a prisoner, who had formerly
+been married to a female Sun; but, upon her death, instead of
+submitting to die with her, had fled to New Orleans, and offered to
+become the hunter and slave of our commander in chief. The commander
+accepting his offer, and granting him his protection, he often visited
+his countrymen, who, out of complaisance to the commander, never
+offered to apprehend him: but that officer being now returned to
+France, and the runaway appearing in the neighbourhood, he was now
+apprehended, and numbered among the other victims. Finding himself
+thus unexpectedly trapped, he began to cry bitterly; but three old
+women, who were his relations, offering to die in his stead, he was
+not only again exempted from death, but <a name="page-338"></a> raised to the dignity of
+a man of rank. Upon this he afterwards became insolent, and profiting
+by what he had seen and learned at New Orleans, he easily, on many
+occasions, made his fellow-countrymen his dupes.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxvii"><img src="images/illus37.png" alt="Burial of the Stung Serpent" height="379" width="217"></a><br>
+<i>Burial of the Stung Serpent</i></p>
+
+<p>On the day of the interment, the wife of the deceased made a very
+moving speech to the French who were present, recommending her
+children, to whom she also addressed herself, to their friendship, and
+advising perpetual union between <a name="page-339"></a> the two nations. Soon after the
+master of the ceremonies appeared in a red-feathered crown, which half
+encircled his head, having a red staff in his hand in the form of a
+cross, at the end of which hung a garland of black feathers. All the
+upper part of his body was painted red, excepting his arms, and from
+his girdle to his knees hung a fringe of feathers, the rows of which
+were alternately white and red. When he came before the hut of the
+deceased, he saluted him with a great <i>hoo</i>, and then began the cry of
+death, in which he was followed by the whole people. Immediately after
+the Stung Serpent was brought out on his bed of state, and was placed
+on a litter, which six of the guardians of the temple bore on their
+shoulders. The procession then began, the master of the ceremonies
+walking first, and after him the oldest warrior, holding in one hand
+the pole with the rings of canes, and in the other the pipe of war, a
+mark of the dignity of the deceased. Next followed the corpse, after
+which came those who were to die at the interment. The whole
+procession went three times round the hut of the deceased, and then
+those who carried the corpse proceeded in a circular kind of march,
+every turn intersecting the former, until they came to the temple. At
+every turn the dead child was thrown by its parents before the bearers
+of the corpse, that they might walk over it; and when the corpse was
+placed in the temple the victims were immediately strangled. The Stung
+Serpent and his two wives were buried in the same grave within the
+temple; the other victims were interred in different parts, and after
+the ceremony they burnt, according to custom, the hut of the deceased.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-340"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-III-section-V">SECTION V.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The arts and manufactures of the natives are so insignificant, when
+compared with ours, that I should not have thought of treating of
+them, if some persons of distinction had not desired me to say
+something of them, in order to shew the industry of those people, and
+how far invention could carry them, in supplying those wants which
+human nature is continually exposed to.</p>
+
+<p>As they would have frequent occasion for fire, the manner of lighting
+it at pleasure must have been one of the first things that they
+invented. Not having those means which we use, they bethought
+themselves of another ingenious method which they generally practise.
+They take a dry dead stick from a tree, about the thickness of their
+finger, and pressing one end against another dry piece of wood, they
+turn it round as swiftly as they can till they see the smoke appear,
+then blowing gently soon make the wood flame.</p>
+
+<p>Cutting instruments are almost continually wanted; but as they had no
+iron, which, of all metals, is the most useful in human society, they
+were obliged, with infinite pains, to form hatchets out of large
+flints, by sharpening their thin edge, and making a hole through them
+for receiving the handle. To cut down trees with these axes would have
+been almost an impracticable work; they were therefore obliged to
+light fires round the roots of them, and to cut away the charcoal as
+the fire eat into the tree. They supplied the want of knives for
+cutting their victuals with thin splits of a hard cane, which they
+could easily renew as they wore out.</p>
+
+
+<p>They made their bows of acacia wood, which is hard and easily cleft;
+and at first their bowstrings were made of the bark of the wood, but
+now they make them of the thongs of hides. Their arrows are made of a
+shrub that sends out long straight shoots; but they make some of small
+hard reeds: those that are intended for war, or against the buffalo,
+the deer, or large carp, are pointed with the sharp scale of the armed
+fish, which is neatly fastened to the head of the arrow with splits of
+cane and fish-glue.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-341"></a> The skins of the beasts which they killed in hunting naturally
+presented themselves for their covering; but they must be dressed
+however before they could be properly used. After much practice they
+at length discovered that the brain of any animal suffices to dress
+its skin. To sew those skins they use the tendons of animals beat and
+split into threads, and to pierce the skins they apply the bone of a
+heron's leg, sharpened like an awl.</p>
+
+<p>To defend themselves against the inclemencies of the weather, they
+built huts of wood, which were close and strong enough to resist the
+impetuosity of the wind. These huts are each a perfect square; none of
+them are less than fifteen feet square, and some of them are more than
+thirty feet in each of their fronts. They erect these huts in the
+following manner: they bring from the woods several young
+walnut-trees, about four inches in diameter, and thirteen or twenty
+feet high; they plant the strongest of these in the four corners, and
+the others fifteen inches from each other in straight lines, for the
+sides of the building; a pole is then laid horizontally along the
+sides in the inside, and all the poles are strongly fastened to it by
+split canes. Then the four corner poles are bent inwards till they all
+meet in the centre, where they are strongly fastened together; the
+side-poles are then bent in the same direction, and bound down to the
+others; after which they make a mortar of mud mixed with Spanish
+beard, with which they fill up all the chinks, leaving no opening but
+the door, and the mud they cover both outside and inside with mats
+made of the splits of cane. The roof is thatched with turf and straw
+intermixed, and over all is laid a mat of canes, which is fastened to
+the tops of the walls by the creeping plant. These huts will last
+twenty years without any repairs.</p>
+
+<p>The natives having once built for themselves fixed habitations, would
+next apply themselves to the cultivation of the ground. Accordingly,
+near all their habitations, they have fields of maiz, and of another
+nourishing grain called Choupichoul, which grows without culture. For
+dressing their fields they invented hoes, which are formed in the
+shape of an L, having the lower part flat and sharp; and to take the
+husk <a name="page-342"></a> from their corn they made large wooden mortars, by
+hollowing the trunks of trees with fire.</p>
+
+<p>To prepare their maiz for food, and likewise their venison and game,
+there was a necessity for dressing them over the fire, and for this
+purpose they bethought themselves of earthen ware, which is made by
+the women, who not only form the vessel, but dig up and mix the clay.
+In this they are tolerable artists; they make kettles of an
+extraordinary size, pitchers with a small opening, gallon bottles with
+long necks, pots or pitchers for their bear oil, which will hold forty
+pints; lastly, large and small plates in the French fashion: I had
+some made out of curiosity upon the model of my delf-ware, which were
+a very pretty red. For sifting the flour of their maiz, and for other
+uses, the natives make sieves of various finenesses of the splits of
+cane. To supply themselves with fish they make nets of the bark of the
+limetree; but the large fish they shoot with arrows.</p>
+
+<p>The beds of the natives are placed round the sides of their huts,
+about a foot and a half from the ground, and are formed in this
+manner. Six forked stakes support two poles, which are crossed by
+three others, over which canes are laid so close as to form an even
+surface, and upon these are laid several bear skins, which serve for
+the bed furniture; a buffalo's skin is the coverlet, and a sack stuft
+with Spanish beard is the bolster. The women sometimes add to this
+furniture of the bed mats wove of canes, dyed of three colours, which
+colours in the weaving are formed into various figures. These mats
+render the bottom of the bed still smoother, and in hot weather they
+remove the bear skins and lie upon them. Their seats or stools, which
+they seldom use, are about six or seven inches high, and the seat and
+feet are made of the same piece.</p>
+
+<p>The women likewise make a kind of hampers to carry corn, flesh, fish,
+or any other thing which they want to transport from one place to
+another; they are round, deeper than broad, and of all sizes. Here, as
+well as in other countries, the women take special care to lay up
+securely all their trinkets and finery. They make baskets with long
+lids that roll doubly over them, and in these they place their
+ear-rings and pendants, their <a name="page-343"></a> bracelets, garters, their ribbands
+for their hair, and their vermilion for painting themselves, if they
+have any, but when they have no vermilion they boil ochre, and paint
+themselves with that.</p>
+
+<p>The women also make the men's girdles and garters, and the collars for
+carrying their burdens. These collars are formed of two belts of the
+breadth of the hand of bear's skin, dressed so as to soften it, and
+these belts are joined together by long cross straps of the same
+leather, that serve to tie the bundles, which are oftener carried by
+the women than the men. One of the broad belts goes over their
+shoulders, and the other across their forehead, so that those two
+parts mutually ease each other.</p>
+
+<p>The women also make several works in embroidery with the skin of the
+porcupine, which is black and white, and is cut by them into thin
+threads, which they dye of different colours. Their designs greatly
+resemble those which we meet with on gothic architecture; they are
+formed of straight lines, which when they meet always cross each
+other, or turn off at square angles.</p>
+
+<p>The conveniences for passing rivers would soon be suggested to them by
+the floating of wood upon the water. Accordingly one of their methods
+of crossing rivers is upon floats of canes, which are called by them
+Cajeu, and are formed in this manner: They cut a great number of
+canes, which they tie up into faggots, part of which they fasten
+together side-ways, and over these they lay a row crossways, binding
+all close together, and then launching it into the water. For carrying
+a great number of men with their necessary baggage, they soon found it
+necessary to have other conveniences; and nothing appeared so proper
+for this as some of their large trees hollowed; of these they
+accordingly made their pettyaugres, which as I mentioned above are
+sometimes so large as to carry ten or twelve ton weight. These
+pettyaugres are conducted by short oars, called Pagaies, about six
+feet long, with broad points, which are not fastened to the vessel,
+but managed by the rowers like shovels.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-344"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-III-section-VI">SECTION VI.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their Meals and
+Fastings.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The natives of Louisiana, both men and women, wear a very thin dress
+in the summer. During the heat the men wear only a little apron of
+deer skin, dressed white or dyed black; but hardly any but chiefs wear
+black aprons. Those who live in the neighbourhood of the French
+settlements wear aprons of coarse limbourgs, a quarter of a yard
+broad, and the whole breadth of the cloth, or five quarters long;
+these aprons are fastened by a girdle about their waists, and tucked
+up between the thighs.
+ I
+During the heats the women wear only half a yard of limbourg stuff
+about their middle, which covers them down to the knees; or in place
+of that they use deer skin; and the rest of the body both in men and
+women is naked.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the mulberry-tree, or of
+the feathers of swans, turkies, or India ducks. The bark they take
+from young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have
+been cut down; after it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all
+the woody part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a
+second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the
+dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the coarseness
+of pack-thread, and weave them in the following manner: they plant
+two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, and having
+stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads
+of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious
+manner into a cloak of about a yard square with a wrought border round
+the edges.</p>
+
+<p>The young boys and girls go quite naked; but the girls at the age of
+eight or ten put on a little petticoat, which is a kind of fringe made
+of threads of mulberry bark. The boys do not wear any covering till
+they are twelve or thirteen years of age.</p>
+
+<p>Some women even in hot weather have a small cloak wrapt round like a
+waistcoat; but when the cold sets in, they wear a <a name="page-345"></a> second, the
+middle of which passes under the right arm, and the two ends are
+fastened over the left shoulder, so that the two arms are at liberty,
+and one of the breasts is covered. They wear nothing on their heads;
+their hair is suffered to grow to its full length, except in the
+fore-part, and it is tied in a cue behind in a kind of net made of
+mulberry threads. They carefully pick out all the hairs that grow upon
+any part of the body.</p>
+
+<p>The shoes of the men and women are of the same fashion, but they
+rarely wear any but when they travel. They are made of deer-skin, the
+sole and upper-leather of the same piece, which is sewed together on
+the upper part of the foot; they are cut about three inches longer
+than the foot, and are folded over the toes; the quarters are about
+nine inches high, and fasten round the leg like a buskin. The womens'
+ear-rings are made of the center part of a large shell, called burgo,
+which is about the thickness of one's little finger, and there is a
+hole in the ear about that size for holding it. Their necklaces are
+composed of several strings of longish or roundish kernel-stones,
+somewhat resembling porcelaine; and with the smallest of these
+kernel-stones they ornament their furs, garters, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>From their early youth the women get a streak pricked cross their
+nose; some of them have a streak pricked down the middle of their
+chin; others in different parts, especially the women of the nations
+who have the R in their language. I have seen some who were pricked
+all over the upper part of the body, not even excepting the breasts
+which are extremely sensible.</p>
+
+<p>In the cold weather the men cover themselves with a shirt made of two
+dressed deer-skins, which is more like a fur night-gown than a shirt:
+they likewise, at the same time, wear a kind of breeches, which cover
+both the thighs and the legs. If the weather be very severe, they
+throw over all a buffalo's skin, which is dressed with the wool on,
+and this they keep next to their body to increase the warmth. In the
+countries where they hunt beavers, they make robes of six skins of
+those animals sewed together.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-346"></a> The youths here are as much taken up about dress, and as fond of
+vying with each other in finery as in other countries; they paint
+themselves with vermilion very often; they deck themselves with
+bracelets made of the ribs of deer, which are bent by the means of
+boiling water, and when polished, look as fine as ivory; they wear
+necklaces like the women, and sometimes have a fan in their hand; they
+clip off the hair from the crown of the head, and there place a piece
+of swan's skin with the down on; to a few hairs that they leave on
+that part they fasten the finest white feathers that they can meet
+with; a part of their hair which is suffered to grow long, they weave
+into a cue, which hangs over their left ear.</p>
+
+<p>They likewise have their nose pricked, but no other part till they are
+warriors, and have performed some brave action, such as killing an
+enemy, and bringing off his scalp. Those who have signalized
+themselves by some gallant exploit, cause a tomahawk to be pricked on
+their left shoulder, underneath which is also pricked the hieroglyphic
+sign of the conquered nation. Whatever figure they intend to prick, is
+first traced on the skin with a bit of charcoal, and having fixed six
+needles in a piece of wood in two rows, in such a manner that they
+only stick out about the tenth part of an inch, they prick the skin
+all over the mark, and then rub charcoal dust over the part, which
+enters the punctures, and leaves a mark that can never be effaced.
+This pricking generally gives a fit of sickness to the patient, who is
+obliged for some time to live only on boiled maiz. The warriors also
+pierce the lower part of their ears, and make a hole an inch diameter,
+which they fill with iron wire. Besides these ear-rings they have a
+belt hung round with little bells, if they can purchase any from the
+French, so that they march more like mules than men. When they can get
+no bells, they fasten to their belts wild gourds with two or three
+pebbles in each. The chief ornament of the sovereigns, is their crown
+of feathers; this crown is composed of a black bonnet of net work,
+which is fastened to a red diadem about two inches broad. The diadem
+is embroidered with white kernel-stones, and surmounted with white
+feathers, which in the fore-part are about eight inches long, and half
+as much behind. This crown or feather hat makes a very pleasing
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-347"></a> All nations are not equally ingenious at inventing feasts,
+shews, and diversions, for employing the people agreeably, and filling
+up the void of their usual employments. The natives of Louisiana have
+invented but a very few diversions, and these perhaps serve their turn
+as well as a greater variety would do. The warriors practise a
+diversion which is called the game of <i>the pole</i>, at which only two play
+together at a time. Each has a pole about eight feet long, resembling
+a Roman f, and the game consists in rolling a flat round stone, about
+three inches diameter and an inch thick, with the edge somewhat
+sloping, and throwing the pole at the same time in such a manner, that
+when the stone rests, the pole may touch it or be near it. Both
+antagonists throw their poles at the same time, and he whose pole is
+nearest the stone counts one, and has the right of rolling the stone.
+The men fatigue themselves much at this game, as they run after their
+poles at every throw; and some of them are so bewitched by it, that
+they game away one piece of furniture after another. These gamesters
+however are very rare, and are greatly discountenanced by the rest of
+the people.</p>
+
+<p>The women play with small bits of cane, about eight or nine inches
+long. Three of these they hold loosely in one hand, and knock them to
+the ground with another; if two of them fall with the round side
+undermost, she that played counts one; but if only one, she counts
+nothing. They are ashamed to be seen or found playing; and as far as I
+could discover, they never played for any stake.</p>
+
+<p>The young people, especially the girls, have hardly any kind of
+diversion but that of the ball: this consists in tossing a ball from
+one to the other with the palm of the hand, which they perform with a
+tolerable address.</p>
+
+<p>When the natives meet with a Frenchman whom they know, they shake
+hands with him, incline their head a little, and say in their own
+language, "Are you there, my friend?" If he has no serious affair to
+propose to them, or if they themselves have nothing of consequence to
+say, they pursue their journey.</p>
+
+<p>If they happen to be going the same way with a French man, they never
+go before him, unless something of consequence <a name="page-348"></a> oblige them. When
+you enter into their hut, they welcome you with the word of
+salutation, which signifies "Are you there, my friend?" then shake
+hands with you, and pointing to a bed, desire you to sit down. A
+silence of a few minutes then ensues till the stranger begins to
+speak, when he is offered some victuals, and desired to eat. You must
+taste of what they offer you, otherwise they will imagine that you
+despise them.</p>
+
+<p>When the natives converse together, however numerous the assembly be,
+never more than one person speaks at once. If one of the company has
+any thing to say to another, he speaks so low that none of the rest
+hear him. Nobody is interrupted, even with the chiding of a child; and
+if the child be stubborn, it is removed elsewhere. In the council,
+when a point is deliberated upon and debated, they keep silence for a
+short time, and then they speak in their turns, no one offering to
+interrupt another.</p>
+
+<p>The natives being habituated to their own prudent custom, it is with
+the utmost difficulty they can keep from laughing, when they see
+several French men or French women together, and always several of
+them speaking at the same time. I had observed them for two years
+stifling a laugh on those occasions, and had often asked the reason of
+it, without receiving any satisfactory answer. At length I pressed one
+of them so earnestly to satisfy me, that after some excuses, he told
+me in their language, "Our people say, that when several Frenchmen are
+together, they speak all at once, like a flock of geese."</p>
+
+<p>All the nations whom I have known, and who inhabit from the sea as far
+as the Illinois, and even farther, which is a space of about fifteen
+hundred miles, carefully cultivate the maiz corn, which they make
+their principal subsistence. They make bread of it baked in cakes,
+another kind baked among the ashes, and another kind in water; they
+make of it also cold meal, roasted meal, gruel, which in this country
+is called Sagamity. This and the cold meal in my opinion are the two
+best dishes that are made of it; the others are only for a change.
+They eat the Sagamity as we eat soup, with a spoon made of a buffalo's
+horn. When they eat flesh or fish they use bread. They likewise use
+two kinds of millet, which they shell in the manner <a name="page-349"></a> of rice; one
+of these is called Choupichoul, and the other Widlogouil, and they
+both grow almost without any cultivation.</p>
+
+<p>In a scarcity of these kinds of corn, they have recourse to
+earth-nuts, which they find in the woods; but they never use these or
+chestnuts but when necessity obliges them.</p>
+
+<p>The flesh-meats they usually eat are the buffalo, the deer, the bear,
+and the dog: they eat of all kind of water-fowl and fish; but they
+have no other way of dressing their meat but by roasting or boiling.
+The following is their manner of roasting their meat when they are in
+the fields hunting: they plant a stake in the ground sloping towards
+the fire, and on the point of this stake they spit their meat, which
+they turn from time to time. To preserve what they do not use, they
+cut it into thin pieces, which they dry, or rather half-roast, upon a
+grate made of canes placed cross-ways. They never eat raw flesh, as so
+many people have falsely imagined, and they limit themselves to no set
+hours for their meals, but eat whenever they are hungry; so that we
+seldom see several of them eating at once, unless at their feasts,
+when they all eat off the same plate, except the women, the boys, and
+the young girls, who have each a plate to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When the natives are sick, they neither eat flesh nor fish, but take
+Sagamity boiled in the broth of meat. When a man falls sick, his wife
+sleeps with the woman in the next bed to him, and the husband of that
+woman goes elsewhere. The natives, when they eat with Frenchmen, taste
+of nothing but of pure roast and boiled: they eat no sallad, and
+nothing raw but fruit. Their drink is pure water or pure brandy, but
+they dislike wine and all made liquors.</p>
+
+<p>Having mentioned their manner of feeding, I shall say a word or two of
+their manner of fasting. When they want rain, or when they desire hot
+weather for ripening their corn, they address themselves to the old
+man who has the greatest character for living wisely, and they intreat
+him to invoke the aerial spirits, in order to obtain what they demand.
+This old man, who never refuses his countrymen's request, prepares to
+fast for nine days together. He orders his wife to withdraw, and <a name="page-350"></a>
+during the whole time he eats nothing but a dish of gruel boiled in
+water, without salt, which is brought him once a day by his wife after
+sun-set. They never will accept of any reward for this service, that
+the spirits may not be angry with them.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-III-section-VII">SECTION VII.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the</i> Indian <i>Art of War.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>I will now present the reader with their manner of making war, which
+is uniformly the same among all the nations. When one nation intends
+to make war upon another in all the forms, they hold a council of war,
+which is composed of the oldest and bravest warriors. It is to be
+supposed that this nation has been insulted, that the other has
+committed some hostilities against it, or that they have disturbed
+them in their hunting country, coming thither to steal their game, as
+they call it. There is always some pretence for declaring war; and
+this pretence, whether true or false, is explained by the war-chief,
+who omits no circumstance that may excite his nation to take up arms.</p>
+
+<p>After he has explained the reasons for the war, the old men debate the
+question in presence of the great chief or sovereign of the nation.
+This sovereign and the great chief of war are only witnesses of the
+debate; for the opinion of the old men always prevails, and the two
+chiefs voluntarily agree to it, from their respect and their great
+regard for the experience and wisdom of those venerable counsellors.</p>
+
+<p>If it is resolved to demand from the other nation the reason of the
+hostilities committed by them, they name one of their bravest and most
+eloquent warriors, as a second to their speech-maker or chancellor,
+who is to carry the pipe of peace, and address that nation. These two
+are accompanied by a troop of the bravest warriors, so that the
+embassy has the appearance of a warlike expedition; and, if
+satisfaction is not given, sometimes ends in one. The ambassadors
+carry no presents with them, to shew that they do not intend to
+supplicate or beg a peace: they take with them only the pipe of peace,
+<a name="page-351"></a> as a proof that they come as friends. The embassy is always well
+received, entertained in the best manner, and kept as long as
+possible; and if the other nation is not inclined to begin a war, they
+make very large presents to the ambassadors, and all their retinue, to
+make up for the losses which their nation complains of.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxviii"><img src="images/illus38.png" alt="Bringing the Pipe of Peace" height="377" width="219"></a><br>
+<i>Bringing the Pipe of Peace</i></p>
+
+<p>If a nation begins actual hostilities without any formalities, the
+nation invaded is generally assisted by several allies, <a name="page-352"></a> keeps
+itself on the defensive, gives orders to those who live at a great
+distance to join the main body of the nation, prepares logs for
+building a fort, and every morning sends some warriors out upon the
+scout, choosing for that purpose those who trust more to their heels
+than their heart.</p>
+
+<p>The assistance of the allies is generally solicited by the pipe of
+peace, the stalk of which is about four feet and a half long, and is
+covered all over with the skin of a duck's neck, the feathers of which
+are glossy and of various colours. To this pipe is fastened a fan made
+of the feathers of white eagles, the ends of which are black, and are
+ornamented with a tuft dyed a beautiful red.</p>
+
+<p>When the allies are assembled a general council is held in presence of
+the sovereign, and is composed of the great war-chief, the war-chiefs
+of the allies, and all the old warriors. The great war-chief opens the
+assembly with a speech, in which he exhorts them to take vengeance of
+the insults they have received; and after the point is debated, and
+the war agreed upon, all the warriors go a hunting to procure game for
+the war-feast, which, as well as the war-dance, lasts three days.</p>
+
+<p>The natives distinguish the warriors into three classes, namely, true
+warriors, who have always given proofs of their courage; common
+warriors, and apprentice-warriors. They likewise divide our military
+men into the two classes of true warriors and young warriors. By the
+former they mean the settlers, of whom the greatest part, upon their
+arrival, were soldiers, who being now perfectly acquainted with the
+tricks and wiles of the natives, practice them upon their enemy, whom
+they do not greatly fear. The young warriors are the soldiers of the
+regular troops, as the companies are generally composed of young men,
+who are ignorant of the stratagems used by the natives in time of war.</p>
+
+<p>When the war-feast is ready the warriors repair to it, painted from
+head to foot with stripes of different colours. They have nothing on
+but their belt, from whence hangs their apron, their bells, or their
+rattling gourds, and their tomahawk. In their right hand they have a
+bow, and those of the <a name="page-353"></a> north in their left carry a buckler formed
+of two round pieces of buffalo's hide sewed together.</p>
+
+<p>The feast is kept in a meadow, the grass of which is mowed to a great
+extent; there the dishes, which are of hollow wood, are placed round
+in circles of about twelve or fifteen feet diameter, and the number of
+those circular tables is proportioned to the largeness of the
+assembly, in the midst of whom is placed the pipe of war upon the end
+of a pole seven or eight feet high. At the foot of this pole, in the
+middle of a circle is placed the chief dish of all, which is a large
+dog roasted whole; the other plates are ranged circularly by threes;
+one of these contains maiz boiled in broth like gruel, another roasted
+deer's flesh, and the other boiled. They all begin with eating of the
+dog, to denote their fidelity and attachment to their chief; but
+before they taste of any thing, an old warrior, who, on account of his
+great age, is not able to accompany the rest to the war, makes an
+harangue to the warriors, and by recounting his own exploits, excites
+them to act with bravery against the enemy. All the warriors then,
+according to their rank, smoke in the pipe of war, after which they
+begin their repast; but while they eat, they keep walking continually,
+to signify that a warrior ought to be always in action and upon his
+guard.</p>
+
+<p>While they are thus employed, one of the young men goes behind a bush
+about two hundred paces off, and raises the cry of death. Instantly
+all the warriors seize their arms, and run to the place whence the cry
+comes; and when they are near it the young warrior shews himself
+again, raises the cry of death, and is answered by all the rest, who
+then return to the feast, and take up the victuals which in their
+hurry they had thrown upon the ground. The same alarm is given two
+other times, and the warriors each time act as at first. The war drink
+then goes round, which is a heady liquor drawn from the leaves of the
+Cassine after they have been a long while boiled. The feast being
+finished, they all assemble about fifty paces from a large post, which
+represents the enemy; and this each of them in his turn runs up to,
+and strikes with his tomahawk, recounting at the same time all his
+former brave exploits, and sometimes boasting of valorous deeds that
+he never performed. But <a name="page-354"></a> they have the complaisance to each other
+to pardon this gasconading.</p>
+
+<p>All of them having successively struck the post, they begin the dance
+of war with their arms in their hands; and this dance and the
+war-feast are celebrated for three days together, after which they set
+out for the war. The women some time before are employed in preparing
+victuals for their husbands, and the old men in engraving upon bark
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that attacks, and of their number
+of warriors.</p>
+
+<p>Their manner of making war is to attack by surprize; accordingly, when
+they draw near to any of the enemy's villages, they march only in the
+night; and that they may not be discovered, raise up the grass over
+which they trod. One half of the warriors watch, while the other half
+sleep in the thickest and most unfrequented part of the wood.</p>
+
+<p>If any of their scouts can discover a hut of the enemy detached from
+the rest, they all surround it about day-break, and some of the
+warriors entering, endeavor to knock the people on the head as they
+awake, or take some man prisoner. Having scalped the dead, they carry
+off the women and children prisoners, and place against a tree near
+the hut the hieroglyphic picture, before which they plant two arrows
+with their points crossing each other. Instantly they retreat into the
+woods, and make great turnings to conceal their route.</p>
+
+<p>The women and children whom they take prisoners are made slaves. But
+if they take a man prisoner the joy is universal, and the glory of
+their nation is at its height. The warriors, when they draw near to
+their own villages after an expedition, raise the cry of war three
+times successively; and if they have a man prisoner with them,
+immediately go and look for three poles to torture him upon; which,
+however weary or hungry they be, must be provided before they take any
+refreshment. When they have provided those poles, and tied the
+prisoner to them, they may then go and take some victuals. The poles
+are about ten feet long; two of them are planted upright in the ground
+at a proper distance, and the other is cut through in the middle, and
+the two pieces are fastened crossways <a name="page-355"></a> to the other two, so that
+they form a square about five feet every way. The prisoner being first
+scalped by the person who took him, is tied to this square, his hands
+to the upper part, and his feet to the lower, in such a manner that he
+forms the figure of a St. Andrew's cross. The young men in the mean
+time having prepared several bundles of canes, set fire to them; and
+several of the warriors taking those flaming canes, burn the prisoner
+in different parts of his body, while others burn him in other parts
+with their tobacco-pipes. The patience of prisoners in those miserable
+circumstances is altogether astonishing. No cries or lamentations
+proceed from them; and some have been known to suffer tortures, and
+sing for three days and nights without intermission. Sometimes it
+happens that a young woman who has lost her husband in the war, asks
+the prisoner to supply the room of the deceased, and her request is
+immediately granted.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxix"><img src="images/illus39.png" alt="Torture of Prisoners&mdash;INSET: Plan of Fort" height="179" width="324"></a><br>
+<i>Torture of Prisoners</i>&mdash;INSET: <i>Plan of Fort</i></p>
+
+<p>I mentioned above that when one nation declares war against another,
+they leave a picture near one of their villages. That picture is
+designed in the following manner. On the top towards the right hand is
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that declares war; next is a naked
+man with a tomahawk in his hand; and then an arrow pointed against a
+woman, who is flying away, her hair floating behind her in the air;
+immediately <a name="page-356"></a> before this woman is the proper emblem of the nation
+against whom the war is declared. All this is on one line; and below
+is drawn the figure of the moon, which is followed by one I, or more;
+and a man is here represented, before whom is a number of arrows which
+seem to pierce a woman who is running away. By this is denoted, when
+such a moon is so many days old, they will come in great numbers and
+attack such a nation; but this lower part of the picture does not
+always carry true intelligence. The nation that has offered the
+insult, or commenced hostilities wrongfully, rarely finds any allies
+even among those nations who call them brothers.</p>
+
+<p>In carrying on a war they have no such thing as pitched battles, or
+carrying on of sieges; all the mischief they do each other, is by
+surprise and skirmishing, and in this their courage and address
+consists. Among them flight is no ways shameful; their bravery lies
+often in their legs; and to kill a man asleep or at unawares, is quite
+as honourable among them, as to gain a signal victory after a stout
+battle.</p>
+
+<p>When a nation is too weak to defend itself in the field, they
+endeavour to protect themselves by a fort. This fort is built
+circularly of two rows of large logs of wood, the logs of the inner
+row being opposite to the joining of the logs of the outer row. These
+logs are about fifteen feet long, five feet of which are sunk in the
+ground. The outer logs are about two feet thick, and the inner about
+half as much. At every forty paces along the wall a circular tower
+jets out; and at the entrance of the fort, which is always next to the
+river, the two ends of the wall pass beyond each other, and leave a
+side opening. In the middle of the fort stands a tree with its
+branches lopt off within six or eight inches of the trunk, and this
+serves for a watch-tower. Round this tree are some huts, for the
+protection of the women and children from random arrows; but
+notwithstanding all these precautions for defense, if the besieged are
+but hindered from coming out to water, they are soon obliged to
+retire.</p>
+
+<p>When a nation finds itself no longer able to oppose its enemy, the
+chiefs send a pipe of peace to a neutral nation, and solicit their
+mediation, which is generally successful, the vanquished <a name="page-357"></a> nation
+sheltering themselves under the name of the mediators, and for the
+future making but one nation with them.</p>
+
+<p>Here it may be observed that when they go to attack others, it
+sometimes happens that they lose some of their own warriors. In that
+case, they immediately, if possible, scalp their dead friends, to
+hinder the enemy from having that subject of triumph. Moreover, when
+they return home, whether as victors or otherwise, the great warchief
+pays to the respective families for those whom he does, not bring back
+with him; which renders the chiefs very careful of the lives of their
+warriors.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="book-IV-chapter-IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<p><i>Of the Negroes of</i> Louisiana.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-IV-section-I">SECTION I.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distemper, and the Manner of curing
+them.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Having finished my account of the natives of Louisiana, I shall
+conclude this treatise with some observations relating to the negroes;
+who, in the lower part of the province especially, perform all the
+labours of agriculture. On that account I have thought proper to give
+some instructions concerning them, for the benefit of those who are
+inclined to settle in that province.</p>
+
+<p>The negroes must be governed differently from the Europeans; not
+because they are black, nor because they are slaves; but because they
+think differently from the white men.</p>
+
+<p>First, they imbibe a prejudice from their infancy, that the white men
+buy them for no other purpose but to drink their blood; which is owing
+to this, that when the first negroes saw the Europeans drink claret,
+they imagined it was blood, as that wine is of a deep red colour; so
+that nothing but the actual experience of the contrary can eradicate
+the false opinion. But as none of those slaves who have had that
+experience ever return to their own country, the same prejudice
+continues to subsist on the coast of Guinea where we purchase them.
+Some <a name="page-358"></a> who are strangers to the manner of thinking that prevails
+among the negroes, may perhaps think that the above remark is of no
+consequence, in respect to those slaves who are already sold to the
+French. There have been instances however of bad consequences flowing
+from this prejudice; especially if the negroes found no old slave of
+their own country upon their first arrival in our colonies. Some of
+them have killed or drowned themselves, several of them have deserted
+(which they call making themselves Marons) and all this from an
+apprehension that the white men were going to drink their blood. When
+they desert they believe they can get back to their own country by
+going round the sea, and may live in the woods upon the fruits, which
+they imagine are as common every where as with them.</p>
+
+<p>They are very superstitious, and are much attached to their
+prejudices, and little toys which they call <i>gris, gris</i>. It would be
+improper therefore to take them from them, or even speak of them to
+them; for they would believe themselves undone, if they were stripped
+of those trinkets. The old negroes soon make them lose conceit of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing you ought to do when you purchase negroes, is to cause
+them to be examined by a skilful surgeon and an honest man, to
+discover if they have the venereal or any other distemper. When they
+are viewed, both men and women are stripped naked as the hand, and are
+carefully examined from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet,
+then between the toes and between the fingers, in the mouth, in the
+ears, not excepting even the parts naturally concealed, though then
+exposed to view. You must ask your examining surgeon if he is
+acquainted with the distemper of the yaws, which is the virus of
+Guinea, and incurable by a great many French surgeons, though very
+skilful in the management of European distempers. Be careful not to be
+deceived in this point; for your surgeon may be deceived himself;
+therefore attend at the examination yourself, and observe carefully
+over all the body of the negro, whether you can discover any parts of
+the skin, which though black like the rest, are however as smooth as a
+looking-glass, without any tumor or rising. Such spots may be easily
+discovered; <a name="page-359"></a> for the skin of a person who goes naked is usually
+all over wrinkles. Wherefore if you see such marks you must reject the
+negro, whether man or woman. There are always experienced surgeons at
+the sale of new negroes, who purchase them; and many of those surgeons
+have made fortunes by that means; but they generally keep their secret
+to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Another mortal distemper with which many negroes from Guinea are
+attacked, is the scurvy. It discovers itself by the gums, but
+sometimes it is so inveterate as to appear outwardly, in which case it
+is generally fatal. If any of my readers shall have the misfortune to
+have a negro attacked with one of those distempers, I will now teach
+him how to save him, by putting him in a way of being radically cured
+by the surgeons; for I have no inclination to fall out with those
+gentlemen. I learned this secret from a negro physician, who was upon
+the king's plantation, when I took the superintendence of it.</p>
+
+<p>You must never put an iron instrument into the yaw; such an
+application would be certain death. In order to open the yaw, you take
+iron rust reduced to an impalpable powder, and passed through a fine
+search; you afterwards mix that powder with citron juice till it be of
+the consistence of an ointment, which you spread upon a linen cloth
+greased with hog's grease, or fresh lard without salt, for want of a
+better. You lay the plastier upon the yaw, and renew it evening and
+morning, which will open the yaw in a very short time without any
+incision.</p>
+
+<p>The opening being once made, you take about the bulk of a goose's egg
+of hog's lard without salt, in which you incorporate about an ounce of
+good terebinthine; after which take a quantity of powdered verdigris,
+and soak it half a day in good vinegar, which you must then pour off
+gently with all the scum that floats at top. Drop a cloth all over
+with the verdigris that remains, and upon that apply your last
+ointment. All these operations are performed without the assistance of
+fire. The whole ointment being well mixed with a spatula, you dress
+the yaw with it; after that put your negro into a copious sweat, and
+he will be cured. Take special care that your surgeon uses no
+mercurial medicine, as I have seen; for that will occasion the death
+of the patient.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-360"></a> The scurvy is no less to be dreaded than the yaws; nevertheless
+you may get the better of it, by adhering exactly to the following
+prescription: take some scurvy-grass, if you have any plants of it,
+some ground-ivy, called by some St. John's wort, water-cresses from a
+spring or brook, and for want of that, wild cresses; take these three
+herbs, or the two last, if you have no scurvy-grass; pound them, and
+mix them with citron-juice, to make of them a soft paste, which the
+patient must keep upon both his gums till they be clean, at all times
+but when he is eating. In the mean while he must be suffered to drink
+nothing but an infusion of the herbs above named. You pound two
+handfuls of them, roots and all, after washing off any earth that may
+be upon the roots or leaves; to these you join a fresh citron, cut
+into slices. Having pounded all together, you then steep them in an
+earthen pan in a pint of pure water of the measure of Paris; after
+that you add about the size of a walnut of powdered and purified
+saltpetre, and to make it a little relishing to the negro, you add
+some powder sugar. After the water has stood one night, you squeeze
+out the herbs pretty strongly. The whole is performed cold, or without
+fire. Such is the dose for a bottle of water Paris measure; but as the
+patient ought to drink two pints a day, you may make several pints at
+a time in the above proportion.</p>
+
+<p>In these two distempers the patients must be supported with good
+nourishment, and made to sweat copiously. It would be a mistake to
+think that they ought to be kept to a spare diet; you must give them
+nourishing food, but a little at a time. A negro can no more than any
+other person support remedies upon bad food, and still less upon a
+spare diet; but the quantity must be proportioned to the state of the
+patient, and the nature of the distemper. Besides, good food makes the
+best part of the remedy to those who in common are but poorly fed. The
+negro who taught me these two remedies, observing the great care I
+took of both the negro men and negro women, taught me likewise the
+cure of all the distempers to which the women are subject; for the
+negro women are as liable to diseases as the white women.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page-361"></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4><a name="book-IV-chapter-IV-section-II">SECTION II.</a></h4>
+
+<p><i>Of the Manner of governing the Negroes.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>When a negro man or woman comes home to you, it is proper to caress
+them, to give them something good to eat, with a glass of brandy; it
+is best to dress them the same day, to give them something to sleep
+on, and a covering. I suppose the others have been treated in the same
+manner; for those marks of humanity flatter them, and attach them to
+their masters. If they are fatigued or weakened by a journey, or by
+any distempers, make them work little; but keep them always busy as
+long as they are able to do any thing, never suffering them to be
+idle, but when they are at their meals. Take care of them when they
+are sick, and give attention both to their remedies and their food,
+which last ought then to be more nourishing than what they usually
+subsist upon. It is your interest so to do, both for their
+preservation, and to attach them more closely to you; for though many
+Frenchmen say that negroes are ungrateful, I have experienced that it
+is very easy to render them much attached to you by good treatment,
+and by doing them justice, as I shall mention afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>If a negro woman lies-in, cause her to be taken care of in every thing
+that her condition makes necessary, and let your wife, if you have
+one, not disdain to take the immediate care of her herself, or at
+least have an eye over her.</p>
+
+<p>A Christian ought to take care that the children be baptised and
+instructed, since they have an immortal soul. The mother ought then to
+receive half a ration more than usual, and a quart of milk a day, to
+assist her to nurse her child.</p>
+
+<p>Prudence requires that your negroes be lodged at a proper distance, to
+prevent them from being troublesome or offensive; but at the same time
+near enough for your conveniently observing what passes among them.
+When I say that they ought not to be placed so near your habitation as
+to be offensive, I mean by that the smell which is natural to some
+nations of negroes, such as the Congos, the Angolas, the Aradas, and
+others. On this account it is proper to have in their camp a bathing
+place formed by thick planks, buried in the earth about a foot or a
+<a name="page-362"></a> foot and a half at most, and never more water in it than about
+that depth, for fear lest the children should drown themselves in it;
+it ought likewise to have an edge, that the little children may not
+have access to it, and there ought to be a pond without the camp to
+supply it with water and keep fish. The negro camp ought to be
+inclosed all round with palisades, and to have a door to shut with a
+lock and key. The huts ought to be detached from each other, for fear
+of fire, and to be built in direct lines, both for the sake of
+neatness, and in order to know easily the hut of each negro. But that
+you may be as little incommoded as possible with their natural smell,
+you must have the precaution to place the negro camp to the north or
+north-east of your house, as the winds that blow from these quarters
+are not so warm as the others, and it is only when the negroes are
+warm that they send forth a disagreeable smell.</p>
+
+<p>The negroes that have the worst smell are those that are the least
+black; and what I have said of their bad smell, ought to warn you to
+keep always on the windward side of them when you visit them at their
+work; never to suffer them to come near your children, who, exclusive
+of the bad smell, can learn nothing good from them, either as to
+morals, education, or language.</p>
+
+<p>From what I have said, I conclude that a French father and his wife
+are great enemies to their posterity when they give their children
+such nurses. For the milk being the purest blood of the woman, one
+must be a step-mother indeed to give her child to a negro nurse in
+such a country as Louisiana, where the mother has all conveniences of
+being served, of accommodating and carrying their children, who by
+that means may be always under their eyes. The mother then has nothing
+else to do but to give the breast to her child.</p>
+
+<p>I have no inclination to employ my pen in censuring the over-delicacy
+and selfishness of the women, who thus sacrifice their children; it
+may, without further illustration, be easily perceived how much
+society is interested in this affair. I shall only say, that for any
+kind of service whatever about the house, I would advise no other kind
+of negroes, either young or old, but Senegals, called among themselves
+Diolaufs, because of all <a name="page-363"></a> the negroes I have known, these have
+the purest blood; they have more fidelity and a better understanding
+than the rest, and are consequently fitter for learning a trade, or
+for menial services. It is true they are not so strong as the others
+for the labours of the field, and for bearing the great heats.</p>
+
+<p>The Senegals however are the blackest, and I never saw any who had a
+bad smell. They are very grateful; and when one knows how to attach
+them to him, they have been found to sacrifice their own life to save
+that of their master. They are good commanders over other negroes,
+both on account of their fidelity and gratitude, and because they seem
+to be born for commanding. As they are high-minded, they may be easily
+encouraged to learn a trade, or to serve in the house, by the
+distinction they will thereby acquire over the other negroes, and the
+neatness of dress which that condition will entitle them to.</p>
+
+<p>When a settler wants to make a fortune, and manage his plantation with
+oeconomy, he ought to prefer his interest to his pleasure, and only
+take the last by snatches. He ought to be the first up and the last
+a-bed, that he may have an eye over every thing that passes in his
+plantation. It is certainly his interest that his negroes labour a
+good deal: but it ought to be an equal and moderate labour, for
+violent and continual labours would soon exhaust and ruin them;
+whereas by keeping them always moderately employed, they neither
+exhaust their strength nor ruin their constitution. By this they are
+kept in good health, and labour longer, and with more good will:
+besides it must be allowed that the day is long enough for an
+assiduous labourer to deserve the repose of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>To accustom them to labour in this manner I observed the following
+method: I took care to provide one piece of work for them before
+another was done, and I informed their commander or driver in their
+presence, that they might not lose time, some in coming to ask what
+they were to do, and others in waiting for an answer. Besides I went
+several times a day to view them, by roads which they did not expect,
+pretending to be going a hunting or coming from it. If I observed them
+idle, I reprimanded them, and if when they saw me coming, they wrought
+too hard, I told them that they fatigued themselves, <a name="page-364"></a> and that
+they could not continue at such hard labour during the whole day,
+without being harassed, which I did not want.</p>
+
+<p>When I surprised them singing at their work, and perceived that they
+had discovered me, I said to them chearfully, Courage, my boys, I love
+to see you merry at your work; but do not sing so loud, that you may
+not fatigue yourselves, and at night you shall have a cup of Tafia (or
+rum) to give you strength and spirits. One cannot believe the effect
+such a discourse would have upon their spirits, which was easily
+discernible from the chearfulness upon their countenances, and their
+ardour at work.</p>
+
+<p>If it be necessary not to pass over any essential fault in the
+negroes, it is no less necessary never to punish them but when they
+have deserved it, after a serious enquiry and examination supported by
+an absolute certainty, unless you happen to catch them in the fact.
+But when you are fully convinced of the crime, by no means pardon them
+upon any assurances or protestations of theirs, or upon the
+solicitations of others; but punish them in proportion to the fault
+they have done, yet always with humanity, that they may themselves be
+brought to confess that they have deserved the punishment they have
+received. A Christian is unworthy of that name when he punishes with
+cruelty, as is done to my knowledge in a certain colony, to such a
+degree that they entertain their guests with such spectacles, which
+have more of barbarity than humanity in them. When a negro comes from
+being whipped, cause the sore parts to be washed with vinegar mixed
+with salt, Jamaica pepper, which grows in the garden, and even a
+little gun-powder.</p>
+
+<p>As we know from experience that most men of a low extraction, and
+without education, are subject to thieving in their necessities, it is
+not at all surprising to see negroes thieves, when they are in want of
+every thing, as I have seen many badly fed, badly cloathed, and having
+nothing to lie upon but the ground. I shall make but one reflection.
+If they are slaves, it is also true that they are men, and capable of
+becoming Christians: besides, it is your intention to draw advantage
+from them, is it not therefore reasonable to take all the care of
+<a name="page-365"></a> them that you can? We see all those who understand the
+government of horses give an extraordinary attention to them, whether
+they be intended for the saddle or the draught. In the cold season
+they are well covered and kept in warm stables. In the summer they
+have a cloth thrown over them, to keep them from the dust, and at all
+times good litter to lie upon. Every morning their dung is carried
+away, and they are well curried and combed. If you ask those masters,
+why they bestow so much pains upon beasts? they will tell you, that,
+to make a horse serviceable to you, you must take a good deal of care
+of him, and that it is for the interest of the person to whom a horse
+belongs, so to do. After this example, can one hope for labour from
+negroes, who very often are in want of necessaries? Can one expect
+fidelity from a man, who is denied what he stands most in need of?
+When one sees a negro, who labours hard and with much assiduity, it is
+common to say to him, by way of encouragement, that they are well
+pleased with him, and that he is a good negro. But when any of them,
+who understand our language, are so complimented, they very properly
+reply, <i>Masser, when negre be much fed, negre work much; when negre has
+good masser, negre be good.</i></p>
+
+<p>If I advise the planters to take great care of their negroes, I at the
+same time shew them that their interest is connected in that with
+their humanity. But I do no less advise them always to distrust them,
+without seeming to fear them, because it is as dangerous to shew a
+concealed enemy that you fear him, as to do him an injury.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore make it your constant custom to shut your doors securely,
+and not to suffer any negro to sleep in the house with you, and have
+it in their power to open your door. Visit your negroes from time to
+time, at night and on days and hours when they least expect you, in
+order to keep them always in fear of being found absent from their
+huts. Endeavour to assign each of them a wife, to keep clear of
+debauchery and its bad consequences. It is necessary that the negroes
+have wives, and you ought to know that nothing attaches them so much
+to a plantation as children. But above all do not suffer any of them
+to abandon his wife, when he has once made choice of one <a name="page-366"></a> in your
+presence. Prohibit all fighting under pain of the lash, otherwise the
+women will often raise squabbles among the men.</p>
+
+<p>Do not suffer your negroes to carry their children to the field with
+them, when they begin to walk, as they only spoil the plants and take
+off the mothers from their work. If you have a few negro children, it
+is better to employ an old negro woman to keep them in the camp, with
+whom the mothers may leave something for their children to eat. This
+you will find to be the most profitable way. Above all do not suffer
+the mothers ever to carry them to the edge of the water, where there
+is too much to be feared.</p>
+
+<p>For the better subsistence of your negroes, you ought every week to
+give them a small quantity of salt and of herbs of your garden, to
+give a better relish to their Couscou, which is a dish made of the
+meal of rice or maiz soaked in broth.</p>
+
+<p>If you have any old negro, or one in weak health, employ him in
+fishing both for yourself and your negroes. His labour will be well
+worth his subsistence.</p>
+
+<p>It is moreover for your own interest to give your negroes a small
+piece of waste ground to improve at the end of your own, and to engage
+them to cultivate it for their own profit, that they may be able to
+dress a little better, by selling the produce of it, which you ought
+to buy from them upon fair and just terms. It were better that they
+should employ themselves in cultivating that field on Sundays, when
+they are not Christians, than do worse. In a word, nothing is more to
+be dreaded than to see the negroes assemble together on Sundays,
+since, under pretence of Calinda or the dance, they sometimes get
+together to the number of three or four hundred, and make a kind of
+Sabbath, which it is always prudent to avoid; for it is in those
+tumultuous meetings that they sell what they have stolen to one
+another, and commit many crimes. In these likewise they plot their
+rebellions.</p>
+
+<p>To conclude, one may, by attention and humanity, easily manage
+negroes; and, as an inducement, one has the satisfaction to draw great
+advantage from their labours.</p>
+
+<p>[THE END]</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="index">INDEX</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>Index</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Abeikas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-293">293</a><br>
+Acacia Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-222">222</a><br>
+Achechy&mdash;<a href="#page-237">237</a><br>
+Adaies Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-9">9</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Post of, <a href="#page-54">54</a><br>
+Agriculture, Indian&mdash;<a href="#page-341">341</a><br>
+Aiaouez Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>, <a href="#page-62">62</a>; <a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-66">66</a>; <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Alaron, Martin de&mdash;<a href="#page-9">9</a>, <a href="#page-10">10</a><br>
+Algonquins&mdash;<a href="#page-93">93</a><br>
+Alder&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Alibamous Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-293">293</a><br>
+Alibamous River&mdash;<a href="#page-135">135</a><br>
+Alligator&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;slave girl kills, <a href="#page-19">19</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;author kills large one, <a href="#page-22">22</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-253">253</a>-<a href="#page-255">255</a><br>
+Amite River&mdash;<a href="#page-113">113</a><br>
+Ants&mdash;<a href="#page-272">272</a>; <a href="#page-273">273</a><br>
+Aplaches Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-293">293</a><br>
+Apples, wild&mdash;<a href="#page-212">212</a><br>
+Aquelou-Pissas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-18">18</a>; <a href="#page-297">297</a><br>
+Arkansas&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;German colonists there, <a href="#page-29">29</a>; <a href="#page-88">88</a><br>
+Arkansas Indians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;mate with Canadians, <a href="#page-4">4</a>; <a href="#page-57">57</a>; <a href="#page-303">303</a><br>
+Arkansas River&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;reached by Tonti, <a href="#page-4">4</a>; <a href="#page-112">112</a>; <a href="#page-113">113</a>; <a href="#page-153">153</a>-<a href="#page-154">154</a><br>
+Armed-fish&mdash;<a href="#page-276">276</a>-<a href="#page-277">277</a><br>
+Ascension Bay&mdash;<a href="#page-114">114</a>; <a href="#page-139">139</a><br>
+Ash&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Aspen&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Assinais Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-5">5</a>-<a href="#page-9">9</a><br>
+Attakapas Indians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cannibals, <a href="#page-302">302</a><br>
+Avoyelles Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-149">149</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-302">302</a>-<a href="#page-303">303</a><br>
+Ayac Shrub&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a></p>
+
+<p>Balers, Marquis of&mdash;<a href="#page-9">9</a><br>
+Barataria&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a><br>
+Barbel, description of&mdash;<a href="#page-274">274</a><br>
+Barley&mdash;<a href="#page-203">203</a><br>
+Baton Rouge&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;named after a cypress tree, <a href="#page-217">217</a><br>
+Bay of St. Bernard&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a><br>
+Bay of St. Esprit&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+Bay of St. Louis&mdash;<a href="#page-16">16</a>; <a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-114">114</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lands around, <a href="#page-138">138</a><br>
+Bayou Choupic&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-18">18</a><br>
+Bayou Goula&mdash;<a href="#page-141">141</a><br>
+Bayou-Ogoulas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-302">302</a><br>
+Bayou St. John&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-18">18</a>; <a href="#page-49">49</a>; <a href="#page-52">52</a><br>
+Beans&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cultivation in La., <a href="#page-204">204</a><br>
+Bears&mdash;<a href="#page-132">132</a>; <a href="#page-133">133</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-245">245</a>-<a href="#page-249">249</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feast of, <a href="#page-324">324</a><br>
+Beavers&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-127">127</a>-<a href="#page-131">131</a><br>
+Bec-croche&mdash;<a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+Bees&mdash;<a href="#page-271">271</a><br>
+Bienville&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;becomes Gov. Gen. of La., <a href="#page-10">10</a>-<a href="#page-11">11</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;founds New Orleans, <a href="#page-15">15</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;breeds hogs, <a href="#page-16">16</a>; <a href="#page-28">28</a>; <a href="#page-38">38</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;defeats Natchez Indians, <a href="#page-39">39</a>; <a href="#page-42">42</a>; <a href="#page-49">49</a>; <a href="#page-71">71</a>; <a href="#page-87">87</a>; <a href="#page-88">88</a>; <a href="#page-92">92</a>; <a href="#page-93">93</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;war against Chicasaws, <a href="#page-94">94</a>-<a href="#page-95">95</a>; <a href="#page-109">109</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;returns to La., <a href="#page-186">186</a><br>
+Biloxi&mdash;<a href="#page-11">11</a>; <a href="#page-16">16</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;not suitable for settlement, <a href="#page-28">28</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;distress of German colonists, <a href="#page-29">29</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;country back of, <a href="#page-30">30</a>; <a href="#page-47">47</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;settlement destroyed, <a href="#page-137">137</a>.<br>
+Birch Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-231">231</a><br>
+Bishop (Bird)&mdash;<a href="#page-270">270</a><br>
+Blackbirds&mdash;<a href="#page-268">268</a><br>
+Black River&mdash;<a href="#page-113">113</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;land around it, <a href="#page-148">148</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lands along, <a href="#page-151">151</a>-<a href="#page-154">154</a><br>
+Bon Homme&mdash;<a href="#page-195">195</a><br>
+Bois-Briant&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a><br>
+Bonita Fish&mdash;<a href="#page-12">12</a><br>
+Bourgrnont, Commander de&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;voyage to Missouri and Kansas, <a href="#page-59">59</a>-<a href="#page-68">68</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;his journal, <a href="#page-69">69</a>; <a href="#page-160">160</a>; <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Bows&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how made, <a href="#page-340">340</a><br>
+Buffalo&mdash;<a href="#page-64">64</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hunt by author, <a href="#page-122">122</a>; <a href="#page-132">132</a>; <a href="#page-134">134</a>; <a href="#page-146">146</a>; <a href="#page-147">147</a>; <a href="#page-152">152</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hunt in New Mexico, <a href="#page-155">155</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hides and tallow, <a href="#page-155">155</a>-<a href="#page-156">156</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>, <a href="#page-178">178</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-240">240</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Indian hunt, <a href="#page-240">240</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feast of, <a href="#page-324">324</a><br>
+Burgo-Breaker (fish)&mdash;<a href="#page-275">275</a><br>
+Burial customs&mdash;<a href="#page-333">333</a>-<a href="#page-337">337</a><br>
+Butterflies&mdash;<a href="#page-271">271</a><br>
+Buzzard&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;deseciption of, <a href="#page-258">258</a></p>
+
+<p>Caouquias Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-301">301</a><br>
+Caouitas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-293">293</a><br>
+Caddo Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-151">151</a>; <a href="#page-303">303</a><br>
+Cadillac, de la Motte&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;arrives in La., <a href="#page-5">5</a>; <a href="#page-6">6</a>; <a href="#page-8">8</a>; <a href="#page-9">9</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;death of, <a href="#page-10">10</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;his mine, <a href="#page-163">163</a><br>
+Calendar of Natchez&mdash;<a href="#page-319">319</a><br>
+Calumet (Pipe of Peace)&mdash;<a href="#page-35">35</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feathers for, <a href="#page-258">258</a><br>
+Campeachy wood&mdash;<a href="#page-183">183</a><br>
+Canadians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;early voyagers to La., <a href="#page-4">4</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Dauphin Island, <a href="#page-16">16</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Mobile, <a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-58">58</a>; <a href="#page-59">59</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;get salt, <a href="#page-157">157</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Route to La., <a href="#page-161">161</a>-<a href="#page-163">163</a><br>
+Candlemas Islands&mdash;<a href="#page-138">138</a><br>
+Cannes Brulee's&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a><br>
+Canoe&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how made, <a href="#page-69">69</a><br>
+Cantharadies&mdash;<a href="#page-272">272</a><br>
+Canzas (see Kansas)<br>
+Cape Anthony&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Cape Francois&mdash;<a href="#page-11">11</a>-<a href="#page-13">13</a>; <a href="#page-182">182</a><br>
+Capuchins&mdash;<a href="#page-51">51</a><br>
+Caranco&mdash;<a href="#page-22">22</a><br>
+Cardinal&mdash;<a href="#page-269">269</a><br>
+Carolina&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;population, <a href="#page-ix">IX</a>; <a href="#page-47">47</a><br>
+Carp&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-146">146</a>; <a href="#page-274">274</a><br>
+Carrion-Crow&mdash;<a href="#page-258">258</a><br>
+Carthaginians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;practised scalping, <a href="#page-283">283</a><br>
+Caskaquias (see Kaskasia)<br>
+Cassine Shrub&mdash;<a href="#page-228">228</a><br>
+Castin Bayou&mdash;<a href="#page-113">113</a><br>
+Castine Mine&mdash;<a href="#page-133">133</a><br>
+Catamounts&mdash;<a href="#page-134">134</a>; <a href="#page-144">144</a><br>
+Caterpillars&mdash;<a href="#page-271">271</a><br>
+Catfish&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-274">274</a><br>
+Cat Island&mdash;<a href="#page-16">16</a>; <a href="#page-138">138</a><br>
+Cedar Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-215">215</a>; <a href="#page-225">225</a><br>
+Celoron, Capt. de&mdash;<a href="#page-93">93</a>; <a href="#page-94">94</a><br>
+Chacchi-Oumas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-300">300</a><br>
+Chactaw Indians (see Choctaws)<br>
+Chaineau, M.&mdash;<a href="#page-278">278</a><br>
+Chameleons&mdash;<a href="#page-257">257</a><br>
+Champmelin, Commander&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;captures Pensacola <a href="#page-xxiv">XXIV</a>; <a href="#page-104">104</a>; <a href="#page-105">105</a><br>
+Chandeleur Islands&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Chaouachas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-140">140</a>; <a href="#page-301">301</a><br>
+Chaouanous River&mdash;<a href="#page-162">162</a><br>
+Charleville, M. de&mdash;<a href="#page-109">109</a>; <a href="#page-110">110</a><br>
+Charlevoix&mdash;<a href="#page-i">I</a>; <a href="#page-iii">III</a>; <a href="#page-iv">IV</a>; <a href="#page-xxv">XXV</a>; <a href="#page-xxvi">XXVI</a>; <a href="#page-24">24</a>; <a href="#page-30">30</a><br>
+Chateauguier&mdash;<a href="#page-101">101</a><br>
+Chatkas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-295">295</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;language, <a href="#page-297">297</a><br>
+Chatots Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-294">294</a><br>
+Cherokees&mdash;<a href="#page-293">293</a><br>
+Cherokee River&mdash;<a href="#page-162">162</a><br>
+Chestnut Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-214">214</a><br>
+Chicasaw Cliffs&mdash;<a href="#page-133">133</a><br>
+Chicasaw Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-46">46</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;murder French, <a href="#page-56">56</a>-<a href="#page-57">57</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;war with, <a href="#page-87">87</a>-<a href="#page-90">90</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;make peace, <a href="#page-94">94</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;country of, <a href="#page-137">137</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;destructive wars, <a href="#page-291">291</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;language, <a href="#page-297">297</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;destroy other tribes, <a href="#page-303">303</a>-<a href="#page-304">304</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fierce and arrogant, <a href="#page-332">332</a>.<br>
+Chitimachas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-18">18</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;war with, <a href="#page-71">71</a>; <a href="#page-300">300</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-302">302</a><br>
+Choctaws&mdash;<a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-80">80</a>; <a href="#page-84">84</a>; <a href="#page-85">85</a>; <a href="#page-113">113</a><br>
+Chopart, de&mdash;<a href="#page-73">73</a>; his death, <a href="#page-82">82</a><br>
+Choupic&mdash;<a href="#page-276">276</a><br>
+Choupichoul (buck wheat)-<a href="#page-156">156</a>-<a href="#page-157">157</a><br>
+Clerac (Gascony)-<a href="#page-27">27</a><br>
+Climate&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;of Gulf Coast, <a href="#page-iii">III</a>; <a href="#page-viii">VIII</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;severe weather, <a href="#page-36">36</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Mobile, <a href="#page-46">46</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;of the Miss. Valley, <a href="#page-57">57</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;of La., <a href="#page-107">107</a>-<a href="#page-108">108</a><br>
+Clothing of Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-344">344</a>-<a href="#page-346">346</a><br>
+Cochineal&mdash;<a href="#page-183">183</a><br>
+Cockle-Island&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a>, <a href="#page-138">138</a><br>
+Codfish&mdash;<a href="#page-14">14</a><br>
+Cola-Pissas&mdash;<a href="#page-18">18</a><br>
+Colbert&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a><br>
+Coligni, Admiral de&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+Conchac Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-293">293</a><br>
+Copper Mines&mdash;<a href="#page-30">30</a>, <a href="#page-145">145</a><br>
+Corbijeau&mdash;<a href="#page-266">266</a><br>
+Cormorant, <a href="#page-259">259</a><br>
+Coroas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-300">300</a><br>
+Cooking, Indian&mdash;<a href="#page-342">342</a><br>
+Corn&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-164">164</a>-<a href="#page-165">165</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;importance of.<a href="#page-185">185</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;its cultivation in La., <a href="#page-202">202</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feast of, <a href="#page-321">321</a>-<a href="#page-322">322</a>; <a href="#page-347">347</a><br>
+Cotton&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a>; <a href="#page-158">158</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how cultivated, <a href="#page-174">174</a>-<a href="#page-175">175</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for export, <a href="#page-181">181</a><br>
+Cotton Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-222">222</a><br>
+Coxe&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;account of Carolina, <a href="#page-vi">VI</a>; <a href="#page-xiii">XIII</a>; <a href="#page-47">47</a><br>
+Cranes&mdash;<a href="#page-22">22</a>; <a href="#page-126">126</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+Crayfish&mdash;<a href="#page-277">277</a><br>
+Creeper, bearded&mdash;<a href="#page-232">232</a><br>
+Crocodile&mdash;<a href="#page-253">253</a>-<a href="#page-255">255</a><br>
+Crows&mdash;<a href="#page-268">268</a><br>
+Crozat&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;La. ceded to, <a href="#page-5">5</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;full store-houses, <a href="#page-8">8</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;transfers to West India Co., <a href="#page-10">10</a>; <a href="#page-107">107</a><br>
+Cuba&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Cushaws&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cultivation in La., <a href="#page-206">206</a><br>
+Cypress Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-iv">IV</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Baton Rouge, <a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-216">216</a>; <a href="#page-217">217</a></p>
+
+
+<p>d'Artaguette&mdash;<a href="#page-28">28</a>; <a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-88">88</a>; <a href="#page-92">92</a><br>
+Dauphin Isle&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a>; <a href="#page-15">15</a>; <a href="#page-45">45</a>; <a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-49">49</a>; <a href="#page-101">101</a>; <a href="#page-103">103</a><br>
+d'Avion&mdash;<a href="#page-23">23</a><br>
+Deer&mdash;<a href="#page-64">64</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;white, <a href="#page-124">124</a>; <a href="#page-132">132</a>; <a href="#page-134">134</a>; <a href="#page-144">144</a>; <a href="#page-152">152</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hunt, <a href="#page-242">242</a>-<a href="#page-244">244</a>; feast of, <a href="#page-319">319</a><br>
+Deer Oil&mdash;<a href="#page-249">249</a><br>
+DeLaet&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+De Lisle&mdash;<a href="#page-279">279</a><br>
+de Meuse&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;grant, <a href="#page-54">54</a><br>
+de Soto&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+de Ville, Father&mdash;<a href="#page-26">26</a><br>
+Diodorus Siculus&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;his description of lands west of Africa, <a href="#page-281">281</a>-<a href="#page-282">282</a><br>
+Diseases&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fatal to Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-291">291</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;of Negroes, <a href="#page-359">359</a>-<a href="#page-360">360</a><br>
+Dove&mdash;<a href="#page-266">266</a><br>
+Dragon flies&mdash;<a href="#page-272">272</a><br>
+Draught (Bird)&mdash;<a href="#page-263">263</a><br>
+Ducks&mdash;<a href="#page-126">126</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-259">259</a>-<a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+du Crenet&mdash;<a href="#page-84">84</a><br>
+du Haye&mdash;<a href="#page-198">198</a><br>
+Dumont (Historian)&mdash;<a href="#page-i">I</a>; <a href="#page-v">V</a>; <a href="#page-vii">VII</a>; <a href="#page-xxv">XXV</a>; <a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-56">56</a>; <a href="#page-66">66</a>; <a href="#page-113">113</a>; <a href="#page-135">135</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;historical memoirs, <a href="#page-187">187</a>; <a href="#page-225">225</a><br>
+Du Pratz&mdash;<a href="#page-1">1</a>eaves La., <a href="#page-187">187</a><br>
+du Tiffenet&mdash;<a href="#page-88">88</a>; <a href="#page-89">89</a><br>
+du Vernai, Paris&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a></p>
+
+<p>Eagles&mdash;<a href="#page-257">257</a><br>
+Eels&mdash;<a href="#page-277">277</a><br>
+Egret&mdash;<a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+Elder Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-231">231</a></p>
+
+<p>Elephant&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;skeletons found in Ohio&mdash;<a href="#page-290">290</a><br>
+Elk&mdash;<a href="#page-64">64</a>, <a href="#page-132">132</a>, <a href="#page-134">134</a>, <a href="#page-144">144</a><br>
+Elm&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+English&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;extent of American possessions, <a href="#page-xiv">XIV</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;shipping, <a href="#page-xvii">XVII</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at English Turn, <a href="#page-47">47</a>-<a href="#page-51">51</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;on the Yazoo, <a href="#page-56">56</a>; <a href="#page-57">57</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;on the Miss. River, <a href="#page-140">140</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;tobacco trade, <a href="#page-199">199</a><br>
+English Turn (Reach)&mdash;<a href="#page-47">47</a>; <a href="#page-51">51</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;why its name, <a href="#page-139">139</a>-<a href="#page-140">140</a><br>
+Epidemic&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Episingles Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-93">93</a><br>
+Esquine&mdash;<a href="#page-181">181</a>, <a href="#page-233">233</a><br>
+Eye Inflammation&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;treatment for, <a href="#page-43">43</a><br>
+Exports&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;from La. to Islands, <a href="#page-182">182</a></p>
+
+<p>Falcon&mdash;<a href="#page-258">258</a><br>
+Feast of War&mdash;<a href="#page-352">352</a>-<a href="#page-353">353</a><br>
+Feasts of Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-320">320</a>-<a href="#page-322">322</a><br>
+Ferns&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maiden hair, <a href="#page-234">234</a>-<a href="#page-235">235</a><br>
+Fig Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-210">210</a>-<a href="#page-211">211</a><br>
+Filberts&mdash;<a href="#page-213">213</a><br>
+Fire, how made&mdash;<a href="#page-340">340</a><br>
+Fireflies&mdash;<a href="#page-272">272</a><br>
+Fish&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;plentiful in La., <a href="#page-274">274</a><br>
+Five Nations&mdash;<a href="#page-294">294</a><br>
+Flamingo&mdash;<a href="#page-22">22</a>; <a href="#page-126">126</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+Flat root&mdash;<a href="#page-235">235</a><br>
+Flaucourt, Loire de, <a href="#page-24">24</a><br>
+Flax&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a><br>
+Fleury, Cardinal&mdash;<a href="#page-187">187</a><br>
+Flies&mdash;<a href="#page-271">271</a><br>
+Florida&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;French settle there, <a href="#page-2">2</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Spanish attack them, <a href="#page-2">2</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;French later attack Spanish, <a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+Flowers&mdash;<a href="#page-239">239</a><br>
+Flying Fish&mdash;<a href="#page-12">12</a><br>
+Food of Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-348">348</a>-<a href="#page-350">350</a><br>
+Fool&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-263">263</a><br>
+Forant, M. de&mdash;<a href="#page-85">85</a><br>
+Fort Assumption&mdash;<a href="#page-57">57</a>; <a href="#page-93">93</a>; <a href="#page-95">95</a><br>
+Fort Balise&mdash;<a href="#page-47">47</a>; <a href="#page-48">48</a>; <a href="#page-116">116</a>; <a href="#page-118">118</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;where built, <a href="#page-139">139</a><br>
+Fort Carolin (Fla.)&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+Fort Chartres&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a><br>
+Fort Crevecoeur&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a><br>
+Fort Louis&mdash;<a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-294">294</a><br>
+Fort Mobile&mdash;<a href="#page-88">88</a>; <a href="#page-92">92</a><br>
+Fort Orleans&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-61">61</a>; <a href="#page-62">62</a>; <a href="#page-69">69</a>; <a href="#page-160">160</a><br>
+Fort Rosalie&mdash;<a href="#page-23">23</a>-<a href="#page-24">24</a>; <a href="#page-33">33</a>; <a href="#page-34">34</a>; <a href="#page-35">35</a><br>
+Fort St. Francis&mdash;<a href="#page-92">92</a>; <a href="#page-95">95</a><br>
+Fort St. John Baptist&mdash;<a href="#page-6">6</a>; <a href="#page-7">7</a>; <a href="#page-9">9</a>; <a href="#page-10">10</a><br>
+Fort St. Louis&mdash;<a href="#page-136">136</a><br>
+Fox Indians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-301">301</a><br>
+Foxes&mdash;<a href="#page-251">251</a><br>
+French&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;shipping, <a href="#page-xvii">XVII</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in Fla., <a href="#page-2">2</a>, <a href="#page-18">18</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Natchez, <a href="#page-32">32</a>-<a href="#page-33">33</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;bad influence, <a href="#page-41">41</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;massacre at Natchez, <a href="#page-82">82</a>-<a href="#page-83">83</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;commerce with La., <a href="#page-177">177</a>-<a href="#page-182">182</a><br>
+Frigate (Bird)&mdash;<a href="#page-263">263</a><br>
+Frogs&mdash;<a href="#page-253">253</a><br>
+Fur trade&mdash;<a href="#page-178">178</a></p>
+
+<p>Gar fish&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-276">276</a>-<a href="#page-277">277</a><br>
+Gaillard&mdash;<a href="#page-61">61</a>-<a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-65">65</a><br>
+Games&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Indian, <a href="#page-347">347</a><br>
+Geese&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;wild, <a href="#page-127">127</a>; <a href="#page-259">259</a><br>
+Gentilly&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a><br>
+Germans&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in La., <a href="#page-29">29</a><br>
+Gold&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a>; plentiful in Mexico, <a href="#page-150">150</a><br>
+Gourges, Dominque de&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a>; <a href="#page-8">8</a><br>
+Grapes&mdash;<a href="#page-208">208</a>-<a href="#page-209">209</a><br>
+Grass Point&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a><br>
+Great Sun&mdash;<a href="#page-40">40</a>; <a href="#page-42">42</a>-<a href="#page-43">43</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;burial, <a href="#page-333">333</a>-<a href="#page-336">336</a><br>
+Green flies&mdash;<a href="#page-272">272</a><br>
+Grigas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-298">298</a><br>
+Guenot&mdash;<a href="#page-34">34</a><br>
+Gulf of Mexico Coast&mdash;<a href="#page-1">1</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;northern boundary, <a href="#page-13">13</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of land bordering, <a href="#page-135">135</a>-<a href="#page-137">137</a><br>
+Gypsum&mdash;<a href="#page-124">124</a></p>
+
+<p>Habitations of Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-341">341</a><br>
+Hakluyt (Fla.)&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+Halcyon&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-263">263</a>-<a href="#page-264">264</a><br>
+Hatchet-bill&mdash;<a href="#page-262">262</a><br>
+Havana&mdash;<a href="#page-102">102</a><br>
+Hawks&mdash;<a href="#page-258">258</a><br>
+Hedge-hog&mdash;<a href="#page-253">253</a><br>
+Hennepin, Father&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a><br>
+Herons&mdash;<a href="#page-126">126</a>; <a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+Hemp&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cultivation, <a href="#page-180">180</a>; <a href="#page-238">238</a><br>
+Hickory Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-213">213</a><br>
+Horn Island&mdash;<a href="#page-16">16</a><br>
+Hornbean Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Hops&mdash;<a href="#page-177">177</a>; <a href="#page-234">234</a><br>
+Howard, John&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a><br>
+Hubert&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;planter, <a href="#page-20">20</a>; <a href="#page-22">22</a>; <a href="#page-24">24</a>; <a href="#page-25">25</a><br>
+Hubert, Mme.&mdash;<a href="#page-136">136</a>; <a href="#page-167">167</a><br>
+Humming Bird&mdash;<a href="#page-270">270</a><br>
+Hurons&mdash;<a href="#page-93">93</a><br>
+Hurricane&mdash;<a href="#page-30">30</a>; <a href="#page-31">31</a>; <a href="#page-32">32</a><br>
+Huts&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how made, <a href="#page-341">341</a></p>
+
+<p>Iapy, Commander&mdash;<a href="#page-104">104</a><br>
+Iberville&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;made Gov. Gen. of La., <a href="#page-4">4</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;his death, <a href="#page-5">5</a>; <a href="#page-8">8</a>; <a href="#page-10">10</a><br>
+Iberville River&mdash;<a href="#page-113">113</a><br>
+Illinois&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;visited by Hennepin and LaSalle, <a href="#page-3">3</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hurricane, <a href="#page-30">30</a>; <a href="#page-57">57</a>; <a href="#page-58">58</a>; <a href="#page-88">88</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-163">163</a><br>
+Illinois Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-66">66</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-300">300</a>-<a href="#page-301">301</a><br>
+Illinois River&mdash;<a href="#page-110">110</a><br>
+Indians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;travel, <a href="#page-60">60</a>-<a href="#page-61">61</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how to fight, <a href="#page-99">99</a>-<a href="#page-100">100</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;origin of, <a href="#page-279">279</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;descended from Europeans, <a href="#page-281">281</a><br>
+Indigo&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cultivation and processing, <a href="#page-168">168</a>-<a href="#page-171">171</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for export, <a href="#page-181">181</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Dumont's method of making, <a href="#page-191">191</a>-<a href="#page-193">193</a><br>
+Iron&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a><br>
+Iroquois&mdash;<a href="#page-93">93</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;destructive wars of, <a href="#page-291">291</a><br>
+Ivy&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ground, <a href="#page-237">237</a></p>
+
+<p>Jamaica&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Jesuits&mdash;<a href="#page-51">51</a>; <a href="#page-58">58</a></p>
+
+<p>Kappas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-304">304</a><br>
+Kansas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-60">60</a>; <a href="#page-61">61</a>; <a href="#page-62">62</a>; <a href="#page-66">66</a>; <a href="#page-68">68</a>; <a href="#page-69">69</a>; <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Kansas River&mdash;<a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-64">64</a>; <a href="#page-110">110</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-159">159</a><br>
+Kayemans&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Kaskasia&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a><br>
+Kaskasia Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-301">301</a><br>
+King-fisher&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-263">263</a></p>
+
+<p>la Chaise, Director Gen.&mdash;<a href="#page-44">44</a>; <a href="#page-45">45</a><br>
+Lake Borgne&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-138">138</a><br>
+Lake Erie&mdash;<a href="#page-111">111</a>; <a href="#page-161">161</a><br>
+Lake Maurepas&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-113">113</a></p>
+
+<p>Lake Pontchartrain&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a><br>
+Lake St. Louis&mdash;<a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-49">49</a>; <a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-113">113</a>; <a href="#page-135">135</a><br>
+Lafourche (the Fork)&mdash;<a href="#page-141">141</a><br>
+Language of Natchez&mdash;<a href="#page-311">311</a><br>
+LaSalle&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;travels from Canada to the Gulf, <a href="#page-3">3</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;is killed on second trip, <a href="#page-4">4</a>; <a href="#page-116">116</a><br>
+Lavert&mdash;<a href="#page-273">273</a><br>
+Laudonviere, René de&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+Laurel Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-217">217</a><br>
+Laval, Father&mdash;<a href="#page-xxiii">XXIII</a>; <a href="#page-xxv">XXV</a><br>
+Lavigne, Sieur&mdash;<a href="#page-18">18</a><br>
+Law, John&mdash;<a href="#page-29">29</a><br>
+Lead&mdash;<a href="#page-132">132</a>; <a href="#page-145">145</a>; <a href="#page-158">158</a>; <a href="#page-163">163</a><br>
+LeBlanc&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;grant, <a href="#page-56">56</a>; <a href="#page-88">88</a><br>
+LeSueur&mdash;<a href="#page-83">83</a><br>
+LeSueur, Bayou&mdash;<a href="#page-116">116</a><br>
+Levans&mdash;<a href="#page-29">29</a><br>
+Liart Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Lime Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Linarez, Duke of&mdash;<a href="#page-7">7</a>-<a href="#page-9">9</a><br>
+Lion's Mouth (flower) <a href="#page-239">239</a><br>
+Lizards&mdash;<a href="#page-257">257</a><br>
+Locust Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-222">222</a><br>
+Longevity of Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-329">329</a><br>
+L'Orient&mdash;<a href="#page-29">29</a><br>
+Loubois, Lieut. de&mdash;<a href="#page-83">83</a>; <a href="#page-84">84</a><br>
+Louis <a href="#page-xiv">XIV</a>&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a>; <a href="#page-5">5</a>; <a href="#page-107">107</a><br>
+Louisiana&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;poor colonization, <a href="#page-xxvi">XXVI</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;named after Louis <a href="#page-xiv">XIV</a>, <a href="#page-3">3</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;names, <a href="#page-15">15</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;boundary of, <a href="#page-107">107</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of soil, <a href="#page-117">117</a>-<a href="#page-118">118</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a fine country, <a href="#page-185">185</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fertility of, <a href="#page-197">197</a><br>
+Luchereau, M. de&mdash;<a href="#page-4">4</a></p>
+
+<p>Magnolia Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-218">218</a>-<a href="#page-219">219</a><br>
+Magpie&mdash;<a href="#page-268">268</a><br>
+Maize&mdash;<a href="#page-163">163</a>-<a href="#page-165">165</a>; <a href="#page-202">202</a>-<a href="#page-203">203</a><br>
+Manchac River&mdash;<a href="#page-111">111</a>; <a href="#page-114">114</a><br>
+Mangrove&mdash;<a href="#page-223">223</a><br>
+Maple Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-220">220</a><br>
+Marameg Mine&mdash;<a href="#page-158">158</a><br>
+Marameg River&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a><br>
+Margat River&mdash;<a href="#page-57">57</a>; <a href="#page-93">93</a><br>
+Marriage customs&mdash;<a href="#page-326">326</a>-<a href="#page-328">328</a><br>
+Massacre Island&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Now Dauphin Isle, <a href="#page-13">13</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how it was named, <a href="#page-14">14</a><br>
+Massacre of French at Natchez&mdash;<a href="#page-73">73</a>; <a href="#page-82">82</a><br>
+Medicines&mdash;<a href="#page-44">44</a>; <a href="#page-45">45</a>; <a href="#page-181">181</a>; <a href="#page-215">215</a><br>
+Medicine, Indian&mdash;<a href="#page-26">26</a>; <a href="#page-27">27</a>; <a href="#page-43">43</a>; <a href="#page-44">44</a><br>
+Mehane&mdash;<a href="#page-22">22</a><br>
+Mexicans&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;descent from Chinese or Japanese, <a href="#page-284">284</a><br>
+Mexico&mdash;<a href="#page-6">6</a>; <a href="#page-7">7</a>; <a href="#page-10">10</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of ancient Natchez tribe, <a href="#page-279">279</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;natives kill themselves, <a href="#page-291">291</a><br>
+Mezieres, Marquis de&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a><br>
+Miami River&mdash;<a href="#page-111">111</a>; <a href="#page-161">161</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-163">163</a><br>
+Michigamias Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-304">304</a><br>
+Mines in Illinois&mdash;<a href="#page-163">163</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in La., <a href="#page-195">195</a>-<a href="#page-196">196</a><br>
+Miragouine, Sieur&mdash;<a href="#page-103">103</a><br>
+Mississippi River&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lands of lower basin, <a href="#page-vi">VI</a>; <a href="#page-vii">VII</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;commands continent, <a href="#page-ix">IX</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;navigation of, <a href="#page-xi">XI</a>-<a href="#page-xii">XII</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;mouths of, <a href="#page-xiii">XIII</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;reached by Hennepin, <a href="#page-3">3</a>; <a href="#page-15">15</a>; <a href="#page-18">18</a>; <a href="#page-24">24</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hurricane, <a href="#page-30">30</a>; <a href="#page-47">47</a>; <a href="#page-48">48</a>; <a href="#page-49">49</a>; <a href="#page-51">51</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;inhabitants along, <a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-53">53</a>; <a href="#page-55">55</a>; <a href="#page-58">58</a>; <a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-107">107</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As names, <a href="#page-109">109</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;attempts to find source, <a href="#page-109">109</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;mouths of, <a href="#page-114">114</a>-<a href="#page-115">115</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the passes, <a href="#page-117">117</a>; <a href="#page-133">133</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;soil at mouth, <a href="#page-138">138</a>-<a href="#page-139">139</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;on east bank, <a href="#page-141">141</a>-<a href="#page-142">142</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lands west of, <a href="#page-145">145</a>; <a href="#page-161">161</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-163">163</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;voyage to source by Indian, <a href="#page-289">289</a>-<a href="#page-290">290</a><br>
+Mississippi Scheme&mdash;<a href="#page-ii">II</a>; <a href="#page-58">58</a><br>
+Missionary&mdash;<a href="#page-23">23</a><br>
+Missouri Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-60">60</a>; <a href="#page-66">66</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-304">304</a>-<a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Missouri River&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;navigation of, <a href="#page-xii">XII</a>; <a href="#page-60">60</a>; <a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-69">69</a>; <a href="#page-110">110</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-159">159</a></p>
+
+<p>Mobile&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;barren lands, <a href="#page-xx">XX</a>; <a href="#page-9">9</a>; <a href="#page-11">11</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;birth place of La., <a href="#page-15">15</a>; <a href="#page-45">45</a>; <a href="#page-49">49</a>; <a href="#page-89">89</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;native of land, <a href="#page-135">135</a>-<a href="#page-136">136</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fertility of animals and women, <a href="#page-136">136</a><br>
+Mobile Bay&mdash;<a href="#page-114">114</a><br>
+Mobile Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-294">294</a><br>
+Mobile River&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Canadians settle on, <a href="#page-4">4</a>-<a href="#page-5">5</a>; <a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-135">135</a><br>
+Moingona River&mdash;<a href="#page-110">110</a><br>
+Moncacht-apé, old wise man of Yazoo tribe&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;his voyages, <a href="#page-285">285</a>-<a href="#page-290">290</a><br>
+Montplaisir, M. de&mdash;<a href="#page-27">27</a><br>
+Montreal&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a><br>
+Mosquitoes&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-272">272</a>-<a href="#page-273">273</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how Indians fight, <a href="#page-333">333</a><br>
+Mulberry Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a>; <a href="#page-158">158</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for silk growing, <a href="#page-167">167</a>-<a href="#page-168">168</a>; <a href="#page-212">212</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feast of, <a href="#page-321">321</a><br>
+Muscadine Grapes&mdash;<a href="#page-209">209</a><br>
+Mushroom&mdash;<a href="#page-231">231</a><br>
+Myrtle Wax-tree&mdash;<a href="#page-220">220</a></p>
+
+<p>Narvaez&mdash;<a href="#page-1">1</a><br>
+Natchez&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;goodness of the country, <a href="#page-20">20</a>-<a href="#page-21">21</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;commandment, <a href="#page-27">27</a>-<a href="#page-28">28</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;terrible storm, <a href="#page-30">30</a>-<a href="#page-32">32</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;settlement at, <a href="#page-38">38</a>-<a href="#page-39">39</a>; <a href="#page-55">55</a>-<a href="#page-56">56</a><br>
+Natchez Indians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;DuPratz arrives among, <a href="#page-23">23</a>-<a href="#page-27">27</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;first war with French, <a href="#page-32">32</a>-<a href="#page-36">36</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;second war, <a href="#page-38">38</a>-<a href="#page-39">39</a>; <a href="#page-55">55</a>; <a href="#page-69">69</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;council of war, <a href="#page-76">76</a>-<a href="#page-77">77</a>; <a href="#page-84">84</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;destroyed by French, <a href="#page-86">86</a>-<a href="#page-87">87</a>; <a href="#page-153">153</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;grow grain, <a href="#page-156">156</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;origin of, <a href="#page-279">279</a>-<a href="#page-280">280</a>; <a href="#page-297">297</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-298">298</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;power of, <a href="#page-299">299</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of social habits&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;birth and rearing children, <a href="#page-306">306</a>-<a href="#page-311">311</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;language, government, religion, <a href="#page-311">311</a>-<a href="#page-320">320</a><br>
+Natchitoches&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;French settle, <a href="#page-5">5</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;St. Denis at, <a href="#page-6">6</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Spanish settle near, <a href="#page-8">8</a>; <a href="#page-54">54</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;quality of land, <a href="#page-148">148</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;silver there, <a href="#page-195">195</a><br>
+Natchitoches Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-112">112</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-303">303</a><br>
+Negroes&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;revolt, <a href="#page-71">71</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;choice of for slaves, <a href="#page-357">357</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how to handle, <a href="#page-361">361</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;odors of, <a href="#page-362">362</a><br>
+Nesunez, Pamphilo&mdash;<a href="#page-1">1</a><br>
+New Orleans&mdash;<a href="#page-v">V</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;health good, <a href="#page-ix">IX</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;settlement of, <a href="#page-11">11</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;founded, <a href="#page-15">15</a>; <a href="#page-17">17</a>; <a href="#page-18">18</a>; <a href="#page-22">22</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;physicians and surgeons of, <a href="#page-26">26</a>; <a href="#page-30">30</a>; <a href="#page-45">45</a>; <a href="#page-46">46</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;forts below, <a href="#page-48">48</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-49">49</a>-<a href="#page-52">52</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;harbor of, <a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-58">58</a>; <a href="#page-71">71</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;climate, <a href="#page-108">108</a>; <a href="#page-136">136</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;nature of soil, <a href="#page-141">141</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;distance from Canada, <a href="#page-162">162</a><br>
+New Mexico&mdash;<a href="#page-6">6</a>; <a href="#page-54">54</a>; <a href="#page-55">55</a>; <a href="#page-112">112</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;nature of land, <a href="#page-147">147</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hunting there, <a href="#page-155">155</a><br>
+Niagara Falls&mdash;<a href="#page-286">286</a><br>
+Nightingale&mdash;<a href="#page-269">269</a><br>
+Nobility&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Natchez, <a href="#page-328">328</a><br>
+North America&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;extent of, <a href="#page-xv">XV</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;its products, <a href="#page-xvi">XVI</a></p>
+
+<p>Oak Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-iv">IV</a>; <a href="#page-v">V</a>; <a href="#page-223">223</a>-<a href="#page-225">225</a><br>
+Oats&mdash;<a href="#page-203">203</a><br>
+Ohio River&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;navigation of, <a href="#page-xii">XII</a>; <a href="#page-58">58</a>; <a href="#page-111">111</a>; <a href="#page-161">161</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-163">163</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;skeleton of elephants found, <a href="#page-290">290</a><br>
+Ochre&mdash;<a href="#page-23">23</a><br>
+Olivarez, Friar&mdash;<a href="#page-9">9</a><br>
+Olive Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-213">213</a><br>
+Orange Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-212">212</a><br>
+Opelousas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-302">302</a><br>
+Opossum (wood-rat)&mdash;<a href="#page-251">251</a><br>
+Orignaux&mdash;<a href="#page-162">162</a><br>
+Osage Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>-<a href="#page-60">60</a>; <a href="#page-66">66</a>; <a href="#page-304">304</a>; <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Osage River&mdash;<a href="#page-159">159</a><br>
+Othouez Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-60">60</a>; <a href="#page-61">61</a>; <a href="#page-62">62</a>; <a href="#page-66">66</a>; <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Otters&mdash;<a href="#page-253">253</a><br>
+Otter Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-287">287</a>-<a href="#page-288">288</a><br>
+Ouachas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-140">140</a><br>
+Ouchitas Indains&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;former home of, <a href="#page-303">303</a><br>
+Ouachita River&mdash;<a href="#page-113">113</a><br>
+Oumas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-80">80</a>; home of, <a href="#page-297">297</a><br>
+Ouse-Ogoulas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-300">300</a><br>
+Owls&mdash;<a href="#page-268">268</a><br>
+Oysters&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in La., <a href="#page-277">277</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;on trees in St. Domingo, <a href="#page-278">278</a></p>
+
+<p>Paducah Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-61">61</a>; <a href="#page-62">62</a>; <a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-65">65</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Customs and manners, <a href="#page-66">66</a>-<a href="#page-68">68</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;destructive wars of, <a href="#page-291">291</a>; <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Paillou, Major General&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at N. O., <a href="#page-15">15</a>; <a href="#page-18">18</a>; <a href="#page-39">39</a><br>
+Parroquets&mdash;<a href="#page-266">266</a><br>
+Palmetto&mdash;<a href="#page-231">231</a><br>
+Panimahas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-66">66</a>; <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Panis Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Partridges&mdash;<a href="#page-144">144</a>; <a href="#page-265">265</a><br>
+Paseagoulas River&mdash;<a href="#page-114">114</a>; <a href="#page-136">136</a><br>
+Pasca-Ogoulas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-15">15</a>; <a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-295">295</a><br>
+Patassa (fish)&mdash;<a href="#page-276">276</a><br>
+Pawpaws&mdash;<a href="#page-158">158</a>; <a href="#page-210">210</a><br>
+Peach Trees&mdash;<a href="#page-210">210</a>-<a href="#page-211">211</a><br>
+Pearl River&mdash;<a href="#page-114">114</a><br>
+Pelican&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-259">259</a><br>
+Pensacola&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-xxiii">XXIII</a>; <a href="#page-2">2</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Spanish settle, <a href="#page-8">8</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;captured by French, <a href="#page-100">100</a>-<a href="#page-105">105</a><br>
+Perdido River&mdash;<a href="#page-104">104</a>; <a href="#page-116">116</a>; <a href="#page-135">135</a><br>
+Perrier&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Gov. of La., <a href="#page-71">71</a>; <a href="#page-73">73</a>; <a href="#page-83">83</a>; <a href="#page-85">85</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;defeats Natchez Indians, <a href="#page-86">86</a>-<a href="#page-87">87</a>; <a href="#page-153">153</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;leaves La., <a href="#page-186">186</a><br>
+Perrier de Salvert&mdash;<a href="#page-72">72</a>; <a href="#page-86">86</a><br>
+Persimmons&mdash;<a href="#page-209">209</a><br>
+Peru&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;natives killed themselves, <a href="#page-291">291</a><br>
+Petits Ecores&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-53">53</a><br>
+Pheasant&mdash;<a href="#page-264">264</a><br>
+Phoenicians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ancestors of Natchez Indians, <a href="#page-283">283</a><br>
+Phenomenon&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;alarming, <a href="#page-30">30</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Natchez, <a href="#page-36">36</a>-<a href="#page-38">38</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;extraordinary, <a href="#page-70">70</a><br>
+Pigeons&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-266">266</a>-<a href="#page-267">267</a><br>
+Pike&mdash;<a href="#page-276">276</a><br>
+Pilchard&mdash;<a href="#page-14">14</a>; description of, <a href="#page-276">276</a><br>
+Pimiteouis Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-301">301</a><br>
+Pin&mdash;<a href="#page-iv">IV</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for tar, <a href="#page-193">193</a>-<a href="#page-194">194</a>; <a href="#page-217">217</a><br>
+Pipe of Peace&mdash;<a href="#page-59">59</a>; <a href="#page-60">60</a>; <a href="#page-63">63</a>; <a href="#page-65">65</a>; <a href="#page-258">258</a><br>
+Pitch&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how to make, <a href="#page-194">194</a><br>
+Plaquemine Bayou&mdash;<a href="#page-114">114</a><br>
+Plums&mdash;<a href="#page-210">210</a><br>
+Pointe Coupeé&mdash;<a href="#page-52">52</a>; <a href="#page-53">53</a>; <a href="#page-54">54</a><br>
+Pole Cat&mdash;<a href="#page-252">252</a><br>
+Pope (Bird)&mdash;<a href="#page-269">269</a><br>
+Poplar&mdash;<a href="#page-222">222</a><br>
+Porcupine&mdash;<a href="#page-253">253</a><br>
+Port de Paix&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Puerto Rico&mdash;<a href="#page-11">11</a><br>
+Potatoes (sweet)&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cultivation in La., <a href="#page-204">204</a>-<a href="#page-205">205</a><br>
+Pottery&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how made, <a href="#page-342">342</a><br>
+Provencals&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in La., <a href="#page-29">29</a><br>
+Prud'homme Cliffs&mdash;<a href="#page-93">93</a><br>
+Prud'homme River&mdash;<a href="#page-57">57</a><br>
+Pumpkins&mdash;<a href="#page-206">206</a></p>
+
+<p>Quail&mdash;<a href="#page-266">266</a><br>
+Quebec&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a>; <a href="#page-111">111</a></p>
+
+<p>Rabbits&mdash;<a href="#page-251">251</a><br>
+Raimond, Diego&mdash;<a href="#page-6">6</a>; <a href="#page-10">10</a><br>
+Rattle snake&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cure for bite, <a href="#page-237">237</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-255">255</a><br>
+Rattle-snake herb&mdash;<a href="#page-235">235</a>-<a href="#page-237">237</a><br>
+Red fish&mdash;<a href="#page-14">14</a><br>
+Red River&mdash;<a href="#page-54">54</a>; <a href="#page-55">55</a>; <a href="#page-112">112</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;nature of land, <a href="#page-148">148</a>; <a href="#page-151">151</a><br>
+Red Shoe, Prince of Chactaws&mdash;<a href="#page-95">95</a><br>
+Religion of Natchez&mdash;<a href="#page-312">312</a><br>
+Rice&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how grown, <a href="#page-165">165</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how eaten, <a href="#page-166">166</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in La., <a href="#page-204">204</a>-<a href="#page-205">205</a><br>
+Richebourg, Captain&mdash;<a href="#page-101">101</a>; <a href="#page-102">102</a><br>
+Ring-skate (fish)&mdash;<a href="#page-276">276</a><br>
+Rio del Norte&mdash;<a href="#page-6">6</a><br>
+Rochelle&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;author leaves, <a href="#page-11">11</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;returns to, <a href="#page-187">187</a><br>
+Rye&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in Illinois, <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-203">203</a></p>
+
+<p>Saffron&mdash;<a href="#page-180">180</a><br>
+Sagamity&mdash;<a href="#page-348">348</a>; <a href="#page-349">349</a><br>
+St. Anthony's Falls&mdash;<a href="#page-109">109</a>; <a href="#page-110">110</a><br>
+St. Augustin, Fla.&mdash;<a href="#page-2">2</a><br>
+St. Bernard's Bay&mdash;<a href="#page-116">116</a><br>
+St. Catherine's Creek&mdash;<a href="#page-33">33</a>; <a href="#page-34">34</a>; <a href="#page-35">35</a>; <a href="#page-38">38</a><br>
+St. Come&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Missionary, <a href="#page-71">71</a><br>
+St. Croix River&mdash;<a href="#page-110">110</a><br>
+St. Denis&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;journey to Mexico, <a href="#page-6">6</a>-<a href="#page-11">11</a>; <a href="#page-54">54</a>; <a href="#page-104">104</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;popular with natives, <a href="#page-150">150</a><br>
+St. Domingo&mdash;<a href="#page-4">4</a>; <a href="#page-11">11</a>; <a href="#page-13">13</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;oysters on trees, <a href="#page-277">277</a><br>
+St. Francis River&mdash;<a href="#page-57">57</a>;</p>
+
+<p>    lands around, <a href="#page-157">157</a>-<a href="#page-158">158</a>; <a href="#page-112">112</a><br>
+St. Hilaire, Surgeon&mdash;<a href="#page-42">42</a><br>
+St. Laurent&mdash;<a href="#page-93">93</a>; <a href="#page-94">94</a><br>
+St. Lawrence River&mdash;<a href="#page-111">111</a>; <a href="#page-161">161</a>; <a href="#page-286">286</a><br>
+St. Louis Church&mdash;<a href="#page-51">51</a><br>
+St. Louis River&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a>; <a href="#page-4">4</a>; <a href="#page-8">8</a><br>
+St. Rose Isle&mdash;<a href="#page-101">101</a>; <a href="#page-102">102</a><br>
+St. Peter River&mdash;<a href="#page-110">110</a><br>
+Sallee&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a><br>
+Salmont, Com. Gen.&mdash;<a href="#page-85">85</a><br>
+Salt&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in lower La., <a href="#page-147">147</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;spring near Natchitoches, <a href="#page-149">149</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;mines, <a href="#page-153">153</a><br>
+Salt petre&mdash;<a href="#page-147">147</a>; <a href="#page-180">180</a><br>
+Samba&mdash;<a href="#page-72">72</a><br>
+Santa Fé&mdash;<a href="#page-112">112</a><br>
+Sarde (fish)&mdash;<a href="#page-14">14</a><br>
+Sardine&mdash;<a href="#page-276">276</a><br>
+Sarsaparilla&mdash;<a href="#page-233">233</a><br>
+Sassafras&mdash;<a href="#page-181">181</a>; <a href="#page-220">220</a><br>
+Saw Bill&mdash;<a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+Scalping&mdash;<a href="#page-283">283</a><br>
+Scotland&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;tobacco trade, <a href="#page-199">199</a><br>
+Scurvy&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how to cure&mdash;<a href="#page-360">360</a><br>
+Sea-Lark&mdash;<a href="#page-263">263</a><br>
+Sea Snipe&mdash;<a href="#page-263">263</a><br>
+Ship Island&mdash;<a href="#page-16">16</a>; <a href="#page-28">28</a><br>
+Shrimp&mdash;<a href="#page-277">277</a><br>
+Siam distemper&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Silk&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;growing experiments, <a href="#page-167">167</a>-<a href="#page-168">168</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cultivation possible, <a href="#page-176">176</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;worms, <a href="#page-271">271</a><br>
+Silver&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a>; <a href="#page-151">151</a>; <a href="#page-158">158</a>; <a href="#page-163">163</a>; <a href="#page-195">195</a><br>
+Sioux Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-109">109</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;home of, <a href="#page-301">301</a>-<a href="#page-306">306</a><br>
+Skunk&mdash;<a href="#page-252">252</a><br>
+Smallpox&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fatal to Indians, <a href="#page-291">291</a><br>
+Snipe&mdash;<a href="#page-266">266</a><br>
+Spanish&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;claim La., <a href="#page-5">5</a>; <a href="#page-54">54</a>; <a href="#page-55">55</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;on west of La., colony, <a href="#page-146">146</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;near Natchitoches, <a href="#page-150">150</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how they hunt in Mexico, <a href="#page-155">155</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;commerce with La., <a href="#page-183">183</a>-<a href="#page-184">184</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;attempt to settle Missouri, <a href="#page-305">305</a><br>
+Starlings&mdash;<a href="#page-268">268</a><br>
+Stag&mdash;<a href="#page-242">242</a><br>
+Spatula&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-261">261</a>; <a href="#page-276">276</a><br>
+Spiders&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-257">257</a><br>
+Squirrels&mdash;<a href="#page-252">252</a><br>
+Stink Wood Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Strawberries&mdash;<a href="#page-238">238</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feast of, <a href="#page-320">320</a><br>
+Stung Arm&mdash;<a href="#page-79">79</a>; <a href="#page-80">80</a>; <a href="#page-81">81</a><br>
+Stung Serpent&mdash;<a href="#page-35">35</a>; <a href="#page-40">40</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;death of, <a href="#page-335">335</a>-<a href="#page-336">336</a><br>
+Sturgeon&mdash;<a href="#page-14">14</a><br>
+Sun of the Apple Village&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;negotiates with the French, <a href="#page-73">73</a>-<a href="#page-78">78</a><br>
+Swallows&mdash;<a href="#page-269">269</a><br>
+Swans&mdash;<a href="#page-127">127</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-259">259</a><br>
+Sweet gum&mdash;<a href="#page-181">181</a>; <a href="#page-215">215</a></p>
+
+<p>Tamarouas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-300">300</a>; <a href="#page-301">301</a><br>
+Tangipahoa River&mdash;<a href="#page-113">113</a><br>
+Tar&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how to make&mdash;<a href="#page-193">193</a>-<a href="#page-194">194</a><br>
+Tassel&mdash;<a href="#page-258">258</a><br>
+Tattooing&mdash;<a href="#page-346">346</a><br>
+Tchefuncte River&mdash;<a href="#page-113">113</a>; <a href="#page-136">136</a><br>
+Teal&mdash;<a href="#page-261">261</a><br>
+Temple, Indian&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-333">333</a><br>
+Tensas Indians&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;near Mobile, <a href="#page-294">294</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;language, <a href="#page-297">297</a>; <a href="#page-300">300</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;former home of, <a href="#page-303">303</a><br>
+Tensas River&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lands along, <a href="#page-152">152</a><br>
+Termites&mdash;<a href="#page-273">273</a><br>
+Thioux Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-299">299</a><br>
+Thomez Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-294">294</a><br>
+Thorn, Passion&mdash;<a href="#page-229">229</a>-<a href="#page-230">230</a><br>
+Thornback (fish)&mdash;<a href="#page-14">14</a><br>
+Tigers&mdash;<a href="#page-134">134</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-249">249</a>-<a href="#page-250">250</a><br>
+Timber&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for shipbuilding, <a href="#page-179">179</a><br>
+Tobacco&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;trade, <a href="#page-xvii">XVII</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;plantation, <a href="#page-25">25</a>; <a href="#page-145">145</a>; <a href="#page-158">158</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in Illinois, <a href="#page-163">163</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how cultivated, <a href="#page-171">171</a>-<a href="#page-174">174</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for export, <a href="#page-181">181</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;DuMont's description of cultivation, <a href="#page-187">187</a>-<a href="#page-191">191</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;advantages of La. cultivation, <a href="#page-197">197</a>-<a href="#page-198">198</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;British imports and exports, <a href="#page-199">199</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;worm, <a href="#page-271">271</a><br>
+Tombigbee&mdash;<a href="#page-46">46</a>; <a href="#page-89">89</a><br>
+Tonicas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-23">23</a>; <a href="#page-27">27</a>; <a href="#page-44">44</a>; <a href="#page-80">80</a>; <a href="#page-84">84</a>; <a href="#page-85">85</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;language of, <a href="#page-298">298</a><br>
+Tonti, Chevalier de&mdash;<a href="#page-3">3</a>; <a href="#page-4">4</a><br>
+Topoussas Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-300">300</a><br>
+Torture, Indian&mdash;<a href="#page-354">354</a>-<a href="#page-355">355</a><br>
+Tortuga&mdash;<a href="#page-13">13</a><br>
+Tooth-ache Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-228">228</a><br>
+Tradewinds&mdash;<a href="#page-12">12</a><br>
+Troniou&mdash;<a href="#page-270">270</a><br>
+Turkeys, wild&mdash;<a href="#page-120">120</a>; <a href="#page-144">144</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-264">264</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feast of, <a href="#page-324">324</a><br>
+Turkey Buzzard&mdash;<a href="#page-258">258</a><br>
+Turtles&mdash;<a href="#page-253">253</a></p>
+
+<p>Ursuline Nuns&mdash;<a href="#page-51">51</a></p>
+
+<p>Vanilla&mdash;<a href="#page-184">184</a><br>
+Vasquez de Aillon, Lucas&mdash;<a href="#page-1">1</a><br>
+Vauban&mdash;<a href="#page-46">46</a><br>
+Vaudreuil, Gov.&mdash;<a href="#page-95">95</a>; <a href="#page-96">96</a><br>
+Vinegar Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-227">227</a><br>
+Virginia&mdash;<a href="#page-58">58</a></p>
+
+<p>Wabash River&mdash;<a href="#page-110">110</a>; <a href="#page-111">111</a>; <a href="#page-161">161</a>; <a href="#page-162">162</a>; <a href="#page-163">163</a><br>
+Walnut Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-158">158</a>; <a href="#page-213">213</a><br>
+War&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;with Natchez Indians, <a href="#page-32">32</a>-<a href="#page-36">36</a>; <a href="#page-38">38</a>-<a href="#page-39">39</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;causes of Indian wars, <a href="#page-96">96</a>-<a href="#page-97">97</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how they fight, <a href="#page-350">350</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;war feast, <a href="#page-352">352</a>-<a href="#page-353">353</a><br>
+Wasps&mdash;<a href="#page-271">271</a><br>
+Water-hen&mdash;<a href="#page-262">262</a><br>
+Water Melons&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;how grown, <a href="#page-166">166</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cultivation of in La., <a href="#page-206">206</a>-<a href="#page-207">207</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;feast of, <a href="#page-321">321</a><br>
+Wax&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;from Wax Tree, <a href="#page-220">220</a>-<a href="#page-222">222</a><br>
+Wax Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-176">176</a>; <a href="#page-220">220</a>-<a href="#page-222">222</a><br>
+West India Company&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Takes over La., <a href="#page-10">10</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;sends colonists, <a href="#page-11">11</a>; <a href="#page-18">18</a>; <a href="#page-32">32</a>; <a href="#page-44">44</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;gives up colony, <a href="#page-85">85</a><br>
+Wheat&mdash;<a href="#page-145">145</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in Illinois, <a href="#page-162">162</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in La., <a href="#page-203">203</a><br>
+White Apple Village&mdash;<a href="#page-33">33</a>; <a href="#page-39">39</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;demanded by French, <a href="#page-73">73</a><br>
+Whortle-berries&mdash;<a href="#page-212">212</a><br>
+Wild Cat&mdash;<a href="#page-251">251</a><br>
+Wild Geese&mdash;<a href="#page-22">22</a>; <a href="#page-259">259</a><br>
+Wild Turkey&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-264">264</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(see turkey)<br>
+Willow Tree&mdash;<a href="#page-226">226</a><br>
+Wolves&mdash;<a href="#page-134">134</a>; <a href="#page-144">144</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;kill buffaloes, <a href="#page-156">156</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-244">244</a>-<a href="#page-245">245</a><br>
+Women&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"fruitful" in La., <a href="#page-185">185</a><br>
+Woodcock&mdash;<a href="#page-266">266</a><br>
+Wood-pecker&mdash;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;description of, <a href="#page-268">268</a>-<a href="#page-269">269</a><br>
+Wood-Rat&mdash;<a href="#page-251">251</a><br>
+Wren&mdash;<a href="#page-258">258</a></p>
+
+<p>Yapon Shrub&mdash;<a href="#page-228">228</a><br>
+Yaws&mdash;<a href="#page-359">359</a><br>
+Yazoo Indians&mdash;<a href="#page-56">56</a>;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;kill the garrison at their Post, <a href="#page-83">83</a>; <a href="#page-300">300</a><br>
+Yazoo River&mdash;<a href="#page-56">56</a>; <a href="#page-112">112</a><br>
+Ydalgo, Friar&mdash;<a href="#page-5">5</a>; <a href="#page-7">7</a>; <a href="#page-9">9</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxx"><img src="images/illus40.png" alt="A Map of Louisiana" height="534" width="695"></a><br>
+A Map of Louisiana</p>
+
+<p><a name="illustration-xxxxi"><img src="images/illus41.png" alt="THE GULPH OF MEXICO" height="537" width="631"></a><br>
+THE GULPH OF MEXICO</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Louisiana, by Le Page Du Pratz
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Louisisana, by Le Page Du Pratz
+
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+
+
+Title: History of Louisisana
+       Or Of The Western Parts Of Virginia And Carolina: Containing
+       A Description Of The Countries That Lie On Both Sides Of The
+       River Missisippi
+
+Author: Le Page Du Pratz
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9153]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 8, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF LOUISISANA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stan Goodman and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA,
+OR OF THE WESTERN PARTS
+OF VIRGINIA AND CAROLINA:
+
+Containing a DESCRIPTION
+of the Countries
+that lie on both Sides
+of the River Missisippi:
+
+With an ACCOUNT of the
+SETTLEMENTS,
+INHABITANTS,
+SOIL,
+CLIMATE,
+AND
+PRODUCTS.
+
+Translated from the FRENCH
+Of M. LE PAGE Du PRATZ;
+
+With some Notes and Observations
+relating to our Colonies.
+
+
+
+
+Foreword
+
+Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz was a Dutchman, as his birth in Holland
+about 1695 apparently proves. He died in 1775, just where available
+records do not tell us, but the probabilities are that he died in
+France, for it is said he entered the French Army, serving with the
+Dragoons, and saw service in Germany. While there is some speculation
+about all the foregoing, there can be no speculation about the
+statement that on May 25, 1718 he left La Rochelle, France, in one of
+three ships bound for a place called Louisiana.
+
+For M. Le Page tells us about this in a three-volume work he wrote
+called, Histoire de la Louisiane, recognized as the authority to be
+consulted by all who have written on the early history of New Orleans
+and the Louisiana province.
+
+Le Page, who arrived in Louisiana August 25, 1718, three months after
+leaving La Rochelle, spent four months at Dauphin Island before he and
+his men made their way to Bayou St. John where he set up a plantation.
+He had at last reached New Orleans, which he correctly states,
+"existed only in name," and had to occupy an old lodge once used by an
+Acolapissa Indian. The young settler, he was only about 23 at the
+time, after arranging his shelter tells us: "A few days afterwards I
+purchased from a neighbour a native female slave, so as to have a
+woman to cook for us. My slave and I could not speak each other's
+language; but I made myself understood by means of signs." This slave,
+a girl of the Chitimacha tribe, remained with Le Page for years, and
+one draws the inference that she was possessed of a vigorous
+personality, and was not devoid of charm or bravery. Le Page writes
+that when frightened by an alligator approaching his camp fire, he ran
+to the lodge for his gun. However, the Indian girl calmly picked up a
+stick and hammered the 'gator so lustily on its nose that it
+retreated. As Le Page arrived with his gun, ready to shoot "the
+monster," he tells us: "She began to smile, and said many things which
+I did not comprehend, but she made me understand by signs, that there
+was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast."
+
+It is unfortunate, for the purpose of sociological study, that this
+Indian girl appears so infrequently in the many accounts Le Page has
+left us in his highly interesting studies of early Louisiana and its
+original inhabitants. He does not even tell us the Indian girl's name.
+
+We are told that after living on the banks of Bayou St. John for about
+two years, he left for the bluff lands of the Natchez country. His
+Indian girl decided she would go with him, as she had relatives there.
+Hearing of her plan, her old father offered to buy her back from Le
+Page. The Chitimacha girl, however, refused to leave her master,
+whereupon, the Indian father performed a rite of his tribe, which made
+her the ward of the white man--a simple ceremony of joining hands.
+
+Le Page spent eight years among the Natchez and what he wrote about
+them--their lives, their customs, their ceremonials--has been
+acknowledged to be the best and most accurate accounts we have of
+these original inhabitants of Louisiana. He has left us, in his
+splendid history, much information on the other Indian tribes of the
+lower Mississippi River country.
+
+Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz tells us he spent sixteen years in
+Louisiana before returning to France in 1734. They were years well
+spent--to judge by what he wrote.
+
+As it was written and published in the French language, Le Page's
+history proved in many instances to be a tantalizing casket of
+historical treasure that could not be opened by those who had not
+mastered French. The original edition, published in Paris in 1758, a
+score of years after the author landed in New Orleans, was followed in
+1763 by a two-volume edition in English, and eleven years later in
+1774, by a one-volume edition in English, entitled: "The History of
+Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina." The
+texts in the English editions are identical.
+
+Fortunately, early historians who could not read the French edition,
+were now able to read M. Le Page's accounts of his adventures in the
+New World. Unfortunately, especially for present day historians, the
+English editions have become increasingly rare--many libraries do not
+have them on their shelves. Therefore, the present re-publication
+fills a long-felt want.
+
+The English translation, with its added matter, is reproduced exactly
+as it was printed for T. Becket to be sold in his shop at the corner
+of the Adelphi in the Strand, London, 1774. Errors of grammar and
+spelling are not corrected. The only change is the modernizing of the
+old _s_'s which look like _f_'s.
+
+The present edition is really two works in one, for the English
+translation did not include any of the original edition's many
+illustrations. The London books did have two folding maps, one of the
+Louisiana province, the other of the country about the mouths of the
+Mississippi River. Not only are these maps reproduced in the present
+work, but in addition, all the other illustrations, including the rare
+map of New Orleans, appearing in the original French edition, are
+included. These quaint engravings of the birds, the beasts, the
+flowers, the shrubs, the trees, fish, the deer and buffalo hunts, and
+the habits and customs of the Natchez Indians, add much to the value
+of the present re-publication. I have captioned them with present-day
+names of the flora and fauna.
+
+STANLEY CLISBY ARTHUR.
+
+(_Mr. Arthur is a naturalist, historian and writer, and
+executive-director of the Louisiana State Museum.--J. S. W.
+Harmanson, Publisher_.)
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  Preface
+
+  BOOK I.
+    The Transactions of the French in Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Of the first Discovery and Settlement of Louisiana
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the Spaniards
+      at the Assinais. His second Journey to Mexico, and Return
+      from thence
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the West-India Company
+      to Louisiana. Arrival and Stay at Cape Francois.  Arrival
+      at the Isle Dauphine. Description of that Island
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the
+      Places he passed through, as far as New Orleans
+
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      The Author put in Possession of his Territory.  His
+      Resolution to go and settle among the Natchez
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      The Voyage of the Author to Biloxi. Description of that
+      Place. Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two
+      Copper Mines. His Return to the Natchez
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      First War with the Natchez. Cause of the War
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      The Governor surprized the Natchez with seven hundred
+      Men. Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The
+      Author sends upwards of three hundred Simples to the
+      Company
+
+    CHAP. IX.
+      French Settlements, or Posts. Post at Mobile.  The Mouths
+      of the Missisippi. The Situation and Description of New
+      Orleans
+
+    CHAP. X.
+      The Voyages of the French to the Missouris, Canzas, and
+      Padoucas. The Settlements they in vain attempted to make
+      in those Countries; with a Description of an extraordinary
+      Phaenomenon
+
+    CHAP. XI.
+      The War with the Chitimachas. The Conspiracy of the Negroes
+      against the French. Their Execution
+
+    CHAP. XII.
+      The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the French in 1729.
+      Extirpation of the Natchez in 1730
+
+    CHAP. XIII.
+      The War with the Chicasaws. The first Expedition by the
+      River Mobile. The second by the River Missisippi. The War
+      with the Chactaws terminated by the Prudence of M. de
+      Vaudreuil
+
+    CHAP. XIV.
+      Reflections on what gives Occasion to Wars in Louisiana.
+      The Means of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the
+      Manner of coming off with Advantage and little Expence in
+      them
+
+    CHAP. XV.
+      Pensacola taken by Surprize by the French. Retaken by the
+      Spaniards. Again retaken by the French, and demolished
+
+  BOOK II.
+    Of the Country and its Products.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its climate
+
+      Description of the Lower Louisiana, and the Mouths of the
+      Missisippi.
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      The Author's journey in Louisiana, from the Natchez to the
+      River St. Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      The Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the
+      Coast.
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Quality of the Lands above the Fork.  A Quarry of Stone
+      for building.  High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility.
+      West Coast: West Lands: Saltpetre
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      Quality of the Lands of the Red River. Posts of
+      Nachitoches. A Silver Mine. Lands of the Black River
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      A Brook of salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River
+      of the Arkansas. Red-veined Marble: Slate: Plaster.
+      Hunting the Buffalo. The dry Sand-banks in the Missisippi
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      The Lands of the River St. Francis. Mine of Marameg, and
+      other Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone, resembling
+      Porphyry. Lands of the Missouri. The Lands North of the
+      Wabache. The Lands of the Illinois. De La Mothe's Mine,
+      and other Mines
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering,
+      and manufacturing the Commodities that are proper
+      Articles of Commerce. Of the Culture of Maiz, Rice, and
+      other Fruits of the Country. Of the Silk Worm
+
+    CHAP. IX.
+      Of Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, and Saffron
+
+    CHAP. X.
+      Of the Commerce that is, and may be carried on in
+      Louisiana. Of the Commodities which that Province
+      may furnish in Return for those of Europe. Of the
+      Commerce of Louisiana with the Isles
+
+    CHAP. XI.
+      Of the Commerce with the Spaniards. The Commodities
+      they bring to the Colony, if there is a Demand for
+      them. Of such as may be given in Return, and may suit
+      them. Reflections on the Commerce of this Province,
+      and the great Advantages which the State and
+      particular Persons may derive therefrom
+
+    Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana,
+    by M. Dumont.
+
+      I.   Of Tobacco, with the Way of cultivating and curing it
+
+      II.  Of the Way of making Indigo
+
+      III. Of Tar; the Way of making it; and of making it into
+           pitch
+
+      IV.  Of the Mines of Louisiana
+
+    Extract from a late French Writer, concerning the Importance
+    of Louisiana to France
+
+  BOOK III.
+    The Natural History of Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Of Corn and Pulse
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      Of the Fruit Trees of Louisiana
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      Of Forest Trees
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Of Shrubs and Excrescences
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      Of Creeping Plants
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      Of the Quadrupedes
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      Of Birds and flying Insects
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      Of Fishes and Shell-Fish
+
+  BOOK IV.
+    Of the Natives of Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      The Origin of the Americans
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      An Account of the several Nations of Louisiana
+
+
+      SECT. I.
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the Missisippi
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the Missisippi
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      A Description of the Natives of Louisiana; of their
+      Manners and Customs, particularly those of the Natchez:
+      Of their Language, their Religion, Ceremonies, Rulers,
+      or Suns, Feasts, Marriages, &c
+
+      SECT. I.
+        A Description of the Natives; the different Employments
+        of the two Sexes; and their Manner of bringing up their
+        Children
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Language, Government, Religion, Ceremonies, and
+        Feasts of the Natives
+
+      SECT. III.
+        Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks
+
+      SECT. IV.
+        Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious
+        Ceremonies of the People of Louisiana
+
+      SECT. V.
+        Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives
+
+      SECT. VI.
+        Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their
+        Meals and Fastings
+
+      SECT. VII.
+        Of the Indian Art of War
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Of the Negroes of Louisiana
+
+      SECT. I.
+        Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distempers, and the
+        Manner of curing them
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Manner of governing the Negroes
+
+  INDEX
+
+  List of Illustrations
+
+    Indian in Summer Time
+    Indian in Winter Time
+    Indian Woman and Daughter
+    Plan of New Orleans, 1720
+    Beaver, Beaver lodge, Beaver dam
+    Indians of the North Leaving in the Winter with their
+    Families for a Hunt
+    Indigo
+    Cotton and Rice on the Stalk
+    Appalachean Beans. Sweet Potatoes
+    Watermelon
+    Pawpaw. Blue Whortle-berry
+    Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber
+    Cypress
+    Magnolia
+    Sassafras
+    Myrtle Wax Tree. Vinegar Tree
+    Poplar ("Cotton Tree")
+    Black Oak
+    Linden or Bass Tree
+    Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree
+    Cassine or Yapon. Tooth-ache Tree or Prickly Ash
+    Passion Thorn or Honey Locust. Bearded Creeper
+    Palmetto
+    Bramble, Sarsaparilla
+    Rattlesnake Herb
+    Red Dye Plant. Flat Root
+    Panther or Catamount. Bison or Buffalo
+
+    Indian Deer Hunt
+    Wild Cat. Opossum. Skunk
+    Alligator. Rattle Snake. Green Snake
+    Pelican. Wood Stock
+    Flying Squirrel. Roseate Spoonbill. Snowy Heron
+    White Ibis. Tobacco Worm. Cock Roach
+    Cat Fish. Gar Fish. Spoonbill Catfish
+    Indian Buffalo Hunt on Foot
+    Dance of the Natchez Indians
+    Burial of the Stung Serpent
+    Bringing the Pipe of Peace
+    Torture of Prisoners. Plan of Fort
+
+
+
+
+{i}
+
+PREFACE
+
+The History of Louisiana, which we here present to the public, was
+wrote by a planter of sixteen years experience in that country, who
+had likewise the advantage of being overseer or director of the public
+plantations, both when they belonged to the company, and afterwards
+when they fell to the crown; by which means he had the best
+opportunities of knowing the nature of the soil and climate, and what
+they produce, or what improvements they are likely to admit of; a
+thing in which this nation is, without doubt, highly concerned and
+interested. And when our author published this history in 1758, he had
+likewise the advantage, not only of the accounts of F. Charlevoix, and
+others, but of the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published at Paris
+in 1753, by Mr. Dumont, an officer who resided two-and-twenty years in
+the country, and was personally concerned and acquainted with many of
+the transactions in it; from whom we have extracted some passages, to
+render this account more complete.
+
+But whatever opportunities our author had of gaining a knowledge of
+his subject, it must be owned, that he made his accounts of it very
+perplexed. By endeavoring to take in every thing, he descends to many
+trifles; and by dwelling too long on a subject, he comes to render it
+obscure, by being prolix in things which hardly relate to what he
+treats of. He interrupts the thread of his discourse with private
+anecdotes, long harangues, and tedious narrations, which have little
+or no relation to the subject, and are of much less consequence to the
+reader. The want of method and order throughout the whole work is
+still more apparent; and that, joined to these digressions, renders
+his accounts, however just and interesting, so tedious and irksome to
+read, and at the same time so indistinct, that few seem to have reaped
+the benefit of them. For these reasons it was necessary to methodize
+the whole work; to abridge some parts of it; and to leave out many
+things that appear to be trifling. This we have endeavored to do in
+the translation, by reducing the whole work to four general heads or
+books; and {ii} by bringing the several subjects treated of, the
+accounts of which lie scattered up and down in different parts of the
+original, under these their proper heads; so that the connection
+between them, and the accounts of any one subject, may more easily
+appear.
+
+This, it is presumed, will appear to be a subject of no small
+consequence and importance to this nation, especially at this time.
+The countries here treated of, have not only by right always belonged
+to Great-Britain, but part of them is now acknowledged to it by the
+former usurpers: and it is to be hoped, that the nation may now reap
+some advantages from those countries, on which it has expended so many
+millions; which there is no more likely way to do, than by making them
+better known in the first place, and by learning from the experience
+of others, what they do or are likely to produce, that may turn to
+account to the nation.
+
+It has been generally suspected, that this nation has suffered much,
+from the want of a due knowledge of her dominions in America, which we
+should endeavor to prevent for the future. If that may be said of any
+part of America, it certainly may of those countries, which have been
+called by the French Louisiana. They have not only included under that
+name all the western parts of Virginia and Carolina; and thereby
+imagined, that they had, from this nominal title, a just right to
+those antient dominions of the crown of Britain: but what is of worse
+consequence perhaps, they have equally deceived and imposed upon many,
+by the extravagant hopes and unreasonable expectations they had formed
+to themselves, of the vast advantages they were to reap from those
+countries, as soon as they had usurped them; which when they came to
+be disappointed in, they ran from one extreme to another, and
+condemned the country as good for nothing, because it did not answer
+the extravagant hopes they had conceived of it; and we seem to be
+misled by their prejudices, and to be drawn into mistakes by their
+artifice or folly. Because the Missisippi scheme failed in 1719, every
+other reasonable scheme of improving that country, and of reaping any
+advantage from it, must do the same. It is to wipe off these
+prejudices, that the following account of these countries, which
+appears to be both {iii} just and reasonable, and agreeable to every
+thing we know of America, may be the more necessary.
+
+We have been long ago told by F. Charlevoix, from whence it is, that
+many people have formed a contemptible opinion of this country that
+lies on and about the Missisippi. They are misled, says he, by the
+relations of some seafaring people, and others, who are no manner of
+judges of such things, and have never seen any part of the country but
+the coast side, about Mobile, and the mouths of the Mississippi; which
+our author here tells us is as dismal to appearance, the only thing
+those people are capable of judging of, as the interior parts of the
+country, which they never saw, are delightful, fruitful, and inviting.
+They tell us, besides, that the country is unhealthful; because there
+happens to be a marsh at the mouth of the Missisippi, (and what river
+is there without one?) which they imagine must be unhealthful, rather
+than that they know it to be so; not considering, that all the coast
+both of North and South America is the same; and not knowing, that the
+whole continent, above this single part on the coast, is the most
+likely, from its situation, and has been found by all the experience
+that has been had of it, to be the most healthy part of all North
+America in the same climates, as will abundantly appear from the
+following and all other accounts.
+
+To give a general view of those countries, we should consider them as
+they are naturally divided into four parts; 1. The sea coast; 2. The
+Lower Louisiana, or western part of Carolina; 3. The Upper Louisiana,
+or western part of Virginia; and 4, the river Missisippi.
+
+I. The sea coast is the same with all the rest of the coast of North
+America to the southward of New York, and indeed from thence to Mexico,
+as far as we are acquainted with it. It is all a low flat sandy beach,
+and the soil for some twenty or thirty miles distance from the shore,
+more or less, is all a _pine barren_, as it is called, or a sandy
+desart; with few or no good ports or harbours on the coast, especially
+in all those southern parts of America, from Chesapeak bay to Mexico.
+But however barren this coast is in other respects, it is entirely
+covered with tall pines, which afford great store of pitch, tar, and
+turpentine. {iv} These pines likewise make good masts for ships; which I
+have known to last for twenty odd years, when it is well known, that our
+common masts of New England white pine will often decay in three or four
+years. These masts were of that kind that is called the pitch pine, and
+lightwood pine; of which I knew a ship built that ran for sixteen years,
+when her planks of this pine were as sound and rather harder than at
+first, although her oak timbers were rotten. The cypress, of which there
+is such plenty in the swamps on this coast, is reckoned to be equally
+serviceable, if not more so, both for masts (of which it would afford
+the largest of any tree that we know), and for ship building. And ships
+might be built of both these timbers for half the price perhaps of any
+others, both on account of the vast plenty of them, and of their being
+so easily worked.
+
+In most parts of these coasts likewise, especially about the
+Missisippi, there is great plenty of cedars and ever-green oaks; which
+make the best ships of any that are built in North America. And we
+suspect it is of these cedars and the American cypress, that the
+Spaniards build their ships of war at the Havanna. Of these there is
+the greatest plenty, immediately; to the westward of the mouth of the
+Missisippi where "large vessels can go to the lake of the Chetimachas,
+and nothing hinders them to go and cut the finest oaks in the world,
+with which all that coast is covered;" [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. N.
+France, Tom. III. p. 444.] which, moreover, is a sure sign of a very
+good, instead of a bad soil; and accordingly we see the French have
+settled their tobacco plantations thereabouts. It is not without
+reason then, that our author tells us, the largest navies might be
+built in that country at a very small expence.
+
+From this it appears, that even the sea coast, barren as it is, from
+which the whole country has been so much depreciated, is not without
+its advantages, and those peculiarly adapted to a trading and maritime
+nation. Had these sandy desarts indeed been in such a climate as
+Canada, they would have been of as little value, as many would make
+them here. It might be difficult indeed to settle colonies merely for
+these or any other {v} productions of those poor lands: but to the
+westward of the Missisippi, the coast is much more fruitful all along
+the bay of Mexico; being watered with a great number of rivers, the
+banks of which are very fertile, and are covered with forests of the
+tallest oaks, &c. as far as to New Mexico, a thing not to be seen any
+where else on these coasts. The coast alone will supply all the
+products of North America, and is as convenient to navigation as any
+part of it, without going nigh the Missisippi; so that it is with good
+reason our author says, "That country promises great riches to such as
+shall inhabit it, from the excellent quality of its lands," [Footnote:
+See p. 163.] in such a climate.
+
+These are the productions of the dry (we cannot call them high)
+grounds: the swamps, with which this coast abounds, are still more
+fruitful, and abundantly compensate the avidity and barrenness of the
+soil around them. They bear rice in such plenty, especially the marsh
+about New Orleans, "That the inhabitants reap the greatest advantage
+from it, and reckon it the manna of the land." [Footnote: _Dumont_,
+I. 15.] It was such marshes on the Nile, in the same climate, that were
+the granary of the Roman empire. And from a few such marshes in
+Carolina, not to be compared to those on the Missisippi, either in
+extent or fertility, Britain receives at least two or three hundred
+thousand pounds a year, and might vend twice that value of their
+products.
+
+But however barren or noxious these low lands on the sea coast may be,
+they extend but a little way about the Missisippi, not above thirty or
+forty miles in a straight line, on the east side of that river, and
+about twice as far on the west side; in which last, the lands are, in
+recompence, much more fruitful. To follow the course of the river
+indeed, which runs very obliquely south-east and north-west, as well
+as crooked, they reckon it eighty-two leagues from the mouth of the
+river to the Cut-Point, where the high lands begin.
+
+II. By the Lower Louisiana, our author means only the Delta of the
+Missisippi, or the drowned lands made by the overflowing of the river.
+But we may more properly give {vi} that appellation to the whole
+country, from the low and flat sea coast above described, to the
+mountains, which begin about the latitude 35 deg., a little above the
+river St. Francis; that is, five degrees of latitude, or three hundred
+and fifty statute miles from the coast; which they reckon to be six
+hundred and sixty miles up the Missisippi. About that latitude a
+continued ridge of mountains runs westward from the Apalachean
+mountains nigh to the banks of the Missisippi, which are thereabouts
+very high, at what we have called the Chicasaw Cliffs. Opposite to
+these on the west side of the Missisippi, the country is mountainous,
+and continues to be so here and there, as far as we have any accounts
+of it, westward to the mountains of New Mexico; which run in a chain
+of continued ridges from north to south, and are reckoned to divide
+that country from Louisiana, about 900 miles west from the Missisippi.
+
+This is one entire level champaign country; the part of which that
+lies west of the Missisippi is 900 miles (of sixty to a degree) by
+300, and contains 270,000 square miles, as much as both France and
+Spain put together. This country lies in the latitude of those
+fruitful regions of Barbary, Syria, Persia, India, and the middle of
+China, and is alone sufficient to supply the world with all the
+products of North America. It is very fertile in every thing, both in
+lands and metals, by all the accounts we have of it; and is watered by
+several large navigable rivers, that spread over the whole country
+from the Missisippi to New Mexico; besides several smaller rivers on
+the coast west of the Missisippi, that fall into the bay of Mexico; of
+which we have no good accounts, if it be not that Mr. Coxe tells us of
+one, the river of the Cenis, which, he says, "is broad, deep, and
+navigable almost to its heads, which chiefly proceed from the ridge of
+hills that separate this province from New Mexico," [Footnote:
+Description of Carolina, p. 37] and runs through the rich and
+fertile country on the coast above mentioned.
+
+The western part of this country is more fertile, says our author,
+than that on the east side of the Missisippi; in which part, however,
+says he, the lands are very fertile, with a rich {vii} black mould
+three feet deep in the hills, and much deeper in the bottoms, with a
+strong clayey foundation. Reeds and canes even grow upon the hill
+sides; which, with the oaks, walnuts, tulip-trees, &c. are a sure sign
+of a good and rich soil. And all along the Missisippi on both sides,
+Dumont tells, "The lands, which are all free from inundations, are
+excellent for culture, particularly those about Baton Rouge,
+Cut-Point, Arkansas, Natchez, and Yasous, which produce Indian corn,
+tobacco, indigo, &c. and all kinds of provisions and esculent plants,
+with little or no care or labour, and almost without culture; the soil
+being in all those places a black mould of an excellent quality."
+[Footnote: Memoires, I. 16.]
+
+These accounts are confirmed by our own people, who were sent by the
+government of Virginia in 1742, to view these the western parts of
+that province; and although they only went down the Ohio and
+Missisippi to New Orleans, they reported, that "they saw more good
+land on the Missisippi, and its many large branches, than they judge
+is in all the English colonies, as far as they are inhabited;" as
+appears from the report of that government to the board of trade.
+
+What makes this fertile country more eligible and valuable, is, that
+it appears both from its situation, and from the experience the French
+have had of it, [Footnote: See p. 120, 121.] to be by far the most
+healthful of any in all these southern parts of North America; a thing
+of the last consequence in settling colonies, especially in those
+southern parts of America, which are in general very unhealthful. All
+the sea coasts of our colonies, to the southward of Chesapeak bay, or
+even of New-York, are low and flat, marshy and swampy, and very
+unhealthful on that account and those on and about the bay of Mexico,
+and in Florida, are withal excessively hot and intemperate, so that
+white people are unfit for labour in them; by which all our southern
+colonies, which alone promise to be of any great advantage to the
+nation, are so thin of people, that we have but 25,000 white people in
+all South Carolina. [Footnote: Description of South Carolina. by----,
+p. 30.] But those lands on the Missisippi are, on {viii} the
+contrary, high, dry, hilly, and in some places mountainous at no great
+distance from the river, besides the ridges of the Apalachean
+mountains above mentioned, that lie to the northward of them; which
+must greatly refresh and cool the air all over the country, especially
+in comparison of what it is on the low and flat, sandy and parched sea
+coasts of our present colonies. These high lands begin immediately
+above the Delta, or drowned lands, at the mouth of the Missisippi;
+above which the banks of that river are from one hundred to two
+hundred feet high, without any marshes about them; and continue such
+for nine hundred miles to the river Ohio, especially on the east side
+of the river. [Footnote: See p. 158]
+
+Such a situation on rich and fertile lands in that climate, and on a
+navigable river, must appear to be of the utmost consequence. It is only
+from the rich lands on the river sides (which indeed are the only lands
+that can generally be called rich in all countries, and especially in
+North America), that this nation reaps any thing of value from all the
+colonies it has in that part of the world. But "rich lands on river
+sides in hot climates are extremely unhealthful," says a very good judge,
+[Footnote: _Arbuthnot_ on Air. _App_.] and we have often found to our
+cost. How ought we then to value such rich and healthful countries on
+the Missisippi? As much surely as some would depreciate and vilify them.
+It may be observed, that all the countries in America are only populous
+in the inland parts, and generally at a distance from navigation; as the
+sea coasts both of North and South America are generally low, damp,
+excessively hot, and unhealthful; at least in all the southern parts,
+from which alone we can expect any considerable returns. Instances of
+this may be seen in the adjacent provinces of Mexico, New Mexico, Terra
+Firma, Peru, Quito, etc. and far more in our southern colonies, which
+never became populous, till the people removed to the inland parts, at a
+distance from the sea. This we are in a manner prevented to do in our
+colonies, by the mountains which surround us, and confine us to the
+coast; whereas on the Missisippi the whole continent is open to them,
+and they have, besides, this healthy {ix} situation on the lower parts
+of that river, at a small distance from the sea.
+
+If those things are duly considered, it will appear, that they who are
+possessed of the Missisippi, will in time command that continent; and
+that we shall be confined on the sea coasts of our colonies, to that
+unhealthful situation, which many would persuade us is so much to be
+dreaded on the Missisippi. It is by this means that we have so very few
+people in all our southern colonies; and have not been able to get in
+one hundred years above twenty-five thousand people in South Carolina;
+when the French has not less than eighty or ninety thousand in Canada,
+besides ten or twelve thousand on the Missisippi, to oppose to them. The
+low and drowned lands, indeed, about the mouth of the Missisippi must no
+doubt be more or less unhealthful; but they are far from being so very
+pernicious as many represent them. The waters there are fresh, which we
+know, by manifold experience in America, are much less prejudicial to
+health than the offensive fetid marshes, that are to be found every
+where else on the salt waters. Accordingly we are credibly informed,
+that some of the inhabitants of New Orleans say, they never enjoyed
+better health even in France; and for that reason they invite their
+countrymen, in their letters to them, we are told, to come and partake
+of the salutary benefits of that delightful country. The clearing,
+draining, and cultivating of those low lands, must make a very great
+change upon them, from the accounts we have had of them in their rude
+and uncultivated state.
+
+III. The Upper Louisiana we call that part of the continent, which
+lies to the northward of the mountains above mentioned in latitude
+35 deg.. This country is in many places hilly and mountainous for which
+reason we cannot expect it to be so fertile as the plains below it.
+But those hills on the west side of the Missisippi are generally
+suspected to contain mines, as well as the mountains of New Mexico, of
+which they are a continuation. But the fertile plains of Louisiana are
+perhaps more valuable than all the mines of Mexico; which there would
+be no doubt of, if they were duly cultivated. They will breed and
+maintain ten times as many people, and supply them with {x} many more
+necessaries, and articles of trade and navigation, than the richest
+mines of Peru.
+
+The most important place in this country, and perhaps in all North
+America, is at the Forks of the Missisippi, where the Ohio falls into
+that river; which, like another ocean, is the general receptacle of
+all the rivers that water the interior parts of that vast continent.
+Here those large and navigable rivers, the Ohio, river of the
+Cherokees, Wabache, Illinois, Missouri, and Missisippi, besides many
+others, which spread over that whole continent, from the Apalachean
+mountains to the mountains of New Mexico, upwards of one thousand
+miles, both north, south, east, and west, all meet together at this
+spot; and that in the best climate, and one of the most fruitful
+countries of any in all that part of the world, in the latitude 37 deg.,
+the latitude of the Capes of Virginia, and of Santa Fe, the capital of
+New Mexico. By that means there is a convenient navigation to this
+place from our present settlements to New Mexico; and from all the
+inland parts of North America, farther than we are acquainted with it:
+and all the natives of that continent, those old friends and allies of
+the French, have by that means a free and ready access to this place;
+nigh to which the French formed a settlement, to secure their interest
+on the frontiers of all our southern colonies. In short this place is
+the centre of that vast continent, and of all the nations in it, and
+seems to be intended by nature to command them both; for which reason
+it ought no longer to be neglected by Britain. As soon as we pass the
+Apalachean mountains, this seems to be the most proper place to settle
+at; and was pitched upon for that purpose, by those who were the best
+acquainted with those countries, and the proper places of making
+settlements in them, of any we know. And if the settlements at this
+place had been made, as they were proposed, about twenty years ago,
+they might have prevented, or at least frustrated, the late attempts
+to wrest that country, and the territories of the Ohio, out of the
+hands of the English; and they may do the same again.
+
+But many will tell us, that those inland parts of North America will
+be of no use to Britain, on account of their distance {xi} from the
+sea, and inconvenience to navigation. That indeed might be said of the
+parts which lie immediately beyond the mountains, as the country of
+the Cherokees, and Ohio Indians about Pitsburg, the only countries
+thereabouts that we can extend our settlements to; which are so
+inconvenient to navigation, that nothing can be brought from them
+across the mountains, at least none of those gross commodities, which
+are the staple of North America; and they are as inconvenient to have
+any thing carried from them, nigh two thousand miles, down the river
+Ohio, and then by the Missisippi. For that reason those countries,
+which we look upon to be the most convenient, are the most
+inconvenient to us of any, although they join upon our present
+settlements. It is for these reasons, that the first settlements we
+make beyond the mountains, that is, beyond those we are now possessed
+of, should be upon the Missisippi, as we have said, convenient to the
+navigation of that river; and in time those new settlements may come
+to join to our present plantations; and we may by that means reap the
+benefit of all those inland parts of North America, by means of the
+navigation of the Missisippi, which will be secured by this post at
+the Forks. If that is not done, we cannot see how any of those inland
+parts of America, and the territories of the Ohio, which were the
+great objects of the present war, can ever be of any use to Britain,
+as the inhabitants of all those countries can otherwise have little or
+no correspondence with it.
+
+IV. This famous river, the Missisippi, is navigable upwards of two
+thousand miles, to the falls of St. Anthony in latitude 45 deg., the only
+fall we know in it, which is 16 degrees of latitude above its mouth;
+and even above that fall, our author tells us, there is thirty fathom
+of water in the river, with a proportionate breadth. About one
+thousand miles from its mouth it receives the river Ohio, which is
+navigable one thousand miles farther, some say one thousand five
+hundred, nigh to its source, not far from Lake Ontario in New York; in
+all which space there is but one fall or rapide in the Ohio, and that
+navigable both up and down, at least in canoes. This fall is three
+hundred miles from the Missisippi, and one thousand three hundred from
+the sea, with five fathom of water up to {xii} it. The other large
+branches of the Ohio, the river of the Cherokees, and the Wabache,
+afford a like navigation, from lake Erie in the north to the Cherokees
+in the south, and from thence to the bay of Mexico, by the Missisippi:
+not to mention the great river Missouri, which runs to the north-west
+parts of New Mexico, much farther than we have any good accounts of
+that continent. From this it appears, that the Missouri affords the
+most extensive navigation of any river we know; so that it may justly
+be compared to an inland sea, which spreads over nine tenths of all
+the continent of North America; all which the French pretended to lay
+claim to, for no other reason but because they were possessed of a
+paltry settlement at the mouth of this river.
+
+If those things are considered, the importance of the navigation of
+the Missisippi, and of a port at the mouth of it, will abundantly
+appear. Whatever that navigation is, good or bad, it is the only one
+for all the interior parts of North America, which are as large as a
+great part of Europe; no part of which can be of any service to
+Britain, without the navigation of the Missisippi, and settlements
+upon it. It is not without reason then, that we say, whoever are
+possessed of this river, and of the vast tracts of fertile lands upon
+it, must in time command that continent, and the trade of it, as well
+as all the natives in it, by the supplies which this navigation will
+enable them to furnish those people. By those means, if the French, or
+any others, are left in possession of the Missisippi, while we neglect
+it, they must command all that continent beyond the Apalachean
+mountains, and disturb our settlements much more than ever they did,
+or were able to do; the very thing they engaged in this war to
+accomplish, and we to prevent.
+
+The Missisippi indeed is rapid for twelve hundred miles, as far as to
+the Missouri, which makes it difficult to go up the river by water.
+For that reason the French have been used to quit the Missisippi at
+the river St. Francis, from which they have a nigher way to the Forks
+of the Missisippi by land. But however difficult it may be to ascend
+the river, it is, notwithstanding often done; and its rapidity
+facilitates a descent upon it, and a ready conveyance for those gross
+commodities, which {xiii} are the chief staple of North America, from
+the most remote places of the continent above mentioned: and as for
+lighter European goods, they are more easily carried by land, as our
+Indian traders do, over great part of the continent, on their horses,
+of which this country abounds with great plenty.
+
+The worst part of the navigation, as well as of the country, is
+reckoned to be at the mouth of the river; which, however, our author
+tells us, is from seventeen to eighteen feet deep, and will admit
+ships of five hundred tons, the largest generally used in the
+plantation trade. And even this navigation might be easily mended, not
+only by clearing the river of a narrow bar in the passes, which our
+author, Charlevoix, and others, think might be easily done; but
+likewise by means of a bay described by Mr. Coxe, from the actual
+survey of his people, lying to the westward of the south pass of the
+river; which, he says, has from twenty-five to six fathom water in it,
+close to the shore, and not above a mile from the Missisippi, above
+all the shoals and difficult passes in it, and where the river has one
+hundred feet of water. By cutting through that one mile then, it would
+appear that a port might be made there for ships of any burden; the
+importance of which is evident, from its commanding all the inland
+parts of North America on one side, and the pass from Mexico on the
+other; so as to be preferable in these respects even to the Havanna;
+not to mention that it is fresh water, and free from worms, which
+destroy all the ships in those parts.
+
+And as for the navigation from the Missisippi to Europe, our author
+shews that voyage may be performed in six weeks; which is as short a
+time as our ships generally take to go to and from our colonies. They
+go to the Missisippi with the trade winds, and return with the
+currents.
+
+It would lead us beyond the bounds of a preface, to shew the many
+advantages of those lands on the Missisippi to Britain, or the
+necessity of possessing them. That would require a treatise by itself,
+of which we can only give a few abstracts in this place. For this
+purpose we should compare those lands with our present colonies; and
+should be well informed of the quantity and condition of the lands we
+already possess, before {xiv} we can form any just judgement of what
+may be farther proper or requisite.
+
+Our present possessions in North America between the sea and the
+mountains appear, from many surveys and actual mensurations, as well
+as from all the maps and other accounts we have of them, to be at a
+medium about three degrees of longitude, or one hundred and forty
+miles broad, in a straight line; and they extend from Georgia, in
+latitude 32 deg., to the bay of Fundi, in latitude 45 deg. (which is much
+farther both north and south, than the lands appear to be of any great
+value); which makes 13 degrees difference of latitude, or 780 miles:
+this length multiplied by the breadth 140, makes 109,200 square
+miles., This is not above as much land as is contained in Britain and
+Ireland; which, by Templeman's Survey, make 105,634 square miles.
+Instead of being as large as a great part of Europe then, as we are
+commonly told, all the lands we possess in North America, between the
+sea and mountains, do not amount to much more than these two islands.
+This appears farther, from the particular surveys of each of our
+colonies, as well as from this general estimate of the whole.
+
+Of these lands which we thus possess, both the northern and southern
+parts are very poor and barren, and produce little or nothing, at
+least for Britain. It is only in our middle plantations, Virginia,
+Maryland, and Carolina, that the lands produce any staple commodity
+for Britain, or that appear to be fit for that purpose. In short, it
+is only the more rich and fertile lands on and about Chesapeak bay,
+with a few swamps in Carolina, like the lands on the Missisippi, that
+turn to any great account to this nation in all North America, or that
+are ever likely to do it. This makes the quantity of lands that
+produce any staple commodity for Britain in North America incredibly
+small, and vastly less than what is commonly imagined. It is reckoned,
+that there are more such lands in Virginia, than in all the rest of
+our colonies; and yet it appeared from the public records, about
+twenty-five years ago, that there was not above as much land patented
+in that colony, which is at the same time the oldest of any in all
+North America, than is in the county of Yorkshire, in England, to-wit,
+{xv} 4684 square miles; although the country was then settled to the
+mountains.
+
+If we examine all our other colonies, there will appear to be as great
+a scarcity and want of good lands in them, at least to answer the
+great end of colonies, the making of a staple commodity for Britain.
+In short, our colonies are already settled to the mountains, and have
+no lands, either to extend their settlements, as they increase and
+multiply; to keep up their plantations of staple commodities for
+Britain; or to enlarge the British dominions by the number of
+foreigners that remove to them; till they pass those mountains, and
+settle on the Missisippi.
+
+This scarcity of land in our colonies proceeds from the mountains,
+with which they are surrounded, and by which they are confined to this
+narrow tract, and a low vale, along the sea side. The breadth of the
+continent from the Atlantic ocean to the Missisippi, appears to be
+about 600 miles (of 60 to a degree) of which there is about 140 at a
+medium, or 150 at most, that lies between the sea and mountains: and
+there is such another, and rather more fertile tract of level and
+improveable lands, about the same breadth, between the western parts
+of those mountains and the Missisippi: so that the mountainous country
+which lies between these two, is equal to them both, and makes one
+half of all the lands between the Missisippi and Atlantic ocean; if we
+except a small tract of a level champaign country upon the heads of
+the Ohio, which is possessed by the Six Nations, and their dependents.
+These mountainous and barren desarts, which lie immediately beyond our
+present settlements, are not only unfit for culture themselves, and so
+inconvenient to navigation, whether to the ocean, or to the
+Missisippi, that little or no use can be made of them; but they
+likewise preclude us from any access to those more fertile lands that
+lie beyond them, which would otherwise have been occupied long ago,
+but never can be settled, so at least as to turn to any account to
+Britain, without the possession and navigation of the Missisippi;
+which is, as it were, the sea of all the inland parts of North America
+beyond the Apalachean mountains, without which those inland parts of
+that continent can never turn to any account to this nation.
+
+{xvi} It is this our situation in North America, that renders all that
+continent beyond our present settlements of little or no use, at least
+to Britain; and makes the possession of the Missisippi absolutely
+necessary to reap the benefit of it. We possess but a fourth part of
+the continent between that river and the ocean; and but a tenth part
+of what lies east of Mexico; and can never enjoy any great advantages
+from any more of it, till we settle on the Missisippi.
+
+How necessary such settlements on the Missisippi may be, will farther
+appear from what we possess on this side of it. The lands in North
+America are in general but very poor or barren; and if any of them are
+more fertile, the soil is light and shallow, and soon worn out with
+culture. It is only the virgin fertility of fresh lands, such as those
+on the Missisippi, that makes the lands in North America appear to be
+fruitful, or that renders them of any great value to this nation. But
+such lands in our colonies, that have hitherto produced their staple
+commodities for Britain, are now exhausted and worn out, and we meet
+with none such on this side of the Missisippi. But when their lands
+are worn out, neither the value of their commodities, nor the
+circumstances of the planters, will admit of manuring them, at least
+to any great advantage to this nation.
+
+The staple commodities of North America are so gross and bulky, and of
+so small value, that it generally takes one half of them to pay the
+freight and other charges in sending them to Britain; so that unless
+our planters have some advantage in making them, such as cheap, rich,
+and fresh lands, they never can make any; their returns to Britain are
+then neglected, and the trade is gained by others who have these
+advantages; such as those who may be possessed of the Missisippi, or
+by the Germans, Russians, Turks, &c. who have plenty of lands, and
+labour cheap: by which means they make more of our staple of North
+America, tobacco, than we do ourselves; while we cannot make their
+staple of hemp, flax, iron, pot-ash, &c. By that means our people are
+obliged to interfere with their mother country, for want of the use of
+those lands of which there is such plenty in North America, to produce
+these commodities that are so much wanted from thence.
+
+{xvii} The consequences of this may be much more prejudicial to this
+nation, than is commonly apprehended. This trade of North America,
+whatever may be the income from it, consists in those gross and bulky
+commodities that are the chief and principal sources of navigation;
+which maintain whole countries to make them, whole fleets to transport
+them, and numbers of people to manufacture them at home; on which
+accounts this trade is more profitable to a nation, than the mines of
+Mexico or Peru. If we compare this with other branches of trade, as
+the sugar trade, or even the fishery, it will appear to be by far the
+most profitable to the nation, whatever those others may be to a few
+individuals. We set a great value on the fishery, in which we do not
+employ a third part of the seamen that we do in the plantation trade
+of North America; and the same may be said of the sugar trade. The
+tobacco trade alone employs more seamen in Britain, than either the
+fishery, or sugar trade; [Footnote: By the best accounts we have, there
+were 4000 seamen employed in the tobacco trade, in the year 1733, when
+the inspection on tobacco passed into a law; and we may perhaps reckon
+them now 4500, although some reckon them less.
+
+By the same accounts, taken by the custom-house officers, it appeared,
+that the number of British ships employed in all America, including
+the fishery, were 1400, with 17,000 seamen; besides 9000 or 10,000
+seamen belonging to North-America, who are all ready to enter into the
+service of Britain on, any emergency or encouragement.
+
+Of these there were but 4000 seamen employed in the fishery from
+Britain; and about as many, or 3600, in the sugar trade.
+
+The French, on the other hand, employ upwards of 20,000 seamen in the
+fishery, and many more than we do in the sugar trade.
+
+In short, the plantation trade of North America is to Britain, what
+the fishery is to France, the great nursery of seamen, which may be
+much improved. It is for this reason that we have always thought this
+nation ought, for its safety, to enjoy an exclusive right to the one
+or the other of these at least.] and brings in more money to the
+nation than all the products of America perhaps put together.
+
+But those gross commodities that afford these sources of navigation,
+however valuable they may be to the public, and to this nation in
+particular, are far from being so to individuals: they are cheap, and
+of small value, either to make, or to trade {xviii} in them; and for
+that reason they are neglected by private people, who never think of
+making them, unless the public takes care to give them all due
+encouragement, and to set them about those employments; for which
+purpose good and proper lands, such as those on the Missisippi, are
+absolutely necessary, without which nothing can be done.
+
+The many advantages of such lands that produce a staple for Britain,
+in North America, are not to be told. The whole interest of the nation
+in those colonies depends upon them, if not the colonies themselves.
+Such lands alone enable the colonies to take their manufactures and
+other necessaries from Britain, to the mutual advantage of both. And
+how necessary that may be will appear from the state of those colonies
+in North America, which do not make, one with another, as much as is
+sufficient to supply them only with the necessary article of
+cloathing; not to mention the many other things they want and take
+from Britain; and even how they pay for that is more than any man can
+tell. In short, it would appear that our colonies in North America
+cannot subsist much longer, if at all, in a state of dependence for
+all their manufactures and other necessaries, unless they are provided
+with other lands that may enable them to purchase them; and where they
+will find any such lands, but upon the Missisippi, is more than we can
+tell. When their lands are worn out, are poor and barren, or in an
+improper climate or situation, or that they will produce nothing to
+send to Britain, such lands can only be converted into corn and
+pasture grounds; and the people in our colonies are thereby
+necessarily obliged, for a bare subsistence, to interfere with
+Britain, not only in manufactures, but in the very produce of their
+lands.
+
+By this we may perceive the absurdity of the popular outcry, that we
+have already _land enough_, and more than we can make use of in North
+America. They who may be of that opinion should shew us, where that
+land is to be found, and what it will produce, that may turn to any
+account to the nation. Those people derive their opinion from what
+they see in Europe, where the quantity of land that we possess in
+North America, will, no doubt, maintain a greater number of people
+than we have there. But they should consider, that those people in
+{xix} Europe are not maintained by the planting of a bare raw
+commodity, with such immense charges upon it, but by farming,
+manufactures, trade, and commerce; which they will soon reduce our
+colonies to, who would confine them to their present settlements,
+between the sea coast and the mountains that surround them.
+
+Some of our colonies perhaps may imagine they cannot subsist without
+these employments; which indeed would appear to be the case in their
+present state: but that seems to be as contrary to their true
+interest, as it is to their condition of British colonies. They have
+neither skill, materials, nor any other conveniences to make
+manufactures; whereas their lands require only culture to produce a
+staple commodity, providing they are possessed of such as are fit for
+that purpose. Manufactures are the produce of labour, which is both
+scarce and dear among them; whereas lands are, or may, and should be
+made, both cheap and in plenty; by which they may always reap much
+greater profits from the one than the other. That is, moreover, a
+certain pledge for the allegiance and dependance of the colonies; and
+at the same time makes their dependance to become their interest. It
+has been found by frequent experience, that the making of a staple
+commodity for Britain, is more profitable than manufactures, providing
+they have good lands to work.
+
+It were to be wished indeed, that we could support our interest in
+America, and those sources of navigation, by countries that were more
+convenient to it, than those on the Missisippi. But that, we fear, is
+not to be done, however it may be desired. We wish we could say as much
+of the lands in Florida, and on the bay of Mexico, as of those on the
+Missisippi: but they are not to be compared to these, by all accounts,
+however convenient they may be in other respects to navigation. In all
+those southern and maritime parts of that continent the lands are in
+general but very poor and mean, being little more than _pine barrens_,
+or _sandy desarts_. The climate is at the same time so intemperate, that
+white people are in a great measure unfit for labour in it, as much as
+they are in the islands; this obliges them to make use of slaves, which
+are now become so dear, that it is to be doubted, whether all the
+produce {xx} of those lands will enable the proprietors of them to
+purchase slaves, or any other labourers; without which they can turn to
+little or no account to the nation, and those countries can support but
+very few people, if it were only to protect and defend them.
+
+The most convenient part of those countries seems to be about Mobile
+and Pensacola; which are, as it were, an entrepot between our present
+settlements and the Missisippi, and safe station for our ships. But it
+is a pity that the lands about them are the most barren, and the
+climate the most intemperate, by all accounts, of any perhaps in all
+America. [Footnote: See page 49, 111, &c. _Charlevoix_ Hist. N. France,
+Tom. III. 484. _Laval, infra_, &c.] And our author tells us, the lands
+are not much better even on the river of Mobile; which is but a very
+inconsiderable one. But the great inconvenience of those countries
+proceeds from the number of Indians in them; which will make it very
+difficult to settle any profitable plantations among them, especially
+in the inland parts that are more fertile; whereas the Missisippi is
+free from Indians for 1000 miles. It was but in the year 1715, that
+those Indians overran all the colony of Carolina, even to
+Charles-Town; by which the French got possession of that country, and
+of the Missisippi; both which they had just before, in June 1713,
+dispossessed us of.
+
+If we turn our eyes again to the lands in our northern colonies, it is
+to be feared we can expect much less from them. There is an
+inconvenience attending them, with regard to any improvements on them
+for Britain, which is not to be remedied. The climate is so severe,
+and the winters so long, that the people are obliged to spend that
+time in providing the necessaries of life, which should be employed in
+profitable colonies, on the making of some staple commodity, and
+returns to Britain. They are obliged to feed their creatures for five
+or six months in the year, which employs their time in summer, and
+takes up the best of their lands, such as they are, which should
+produce their staple commodities, to provide for themselves and their
+stocks against winter. For that reason the people in all our northern
+colonies are necessarily obliged to become farmers, {xxi} to make corn
+and provisions, instead of planters, who make a staple commodity for
+Britain; and thereby interfere with their mother country in the most
+material and essential of all employments to a nation, agriculture.
+
+In short, neither the soil nor climate will admit of any improvements
+for Britain, in any of those northern colonies. If they would produce
+any thing of that kind, it must be hemp; which never could be made in
+them to any advantage, as appears from many trials of it in New
+England. [Footnote: See _Douglas's_ Hist. N. America. _Elliot's_
+Improvements on New England, &c.] The great dependance of those
+northern colonies is upon the supplies of lumber and provisions which
+they send to the islands. But as they increase and multiply, their
+woods are cut down, lumber becomes scarce and dear, and the number of
+people inhances the value of land, and of every thing it produces,
+especially provisions.
+
+If this is the case of those northern colonies on the sea coast, what
+can we expect from the inland parts; in which the soil is not only
+more barren, and the climate more severe, but they are, with all these
+disadvantages, so inconvenient to navigation, both on account of their
+distance, and of the many falls and currents in the river St.
+Lawrence, that it is to be feared those inland parts of our northern
+colonies will never produce any thing for Britain, more than a few
+furrs; which they will do much better in the hands of the natives,
+than in ours. These our northern colonies, however, are very populous,
+and increase and multiply very fast. There are above a million of
+people in them, who can make but very little upon their lands for
+themselves, and still less for their mother country. For these reasons
+it is presumed, it would be an advantage to them, as well as to the
+whole nation, to remove their spare people, who want lands, to those
+vacant lands in the southern parts of the continent, which turn to so
+much greater account than any that they are possessed of. There they
+may have the necessaries of life in the greatest plenty; their stocks
+maintain themselves the whole year round, with little or no cost or
+labour; "by which means many people have a thousand head {xxii} of
+cattle, and for one man to have two hundred, is very common, with
+other stock in proportion." [Footnote: Description of South Carolina, p.
+68.] This enables them to bestow their whole labour, both in summer
+and winter, on the making of some staple commodity for Britain,
+getting lumber and provisions for the islands, &c. which both enriches
+them and the whole nation. That is much better, surely, than to perish
+in winter for want of cloathing, which they must do unless they make
+it; and to excite those grudges and jealousies, which must ever
+subsist between them and their mother country in their present state,
+and grow so much the worse, the longer they continue in it.
+
+The many advantages that would ensue from the peopling of those
+southern parts of the continent from our northern colonies, are hardly
+to be told. We might thereby people and secure those countries, and
+reap the profits of them, without any loss of people; which are not to
+be spared for that purpose in Britain, or any other of her dominions.
+This is the great use and advantage that may be made of the expulsion
+of the French from those northern parts of America. They have hitherto
+obliged us to strengthen those northern colonies, and have confined
+the people in them to towns and townships, in which their labour could
+turn to no great account, either to themselves or to the nation, by
+which we have, in a great measure, loss the labour of one half of the
+people in our colonies. But as they are now free from any danger on
+their borders, they may extend their settlements with safety, disperse
+themselves on plantations, and cultivate those lands that may turn to
+some account, both to them and to the whole nation. In short, they may
+now make some staple commodity for Britain; on which the interest of
+the colonies, and of the nation in them, chiefly depends; and which we
+can never expect from those colonies in their present situation.
+
+What those commodities are, that we might get from those southern
+parts of North America, will appear from the following accounts; which
+we have not room here to consider more particularly. We need only
+mention hemp, flax, and silk, those great articles and necessary
+materials of manufactures; for which alone this nation pays at least a
+million and an half {xxiii} a-year, if not two millions, and could
+never get them from all the colonies we have. Cotton and indigo are
+equally useful. Not to mention copper, iron, potash, &c. which, with
+hemp, flax, and silk, make the great balance of trade against the
+nation, and drain it of its treasure; when we might have those
+commodities from our colonies for manufactures, and both supply
+ourselves and others with them. Wine, oil, raisins, and currants, &c.
+those products of France and Spain, on which Britain expends so much
+of her treasure, to enrich her enemies, might likewise be had from
+those her own dominions. Britain might thereby cut off those resources
+of her enemies; secure her colonies for the future; and prevent such
+calamities of war, by cultivating those more laudable arts of peace:
+which will be the more necessary, as these are the only advantages the
+nation can expect, for the many millions that have been expended on
+America.
+
+_A Description of the Harbour of_ PENSACOLA.
+
+As the harbour of Pensacola will appear to be a considerable
+acquisition to Britain, it may be some satisfaction to give the
+following account of it, from F. Laval, royal professor of
+mathematics, and master of the marine academy at Toulon; who was sent
+to Louisiana, on purpose to make observations, in 1719; and had the
+accounts of the officers who took Pensacola at that time, and surveyed
+the place.
+
+"The colonies of Pensacola, and of Dauphin-Island, are at present on
+the decline, the inhabitants having removed to settle at Mobile and
+Biloxi, or at New-Orleans, where the lands are much better; for at the
+first the soil is chiefly sand, mixed with little earth. The land,
+however, is covered with woods of pines, firs, and oaks; which make
+good trees, as well as at Ship-Island. The road of Pensacola is the
+only good port thereabouts for large ships, and Ship-Island for small
+ones, where vessels that draw from thirteen to fourteen feet water,
+may ride in safety, under the island, in fifteen feet, and a good
+holding ground; as well as in the other ports, which are all only open
+roads, exposed to the south, and from west to east.
+
+"Pensacola is in north-latitude 30 deg. 25'; and is the only road in the
+bay of Mexico, in which ships can be safe from all {xxiv} winds. It is
+land-locked on every side, and will hold a great number of ships,
+which have very good anchorage in it, in a good holding ground of soft
+sand, and from twenty-five to thirty-four feet of water. You will find
+not less than twenty-one feet of water on the barr, which is at the
+entrance into the road, providing you keep in the deepest part of the
+channel. Before a ship enters the harbour, she should bring the fort
+of Pensacola to bear between north and north 1/4 east, and keep that
+course till she is west or west 1/4 south, from the fort on the island
+of St. Rose, that is, till that fort bears east, and east 1/4 north.
+Then she must bear away a little to the land on the west side, keeping
+about mid-way between that and the island, to avoid a bank on this
+last, which runs out to some distance west-north-west from the point
+of the island.
+
+"If there are any breakers on the ledge of rocks, which lie to the
+westward of the barr, as often happens; if there is any wind, that may
+serve for a mark to ships, which steer along that ledge, at the
+distance of a good musket-shot, as they enter upon the barr; then keep
+the course above mentioned. Sometimes the currents set very strong out
+of the road, which you should take care of, less they should carry you
+upon these rocks.
+
+"As there is but half a foot rising (_levee_) on the barr of Pensacola,
+every ship of war, if it be not in a storm, may depend upon nineteen
+(perhaps twenty) feet of water, to go into the harbour, as there are
+twenty-one feet on the barr. Ships that draw twenty feet must be towed
+in. By this we see, that ships of sixty guns may go into this harbour:
+and even seventy gun ships, the largest requisite in that country in
+time of war, if they were built flat-bottomed, like the Dutch ships,
+might pass every where in that harbour.
+
+"In 1719 Pensacola was taken by Mr. Champmelin, in the Hercules man of
+war, of sixty-four guns, but carried only fifty-six; in company with
+the Mars, pierced for sixty guns, but had in only fifty-four; and the
+Triton, pierced for fifty-four guns, but carried only fifty; with two
+frigates of thirty-six and twenty guns. [Footnote: The admiral was on
+board of the Hercules, which drew twenty-one feet of water, and there
+were but twenty-two feet into the harbour in the highest tides; so
+that they despaired of carrying in this ship. But an old Canadian,
+named Crimeau, a man of experience, who was perfectly acquainted with
+that coast, boasted of being able to do it, and succeeded; for which
+he was the next year honoured with letters of noblesse. _Dumont_ (an
+officer there at that time) 11.22.
+
+But _Bellin_, from the charts of the admiralty, makes but twenty feet of
+water on the barr of Pensacola. The difference may arise from the
+tides, which are very irregular and uncertain on all that coast,
+according to the winds; never rising above three feet, sometimes much
+less. In twenty-four hours the tide ebbs in the harbour for eighteen
+or nineteen hours, and flows five or six. _Laval_.]
+
+{xxv} "This road is subject to one inconvenience; several rivers fall
+into it, which occasion strong currents, and make boats or canoes, as
+they pass backwards and forwards, apt to run a-ground; but as the
+bottom is all sand, they are not apt to founder. On the other hand
+there is a great advantage in this road; it is free from worms, which
+never breed in fresh water, so that vessels are never worm-eaten in
+it."
+
+But F. Charlevoix seems to contradict this last circumstance: "The bay
+of Pensacola would be a pretty good port, (says he) if the worms did
+not eat the vessels in it, and if there was a little more water in the
+entrance into it; for the Hercules, commanded by Mr. Champmelin,
+touched upon it." It is not so certain then, that this harbour is
+altogether free from worms; although it may not be so subject to them,
+as other places in those climes, from the many small fresh water
+rivers that fall into this bay, which may have been the occasion of
+these accounts, that are seemingly contradictory.
+
+In such a place ships might at least be preserved from worms, in all
+likelihood, by paying their bottoms with aloes, or mixing it with
+their other stuff. That has been found to prevent the biting of these
+worms; and might be had in plenty on the spot. Many kinds of aloes
+would grow on the barren sandy lands about Pensacola, and in Florida,
+which is the proper soil for them; and would be a good improvement for
+those lands, which will hardly bear any thing else to advantage,
+whatever use is made of it.
+
+Having room in this place, we may fill it up with an answer to a
+common objection against Louisiana; which is, {xxvi} that this country
+is never likely to turn to any account, because the French have made
+so little of it.
+
+But that objection, however common, will appear to proceed only from
+the ignorance of those who make it. No country can produce any thing
+without labourers; which, it is certain, the French have never had in
+Louisiana, in any numbers at least, sufficient to make it turn to any
+greater account than it has hitherto done. The reason of this appears
+not to be owing to the country, but to their proceedings and
+misconduct in it. Out of the many thousand people who were contracted
+for by the grantees, to be sent to Louisiana in 1719, there were but
+eight hundred sent, we see; and of these the greatest part were ruined
+by their idle schemes, which made them and others abandon the country
+entirely. The few again who remained in it were cut off by an Indian
+massacre in 1729, which broke up the only promising settlements they
+had in the country, those of the Natchez, and Yasous, which were never
+afterwards reinstated. Instead of encouraging the colony in such
+misfortunes, the minister, Cardinal Fleuri, either from a spirit of
+oeconomy, or because it might be contrary to some other of his views,
+withdrew his protection from it, gave up the public plantations, and
+must thereby, no doubt, have very much discouraged others. By these
+means they have had few or no people in Louisiana, but such as were
+condemned to be sent to it for their crimes, women of ill fame,
+deserted soldiers, insolvent debtors, and galley-slaves, _forcats_, as
+they call them; "who, looking on the country only as a place of exile,
+were disheartened at every thing in it; and had no regard for the
+progress of a colony, of which they were only members by compulsion,
+and neither knew nor considered its advantages to the state. It is
+from such people that many have their accounts of this country; and
+throw the blame of all miscarriages in it upon the country, when they
+are only owing to the incapacity and negligence of those who were
+instructed to settle it." [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. New France, Tom.
+III. p. 447.]
+
+{1}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+_The Transactions of the_ French _in_ LOUISIANA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Of the first Discovery and Settlement of_ LOUISIANA.
+
+
+After the Spaniards came to have settlements on the Great Antilles, it
+was not long before they attempted to make discoveries on the coasts
+of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1520, Lucas Vasquez de Aillon landed on the
+continent to the north of that Gulf, being favourably received by the
+people of that country, who made him presents in gold, pearls, and
+plated silver. This favourable reception made him return thither four
+years after; but the natives having changed their friendly sentiments
+towards him, killed two hundred of his men, and obliged him to retire.
+
+In 1528, Pamphilo Nesunez [Footnote: Narvaez.] landed also on that
+coast, receiving from the first nations he met in his way, presents
+made in gold; which, by signs, they made him to understand, came from
+the Apalachean mountains, in the country which at this day goes under
+the name of Florida: and thither he attempted to go, undertaking a
+hazardous journey of twenty-five days. In this march he was so often
+attacked by the new people he continually discovered, and lost so many
+of his men, as only to think of re-embarking with the few that were
+left, {2} happy to have himself escaped the dangers which his
+imprudence had exposed him to.
+
+The relation published by the Historian of Dominico [Footnote:
+Ferdinando.] Soto, who in 1539 landed in the Bay of St. Esprit, is so
+romantic, and so constantly contradicted by all who have travelled
+that country, that far from giving credit to it, we ought rather to
+suppose his enterprize had no success; as no traces of it have
+remained, any more than of those that went before. The inutility of
+these attempts proved no manner of discouragement to the Spaniards.
+After the discovery of Florida, it was with a jealous eye they saw the
+French settle there in 1564, under Rene de Laudonniere, sent thither
+by the Admiral de Coligni, where he built Fort Carolin; the ruins of
+which are still to be seen above the Fort of Pensacola. [Footnote: This
+intended settlement of Admiral Coligni was on the east coast of
+Florida, about St. Augustin, instead of Pensacola. De Laet is of
+opinion, that their Fort Carolin was the same with St. Augustin.]
+There the Spaniards some time after attacked them, and forcing them to
+capitulate, cruelly murdered them, without any regard had to the
+treaty concluded between them. As France was at that time involved in
+the calamities of a religious war, this act of barbarity had remained
+unresented, had not a single man of Mont Marfan, named Dominique de
+Gourges, attempted, in the name of the nation, to take vengeance
+thereof. In 1567, having fitted out a vessel, and sailed for Florida,
+he took three forts built by the Spaniards; and after killing many of
+them in the several attacks he made, hanged the rest: and having
+settled there a new post, [Footnote: He abandoned the country without
+making any settlement; nor have the French ever had any settlement in
+it from that day to this. See Laudonniere. Hakluyt, &c.] returned to
+France. But the disorders of the state having prevented the
+maintaining that post, the Spaniards soon after retook possession of
+the country, where they remain to this day.
+
+From that time the French seemed to have dropped all thoughts of that
+coast, or of attempting any discoveries therein; when the wars in
+Canada with the natives afforded them the {3} knowledge of the vast
+country they are possessed of at this day. In one of these wars a
+Recollet, or Franciscan Friar, name F. Hennepin, was taken and carried
+to the Illinois. As he had some skill in surgery, he proved
+serviceable to that people, and was also kindly treated by them: and
+being at full liberty, he travelled over the country, following for a
+considerable time the banks of the river St. Louis, or Missisipi,
+without being able to proceed to its mouth. However, he failed not to
+take possession of that country, in the name of Louis XIV., calling it
+Louisiana. Providence having facilitated his return to Canada, he gave
+the most advantageous account of all he had seen; and after his return
+to France, drew up a relation thereof, dedicated to M. Colbert.
+
+The account he gave of Louisiana failed not to produce its good
+effects. Me de la Salle, equally famous for his misfortunes and his
+courage, undertook to traverse these unknown countries quite to the
+sea. In Jan. 1679 he set out from Quebec with a large detachment, and
+being come among the Illinois, there built the first fort France ever
+had in that country, calling it Crevecaeur; and there he left a good
+garrison under the command of the Chevalier de Tonti. From thence he
+went down the river St. Louis, quite to its mouth; which, as has been
+said, is in the Gulf of Mexico; and having made observations, and
+taken the elevation in the best manner he could, returned by the same
+way to Quebec, from whence he passed over to France.
+
+After giving the particulars of his journey to M. Colbert, that great
+minister, who knew of what importance it was to the state to make sure
+of so fine and extensive a country, scrupled not to allow him a ship and
+a small frigate, in order to find out, by the way of the gulf of Mexico,
+the mouth of the river St. Louis. He set sail in 1685: but his
+observations, doubtless, not having had all the justness requisite,
+after arriving in the gulf, he got beyond the river, and running too far
+westward, entered the bay of St. Bernard: and some misunderstanding
+happening between him and the officers of the vessels, he debarqued with
+the men under his command, and having settled a post in that place,
+undertook to go by land in quest of {4} the great river. But after a
+march of several days, some of his people, irritated on account of the
+fatigue he exposed them to, availing themselves of an opportunity, when
+separated from the rest of his men, basely assassinated him. The
+soldiers, though deprived of their commander, still continued their
+route, and, after crossing many rivers, arrived at length at the
+Arkansas, where they unexpectedly found a French post lately settled.
+The Chevalier de Tonti was gone down from the fort of the Illinois,
+quite to the mouth of the river, about the time he judged M. de la Salle
+might have arrived by sea; and not finding him, was gone up again, in
+order to return to his post. And in his way entering the river of the
+Arkansas, quite to the village of that nation, with whom he made an
+alliance, some of his people insisted, they might be allowed to settle
+there; which was agreed to, he leaving ten of them in that place; and
+this small cantonment maintained its ground, not only because from time
+to time encreased by some Canadians, who came down this river; but above
+all, because those who formed it had the prudent precaution to live in
+peace with the natives, and treat as legitimate the children they had by
+the daughters of the Arkansas, with whom they matched out of necessity.
+
+The report of the pleasantness of Louisiana spreading through Canada,
+many Frenchmen of that country repaired to settle there, dispersing
+themselves at pleasure along the river St. Louis, especially towards
+its mouth, and even in some islands on the coast, and on the river
+Mobile, which lies nearer Canada. The facility of the commerce with
+St. Domingo was, undoubtedly, what invited them to the neighbourbood
+of the sea, though the interior parts of the country be in all
+respects far preferable. However, these scattered settlements,
+incapable to maintain their ground of themselves, and too distant to
+be able to afford mutual assistance, neither warranted the possession
+of this country, nor could they be called a taking of possession.
+Louisiana remained in this neglected state, till M. d'Hiberville, Chef
+d' Escadre, having discovered, in 1698, the mouths of the river St.
+Louis, and being nominated Governor General of that vast country,
+carried thither the first colony in 1699. As he was a native of
+Canada, the colony almost entirely consisted of Canadians, among whom
+M. de Luchereau, {5} uncle of Madam d'Hiberville, particularly
+distinguished himself.
+
+The settlement was made on the river Mobile, with all the facility
+that could be wished; but its progress proved slow: for these first
+inhabitants had no other advantage above the natives, as to the
+necessaries of life, but what their own industry, joined to some rude
+tools, to give the plainest forms to timbers, afforded them.
+
+The war which Louis IV, had at that time to maintain, and the pressing
+necessities of the state, continually engrossed the attention of the
+ministry, nor allowed them time to think of Louisiana. What was then
+thought most advisable, was to make a grant of it to some rich person;
+who, finding it his interest to improve that country, would, at the
+same time that he promoted his own interest, promote that of the
+state. Louisiana was thus ceded to M. Crozat. And it is to be
+presumed, had M. d'Hiberville lived longer, the colony would have made
+considerable progress: but that illustrious sea-officer, whose
+authority was considerable, dying at the Havannah, in 1701 (after
+which this settlement was deserted) a long time must intervene before
+a new Governor could arrive from France. The person pitched upon to
+fill that post, was M. de la Motte Cadillac, who arrived in that
+country in June 1713.
+
+The colony had but a scanty measure of commodities, and money scarcer
+yet: it was rather in a state of languor, than of vigorous activity,
+in one of the finest countries in the world; because impossible for it
+to do the laborious works, and make the first advances, always
+requisite in the best lands.
+
+The Spaniards, for a long time, considered Louisiana as a property
+justly theirs, because it constitutes the greatest Part of Florida,
+which they first discovered. The pains the French were at then to
+settle there, roused their jealousy, to form the design of cramping
+us, by settling at the Assinais, a nation not very distant from the
+Nactchitoches, whither some Frenchmen had penetrated. There the
+Spaniards met with no small difficulty to form that settlement, and
+being at a loss how to accomplish it, one F. Ydalgo, a Franciscan
+Friar, took it in his head to write to the French, to beg their
+assistance in {6} settling a mission among the Assinais. He sent three
+different copies of his letter hap-hazard three different ways to our
+settlements, hoping one of them at least might fall into the hands of
+the French.
+
+Nor was he disappointed in his hope, one of them, from one post to
+another, and from hand to hand, falling into the hands of M. de la
+Motte. That General, incessantly taken up with the concerns of the
+colony, and the means of relieving it, was not apprized of the designs
+of the Spaniards in that letter; could only see therein a sure and
+short method to remedy the present evils, by favouring the Spaniards,
+and making a treaty of commerce with them, which might procure to the
+colony what it was in want of, and what the Spaniards abounded with,
+namely, horses, cattle, and money: He therefore communicated that
+letter to M. de St. Denis, to whom he proposed to undertake a journey
+by land to Mexico.
+
+M. de St. Denis, for the fourteen years he was in Louisiana, had made
+several excursions up and down the country; and having a general
+knowledge of all the languages of the different nations which inhabit
+it, gained the love and esteem of these people, so far as to be
+acknowledged their Grand Chief.
+
+This gentleman, in other respects a man of courage, prudence, and
+resolution, was then the fittest person M. de la Motte could have
+pitched upon, to put his design in execution.
+
+How fatiguing soever the enterprize was, M. de St. Denis undertook it
+with pleasure, and set out with twenty-five men. This small company
+would have made some figure, had it continued entire; but some of them
+dropped M. de St. Denis by the way, and many of them remained among
+the Nactchitoches, to whose country he was come. He was therefore
+obliged to set out from that place, accompanied only by ten men, with
+whom he traversed upwards of an hundred and fifty leagues in a country
+entirely depopulated, having on his route met with no nation, till he
+came to the Presidio, or fortress of St. John Baptist, on the Rio
+(river) del Norte, in New Mexico.
+
+The Governor of this fort was Don Diego Raimond, an officer advanced
+in years, who favourbly received M. de St. {7} Denis, on acquainting
+him, that the motive to his journey was F. Ydalgo's letter, and that
+he had orders to repair to Mexico. But as the Spaniards do not readily
+allow strangers to travel through the countries of their dominion in
+America, for fear the view of these fine countries should inspire
+notions, the consequences of which might be greatly prejudicial to
+them, D. Diego did not chuse to permit M. de St. Denis to continue his
+route, without the previous consent of the Viceroy. It was therefore
+necessary to dispatch a courier to Mexico, and to wait his return.
+
+The courier, impatiently longed for, arrived at length, with the
+permission granted by the Duke of Linarez, Viceroy of Mexico. Upon
+which M. de St. Denis set out directly, and arrived at Mexico, June 5,
+1715. The Viceroy had naturally an affection to France; M. de St.
+Denis was therefore favourably received, saving some precautions,
+which the Duke thought proper to take, not to give any disgust to some
+officers of justice who were about him.
+
+The affair was soon dispatched; the Duke of Linarez having promised to
+make a treaty of commerce, as soon as the Spaniards should be settled
+at the Assinais; which M. de St. Denis undertook to do, upon his
+return to Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the_ Spaniards _at the_
+Assinais. _His Second Journey to_ Mexico, _and Return from thence_.
+
+
+M. De St. Denis soon returned to the fort of St. John Baptist; after
+which he resolved to form the caravan, which was to be settled at the
+Assinais; at whose head M. de St. Denis put himself, and happily
+conducted it to the place appointed. And then having, in quality of
+Grand Chief, assembled the nation of the Assinais, he exhorted them to
+receive and use the Spaniards well. The veneration which that people
+had for him, made them submit to his will in all things; and thus the
+promise he had made to the Duke of Linarez was faithfully fulfilled.
+
+{8} The Assinais are fifty leagues distant from the Nactchitoches. The
+Spaniards, finding themselves still at too great a distance from us,
+availed themselves of that first settlement, in order to form a second
+among the Adaies, a nation which is ten leagues from our post of the
+Nactchitoches: whereby they confine us on the west within the
+neighbourhood of the river St. Louis; and from that time it was not
+their fault, that they had not cramped us to the north, as I shall
+mention in its place.
+
+To this anecdote of their history I shall, in a word or two, add that
+of their settlement at Pensacola, on the coast of Florida, three
+months after M. d'Hiberville had carried the first inhabitants to
+Louisiana, that country having continued to be inhabited by Europeans,
+ever since the garrison left there by Dominique de Gourges; which
+either perished, or deserted, for want of being supported.[Footnote:
+They returned to France. See p. 3.]
+
+To return to M. de la Motte and M. de St. Denis: the former, ever
+attentive to the project of having a treaty of commerce concluded with
+the Spaniards, and pleased with the success of M. de St. Denis's
+journey to Mexico, proposed his return thither again, not doubting but
+the Duke of Linarez would be as good as his word, as the French had
+already been. M. de St. Denis, ever ready to obey, accepted the
+commission of his General. But this second journey was not to be
+undertaken as the first; it was proper to carry some goods, in order
+to execute that treaty, as soon as it should be concluded, and to
+indemnify himself for the expences he was to be at. Though the
+store-houses of M. Crozat were full, it was no easy matter to get the
+goods. The factors refused to give any on credit; nay, refused M. de
+la Motte's security; and there was no money to be had to pay them. The
+Governor was therefore obliged to form a company of the most
+responsible men of the colony: and to this company only the factors
+determined to advance the goods. This expedient was far from being
+agreeable to M. de St. Denis, who opened his mind to M. de la Motte on
+that head, and told him, that some or all of his partners would
+accompany the goods they had engaged to be security for; and that,
+although it was absolutely necessary the effects should appear to be
+his {9} property alone, they would not fail to discover they
+themselves were the proprietors; which would be sufficient to cause
+their confiscation, the commerce between the two nations not being
+open. M. de la Motte saw the solidity of these reasons; but the
+impossibility of acting otherwise constrained him to supersede them:
+and, as M. de St. Denis had foreseen, it accordingly happened.
+
+He set out from Mobile, August 13, 1716, escorted, as he all along
+apprehended, by some of those concerned; and being come to the
+Assinais, he there passed the winter. On the 19th of March, the year
+following, setting out on his journey, he soon arrived at the Presidio
+of St. John Baptist. M. de St. Denis declared these goods to be his
+own property, in order to obviate their confiscation, which was
+otherwise unavoidable; and wanted to shew some acts of bounty and
+generosity, in order to gain the friendship of the Spaniards. But the
+untractableness, the avarice, and indiscretion of the parties
+concerned, broke through all his measures; and to prevent the entire
+disconcerting of them, he hastened his departure for Mexico, where he
+arrived May 14, 1717. The Duke of Linarez was yet there, but sick, and
+on his death-bed. M. de St. Denis had, however, time to see him, who
+knew him again: and that Nobleman took care to have him recommended to
+the Viceroy his successor; namely, the Marquis of Balero, a man as
+much against the French as the Duke was for them.
+
+M. de St. Denis did not long solicit the Marquis of Balero for
+concluding the treaty of commerce; he soon had other business to mind.
+F. Olivarez, who, on the representation of P. Ydalgo, as a person of a
+jealous, turbulent, and dangerous disposition, had been excluded from
+the mission to the Assinais, being then at the court of the Viceroy,
+saw with an evil eye the Person who had settled F. Ydalgo in that
+mission, and resolved to be avenged on him for the vexation caused by
+that disappointment. He joined himself to an officer, named Don Martin
+de Alaron, a person peculiarly protected by the Marquis of Balero: and
+they succeeded so well with that nobleman that in the time M. de St.
+Denis least expected, he found himself arrested, and clapt in a
+dungeon; from which he was not discharged {10} till December 20 of
+this year, by an order of the Sovereign Council of Mexico, to which he
+found means to present several petitions. The Viceroy, constrained to
+enlarge him, allotted the town for his place of confinement.
+
+The business of the treaty of commerce being now at an end, M. de St.
+Denis's attention was only engaged how to make the most of the goods,
+of which Don Diego Raymond had sent as large a quantity as he could,
+to the town of Mexico; where they were seized by D. Martin de Alaron,
+as contraband; he being one of the emissaries of his protector,
+appointed to persecute such strangers as did not dearly purchase the
+permission to sell their goods. M. de St. Denis could make only enough
+of his pillaged and damaged effects just to defray certain expences of
+suit, which, in a country that abounds with nothing else but gold and
+silver, are enormous.
+
+Our prisoner having nothing further to engross his attention in
+Mexico, but the safety of his person, seriously bethought himself how
+to secure it; as he had ever just grounds to apprehend some bad
+treatment at the bands of his three avowed enemies. Having therefore
+planned the means of his flight, on September 25, 1718, as the night
+came on, he quitted Mexico, and placing himself in ambush at a certain
+distance from the town, waited till his good fortune should afford the
+means of travelling otherwise than on foot. About nine at night, a
+horseman, well-mounted, cast up. To rush of a sudden upon him,
+dismount him, mount his horse, turn the bridle, and set up a gallop,
+was the work of a moment only for St. Denis. He rode on at a good pace
+till day, then quitted the common road, to repose him: a precaution he
+observed all along, till he came near to the Presidio of St. John
+Baptist. From thence he continued his journey on foot; and at length,
+on April 2, 1719, arrived at the French colony, where he found
+considerable alterations.
+
+From the departure of M. de St. Denis from Mexico, to his return
+again, almost three years had elapsed. In that long time, the grant of
+Louisiana was transferred from M. Crozat to the West India Company; M.
+de la Motte Cadillac was dead, and M. de Biainville, brother to M.
+d'Hiberville, succeeded as {11} governor general. The capital place of
+the colony was no longer at Mobile, nor even at Old Biloxi, whither it
+had been removed: New Orleans, now begun to be built, was become the
+capital of the country, whither he repaired to give M. de Biainville
+an account of his journey; after which he retired to his settlement.
+The king afterwards conferred upon him the cross of St. Louis, in
+acknowledgement and recompence of his services.
+
+The West India Company, building great hopes of commerce on Louisiana,
+made efforts to people that country, sufficient to accomplish their
+end. Thither, for the first time, they sent, in 1718, a colony of
+eight hundred: men some of which settled at New Orleans, others formed
+the settlements of the Natchez. It was with this embarkation I passed
+over to Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the_ West India Company _to_
+Louisiana. _Arrival and Stay at _Cape Francois. _Arrival at_ Isle
+Dauphine. _Description of that Island_.
+
+
+The embarkation was made at Rochelle on three different vessels, on
+one of which I embarked. For the first days of our voyage we had the
+wind contrary, but no high sea. On the eighth the wind turned more
+favourable. I observed nothing interesting till we came to the Tropick
+of Cancer, where the ceremony of baptizing was performed on those who
+had never been a voyage: after passing the Tropick, the Commodore
+steered too much to the south, our captain observed. In effect, after
+several days sailing, we were obliged to bear off to the north: we
+afterwards discovered the isle of St. Juan de Porto Rico, which
+belongs to the Spaniards. Losing sight of that, we discovered the
+island of St. Domingo; and a little after, as we bore on, we saw the
+Grange, which is a rock, overtopping the steep coast, which is almost
+perpendicular to the edge of the water. This rock, seen at a distance,
+seems to have the figure of a grange, or barn. A few hours after we
+{12} arrived at Cape Francois, distant from that rock only twelve
+leagues.
+
+We were two months in this passage to Cape Francois; both on account
+of the contrary winds, we had on setting out, and of the calms, which
+are frequent in those seas: our vessel, besides, being clumsy and
+heavy, had some difficulty to keep up with the others; which, not to
+leave us behind, carried only their four greater sails, while we had
+out between seventeen and eighteen.
+
+It is in those seas we meet with the Tradewinds; which though weak, a
+great deal of way might be made, did they blow constantly, because
+their course is from east to west without varying: storms are never
+observed in these seas, but the calms often prove a great hindrance;
+and then it is necessary to wait some days, till a _grain_, or squall,
+brings back the wind: a _grain_ is a small spot seen in the air, which
+spreads very fast, and forms a cloud, that gives a wind, which is
+brisk at first, but not lasting, though enough to make way with.
+Nothing besides remarkable is here seen, but the chace of the
+_flying-fish_ by the Bonitas.
+
+The Bonita is a fish, which is sometimes two feet long; extremely fond
+of the _flying-fish_; which is the reason it always keeps to the places
+where these fish are found: its flesh is extremely delicate and of a
+good flavour.
+
+The _flying-fish_ is of the length of a herring, but rounder. From its
+sides, instead of fins, issue out two wings, each about four inches in
+length, by two in breadth at the extremity; they fold together and
+open out like a fan, and are round at the end; consisting of a very
+fine membrane, pierced with a vast many little holes, which keep the
+water, when the fish is out of it: in order to avoid the pursuit of
+the Bonita, it darts into the air, spreads out its wings, goes
+straight on, without being able to turn to the right or left; which is
+the reason, that as soon as the toilets, or little sheets of water,
+which fill up the small holes of its wings, are dried up, it falls
+down again; and the same Bonita, which pursued it in the water, still
+following it with his eye in the air, catches it when fallen into the
+water; it sometimes falls on board ships. The Bonita, in his turn,
+{13} becomes the prey of the seamen, by means of little puppets, in
+the form of _flying-fish_, which it swallows, and by that means is
+taken.
+
+We stayed fifteen days at Cape Francois, to take in wood and water,
+and to refresh. It is situate on the north part of the island of St.
+Domingo, which part the French are in possession of, as the Spaniards
+are of the other. The fruits and sweet-meats of the country are
+excellent, but the meat good for nothing, hard, dry, and tough. This
+country being scorched, grass is very scarce, and animals therein
+languish and droop. Six weeks before our arrival, fifteen hundred
+persons died of an epidemic distemper, called the Siam distemper.
+
+We sailed from Cape Francois, with the same wind, and the finest
+weather imaginable. We then passed between the islands of Tortuga and
+St. Domingo, where we espied Port de Paix, which is over-against
+Tortuga: we afterwards found ourselves between the extremities of St.
+Domingo and Cuba which belongs to the Spaniards: we then steered along
+the south coast of this last, leaving to the left Jamaica, and the
+great and little Kayemans, which are subject to the English. We at
+length quitted Cuba at Cape Anthony, steering for Louisiana a north
+west course. We espied land in coming towards it, but so flat, though
+distant but a league from us, that we had great difficulty to
+distinguish it, though we had then but four fathom water. We put out
+the boat to examine the land, which we found to be Candlemas island
+(la Chandeleur.) We directly set sail for the island of Massacre,
+since called Isle Dauphine, situated three leagues to the south of
+that continent, which forms the Gulf of Mexico to the north, at about
+27 deg. 35' North latitude, and 288 deg. of longitude. A little after we
+discovered the Isle Dauphine, and cast anchor before the harbour, in
+the road, because the harbour itself was choaked up. To make this
+passage we took three months, and arrived only August 25th. We had a
+prosperous voyage all along, and the more so, as no one died, or was
+even dangerously ill the whole time, for which we caused _Te Deum_
+solemnly to be sung.
+
+We were then put on shore with all our effects. The company had
+undertaken to transport us with our servants and {14} effects, at
+their expence, and to lodge, maintain and convey us to our several
+concessions, or grants.
+
+This gulf abounds with delicious fish; as the _sarde_ (pilchard) red
+fish, cod, sturgeon, ringed thornback, and many other sorts, the best
+in their kind. The _sarde_ is a large fish; its flesh is delicate, and
+of a fine flavour, the scales grey, and of a moderate size. The red
+fish is so called, from its red scales, of the size of a crown piece.
+The cod, fished for on this coast, is of the middling sort, and very
+delicate. The thornback is the same as in France. Before we quit this
+island, it will not, perhaps, be improper to mention some things about
+it.
+
+The Isle Massacre was so called by the first Frenchman who landed
+there, because on the shore of this island they found a small rising
+ground, or eminence, which appeared the more extraordinary in an
+island altogether flat, and seemingly formed only by the sand, thrown
+in by some high gusts of wind. As the whole coast of the gulf is very
+flat, and along the continent lies a chain of such islands, which seem
+to be mutually joined by their points, and to form a line parallel
+with the continent, this small eminence appeared to them
+extraordinary: it was more narrowly examined, and in different parts
+thereof they found dead mens bones, just appearing above the little
+earth that covered them. Then their curiosity led them to rake off the
+earth in several places; but finding nothing underneath, but a heap of
+bones, they cried out with horror, _Ah! what a Massacre!_ They
+afterwards understood by the natives, who are at no great distance
+off, that a nation adjoining to that island, being at war with another
+much more powerful, was constrained to quit the continent, which is
+only three leagues off, and to remove to this island, there to live in
+peace the rest of their days; but that their enemies, justly confiding
+in their superiority, pursued them to this their feeble retreat, and
+entirely destroyed them; and after raising this inhuman trophy of
+their victorious barbarity, retired again. I myself saw this fatal
+monument, which made me imagine this unhappy nation must have been
+even numerous toward its period, as only the bones of their warriors,
+and aged men must have lain there, their custom being to make slaves
+of their {15} young people. Such is the origin of the first name of
+this island, which, on our arrival, was changed to that of Isle
+Dauphine: an act of prudence, it should-seem, to discontinue an
+appellation, so odious, of a place that was the cradle of the colony;
+as Mobile was its birth-place.
+
+This island is very flat, and all a white sand, as are all the others,
+and the coast in like manner. Its length is about seven leagues from
+east to west; its breadth a short league from south to north,
+especially to the east, where the settlement was made, on account of
+the harbour which was at the south end of the island, and choaked up
+by a high sea, a little before our arrival: this east end runs to a
+point. It is tolerably well stored with pine; but so dry and parched,
+on account of its crystal sand, as that no greens or pulse can grow
+therein, and beasts are pinched and hard put to it for sustenance.
+
+In the mean time, M. de Biainville, commandant general for the company
+in this colony, was gone to mark out the spot on which the capital was
+to be built, namely, one of the banks of the river Missisippi, where
+at present stands the city of New Orleans, so called in honour of the
+duke of Orleans, then regent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the Places he
+passed through, as far as_ New Orleans.
+
+
+The time of my departure, so much wished for, came at length. I set
+out with my hired servants, all my effects, and a letter for M.
+Paillou, major general at New Orleans, who commanded there in the
+absence of M. de Biainville. We coasted along the continent, and came
+to lie in the mouth of the river of the Pasca-Ogoulas; so called,
+because near its mouth, and to the east of a bay of the same name,
+dwells a nation, called Pasca-Ogoulas, which denotes the Nation of
+Bread. Here it may be remarked, that in the province of Louisiana, the
+appellation of several people terminates in the word Ogoula, which
+signifies _nation_; and that most of the rivers derive their names from
+the nations which dwell on {16} their banks. We then passed in view of
+Biloxi, where formerly was a petty nation of that name; then in view
+of the bay of St. Louis, leaving to the left successively Isle
+Dauphine, Isle a Corne, (Horne-island,) Isle aux Vaisseaux,
+(Ship-island,) and Isle aux Chats, (Cat-island).
+
+I have already described Isle Dauphine, let us now proceed to the
+three following. Horn-island is very flat and tolerably wooded, about
+six leagues in length, narrowed to a point to the west side. I know
+not whether it was for this reason, or on account of the number of
+horned cattle upon it, that it received this name; but it is certain,
+that the first Canadians, who settled on Isle Dauphine, had put most
+of their cattle, in great numbers, there; whereby they came to grow
+rich even when they slept. These cattle not requiring any attendance,
+or other care, in this island, came to multiply in such a manner, that
+the owners made great profits of them on our arrival in the colony.
+
+Proceeding still westward, we meet Ship-island; so called, because
+there is a small harbour, in which vessels at different times have put
+in for shelter. But as the island is distant four leagues from the
+coast, and that this coast is so flat, that boats cannot approach
+nearer than half a league, this harbour comes to be entirely useless.
+This island may be about five leagues in length, and a large league in
+breadth at the west point. Near that point to the north is the
+harbour, facing the continent; towards the east end it may be half a
+league in breadth: it is sufficiently wooded, and inhabited only by
+rats, which swarm there.
+
+At two leagues distance, going still westward, we meet Cat-island; so
+called, because at the time it was discovered, great numbers of cats
+were found upon it. This island is very small, not above half a league
+in diameter. The forests are over-run with underwood: a circumstance
+which, doubtless, determined M. de Biainville to put in some hogs to
+breed; which multiplied to such numbers, that, in 1722, going to hunt
+them, no other creatures were to be seen; and it was judged, that in
+time they must have devoured each other. It was found they had
+destroyed the cats.
+
+{17} All these islands are very flat, and have the same bottom of
+white sand; the woods, especially of the three first, consist of pine;
+they are almost all at the same distance from the continent, the coast
+of which is equally sandy.
+
+After passing the bay of St. Louis, of which I have spoken, we enter
+the two channels which lead to Lake Pontchartrain, called at present
+the Lake St. Louis: of these channels, one is named the Great, the
+other the Little; and they are about two leagues in length, and formed
+by a chain of islets, or little isles, between the continent and
+Cockle-island. The great channel is to the south.
+
+We lay at the end of the channels in Cockle-island; so called, because
+almost entirely formed of the shells named Coquilles des Palourdes, in
+the sea-ports, without a mixture of any others. This isle lies before
+the mouth of the Lake St. Louis to the east, and leaves at its two
+extremities two outlets to the lake; the one, by which we entered,
+which is the channel just mentioned; the other, by the Lake Borgne.
+The lake, moreover, at the other end westward, communicates, by a
+channel, with the Lake Maurepas; and may be about ten leagues in
+length from east to west, and seven in breadth. Several rivers, in
+their course southward, fall into it. To the south of the lake is a
+great creek (Bayouc, a stream of dead water, with little or no
+observable current) called Bayouc St. Jean; it comes close to New
+Orleans, and falls into this lake at Grass Point (Pointe aux Herbes)
+which projects a great way into the lake, at two leagues distance from
+Cockle-island. We passed near that Point, which is nothing but a
+quagmire. From thence we proceeded to the Bayouc Choupic, so
+denominated from a fish of that name, and three leagues from the
+Pointe aux Herbes. The many rivulets, which discharge themselves into
+this lake, make its waters almost fresh, though it communicates with
+the sea: and on this account it abounds not only with sea fish but
+with fresh water fish, some of which, particularly carp, would appear
+to be of a monstrous size in France.
+
+We entered this Creek Choupic: at the entrance of which is a fort at
+present. We went up this creek for the space of a league, and landed
+at a place where formerly stood the village {18} of the natives, who
+are called Cola-Pissas, an appellation corrupted by the French, the
+true name of that nation being Aquelou-Pissas, that is, _the nation of
+men that hear and see_. From this place to New Orleans, and the river
+Missisippi, on which that capital is built, the distance is only a
+league.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_The Author put in Possession of his Territory. His Resolution to go
+and settle among the_ Natchez.
+
+
+Being arrived at the Creek Choupic the Sicur Lavigne, a Canadian, lodged
+me in a cabin of the Aquelou-Pissas, whose village he had bought. He
+gave others to my workmen for their lodging; and we were all happy to
+find, upon our arrival, that we were under shelter, in a place that was
+uninhabited. A few days after my arrival I bought an Indian female slave
+of one of the inhabitants, in order to have a person who could dress our
+victuals, as I perceived the inhabitants did all they could to entice
+away our labourers, and to gain them by fair promises. As for my slave
+and me, we did not understand one another's language; but I made myself
+to be understood by signs, which these natives comprehend very easily:
+she was of the nation of the Chitimachas, with whom the French had been
+at war for some years.
+
+I went to view a spot on St. John's Creek, about half a league distant
+from the place where the capital was to be founded, which was yet only
+marked out by a hut, covered with palmetto-leaves, and which the
+commandant had caused to be built for his own lodging; and after him
+for M. Paillou, whom he left commandant of that post. I had chosen
+that place preferably to any others, with a view to dispose more
+easily of my goods and provisions, and that I might not have them to
+transport to a great distance. I told M. Paillou of my choice, who
+came and put me in possession, in the name of the West-India company.
+
+I built a hut upon my settlement, about forty yards from the creek of
+St. John, till I could build my house, and lodging {19} for my people.
+As my hut was composed of very combustible materials, I caused a fire
+to be made at a distance, about half way from the creek, to avoid
+accidents: which occasioned an adventure, that put me in mind of the
+prejudices they have in Europe, from the relations that are commonly
+current. The account I am going to give of it, may have upon those who
+think as I did then, the same effect that it had upon me.
+
+It was almost night, when my slave perceived, within two yards of the
+fire, a young alligator, five feet long, which beheld the fire without
+moving. I was in the garden hard by, when she made me repeated signs
+to come to her; I ran with speed, and upon my arrival she shewed me
+the crocodile, without speaking to me; the little time that I examined
+it, I could see, its eyes were so fixed on the fire, that all our
+motions could not take them off. I ran to my cabin to look for my gun,
+as I am a pretty good marksman: but what was my surprize, when I came
+out, and saw the girl with a great stick in her hand attacking the
+monster! Seeing me arrive, she began to smile, and said many things,
+which I did not comprehend. But she made me understand, by signs, that
+there was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast; for the stick
+she shewed me was sufficient for the purpose.
+
+The next day the former master of my slave came to ask me for some
+salad-plants; for I was the only one who had any garden-stuff, having
+taken care to preserve the seeds I had brought over with me. As he
+understood the language of the natives, I begged him to ask the girl,
+why she had killed the alligator so rashly. He began to laugh, and
+told me, that all new comers were afraid of those creatures, although
+they have no reason to be so: and that I ought not to be surprized at
+what the girl had done, because her nation inhabited the borders of a
+lake, which was full of those creatures; that the children, when they
+saw the young ones come on land, pursued them, and killed them, by the
+assistance of the people of the cabin, who made good cheer of them.
+
+I was pleased with my habitation, and I had good reasons, which I have
+already related, to make me prefer it to others; notwithstanding I had
+room to believe, that the situation was {20} none of the healthiest,
+the country about it being very damp. But this cause of an unwholesome
+air does not exist at present, since they have cleared the ground, and
+made a bank before the town. The quality of that land is very good,
+for what I had sown came up very well. Having found in the spring some
+peach-stones which began to sprout, I planted them; and the following
+autumn they had made shoots, four feet high, with branches in
+proportion.
+
+Notwithstanding these advantages, I took a resolution to quit this
+settlement, in order to make another one, about a hundred leagues
+higher up; and I shall give the reasons, which, in my opinion, will
+appear sufficient to have made me take that step.
+
+My surgeon came to take his leave of me, letting me know, he could be
+of no service to me, near such a town as was forming; where there was
+a much abler surgeon than himself; and that they had talked to him so
+favourably of the post of the Natchez, that he was very desirous to go
+there, and the more so, as that place, being unprovided with a
+surgeon, might be more to his advantage. To satisfy me of the truth of
+what he told me, he went immediately and brought one of the old
+inhabitants, of whom I had bought my slave, who confirmed the account
+he had given me of the fineness of the country of the Natchez. The
+account of the old man, joined to many other advantages, to be found
+there, had made him think of abandoning the place where we were, to
+settle there; and he reckoned to be abundantly repaid for it in a
+little time.
+
+My slave heard the discourse that I have related, and as she began to
+understand French, and I the language of the country, she addressed
+herself to me thus: "Thou art going, then, to that country; the sky is
+much finer there; game is in much greater plenty; and as I have
+relations, who retired there in the war which we had with the French,
+they will bring us every thing we want: they tell me that country is
+very fine, that they live well in it, and to a good old age."
+
+Two days afterwards I told M. Hubert what I had heard of the country
+of the Natchez. He made answer, that he was {21} so persuaded of the
+goodness of that part of the country, that he was making ready to go
+there himself, to take up his grant, and to establish a large
+settlement for the company: and, continued he, "I shall be very glad,
+if you do the same: we shall be Company to one another, and you will
+unquestionably do your business better there than here."
+
+[Illustration: _Indian in summer time_]
+
+This determined me to follow his advice: I quitted my settlement, and
+took lodgings in the town, till I should find an {22} opportunity to
+depart, and receive some negroes whom I expected in a short time.
+[Footnote: Chap. VIII.] My stay at New Orleans appeared long, before I
+heard of the arrival of the negroes. Some days after the news of their
+arrival, M. Hubert brought me two good ones, which had fallen to me by
+lot. One was a young negro about twenty, with his wife of the same
+age; which cost me both together 1320 livres, or 55&#163;. sterling.
+
+Two days after that I set off with them alone in a pettyaugre (a large
+canoe,) because I was told we should make much better speed in such a
+vessel, than in the boats that went with us; and that I had only to
+take powder and ball with me, to provide my whole company with game
+sufficient to maintain us; for which purpose it was necessary to make
+use of a paddle, instead of oars, which make too much noise for the
+game. I had a barrel of powder, with fifteen pounds of shot, which I
+thought would be sufficient for the voyage: but I found by experience,
+that this was not sufficient for the vast plenty of game that is to be
+met with upon that river, without ever going out of your way. I had
+not gone above twenty-eight leagues, to the grant of M. Paris du
+Vernai, when I was obliged to borrow of him fifteen pounds of shot
+more. Upon this I took care of my ammunition, and shot nothing but
+what was fit for our provision; such as wild ducks, summer ducks,
+teal, and saw-bills. Among the rest I killed a carancro, wild geese,
+cranes, and flamingo's; I likewise often killed young alligators; the
+tail of which was a feast for the slaves, as well as for the French
+and Canadian rowers.
+
+Among other things I cannot omit to give an account of a monstrous
+large alligator I killed with a musquet ball, as it lay upon the bank,
+about ten feet above the edge of the water. We measured it, and found
+it to be nineteen feet long, its head three feet and a half long,
+above two feet nine inches broad, and the other parts in proportion:
+at the belly it was two feet two inches thick; and it infected the
+whole air with the odor of musk. M. Mehane told me, he had killed one
+twenty-two feet long.
+
+{23} After several days navigation, we arrived at Tonicas on Christmas
+eve; where we heard mass from M. d' Avion, of the foreign missions,
+with whom we passed the rest of the holy days, on account of the good
+reception and kind invitation he gave us. I asked him, if his great
+zeal for the salvation of the natives was attended with any success;
+he answered me, that notwithstanding the profound respect the people
+shewed him, it was with the greatest difficulty he could get leave to
+baptize a few children at the point of death; that those of an
+advanced age excused themselves from embracing our holy religion
+because they are too old, say they, to accustom themselves to rules,
+that are so difficult to be observed; that the chief, who had killed
+the physician, that attended his only son in a distemper of which he
+died, had taken a resolution to fast every Friday while he lived, in
+remorse for his inhumanity with which he had been so sharply
+reproached by him. This grand chief attended both morning and evening
+prayers; the women and children likewise assisted regularly at them;
+but the men, who did not come very often, took more pleasure in
+ringing the bell. In other respects, they did not suffer this zealous
+pastor to want for any thing, but furnished him with whatever he
+desired.
+
+We were yet twenty-five leagues to the end of our journey to the
+Natchez, and we left the Tonicas, where we saw nothing interesting, if
+it were not several steep hills, which stand together; among which
+there is one that they name the White Hill, because they find in it
+several veins of an earth, that is white, greasy, and very fine, with
+which I have seen very good potters ware made. On the same hill there
+are veins of ochre, of which the Natchez had just taken some to stain
+their earthen Ware, which looked well enough; when it was besmeared
+with ochre, it became red on burning.
+
+At last we arrived at the Natchez, after a voyage of twenty-four
+leagues; and we put on shore at a landing-place, which is at the foot
+of a hill two hundred feet high, upon the top of which Fort Rosalie
+[Footnote: Fort Rosalie, in the country of the Natchez, was at first
+pitched upon for the metropolis of this colony. But though it be
+necessary to begin by a settlement near the sea; yet if ever Louisiana
+comes to be in a flourishing condition, as it may very well be, it
+appears to me, that the capital of it cannot be better situated than
+in this place. It is not subject to inundations of the river; the air
+is pure; the country very extensive; the land fit for every thing, and
+well watered; it is not at too great a distance from the sea, and
+nothing hinders vessels to go up to it. In fine, it is within reach of
+every place intended to be settled. Charlevoix, Hist. de la N. France,
+III. 415.
+
+This is on the east side of the Missisippi, and appears to be the
+first post on that river which we ought to secure.] is built,
+surrounded only with pallisadoes. {24} About the middle of the hill
+stands the magazine, nigh to some houses of the inhabitants, who are
+settled there, because the ascent is not so steep in that place; and
+it is for the same reason that the magazine is built there. When you
+are upon the top of this hill, you discover the whole country, which
+is an extensive beautiful plain, with several little hills
+interspersed here and there, upon which the inhabitants have built and
+made their settlements. The prospect of it is charming.
+
+On our arrival at the Natchez I was very well received by M. Loire de
+Flaucourt, storekeeper of this post, who regaled us with the game that
+abounds in this place; and after two days I hired a house near the
+fort, for M. Hubert and his family, on their arrival, till he could
+build upon his own plantation. He likewise desired me to choose two
+convenient parcels of land, whereon to settle two considerable
+plantations, one for the company, and the other for himself. I went to
+them in two or three days after my arrival, with an old inhabitant for
+my guide, and to shew me the proper places, and at the same time to
+choose a spot of ground for myself; this last I pitched upon the first
+day, because it is more easy to choose for one's self than for others.
+
+I found upon the main road that leads from the chief village of the
+Natchez to the fort, about an hundred paces from this last, a cabin of
+the natives upon the road side, surrounded with a spot of cleared
+ground, the whole of which I bought by means of an interpreter. I made
+this purchase with the more pleasure, as I had upon the spot,
+wherewithal to lodge me and my people, with all my effects: the
+cleared ground was about six acres, which would form a garden and a
+plantation for {25} tobacco, which was then the only commodity
+cultivated by the inhabitants. I had water convenient for my house,
+and all my land was very good. On one side stood a rising ground with
+a gentle declivity, covered with a thick field of canes, which always
+grow upon the rich lands; behind that was a great meadow, and on the
+other side was a forest of white walnuts (Hiecories) of nigh fifty
+acres, covered with grass knee deep. All this piece of ground was in
+general good, and contained about four hundred acres of a measure
+greater than that of Paris: the soil is black and light.
+
+The other two pieces of land, which M. Hubert had ordered me to look
+for, I took up on the border of the little river of the Natchez, each
+of them half a league from the great village of that nation, and a
+league from the fort; and my plantation stood between these two and
+the fort, bounding the two others. After this I took up my lodging
+upon my own plantation, in the hut I had bought of the Indian, and put
+my people in another, which they built for themselves at the side of
+mine; so that I was lodged pretty much like our wood-cutters in
+France, when they are at work in the woods.
+
+As soon as I was put in possession of my habitation, I went with an
+interpreter to see the other fields, which the Indians had cleared
+upon my land, and bought them all, except one, which an Indian would
+never sell to me: it was situated very convenient for me, I had a mind
+for it, and would have given him a good price; but I could never make
+him agree to my proposals. He gave me to understand, that without
+selling it, he would give it up to me, as soon as I should clear my
+ground to his; and that while he stayed on his own ground near me, I
+should always find him ready to serve me, and that he would go
+a-hunting and fishing for me. This answer satisfied me, because I must
+have had twenty negroes, before I could have been able to have reached
+him; they assured me likewise, that he was an honest man; and far from
+having any occasion to complain of him as a neighbour, his stay there
+was extremely serviceable to me.
+
+I had not been settled at the Natchez six months, when I found a pain
+in my thigh, which, however, did not hinder me {26} to go about my
+business. I consulted our surgeon about it, who caused me to be
+bleeded; on which the humour fell upon the other thigh, and fixed
+there with such violence, that I could not walk without extreme pain.
+I consulted the physicians and surgeons of New Orleans, who advised me
+to use aromatic baths; and if they proved of no service, I must go to
+France, to drink the waters, and to bathe in them. This answer
+satisfied me so much the less, as I was neither certain of my cure by
+that means, nor would my present situation allow me to go to France.
+This cruel distemper, I believe, proceeded from the rains, with which
+I was wet, during our whole voyage; and might be some effects of the
+fatigues I had undergone in war, during several campaigns I had made
+in Germany.
+
+As I could not go out of my hut, several neighbours were so good as to
+come and see me, and every day we were no less than twelve at table
+from the time of our arrival, which was on the fifth of January, 1720.
+Among the rest F. de Ville, who waited there, in his journey to the
+Illinois, till the ice, which began to come down from the north, was
+gone. His conversation afforded me great satisfaction in my
+confinement, and allayed the vexation I was under from my two negroes
+being run away. In the mean time my distemper did not abate, which
+made me resolve to apply to one of the Indian conjurers, who are both
+surgeons, divines, and sorcerers; and who told me he would cure me by
+sucking the place where I felt my pain. He made several scarifications
+upon the part with a sharp flint, each of them about as large as the
+prick of a lancet, and in such a form, that he could suck them all at
+once, which gave me extreme pain for the space of half an hour. The
+next day I found myself a little better, and walked about into my
+field, where they advised me to put myself in the hands of some of the
+Natchez, who, they said, did surprising cures, of which they told me
+many instances, confirmed by creditable people. In such a situation a
+man will do any thing for a cure, especially as the remedy, which they
+told me of, was very simple: it was only a poultice, which they put
+upon the part affected, and in eight days time I was able to walk to
+the fort, finding myself perfectly cured, as I have felt no return of
+my pain since that {27} time. This was, without doubt, a great
+satisfaction to a young man, who found himself otherwise in good
+health, but had been confined to the house for four months and a half,
+without being able to go out a moment; and gave me as much joy as I
+could well have, after the loss of a good negro, who died of a
+defluxion on the breast, which he catched by running away into the
+woods, where his youth and want of experience made him believe he
+might live without the toils of slavery; but being found by the
+Tonicas, constant friends of the French, who live about twenty leagues
+from the N&#224;tchez, they carried him to their village, where he and
+his wife were given to a Frenchman, for whom they worked, and by that
+means got their livelihood; till M. de Montplaisir sent them home to
+me.
+
+This M. de Montplaisir, one of the most agreeable gentlemen in the
+colony, was sent by the company from Clerac in Gascony, to manage
+their plantation at the Natchez, to make tobacco upon it, and to shew
+the people the way of cultivating and curing it; the company having
+learned, that this place produced excellent tobacco, and that the
+people of Clerac were perfectly well acquainted with the culture and
+way of managing it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_The Voyage of the Author to_ Biloxi. _Description of that Place.
+Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two Coppermines. His Return
+to the Natchez._
+
+
+<b>The</b> second year after my settling among the Natchez, I went to
+New Orleans, as I was desirous to sell my goods and commodities
+myself, instead of selling them to the travelling pedlars, who often
+require too great a profit for their pains. Another reason that made
+me undertake this voyage, was to send my letters to France myself,
+which I was certainly informed, were generally intercepted.
+
+Before my departure, I went to the commandant of the fort, and asked
+him whether he had any letters for the government. I was not on very
+good terms of friendship with this commandant of the Natchez, who
+endeavoured to pay his court {28} to the governor, at the expence of
+others. I knew he had letters for M. de Biainville, although he told
+me he had none, which made me get a certificate from the commissary
+general of this refusal to my demand; and at the same time the
+commissary begged me to carry down a servant of the company, and gave
+me an order to pay for his maintenance. As I made no great haste, but
+stopt to see my friends, in my going down the river, the commandant
+had time to send his letters, and to write to the governor, that I
+refused to take them. As soon as I arrived at Biloxi, this occasioned
+M. de Biainville to tell me, with some coldness, that I refused to
+charge myself with his letters. Upon this I shewed him the certificate
+of the commissary general; to which he could give no other answer,
+than by telling me, that at least I could not deny, that I had brought
+away by stealth a servant of the company. Upon this I shewed him the
+other certificate of the commissary general, by which he desired the
+directors to reimburse me the charges of bringing down this servant,
+who was of no use to him above; which put the governor in a very bad
+humour.
+
+Upon my arrival at New Orleans I was informed, that there were several
+grantees arrived at New Biloxi. I thought fit then to go thither, both
+to sell my goods, and to get sure conveyance for my letters to France.
+Here I was invited to sup with M. d'Artaguette, king's lieutenant, who
+usually invited all the grantees, as well as myself. I there found
+several of the grantees, who were all my friends; and among us we made
+out a sure conveyance for our letters to France, of which we
+afterwards made use.
+
+Biloxi is situate opposite to Ship-Island, and four leagues from it.
+But I never could guess the reason, why the principal settlement was
+made at this place, nor why the capital should be built at it; as
+nothing could be more repugnant to good sense; vessels not being able
+to come within four leagues of it; but what was worse, nothing could
+be brought from them, but by changing the boats three different times,
+from a smaller size to another still smaller; after which they had to
+go upwards of an hundred paces with small carts through the water to
+unload the least boats. But what ought still to have {29} been a
+greater discouragement against making a settlement at Biloxi, was,
+that the land is the most barren of any to be found thereabouts; being
+nothing but a fine sand, as white and shining as snow, on which no
+kind of greens can be raised; besides, the being extremely incommoded
+with rats, which swarm there in the sand, and at that time ate even
+the very stocks of the guns, the famine being there so very great,
+that more than five hundred people died of hunger; bread being very
+dear, and flesh-meat still more rare. There was nothing in plenty but
+fish, with which this place abounds.
+
+This scarcity proceeded from the arrival of several grantees all at
+once; so as to have neither provisions, nor boats to transport them to
+the places of their destination, as the company had obliged themselves
+to do. The great plenty of oysters, found upon the coast, saved the
+lives of some of them, although obliged to wade almost up to their
+thighs for them, a gun-shot from the shore. If this food nourished
+several of them, it threw numbers into sickness; which was still more
+heightened by the long time they were obliged to be in the water.
+
+The grants were those of M. Law, who was to have fifteen hundred men,
+consisting of Germans, Proven&#231;als, &c. to form the settlement.
+His land being marked out at the Arkansas, consisted of four leagues
+square, and was erected into a duchy, with accoutrements for a company
+of dragoons, and merchandize for more than a million of livres. M.
+Levans, who was a trustee of it, had his chaise to visit the different
+posts of the grant. But M. Law soon after becoming bankrupt, the
+company seized on all the effects and merchandise; and but a few of
+those who engaged in the service of that grant, remained at the
+Arkansas; they were afterwards all dispersed and set at liberty. The
+Germans almost to a man settled eight leagues above, and to the west
+of the capital. This grant ruined near a thousand persons at L'Orient
+before their embarkation, and above two hundred at Biloxi; not to
+mention those who came out at the same time with me in 1718. All this
+distress, of which I was a witness at Biloxi, determined me to make an
+excursion a few leagues on the coast, in order to pass some days {30}
+with a friend, who received me with pleasure. We mounted horse to
+visit the interior part of the country a few leagues from the sea. I
+found the fields pleasant enough, but less fertile than along the
+Missisippi; as they have some resemblance of the neighbouring coast,
+which has scarce any other plants but pines, that run a great way, and
+some red and white cedars.
+
+When we came to the plain, I carefully searched every spot that I
+thought worth my attention. In consequence of the search I found two
+mines of copper, whose metal plainly appeared above ground. They stood
+about half a league asunder. We may justly conclude that they are very
+rich, as they thus disclose themselves on the surface of the earth.
+
+When I had made a sufficient excursion, and judged I could find
+nothing further to satisfy my curiosity, I returned to Biloxi, where I
+found two boats of the company, just preparing to depart for New
+Orleans, and a large pettyaugre, which belonged to F. Charlevoix the
+jesuit, whose name is well known in the republic of letters: with him
+I returned to New Orleans.
+
+Some time after my return from New Orleans to the Natchez, towards the
+month of March 1722, a phaenomenon happened, which frightened the
+whole province. Every morning, for eight days running, a hollow noise,
+somewhat loud, was heard to reach from the sea to the Illinois; which
+arose from the west. In the afternoon it was heard to descend from the
+east, and that with an incredible quickness; and though the noise
+seemed to bear on the water, yet without agitating it, or discovering
+any more wind on the river than before. This frightful noise was only
+the prelude of a most violent tempest. The hurricane, the most furious
+ever felt in the province, lasted three days. As it arose from the
+south-west and north-east, it reached all the settlements which were
+along the Missisippi; and was felt for some leagues more or less
+strong, in proportion to the greater or less distance: but in the
+places, where the force or height of the hurricane passed, it
+overturned every thing in its way, which was an extent of a large
+quarter of a league broad; so that one would take it for {31} an
+avenue made on purpose, the place where it passed being entirely laid
+flat, whilst every thing stood upright on each side. The largest trees
+were torn up by the roots, and their branches broken to pieces and
+laid flat to the earth, as were also the reeds of the woods. In the
+meadows, the grass itself, which was then but six inches high, and
+which is very fine, could not escape, but was trampled, faded, and
+laid quite flat to the earth.
+
+[Illustration: Indian in winter time]
+
+{32} The height of the hurricane passed at a league from my
+habitation; and yet my hose, which was built on piles, would have been
+overturned, had I not speedily propped it with a timber, with the
+great end in the earth, and nailed to the house with an iron hook
+seven or eight inches long. Several houses of our post were
+overturned. But it was happy for us in this colony, that the height of
+the hurricane passed not directly oer any post, but obliquely
+traversed the Missisippi, over a country intirely uninhabited. As this
+hurricane came from the south, it so swelled the sea, that the
+Missisippi flowed back against its current, so as to rise upwards of
+fifteen feet high.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_First War with the_ Natchez. _Cause of the War._
+
+
+In the same year, towards the end of summer, we had the first war with
+the Natchez. The French had settled at the Natchez, without any
+opposition from these people; so far from opposing them, they did them
+a great deal of service, and gave them very material assistance in
+procuring provisions; for those, who were sent by the West India
+Comany with the first fleet, had been detained at New Orleans. Had it
+not been for the natives, the people must have perished by famine and
+distress: for, how excellent soever a new country it may be, it must
+be cleared, grubbed up, and sown, and then at least we are to wait the
+first harvest, or crop. But during all that time people must live, and
+the company was well apprized of this, as they had send, witht he
+eight hundred men they had transported to Louisiana, provisions for
+three years. The grantees and planters, obliged _to treat_, or truck for
+provisions with the Natchez, in consequence of that saw their funds
+wasted, and themselves incapable of forming so considerable a
+settlement, without this trucking, as necessary, as it was frequent.
+
+However, some benefit resulted from this; namely that the Natchez,
+enticed by the facility of trucking for goods, before unknown to them,
+as fusils, gun-powder, lead, brandy, linen, cloths, and other like
+things, by means of an exchange of what they abounded with, came to be
+more and more attached {33} to the French; and would have continued
+very useful friends, had not the little satisfaction which the
+commandant of Fort Rosalie had given them, for the misbehavior of one
+of his soldiers, alienated their minds. This fort covered the
+settlement of the Natchez, and protected that of St. Catharine, which
+was on the banks of the rivulet of the Natchez; but botht he defence
+and protection it afforded were very inconsiderable; for this fort was
+only pallisadoed, open at six breaches, without a ditch, and with a
+very weak garrison. On the other hand, the houses of the inhabitants,
+though considerably numerous, were of themselves of no strength; and
+then the inhabitants, dispersed in the country, each amidst his field,
+far from affording mutual assistance, as they would had they been in a
+body, stood each of them, upon any accident, in need of the assistance
+of others.
+
+A young soldier of Fort Rosalie had given some credit to an old
+warrior of a village of the Natchez; which was that of the White
+Apple, each village having its peculiar name: the warrior, in return,
+was to give him some corn. Towards the beginning of the winter 1723,
+this soldier lodging near the fort, the old warrior came to see him;
+the soldier insisted on his corn; the native answered calmly, that the
+corn was not yet dry enough to shake out the grain; that besides, his
+wife had been ill, and that he would pay him as soon as possible. The
+young man, little satisfied with this answer, threatened to cudgel the
+old man: upon which, this last, who was in the soldier's hut,
+affronted at this threat, told him, he should turn out, and try who
+was the best man. On this challenge, the soldier, calling out murder,
+brings the guard to his assistance. The guard being come, the young
+fellow pressed them to fire upon the warrior, who was returning to his
+village at his usual pace; a soldier was imprudent enough to fire: the
+old man dropt down. The commandant was soon apprized of what happened,
+and came to the spot; where the witnesses, both French and Natchez,
+informed him of the fact. Both justice and prudence demanded to take
+an exemplary punishment of the soldier; but he got off with a
+reprimand. After this the natives made a litter, and carried off their
+warrior, who died the {34} following night of his wounds, though the
+fusil was only charged with great shot.
+
+Revenge is the predominant passion of the people in America: so that
+we ought not to be surprised, if the death of this old warrior raised
+his whole village against the French. The rest of the nation took no
+part at first in the quarrel.
+
+The first effect of the resentment of the Natchez fell upon a
+Frenchman named M. Guenot, whom they surprised returning from the fort
+to St. Catharine, and upon another inhabitant, whom they killed in his
+bed. Soon after they attacked, all in a body, the settlement of St.
+Catharine, and the other below Fort Rosalie. It was at this last I had
+fixed my abode: I therefore saw myself exposed, like many others, to
+pay with my goods, and perhaps my life, for the rashness of a soldier,
+and the too great indulgence of his captain. But as I was already
+acquainted with the character of the people we had to deal with, I
+despaired not to save both. I therefore barricadoed myself in my
+house, and having put myself in a posture of defence, when they came
+in the night, according to their custom, to surprise me, they durst
+not attack me.
+
+This first attempt, which I justly imagined was to be followed by
+another, if not by many such, made me resolve, as soon as day came, to
+retire under the fort, as all the inhabitants also did, and thither to
+carry all the provisions I had at my lodge. I could execute only half
+of my scheme. My slaves having begun to remove the best things, I was
+scarce arrived under the fort, but the commandant begged I might put
+myself at the head of the inhabitants, to go to succour St. Catharine.
+He had already sent thither all his garrison, reserving only five men
+to guard the fort; but this succour was not sufficient to relieve the
+settlement, which the natives in great numbers vigorously straitned.
+
+I departed without delay: we heard the firing at a distance, but the
+noise ceased as soon as I was come, and the natives appeared to have
+retired: they had, doubtless, discovered me on my march, and the sight
+of a reinforcement which I had brought with me, deceived them. The
+officer who commanded the detachment of the garrison, and whom I
+relieved, returned {35} to the fort with his men; and the command
+being thus devolved on me, I caused all the Negroes to be assembled,
+and ordered them to cut down all the bushes; which covering the
+country, favoured the approach of the enemy, quite to the doors of the
+houses of that Grant. This operation was performed without
+molestation, if you except a few shot, fired by the natives from the
+woods, where they lay concealed on the other side of the rivulet; for
+the plain round St. Catharine being entirely cleared of every thing
+that could screen them, they durst not shew themselves any more.
+
+However, the commandant of Fort Rosalie sent to treat with the _Stung
+Serpent_; in order to prevail with him to appease that part of his
+nation, and procure a peace. As that great warrior was our friend, he
+effectually laboured therein, and hostilities ceased. After I had
+passed twenty-four hours in St. Catharine, I was relieved by a new
+detachment from the inhabitants, whom, in my turn, I relieved next
+day. It was on this second guard, which I mounted, that the village we
+had been at war with sent me, by their deputies, the _calumet_ or _pipe
+of peace_. I at first had some thoughts of refusing it, knowing that
+this honour was due to the commandant of the fort; and it appeared to
+me a thing so much the more delicate to deprive him of it, as we were
+not upon very good terms with each other. However, the evident risk of
+giving occasion to protract the war, by refusing it, determined me to
+accept of it; after having, however, taken the advice of those about
+me; who all judged it proper to treat these people gently, to whom the
+commandant was become odious.
+
+I asked the deputies, what they would have? They answered, faultering,
+_Peace_. "Good, said I; but why bring you the Calumet of Peace to me? It
+is to the Chief of the Fort you are to carry it, if you wish to have a
+Peace." "Our orders" said they, "are to carry it first to you, if you
+choose to receive it by only smoking therein: after which we will
+carry it to the Chief of the Fort; but if you refuse receiving it, our
+orders are to return."
+
+Upon this I told them, that I agreed to smoke in their pipe, on
+condition they would carry it to the Chief of the Fort. {36} They then
+made me an harangue; to which I answered, that it were best to resume
+our former manner of living together, and that the French and the
+_Red-men_ should entirely forget what had passed. To conclude, that they
+had nothing further to do, but to go and carry the Pipe to the Chief
+of the Fort, and then go home and sleep in peace.
+
+This was the issue of the first war we had with the Natchez, which
+lasted only three or four days.
+
+The commerce, or truck, was set again on the same footing it had been
+before; and those who had suffered any damage, now thought only how
+they might best repair it. Some time after, the Major General arrived
+from New Orleans, being sent by the Governor of Louisiana to ratify
+the peace; which he did, and mutual sincerity was restored, and became
+as perfect as if there had never been any rupture between us.
+
+It had been much to be wished, that matters had remained on so good a
+footing. As we were placed in one of the best and finest countries of
+the world; were in strict connection with the natives, from whom we
+derived much knowledge of the nature of the productions of the
+country, and of the animals of all sorts, with which it abounds; and
+likewise reaped great advantage in our traffic for furs and
+provisions; and were aided by them in many laborious works, we wanted
+nothing but a profound peace, in order to form solid settlements,
+capable of making us lay aside all thoughts of Europe: but Providence
+had otherwise ordered.
+
+The winter which succeeded this war was so severe, that a colder was
+never remembered. The rain fell in icicles in such quantities as to
+astonish the oldest Natchez, to whom this great cold appeared new and
+uncommon.
+
+Towards the autumn of this year I saw a phaenomenon which struck the
+superstitious with great terror: it was in effect so extraordinary,
+that I never remember to have heard of any thing that either
+resembled, or even came up to it. I had just supped without doors, in
+order to enjoy the cool of the evening; my face was turned to the
+west, and I sat before my table to examine some planets which had
+already appeared. {37} I perceived a glimmering light, which made me
+raise my eyes; and immediately I saw, at the elevation of about 45
+degrees above the horizon, a light proceeding from the south, of the
+breadth of three inches, which went off to the north, always spreading
+itself as it moved, and made itself heard by a whizzing light like
+that of the largest sky-rocket. I judged by the eye that this light
+could not be above our atmosphere, and the whizzing noise which I
+heard confirmed me in that notion. {38} When it came in like manner to
+be about 45 degrees to the north above the horizon, it stopped short,
+and ceased enlargeing itself: in that place it appeared to be twenty
+inches broad; so that in its course, which had been very rapid, it
+formed the figure of a trumpet-marine, and left in its passage very
+lively sparks, shining brighter than those which fly from under a
+smith's hammer; but they were extinguished almost as fast as they were
+emitted.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian woman and daughter_ (on p. 37)]
+
+At the north elevation I just mentioned, there issued out with a great
+noise from the middle of the large end, a ball quite round, and all on
+fire: this ball was about six inches in diameter; it fell below the
+horizon to the north, and emitted, about twenty minutes after, a
+hollow, but very loud noise for the space of a minute, which appeared
+to come from a great distance. The light began to be weakened to the
+south, after emitting the ball, and at length disappeared, before the
+noise of the ball was heard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_The Governor surprized the_ Natchez _with seven hundred Men.
+Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The Author sends upwards of
+three hundred Simples to the Company._
+
+
+
+M. De Biainville, at the beginning of the winter which followed this
+phaenomenonived very privately at our quarter of the Natchez, his
+march having been communicated to none but the Commandant of this
+Post, who had orders to seize all the Natchez that should come to the
+Fort that day, to prevent the news of his arrival being carried to
+their country men. He brought with him, in regular troops, inhabitants
+and natives, who were our allies, to the number of seven hundred men.
+
+Orders were given that all our settlers at the Natchez should repair
+before his door at midnight at the latest: I went thither and mixed
+with the crowd, without making myself known.
+
+We arrived two hours before day at the settlement of St. Catharine.
+The Commandant having at length found me out, {39} ordered me, in the
+King's name, to put myself at the head of the settlers among the
+Natchez, and to take the command upon me; and these he ordered to pay
+the same obedience to me as to himself. We advanced with great silence
+towards the village of the Apple. It may be easily seen that all this
+precaution was taken in order to surprise our enemies, who ought so
+much the less to expect this act of hostility, as they had fairly made
+peace with us, and as M. Paillou, Major General, had come and ratified
+this peace in behalf of the Governor. We marched to the enemy and
+invested the first hut of the Natchez, which we found separate; the
+drums, in concert with the fifes, beat the charge; we fired upon the
+hut, in which were only three men and two women.
+
+From thence we afterwards moved on to the village, that is, several
+huts that stood together in a row. We halted at three of them that lay
+near each other, in which between twelve and fifteen Natchez had
+entrenched themselves. By our manner of proceeding one would have
+thought that we came only to view the huts. Full of indignation that
+none exerted himself to fall upon them, I took upon me with my men to
+go round and take the enemy in rear. They took to their heels, and I
+pursued; but we had need of the swiftness of deer to be able to come
+up with them. I came so near, however, that they threw away their
+cloaths, to run with the greater speed.
+
+I rejoined our people, and expected a reprimand for having forced the
+enemy without orders; though I had my excuse ready. But here I was
+mistaken; for I met with nothing but encomiums.
+
+This war, of which I shall give no further detail, lasted only four
+days. M. de Biainville demanded the head of an old mutinous Chief of
+this village; and the natives, in order to obtain a peace, delivered
+him up.
+
+I happened to live at some distance from the village of the Apple, and
+very seldom saw any of the people. Such as lived nearer had more
+frequent visits from them; but after this war, and the peace which
+followed upon it, I never saw one of them. My neighbours who lived
+nearer to them saw but a few of them, even a long time after the
+conclusion of the war. The {40} natives of the other villages came but
+very seldom among us; and indeed, if we could have done well without
+them, I could have wished to have been rid of them for ever. But we
+had neither a flesh nor a fish-market; therefore, without them, we
+must have taken up with what the poultry-yard and kitchen-garden
+furnished; which would have been extremely inconvenient.
+
+I one day stopped the Stung Serpent, who was passing without taking
+notice of any one. He was brother to the Great Sun, and Chief of the
+Warriors of the Natchez. I accordingly called to him, and said, "We
+were formerly friends, are we no longer so?" He answered, _Noco_; that
+is, I cannot tell. I replied, "You used to come to my house; at
+present you pass by. Have you forgot the way; or is my house
+disagreeable to you? As for me, my heart is always the same, both
+towards you and all my friends. I am not capable of changing, why then
+are you changed?"
+
+He took some time to answer, and seemed to be embarrassed by what I
+said to him. He never went to the fort, but when sent for the
+Commandant, who put me upon sounding him; in order to discover whether
+his people still retained any grudge.
+
+He at length broke silence, and told me, "he was ashamed to have been
+so long without seeing me; but I imagined," said he, "that you were
+displeased at our nation; because among all the French who were in the
+war, you were the only one that fell upon us." "You are in the wrong,"
+said I, "to think so. M. de Biainville being our War-chief, we are
+bound to obey him; in like manner as you, though a Sun, are obliged to
+kill, or cause to be killed, whomsoever your brother, the Great Sun
+orders to be put to death. Many other Frenchmen, besides me, sought an
+opportunity to attack your countrymen, in obedience to the orders of
+M. de Biainville; and several other Frenchmen fell upon the nearest
+hut, one of whom was killed by the first shot which the Natchez
+fired."
+
+He then said: "I did not approve, as you know, the war our people made
+upon the French to avenge the death of their {41} relation, seeing I
+made them carry the _pipe of peace_ to the French. This you well know,
+as you first smoked in the pipe yourself. Have the French two hearts, a
+good one today, and tomorrow a bad one? As for my brother and me, we
+have but one heart and one word. Tell me then, if thou art, as thou
+sayest, my true friend, what thou thinketh of all this, and shut thy
+mouth to every thing else. We know not what to think of the French, who,
+after having begun the war, granted a peace, and offered it of
+themselves; and then at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to
+be at peace, people come to kill us, without saying a word."
+
+"Why," continued he, with an air of displeasure, "did the French come
+into our country? We did not go to seek them: they asked for land of
+us, because their country was too little for all the men that were in
+it. We told them they might take land where they pleased, there was
+enough for them and for us; that it was good the same sun should
+enlighten us both, and that we would walk as friends in the same path;
+and that we would give them of our provisions, assist them to build,
+and to labour in their fields. We have done so; is not this true? What
+occasion then had we for Frenchmen? Before they came, did we not live
+better than we do, seeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn,
+our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what respect, then, had
+we occasion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which
+we used, were sufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white,
+blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo skins,
+which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankets for the winter,
+and mulberry-mantles for the summer; which indeed were not so
+beautiful; but our women were more laborious and less vain than they
+are now. In fine, before the arrival of the French, we lived like men
+who can be satisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are
+like slaves, who are not suffered to do as they please."
+
+To this unexpected discourse I know not what answer another would have
+made; but I frankly own, that if at my first address he seemed to be
+confused, I really was so in my turn. "My heart," said I to him,
+"better understands thy {42} reasons than my ears, though they are
+full of them; and though I have a tongue to answer, my ears have not
+heard the reasons of M. de Biainville, to tell them thee: but I know
+it was necessary to have the head he demanded, in order to a peace.
+When our Chiefs command us, we never require the reasons: I can say
+nothing else to thee. But to shew you that I am always your real
+friend, I have here a beautiful _pipe of peace_, which I wanted to carry
+to my own country. I know you have ordered all your warriors to kill
+some white eagles, in order to make one, because you have occasion for
+it. I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I
+reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure."
+
+I went to look for it, and I gave it him, telling him, that it was
+_without design;_ that is, according to them, from no interested motive.
+The natives put as great a value on a _pipe of peace_ as on a gun. Mine
+was adorned with tinsel and silver wire: so that in their estimation
+my pipe was worth two guns. He appeared to be extremely well pleased
+with it; put it up hastily in his case, squeezed my hand with a smile,
+and called me his true friend.
+
+The winter was now drawing to a close, and in a little time the
+natives were to bring us bear-oil to truck. I hoped that by his means
+I should have of the best preferably to any other; which was the only
+compensation I expected for my pipe. But I was agreeably disappointed.
+He sent me a deer-skin of bear-oil, so very large that a stout man
+could hardly carry it, and the bearer told me, that he sent it to me
+as his true friend, _without design_. This deer-skin contained
+thirty-one pots of the measure of the country, or sixty-two pints
+Paris measure.
+
+Three days after, the Great Sun, his brother, sent me another
+deer-skin of the same oil, to the quantity of forty pints. The
+commonest sort sold this year at twenty sols a pint, and I was sure
+mine was not of the worst kind.
+
+For some days a _fistula lacrymalis_ had come into my left eye, which
+discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger. I shewed it
+to M. St. Hilaire, an able surgeon, who {43} had practised for about
+twelve years in the Hotel Dieu at Paris.
+
+He told me it was necessary to use the fire for it; and that,
+notwithstanding this operation, my sight would remain as good as ever,
+only my eye would be blood-shot: and that if I did not speedily set
+about the operation, the bone of the nose would become carious.
+
+These reasons gave me much uneasiness, as having both to fear and to
+suffer at the same time: however, after I had resolved to undergo the
+operation, the Grand Sun and his brother came one morning very early,
+with a man loaded with game, as a present for me.
+
+The Great Sun observed I had a swelling in my eye, and asked me what
+was the matter with it. I shewed it him, and told him, that in order
+to cure it, I must have fire put to it; but that I had some difficulty
+to comply, as I dreaded the consequences of such an operation. Without
+replying, or in the least apprizing me, he ordered the man who brought
+the game to go in quest of his physician, and tell him, he waited for
+him at my house. The messenger and physician made such dispatch, that
+this last came in an hour after. The Great Sun ordered him to look at
+my eye, and endeavour to cure me: after examining it, the physician
+said, he would undertake to cure me with simples and common water. I
+consented to this with so much the greater pleasure and readiness, as
+by this treatment I ran no manner of risque.
+
+That very evening the physician came with his simples, all pounded
+together, and making but a single ball, which he put with the water in
+a deep bason, he made me bend my head into it, so as the eye affected
+stood dipt quite open in the water. I continued to do so for eight or
+ten days, morning and evening; after which, without any other
+operation, I was perfectly cured, and never after had any return of
+the disorder.
+
+It is easy from this relation to understand what dextrous physicians
+the natives of Louisiana are. I have seen them perform surprising
+cures on Frenchmen; on two especially, who had put themselves under
+the hands of a French surgeon {44} settled at this post. Both patients
+were about to undergo the grand cure; and after having been under the
+hands of the surgeon for some time, their heads swelled to such a
+degree, that one of them made his escape, with as much agility as a
+criminal would from the hands of justice, when a favourable
+opportunity offers. He applied to a Natchez physician, who cured him
+in eight days: his comrade continuing still under the French surgeon,
+died under his hands three days after the escape of his companion,
+whom I saw three years after in a state of perfect health.
+
+In the war which I lately mentioned, the Grand Chief of the Tonicas,
+our allies, was wounded with a ball, which went through his cheek,
+came out under the jaw, again entered his body at the neck, and
+pierced through to the shoulder-blade, lodging at last between the
+flesh and the skin: the wound had its direction in this manner;
+because when he received it, he happened to be in a stooping posture,
+as were all his men, in order to fire. The French surgeon, under whose
+care he was, and who dressed him with great precaution, was an able
+man, and spared no pains in order to effect a cure. But the physicians
+of this Chief, who visited him every day, asked the Frenchman what
+time the cure would take? he answered, six weeks at least: they
+returned no answer, but went directly and made a litter; spoke to
+their Chief, and put him on it, carried him off, and treated him in
+their own manner, and in eight days affected a complete cure.
+
+These are facts well known in the colony. The physicians of the
+country have performed many other cures, which, if they were to be all
+related, would require a whole volume apart; but I have confined
+myself to the three above mentioned, in order to shew that disorders
+frequently accounted almost incurable, are, without any painful
+operation, and in a short time, cured by physicians, natives of
+Louisiana.
+
+The West India Company being informed that this province produces a
+great many simples, whose virtues, known by the natives, afforded so
+easy a cure to all sorts of distempers, ordered M. de la Chaise, who
+was sent from France in quality of Director General of this colony, to
+cause enquiry to be made {45} into the simples proper for physick and
+for dying, by means of some Frenchmen, who might perhaps be masters of
+the secrets of the natives. I was pointed out for this purpose to M.
+de la Chaise, who was but just arrived, and who wrote to me, desiring
+my assistance in this enquiry; which I gave him with pleasure, and in
+which I exerted myself to my utmost, because I well knew the Company
+continually aimed at what might be for the benefit of the colony.
+
+After I thought I had done in that respect, what might give
+satisfaction to the Company, I transplanted in earth, put into cane
+baskets, above three hundred simples, with their numbers, and a
+memorial, which gave a detail of their virtues, and taught the manner
+of using them. I afterwards understood that they were planted in a
+botanic garden made for the purpose, by order of the Company.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_French Settlements, or Posts. The Post at Mobile. The Mouths of the
+Missisippi. The Situation and Description of_ New Orleans.
+
+
+The Settlement at Mobile was the first seat of the colony in this
+province. It was the residence of the Commandant General, the
+Commissary General, the Staff-officers, &c. As vessels could not enter
+the river Mobile, and there was a small harbour at Isle Dauphine, a
+settlement was made suited to the harbour, with a guardhouse for its
+security: so that these two settlements may be said to have made but
+one; both on account of their proximity, and necessary connection with
+each other. The settlement of Mobile, ten leagues, however, from its
+harbour, lies on the banks of the river of that name; and Isle
+Dauphine, over against the mouth of that river, is four leagues from
+the coast.
+
+Though the settlement of Mobile be the oldest, yet it is far from
+being the most considerable. Only some inhabitants remained there, the
+greatest part of the first inhabitants having left it, in order to
+settle on the river Missisippi, ever since New Orleans became the
+capital of the colony. That old post is the {46} ordinary residence of
+a King's Lieutenant, a Regulating Commissary, and a Treasurer. The
+fort, with four bastions, terraced and palisaded, has a garrison.
+
+This post is a check upon the nation of Choctaws, and cuts off the
+communication of the English with them; it protects the neighbouring
+nations, and keeps them in our alliance; in fine, it supports our
+peltry trade, which is considerable with the Choctaws and other
+nations. [Footnote: Fort Lewis at Mobile is built upon the river that
+bears the same name, which falls into the sea opposite to Dauphine
+island. The fort is about 15 or 16 leagues distant from that island;
+and is built of brick, fortified with four bastions, in the manner of
+Vauban, with half-moons, a covered way and glacis. There is a magazine
+in it, with barracks for the troops of the garrison, which is
+generally pretty numerous, and a flag for the commandant.
+
+I must own, I never could see for what reason this fort was built, or
+what could be the use of it. For although it is 120 leagues from the
+capital, to go down the river, yet it is from thence that they must
+have every thing that is necessary for the support of the garrison:
+and the soil is so bad, being nothing but sand, that it produces
+nothing but pines and firs, with a little pulse, which grows there but
+very indifferently: so that there are here but very few people. The
+only advantage of this place is, that the air is mild and healthful,
+and that it affords a traffick with the Spaniards who are near it. The
+winter is the most agreeable season, as it is mild, and affords plenty
+of game. But in summer the heats are excessive; and the inhabitants
+have nothing hardly to live upon but fish, which are pretty plentiful
+on the coast, and in the river. _Dumont_, II. 80.]
+
+The same reason which pointed out the necessity of this post, with
+respect to the Choctaws, also shewed the necessity of building a fort
+at Tombecbe, to check the English in their ambitious views on the side
+of the Chicasaws. That fort was built only since the war with the
+Chicasaws in 1736.
+
+Near the river Mobile stands the small settlement of the
+Pasca-Ogoulas; which consists only of a few Canadians, lovers of
+tranquillity, which they prefer to all the advantages they could reap
+from commerce. They content themselves with a frugal country life, and
+never go to New Orleans but for necessaries.
+
+From that settlement quite to New Orleans, by the way of Lake St.
+Louis, there is no post at present. Formerly, and {47} just before the
+building of the capital, there were the old and new Biloxi:
+settlements, which have deserved an oblivion as lasting as their
+duration was short.
+
+To proceed with order and perspicuity, we will go up the Missisippi
+from its mouth.
+
+Fort Balise is at the entrance of the Missisippi, in 29 deg. degrees North
+Latitude, and 286 deg. 30' of Longitude. This fort is built on an isle, at
+one of the mouths of the Missisippi. Tho' there are but seventeen feet
+water in the channel, I have seen vessels of five hundred ton enter
+into it. I know not why this entrance is left so neglected, as we are
+not in want of able engineers in France, in the hydraulic branch, a
+part of the mathematics to which I have most applyed myself. I know it
+is no easy matter so to deepen or hollow the channel of a bar, that it
+may never after need clearing, and that the expences run high: but my
+zeal for promoting the advantage of this colony having prompted me to
+make reflections on those passes, or entrances of the Missisippi, and
+being perfectly well acquainted both with the country and the nature
+of the soil, I dare flatter myself, I may be able to accomplish it, to
+the great benefit of the province, and acquit myself therein with
+honour, at a small charge, and in a manner not to need repetition.
+[Footnote: Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two
+other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered; one is
+called the Otter Pass, and the other the East Pass; and they assure
+me, it is only by this last Pass that ships now go up or down the
+river, they having entirely deserted the ancient middle pass. _Dumont,_
+I. 4.
+
+Many other bays and rivers, not known to our authors, lying along the
+bay of Mexico, to the westward of the Missisippi, are described by Mr.
+Coxe, in his account of Carolina, called by the French Louisiana.]
+
+I say, fort Balise is built upon an island; a circumstance, I imagine,
+sufficient to make it understood, that this fort is irregular; the
+figure and extent of this small island not admitting it to be
+otherwise.
+
+In going up the Missisippi, we meet with nothing remarkable before we
+come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the
+river takes a large compass; so that {48} the same wind, which was
+before fair, proves contrary in this elbow, or reach. For this reason
+it was thought proper to build two forts at that place, one on each
+side of the river, to check any attempts of strangers. These forts are
+more than sufficient to oppose the passage of an hundred sail; as
+ships can go up the river, only one after another, and can neither
+cast anchor, nor come on shore to moor.
+
+It will, perhaps, be thought extraordinary that ships cannot anchor in
+this place. I imagine the reader will be of my opinion, when I tell
+him, the bottom is only a soft mud, or ooze, almost entirely covered
+with dead trees, and this for upwards of an hundred leagues. As to
+putting on shore, it is equally impossible and needless to attempt it;
+because the place where these forts stand, is but a neck of land
+between the river and the marshes: now it is impossible for a shallop,
+or canoe, to come near to moor a vessel, in sight of a fort well
+guarded, or for an enemy to throw up a trench in a neck of land so
+soft. Besides, the situation of the two forts is such, that they may in
+a short time receive succours, both from the inhabitants, who are on
+the interior edge of the crescent, formed by the river, and from New
+Orleans, which is very near thereto.
+
+The distance from this place to the capital is reckoned six leagues by
+water, and the course nearly circular; the winding, or reach, having
+the figure of a C almost close. Both sides of the river are lined with
+houses, which afford a beautiful prospect to the eye; however, as this
+voyage is tedious by water, it is often performed on horseback by
+land.
+
+The great difficulties attending the going up the river under sail,
+particularly at the English Reach, for the reasons mentioned, put me
+upon devising a very simple and cheap machine, to make vessels go up
+with ease quite to New-Orleans. Ships are sometimes a month in the
+passage from Balise to the capital; whereas by my method they would
+not be eight days, even with a contrary wind; and thus ships would go
+four times quicker than by towing, or turning it. This machine might
+be deposited at Balise, and delivered to the vessel, in order to go up
+the current, and be returned again on its setting sail. It is besides
+proper to observe, that this machine would be no detriment {49} to the
+forts, as they would always have it in their power to stop the vessels
+of enemies, who might happen to use it.
+
+New Orleans, the capital of the colony, is situated to the East, on
+the banks of the Missisippi, in 30 deg. of North Latitude. At my first
+arrival in Louisiana, it existed only in name; for on my landing I
+understood M. de Biainville, commandant general, was only gone to mark
+out the spot; whence he returned three days after our arrival at Isle
+Dauphine.
+
+He pitched upon this spot in preference to many others, more agreeable
+and commodious; but for that time this was a place proper enough:
+besides, it is not every man that can see so far as some others. As
+the principal settlement was then at Mobile, it was proper to have the
+capital fixed at a place from which there could be an easy
+communication with this post: and thus a better choice could not have
+been made, as the town being on the banks of the Missisippi, vessels,
+tho' of a thousand ton, may lay their sides close to the shore even at
+low water; or at most, need only lay a small bridge, with two of their
+yards, in order to load or unload, to roll barrels and bales, &c.
+without fatiguing the ship's crew. This town is only a league from St.
+John's creek, where passengers take water for Mobile, in going to
+which they pass Lake St. Louis, and from thence all along the coast; a
+communication which was necessary at that time.
+
+I should imagine, that if a town was at this day to be built in this
+province, a rising ground would be pitched upon, to avoid inundations;
+besides, the bottom should be sufficiently firm, for bearing grand
+stone edifices.
+
+Such as have been a good way in the country, without seeing stone, or
+the least pebble, in upwards of a hundred leagues extent, will doubtless
+say, such a proposition is impossible, as they never observed stone
+proper for building in the parts they travelled over. I might answer,
+and tell them, they have eyes, and see not. I narrowly considered the
+nature of this country, and found quarries in it; and if there were any
+in the colony I ought to find them, as my condition and profession of
+architect should have procured me the knowledge of {51} them. After
+giving the situation of the capital, it is proper I describe the order
+in which it is built.
+
+[Illustration: _Plan of New Orleans, 1720_ (on p. 50)]
+
+The place of arms is in the middle of that part of the town which
+faces the river; in the middle of the ground of the place of arms
+stands the parish church, called St. Louis, where the Capuchins
+officiate, whose house is to the left of the church. To the right
+stand the prison, or jail, and the guard-house: both sides of the
+place of arms are taken up by two bodies or rows of barracks. This
+place stands all open to the river.
+
+All the streets are laid out both in length and breadth by the line,
+and intersect and cross each other at right angles. The streets divide
+the town into sixty-six isles; eleven along the river lengthwise, or
+in front, and six in depth: each of those isles is fifty square
+toises, and each again divided into twelve emplacements, or
+compartments, for lodging as many families. The Intendant's house
+stands behind the barracks on the left; and the magazine, or
+warehouse-general behind the barracks on the right, on viewing the
+town from the river side. The Governor's house stands in the middle of
+that part of the town, from which we go from the place of arms to the
+habitation of the Jesuits, which is near the town. The house of the
+Ursulin Nuns is quite at the end of the town, to the right; as is also
+the hospital of the sick, of which the nuns have the inspection. What
+I have just described faces the river.
+
+On the banks of the river runs a causey, or mole, as well on the side
+of the town as on the opposite side, from the English Reach quite to
+the town, and about ten leagues beyond it; which makes about fifteen
+or sixteen leagues on each side the river; and which may be travelled
+in a coach or on horseback, on a bottom as smooth as a table.
+
+The greatest part of the houses is of brick; the rest are of timber
+and brick.
+
+The length of the causeys, I just mentioned, is sufficient to shew,
+that on these two sides of the Missisippi there are many habitations
+standing close together; each making a causey to secure his ground
+from inundations, which fail not to come every year with the spring:
+and at that time, if any ships {52} happen to be in the harbour of New
+Orleans, they speedily set sail; because the prodigious quantity of
+dead wood, or trees torn up by the roots, which the river brings down,
+would lodge before the ship, and break the stoutest cables.
+
+At the end of St. John's Creek, on the banks of the Lake St. Louis,
+there is a redoubt, and a guard to defend it.
+
+From this creek to the town, a part of its banks is inhabited by
+planters; in like manner as are the long banks of another creek: the
+habitations of this last go under the name of Gentilly.
+
+After these habitations, which are upon the Missisippi quite beyond
+the Cannes Brulees, Burnt Canes, we meet none till we come to the
+Oumas, a petty nation so called. This settlement is inconsiderable,
+tho' one of the oldest next to the capital. It lies on the east of the
+Missisippi.
+
+The Baton Rogue is also on the east side of the Missisippi, and
+distant twenty-six leagues from New Orleans: it was formerly the grant
+of M. Artaguette d'Iron: it is there we see the famouse cypress-tree
+of which a ship-carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+sixteen, the other of fourteen tons. Some one of the first
+adventurers, who landed in this quarter, happened to say, that tree
+would make a fine walking-stick, and as cypress is a red wood, it was
+afterwards called le Baton Rouge. Its height could never be measured,
+it rises so out of sight.
+
+Two leagues higher up than le Baton Rouge, was the Grant of M. Paris
+du Vernai. This settlement is called Bayou-Ogoulas, from a nation of
+that name, which formerly dwelt here. It is on the west side of the
+Missisippi, and twenty-eight leagues from New Orleans.
+
+At a league on this side of Pointe Coupee, are les Petits Ecores,
+(little Cliffs) where was the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres. At
+this grant were a director and under-director; but the surgeon found
+out the secret of remaining sole master. The place is very beautiful,
+especially behind les Petits Ecores, where we go up by a gentle
+ascent. Near these cliffs, a rivulet falls into the Missisippi, into
+which a spring discharges its waters, which so attract the buffalos,
+that they are very often {53} found on its banks. 'Tis a pity this
+ground was deserted; there was enough of it to make a very
+considerable grant: a good water-mill might be guilt on the brook I
+just mentioned.
+
+At forty leagues from New Orleans lies a la Pointe Coupee, so called,
+because the Missisippi made there an elbow or winding, and formed the
+figure of a circle, open only about an hundred and odd toises, thro'
+which it made itself a shorter way, and where all its water runs at
+present. This was not the work of nature alone: two travellers, coming
+down the Missisippi, were forced to stop short at this place, because
+they observed at a distance the surff, or waves, to be very high, the
+wind beating against the current, and the river being out, so that they
+durst not venture to proceed. Just by them passed a rivulet, caused by
+the inundation, which might be a foot deep, by four or five feet broad,
+more or less. One of the travellers, seeing himself without any thing to
+do, took his fusil and followed the course of this rivulet, in hopes of
+killing some game. He had not gone an hundred toises, before he was put
+into a very great surprize, on perceiving a great opening, as when one
+is just getting out of a thick forest. He continues to advance, sees a
+large extent of water, which he takes for a lake; but turning on his
+left, he espies les Petits Ecores, just mentioned, and by experience he
+knew, he must go ten leagues to get thither: Upon this he knew, these
+were the waters of the river. He runs to acquaint his companion: this
+last wants to be sure of it: certain as they are both of it, they
+resolve, that it was necessary to cut away the roots, which stood in the
+passage, and to level the more elevated places. They attempted at length
+to pass their pettyaugre through, by pushing it before them. They
+succeeded beyond their expectation; the water which came on, aided them
+as much by its weight as by its depth, which was increased by the
+obstacle it met in its way: and they saw themselves in a short time in
+the Missisippi, ten leagues lower down than they were an hour before; or
+than they would have been, if they had followed the bed of the river, as
+they were formerly constrained to do.
+
+This little labour of our travellers moved the earth; the roots being
+cut away in part, proved no longer an obstacle to {54} the course of
+the water; the slope or descent in this small passage was equal to
+that in the river for the ten leagues of the compass it took; in fine,
+nature, though feebly aided, performed the rest. The first time I went
+up the river, its entire body of water passed through this part; and
+though the channel was only made six years before, the old bed was
+almost filled with the ooze, which the river had there deposited; and
+I have seen trees growing there of an astonishing size, that one might
+wonder how they should come to be so large in so short a time.
+
+In this spot, which is called la Pointe Coupee, the Cut-point, was the
+Grant of M. de Meuse, at present one of the most considerable posts of
+the colony, with a fort, a garrison, and an officer to command there.
+The river is on each side lined with inhabitants, who make a great
+deal of tobacco. There an Inspector resides, who examines and receives
+it, in order to prevent the merchants being defrauded. The inhabitants
+of the west side have high lands behind them, which form a very fine
+country, as I have observed above.
+
+Twenty leagues above this Cut-point, and sixty leagues from New
+Orleans, we meet with the Red River. In an island formed by that
+river, stands a French post, with a fort, a garrison, its commandant
+and officers. The first inhabitants who settled there, were some
+soldiers of that post, discharged after their time of serving was
+expired, who set themselves to make tobacco in the island. But the
+fine sand, carried by the wind upon the leaves of the tobacco, made it
+of a bad quality, which obliged them to abandon the island and settle
+on the continent, where they found a good soil, on which they made
+better tobacco. This post is called the Nachitoches, from a nation of
+that name, settled in the neighbourhood. At this post M. de St. Denis
+commanded.
+
+Several inhabitants of Louisiana, allured thither by the hopes of making
+soon great fortunes, because distant only seven leagues from the
+Spaniards, imagined the abundant treasures of New Mexico would pour in
+upon them. But in this they happened to be mistaken; for the Spanish
+post, called the Adaies less money in it than the poorest village in
+Europe: the Spaniards being ill clad, ill fed, and always ready to buy
+{55} goods of the French on credit: which may be said in general of all
+the Spaniards of New Mexico, amidst all their mines of gold and silver.
+This we are well informed of by our merchants, who have dealt with the
+Spaniards of this post, and found their habitations and way of living to
+be very mean, and more so than those of the French.
+
+From the confluence of this Red River, in going up the Missisippi, as
+we have hitherto done, we find, about thirty leagues higher up, the
+post of the Natchez.
+
+Let not the reader be displeased at my saying often, _nearly_, or _about
+so many leagues_: we can ascertain nothing justly as to the distances
+in a country where we travel only by water. Those who go up the
+Missisippi, having more trouble, and taking more time than those who
+go down, reckon the route more or less long, according to the time in
+which they make their voyage; besides, when the water is high, it
+covers passes, which often shorten the way a great deal.
+
+The Natchez are situate in about 32 deg. odd minutes of north latitude,
+and 280 deg. of longitude. The fort at this post stands two hundred feet
+perpendicular above low-water mark. From this fort the point of view
+extends west of the Missisippi quite to the horizon, that is, on the
+side opposite to that where the fort stands, though the west side be
+covered with woods, because the foot of the fort stands much higher
+than the trees. On the same side with the fort, the country holds at a
+pretty equal height, and declines only by a gentle and almost
+imperceptible slope, insensibly losing itself from one eminence to
+another.
+
+The nation which gave name to this post, inhabited this very place at
+a league from the landing-place on the Missisippi, and dwelt on the
+banks of a rivulet, which has only a course of four or five leagues to
+that river. All travellers who passed and stopped here, went to pay a
+visit to the natives, the Natchez. The distance of the league they
+went to them is through so fine and good a country, the natives
+themselves were so obliging and familiar, and the women so amiable,
+that all travellers failed not to make the greatest encomiums both on
+the country, and on the native inhabitants.
+
+{56} The just commendations bestowed upon them drew thither
+inhabitants in such numbers, as to determine the Company to give
+orders for building a fort there, as well to support the French
+already settled, and those who should afterwards come thither, as to
+be a check on that nation. The garrison consisted only of between
+thirty and forty men, a Captain, a Lieutenant, Under Lieutenant, and
+two Serjeants.
+
+The Company had there a warehouse for the supply of the inhabitants, who
+were daily increasing in spite of all the efforts of one of the
+principal Superiors, who put all imaginable obstacles in the way: and
+notwithstanding the progress this settlement made, and the encomiums
+bestowed upon it, and which it deserved, God in his providence gave it
+up to the rage of its enemies, in order to take vengeance of the sins
+committed there; for without mentioning those who escaped the general
+massacre, there perished of them upwards of five hundred.
+
+Forty leagues higher up than the Natchez, is the river Yasou. The
+Grant of M. le Blanc, Minister, or Secretary at War, was settled
+there, four leagues from the Missisippi, as you go up this little
+river. [Footnote: The village of the Indians (Yasous) is a league from
+this settlement; and on one side of it there is a hill, on which they
+pretend that the English formerly had a fort; accordingly there are
+still some traces of it to be seen. _Dumont_, II. 296.] There a fort
+stands, with a company of men, commanded by a Captain, a Lieutenant,
+Under-Lieutenant, and two Serjeants. This company, together with the
+servants, were in the pay of this Minister.
+
+This post was very advantageously situated, as well for the goodness
+of the air as the quality of the soil, like to that of the Natchez, as
+for the landing-place, which was very commodious, and for the commerce
+with the natives, if our people but knew how to gain and preserve
+their friendship. But the neighbourhood of the Chicasaws, ever fast
+friends of the English, and ever instigated by them to give us
+uneasiness, almost cut off any hopes of succeeding. This post was on
+these accounts threatened with utter ruin, sooner or later; as
+actually happened in 1722, by means of those wretched Chicasaws; {57}
+who came in the night and murdered the people in the settlements that
+were made by two serjeants out of the fort. But a boy who was scalped
+by them was cured, and escaped with life.
+
+Sixty miles higher up than the Yasouz, and at the distance of two
+hundred leagues from New Orleans, dwell the Arkansas, to the west of
+the Missisippi. At the entrance of the river which goes by the name of
+that nation, there is a small fort, which defends that post, which is
+the second of the colony in point of time.
+
+It is a great pity so good and fine a country is distant from the sea
+upwards of two hundred leagues. I cannot omit mentioning, that wheat
+thrives extremely well here, without our being obliged ever to manure
+the land; and I am so prepossessed in its favour, that I persuade
+myself the beauty of the climate has a great influence on the
+character of the inhabitants, who are at the same time very gentle and
+very brave. They have ever had an inviolable friendship for the
+French, uninfluenced thereto either by fear or views of interest; and
+live with the French near them as brethren rather than as neighbours.
+
+In going from the Arkansas to the Illinois, we meet with the river St.
+Francis, thirty leagues more to the north, and on the west side of the
+Missisippi. There a small fort has been built since my return to
+France. To the East of the Missisippi, but more to the north, we also
+meet, at about thirty leagues, the river Margot, near the steep banks
+of Prud'homme: there a fort was also built, called Assumption, for
+undertaking an expedition against the Chicasaws, who are nearly in the
+same latitude. These two forts, after that expedition, were entirely
+demolished by the French, because they were thought to be no longer
+necessary. It is, however, probable enough, that this fort Assumption
+would have been a check upon the Chicasaws, who are always roving in
+those parts. Besides, the steep banks of Prud'homme contain iron and
+pit-coal. On the other hand, the country is very beautiful, and of an
+excellent quality, abounding with plains and meadows, which favour the
+excursions of the Chicasaws, and which they will ever continue to make
+upon us, till we have the address to divert them from their commerce
+with the English.
+
+{58} We have no other French settlements to mention in Louisiana, but
+that of the Illinois; in which part of the colony we had the first
+fort. At present the French settlement here is on the banks of the
+Missisippi, near one of the villages of the Illinois. [Footnote: They
+have, or had formerly, other settlements hereabouts, at Kaskaskies,
+fort Chartres, Tamaroas, and on the river Marameg, on the west side of
+the Missisippi, where they found those mines that gave rise to the
+Missisippi scheme in 1719. In 1742, when John Howard, Sallee and
+others, were sent from Virginia to view those countries, they were
+made prisoners by the French; who came from a settlement they had on
+an island in the Missisippi, a little above the Ohio, where they made
+salt, lead, &c. and went from thence to New Orleans, in a fleet of
+boats and canoes, guarded by a large armed schooner. _Report of the
+Government of Virginia_.] That post is commanded by one of the
+principal officers; and M. de Bois-Briant, who was lieutenant of the
+king, has commanded at it.
+
+Many French inhabitants both from Canada and Europe live there at this
+day; but the Canadians make three-fourths at least. The Jesuits have
+the Cure there, with a fine habitation and a mill; in digging the
+foundation of which last, a quarry of orbicular flat stones was found,
+about two inches in diameter, of the shape of a buffoon's cap, with
+six sides, whose groove was set with small buttons of the size of the
+head of a minikin or small pin. Some of these stones were bigger, some
+smaller; between the stones which could not be joined, there was no
+earth found.
+
+The Canadians, who are numerous in Louisiana, are most of them at the
+Illinois. This climate, doubtless, agrees better with them, because
+nearer Canada than any other settlement of the colony. Besides, in
+coming from Canada, they always pass through this settlement; which
+makes them choose to continue here. They bring their wives with them,
+or marry the French or India women. The ladies even venture to make
+this long and painful voyage from Canada, in order to end their days in
+a country which the Canadians look upon as a terrestrial paradise
+[Footnote: It is this that has made the French undergo so many long and
+perilous voyages in North-America, upwards of two thousand miles,
+against currents, cataracts, and boisterous winds on the lakes, in
+order to get to this settlement of the Illinois, which is nigh to the
+Forks of the Missisippi, the most important place in all the inland
+parts of North-America, to which the French will sooner or later remove
+from Canada; and there erect another Montreal, that will be much more
+dangerous and prejudicial to us, than ever the other in Canada was.
+They will here be in the midst of all their old friends and allies, and
+much more convenient to carry on a trade with them, to spirit them up
+against the English, &c. than ever they were at Montreal. To this
+settlement, where they likewise are not without good hopes of finding
+mines, the French will for ever be removing, as long as any of them are
+left in Canada.]
+
+{59}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_The Voyages of the_ French _to the_ Missouris, Canzas, _and_ Padoucas.
+_The Settlements they in vain attempted to make in those Countries; with
+a Description of an extraordinary Phaenomenon._
+
+
+The Padoucas, who lie west by northwest of the Missouris, happened at
+that time to be at war with the neighbouring nations, the Canzas,
+Othouez, Aiaouez, Osages, Missouris, and Panimahas, all in amity with
+the French. To conciliate a peace between all these nations and the
+Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont sent to engage them, as being our allies, to
+accompany him on a journey to the Padoucas, in order to bring about a
+general pacification, and by that means to facilitate the traffick or
+truck between them and us, and conclude an alliance with the Padoucas.
+
+For this purpose M. de Bourgmont set out on the 3d of July, 1724, from
+Fort Orleans, which lies near the Missouris, a nation dwelling on the
+banks of the river of that name, in order to join that people, and
+then to proceed to the Canzas, where the general rendezvous of the
+several nations was appointed.
+
+M. de Bourgmont was accompanied by an hundred Missouris, commanded by
+their Grand Chief, and eight other Chiefs of war, and by sixty-four
+Osages, commanded by four Chiefs of war, besides a few Frenchmen. On
+the sixth he joined the Grand Chief, six other Chiefs of war, and
+several Warriors of the Canzas, who presented him the Pipe of Peace,
+{60} and performed the honours customary on such occasions, to the
+Missouris and Osages.
+
+On the 7th they passed through extensive meadows and woods, and
+arrived on the banks of the river Missouri, over against the village
+of the Canzas.
+
+On the 8th the French crossed the Missouri in a pettyaugre, the
+Indians on floats of cane, and the horses were swam over. They landed
+within a gun-shot of the Canzas, who flocked to receive them with the
+Pipe; their Grand Chief, in the name of the nation, assuring M. de
+Bourgmont that all their warriors would accompany him in his journey
+to the Padoucas, with protestations of friendship and fidelity,
+confirmed by smoking the Pipe. The same assurances were made him by
+the other Chiefs, who entertained him in their huts, and [Footnote: It
+is thus they express their joy and caresses, at the sight of a person
+they respect.] rubbed him over and his companions.
+
+On the 9th M. de Bourgmont dispatched five Missouris to acquaint the
+Othouez with his arrival at the Canzas. They returned on the 10th, and
+brought word that the Othouez promised to hunt for him and his
+Warriors, and to cause provisions to be dried for the journey; that
+their Chief would set out directly, in order to wait on M. de
+Bourgmont, and carry him the word of the whole nation.
+
+The Canzas continued to regale the French; brought them also great
+quantities of grapes, of which the French made a good wine.
+
+On the 24th of July, at six in the morning, this little army set out,
+consisting of three hundred Warriors, including the Chiefs of the
+Canzas, three hundred women, about five hundred young people, and at
+least three hundred dogs. The women carried considerable loads, to the
+astonishment of the French, unaccustomed to such a sight. The young
+women also were well loaded for their years; and the dogs were made to
+trail a part of the baggage, and that in the following manner: the
+back of the dog was covered with a skin, with its pile on, then the
+dog was girthed round, and his breast-leather put on; and {61} taking
+two poles of the thickness of one's arm, and twelve feet long, they
+fastened their two ends half a foot asunder, laying on the dog's
+saddle the thong that fastened the two poles; and to the poles they
+also fastened, behind the dog, a ring or hoop, lengthwise, on which
+they laid the load.
+
+On the 28th and 29th the army crossed several brooks and small rivers,
+passed through several meadows and thickets, meeting every where on
+their way a great deal of game.
+
+On the 30th M. de Bourgmont, finding himself very ill, was obliged to
+have a litter made, in order to be carried back to Fort Orleans till
+he should recover. Before his departure he gave orders about two
+Padouca slaves whom he had ransomed, and was to send before him to
+that nation, in order to ingratiate himself by this act of generosity.
+These he caused to be sent by one Gaillard, who was to tell their
+nation, that M. de Bourgmont, being fallen ill on his intended journey
+to their country, was obliged to return home; but that as soon as he
+got well again, he would resume his journey to their country, in order
+to procure a general peace between them and the other nations.
+
+On the evening of the same day arrived at the camp the Grand Chief of
+the Othouez: who acquainted M. de Bourgmont, that a great part of his
+Warriors waited for him on the road to the Padoucas, and that he came
+to receive his orders; but was sorry to find him ill.
+
+At length, on the 4th of August, M. de Bourgmont set out from the
+Canzas in a pettyaugre, and arrived the 5th at Fort Orleans.
+
+On the 6th of September, M. de Bourgmont, who was still at Fort
+Orleans, was informed of the arrival of the two Padouca slaves on the
+25th of August at their own nation; and that meeting on the way a body
+of Padouca hunters, a day's journey from their village, the Padouca
+slaves made the signal of their nation, by throwing their mantles
+thrice over their heads: that they spoke much in commendation of the
+generosity of M. de Bourgmont, who had ransomed them: told all he had
+done in order to a general pacification: in fine, extolled the French
+to such a degree, that their discourse, held in presence {62} of the
+Grand Chief and of the whole nation, diffused an universal joy that
+Gaillard told them, the flag they saw was the symbol of Peace, and the
+word of the Sovereign of the French: that in a little time the several
+nations would come to be like brethren, and have but one heart.
+
+The Grand Chief of the Padoucas was so well assured that the war was
+now at an end, that he dispatched twenty Padoucas with Gaillard to the
+Canzas, by whom they were extremely well received. The Padoucas, on
+their return home, related their good reception among the Canzas; and
+as a plain and real proof of the pacification meditated by the French,
+brought with them fifty of the Canzas and three of their women; who,
+in their turn, were received by the Padoucas with all possible marks
+of friendship.
+
+Though M. de Bourgmont was but just recovering of his illness; he,
+however, prepared for his departure, and on the 20th of September
+actually set out from Fort Orleans by water, and arrived at the Canzas
+on the 27th.
+
+Gaillard arrived on the 2nd of October at the camp of the Canzas, with
+three Chiefs of war, and three Warriors of the Padoucas, who were
+received by M. de Bourgmont with flag displayed, and other testimonies
+of civility, and had presents made them of several goods, proper for
+their use.
+
+On the 4th of October arrived at the Canzas the Grand Chief, and seven
+other Chiefs of war of the Othouez; and next day, very early, six
+Chiefs of war of the Aiaouez.
+
+M. de Bourgmant assembled all the Chiefs present, and setting them
+round a large fire made before his tent, rose up, and addressing
+himself to them, said, he was come to declare to them, in the name of
+his Sovereign, and of the Grand French Chief in the country, [Footnote:
+The Governor of Louisiana.] that it was the will of his Sovereign,
+they should all live in peace for the future, like brethren and
+friends, if they expected to enjoy his love and protection: and since,
+says he, you are here all assembled this day, it is good you conclude
+a peace, and all smoke in the same pipe.
+
+{63} The Chiefs of these different nations rose up to a man, and said
+with one consent, they were well satisfied to comply with his request;
+and instantly gave each other their pipes of peace.
+
+After an entertainment prepared for them, the Padoucas sung the songs,
+and danced the dances of peace; a kind of pantomimes, representing the
+innocent pleasures of peace.
+
+On the 6th of October, M. de Bourgmont caused three lots of goods to
+be made out; one for the Othouez, one for the Aiaouez, and one for the
+Panimahas, which last arrived in the mean time; and made them all
+smoke in the same pipe of peace.
+
+On the 8th M. de Bourgmont set out from the Canzas with all the
+baggage, and the flag displayed, at the head of the French and such
+Indians as he had pitched on to accompany him, in all forty persons.
+The goods intended for presents were loaded on horses. As they set out
+late, they travelled but five leagues, in which they crossed a small
+river and two brooks, in a fine country, with little wood.
+
+The same day Gaillard, Quenel, and two Padoucas were dispatched to
+acquaint their nation with the march of the French. That day they
+travelled ten leagues, crossed one river and two brooks.
+
+The 10th they made eight leagues, crossed two small rivers and three
+brooks. To their right and left they had several small hills, on which
+one could observe pieces of rock even with the ground. Along the
+rivers there is found a slate, and in the meadows, a reddish marble,
+standing out of the earth, one, two, and three feet; some pieces of it
+upwards of six feet in diameter.
+
+The 11th they passed over several brooks and a small river, and then
+the river of the Canzas, which had only three feet water. Further on,
+they found several brooks, issuing from the neighbouring little hills.
+The river of the Canzas runs directly from west to east, and falls
+into the Missouri; is very great in floods, because, according to the
+report of the Padoucas, it comes a great way off. The woods, which
+border this river, afford a retreat to numbers of buffaloes and other
+game. On the left were seen great eminences, with hanging rocks.
+
+{64} The 12th of October, the journey, as the preceding day, was
+extremely diversified by the variety of objects. They crossed eight
+brooks, beautiful meadows, covered with herds of elks and buffaloes.
+To the right the view was unbounded, but to the left small hills were
+seen at a distance, which from time to time presented the appearance
+of ancient castles.
+
+The 13th, on their march they saw the meadows covered almost entirely
+with buffaloes, elks and deer; so that one could scarce distinguish
+the different herds, so numerous and so intermixed they were. The same
+day they passed through a wood almost two leagues long, and a pretty
+rough ascent; a thing which seemed extraordinary, as till then they
+only met with little groves, the largest of which scarce contained an
+hundred trees, but straight as a cane; groves too small to afford a
+retreat to a quarter of the buffaloes and elks seen there.
+
+The 14th the march was retarded by ascents and descents; from which
+issued many springs of an extreme pure water, forming several brooks,
+whose waters uniting make little rivers that fall into the river of
+the Canzas: and doubtless it is this multitude of brooks which
+traverse and water these meadows, extending a great way out of sight,
+that invite those numerous herds of buffaloes.
+
+The 15th they crossed several brooks and two little rivers. It is
+chiefly on the banks of the waters that we find those enchanting
+groves, adorned with grass underneath, and so clear of underwood, that
+we may there hunt down the stag with ease.
+
+The 16th they continued to pass over a similar landscape, the beauties
+of which were never cloying. Besides the larger game, these groves
+afforded also a retreat to flocks of turkeys.
+
+The 17th they made very little way, because they wanted to get into
+the right road, from which they had strayed the two preceding days,
+which they at length recovered; and, at a small distance from their
+camp, saw an encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to have been
+quitted only about eight days before. This yielded them so much the
+more pleasure, as it shewed the nearness of that nation, which made
+them encamp, after having travelled only six leagues, in order {65} to
+make signals from that place, by setting fire to the parts of the
+meadows which the general fire had spared. In a little time after the
+signal was answered in the same manner; and confirmed by the arrival
+of two Frenchmen, who had orders given them to make the signals.
+
+On the 18th they met a little river of brackish water; on the banks of
+which they found another encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to
+have been abandoned but four days before: at half a league further on,
+a great smoke was seen to the west, at no great distance off, which
+was answered by setting fire to the parts of the meadows, untouched by
+the general fire.
+
+About half an hour after, the Padoucas were observed coming at full
+gallop with the flag which Gaillard had left them on his first journey
+to their country. M. de Bourgmont instantly ordered the French under
+arms, and at the head of his people thrice saluted these strangers
+with his flag, which they also returned thrice, by raising their
+mantles as many times over their heads.
+
+After this first ceremony, M. de Bourgmont made them all sit down and
+smoke in the Pipe of Peace. This action, being the seal of the peace,
+diffused a general joy, accompanied with loud acclamations.
+
+The Padoucas, after mounting the French and the Indians who
+accompanied them, on their horses, set out for their camp: and after a
+journey of three leagues, arrived at their encampment; but left a
+distance of a gun-shot between the two camps.
+
+The day after their arrival at the Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont caused
+the goods allotted for this nation to be unpacked, and the different
+species parcelled out, which he made them all presents of.[Footnote:
+Red and blue Limburgs, shirts, fusils, sabres, gun-powder, ball,
+musket-flints, gunscrews, mattocks, hatchets, looking-glasses, Flemish
+knives, wood cutters knives, clasp-knives, scissars, combs, bells,
+awls, needles, drinking glasses, brass-wire, boxes, rings, &c.]
+
+
+After which M. de Bourgmont sent for the Grand Chief and other Chiefs
+of the Padoucas, who came to the camp to the number of two hundred:
+and placing himself between them and {66} the goods thus parcelled and
+laid out to view, told them, he was sent by his Sovereign to carry
+them the word of peace, this flag, and these goods, and to exhort them
+to live as brethren with their neighbours the Panimahas, Aiaouez,
+Othouez, Canzas, Missouris, Osages, and Illinois, to traffick and
+truck freely together, and with the French.
+
+He at the same time gave the flag to the Grand Chief of the Padoucas,
+who received it with demonstrations of respect, and told him, I accept
+this flag, which you present to me on the part of your Sovereign: we
+rejoice at our having peace with all the nations you have mentioned;
+and promise in the name of our nation never to make war on any of your
+allies; but receive them, when they come among us, as our brethren; as
+we shall, in like manner, the French, and conduct them, when they want
+to go to the Spaniards, who are but twelve days journey from our
+village, and who truck with us in horses, of which they have such
+numbers, they know not what to do with them; also in bad hatchets of a
+soft iron, and some knives, whose points they break off, lest we
+should use them one day against themselves. You may command all my
+Warriors; I can furnish you with upwards of two thousand. In my own,
+and in the name of my whole nation, I entreat you to send some
+Frenchmen to trade with us; we can supply them with horses, which we
+truck with the Spaniards for buffalo-mantles, and with great
+quantities of furs.
+
+Before I quit the Padoucas, I shall give a summary of their manners;
+it may not, perhaps, be disagreeable to know in what respects they
+differ from other Indian nations.[Footnote: The Author should likewise
+have informed us of the fate of those intended settlements of the
+French, which Dumont tells us were destroyed, and all the French
+murdered by the Indians, particularly among the Missouris; which is
+confirmed below in book 11. ch. 7.]
+
+The Padoucas, who live at a distance from the Spaniards, cultivate no
+grain, and live only on hunting. But they are not to be considered as
+a wandering nation, tho' employed in hunting winter and summer; seeing
+they have large villages, consisting of a great number of cabins,
+which contain very numerous families: these are their permanent
+abodes; from which a {67} hundred hunters set out at a time with their
+horses, their bows, and a good stock of arrows. They go thus two or
+three days journey from home, where they find herds of buffaloes, the
+least of which consists of a hundred head. They load their horses with
+their baggage, tents and children, conducted by a man on horseback: by
+this means the men, women, and young people travel unencumbered and
+light, without being fatigued by the journey. When come to the
+hunting-spot, they encamp near a brook, where there is always wood;
+the horses they tie by one of their fore-feet with a string to a stake
+or bush.
+
+Next morning they each of them mount a horse, and proceed to the first
+herd, with the wind at their back, to the end the buffaloes may scent
+them, and take to flight, which they never fail to do, because they
+have a very quick scent. Then the hunters pursue them close at an easy
+gallop, and in a crescent, or half ring, till they hang out the tongue
+through fatigue, and can do no more than just walk: the hunters then
+dismount, point a dart at the extremity of the shoulder, and kill each
+of them one cow, sometimes more: for, as I said above, they never kill
+the males. Then they flay them, take out the entrails, and cut the
+carcasse in two; the head, feet, and entrails they leave to the wolves
+and other carnivorous animals: the skin they lay on the horse, and on
+that the flesh, which they carry home. Two days after they go out
+again; and then they bring home the meat stript from the bones; the
+women and young people dress it in the Indian fashion; while the men
+return for some days longer to hunt in the same manner. They carry
+home their dry provisions, and let their horses rest for three or four
+days: at the end of which, those who remained in the village, set out
+with the others to hunt in the like manner; which has made ignorant
+travellers affirm this people was a wandering nation.
+
+If they sow little or no maiz, they as little plant any citruis, never
+any tobacco; which last the Spaniards bring them in rolls, along with
+the horses they truck with them for buffalo-mantles.
+
+The nation of the Padoucas is very numerous, extends almost two
+hundred leagues, and they have villages quite close {68} to the
+Spaniards of New Mexico. They are acquainted with silver, and made the
+French understand they worked at the mines. The inhabitants of the
+villages at a distance from the Spaniards, have knives made of
+fire-stone, (_pierre de feu_,) of which they also make hatchets; the
+largest to fell middling and little trees with; the less, to flay and
+cut up the beasts they kill.
+
+These people are far from being savage, nor would it be a difficult
+matter to civilize them; a plain proof they have had long intercourse
+with the Spaniards. The few days the French stayed among them, they
+were become very familiar, and would fain have M. de Bourgmont leave
+some Frenchmen among them; especially they of the village at which the
+peace was concluded with the other nations. This village consisted of
+an hundred and forty huts, containing about eight hundred warriors,
+fifteen hundred women, and at least two thousand children, some
+Padoucas having four wives. When they are in want of horses, they
+train up great dogs to carry their baggage.
+
+The men for the most part wear breeches and stockings all of a piece,
+made of dressed skins, in the manner of the Spaniards: the women also
+wear petticoats and bodices all of a piece, adorning their waists with
+fringes of dressed skins.
+
+They are almost without any European goods among them, and have but a
+faint knowledge of them. They knew nothing of fire-arms before the
+arrival of M. de Bourgmont; were much frighted at them; and on hearing
+the report, quaked and bowed their heads.
+
+They generally go to war on horseback, and cover their horses with
+dressed leather, hanging down quite round, which secures them from
+darts. All we have hitherto remarked is peculiar to this people,
+besides the other usages they have in common with the nations of
+Louisiana.
+
+On the 22nd of October, M. de Bourginont set out from the Padoucas,
+and travelled only five leagues that day: the 23d, and the three
+following days, he travelled in all forty leagues: the 27th, six
+leagues: the 28th, eight leagues: the 29th, six leagues; and the 30th,
+as many: the 31st, he travelled only four leagues, and that day
+arrived within half a league of the Canzas. From the Padoucas to the
+Canzas, proceeding always {69} east, we may now very safely reckon
+sixty-five leagues and a half. The river of the Canzas is parallel to
+this route.
+
+On the 1st of November they all arrived on the banks of the Missouri.
+M. de Bourgmont embarked the 2d on a canoe of skins; and at length, on
+the 5th of November, arrived at Fort Orleans.
+
+I shall here subjoin the description of one of these canoes. They
+choose for the purpose branches of a white and supple wood, such as
+poplar; which are to form the ribs or curves, and are fastened on the
+outside with three poles, one at bottom and two on the sides, to form
+the keel; to these curves two other stouter poles are afterwards made
+fast, to form the gunnels; then they tighten these sides with cords,
+the length of which is in proportion to the intended breadth of the
+canoe: after which they tie fast the ends. When all the timbers are
+thus disposed, they sew on the skins, which they take care previously
+to soak a considerable time to render them manageable.
+
+From the account of this journey, extracted and abridged from M. de
+Bourgmont's Journal, we cannot fail to observe the care and attention
+necessary to be employed in such enterprizes; the prudence and policy
+requisite to manage the natives, and to behave with them in an affable
+manner.
+
+If we view these nations with an eye to commerce, what advantages
+might not be derived from them, as to furs? A commerce not only very
+lucrative, but capable of being carried on without any risque;
+especially if we would follow the plan I am to lay down under the
+article Commerce.
+
+The relation of this journey shews, moreover, that Louisiana maintains
+its good qualities throughout; and that the natives of North America
+derive their origin from the same country, since at bottom they all
+have the same manners and usages, as also the same manner of speaking
+and thinking.
+
+I, however, except the Natchez, and the people they call their
+brethren, who have preserved festivals and ceremonies, which clearly
+shew they have a far nobler origin. Besides, the richness of their
+language distinguishes them from all those other people that come from
+Tartary; whose language, on the {70} contrary, is very barren: but if
+they resemble the others in certain customs, they were constrained
+thereto from the ties of a common society with them, as in their wars,
+embassies, and in every thing that regards the common interests of
+these nations.
+
+Before I put an end to this chapter, I shall relate an extraordinary
+phaenomenon which appeared in Louisiana.
+
+Towards the end of May 1726, the sun was then concealed for a whole
+day by large clouds, but very distinct one from another; they left but
+little void space between, to permit the view of the azure sky, and
+but in very few places: the whole day was very calm; in the evening
+especially these clouds were entirely joined; no sky was to be seen;
+but all the different configurations of the clouds were
+distinguishable: I observed they stood very high above the earth.
+
+The weather being so disposed, the sun was preparing to set. I saw him
+in the instant he touched the horizon, because there was a little
+clear space between that and the clouds. A little after, these clouds
+turned luminous, or reflected the light: the contour or outlines of
+most of them seemed to be bordered with gold, others but with a faint
+tincture thereof. It would be a very difficult matter to describe all
+the beauties which these different colourings presented to the view:
+but the whole together formed the finest prospect I ever beheld of the
+kind.
+
+I had my face turned to the east; and in the little time the sun
+formed this decoration, he proceeded to hide himself more and more;
+when sufficiently low, so that the shadow of the earth could appear on
+the convexity of the clouds, there was observed as if a veil,
+stretched north to south, had concealed or removed the light from off
+that part of the clouds which extended eastwards, and made them dark,
+without hindering their being perfectly well distinguished; so that
+all on the same line were partly luminous, partly dark.
+
+This very year I had a strong inclination to quit the post at the
+Natchez, where I had continued for eight years. I had taken that
+resolution, notwithstanding my attachment to that {71} settlement. I
+sold off my effects and went down to New Orleans, which I found
+greatly altered by being entirely built. I intended to return to
+Europe; but M. Perier, the Governor, pressed me so much, that I
+accepted the inspection of the plantation of the Company; which, in a
+little time after, became the King's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_The War with the_ Chitimachas. _The Conspiracy of the Negroes against
+the_ French. _Their Execution._
+
+
+Before my arrival in Louisiana, we happened to be at war with the
+nation of the Chitimachas; owing to one of that people, who being gone
+to dwell in a bye-place on the banks of the Missisippi, had
+assassinated M. de St. Come, a Missionary of that colony; who, in
+going down the river, imagined he might in safety retire into this
+man's hut for a night. M. de Biainville charged the whole nation with
+this assassination; and in order to save his own people, caused them
+to be attacked by several nations in alliance with the French.
+
+Prowess is none of the greatest qualities of the Indians, much less of
+the Chitimachas. They were therefore worsted, and the loss of their
+bravest warriors constrained them to sue for peace. This the Governor
+granted, on condition that they brought him the head of the assassin;
+which they accordingly did, and concluded a peace by the ceremony of
+the Calumet, hereafter described.
+
+At the time the succours were expected from France, in order to
+destroy the Natchez, the negroes formed a design to rid themselves of
+all the French at once, and to settle in their room, by making
+themselves masters of the capital, and of all the property of the
+French. It was discovered in the following manner.
+
+A female negroe receiving a violent blow from a French soldier for
+refusing to obey him, said in her passion, that the French should not
+long insult negroes. Some Frenchmen overhearing these threats, brought
+her before the Governor, {72} who sent her to prison. The Judge
+Criminal not being able to draw any thing out of her, I told the
+Governor, who seemed to pay no great regard to her threats, that I was
+of opinion, that a man in liquor, and a woman in passion, generally
+speak truth. It is therefore highly probable, said I that there is
+some truth in what she said: and if so, there must be some conspiracy
+ready to break out, which cannot be formed without many negroes of the
+King's plantation being accomplices therein: and if there are any, I
+take upon me, said I, to find them out, and arrest them, if necessary,
+without any disorder or tumult.
+
+The Governor and the whole Court approved of my reasons: I went that
+very evening to the camp of the negroes, and from hut to hut, till I
+saw a light. In this hut I heard them talking together of their
+scheme. One of them was my first commander and my confidant, which
+surprised me greatly; his name was Samba.
+
+I speedily retired for fear of being discovered; and in two days
+after, eight negroes, who were at the head of the conspiracy, were
+separately arrested, unknown to each other, and clapt in irons without
+the least tumult.
+
+The day after, they were put to the torture of burning matches, which,
+though several times repeated, could not bring them to make any
+confession. In the mean time I learnt that Samba had in his own
+country been at the head of the revolt by which the French lost Fort
+Arguin; and when it was recovered again by M. Perier de Salvert, one
+of the principal articles of the peace was, that this negro should be
+condemned to slavery in America: that Samba, on his passage, had laid
+a scheme to murder the crew, in order to become master of the ship;
+but that being discovered, he was put in irons, in which he continued
+till he landed in Louisiana.
+
+I drew up a memorial of all this; which was read before Samba by the
+Judge Criminal; who, threatening him again with torture, told him, he
+had ever been a seditious fellow: upon which Samba directly owned all
+the circumstances of the conspiracy; and the rest being confronted
+with him, confessed {73} also: after which, the eight negroes were
+condemned to be broke alive on the wheel, and the woman to be hanged
+before their eyes; which was accordingly done, and prevented the
+conspiracy from taking effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+_The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the_ French _in 1729. Extirpation
+of the_ Natchez _in 1730._
+
+
+In the beginning of the month of December 1729, we heard at New
+Orleans, with the most affecting grief, of the massacre of the French
+at the post of the Natchez, occasioned by the imprudent conduct of the
+Commandant. I shall trace that whole affair from its rise.
+
+The Sieur de Chopart had been Commandant of the post of the Natchez,
+from which he was removed on account of some acts of injustice. M.
+Perier, Commandant General, but lately arrived, suffered himself to be
+prepossessed in his favour, on his telling him, that he had commanded
+that post with applause: and thus he obtained the command from M.
+Perier, who was unacquainted with his character.
+
+This new Commandant, on taking possession of his post, projected the
+forming one of the most eminent settlements of the whole colony. For
+this purpose he examined all the grounds unoccupied by the French, but
+could not find any thing that came up to the grandeur of his views.
+Nothing but the village of the White Apple, a square league at least
+in extent, could give him satisfaction; where he immediately resolved
+to settle. This ground was distant from the fort about two leagues.
+Conceited with the beauty of his project, the Commandant sent for the
+Sun of that village to come to the fort.
+
+The Commandant, upon his arrival at the fort, told him, without
+further ceremony, that he must look out for another ground to build
+his village on, as he himself resolved, as soon as possible, to build
+on the village of the Apple; that he must directly clear the huts, and
+retire somewhere else. The better to cover his design, he gave out,
+that it was necessary for the {74} French to settle on the banks of
+the rivulet, where stood the Great Village, and the abode of the Grand
+Sun. The Commandant, doubtless, supposed that he was speaking to a
+slave, whom we may command in a tone of absolute authority. But he
+knew not that the natives of Louisiana are such enemies to a state of
+slavery, that they prefer death itself thereto; above all, the Suns,
+accustomed to govern despotically, have still a greater aversion to
+it.
+
+The Sun of the Apple thought, that if he was talked to in a reasonable
+manner, he might listen to him: in this he had been right, had he to
+deal with a reasonable person. He therefore made answer, that his
+ancestors had lived in that village for as many years as there were
+hairs in his double cue; and therefore it was good they should
+continue there still.
+
+Scarce had the interpreter explained this answer to the Commandant,
+but he fell into a passion, and threatened the Sun, if he did not quit
+his village in a few days, he might repent it. The Sun replied, when
+the French came to ask us for lands to settle on, they told us there
+was land enough still unoccupied, which they might take; the same sun
+would enlighten them all, and all would walk in the same path. He
+wanted to proceed, farther in justification of what he alleged; but
+the Commandant, who was in a passion, told him, he was resolved to be
+obeyed, without any further reply. The Sun, without discovering any
+emotion or passion, withdrew; only saying, he was going to assemble
+the old men of his village, to hold a council on this affair.
+
+He actually assembled them: and in this council it was resolved to
+represent to the Commandant, that the corn of all the people of their
+village was already shot a little out of the earth, and that all the
+hens were laying their eggs; that if they quitted their village at
+present, the chickens and corn would be lost both to the French and to
+themselves; as the French were not numerous enough to weed all the
+corn they had sown in their fields.
+
+This resolution taken, they sent to propose it to the Commandant, who
+rejected it with a menace to chastise them if they did not obey in a
+very short time, which he prefixed. {75} The Sun reported this answer
+to his council, who debated the question, which was knotty. But the
+policy of the old men was, that they should propose to the Commandant,
+to be allowed to stay in their village till harvest, and till they had
+time to dry their corn, and shake out the grain; on condition each hut
+of the village should pay him in so many moons (months,) which they
+agreed on, a basket of corn and a fowl; that this Commandant appeared
+to be a man highly self-interested; and that this proposition would be
+a means of gaining time, till they should take proper measures to
+withdraw themselves from the tyrrany of the French.
+
+The Sun returned to the Commandant, and proposed to pay him the
+tribute I just mentioned, if he waited till the first colds, (winter;)
+and then the corn would be gathered in, and dry enough to shake out
+the grain; that thus they would not be exposed to lose their corn, and
+die of hunger: that the Commandant himself would find his account in
+it; and that as soon as any corn was shaken out, they should bring him
+some.
+
+The avidity of the Commandant made him accept the proposition with
+joy, and blinded him with regard to the consequences of his tyrrany.
+He, however, pretended that he agreed to the offer out of favour, to
+do a pleasure to a nation so beloved, and who had ever been good
+friends of the French. The Sun appeared highly satisfied to have
+obtained a delay sufficient for taking the precautions necessary to
+the security of the nation; for he was by no means the dupe of the
+feigned benevolence of the Commandant.
+
+The Sun, upon his return, caused the council to be assembled; told the
+old men, that the French Commandant had acquiesced in the offers which
+he had made him, and granted the term of time they demanded. He then
+laid before them, that it was necessary wisely to avail themselves of
+this time, in order to withdraw themselves from the proposed payment
+and tyrannic domination of the French, who grew dangerous in
+proportion as they multiplied. That the Natchez ought to remember the
+war made upon them, in violation of the peace concluded between them:
+that this war having been made upon their village alone, they ought to
+consider of the surest means {76} to take a just and bloody vengeance:
+that this enterprise being of the utmost consequence, it called for
+much secrecy, for solid measures, and for much policy: that thus it
+was proper to cajole the French Chief more than ever: that this affair
+required some days to reflect on, before they came to a resolution
+therein, and before it should be proposed to the Grand Sun and his
+council: that at present they had only to retire; and in a few days he
+would assemble them again, that they might then determine the part
+they were to act.
+
+In five or six days he brought together the old men, who in that
+interval were consulting with each other: which was the reason that
+all the suffrages were unanimous in the same and only means of
+obtaining the end they proposed to themselves, which was the entire
+destruction of the French in this province.
+
+The Sun, seeing them all assembled, said: "You have had time to
+reflect on the proposition I made you; and so I imagine you will soon
+set forth the best means how to get rid of your bad neighbours without
+hazard." The Sun having done speaking, the oldest rose up, saluted his
+Chief after his manner, and said to him:
+
+"We have a long time been sensible that the neighbourhood of the
+French is a greater prejudice than benefit to us: we, who are old men,
+see this; the young see it not. The wares of the French yield pleasure
+to the youth; but in effect, to what purpose is all this, but to
+debauch the young women, and taint the blood of the nation, and make
+them vain and idle? The young men are in the same case; and the
+married must work themselves to death to maintain their families, and
+please their children. Before the French came amongst us, we were men,
+content with what we had, and that was sufficient: we walked with
+boldness every road, because we were then our own masters: but now we
+go groping, afraid of meeting thorns, we walk like slaves, which we
+shall soon be, since the French already treat us as if we were such.
+When they are sufficiently strong, they will no longer dissemble. For
+the least fault of our young people, they will tie them to a post, and
+whip them as they do their black slaves. Have they not {77} already
+done so to one of our young men; and is not death preferable to
+slavery?"
+
+Here he paused a while, and after taking breath, proceeded thus:
+
+"What wait we for? Shall we suffer the French to multiply, till we are
+no longer in a condition to oppose their efforts? What will the other
+nations say of us, who pass for the most ingenious of all the Red-men?
+They will then say, we have less understanding than other people. Why
+then wait we any longer? Let us set ourselves at liberty, and show we
+are really men, who can be satisfied with what we have. From this very
+day let us begin to set about it, order our women to get provisions
+ready, without telling them the reason; go and carry the Pipe of Peace
+to all the nations of this country; make them sensible, that the
+French being stronger in our neighbourhood than elsewhere, make us,
+more than others, feel that they want to enslave us; and when become
+sufficiently strong, will in like manner treat all the nations of the
+country; that it is their interest to prevent so great a misfortune;
+and for this purpose they have only to join us, and cut off the French
+to a man, in one day and one hour; and the time to be that on which
+the term prefixed and obtained of the French Commandant, to carry him
+the contribution agreed on, is expired; the hour to be the quarter of
+the day (nine in the morning;) and then several warriors to go and
+carry him the corn, as the beginning of their several payments, also
+carry with them their arms, as if going out to hunt: and that to every
+Frenchman in a French house, there shall be two or three Natchez; to
+ask to borrow arms and ammunition for a general hunting-match, on
+account of a great feast, and to promise to bring them meat; the
+report of the firing at the Commandant's, to be the signal to fall at
+once upon, and kill the French: that then we shall be able to prevent
+those who may come from the old French village, (New Orleans) by the
+great water (Missisippi) ever to settle here."
+
+He added, that after apprising the other nations of the necessity of
+taking that violent step, a bundle of rods, in number equal to that
+they should reserve for themselves, should be {78} left with each
+nation, expressive of the number of days that were to precede that on
+which they were to strike the blow at one and the same time. And to
+avoid mistakes, and to be exact in pulling out a rod every day, and
+breaking and throwing it away, it was necessary to give this in charge
+to a person of prudence. Here he ceased and sat down: they all
+approved his counsel, and were to a man of his mind.
+
+The project was in like manner approved of by the Sun of the Apple:
+the business was to bring over the Grand Sun, with the other petty
+Suns, to their opinion; because all the Princes being agreed as to
+that point, the nation would all to a man implicitly obey. They
+however took the precaution to forbid apprising the women thereof, not
+excepting the female Suns, (Princesses) or giving them the least
+suspicion of their designs against the French.
+
+The Sun of the Apple was a man of good abilities; by which means he
+easily brought over the Grand Sun to favour his scheme, he being a
+young man of no experience in the world, and having no great
+correspondence with the French: he was the more easily gained over, as
+all the Suns were agreed, that the Sun of the Apple was a man of
+solidity and penetration; who having repaired to the Sovereign of
+nation, apprised him of the necessity of taking that step, as in time
+himself would be forced to quit his own village; also of the wisdom of
+the measures concerted, such as even ascertained success; and of the
+danger to which his youth was exposed with neighbours so enterprising;
+above all, with the present French Commandant, of whom the
+inhabitants, and even the soldiers complained: that as long as the
+Grand Sun, his father, and his uncle, the Stung Serpent, lived, the
+Commandant of the fort durst never undertake any thing to their
+detriment; because the Grand Chief of the French, who resides at their
+great village (New Orleans,) had a love for them: but that he, the
+Grand Sun, being unknown to the French, and but a youth, would be
+despised. In fine, that the only means to preserve his authority, was
+to rid himself of the French, by the method, and with the precautions
+projected by the old men.
+
+{79} The result of this conversation was, that on the day following,
+when the Suns should in the morning come to salute the Grand Sun, he
+was to order them to repair to the Sun of the Apple, without taking
+notice of it to any one. This was accordingly executed, and the
+seducing abilities of the Sun of the Apple drew all the Suns into his
+scheme. In consequences of which they formed a council of Suns and
+aged Nobles, who all approved of the design: and then these aged
+Nobles were nominated heads of embassies to be sent to the several
+nations; had a guard of Warriors to accompany them, and on pain of
+death, were discharged from mentioning it to any one whatever. This
+resolution taken, they set out severally at the same time, unknown to
+the French.
+
+Notwithstanding the profound secrecy observed by the Natchez, the
+council held by the Suns and aged Nobles gave the people uneasiness,
+unable as they were to penetrate into the matter. The female Suns
+(Princesses) had alone in this nation a right to demand why they were
+kept in the dark in this affair. The young Grand female Sun was a
+Princess scarce eighteen: and none but the Stung Arm, a woman of great
+wit, and no less sensible of it, could be offended that nothing was
+disclosed to her. In effect, she testified her displeasure at this
+reserve with respect to herself, to her son; who replied, that the
+several deputations were made, in order to renew their good intelligence
+with the other nations, to whom they had not of a long time sent an
+embassy, and who might imagine themselves slighted by such a neglect.
+This feigned excuse seemed to appease the Princess, but not quite to rid
+her of all her uneasiness; which, on the contrary, was heightened, when,
+on the return of the embassies, she saw the Suns assemble in secret
+council together with the deputies, to learn what reception they met
+with; whereas ordinarily they assembled in public.
+
+At this the female Sun was filled with rage, which would have openly
+broke out, had not her prudence set bounds to it. Happy it was for the
+French, she imagined herself neglected: for I am persuaded the colony
+owes its preservation to the vexation of this woman rather than to any
+remains of affection {80} she entertained for the French, as she was
+now far advanced in years, and her gallant dead some time.
+
+In order to get to the bottom of the secret, she prevailed on her son
+to accompany her on a visit to a relation, that lay sick at the
+village of the Meal; and leading him the longest way about, and most
+retired, took occasion to reproach him with the secrecy he and the
+other Suns observed with regard to her, insisting with him on her
+right as a mother, and her privilege as a Princess: adding, that
+though all the world, and herself too, had told him he was the son of
+a Frenchman, yet her own blood was much dearer to her than that of
+strangers; that he needed not apprehend she would ever betray him to
+the French, against whom, she said, you are plotting.
+
+Her son, stung with these reproaches, told her, it was unusual to
+reveal what the old men of the council had once resolved upon;
+alledging, he himself, as being Grand Sun, ought to set a good example
+in this respect: that the affair was concealed from the Princess his
+consort as well as from her; and that though he was the son of a
+Frenchman, this gave no mistrust of him to the other Suns. But seeing,
+says he, you have guessed the whole affair, I need not inform you
+farther; you know as much as I do myself, only hold your tongue.
+
+She was in no pain, she replied, to know against whom he had taken his
+precautions: but as it was against the French, this was the very thing
+that made her apprehensive he had not taken his measures aright in
+order to surprise them; as they were a people of great penetration,
+though their Commandant had none: that they were brave, and could
+bring over by their presents, all the Warriors of the other nations;
+and had resources, which the Red-men were without.
+
+Her son told her she had nothing to apprehend as to the measures
+taken: that all the nations had heard and approved their project, and
+promised to fall upon the French in their neighbourhood, on the same
+day with the Natchez: that the Chactaws took upon them to destroy all
+the French lower down and along the Missisippi, up as far as the
+Tonicas; to which last people, he said, we did not send, as they and
+the Oumas {81} are too much wedded to the French; and that it was
+better to involve both these nations in the same general destruction
+with the French. He at last told her, the bundle of rods lay in the
+temple, on the flat timber.
+
+The Stung Arm being informed of the whole design, pretended to approve
+of it, and leaving her son at ease, henceforward was only solicitous
+how she might defeat this barbarous design: the time was pressing, and
+the term prefixed for the execution was almost expired.
+
+This woman, unable to bear to see the French cut off to a man in one
+day by the conspiracy of the natives, sought how to save the greatest
+part of them: for this purpose she be thought herself of acquainting
+some young women therewith, who loved the French, enjoining them never
+to tell from whom they had their information.
+
+She herself desired a soldier she met, to go and tell the Commandant,
+that the Natchez had lost their senses, and to desire him to be upon
+his guard: that he need only make the smallest repairs possible on the
+fort, in presence of some of them, in order to shew his mistrust; when
+all their resolutions and bad designs would vanish and fall to the
+ground.
+
+The soldier faithfully performed his commission: but the Commandant,
+far from giving credit to the information, or availing himself
+thereof; or diving into, and informing him self of the grounds of it,
+treated the soldier as a coward and a visionary, caused him to be
+clapt in irons, and said, he would never take any step towards
+repairing the fort, or putting himself on his guard, as the Natchez
+would then imagine he was a man of no resolution, and was struck with
+a mere panick.
+
+The Stung Arm fearing a discovery, notwithstanding her utmost
+precaution, and the secrecy she enjoined, repaired to the temple, and
+pulled some rods out of the fatal bundle: her design was to hasten or
+forward the term prefixed, to the end that such Frenchmen as escaped
+the massacre, might apprize their countrymen, many of whom had
+informed the Commandant; who clapt seven of them in irons, treating
+them as cowards on that account.
+
+{82} The female Sun, seeing the term approaching, and many of those
+punished, whom she had charged to acquaint the Governor, resolved to
+speak to the Under-Lieutenant; but to no better purpose, the
+Commandant paying no greater regard to him than to the common
+soldiers.
+
+Notwithstanding all these informations, the Commandant went out the
+night before on a party of pleasure, with some other Frenchmen, to the
+grand village of the Natchez, without returning to the fort till break
+of day; where he was no sooner come, but he had pressing advice to be
+upon his guard.
+
+The Commandant, still flustered with his last night's debauch, added
+imprudence to his neglect of these last advices; and ordered his
+interpreter instantly to repair to the grand village, and demand of
+the Grand Sun, whether he intended, at the head of his Warriors, to
+come and kill the French, and to bring him word directly. The Grand
+Sun, though but a young man, knew how to dissemble, and spoke in such
+a manner to the interpreter, as to give full satisfaction to the
+Commandant, who valued himself on his contempt of former advices; he
+then repaired to his house, situate below the fort.
+
+The Natchez had too well taken their measures to be disappointed in
+the success thereof. The fatal moment was at last come. The Natchez
+set out on the Eve of St. Andrew, 1729, taking care to bring with them
+one of the lower sort, armed with a wooden hatchet, in order to knock
+down the Commandant: they had so high a contempt for him, that no
+Warrior would deign to kill him. [Footnote: Others say he was shot:
+but neither account can be ascertained, as no Frenchman present
+escaped.] The houses of the French filled with enemies, the fort in
+like manner with the natives, who entered in at the gate and breaches,
+deprived the soldiers, without officers, or even a serjeant at their
+head, of the means of self defence. In the mean time the Grand Sun
+arrived, with some Warriors loaded with corn, in appearance as the
+first payment of the contribution; when several shot were fired. As
+this firing was the signal, several shot were heard at the same
+instant. Then at length the Commandant saw, but too late, his folly:
+he ran into his garden, whither he was pursued {83} and killed. This
+Massacre was executed every where at the same time. Of about seven
+hundred persons, but few escaped to carry the dreadful news to the
+capital; on receiving which the Governor and Council were sensibly
+affected, and orders were dispatched every where to put people on
+their guard.
+
+The other Indians were displeased at the conduct of the Natchez,
+imagining they had forwarded the term agreed on, in order to make them
+ridiculous, and proposed to take vengeance the first opportunity, not
+knowing the true cause of the precipitation of the Natchez.
+
+After they had cleared the fort, warehouse, and other houses, the
+Natchez set them all on fire, not leaving a single building standing.
+
+The Yazous, who happened to be at that very time on an embassy to the
+Natchez, were prevailed on to destroy the post of the Yazous; which
+they failed not to effect some days after, making themselves masters
+of the fort, under colour of paying a visit, as usual, and knocking
+all the garrison on the head.
+
+M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was then taking the proper steps to
+be avenged: he sent M. le Sueur to the Chactaws, to engage them on our
+side against the Natchez; in which he succeeded without any
+difficulty. The reason of their readiness to enter into this design
+was not then understood, it being unknown that they were concerned in
+the plot of the Natchez to destroy all the French, and that it was
+only to be avenged of the Natchez, who had taken the start of them,
+and not given them a sufficient share of the booty.
+
+M. de Loubois, king's lieutenant, was nominated to be at the head of
+this expedition: he went up the river with a small army, and arrived
+at the Tonicas. The Chactaws at length in the month of February near
+the Natchez, to the number of fifteen or sixteen hundred men, with M.
+le Sueur at their head; whither M. de Loubois came the March
+following.
+
+The army encamped near the ruins of the old French settlement; and
+after resting five days there, they marched to the enemy's fort, which
+was a league from thence.
+
+{84} After opening the trenches and firing for several days upon the
+fort without any great effect, the French at last made their approach
+so near as to frighten the enemy, who sent to offer to release all the
+French women and children, on the condition of obtaining a lasting
+peace, and of being suffered to live peaceably on their ground,
+without being driven from thence, or molested for the future.
+
+M. de Loubois assured them of peace on their own terms, if they also
+gave up the French, who were in the fort, and all the negroes they had
+taken belonging to the French; and if they agreed to destroy the fort
+by fire. The Grand Sun accepted these conditions, provided the French
+general should promise, he would neither enter the fort with the
+French, nor suffer their auxiliaries to enter; which was accepted by
+the general; who sent the allies to receive all the slaves.
+
+The Natchez, highly pleased to have gained time, availed themselves of
+the following night, and went out of the fort, with their wives and
+children, loaded with their baggage and the French plunder, leaving
+nothing but the cannon and ball behind.
+
+M. de Loubois was struck with amazement at this escape, and only
+thought of retreating to the landing-place, in order to build a fort
+there: but first it was necessary to recover the French out of the
+hands of the Chactaws, who insisted on a very high ransom. The matter
+was compromised by means of the grand chief of the Tonicas, who
+prevailed on them to accept what M. de Loubois was constrained to
+offer them, to satisfy their avarice; which they accordingly accepted,
+and gave up the French slaves, on promise of being paid as soon as
+possible: but they kept as security a young Frenchman and some negro
+slaves, whom they would never part with, till payment was made.
+
+M. de Loubois gave orders to build a terrace-fort, far preferable to a
+stoccado; there he left M. du Crenet, with an hundred and twenty men
+in garrison, with cannon and ammunition; after which he went down the
+Missisippi to New Orleans. The Chactaws, Tonicas, and other allies,
+returned home.
+
+{85} After the Natchez had abandoned the fort, it was demolished, and
+its piles, or stakes, burnt. As the Natchez dreaded both the vengeance
+of the French, and the insolence of the Chactaws, that made them take
+the resolution of escaping in the night.
+
+A short time after, a considerable party of the Natchez carried the
+Pipe of Peace to the Grand Chief of the Tonicas, under pretence of
+concluding a peace with him and all the French. The Chief sent to M.
+Perier to know his pleasure: but the Natchez in the mean time
+assassinated the Tonicas, beginning with their Grand Chief; and few of
+them escaped this treachery.
+
+M. Perier, Commandant General, zealous for the service, neglected no
+means, whereby to discover in what part the Natchez had taken refuge.
+And after many enquiries he was told, they had entirely quitted the
+east side of the Missisippi, doubtless to avoid the troublesome and
+dangerous visits of the Chactaws; and in order to be more concealed
+from the French, had retired to the West of the Missisippi, near the
+Silver Creek, about sixty leagues from the mouth of the Red River.
+
+These advices were certain: but the Commandant General not thinking
+himself in a condition fit to attack them without succours, had
+applied for that purpose to the Court; and succours were accordingly
+sent him.
+
+In the mean time the Company, who had been apprized of the misfortune
+at the Post of the Natchez, and the losses they had sustained by the
+war, gave up that Colony to the King, with the privileges annexed
+thereto. The Company at the same time ceded to the King all that
+belonged to them in that Colony, as fortresses, artillery, ammunition,
+warehouses, and plantations, with the negroes belonging thereto. In
+consequence of which, his Majesty sent one of his ships, commanded by
+M. de Forant, who brought with him M. de Salmont, Commissary-General
+of the Marine, and Inspector of Louisiana, in order to take possession
+of that Colony in the King's name.
+
+I was continued in the inspection of this plantation, now become the
+King's in 1730, as before.
+
+{86} M. Perier, who till then had been Commandant General of Louisiana
+for the West India Company, was now made Governor for the King; and
+had the satisfaction to see his brother arrive, in one of the King's
+ships, commanded by M. Perier de Salvert, with the succours he
+demanded, which were an hundred and fifty soldiers of the marine. This
+Officer had the title of Lieutenant General of the Colony conferred
+upon him.
+
+The Messrs. Perier set out with their army in very favourable weather;
+and arrived at last, without obstruction, near to the retreat of the
+Natchez. To get to that place, they went up the Red river, then the
+Black River, and from thence up the Silver Creek, which communicates
+with a small Lake at no great distance from the fort, which the
+Natchez had built, in order to maintain their ground against the
+French.
+
+The Natchez, struck with terror at the sight of a vigilant enemy, shut
+themselves up in their fort. Despair assumed the place of prudence,
+and they were at their wits end, on seeing the trenches gain ground on
+the fort: they equip themselves like warriors, and stain their bodies
+with different colours, in order to make their last efforts by a
+sally, which resembled a transport of rage more than the calmness of
+valour, to the terror, at first, of the soldiers.
+
+The reception they met from our men, taught them, however, to keep
+themselves shut up in their fort; and though the trench was almost
+finished, our Generals were impatient to have the mortars put in a
+condition to play on the place. At last they are set in battery; when
+the third bomb happened to fall in the middle of the fort, the usual
+place of residence of the women and children, they set up a horrible
+screaming; and the men, seized with grief at the cries of their wives
+and children, made the signal to capitulate.
+
+The Natchez, after demanding to capitulate, started difficulties,
+which occasioned messages to and fro till night, which they waited to
+avail themselves of, demanding till next day to settle the articles of
+capitulation. The night was granted them, but being narrowly watched
+on the side next the gate, they could not execute the same project of
+escape, as in the war {87} with M. de Loubois. However, they attempted
+it, by taking advantage of the obscurity of the night, and of the
+apparent stillness of the French: but they were discovered in time,
+the greatest part being constrained to retire into the fort. Some of
+them only happened to escape, who joined those that were out a
+hunting, and all together retired to the Chicasaws. The rest
+surrendered at discretion, among whom was the Grand Sun, and the
+female Suns, with several warriors, many women, young people, and
+children.
+
+The French army re-embarked, and carried the Natchez as slaves to New
+Orleans, where they were put in prison; but afterwards, to avoid an
+infection, the women and children were disposed of in the King's
+plantation, and elsewhere; among these women was the female Sun,
+called the Stung Arm, who then told me all she had done, in order to
+save the French.
+
+Some time after, these slaves were embarked for St. Domingo, in order
+to root out that nation in the Colony; which was the only method of
+effecting it, as the few that escaped had not a tenth of the women
+necessary to recruit the nation. And thus that nation, the most
+conspicuous in the Colony, and most useful to the French, was
+destroyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+_The War with the_ Chicasaws. _The first Expedition by the river_
+Mobile. _The second by the_ Missisippi. _The war with the_ Chactaws
+_terminated by the prudence of_ M. de Vaudreuil.
+
+
+The war with the Chicasaws was owing to their having received and
+adopted the Natchez: though in this respect they acted only according
+to an inviolable usage and sacred custom, established among all the
+nations of North America; that when a nation, weakened by war, retires
+for shelter to another, who are willing to adopt them, and is pursued
+thither by their enemies, this is in effect to declare war against the
+nation adopting.
+
+But M. de Biainville, whether displeased with this act of hospitality,
+or losing sight of this unalterable law, constantly {88} prevailing
+among those nations, sent word to the Chicasaws, to give up the
+Natchez. In answer to his demand they alledged, that the Natchez
+having demanded to be incorporated with them, were accordingly
+received and adopted; so as now to constitute but one nation, or
+people, under the name of Chicasaws, that of Natchez being entirely
+abolished. Besides, added they, had Biainville received our enemies,
+should we go to demand them? or, if we did, would they be given up?
+
+Notwithstanding this answer, M. de Biainville made warlike
+preparations against the Chicasaws, sent off Captain le Blanc, with
+six armed boats under his command; one laden with gun-powder, the rest
+with goods, the whole allotted for the war against the Chicasaws; the
+Captain at the same time carrying orders to M. d'Artaguette,
+Commandant of the Post of the Illinois, to prepare to set out at the
+head of all the troops, inhabitants and Indians, he could march from
+the Illinois, in order to be at the Chicasaws the 10th of May
+following, as the Governor himself was to be there at the same time.
+
+The Chicasaws, apprized of the warlike preparations of the French,
+resolved to guard the Missisippi, imagining they would be attacked on
+that side. In vain they attempted to surprise M. le Blanc's convoy,
+which got safe to the Arkansas, where the gun-powder was left, for
+reasons no one can surmise.
+
+From thence he had no cross accident to the Illinois, at which place
+he delivered the orders the Governor had dispatched for M.
+d'Artaguette; who finding a boat laden with gun-powder, designed for
+his post, and for the service of the war intended against the
+Chicasaws, left at the Arkansas, sent off the same day a boat to fetch
+it up; which on its return was taken by a party of Chicasaws; who
+killed all but M. du Tiffenet, junior, and one Rosalie, whom they made
+slaves.
+
+In the mean time, M. de Biainville went by sea to Fort Mobile, where
+the Grand Chief of the Chactaws waited for him, in consequence of his
+engaging to join his Warriours with ours, in order to make war upon
+the Chicasaws, in consideration of a certain quantity of goods, part
+to be paid down directly, the rest at a certain time prefixed. The
+Governor, {89} after this, returned to New Orleans, there to wait the
+opening of the campaign.
+
+M. de Biainville, on his return, made preparations against his own
+departure, and that of the army, consisting of regular troops, some
+inhabitants and free negroes, and some slaves, all which set out from
+New Orleans for Mobile; where, on the 10th of March, 1736, the army,
+together with the Chactaws, was assembled; and where they rested till
+the 2d of April, when they began their march, those from New Orleans
+taking their route by the river Mobile, in thirty large boats and as
+many pettyaugres; the Indians by land, marching along the east bank of
+that river; and making but short marches, they arrived at Tombecbec
+only the 20th of April, where M. de Biainville caused a fort to be
+built: here he gave the Chactaws the rest of the goods due to them,
+and did not set out from thence till the 4th of May. All this time was
+taken up with a Council of War, held on four soldiers, French and
+Swiss, who had laid a scheme to kill the Commandant and garrison, to
+carry off M. du Tiffenet and Rosalie, who had happily made their
+escape from the Chicasaws, and taken refuge in the fort, and to put
+them again into the hands of the enemy, in order to be better received
+by them, and to assist, and shew them how to make a proper defence
+against the French, and from thence to go over to the English of
+Carolina.
+
+From the 4th of May, on which the army set out from Tombeebee, they
+took twenty days to come to the landing-place. After landing, they
+built a very extensive inclosure of palisadoes, with a shed, as a
+cover for the goods and ammuninition, then the army passed the night.
+On the 25th powder and ball were given out to the soldiers, and
+inhabitants, the sick with some raw soldiers being left to guard this
+old sort of fort.
+
+From this place to the fort of the Chicasaws are seven leagues: this
+day they marched five leagues and a half in two columns and in file,
+across the woods. On the wings marched the Chactaws, to the number of
+twelve hundred at least, commanded by their Grand Chief. In the
+evening they encamped in a meadow, surrounded with wood.
+
+{90} On the 26th of May they marched to the enemy's fort, across thin
+woods; and with water up to the waist, passed over a rivulet, which
+traverses a small wood; on coming out of which, they entered a fine
+plain: in this plain stood the fort of the Chicasaws, with a village
+defended by it. This fort is situated on an eminence, with an easy
+ascent; around it stood several huts, and at a greater distance
+towards the bottom, other huts, which appeared to have been put in a
+state of defence: quite close to the fort ran a little brook, which
+watered a part of the plain.
+
+The Chactaws no sooner espied the enemy's fort, than they rent the air
+with their death-cries, and instantly flew to the fort: but their
+ardour flagged at a carabin-shot from the place. The French marched in
+good order, and got beyond a small wood, which they left in their
+rear, within cannon-shot of the enemy's fort, where an English flag
+was seen flying. At the same time four Englishmen, coming from the
+huts, were seen to go up the ascent, and enter the fort, where their
+flag was set up.
+
+Upon this, it was imagined, they would be summoned to quit the enemy's
+fort, and to surrender, as would in like manner the Chicasaws: but
+nothing of this was once proposed. The General gave orders to the
+Majors to form large detachments of each of their corps, in order to
+go and take the enemy's fort. These orders were in part executed:
+three large detachments were made; namely, one of grenadiers, one of
+soldiers, and another of militia, or train-bands; who, to the number
+of twelve hundred men, advanced with ardour towards the enemy's fort,
+crying out aloud several times, _Vive le Roi_, as if already masters of
+the place; which, doubtless, they imagined to carry sword in hand; for
+in the whole army there was not a single iron tool to remove the
+earth, and form the attacks.
+
+The rest of the army marched in battle-array, ten men deep; mounted
+the eminence whereon the fort stood, and being come there, set fire to
+some huts, with wild-fire thrown at the ends of darts; but the smoke
+stifled the army.
+
+The regular troops marched in front, and the militia, or train-bands,
+in rear. According to rule these train-bands {91} made a quarter turn
+to right and left, with intent to go and invest the place. But M. de
+Jusan, Aid-Major of the troops, stopt short their ardor, and sent them
+to their proper post, reserving for his own corps the glory of
+carrying the place, which continued to make a brisk defence.
+Biainville remained at the quarters of reserve; where he observed what
+would be the issue of the attack, than which none could be more
+disadvantageous.
+
+Both the regulars and inhabitants, or train-bands, gave instances of the
+greatest valour: but what could they do, open and exposed as they were,
+against a fort, whose stakes or wooden posts were a fathom in compass,
+and their joinings again lined with other posts, almost as big? From
+this fort, which was well garrisoned, issued a shower of balls; which
+would have mowed down at least half the assailants, if directed by men
+who knew how to fire. The enemy were under cover from all the attacks of
+the French, and could have defended themselves by their loop-holes.
+Besides, they formed a gallery of flat pallisadoes quite round, covered
+with earth, which screened it from the effects of grenadoes. In this
+manner the troops lavished their ammunition against the wooden posts, or
+stakes, of the enemy's fort, without any other effect than having
+thirty-two men killed, and almost seventy wounded; which last were
+carried to the body of reserve; from whence the General, seeing the bad
+success of the attack, ordered to beat the retreat, and sent a large
+detachment to favour it. It was now five in the evening, and the attack
+had been begun at half an hour after one. The troops rejoined the body
+of the army, without being able to carry off their dead, which were left
+on the field of battle, exposed to the rage of the enemy.
+
+After taking some refreshment, they directly fortified themselves, by
+felling trees, in order to pass the night secure from the insults of
+the enemy, by being carefully on their guard. Next day it was observed
+the enemy had availed themselves of that night to demolish some huts,
+where the French, during the attack, had put themselves under cover,
+in order from thence to batter the fort.
+
+{92} On the 27th, the day after the attack, the army began its march,
+and lay at a league from the enemy. The day following, at a league
+from the landing-place, whither they arrived next day, the French
+embarked for Fort Mobile, and from thence for the Capital, from which
+each returned to his own home.
+
+A little time after, a serjeant of the garrison of the Illinois
+arrived at New Orleans, who reported, that, in consequence of the
+General's orders, M. d'Artaguette had taken his measures so well, that
+on the 9th of May he arrived with his men near the Chicasaws, sent out
+scouts to discover the arrival of the French army; which he continued
+to do till the 20th: that the Indians in alliance hearing no accounts
+of the French, wanted either to return home, or to attack the
+Chicasaws; which last M. d'Artaguette resolved upon, on the 21st, with
+pretty good success at first, having forced the enemy to quit their
+village and fort: that he then attacked another village with the same
+success, but that pursuing the runaways, M. d'Artaguette had received
+two wounds, which the Indians finding, resolved to abandon that
+Commandant, with forty-six soldiers and two serjeants, who defended
+their Commandant all that day, but were at last obliged to surrender;
+that they were well used by the enemy, who understanding that the
+French were in their country, prevailed on M. d'Artaguette to write to
+the General: but that this deputation having had no success, and
+learning that the French were retired, and despairing of any ransom
+for their slaves, put them to death by a slow fire. The serjeant
+added, he had the happiness to fall into the hands of a good master,
+who favoured his escape to Mobile.
+
+M. de Biainville, desirous to take vengeance of the Chicasaws, wrote
+to France for succours, which the Court sent, ordering also the Colony
+of Canada to send succours. In the mean time M. de Biainville sent off
+a large detachment for the river St. Francis, in order to build a fort
+there, called also St. Francis.
+
+The squadron which brought the succours from France being arrived,
+they set out, by going up the Missisippi, for the fort that had been
+just built. This army consisted of Marines, {93} of the troops of the
+Colony, of several Inhabitants, many Negroes, and some Indians, our
+allies; and being assembled in this place, took water again, and still
+proceeded up the Missisippi to a little river called Margot, near the
+Cliffs called Prud'homme, and there the whole army landed. They
+encamped on a fine plain, at the foot of a hill, about fifteen leagues
+from the enemy; fortified themselves by way of precaution, and built
+in the fort a house for the Commandant, some cazerns, and a warehouse
+for the goods. This fort was called Assumption, from the day on which
+they landed.
+
+They had waggons and sledges made, and the roads cleared for
+transporting cannon, ammunition, and other necessaries for forming a
+regular siege. There and then it was the succours from Canada arrived,
+consisting of French, Iroquois, Hurons, Episingles, Algonquins, and
+other nations: and soon after arrived the new Commandant of the
+Illinois, with the garrison, inhabitants, and neighbouring Indians,
+all that he could bring together, with a great number of horses.
+
+This formidable army, consisting of so many different nations, the
+greatest ever seen, and perhaps that ever will be seen, in those
+parts, remained in this camp without undertaking any thing, from the
+month of August 1739, to the March following. Provisions, which at
+first were in great plenty, came at last to be so scarce, that they
+were obliged to eat the horses which were to draw the artillery,
+ammunition, and provisions: afterwards sickness raged in the army. M.
+de Biainville, who hitherto had attempted nothing against the
+Chicasaws, resolved to have recourse to mild methods. He therefore
+detached, about the 15th of March, the company of Cadets, with their
+Captain, M. de Celoron, their Lieutenant, M. de St. Laurent, and the
+Indians, who came with them from Canada, against the Chicasaws, with
+orders to offer peace to them in his name, if they sued for it.
+
+What the General had foreseen, failed not to happen. As soon as the
+Chicasaws saw the French, followed by the Indians of Canada, they
+doubted not in the least, but the rest of that numerous army would
+soon follow; and they no sooner saw them approach, but they made
+signals of peace, and came out {94} of their fort in the most humble
+manner, exposing themselves to all the consequences that might ensue,
+in order to obtain peace. They solemnly protested that they actually
+were, and would continue to be inviolable friends of the French; that
+it was the English, who prevailed upon them to act in this manner; but
+that they had fallen out with them on this account, and at that very
+time had two of that nation, whom they made slaves; and that the
+French might go and see whether they spoke truth.
+
+M. de St. Laurent asked to go, and accordingly went with a young
+slave: but he might have had reason to have repented it, had not the
+men been more prudent than the women, who demanded the head of the
+Frenchman: but the men, after consulting together, were resolved to
+save him, in order to obtain peace of the French, on giving up the two
+Englishmen. The women risk scarce any thing near so much as the men;
+these last are either slain in battle, or put to death by their
+enemies; whereas the women at worst are but slaves; and they all
+perfectly well know, that the Indian women are far better off when
+slaves to the French, than if married at home. M. de St. Laurent,
+highly pleased with this discovery, promised them peace in the name of
+M. de Biainville, and of all the French: after these assurances, they
+went all in a body out of the fort, to present the Pipe to M. de
+Celoron, who accepted it, and repeated the same promise.
+
+In a few days after, he set out with a great company of Chicasaws,
+deputed to carry the Pipe to the French General, and deliver up the
+two Englishmen. When they came before M. de Biainville, they fell
+prostrate at his feet, and made him the same protestations of fidelity
+and friendship, as they had already made to M. de Celoron; threw the
+blame on the English; said they were entirely fallen out with them,
+and had taken these two, and put them in his hands, as enemies. They
+protested, in the most solemn manner, they would for ever be friends
+of the French and of their friends, and enemies of their enemies; in
+fine, that they would make war on the English, if it was thought
+proper, in order to shew that they renounced them as traitors.
+
+{95} Thus ended the war with the Chicasaws, about the beginning of
+April, 1740. M. de Biainville dismissed the auxiliaries, after making
+them presents; razed the Fort Assumption, thought to be no longer
+necessary, and embarked with his whole army; and in passing down,
+caused the Fort St. Francis to be demolished, as it was now become
+useless; and he repaired to the Capital, after an absence of more than
+ten months.
+
+Some years after, we had disputes with a part of the Chactaws, who
+followed the interests of the Red-Shoe, a Prince of that nation, who,
+in the first expedition against the Chicasaws, had some disputes with
+the French. This Indian, more insolent than any one of his nation,
+took a pretext to break out, and commit several hostilities against
+the French. M. de Vaudreuil, then Governor of Louisiana, being
+apprised of this, and of the occasion thereof, strictly forbad the
+French to frequent that nation, and to truck with them any arms or
+ammunition, in order to put a stop to that disorder in a short time,
+and without drawing the sword.
+
+M. de Vaudreuil, after taking these precautions, sent to demand of the
+Grand Chief of the whole nation, whether, like the Red-Shoe, he was
+also displeased with the French. He made answer, he was their friend:
+but that the Red-Shoe was a young man, without understanding. Having
+returned this answer, they sent him a present: but he was greatly
+surprised to find neither arms, powder, nor ball in this present, at a
+time when they were friends as before. This manner of proceeding,
+joined to the prohibition made of trucking with them arms or
+ammunition, heightened their surprise, and put them on having an
+explication on this head with the Governor; who made answer, That
+neither arms nor ammunition would be trucked with them, as long as the
+Red-Shoe had no more understanding; that they would not fail, as being
+brethren, to share a good part of the ammunition and arms with the
+Warriors of the Red-Shoe. This answer put them on remonstrating to the
+Village that insulted us; told them, if they did not instantly make
+peace with the French, they would themselves make war upon them. This
+threatening declaration made them sue for peace with the French, who
+were not in a condition to maintain {96} a war against a nation so
+numerous. And thus the prudent policy of M. de Vaudreuil put a stop to
+this war, without either expence or the loss of a man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+_Reflections on what gives Occasions to Wars in_ Louisiana. _The Means
+of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the Manner of coming off with
+Advantage and little Expence in them._
+
+
+The experience I have had in the art of war, from some campaigns I
+made in a regiment of dragoons till the peace of 1713, my application
+to the study of the wars of the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient
+people, and the wars I have seen carried on with the Indians of
+Louisiana, during the time I resided in that Province, gave me
+occasion to make several reflections on what could give rise to a war
+with the Indians, on the means of avoiding such a war, and on such
+methods as may be employed, in order either to make or maintain a war
+to advantage against them, when constrained thereto.
+
+In the space of sixteen years that I resided in Louisiana, I remarked,
+that the war, and even the bare disputes we have had with the Indians
+of this Colony, never had any other origin, but our too familiar
+intercourse with them.
+
+In order to prove this, let us consider the evils produced by this
+familiarity. In the first place, it makes them gradually drop that
+respect, which they naturally entertain for our nation.
+
+In the second place, the French traffickers, or traders, are generally
+young people without experience, who, in order to gain the good-will
+of these people, afford them lights, or instruction, prejudicial to
+our interest. These young merchants are not, it is true, sensible of
+these consequences: but again, these people never lose sight of what
+can be of any utility to them, and the detriment thence accruing is
+not less great, nor less real.
+
+In the third place, this familiarity gives occasion to vices, whence
+dangerous distempers ensue, and corruption of blood, {97} which is
+naturally highly pure in this colony. These persons, who frequently
+resort to the Indians, imagined themselves authorized to give a loose
+to their vices, from the practice of these last, which is to give
+young women to their guests upon their arrival; a practice that
+greatly injures their health, and proves a detriment to their
+merchandizing.
+
+In the fourth place, this resorting to the Indians puts these last
+under a constraint, as being fond of solitude; and this constraint is
+still more heightened, if the French settlement is near them; which
+procures them too frequent visits, that give them so much more
+uneasiness, as they care not on any account that people should see or
+know any of their affairs. And what fatal examples have we not of the
+dangers the settlements which are too near the Indians incur. Let but
+the massacre of the French be recollected, and it will be evident that
+this proximity is extremely detrimental to the French.
+
+In the fifth and last place, commerce, which is the principal
+allurement that draws us to this new world instead of flourishing, is,
+on the contrary, endangered by the too familiar resort to the Indians
+of North America. The proof of this is very simple.
+
+All who resort to countries beyond sea, know by experience, that when
+there is but one ship in the harbour, the Captain sells his cargo at
+what price he pleases: and then we hear it said, such a ship gained
+two, three, and sometimes as high as four hundred per cent. Should
+another ship happen to arrive in that harbour, the profit abates at
+least one half; but should three arrive, or even four successively,
+the goods then are, so to speak, thrown at the head of the buyer: so
+that in this case a merchant has often great difficulty to recover his
+very expenses of fitting out. I should therefore be led to believe,
+that it would be for the interest of commerce, if the Indians were
+left to come to fetch what merchandize they wanted, who having none
+but us in their neighbourhood, would come for it, without the French
+running any risk in their commerce, much less in their lives.
+
+For this purpose, let us suppose a nation of Indians on the banks of
+some river or rivulet, which is always the case, as all {98} men
+whatever have at all times occasion for water. This being supposed, I
+look out for a spot proper to build a small terras-fort on, with
+fraises or stakes, and pallisadoes. In this fort I would build two
+small places for lodgings, of no great height; one to lodge the
+officers, the other the soldiers: this fort to have an advanced work,
+a half-moon, or the like, according to the importance of the post. The
+passage to be through this advanced work to the fort, and no Indian
+allowed to enter on any pretence whatever; not even to receive the
+Pipe of Peace there, but only in the advanced work; the gate of the
+fort to be kept shut day and night against all but the French. At the
+gate of the advanced work a sentinel to be posted, and that gate to be
+opened and shut on each person appearing before it. By these
+precautions we might be sure never to be surprised, either by avowed
+enemies, or by treachery. In the advanced work a small building to be
+made for the merchants, who should come thither to traffick or truck
+with the neighbouring Indians; of which last only three or four to be
+admitted at a time, all to have the merchandize at the same price, and
+no one to be favoured above another. No soldier or inhabitant to go to
+the villages of the neighbouring Indians, under severe penalties. By
+this conduct disputes would be avoided, as they only arise from too
+great a familiarity with them. These forts to be never nearer the
+villages than five leagues, or more distant than seven or eight. The
+Indians would make nothing of such a jaunt; it would be only a walk
+for them, and their want of goods would easily draw them, and in a
+little time they would become habituated to it. The merchants to pay a
+salary to an interpreter, who might be some orphan, brought up very
+young among these people.
+
+This fort, thus distant a short journey, might be built without
+obstruction, or giving any umbrage to the Indians: as they might be
+told it was built in order to be at hand to truck their furs, and at
+the same time to give them no manner of uneasiness. One advantage
+would be, besides that of commerce, which would be carried on there,
+that these forts would prevent the English from having any
+communication with the Indians, as these last would find a great
+facility for their truck, and in forts so near them, every thing they
+could want.
+
+{99} The examples of the surprise of the forts of the Natchez, the
+Yazoux, and the Missouris, shew but too plainly the fatal consequences
+of negligence in the service, and of a misplaced condescension in
+favour of the soldiers, by suffering them to build huts near the fort,
+and to lie in them. None should be allowed to lie out of the fort, not
+even the Officers. The Commandant of the Natchez, and the other
+Officers, and even the Serjeants, were killed in their houses without
+the fort. I should not be against the soldiers planting little fields
+of tobacco, potatoes, and other plants, too low to conceal a man: on
+the contrary, these employments would incline them to become settlers;
+but I would never allow them houses out of the fort. By this means a
+fort becomes impregnable against the most numerous; because they never
+will attack, should they have ever so much cause, as long as they see
+people on their guard.
+
+Should it be objected that these forts would cost a great deal: I
+answer, that though there was to be a fort for each nation, which is
+not the case, it would not cost near so much as from time to time it
+takes to support wars, which in this country are very expensive, on
+account of the long journeys, and of transporting all the implements
+of war, hitherto made use of. Besides, we have a great part of these
+forts already built, so that we only want the advanced works; and two
+new forts more would suffice to compleat this design, and prevent the
+fraudulent commerce of the English traders.
+
+As to the manner of carrying on the war in Louisiana, as was hitherto
+done, it is very expensive, highly fatiguing, and the risk always great;
+because you must first transport the ammunition to the landing-place;
+from thence travel for many leagues; then drag the artillery along by
+main force, and carry the ammunition on men's shoulders, a thing that
+harasses and weakens the troops very much. Moreover, there is a great
+deal of risk in making war in this manner: you have the approaches of a
+fort to make, which cannot be done without loss of lives: and should you
+make a breach, how many brave men are lost, before you can force men who
+fight like desperadoes, because they prefer death to slavery.
+
+{100} I say, should you make a breach; because in all the time I
+resided in this Province, I never saw nor heard that the cannon which
+were brought against the Indian forts, ever made a breach for a single
+man to pass: it is therefore quite useless to be at that expence, and
+to harass the troops to bring artillery, which can be of no manner of
+service.
+
+That cannon can make no breach in Indian forts may appear strange: but
+not more strange than true; as will appear, if we consider that the
+wooden posts or stakes which surround these forts, are too big for a
+bullet of the size of those used in these wars, to cut them down,
+though it were even to hit their middle. If the bullet gives more
+towards the edge of the tree, it glides off, and strikes the next to
+it; should the ball hit exactly between two posts, it opens them, and
+meets the post of the lining, which stops it short: another ball may
+strike the same tree, at the other joining, then it closes the little
+aperture the other had made.
+
+Were I to undertake such a war, I would bring only a few Indian
+allies; I could easily manage them; they would not stand me so much in
+presents, nor consume so much ammunition and provisions: a great
+saving this; and bringing no cannon with me, I should also save
+expences. I would have none but portable arms; and thus my troops
+would not be harassed. The country every where furnishes wherewithal
+to make moveable intrenchments and approaches, without opening the
+ground: and I would flatter myself to carry the fort in two days time.
+There I stop: the reader has no need of this detail, nor I to make it
+public.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Pensacola _taken by Surprize by the_ French. _Retaken by the_ Spaniards.
+_Again retaken by the_ French, _and demolished_.
+
+
+Before I go any farther, I think it necessary to relate what happened
+with respect to the Fort of Pensacola in Virginia. [Footnote: The
+author must mean Carolina.] This fort belongs to the Spaniards, and
+serves for an {101} Entrepot, or harbour for the Spanish galleons to
+put into, in their passage from La Vera Cruz to Europe.
+
+Towards the beginning of the year 1719, the Commandant General having
+understood by the last ships which arrived, that war was declared
+between France and Spain, resolved to take the post of Pensacola from
+the Spaniards; which stands on the continent, about fifteen leagues
+from Isle Dauphine, is defended by a staccado-fort the entrance of the
+road: over against it stands a fortin, or small fort, on the west
+point of the Isle St. Rose; which, on that side, defends the entrance
+of the road: this fort has only a guard-house to defend it.
+
+The Commandant General, persuaded it would be impossible to besiege
+the place in form, wanted to take it by surprise, confiding in the
+ardor of the French, and security of the Spaniards, who were as yet
+ignorant of our being at war with them in Europe. With that view he
+assembled the few troops he had, with several Canadian and French
+planters, newly arrived, who went as volunteers. M. de Chateauguier,
+the Commandant's brother, and King's Lieutenant, commanded under him;
+and next him, M. de Richebourg, Captain. After arming this body of
+men, and getting the necessary supplies of ammunition and provisions,
+he embarked with his small army, and by the favour of a prosperous
+wind, arrived in a short time at his place of destination. The French
+anchored near the Fortin, made their descent undiscovered, seized on
+the guard-house, and clapt the soldiers in irons; which was done in
+less than half an hour. Some French soldiers were ordered to put on
+the cloaths of the Spaniards, in order to facilitate the surprising
+the enemy. The thing succeeded to their wish. On the morrow at
+day-break, they perceived the boat which carried the detachment from
+Pensacola, in order to relieve the guard of the fortin; on which the
+Spanish march was caused to be beat up; and the French in disguise
+receiving them, and clapping them in irons, put on their cloaths; and
+stepping into the same boat, surprised the sentinel, the guard-house,
+and at last the garrison, to the very Governor himself, who was taken
+in bed; so that they all were made prisoners without any bloodshed.
+
+{102} The Commandant General, apprehensive of the scarcity of
+provisions, shipped off the prisoners, escorted by some soldiers,
+commanded by M. de Richebourg, in order to land them at the Havanna:
+he left his brother at Pensacola, to command there, with a garrison of
+sixty men. As soon as the French vessel had anchored at the Havanna,
+M. de Richebourg went on shore, to acquaint the Spanish Governor with
+his commission; who received him with politeness, and as a testimony
+of his gratitude, made him and his officers prisoners, put the
+soldiers in irons and in prison, where they lay for some time, exposed
+to hunger and the insults of the Spaniards, which determined many of
+them to enter into the service of Spain, in order to escape the
+extreme misery under which they groaned.
+
+Some of the French, newly enlisted in the Spanish troops, informed the
+Governor of the Havanna, that the French garrison left at Pensacola
+was very weak: he, in his turn, resolved to carry that fort by way of
+reprisal. For that purpose he caused a Spanish vessel, with that which
+the French had brought to the Havanna, to be armed. The Spanish vessel
+stationed itself behind the Isle St. Rose, and the French vessel came
+before the fort with French colours. The sentinel enquired, who
+commanded the vessel? They answered, M. de Richebourg. This vessel,
+after anchoring, took down her French, and hoisted Spanish colours,
+firing three guns: at which signal, agreed on by the Spaniards, the
+Spanish vessel joined the first; then they summoned the French to
+surrender. M. de Chateauguiere rejected the proposition, fired upon
+the Spaniards, and they continued cannonading each other till night.
+
+On the following day the cannonading was continued till noon, when the
+Spaniards ceased firing, in order to summon the Commandant anew to
+surrender the fort: he demanded four days, and was allowed two. During
+that time, he sent to ask succours of his brother, who was in no
+condition to send him any.
+
+The term being expired, the attack was renewed, the Commandant bravely
+defending himself till night; which two thirds of the garrison availed
+themselves of, to abandon their Governor, {103} who, having only
+twenty men left, saw himself unable to make any longer resistance,
+demanded to capitulate, and was allowed all the honours of war; but in
+going out of the place, he and all his men were made prisoners. This
+infraction of the capitulation was occasioned by the shame the
+Spaniards conceived, of being constrained to capitulate in this manner
+with twenty men only.
+
+As soon as the Governor of the Havanna was apprised of the surrender
+of the fort, vainly imagining he had overthrown half his enemies at
+least, he caused great rejoicings to be made in the island, as if he
+had gained a decisive victory, or carried a citadel of importance. He
+also sent off several vessels to victual and refresh his warriors,
+who, according to him, must have been greatly fatigued in such an
+action as I have just described.
+
+The new Governor of Pensacola caused the fortifications to be repaired
+and even augmented; sent afterwards the vessel, named the Great Devil,
+armed with six pieces of cannon, to take Dauphin Island, or at least
+to strike terror into it. The vessel St. Philip, which lay in the
+road, entered a gut or narrow place, and there mooring across, brought
+all her guns to bear on the enemy; and made the Great Devil sensible,
+that Saints resist all the efforts of Hell.
+
+This ship, by her position, served for a citadel to the whole island,
+which had neither fortifications nor intrenchments, nor any other sort
+of defence, excepting a battery of cannon at the east point, with some
+inhabitants, who guarded the coast, and prevented a descent. The Great
+Devil, finding she made no progress, was constrained, by way of
+relaxation, to go and pillage on the continent the habitation of the
+Sieur Miragouine, which was abandoned. In the mean time arrived from
+Pensacola, a little devil, a pink, to the assistance of the Great
+Devil. As soon as they joined, they began afresh to cannonade the
+island, which made a vigorous defence.
+
+In the time that these two vessels attempted in vain to take the
+island, a squadron of five ships came in sight, four of them with
+Spanish colours, and the least carrying French hoisted to {104} the
+top of the staff, as if taken by the four others. In this the French
+were equally deceived with the Spaniards: the former, however, knew
+the small vessel, which was the pink, the Mary, commanded by the brave
+M. Iapy. The Spaniards, convinced by these appearances, that succours
+were sent them, deputed two officers in a shallop on board the
+commodore: but they were no sooner on board, than they were made
+prisoners.
+
+They were in effect three French men of war, with two ships of the
+Company, commanded by M. Champmelin. These ships brought upwards of
+eight hundred men, and thirty officers, as well superior as subaltern,
+all of them old and faithful servants of the King, in order to remain
+in Louisiana. The Spaniards, finding their error, fled to Pensacola,
+to carry the news of this succour being arrived for the French.
+
+The squadron anchored before the island, hoisted French colours, and
+fired a salvo, which was answered by the place. The St. Philip was
+drawn out and made to join the squadron: a new embarkation of troops
+was made, and the Mary left before Isle Dauphine.
+
+On September the 7th, finding the wind favourable, the squadron set
+sail for Pensacola: by the way, the troops that were to make the
+attack on the continent, were landed near Rio Perdido; after which the
+ships, preceded by a boat, which shewed the way, entered the harbour,
+and anchored, and laid their broad sides, in spite of several
+discharges of cannon from the fort, which is upon the Isle of St.
+Rose. The ships had no sooner laid their broad-sides, but the
+cannonade began on both sides. Our ships had two forts to batter, and
+seven sail of ships that lay in the harbour. But the great land fort
+fired only one gun on our army, in which the Spanish Governor, having
+observed upwards of three hundred Indians, commanded by M. de St.
+Denis, whose bravery was universally acknowledged, was struck with
+such a panick, from the fear of falling into their hands, that he
+struck, and surrendered the place.
+
+The fight continued for about two hours longer: but the heavy metal of
+our Commodore making great execution, the Spaniards cried out several
+times on board their ships, to {105} strike; but fear prevented their
+executing these orders: none but a French prisoner durst do it for
+them. They quitted their ships, leaving matches behind, which would
+have soon set them on fire. The French prisoners between decks, no
+longer hearing the least noise, surmised a flight, came on deck,
+discovered the stratagem of the Spaniards, removed the matches, and
+thus hindered the vessels from taking fire, acquainting the Commodore
+therewith. The little fort held out but an hour longer, after which it
+surrendered for want of gunpowder. The Commandant came himself to put
+his sword in the hands of M. Champmelin, who embraced him, returned
+him his sword, and told him, he knew how to distinguish between a
+brave officer, and one who was not. He made his own ship his place of
+confinement, whereas the Commandant of the great fort was made the
+laughing-stock of the French.
+
+All the Spaniards on board the ships, and those of the two forts were
+made prisoners of war: but the French deserters, to the number of
+forty, were made to cast lots; half of them were hanged at the
+yard-arms, the rest condemned to be galley-slaves to the Company for
+ten years in the country.
+
+M. Champmelin caused the two forts to be demolished, preserving only
+three or four houses, with a warehouse. These houses were to lodge the
+officer, and the few soldiers that were left there, and one to be a
+guard-house. The rest of the planters were transported to Isle
+Dauphine, and M. Champmelin set sail for France. [Footnote: At the
+peace that soon succeeded between France and Spain, Pensacola was
+restored to the last.]
+
+The history of Pensacola is the more necessary, as it is so near our
+settlements, that the Spaniards hear our guns, when we give them
+notice by that signal of our design to come and trade with them.
+
+{107}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+_Of the Country, and its Products_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its Climate_
+
+
+Louisiana that part of North America, which is bounded on the south by
+the Gulf of Mexico; on the east by Carolina, an English colony, and by
+a part of Canada; on the west by New Mexico; and on the north, in part
+by Canada; in part it extends, without any assignable bounds, to the
+Terrae Incognitae, adjoining to Hudson's Bay. [Footnote: By the
+charter granted by Louis XIV. to M. Crozat, Louisiana extends only
+"from the edge of the sea as far as the Illinois," which is not above
+half the extent assigned by our author.] Its breadth is about two
+hundred leagues, [Footnote: According to the best maps and accounts
+extant, the distance from the Missisippi to the mountains of New
+Mexico is about nine hundred miles, and from the Missisippi to the
+Atlantic Ocean about six hundred; reckoning sixty miles to a degree,
+and in a straight line.] extending between the Spanish and English
+settlements; its length undetermined, as being altogether unknown.
+However, the source of the Missisippi will afford us some light on
+this head.
+
+The climate of Louisiana varies in proportion as it extends northward:
+all that can be said of it in general is, that its southern parts are
+not so scorching as those of Africa in the {108} same latitude; and
+that the northern parts are colder than the corresponding parts of
+Europe. New Orleans, which lies in lat. 30 deg., as do the more northerly
+coasts of Barbary and Egypt, enjoys the same temperature of climate as
+Languedoc. Two degrees higher-up, at the Natchez, where I resided for
+eight years, the climate is far more mild than at New Orleans, the
+country lying higher: and at the Illinois, which is between 45 deg. and
+46 deg., the summer is in no respect hotter than at Rochelle; but we find
+the frosts harder, and a more plentiful fall of snow. This difference
+of climate from that of Africa and Europe, I ascribe to two causes:
+the first is, the number of woods, which, though scattered up and
+down, cover the face of this country: the second, the great number of
+rivers. The former prevent the sun from warming the earth; and the
+latter diffuse a great degree of humidity: not to mention the
+continuity of this country with those to the northward; from which it
+follows, that the winds blowing from that quarter are much colder than
+if they traversed the sea in their course. For it is well known that
+the air is never so hot, and never so cold at sea, as on land.
+
+We ought not therefore to be surprised, if in the southern part of
+Louisiana, a north wind obliges people in summer to be warmer
+cloathed; or if in winter a south wind admits of a lighter dress; as
+naturally owing, at the one time to the dryness of the wind, at the
+other, to the proximity of the Equator.
+
+Few days pass in Louisiana without seeing the sun. The rain pours down
+there in sudden heavy showers, which do not last long, but disappear
+in half an hour, perhaps. The dews are very plentiful, advantageously
+supplying the place of rain.
+
+We may therefore well imagine that the air is perfectly good there;
+the blood is pure; the people are healthy; subject to few diseases in
+the vigour of life, and without decrepitude in old age, which they
+carry to a far greater length than in France. People live to a long
+and agreeable old age in Louisiana, if they are but sober and
+temperate.
+
+This country is extremely well watered, but much more so in some
+places than in others. The Missisippi divides this {109} colony from
+north to south into two parts almost equal. The first discoverers of
+this river by the way of Canada, called it Colbert, in honour of that
+great Minister. By some of the savages of the north it is called
+Meact-Chassipi, which literally denotes, The Ancient Father of Rivers,
+of which the French have, by corruption formed Missisippi. Other
+Indians, especially those lower down the river, call it Balbancha; and
+at last the French have given it the name of St. Louis.
+
+Several travellers have in vain attempted to go up to its source;
+which, however, is well known, whatever some authors, misinformed, may
+alledge to the contrary. We here subjoin the accounts that may be most
+depended upon.
+
+M. de Charleville, a Canadian, and a relation of M. de Biainville,
+Commandant General of this colony, told me, that at the time of the
+settlement of the French, curiosity alone had led him to go up this
+river to its sources; that for this end he fitted out a canoe, made of
+the bark of the birch-tree, in order to be more portable in case of
+need. And that having thus set out with two Canadians and two Indians,
+with goods, ammunition, and provisions, he went up the river three
+hundred leagues to the north, above the Illinois: that there be found
+the Fall, called St. Antony's. This fall is a flat-rock, which
+traverses the river, and gives it only between eight or ten feet fall.
+He caused his canoe and effects to be carried over that place; and
+that embarking afterwards above the fall, he continued going up the
+river an hundred leagues more to the north, where he met the Sioux, a
+people inhabiting that country, at some distance from the Missisippi;
+some say, on each side of it.
+
+The Sioux, little accustomed to see Europeans, were surprized at seeing
+him, and asked whither he was going. He told them, up the Missisippi to
+its source. They answered, that the country whither he was going was
+very bad, and where he would have great difficulty to find game for
+subsistence; that it was a great way off, reckoned as far from the
+source to the fall, as from this last to the sea. According to this
+information, the Missisippi must measure from its source to its mouth
+between fifteen and sixteen hundred leagues, as they reckon eight
+hundred leagues from St. Antony's Fall to the sea. This {110} conjecture
+is the more probable, as that far to the north, several rivers of a
+pretty long course fall into the Missisippi; and that even above St.
+Antony's Fall, we find in this river between thirty and thirty-five
+fathom water, and a breadth in proportion; which can never be from a
+source at no great distance off. I may add, that all the Indians,
+informed by those nearer the source, are of the same opinion.
+
+Though M. de Charleville did not see the source of the Missisippi, he,
+however, learned, that a great many rivers empty their waters into it:
+that even above St. Antony's Fall, he saw rivers on each side of the
+Missisippi, having a course of upwards of an hundred leagues.
+
+It is proper to observe, that in going down the river from St.
+Antony's Fall, the right hand is the west, the left the east. The
+first river we meet from the fall, and some leagues lower down, is the
+river St. Peter, which comes from the west: lower down to the east, is
+the river St. Croix, both of them tolerable large rivers. We meet
+several others still less, the names of which are of no consequence.
+Afterwards we meet with the river Moingona, which comes from the west,
+about two hundred and fifty leagues below the fall, and upwards of an
+hundred and fifty leagues in length. This river is somewhat brackish.
+From that river to the Illinois, several rivulets or brooks, both to
+the right and left, fall into the Missisippi. The river of the
+Illinois comes from the east, and takes its rise on the frontiers of
+Canada; its length is two hundred leagues.
+
+The river Missouri comes from a source about eight hundred leagues
+distant; and running from north-west to south-east, discharges itself
+into the Missisippi, about four or five leagues below the river of the
+Illinois. This river receives several others, in particular the river
+of the Canzas, which runs above an hundred and fifty leagues. From the
+rivers of the Illinois and the Missouri to the sea are reckoned five
+hundred leagues, and three hundred to St. Antony's Fall: from the
+Missouri to the Wabache, or Ohio, an hundred leagues. By this last
+river is the passage from Louisiana to Canada. This voyage is
+performed from New Orleans by going up the Missisippi to the Wabache;
+which they go up in the same manner quite to {111} the river of the
+Miamis; in which they proceed as far as the Carrying-place; from which
+there are two leagues to a little river which falls into Lake Erie.
+Here they change their vessels; they come in pettyaugres, and go down
+the river St. Laurence to Quebec in birch canoes. On the river St.
+Laurence are several carrying-places, on account of its many falls or
+cataracts.
+
+
+Those who have performed this voyage, have told me they reckoned
+eighteen hundred leagues from New Orleans to Quebec. [Footnote: It is
+not above nine hundred leagues.] Though the Wabache is considered in
+Louisiana, as the most considerable of the rivers which come from
+Canada, and which, uniting in one bed, form the river commonly called
+by that name, yet all the Canadian travellers assure me, that the
+river called Ohio, and which falls into the Wabache, comes a much
+longer way than this last; which should be a reason for giving it the
+name Ohio; but custom has prevailed in this respect. [Footnote: But
+not among the English; we call it the Ohio.]
+
+From the Wabache, and on the same side, to Manchac, we see but very
+few rivers, and those very small ones, which fall into the Missisippi,
+though there are nearly three hundred and fifty leagues from the
+Wabache to Manchac. [Footnote: That is, from the mouth of the Ohio to
+the river Iberville, which other accounts make but two hundred and
+fifty leagues.] This will, doubtless, appear something extraordinary
+to those unacquainted with the country.
+
+The reason, that may be assigned for it, appears quite natural and
+striking. In all that part of Louisiana, which is to the east of the
+Missisippi, the lands are so high in the neighbourhood of the river,
+that in many places the rain-water runs off from the banks of the
+Missisippi, and discharges itself into rivers, which fall either
+directly into the sea, or into lakes.
+
+Another very probable reason is, that from the Wabache to the sea, no
+rain falls but in sudden gusts; which defect is compensated by the
+abundant dews, so that the plants lose nothing by that means. The
+Wabache has a course of three hundred {112} leagues, and the Ohio has
+its source a hundred leagues still farther off.
+
+In continuing to go down the Missisippi, from the Wabache to the river
+of the Arkansas, we observe but few rivers, and those pretty small.
+The most considerable is that of St. Francis, which is distant thirty
+and odd leagues from that of the Arkansas. It is on this river of St.
+Francis, that the hunters of New Orleans go every winter to make salt
+provisions, tallow, and bears oil, for the supply of the capital.
+
+The river of the Arkansas, which is thirty-five leagues lower down,
+and two hundred leagues from New Orleans, is so denominated from the
+Indians of that name, who dwell on its banks, a little above its
+confluence with the Missisippi. It runs three hundred leagues, and its
+source is in the same latitude with Santa-Fe, in New Mexico, in the
+mountains of which it rises. It runs up a little to the north for a
+hundred leagues, by forming a flat elbow, or winding, and returns from
+thence to the south-east, quite to the Missisippi. It has a cataract,
+or fall, about the middle of its course. Some call it the White River,
+because in its course it receives a river of that name. The Great
+Cut-point is about forty leagues below the river of the Arkansas: this
+was a long circuit which the Missisippi formerly took, and which it
+has abridged, by making its way through this point of land.
+
+Below this river, still going towards the sea, we observe scarce any
+thing but brooks or rivulets, except the river of the Yasous, sixty
+leagues lower down. This river runs but about fifty leagues, and will
+hardly admit of a boat for a great way: it has taken its name from the
+nation of the Yasous, and some others dwelling on its banks.
+Twenty-eight leagues below the river of the Yasous, is a great cliff
+of a reddish free-stone: over-against this cliff are the great and
+little whirlpools.
+
+From this little river, we meet but with very small ones, till we come
+to the Red River, called at first the Marne, because nearly as big as
+that river, which falls into the Seine. The Nachitoches dwell on its
+banks, and it was distinguished by the name of that nation; but its
+common name, and which it still bears, is that of the Red River. It
+takes its rise in New Mexico, {113} forms an elbow to the north, in
+the same manner as the river of the Arkansas, falls down afterwards
+towards the Missisippi, running south east. They generally allow it a
+course of two hundred leagues. At about ten leagues from its
+confluence it receives the Black River, or the river of the Wachitas,
+which takes its rise pretty near that of the Arkansas. This rivulet,
+or source, forms, as is said, a fork pretty near its rise, one arm of
+which falls into the river of the Arkansas; the largest forms the
+Black River. Twenty leagues below the Red River is the Little
+Cut-point, and a league below that point are the little cliffs.
+
+From the Red River to the sea we observe nothing but some small
+brooks: but on the east side, twenty-five leagues above New Orleans,
+we find a channel, which is dry at low water. The inundations of the
+Missisippi formed this channel (which is called Manchac) below some
+high lands, which terminate near that place. It discharges itself into
+the lake Maurepas, and from thence into that of St. Louis, of which I
+gave an account before.
+
+The channel runs east south-east: formerly there was a passage through
+it; but at present it is so choaked up with dead wood, that it begins
+to have no water [Footnote: Manchac is almost dry for three quarters
+of the year: but during the inundation, the waters of the river have a
+vent through it into the lakes Ponchartrain and St. Louis. _Dumont_, II.
+297.
+
+This is the river Iberville, which is to be the boundary of the
+British dominions.] but at the place where it receives the river
+Amite, which is pretty large, and which runs seventy leagues in a very
+fine country.
+
+A very small river falls into the lake Maurepas, to the east of
+Manchac. In proceeding eastward, we may pass from this lake into that
+of St. Louis, by a river formed by the waters of the Amite. In going
+to the north of this lake, we meet to the east the little river
+Tandgipao. From thence proceeding always east, we come to the river
+Quefoncte, which is long and beautiful, and comes from the Chactaws.
+Proceeding in the same route, we meet the river Castin-Bayouc: we may
+afterwards quit the lake by the channel, which borders the same
+country, {114} and proceeding eastward we meet with Pearl River which
+falls into this channel.
+
+Farther up the coast, which lies from west to east, we meet St.
+Louis's Bay, into which a little river of that name discharges itself:
+farther on, we meet the river of the Paska-Ogoulas: and at length we
+arrive at the Bay of Mobile, which runs upwards of thirty leagues into
+the country, where it receives the river of the same name, which runs
+for about a hundred and fifty leagues from north to south. All the
+rivers I have just mentioned, and which fall not into the Missisippi,
+do in like manner run from north to south.
+
+_Description of the Lower_ Louisiana, _and the Mouths of the_
+Missisippi.
+
+I return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi. At a little
+distance from Manchac we meet the river of the Plaqumines; it lies to
+the west, and is rather a creek than a river. Three or four leagues
+lower down is the Fork, which is channel running to the west of the
+Missisippi, through which part of the inundations of that river run
+off. These waters pass through several lakes, and from thence to the
+sea, by Ascension Bay. As to the other rivers to the west of this bay,
+their names are unknown.
+
+The waters which fall into those lakes consist not only of such as
+pass through this channel, but also of those that come out of the
+Missisippi, when overflowing its banks on each side: for, of all the
+water which comes out of the Missisippi over its banks, not a drop
+ever returns into its bed; but this is only to be understood of the
+low lands, that is, between fifty and sixty leagues from the sea
+eastward, and upwards of a hundred leagues westward.
+
+It will, doubtless, seem strange, that a river which overflows its
+banks, should never after recover its waters again, either in whole or
+in part; and this will appear so much the more singular, as every
+where else it happens otherwise in the like circumstances.
+
+It appeared no less strange to myself; and I have on all occasions
+endeavoured to the utmost, to find out what could {115} produce an
+effect, which really appeared to me very extraordinary, and, I
+imagine, not without success.
+
+From Manchac down to the sea, it is probable, and even in some degree
+certain, that all the lands thereabouts are brought down and
+accumulated by means of the ooze which the Missisippi carries along
+with it in its annual inundations; which begin in the month of March,
+by the melting of the snow to the north, and last for about three
+months. Those oozy or muddy lands easily produce herbs and reeds; and
+when the Missisippi happens to overflow the following year, these
+herbs and reeds intercept a part of this ooze, so that those at a
+distance from the river cannot retain so large a quantity of it, since
+those that grow next the river have stopt the greatest part; and by a
+necessary consequence, the others farther off, and in proportion as
+they are distant from the Missisippi, can retain a much less quantity
+of the mud. In this manner the land rising higher along the river, in
+process of time the banks of the Missisippi became higher than the
+lands about it. In like manner also these neighbouring lakes on each
+side of the river are remains of the sea, which are not yet filled up.
+Other rivers have firm banks, formed by the lands of Nature, a land of
+the same nature with the continent, and always adhering thereto: these
+sorts of banks, instead of augmenting, do daily diminish, either by
+sinking, or tumbling down into the bed of the river. The banks of the
+Missisippi, on the contrary, increase, and cannot diminish in the low
+and accumulated lands; because the ooze, alone deposited on its banks,
+increase them; which, besides, is the reason that the Missisippi
+becomes narrower, in place of washing away the earth, and enlarging
+its bed, as all other known rivers do. If we consider these facts,
+therefore, we ought no longer to be surprised that the waters of the
+Missisippi, when once they have left their bed, can never return
+thither again.
+
+In order to prove this augmentation of lands, I shall relate what
+happened near Orleans: one of the inhabitants caused a well to be sunk
+at a little distance from the Missisippi, in order to procure a
+clearer water. At twenty feet deep there was found a tree laid flat,
+three feet in diameter: the height of the earth was therefore
+augmented twenty feet since the fall or lodging of that tree, as well
+by the accumulated mud, as by the {116} rotting of the leaves, which
+fall every winter, and which the Missisippi carries down in vast
+quantities. In effect, it sweeps down a great deal of mud, because it
+runs for twelve hundred leagues at least across a country which is
+nothing else but earth, which the depth of the river sufficiently
+proves. It carries down vast quantities of leaves, canes and trees,
+upon its waters, the breadth of which is always above half a league,
+and sometimes a league and a quarter. Its banks are covered with much
+wood, sometimes for the breadth of a league on each side, from its
+source to its mouth. There is nothing therefore more easy to be
+conceived, than that this river carries down with its waters a
+prodigious quantity of ooze, leaves, canes and trees, which it
+continually tears up by the roots, and that the sea throwing back
+again all these things, they should necessarily produce the lands in
+question, and which are sensibly increasing. At the entrance of the
+pass or channel to the south-east, there was built a small fort, still
+called Balise. This fort was built on a little island, without the
+mouth of the river. In 1734 it stood on the same spot, and I have been
+told that at present it is half a league within the river: the land
+therefore hath in twenty years gained this space on the sea. Let us
+now resume the sequel of the Geographical Description of Louisiana.
+
+The coast is bounded to the west by St. Bernard's Bay, where M. de la
+Salle landed; into this bay a small river falls, and there are some
+others which discharge their waters between this bay and Ascension
+bay; the planters seldom frequent that coast. On the east the coast is
+bounded by Rio Perdido, which the French corruptedly call aux Perdrix;
+Rio Perdido signifying Lost River, aptly so called by the Spaniards,
+because it loses itself under ground, and afterwards appears again,
+and discharges itself into the sea, a little to the East of Mobile, on
+which the first French planters settled.
+
+From the Fork down to the sea, there is no river; nor is it possible
+there should be any, after what I have related: on the contrary, we
+find at a small distance from the Fork, another channel to the east,
+called the Bayoue of le Sueur: it is full of a soft ooze or mud, and
+communicates with the lakes which lie to the east.
+
+{117} On coming nearer to the sea, we meet, at about eight leagues
+from the principal mouth of the Missisippi, the first Pass; and a
+league lower down, the Otter Pass. These two passes or channels are
+only for pettyaugres. From this place there is no land fit to tread
+on, it being all a quagmire down to the sea. There also we find a
+point, which parts the mouths of the Missisippi: that to the right is
+called the South-Pass, or Channel; the west point of which runs two
+leagues farther into the sea than the point of the South-east Pass,
+which is to the left of that of the South Pass. At first vessels
+entered by the South-east Pass, but before we go down to it, we find
+to the left the East-Pass, which is that by which ships enter at
+present.
+
+At each of these three Passes or Channels there is a Bar, as in all
+other rivers: these bars are three quarters of a league broad, with
+only eight or nine feet water: but there is a channel through this
+bar, which being often subject to shift, the coasting pilot is obliged
+to be always sounding, in order to be sure of the pass: this channel
+is, at low water, between seventeen and eighteen feet deep. [Footnote:
+I shall make no mention of the islands, which are frequent in the
+Missisippi, as being, properly speaking, nothing but little isles,
+produced by some trees, though the soil be nothing but a sand
+bottom.]
+
+This description may suffice to shew that the falling in with the land
+from sea is bad; the land scarce appears two leagues off; which
+doubtless made the Spaniards call the Missisippi Rio Escondido, the
+Hid River. This river is generally muddy, owing to the waters of the
+Missouri; for before this junction the water of the Missisippi is very
+clear. I must not omit mentioning that no ship can either enter or
+continue in the river when the waters are high, on account of the
+prodigious numbers of trees, and vast quantities of dead wood, which
+it carries down, and which, together with the canes, leaves, mud, and
+sand, which the sea throws back upon the coast, are continually
+augmenting the land, and make it project into the Gulf of Mexico, like
+the bill of a bird.
+
+I should be naturally led to divide Louisiana into the Higher and
+Lower, on account of the great difference between {118} the two
+principal parts of this vast country. The Higher I would call that
+part in which we find stone, which we first meet with between the
+river of the Natchez and that of the Yasous, between which is a cliff
+of a fine free stone; and I would terminate that part at Manchac,
+where the high lands end. I would extend the Lower Louisiana from
+thence down to the sea. The bottom of the lands on the hills is a red
+clay, and so compact, as might afford a solid foundation for any
+building whatever. This clay is covered by a light earth, which is
+almost black, and very fertile. The grass grows there knee deep; and
+in the bottoms, which separate these small eminences, it is higher
+than the tallest man. Towards the end of September both are
+successively set on fire; and in eight or ten days young grass shoots
+up half a foot high. One will easily judge, that in such pastures
+herds of all creatures fatten extraordinarily. The flat country is
+watery, and appears to have been formed by every thing that comes down
+to the sea. I shall add, that pretty near the Nachitoches, we find
+banks of muscle-shells, such as those of which Cockle-Island is
+formed. The neighbouring nation affirms, that according to their old
+tradition, the sea formerly came up to this place. The women of this
+nation go and gather these shells, and make a powder of them, which
+they mix with the earth, of which they make their pottery, or earthen
+ware. However, I would not advise the use of these shells
+indifferently for this purpose, because they are naturally apt to
+crack in the fire: I have therefore reason to think, that those found
+at the Nachitoches have acquired their good quality only by the
+discharge of their salts, from continuing for so many ages out of the
+sea.
+
+If we may give credit to the tradition of these people, and if we
+would reason on the facts I have advanced, we shall be naturally led
+to believe, and indeed every thing in this country shews it, that the
+Lower Louisiana is a country gained on the sea, whose bottom is a
+crystal sand, white as snow, fine as flour, and such as is found both
+to the east and west of the Missisippi; and we may expect, that in
+future ages the sea and river may form another land like that of the
+Lower Louisiana. The Fort Balise shews that a century is sufficient to
+extend Louisiana two leagues towards the sea.
+
+{119}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_The Author's Journey in_ Louisiana, _from the Natchez to the River St.
+Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws._
+
+
+Ever since my arrival in Louisiana, I made it my business to get
+information in whatever was new therein, and to make discoveries of
+such things as might be serviceable to society. I therefore resolved
+to take a journey through the country. And after leaving my plantation
+to the care of my friends and neighbours, I prepared for a journey
+into the interior parts of the province, in order to learn the nature
+of the soil, its various productions, and to make discoveries not
+mentioned by others.
+
+I wanted to travel both for my own instruction, and for the benefit of
+the publick: but at the same time I desired to be alone, without any
+of my own countrymen with me; who, as they neither have patience, nor
+are made for fatigue, would be ever teazing me to return again, and
+not readily take up either with the fare or accommodations, to be met
+with on such a journey. I therefore pitched upon ten Indians, who were
+indefatigable, robust, and tractable, and sufficiently skilled in
+hunting, a qualification necessary on such journeys. I explained to
+them my whole design; told them, we should avoid passing through any
+inhabited countries, and would take our journeys through such as were
+unknown and uninhabited; because I travelled in order to discover what
+no one before could inform me about. This explication pleased them;
+and on their part they promised, I should have no reason to be
+dissatisfied with them. But they objected, they were under
+apprehensions of losing themselves in countries they did not know. To
+remove these apprehensions, I shewed them a mariner's compass, which
+removed all their difficulties, after I had explained to them the
+manner of using it, in order to avoid losing our way.
+
+We set out in the month of September, which is the best season of the
+year for beginning a journey in this country: in the first place,
+because, during the summer, the grass is too high for travelling;
+whereas in the month of September, the meadows, the grass of which is
+then dry, are set on fire, and {120} the ground becomes smooth, and
+easy to walk on: and hence it is, that at this time, clouds of smoke
+are seen for several days together to extend over a long track of
+country; sometimes to the extent of between twenty and thirty leagues
+in length, by two or three leagues in breadth, more or less, according
+as the wind sets, and is higher or lower. In the second place, this
+season is the most commodious for travelling over those countries;
+because, by means of the rain, which ordinarily falls after the grass
+is burnt, the game spread themselves all over the meadows, and delight
+to feed on the new grass; which is the reason why travellers more
+easily find provisions at this time than at any other. What besides
+facilitates these excursions in Autumn, or in the beginning of Winter,
+is, that all works in the fields are then at an end, or at least the
+hurry of them is over.
+
+For the first days of our journey the game was pretty rare, because
+they shun the neighbourhood of men; if you except the deer, which are
+spread all over the country, their nature being to roam indifferently
+up and down; so that at first we were obliged to put up with this
+fare. We often met with flights of partridges, which the natives
+cannot kill, because they cannot shoot flying; I killed some for a
+change. The second day I had a turkey-hen brought to regale me. The
+discoverer, who killed it, told me, there were a great many in the
+same place, but that he could do nothing without a dog. I have often
+heard of a turkey-chace, but never had an opportunity of being at one:
+I went with him and took my dog along with me. On coming to the spot,
+we soon descried the hens, which ran off with such speed, that the
+swiftest Indian would lose his labour in attempting to outrun them. My
+dog soon came up with them, which made them take to their wings, and
+perch on the next trees; as long as they are not pursued in this
+manner, they only run, and are soon out of sight. I came near their
+place of retreat, killed the largest, a second, and my discoverer a
+third. We might have killed the whole flock; for, while they see any
+men, they never quit the tree they have once perched on. Shooting
+scares them not, as they only look at the bird that drops, and set up
+a timorous cry, as he falls.
+
+{121} Before I proceed, it is proper to say a word concerning my
+discoverers, or scouts. I had always three of them out, one a-head, and
+one on each hand of me; commonly distant a league from me, and as much
+from each other. Their condition of scouts prevented not their carrying
+each his bed, and provisions for thirty-six hours upon occasion. Though
+those near my own person were more loaded, I however sent them out,
+sometimes one, sometimes another, either to a neighbouring mountain or
+valley: so that I had three or four at least, both on my right and left,
+who went out to make discoveries a small distance off. I did thus, in
+order to have nothing to reproach myself with, in point of vigilance,
+since I had begun to take the trouble of making discoveries.
+
+The next business was, to make ourselves mutually understood,
+notwithstanding our distance: we agreed, therefore, on certain
+signals, which are absolutely necessary on such occasions. Every day,
+at nine in the morning, at noon, and at three in the afternoon, we
+made a smoke. This signal was the hour marked for making a short halt,
+in order to know, whether the scouts followed each other, and whether
+they were nearly at the distance agreed on. These smokes were made at
+the hours I mentioned, which are the divisions of the day according to
+the Indians. They divide their day into four equal parts; the first
+contains the half of the morning; the second is at noon; the third
+comprizes the half of the afternoon; and the fourth, the other half of
+the afternoon to the evening. It was according to this usage our
+signals were mutually made, by which we regulated our course, and
+places of rendezvous.
+
+We marched for some days without finding any thing which could either
+engage my attention, or satisfy my curiosity. True it is, this was
+sufficiently made up in another respect; as we travelled over a
+charming country, which might justly furnish our painters of the
+finest imagination with genuine notions of landskips. Mine, I own, was
+highly delighted with the sight of fine plains, diversified with very
+extensive and highly delightful meadows. The plains were intermixed
+with thickets, planted by the hand of Nature herself; and interspersed
+with hills, running off in gentle declivities, and with {122} valleys,
+thick set, and adorned with woods, which serve for a retreat to the
+most timorous animals, as the thickets screen the buffaloes from the
+abundant dews of the country.
+
+I longed much to kill a buffalo with my own hand; I therefore told my
+people my intention to kill one of the first herd we should meet; nor
+did a day pass, in which we did not see several herds; the least of
+which exceeded a hundred and thirty or a hundred and fifty in number.
+
+Next morning we espied a herd of upwards of two hundred. The wind
+stood as I could have wished, being in our faces, and blowing from the
+herd; which is a great advantage in this chace; because when the wind
+blows from you towards the buffaloes, they come to scent you, and run
+away, before you can come within gun-shot of them; whereas, when the
+wind blows from them on the hunters, they do not fly till they can
+distinguish you by sight; and then, what greatly favours your coming
+very near to them is, that the curled hair, which falls down between
+their horns upon their eyes, is so bushy, as greatly to confuse their
+sight. In this manner I came within full gun-shot of them, pitched
+upon one of the fattest, shot him at the extremity of the shoulder,
+and brought him down stone-dead. The natives, who stood looking on,
+were ready to fire, had I happened to wound him but slightly; for in
+that case, these animals are apt to turn upon the hunter, who thus
+wounds them.
+
+Upon seeing the buffalo drop down dead, and the rest taking to flight,
+the natives told me, with a smile: "You kill the males, do you intend
+to make tallow?" I answered, I did it on purpose, to shew them the
+manner of making him good meat, though a male. I caused his belly to
+be opened quite warm, the entrails to be taken out directly, the
+bunch, tongue, and chines to be cut out; one of the chines to be laid
+on the coals, of which I made them all taste; and they all agreed the
+meat was juicy, and of an exquisite flavour.
+
+I then took occasion to remonstrate to them, that if, instead of
+killing the cows, as was always their custom, they killed the bulls,
+the difference in point of profit would be very considerable: {123}
+as, for instance, a good commerce with the French in tallow, with
+which the bulls abound; bull's flesh is far more delicate and tender
+than cow's; a third advantage is, the selling of the skins at a higher
+rate, as being much better; in fine, this kind of game, so
+advantageous to the country, would thereby escape being quite
+destroyed; whereas, by killing the cows, the breed of these animals is
+greatly impaired.
+
+I made a soup, that was of an exquisite flavour, but somewhat fat, of
+the broth boiled from the marrow-bones of this buffalo, the rest of
+the broth serving to make maiz-gruel, called Sagamity, which to my
+taste surpassed the best dish in France: the bunch on the back would
+have graced the table of a prince.
+
+In the route I held, I kept more on the sides of the hills than on the
+plains. Above some of these sides, or declivities, I found, in some
+places, little eminences, which lay peeled, or bare, and disclosed a
+firm and compact clay, or pure matrix, and of the species of that of
+Lapis Calaminaris. The intelligent in Mineralogy understand what I
+would be at. The little grass, which grows there, was observed to
+droop, as also three or four misshapen trees, no bigger than one's
+leg; one of which I caused to be cut down; when, to my astonishment, I
+saw it was upwards of sixty years standing. The neighbouring country
+was fertile, in proportion to its distance from this spot. Near that
+place we saw game of every kind, and in plenty, and never towards the
+summit.
+
+We crossed the Missisippi several times upon Cajeux (rafts, or floats,
+made of several bundles of canes, laid across each other; a kind of
+extemporaneous pontoon,) in order to take a view of mountains which
+had raised my curiosity. I observed, that both sides of the river had
+their several advantages; but that the West side is better watered;
+appeared also to be more fruitful both in minerals, and in what
+relates to agriculture; for which last it seems much more adapted than
+the East side.
+
+Notwithstanding our precaution to make signals, one of my scouts
+happened one day to stray, because the weather was {124} foggy; so
+that he did not return at night to our hut; at which I was very
+uneasy, and could not sleep; as he was not returned, though the
+signals of call had been repeated till night closed. About nine the
+next morning he cast up, telling us he had been in pursuit of a drove
+of deer, which were led by one that was altogether white: but that not
+being able to come up with them, he picked up, on the side of a hill,
+some small sharp stones, of which he brought a sample.
+
+These stones I received with pleasure, because I had not yet seen any
+in all this country, only a hard red free-stone in a cliff on the
+Missisippi. After carefully examining those which my discoverer
+brought me, I found they were a gypsum. I took home some pieces, and
+on my return examined them more attentively; found them to be very
+clear, transparent, and friable; when calcined, they turned extremely
+white, and with them I made some factitious marble. This gave me hopes
+that this country, producing Plaster of Paris, might, besides, have
+stones for building.
+
+I wanted to see the spot myself: we set out about noon, and travelled
+for about three leagues before we came to it. I examined the spot,
+which to me appeared to be a large quarry of Plaster.
+
+As to the white deer above mentioned, I learned from the Indians, that
+some such were to be met with, though but rarely, and that only in
+countries not frequented by the hunters.
+
+The wind being set in for rain, we resolved to put ourselves under
+shelter. The place where the bad weather overtook us was very fit to
+set up at. On going out to hunt, we discovered at five hundred paces
+off, in the defile, or narrow pass, a brook of a very clear water, a
+very commodious watering-place for the buffaloes, which were in great
+numbers all around us.
+
+My companions soon raised a cabin, well-secured to the North. As we
+resolved to continue there for eight days at least, they made it so
+close as to keep out the cold: in the night, I felt nothing of the
+severity of the North wind, though I lay but lightly covered. My bed
+consisted of a bear's skin, and two robes or coats of buffalo; the
+bear skin, with the flesh side {125} undermost, being laid on leaves,
+and the pile uppermost by way of straw-bed; one of the buffalo coats
+folded double by way of feather-bed; one half of the other under me
+served for a matrass, and the other over me for a coverlet: three
+canes, or boughs, bent to a semicircle, one at the head, another in
+the middle, and a third at the feet, supported a cloth which formed my
+tester and curtains, and secured me from the injuries of the air, and
+the stings of gnats and moskitto's. My Indians had their ordinary
+hunting and travelling beds, which consist of a deer skin and a
+buffalo coat, which they always carry with them, when they expect to
+lie out of their villages. We rested nine days, and regaled ourselves
+with choice buffalo, turkey, partridge, pheasants, &c.
+
+The discovery I had made of the plaster, put me to look out, during our
+stay, in all the places round about, for many leagues. I was at last
+tired of beating about such fine plains, without discovering the least
+thing, and I had resolved to go forward to the North when at the
+noon-signal the scout a-head waited to shew me a shining and sharp
+stone, of the length and size of one's thumb, and as square as a joiner
+could have made a piece of wood of the same bigness. I imagined it might
+be rock-crystal; to be assured thereof, I took a large musquet flint in
+my left hand, presenting its head, or thick end, on which I struck with
+one of the edges of the crystal, and drew much more fire than with the
+finest steel: and notwithstanding the many strokes I gave, the piece of
+crystal was not in the least scratched or streaked.
+
+I examined these stones, and found pieces of different magnitudes,
+some square, others with six faces, even and smooth like mirrors,
+highly transparent, without any veins or spots. Some of these pieces
+jutted out of the earth, like ends of beams, two feet and upwards in
+length; others in considerable numbers, from seven to nine inches;
+above all, those with six panes or faces. There was a great number of
+a middling and smaller sort: my people wanted to carry some with them;
+but I dissuaded them. My reason was, I apprehended some Frenchman
+might by presents prevail on them to discover the place.
+
+{126} For my part, I carefully observed the latitude, and followed, on
+setting out, a particular point of the compass, to come to a river
+which I knew. I took that route, under pretense of going to a certain
+nation to procure dry provisions, which we were in want of, and which
+are of great help on a journey.
+
+We arrived, after seven days march, at that nation, by whom we were
+well received. My hunters brought in daily many duck and teal. I
+agreed with the natives of the place for a large pettyaugre of black
+walnut, to go down the river, and afterwards to go up the Missisippi.
+
+I had a strong inclination to go up still higher north, in order to
+discover mines. We embarked, and the eleventh day of our passage I
+caused the pettyaugre to be unladen of every thing, and concealed in
+the water, which was then low. I loaded seven men with the things we
+had.
+
+Matters thus ordered, we set out according to the intention I had to
+go to the northward. I observed every day, with new pleasure, the more
+we advanced to that quarter, the more beautiful and fertile the
+country was, abounding in game of every kind: the herds of deer are
+numerous; at every turn we meet with them; and not a day passed
+without seeing herds of buffaloes, sometimes five or six, of upwards
+of an hundred in a drove.
+
+In such journeys as these we always take up our night's lodging near
+wood and water, where we put up in good time: then at sun-set, when
+every thing in nature is hushed, we were charmed with the enchanting
+warbling of different birds; so that one would be inclined to say,
+they reserved this favourable moment for the melody and harmony of
+their song, to celebrate undisturbed and at their ease, the benefits
+of the Creator. On the other hand, we are disturbed in the night, by
+the hideous noise of the numberless water-fowls that are to be seen on
+the Missisippi, and every river or lake near it, such as cranes,
+flamingo's, wild geese, herons, saw-bills, ducks, &c.
+
+As we proceeded further north, we began to see flocks of swans roam
+through the air, mount out of sight, and proclaim {127} their passage
+by their piercing shrill cries. We for some days followed the course
+of a river, at the head of which we found, in a very retired place, a
+beaver-dam.
+
+We set up our hut within reach of this retreat, or village of beavers,
+but at such a distance, as that they could not observe our fire. I put
+my people on their guard against making any noise, or firing their
+pieces, for fear of scaring those animals; and thought it even
+necessary to forbid them to cut any wood, the better to conceal
+ourselves.
+
+After taking all these precautions, we rose and were on foot against the
+time of moonshine, posted ourselves in a place as distant from the huts
+of the beavers, as from the causey or bank, which dammed up the waters
+of the place where they were. I took my fusil and pouch, according to my
+custom of never travelling without them. But each Indian was only to
+take with him a little hatchet, which all travellers in this country
+carry with them. I took the oldest of my retinue, after having pointed
+out to the others the place of ambush, and the manner in which the
+branches of trees we had cut were to be set to cover us. I then went
+towards the middle of the dam, with my old man, who had his hatchet, and
+ordered him softly to make a gutter or trench, a foot wide, which he
+began on the outside of the causey or dam, crossing it quite to the
+water. This he did by removing the earth with his hands. As soon as the
+gutter was finished, and the water ran into it, we speedily, and without
+any noise, retired to our place of ambush, in order to observe the
+behaviour of the beavers in repairing this breach.
+
+A little after we were got behind our screen of boughs, we heard the
+water of the gutter begin to make a noise: and a moment after, a beaver
+came out of his hut and plunged into the water. We could only know this
+by the noise, but we saw him at once upon the bank or dam, and
+distinctly perceived that he took a survey of the gutter, after which he
+instantly gave with all his force four blows with his tail; and had
+scarce struck the fourth, but all the beavers threw themselves pell-mell
+into the water, and came upon the dam: when they were all come thither,
+one of them muttered and mumbled to the {128} rest (who all stood very
+attentive) I know not what orders, but which they doubtless understood
+well, because they instantly departed, and went out on the banks of the
+pond, one party one way; another, another way. Those next us were
+between us and the dam, and we at the proper distance not to be seen,
+and to observe them. Some of them made mortar, others carried it on
+their tails, which served for sledges. I observed they put themselves
+two and two, side by side, the one with his head to the other's tail,
+and thus mutually loaded each other, and trailed the mortar, which was
+pretty stiff, quite to the dam, where others remained to take it, put it
+into the gutter, and rammed it with blows of their tails.
+
+The noise which the water made before by its fall, soon ceased, and
+the breach was closed in a short time: upon which one of the beavers
+struck two great blows with his tail, and instantly they all took to
+the water without any noise, and disappeared. We retired, in order to
+take a little rest in our hut, where we remained till day; but as soon
+as it appeared, I longed much to satisfy my curiosity about these
+creatures.
+
+My people together made a pretty large and deep breach, in order to
+view the construction of the dam, which I shall describe presently: we
+then made noise enough without further ceremony. This noise, and the
+water, which the beavers observed soon to lower, gave them much
+uneasiness; so that I saw one of them at different times come pretty
+near to us, in order to examine what passed.
+
+As I apprehended that when the water was run off they would all take
+flight to the woods, we quitted the breach, and went to conceal
+ourselves all round the pond, in order to kill only one, the more
+narrowly to examine it; especially as these beavers were of the grey
+kind, which are not so common as the brown.
+
+One of the beavers ventured to go upon the breach, after having
+several times approached it, and returned again like a spy. I lay in
+ambush in the bottom, at the end of the dam: I saw him return; he
+surveyed the breach, then struck four blows, which saved his life, for
+I then aimed at him. But these {129} four blows, so well struck, made
+me judge it was the signal of call for all the rest, just as the night
+before. This also made me think he might be the overseer of the works,
+and I did not choose to deprive the republic of beavers of a member
+who appeared so necessary to it. I therefore waited till others should
+appear: a little after, one came and passed close by me, in order to
+go to work; I made no scruple to lay him at his full length, on the
+persuasion he might only be a common labourer. My shot made them all
+return to their cabins, with greater speed than a hundred blows of the
+tail of their Overseer could have done. As soon as I had killed this
+beaver, I called my companions; and finding the water did not run off
+quick enough, I caused the breach to be widened, and I examined the
+dead.
+
+I observed these beavers to be a third less than the brown or common
+sort, but their make the same; having the same head, same sharp teeth,
+same beards, legs as short, paws equally furnished with claws, and
+with membranes or webs, and in all respects made like the others. The
+only difference is, that they are of an ash-gray, and that the long
+pile, which passes over the soft wool, is silvered, or whitish.
+
+During this examination, I caused my people to cut boughs, canes, and
+reeds, to be thrown in towards the end of the pond, in order to pass
+over the little mud which was in that place; and at the same time I
+caused some shot to be fired on the cabins that lay nearest us. The
+report of the guns, and the rattling of the shot on the roofs of the
+cabins, made them all fly into the woods with the greatest
+precipitation imaginable. We came at length to a cabin, in which there
+were not six inches of water. I caused to undo the roof without
+breaking any thing, during which I saw the piece of aspin-tree, which
+was laid under the cabin for their provisions.
+
+I observed fifteen pieces of wood, with their bark in part gnawed. The
+cabin also had fifteen cells round the hole in the middle, at which
+they went out; which made me think each had his own cell.
+
+I am now to give a sketch of the architecture of these amphibious
+animals, and an account of their villages; it is thus {130} I call the
+place of their abode, after the Canadians and the Indians, with whom I
+agree; and allow, these animals deserve, so much the more to be
+distinguished from others, as I find their instinct far superior to
+that of other animals. I shall not carry the parallel any farther, it
+might become offensive.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Beaver_--MIDDLE: _Beaver lodge_--BOTTOM:
+_Beaver dam_]
+
+The cabins of the beavers are round, having about ten or twelve feet
+in diameter, according to the number, more or {131} less, of fixed
+inhabitants. I mean, that this diameter is to be taken on the flooring
+at about a foot above the water, when it is even with the dam: but as
+the upper part runs to a point, the under is much larger than the
+flooring, which we may represent to ourselves, by supposing all the
+upright posts to resemble the legs of a great A, whose middle stroke
+is the flooring. These posts are picked out, and we might say, well
+proportioned, seeing, at the height this flooring is to be laid at,
+there is a hook for bearing bars, which by that means form the
+circumference of the flooring. The bars again bear traverses, or cross
+pieces of timber, which are the joists; canes and grass complete this
+flooring, which has a hole in the middle to go out at, when they
+please, and into this all the cells open.
+
+The dam is formed of timbers, in the shape of St. Andrew's cross, or
+of a great X, laid close together, and kept firm by timbers laid
+lengthwise, which are continued from one end of the dam to the other,
+and placed on the St. Andrew's crosses: the whole is filled with
+earth, clapped close by great blows of their tails. The inside of the
+dam, next the water, is almost perpendicular; but on the outside it
+has a great slope, that grass coming to grow thereon, may prevent the
+water that passes there, to carry away the earth.
+
+I saw them neither cut nor convey the timbers along, but it is to be
+presumed their manner is the same as that of other Beavers, who never
+cut but a soft wood; for which purpose they use their fore-teeth,
+which are extremely sharp. These timbers they push and roll before
+them on the land, as they do on the water, till they come to the place
+where they want to lay them. I observed these grey Beavers to be more
+chilly, or sensible of cold, than the other species: and it is
+doubtless for this reason they draw nearer to the south.
+
+We set out from this place to come to a high ground, which seemed to
+be continued to a great distance. We came the same evening to the foot
+of it, but the day was too far advanced to ascend it. The day
+following we went to its top, found it a flat, except some small
+eminences at intervals. There appeared to be very little wood on it,
+still less water, and least of all stone; though probably there may be
+some in its bowels, having {132} observed some stones in a part where
+the earth was tumbled down.
+
+We accurately examined all this rising ground, without discovering any
+thing; and though that day we travelled upwards of five leagues, yet
+we were not three leagues distant from the hut we set out from in the
+morning. This high ground would have been a very commodious situation
+for a fine palace; as from its edges is a very distant prospect.
+
+Next day, after a ramble of about two leagues and a half, I had the
+signal of call to my right. I instantly flew thither; and when I came,
+the scout shewed me a stump sticking out of the earth knee high, and
+nine inches in diameter. The Indian took it at a distance for the
+stump of a tree, and was surprised to find wood cut in a country which
+appeared to have been never frequented: but when he came near enough
+to form a judgement about it, he saw from the figure, that it was a
+very different thing: and this was the reason he made the signal of
+call.
+
+I was highly pleased at this discovery, which was that of a lead-ore.
+I had also the satisfaction to find my perseverance recompensed; but
+in particular I was ravished with admiration, on seeing this wonderful
+production, and the power of the soil of this province, constraining,
+as it were, the minerals to disclose themselves. I continued to search
+all around, and I discovered ore in several places. We returned to
+lodge at our last hut, on account of the convenience of water, which
+was too scarce on this high ground.
+
+We set out from thence, in order to come nearer to the Missisippi:
+through every place we passed, nothing but herds of buffaloes, elk,
+deer, and other animals of every kind, were to be seen; especially
+near rivers and brooks. Bears, on the other hand, keep in the thick
+woods, where they find their proper food.
+
+After a march of five days I espied a mountain to my right, which
+seemed so high as to excite my curiosity. Next morning I directed
+thither my course, where we arrived about three in the afternoon. We
+stopped at the foot of the mountain, where we found a fine spring
+issuing out of the rock.
+
+{133} The day following we went up to its top, where it is stony.
+Though there is earth enough for plants, yet they are so thin sown,
+that hardly two hundred could be found on an acre of ground. Trees are
+also very rare on that spot, and these poor, meagre, and cancerous.
+The stones I found there are all fit for making lime.
+
+We from thence took the route that should carry us to our pettyaugre,
+a journey but of a few days. We drew the pettyaugre out of the water,
+and there passed the night. Next day we crossed the Missisippi; in
+going up which we killed a she-bear, with her cubs: for during the
+winter, the banks of the Missisippi are lined with them; and it is
+rare, in going up the river, not to see many cross it in a day, in
+search of food: the want of which makes them quit the banks.
+
+I continued my route in going up the Missisippi quite to the Chicasaw
+Cliffs, (Ecores a Prud'homme) where I was told I should find something
+for the benefit of the colony: this was what excited my curiosity.
+
+Being arrived at those cliffs we landed, and concealed, after unlading
+it, the pettyaugre in the water; and from that day I sought, and at
+length found the iron-mine, of which I had some hints given me. After
+being sure of this, I carefully searched all around, to find Castine:
+but this was impossible: however, I believe it may be found higher up in
+ascending the Missisippi, but that care I leave to those who hereafter
+shall choose to undertake the working that mine. I had, however, some
+amends made me for my trouble; as in searching, I found some marks of
+pit-coal in the neighbourhood, a thing at least as useful in other parts
+of the colony as in this.
+
+After having made my reflections, I resolved in a little time to
+return home; but being loth to leave so fine a country, I penetrated a
+little farther into it; and in his short excursion I espied a small
+hill, all bare and parched, having on its top only two trees in a very
+drooping condition, and scarce any grass, besides some little tufts,
+distant enough asunder, which grew on a very firm clay. The bottom of
+this hill was not so barren, and the adjacent country fertile as in
+other parts. {134} These indications made me presume there might be a
+mine in that spot.
+
+I at length returned towards the Missisippi, in order to meet again the
+pettyaugre. As in all this country, and in all the height of the colony
+we find numbers of buffaloes, elk, deer, and other game; so we find
+numbers of wolves, some tigers, Cat-a-mounts, (Pichous) and
+carrion-crows, all of them carnivorous animals, which I shall hereafter
+describe. When we came near the Missisippi we made the signal of
+recognition, which was answered, though at some distance. It was there
+my people killed some buffaloes, to be dressed and cured in their
+manner, for our journey. We embarked at length, and went down the
+Missisippi, till we came within a league of the common landing-place.
+The Indians hid the pettyaugre, and went to their village. As for
+myself, I got home towards dusk, where I found my neighbours and slaves
+surprised, and at the same time glad, at my unexpected return, as if it
+had been from a hunting-match in the neighbourhood.
+
+I was really well pleased to have got home, to see my slaves in
+perfect health, and all my affairs in good order: But I was strongly
+impressed with the beauties of the countries I had seen. I could have
+wished to end my days in those charming solitudes, at a distance from
+the tumultuous hurry of the world, far from the pinching gripe of
+avarice and deceit. There it is, said I to myself, one relishes a
+thousand innocent delights, and which are repeated with a satisfaction
+ever new. It is there one lives exempt from the assaults of censure,
+detraction, and calumny. In those delightsome meadows, which often
+extend far out of sight, and where we see so many different species of
+animals, there it is we have occasion to admire the beneficence of the
+Creator. To conclude, there it is, that at the gentle purling of a
+pure and living water, and enchanted with the concerts of birds, which
+fill the neighbouring thickets, we may agreeably contemplate the
+wonders of nature, and examine them all at our leisure.
+
+I had reasons for concealing my journey, and stronger reasons still to
+suppress what I had discovered, in order to avail myself thereof
+afterwards: but the crosses I underwent, and {135} the misfortunes of
+my life, have, to this day, prevented me from profiting by these
+discoveries, in returning to that charming country, and even so much
+as to lay them before the public.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Of the Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the Coast._
+
+
+In order to describe the nature of this country with some method, I
+shall first speak of the place we land at, and shall therefore begin
+with the coast: I shall then go up the Missisippi; the reverse of what
+I did in the Geographical Description, in which I described that river
+from its source down to its mouth.
+
+The coast, which was the first inhabited, extends from Rio Perdido to
+the lake of St. Louis: this ground is a very fine land, white as snow,
+and so dry, as not to be fit to produce any thing but pine, cedar, and
+some ever-green oaks.
+
+The river Mobile is the most considerable of that coast to the east.
+[Footnote: This river, which they call Mobile, and which after the
+rains of winter is a fine river in spring, is but a brook in summer,
+especially towards its source. _Dumont_, II, 228.] It rolls its waters
+over a pure sand, which cannot make it muddy. But if this water is
+clear, it partakes of the sterility of its bottom, so that it is far
+from abounding so much in fish as the Missisippi. Its banks and
+neighbourhood are not very fertile from its source down to the sea.
+The ground is stony, and scarce any thing but gravel, mixt with a
+little earth. Though these lands are not quite barren, there is a wide
+difference between their productions and those of the lands in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi. Mountains there are, but whether
+stone fit for building, I know not.
+
+In the confines of the river of the Alibamous (Creeks) the lands are
+better: the river falls into the Mobile, above the bay of the same
+name. This bay may be about thirty leagues in length, after having
+received the Mobile, which runs from {136} north to south for about
+one hundred and fifty leagues. On the banks of this river was the
+first settlement of the French in Louisiana, which stood till New
+Orleans was founded, which is at this day the capital of the colony.
+
+The lands and water of the Mobile are not only unfruitful in all kinds
+of vegetables and fish, but the nature of the waters and the soil
+contributes also to prevent the multiplication of animals; even women
+have experienced this. I understood by Madam Hubert, whose husband was
+at my arrival Commissary Director of the colony, that in the time the
+French were in that post, there were seven or eight barren women, who
+all became fruitful, after settling with their husbands on the banks
+of the Missisippi, where the capital was built, and whither the
+settlement was removed.
+
+Fort St. Louis of Mobile was the French post. This fort stands on the
+banks of that river, near another small river, called Dog River, which
+falls into the bay to the south of the fort.
+
+Though these countries are not so fertile as those in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi; we are, however, to observe, that the
+interior parts of the country are much better than those near the sea.
+
+On the coast to the west of Mobile, we find islands not worth
+mentioning.
+
+From the sources of the river of the Paska-Ogoulas, quite to those of
+the river of Quefoncte, which falls into the lake of St. Louis, the
+lands are light and fertile, but something gravelly, on account of the
+neighbourhood of the mountains that lie to the north. This country is
+intermixt with extensive hills, fine meadows, numbers of thickets, and
+sometimes with woods, thick set with cane, particularly on the banks
+of rivers and brooks; and is extremely proper for agriculture.
+
+The mountains which I said these countries have to the north, form
+nearly the figure of a chaplet, with one end pretty near the
+Missisippi, the other on the banks of the Mobile. The inner part of
+this chaplet or chain is filled with hills; which {137} are pretty
+fertile in grass, simples, fruits of the country, horse-chesnuts, and
+wild-chesnuts, as large, and at least as good as those of Lyons.
+
+To the north of this chain of mountains lies the country of the
+Chicasaws, very fine and free of mountains: it has only very extensive
+and gentle eminences, or rising grounds, fertile groves and meadows,
+which in springtime are all over red, from the great plenty of wood
+strawberries: in summer, the plains exhibit the most beautiful enamel,
+by the quantity and variety of the flowers: in autumn, after the
+setting fire to the grass, they are covered with mushrooms.
+
+All the countries I have just mentioned are stored with game of every
+kind. The buffalo is found on the most rising grounds; the partridge
+in thick open woods, such as the groves in meadows; the elks delight
+in large forests, as also the pheasant; the deer, which is a roving
+animal, is every where to be met with, because in whatever place it
+may happen to be, it always has something to browse on. The ring-dove
+here flies in winter with such rapidity, as to pass over a great deal
+of country in a few hours; ducks and other aquatick game are in such
+numbers, that wherever there is water, we are sure to find many more
+than it is possible for us to shoot, were we to do nothing else; and
+thus we find game in every place, and fish in plenty in the rivers.
+
+Let us resume the coast; which, though flat and dry, on account of its
+sand, abounds with delicious fish, and excellent shell-fish. But the
+crystal sand, which is pernicious to the sight by its whiteness, might
+it not be adapted for making some beautiful composition or
+manufacture? Here I leave the learned to find out what use this sand
+may be of.
+
+If this coast is flat, it has in this respect an advantage; as we
+might say, Nature wanted to make it so, in order to be self-defended
+against the descent of an enemy.
+
+Coming out of the Bay of Paska-Ogoulas, if we still proceed west, we
+meet in our way with the Bay of Old Biloxi, where a fort was built,
+and a settlement begun; but a great fire, spread by a violent wind,
+destroyed it in a few moments, which in prudence ought never to have
+been built at all.
+
+{138} Those who settled at Old Biloxi could not, doubtless, think of
+quitting the sea-coast. They settled to the west, close to New-Biloxi,
+on a sand equally dry and pernicious to the sight. In this place the
+large grants happened to be laid off, which were extremely
+inconvenient to have been made on so barren a soil; where it was
+impossible to find the least plant or greens for any money, and where
+the hired servants died with hunger in the most fertile colony in the
+whole world.
+
+In pursuing the same route and the same coast westward, the lands are
+still the same, quite to the small Bay of St. Louis, and to the
+Channels, which lead to the lake of that name. At a distance from the
+sea the earth is of a good quality, fit for agriculture; as being a
+light soil, but something gravelly. The coast to the north of the Bay
+of St. Louis is of a different nature, and much more fertile. The
+lands at a greater distance to the north of this last coast, are not
+very distant from the Missisippi; they are also much more fruitful
+than those to the cast of this bay in the same latitude.
+
+In order to follow the sea-coast down to the mouth of the Missisippi,
+we must proceed almost south, quitting the Channel. I have elsewhere
+mentioned, that we have to pass between Cat-Island, which we leave to
+the left, and Cockle-Island, which we leave to the right. In making
+this ideal route, we pass over banks almost level with the water,
+covered with a vast number of islets; we leave to the left the
+Candlemas-Isles, which are only heaps of sand, having the form of a
+gut cut in pieces; they rise but little above the sea, and scarcely
+yield a dozen of plants, just as in the neighbouring islets I have now
+mentioned. We leave to the right lake Borgne, which is another outlet
+of the lake St. Louis, and continuing the same route by several
+outlets for a considerable way, we find a little open clear sea, and
+the coast to the right, which is but a quagmire, gradually formed by a
+very soft ooze, on which some reeds grow. This coast leads soon to the
+East Pass or channel, which is one of the mouths of the Missisippi,
+and this we find bordered with a like soil, if indeed it deserves the
+name of soil.
+
+There is, moreover, the South-east Pass, where stands Balise, and the
+South Pass, which projects farther into the sea. {139} Balise is a
+fort built on an island of sand, secured by a great number of piles
+bound with good timber-work. There are lodgings in it for the officers
+and the garrison; and a sufficient number of guns for defending the
+entrance of the Missisippi. It is there they take the bar-pilot on
+board, in order to bring the ships into the river. All the passes and
+entrances of the Missisippi are as frightful to the eye, as the
+interior part of the colony is delightful to it.
+
+The quagmires continue still for about seven leagues going up the
+Missisippi, at the entrance of which we meet a bar, three fourths of a
+league broad; which we cannot pass without the bar-pilot, who alone is
+acquainted with the channel.
+
+All the west coast resembles that which I mentioned, from Mobile to
+the bay of St. Louis; it is equally flat, formed of a like sand, and a
+bar of isles, which lengthen out the coast, and hinder a descent; the
+coast continues thus, going westward, quite to Ascension Bay, and even
+a little farther. Its soil also is also barren, and in every respect
+like to that I have just mentioned.
+
+
+I again enter the Missisippi, and pass with speed over these
+quagmires, incapable to bear up the traveller, and which only afford a
+retreat to gnats and moskittos, and to some water-fowl, which,
+doubtless, find food to live on, and that in security.
+
+On coming out of these marshes, we find a neck of land on each side of
+the Missisippi; this indeed is firm land, but lined with marshes,
+resembling those at the entrance of the river. For the space of three
+or four leagues, this neck of land is at first bare of trees, but
+comes after to be covered with them, so as to intercept the winds,
+which the ships require, in order to go up the river to the capital.
+This land, though very narrow, is continued, together with the trees
+it bears, quite to the English Reach, which is defended by two forts;
+one to the right, the other to the left of the Missisippi.
+
+The origin of the name, English Reach, (Detour aux Anglois) is
+differently assigned. I made enquiry of the oldest of the country, to
+what circumstance this Reach might owe its {140} name. And they told
+me, that before the first settlement of the French in this colony, the
+English, having heard of the beauty of the country, which they had,
+doubtless, visited before, in going thither from Carolina by land,
+attempted to make themselves masters of the entrance of the
+Missisippi, and to go up the river, in order to fortify themselves on
+the first firm ground they could meet. Excited by that jealousy which
+is natural to them, they took such precautions as they imagined to be
+proper, in order to succeed.
+
+The Indians on their part, who had already seen or heard of several
+people (French) having gone up and down the Missisippi at different
+times; the Indians, I say, who, perhaps, were not so well pleased with
+such neighbours, were still more frightened at seeing a ship enter the
+river, which determined them to stop its passage; but this was
+impossible, as long as the English had any wind, of which they availed
+themselves quite to this Reach. These Indians were the Ouachas and
+Chaouachas, who dwelt to the west of the Missisippi, and below this
+Reach. There were of them on each side of the river, and they lying in
+the canes, observed the English, and followed them as they went up,
+without daring to attack them.
+
+When the English were come to the entrance of this Reach, the little
+wind they had failed them; observing besides, that the Missisippi made
+a great turn or winding, they despaired of succeeding; and wanted to
+moor in this spot, for which purpose they must bring a rope to land:
+but the Indians shot a great number of arrows at them, till the report
+of a cannon, fired at random, scattered them, and gave the signal to
+the English to go on board, for fear the Indians should come in
+greater numbers, and cut them to pieces.
+
+Such is the origin of the name of this Reach. The Missisippi in this
+place forms the figure of a crescent, almost closed; so that the same
+wind which brings up a ship, proves often contrary, when come to the
+Reach; and this is the reason that ships moor, and go up towed, or
+tacking. This Reach is six or seven leagues; some assign it eight,
+more or less, according as they happen to make way.
+
+{141} The lands on both sides of this Reach are inhabited, though the
+depth of soil is inconsiderable. Immediately above this Reach stands
+New Orleans, the capital of this colony, on the east of the
+Missisippi. A league behind the town, directly back from the river, we
+meet with a Bayouc or creek, which can bear large boats with oars. In
+following this Bayouc for the space of a league, we go to the lake St.
+Louis, and after traversing obliquely this last, we meet the Channels,
+which lead to Mobile, where I began my description of the nature of
+the soil of Louisiana.
+
+The ground on which New Orleans is situated, being an earth accumulated
+by the ooze, in the same manner as is that both below and above, a good
+way from the capital, is of a good quality for agriculture, only that it
+is strong, and rather too fat. This land being flat, and drowned by the
+inundations for several ages, cannot fail to be kept in moisture, there
+being, moreover, only a mole or bank to prevent the river from
+over-flowing it; and would be even too moist, and incapable of
+cultivation, had not this mole been made, and ditches, close to each
+other, to facilitate the draining off the waters: by this means it has
+been put in a condition to be cultivated with success.
+
+From New Orleans to Manchac on the east of the Missisippi, twenty-five
+leagues above the capital, and quite to the Fork to the west, almost
+over-against Manchac, and a little way off, the lands are of the same
+kind and quality with those of New Orleans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_Quality of the Lands above the_ Fork. _A Quarry of Stone for building_.
+_High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility. West Coast: West Lands:
+Saltpetre_.
+
+
+To the west, the Fork, the lands are pretty flat, but exempt from
+inundations. The part best known of these lands is called Baya-Ogoula,
+a name framed Bayouc and Ogoula, which signifies the nation dwelling
+near the Bayouc; there having been a nation of that name in that
+place, when the first Frenchmen {142} came down the Missisippi; it
+lies twenty-five leagues from the capital.
+
+[Illustration: _Indians of the North leaving in the winter with their
+families for a hunt_]
+
+But to the east, the lands are a good deal higher, seeing from Manchac
+to the river Wabache they are between an hundred and two hundred feet
+higher than the Missisippi in its greatest floods. The slope of these
+lands goes off perpendicularly from the Missisippi, which on that side
+receives but few rivers, and those very small, if we except the river
+of the Yasous, whose course is not above fifty leagues.
+
+All these high lands are, besides, surmounted, in a good many places,
+by little eminences, or small hills, and rising grounds running off
+lengthwise, with gentle slopes. It is only when we go a little way
+from the Missisippi, that we find these high lands are over-topped by
+little mountains, which appear to be all of earth, though steep,
+without the least gravel or pebble being perceived on them.
+
+The soil on these high lands is very good; it is a black light mold,
+about three feet deep on the hills or rising grounds. This upper earth
+lies upon a reddish clay, very strong and stiff; the lowest places
+between these hills are of the same nature, {143} but there the black
+earth is between five and six feet deep. The grass growing in the
+hollows is of the height of a man, and very slender and fine; whereas
+the grass of the same meadow on the high lands rises scarce knee deep;
+as it does on the highest eminences, unless there is found something
+underneath, which not only renders the grass shorter, but even
+prevents its growth by the efficacy of some exhalations; which is not
+ordinarily the case on hills, though rising high, but only on the
+mountains properly so called.
+
+My experience in architecture having taught me, that several quarries
+have been found under a clay like this, I was always of opinion there
+must be some in those hills.
+
+Since I made these reflections, I have had occasion, in my journey to
+the country, to confirm these conjectures. We had set up our hut at
+the foot of an eminence, which was steep towards us, and near a
+fountain, whose water was lukewarm and pure.
+
+This fountain appeared to me to issue out of a hole, which was formed
+by the sinking of the earth. I stooped in order to take a better view
+of it, and I observed stone, which to the eye appeared proper for
+building, and the upper part which was this clay, which is peculiar to
+the country. I was highly pleased to be thus ascertained, that there
+was stone fit for building in this colony, where it is imagined there
+is none, because it does not come out of the earth to shew-itself.
+
+It is not to be wondered, that there is none to be found in the Lower
+Louisiana, which is only an earth accumulated by ooze; but it is far
+more extraordinary, not to see a flint, nor even a pebble on the
+hills, for upwards of an hundred leagues sometimes; however, this is a
+thing common in this province.
+
+I imagine I ought to assign a reason for it, which seems pretty
+probable to me. This land has never been turned, or dug, and is very
+close above the clay, which is extremely hard, and covers the stone,
+which cannot shew itself through such a covering: it is therefore no
+such surprise, that we observe no stone out of the earth in these
+plains and on these eminences.
+
+{144} All these high lands are generally meadows and forests of tall
+trees, with grass up to the knee. Along gullies they prove to be
+thickets, in which wood of every kind is found, and also the fruits of
+the country.
+
+Almost all these lands on the east of the river are such as I have
+described; that is, the meadows are on those high grounds, whose slope
+is very gentle; we also find there tall forests, and thickets in the
+low bottoms. In the meadows we observe here and there groves of very
+tall and straight oaks, to the number of fourscore or an hundred at
+most: there are others of about forty or fifty, which seem to have
+been planted by men's hands in these meadows, for a retreat to the
+buffaloes, deer, and other animals, and a screen against storms, and
+the sting of the flies.
+
+The tall forests are all hiccory, or all oak: in these last we find a
+great many morels; but then there grows a species of mushrooms at the
+feet of felled walnut-trees, which the Indians carefully gather; I
+tasted of them, and found them good.
+
+The meadows are not only covered with grass fit for pasture, but
+produce quantities of wood-strawberries in the month of April; for the
+following months the prospect is charming; we scarce observe a pile of
+grass, unless what we tread under foot; the flowers, which are then in
+all their beauty, exhibit to the view the most ravishing sight, being
+diversified without end; one in particular I have remarked, which
+would adorn the most beautiful parterre; I mean the Lion's Mouth (_la
+gueule de Lion_).
+
+These meadows afford not only a charming prospect to the eye; they,
+moreover, plentifully produce excellent simples, (equally with tall
+woods) as well for the purposes of medicine as of dying. When all
+these plants are burnt, and a small rain comes on, mushrooms of an
+excellent flavour succeed to them, and whiten the surface of the
+meadows all over.
+
+Those rising meadows and tall forests abound with buffaloes, elk, and
+deer, with turkeys, partridges, and all kinds of game; consequently
+wolves, catamounts, and other carnivorous animals are found there;
+which, in following the other animals, destroy and devour such as are
+too old or too fat; and when the {145} Indians go a hunting, these
+animals are sure to have the offal, or hound's fee, which makes them
+follow the hunters.
+
+These high lands naturally produce mulberry-trees, the leaves of which
+are very grateful to the silk-worm. Indigo, in like manner, grows
+there along the thickets, without culture. There also a native tobacco
+is found growing wild, for the culture of which, as well as for other
+species of tobacco, these lands are extremely well adapted. Cotton is
+also cultivated to advantage: wheat and flax thrive better and more
+easily there, than lower down towards the capital, the land there
+being too fat; which is the reason that, indeed, oats come there to a
+greater height than in the lands I am speaking of; but the cotton and
+the other productions are neither so strong nor so fine there, and the
+crops of them are often less profitable, though the soil be of an
+excellent nature.
+
+In fine, those high lands to the east of the Missisippi, from Manchae
+to the river Wabache, may and ought to contain mines: we find in them,
+just at the surface, iron and pit-coal, but no appearance of silver
+mines; gold there may be, copper also, and lead.
+
+Let us return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi; which I
+shall cross, in order to visit the west side, as I have already done
+the east. I shall begin with the west coast, which resembles that to
+the east; but is still more dry and barren on the shore. On quitting
+that coast of white and crystal sand, in order to go northward, we
+meet five or six lakes, which communicate with one another, and which
+are, doubtless, remains of the sea. Between these lakes and the
+Missisippi, is an earth accumulated on the sand, and formed by the
+ooze of that river, as I said; between these lakes there is nothing
+but sand, on which there is so little earth, that the sand-bottom
+appears to view; so that we find there but little pasture, which some
+strayed buffaloes come to eat; and no trees, if we except a hill on
+the banks of one of these lakes, which is all covered with ever-green
+oaks, fit for ship-building. This spot may be a league in length by
+half a league in breadth; and was called Barataria, because enclosed
+by these lakes and their outlets, to form almost an island on dry
+land.
+
+{146} These lakes are stored with monstrous carp, as well for size as
+for length; which slip out of the Missisippi and its muddy stream,
+when overflowed, in search of clearer water. The quantity of fish in
+these lakes is very surprising, especially as they abound with vast
+numbers of alligators. In the neighbourhood of these lakes there are
+some petty nations of Indians, who partly live on this amphibious
+animal.
+
+Between these lakes and the banks of the Missisippi, there is some
+thin herbage, and among others, natural hemp, which grows like trees,
+and very branched. This need not surprise us, as each plant stands
+very distant from the other: hereabouts we find little wood, unless
+when we approach the Missisippi.
+
+To the west of these lakes we find excellent lands, covered in many
+places with open woods of tall trees, through which one may easily
+ride on horseback; and here we find some buffaloes, which only pass
+through these woods because the pasture under the trees is bitter; and
+therefore they prefer the grass of the meadows, which lying exposed to
+the rays of the sun, becomes thereby more savoury.
+
+In going still farther west, we meet much thicker woods, because this
+country is extremely well watered; we here find numbers of rivers,
+which fall into the sea; and what contributes to the fertility of this
+land, is the number of brooks, that fall into these rivers.
+
+This country abounds with deer and other game; buffaloes are rare; but
+it promises great riches to such as shall inhabit it, from the
+excellent quality of its lands. The Spaniards, who bound us on that
+side, are jealous enough: but the great quantities of land they
+possess in America, have made them lose sight of settling there,
+though acquainted therewith before us: however, they took some steps
+to traverse our designs, when they saw we had some thoughts that way.
+But they are not settled there as yet; and who could hinder us from
+making advantageous settlements in that country?
+
+I resume the banks of the Missisippi, above the lakes, and the lands
+above the Fork, which, as I have sufficiently acquainted {147} the
+reader, are none of the best; and I go up to the north, in order to
+follow the same method I observed in describing the nature of the
+lands to the east.
+
+The banks of the Missisippi are of a fat and strong soil; but far less
+subject to inundations than the lands of the east. If we proceed a
+little way westward, we meet land gradually rising, and of an
+excellent quality; and even meadows, which we might well affirm to be
+boundless, if they were not intersected by little groves. These
+meadows are covered with buffaloes and other game, which live there so
+much the more peaceably, as they are neither hunted by men, who never
+frequent those countries; nor disquieted by wolves or tigers, which
+keep more to the north.
+
+The country I have just described is such as I have represented it,
+till we come to New Mexico: it rises gently enough, near the Red
+River, which bounds it to the north, till we reach a high land, which
+was no more than five or six leagues in breadth, and in certain places
+only a league; it is almost flat, having but some eminences at some
+considerable distance from each other: we also meet some mountains of
+a middling height, which appear to contain something more than bare
+stone.
+
+This high land begins at some leagues from the Missisippi, and
+continues so quite to New Mexico; it lowers towards the Red River, by
+windings, where it is diversified alternately with meadows and woods.
+The top of this height, on the contrary, has scarce any wood. A fine
+grass grows between the stones, which are common there. The buffaloes
+come to feed on this grass, when the rains drive them out of the
+plains; otherwise they go but little thither, because they find there
+neither water, nor saltpetre.
+
+We are to remark, by the bye, that all cloven-footed animals are
+extremely fond of salt, and that Louisiana in general contains a great
+deal of saltpetre. And thus we are not to wonder, if the buffalo, the
+elk, and the deer, have a greater inclination to some certain places
+than to others, though they are there often hunted. We ought therefore
+to conclude, that there is more saltpetre in those places, than in such
+as they {148} haunt but rarely. This is what made me remark, that these
+animals, after their ordinary repass, fail but rarely to go to the
+torrents, where the earth is cut, and even to the clay; which they lick,
+especially after rain, because they there find a taste of salt, which
+allures them thither. Most of those who have made this remark imagine
+that these animals eat the earth; whereas in such places they only go in
+quest of the salt, which to them is so strong an allurement as to make
+them bid defiance to dangers in order to get at it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Quality of the Lands of the_ Red River. _Posts of the_ Nachitoches. _A
+Silver Mine. Lands of the_ Black River.
+
+
+The Banks of the Red River, towards its confluence, are pretty low,
+And sometimes drowned by the inundations of the Missisippi; but above
+all, the north side, which is but a marshy land for upwards of ten
+leagues in going up to the Nachitoches, till we come to the Black
+River, which falls into the Red. This last takes its name from the
+colour of its sand, which is red in several places: it is also called
+the Marne, a name given it by some geographers, but unknown in the
+country. Some call it the River of the Nachitoches, because they dwell
+on its banks: but the appellation, Red River, has remained to it.
+
+
+Between the Black River and the Red River the soil is but very light,
+and even sandy, where we find more firs than other trees; we also
+observe therein some marshes. But these lands, though not altogether
+barren, if cultivated, would be none of the best. They continue such
+along the banks of the river, only to the rapid part of it, thirty
+leagues from the Missisippi. This rapid part cannot justly be called a
+fall; however, we can scarce go up with oars, when laden, but must
+land and tow. I imagine, if the waterman's pole was used, as on the
+Loire and other rivers in France, this obstacle would be easily
+surmounted.
+
+The south side of this river, quite to the rapid part, is entirely
+different from the opposite side; it is something higher, {149} and
+rises in proportion as it approaches to the height I have mentioned;
+the quality is also very different. This land is good and light, and
+appears disposed to receive all the culture imaginable, in which we
+may assuredly hope to succeed. It naturally produces beautiful fruit
+trees and vines in plenty; it was on that side muscadine grapes were
+found. The back parts have neater woods, and the meadows intersected
+with tall forests. On that side the fruit trees of the country are
+common; above all, the hiccory and walnut-trees, which are sure
+indications of a good soil.
+
+From the rapid part to the Nachitoches, the lands on both sides of
+this river sufficiently resemble those I have just mentioned. To the
+left, in going up, there is a petty nation, called the Avoyelles, and
+known only for the services they have done the Colony by the horses,
+oxen, and cows they have brought from New Mexico for the service of
+the French in Louisiana. I am ignorant what view the Indians may have
+in that commerce: but I well know, that notwithstanding the fatigues
+of the journey, these cattle, one with another, did not come, after
+deducting all expenses, and even from the second hand, but to about
+two pistoles a head; whence I ought to presume, that they have them
+cheap in New Mexico. By means of this nation we have in Louisiana very
+beautiful horses, of the species of those of Old Spain, which, if
+managed or trained, people of the first rank might ride. As to the
+oxen and cows, they are the same as those of France, and both are at
+present very common in Louisiana.
+
+The south side conveys into the Red River only little brooks. On the
+north side, and pretty near the Nachitoches, there is, as is said, a
+spring of water very salt, running only four leagues. This spring, as
+it comes out of the earth, forms a little river, which, during the
+heats, leaves some salt on its banks. And what may render this more
+credible is, that the country whence it takes its rise contains a
+great deal of mineral salt, which discovers itself by several springs
+of salt water, and by two salt lakes, of which I shall presently
+speak. In fine, in going up we come to the French fort of the
+Nachitoches, built in an island, formed by the Red River.
+
+{150} This island is nothing but sand, and that so fine, that the wind
+drives it like dust; so that the tobacco attempted to be cultivated
+there at first was loaded with it. The leaf of the tobacco having a
+very fine down, easily retains this sand, which the least breath of
+air diffuses every where; which is the reason that no more tobacco is
+raised in this island, but provisions only, as maiz, potatoes,
+pompions, &c. which cannot be damaged by the sands.
+
+M. de St. Denis commanded at this place, where he insinuated himself
+into the good graces of the natives in such a manner, that, altho'
+they prefer death to slavery, or even to the government of a
+sovereign, however mild, yet twenty or twenty-five nations were so
+attached to his person, that, forgetting they were born free, they
+willingly surrendered themselves to him; the people and their Chiefs
+would all have him for their Grand Chief; so that at the least signal,
+he could put himself at the head of thirty thousand men, drawn out of
+those nations, which had of their own accord submitted themselves to
+his orders; and that only by sending them a paper on which he drew the
+usual hieroglyphics that represent war among them, with a large leg,
+which denoted himself. This was still the more surprising, as the
+greatest part of these people were on the Spanish territories, and
+ought rather to have attached themselves to them, than to the French,
+if it had not been for the personal merits of this Commander.
+
+At the distance of seven leagues from the French Post, the Spaniards
+have settled one, where they have resided ever since M. de la Motte,
+Governor of Louisiana, agreed to that settlement. I know not by what
+fatal piece of policy the Spaniards were allowed to make this
+settlement; but I know, that, if it had not been for the French, the
+natives would never have suffered the Spaniards to settle in that
+place.
+
+However, several French were allured to this Spanish settlement,
+doubtless imagining, that the rains which come from Mexico, rolled and
+brought gold along with them, which would cost nothing but the trouble
+of picking up. But to what purpose serves this beautiful metal, but to
+make the people vain and idle among whom it is so common, and to make
+them {151} neglect the culture of the earth, which constitutes true
+riches, by the sweets it procures to man, and by the advantages it
+furnishes to commerce.
+
+Above the Nachitoches dwell the Cadodaquious, whose scattered villages
+assume different names. Pretty near one of these villages was
+discovered a silver mine, which was found to be rich, and of a very
+pure metal. I have seen the assay of it, and its ore is very fine.
+This silver lies concealed in small invisible particles, in a stone of
+a chesnut colour, which is spongy, pretty light, and easily
+calcinable: however, it yields a great deal more than it promises to
+the eye. The assay of this ore was made by a Portuguese, who had
+worked at the mines of New Mexico, whence he made his escape. He
+appeared to be master of his business, and afterwards visited other
+mines farther north, but he ever gave the preference to that of the
+Red River.
+
+This river, according to the Spaniards, takes its rise in 32 degrees
+of north latitude; runs about fifty leagues north-east; forms a great
+elbow, or winding to the east; then proceeding thence south-east, at
+which place we begin to know it, it comes and falls into the
+Missisippi, about 31 deg. and odd minutes.
+
+I said above, that the Black River discharges itself into the Red, ten
+leagues above the confluence of this last with the Missisippi: we now
+proceed to resume that river, and follow its course, after having
+observed, that the fish of all those rivers which communicate with the
+Missisippi, are the same as to species, but far better in the Red and
+Black Rivers, because their water is clearer and better than that of
+the Missisippi, which they always quit with pleasure. Their delicate
+and finer flavour may also arise from the nourishment they take in
+those rivers.
+
+The lands of which we are going to speak are to the north of the Red
+River. They may be distinguished into two parts; which are to the
+right and left of the Black River, in going up to its source, and even
+as far as the river of the Arkansas. It is called the Black River,
+because its depth gives it that colour, {152} which is, moreover,
+heightened by the woods which line it throughout the Colony. All the
+rivers have their banks covered with woods; but this river, which is
+very narrow, is almost quite covered by the branches, and rendered of
+a dark colour in the first view. It is sometimes called the river of
+the Wachitas, because its banks were occupied by a nation of that
+name, who are now extinct. I shall continue to call it by its usual
+name.
+
+The lands which we directly find on both sides are low, and continue
+thus for the space of three or four leagues, till we come to the river
+of the Taensas, thus denominated from a nation of that name, which
+dwelt on its banks. This river of the Taensas is, properly speaking,
+but a channel formed by the overflowings of the Missisippi, has its
+course almost parallel thereto, and separates the low lands from the
+higher. The lands between the Missisippi and the river of the Taensas
+are the same as in the Lower Louisiana.
+
+The lands we find in going up the Black River are nearly the same, as
+well for the nature of the soil, as for their good qualities. They are
+rising grounds, extending in length, and which in general may be
+considered as one very extensive meadow, diversified with little
+groves, and cut only by the Black River and little brooks, bordered
+with wood up to their sources. Buffaloes and deer are seen in whole
+herds there. In approaching to the river of the Arkansas, deer and
+pheasants begin to be very common; and the same species of game is
+found there, as is to the east of the Missisippi; in like manner
+wood-strawberries, simples, flowers, and mushrooms. The only
+difference is, that this side of the Missisippi is more level, there
+being no lands so high and so very different from the rest of the
+country. The woods are like those to the east of the Missisippi,
+except that to the west there are more walnut and hiccory trees. These
+last are another species of walnut, the nuts of which are more tender,
+and invite to these parts a greater number of parrots. What we have
+just said, holds in general of this west side; let us now consider
+what is peculiar thereto.
+
+{153}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_A Brook of Salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River of the_ Arkansas.
+_Red veined Marble: Slate: Plaster. Hunting the Buffalo. The dry
+Sand-banks in the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+After we have gone up the Black River about thirty leagues, we find to
+the left a brook of salt water, which comes from the west. In going up
+this brook about two leagues, we meet with a lake of salt water, which
+may be two leagues in length, by one in breadth. A league higher up to
+the north, we meet another lake of salt water, almost as long and
+broad as the former.
+
+This water, doubtless, passes through some mines of salt; it has the
+taste of salt, without that bitterness of the sea-water. The Indians
+come a great way off to this place, to hunt in winter, and make salt.
+Before the French trucked coppers with them, they made upon the spot
+pots of earth for this operation: and they returned home loaded with
+salt and dry provisions.
+
+To the east of the Black River we observe nothing that indicates
+mines; but to the west one might affirm there should be some, from
+certain marks, which might well deceive pretended connoisseurs. As for
+my part, I would not warrant that there were two mines in that part of
+the country, which seems to promise them. I should rather be led to
+believe that they are mines of salt, at no great depth from the
+surface of the earth, which, by their volatile and acid spirits,
+prevent the growth of plants in those spots.
+
+Ten or twelve leagues above this brook is a creek, near which those
+Natchez retreated, who escaped being made slaves with the rest of
+their nation, when the Messrs. Perier extirpated them on the east side
+of the river, by order of the Court.
+
+The Black River takes its rise to the north-west of its confluence,
+and pretty near the river of the Arkansas, into which falls a branch
+from this rise or source; by means of which we may have a
+communication from the one to the other with a middling carriage. This
+communication with the river of the {154} Arkansas is upwards of an
+hundred leagues from the Post of that name. In other respects, this
+Black River might carry a boat throughout, if cleared of the wood
+fallen into its bed, which generally traverses it from one side to the
+other. It receives some brooks, and abounds in excellent fish, and in
+alligators.
+
+I make no doubt but these lands are very fit to bear and produce every
+thing that can be cultivated with success on the east of the
+Missisippi, opposite to this side, except the canton or quarter
+between the river of the Taensas and the Missisippi; that land, being
+subject to inundations, would be proper only for rice.
+
+I imagine we may now pass on to the north of the river of the
+Arkansas, which takes its rise in the mountains adjoining to the east
+of Santa Fe. It afterwards goes up a little to the north, from whence
+it comes down to the south, a little lower than its source. In this
+manner it forms a line parallel almost with the Red River.
+
+That river has a cataract or fall, at about an hundred and fifty
+leagues from its confluence. Before we come to this fall, we find a
+quarry of red-veined marble, one of slate, and one of plaster. Some
+travellers have there observed grains of gold in a little brook: but
+as they happened to be going in quest of a rock of emeralds, they
+deigned not to amuse themselves with picking up particles of gold.
+
+This river of the Arkansas is stored with fish; has a great deal of
+water; having a course of two hundred and fifty leagues, and can carry
+large boats quite to the cataract. Its banks are covered with woods,
+as are all the other rivers of the country. In its course it receives
+several brooks or rivulets, of little consequence, unless we except
+that called the White River, and which discharges itself into the
+curve or elbow of that we are speaking of, and below its fall.
+
+In the whole tract north of this river, we find plains that extend out
+of sight, which are vast meadows, intersected by groves, at no great
+distance from one another, which are all tall woods, where we might
+easily hunt the stag; great numbers {155} of which, as also of
+buffaloes, are found here. Deer also are very common.
+
+From having seen those animals frightened at the least noise,
+especially at the report of a gun, I have thought of a method to hunt
+them, in the manner the Spaniards of New Mexico do, which would not
+scare them at all, and which would turn to the great advantage of the
+inhabitants, who have this game in plenty in their country. This
+hunting might be set about in winter, from the beginning of October,
+when the meadows are burnt, till the month of February.
+
+This hunting is neither expensive nor fatiguing: horses are had very
+cheap in that country, and maintained almost for nothing. Each hunter
+is mounted on horseback, and armed with a crescent somewhat open,
+whose inside should be pretty sharp; the top of the outside to have a
+socket, to put in a handle: then a number of people on horseback to go
+in quest of a herd of buffaloes, and always attack them with the wind
+in their backs. As soon as they smell a man, it is true, they run
+away; but at the sight of the horses they will moderate their fears,
+and thus not precipitate their flight; whereas the report of a gun
+frightens them so as to make them run at full speed. In this chace,
+the lightest would run fast enough; but the oldest, and even the young
+of two or three years old, are so fat, that their weight would make
+them soon be overtaken: then the armed hunter may strike the buffalo
+with his crescent above each ham, and cut his tendons; after which he
+is easily mastered. Such as never saw a buffalo, will hardly believe
+the quantity of fat they yield: but it ought to be considered, that,
+continuing day and night in plentiful pastures of the finest and most
+delicious grass, they must soon fatten, and that from their youth. Of
+this we have an instance in a bull at the Natchez, which was kept till
+he was two years old, and grew so fat, that he could not leap on a
+cow, from his great weight; so that we were obliged to kill him, and
+got nigh an hundred and fifty pounds of tallow from him. His neck was
+near as big as his body.
+
+From what I have said, it may be judged what profit such hunters might
+make of the skins and tallow of those buffaloes; {156} the hides would
+be large, and their wool would be still an additional benefit. I may
+add, that this hunting of them would not diminish the species, those
+fat buffaloes being ordinarily the prey of wolves, as being too heavy
+to be able to defend themselves.
+
+Besides, the wolves would not find their account in attacking them in
+herds. It is well known that the buffaloes range themselves in a ring,
+the strongest without, and the weakest within. The strong standing
+pretty close together, present their horns to the enemy, who dare not
+attack them in this disposition. But wolves, like all other animals,
+have their particular instinct, in order to procure their necessary
+food. They come so near that the buffaloes smell them some way off,
+which makes them run for it. The wolves then advance with a pretty
+equal pace, till they observe the fattest out of breath. These they
+attack before and behind; one of them seizes on the buffalo by the
+hind-quarter, and overturns him, the others strangle him.
+
+The wolves being many in a body, kill not what is sufficient for one
+alone, but as many as they can, before they begin to eat. For this is
+the manner of the wolf, to kill ten or twenty times more than he
+needs, especially when he can do it with ease, and without
+interruption.
+
+Though the country I describe has very extensive plains, I pretend not
+to say that there are no rising grounds or hills; but they are more
+rare there than elsewhere, especially on the west side. In approaching
+to New Mexico we observe great hills and mountains, some of which are
+pretty high.
+
+I ought not to omit mentioning here, that from the low lands of
+Louisiana, the Missisippi has several shoal banks of sand in it, which
+appear very dry upon the falling of the waters, after the inundations.
+These banks extend more or less in length; some of them half a league,
+and not without a considerable breadth. I have seen the Natchez, and
+other Indians, sow a sort of grain, which they called Choupichoul, on
+these dry sand-banks. This sand received no manner of culture; and the
+women and children covered the grain any how with their feet, without
+taking any great pains about it. After this sowing, {157} and manner
+of culture, they waited till autumn, when they gathered a great
+quantity of the grain. It was prepared like millet, and very good to
+eat. This plant is what is called Belle Dame Sauvage, [Footnote: He
+seems to mean Buck-wheat.] which thrives in all countries, but
+requires a good soil: and whatever good quality the soil in Europe may
+have, it shoots but a foot and a half high; and yet, on this sand of
+the Missisippi, it rises, without any culture, three feet and a half,
+and four feet high. Such is the virtue of this sand all up the
+Missisippi; or, to speak more properly, for the whole length of its
+course; if we except the accumulated earth of the Lower Louisiana,
+across which it passes, and where it cannot leave any dry sand-banks;
+because it is straitened within its banks, which the river itself
+raises, and continually augments.
+
+In all the groves and little forests I have mentioned, and which lie
+to the north of the Arkansas, pheasants, partridges, snipes, and
+woodcocks, are in such great numbers, that those who are most fond of
+this game, might easily satisfy their longing, as also every other
+species of game. Small birds are still vastly more numerous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_The Lands of the River_ St. Francis. _Mine of_ Marameg, _and other
+Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone resembling Porphyry. Lands of the_
+Missouri. _The Lands north of the _ Wabache. _The Lands of the
+Illinois_. De la Mothe's _Mine, and other Mines._
+
+
+Thirty leagues above the river of the Arkansas, to the north, and on
+the same side of the Missisippi, we find the river St. Francis.
+
+The lands adjoining to it are always covered with herds of buffaloes,
+nothwithstanding they are hunted every winter in those parts: for it
+is to this river, that is, in its neighbourhood, that the French and
+Canadians go and make their salt provisions for the inhabitants of the
+capital, and of the neighbouring {158} plantations, in which they are
+assisted by the native Arkansas, whom they hire for that purpose. When
+they are upon the spot, they chuse a tree fit to make a pettyaugre,
+which serves for a salting or powdering-tub in the middle, and is
+closed at the two ends, where only is left room for a man at each
+extremity.
+
+The trees they choose are ordinarily the poplar, which grow on the
+banks of the water. It is a white wood, soft and binding. The
+pettyaugres might be made of other wood, be cause such are to be had
+pretty large; but either too heavy for pettyaugres, or too apt to
+split.
+
+The species of wood in this part of Louisiana is tall oak; the fields
+abound with four sorts of walnut, especially the black kind; so
+called, because it is of a dark brown colour, bordering on black; this
+sort grows very large.
+
+There are besides fruit trees in this country, and it is there we
+begin to find commonly Papaws. We have also here other trees of every
+species, more or less, according as the soil is favourable. These
+lands in general are fit to produce every thing the low lands can
+yield, except rice and indigo. But in return, wheat thrives there
+extremely well: the vine is found every where; the mulberry-tree is in
+plenty; tobacco grows fine, and of a good quality; as do cotton and
+garden plants: so that by leading an easy and agreeable life in that
+country, we may at the same time be sure of a good return to France.
+
+The land which lies between the Missisippi and the river St. Francis,
+is full of rising grounds, and mountains of a middling height, which,
+according to the ordinary indications, contain several mines: some of
+them have been assayed; among the rest, the mine of Marameg, on the
+little river of that name; the other mines appear not to be so rich,
+nor so easy to be worked. There are some lead mines, and others of
+copper, as is pretended.
+
+The mine of Marameg, which is silver, is pretty near the confluence of
+the river which gives it name; which is a great advantage to those who
+would work it, because they might {159} easily by that means have
+their goods from Europe. It is situate about five hundred leagues from
+the sea.
+
+I shall continue on the west side of the Missisippi, and to the north
+of the famous river of Missouri, which we are now to cross. This river
+takes its rise at eight hundred leagues distance, as is alledged, from
+the place where it discharges itself into the Missisippi. Its waters
+are muddy, thick, and charged with nitre; and these are the waters
+that make the Missisippi muddy down to the sea, its waters being
+extremely clear above the confluence of the Missouri: the reason is,
+that the former rolls its waters over a sand and pretty firm soil; the
+latter, on the contrary, flows across rich and clayey lands, where
+little stone is to be seen; for though the Missouri comes out of a
+mountain, which lies to the north-west of New Mexico, we are told,
+that all the lands it passes through are generally rich; that is, low
+meadows, and lands without stone.
+
+This great river, which seems ready to dispute the pre-eminence with
+the Missisippi, receives in its long course many rivers and brooks,
+which considerably augment its waters. But except those that have
+received their names from some nation of Indians who inhabit their
+banks, there are very few of their names we can be well assured of,
+each traveller giving them different appellations. The French having
+penetrated up the Missouri only for about three hundred leagues at
+most, and the rivers which fall into its bed being only known by the
+Indians, it is of little importance what names they may bear at
+present, being besides in a country but little frequented. The river
+which is the best known is that of the Osages, so called from a nation
+of that name, dwelling on its banks. It falls into the Missouri,
+pretty near its confluence.
+
+The largest known river which falls into the Missouri, is that of the
+Canzas; which runs for near two hundred leagues in a very fine
+country. According to what I have been able to learn about the course
+of this great river, from its source to the Canzas, it runs from west
+to east; and from that nation it falls down to the southward, where it
+receives the river of the Canzas, which comes from the west; there it
+forms a great elbow, which terminates in the neighbourhood of the
+Missouri; {160} then it resumes its course to the south-east, to lose
+at last both its name and waters in the Missisippi, about f our
+leagues lower down than the river of the Illinois.
+
+There was a French Post for some time in an island a few leagues in
+length, overagainst the Missouris; the French settled in this fort at
+the east-point, and called it Fort Orleans. M. de Bourgmont commanded
+there a sufficient time to gain the friendship of the Indians of the
+countries adjoining to this great river. He brought about a peace
+among all those nations, who before his arrival were all at war; the
+nations to the north being more war-like than those to the south.
+
+After the departure of that commandant, they murdered all the
+garrison, not a single Frenchman having escaped to carry the news: nor
+could it be ever known whether it happened through the fault of the
+French, or through treachery.
+
+As to the nature of that country, I refer to M. de Bourgmont's
+Journal, an extract from which I have given above. That is an original
+account, signed by all the officers, and several others of the
+company, which I thought was too prolix to give at full length, and
+for that reason I have only extracted from it what relates to the
+people and the quality of the soil, and traced out the route to those
+who have a mind to make that journey; and even this we found necessary
+to abridge in this translation.
+
+In this journey of M. de Bourgmont, mention is only made of what we
+meet with from Fort Orleans, from which we set out, in order to go to
+the Padoucas: wherefore I ought to speak of a thing curious enough to
+be related, and which is found on the banks of the Missouri; and that
+is, a pretty high cliff, upright from the edge of the water. From the
+middle of this cliff juts out a mass of red stone with white spots,
+like porphyry, with this difference, that what we are speaking of is
+almost soft and tender, like sand-stone. It is covered with another
+sort of stone of no value; the bottom is an earth, like that on other
+rising grounds. This stone is easily worked, and bears the most
+violent fire. The Indians of the country have contrived to strike off
+pieces thereof with their arrows, {161} and after they fall in the
+water plunge for them. When they can procure pieces thereof large
+enough to make pipes, they fashion them with knives and awls. This
+pipe has a socket two or three inches long, and on the opposite side
+the figure of a hatchet; in the middle of all is the boot, or bowl of
+the pipe, to put the tobacco in. These sort of pipes are highly
+esteemed among them.
+
+All to the north of the Missouri is entirely unknown, unless we give
+credit to the relations of different travellers; but to which of them
+shall we give the preference? In the first place, they almost all
+contradict each other: and then, men of the most experience treat them
+as impostors; and therefore I choose to pay no regard to any of them.
+
+Let us therefore now repass the Missisippi, in order to resume the
+description of the lands to the east, and which we quitted at the
+river Wabache. This river is distant from the sea four hundred and
+sixty (three hundred) leagues; it is reckoned to have four hundred
+leagues in length, from its source to its confluence into the
+Missisippi. It is called Wabache, though, according to the usual
+method, it ought to be called the Ohio, or Beautiful River; seeing the
+Ohio is known under that name in Canada, before its confluence was
+known: and as the Ohio takes its rise at a greater distance off than
+the three others, which mix together, before they empty themselves
+into the Missisippi, this should make the others lose their names; but
+custom has prevailed on the occasion. [Footnote: But not among the
+English; we call it the Ohio.] The first river known to us, which
+falls into the Ohio, is that of the Miamis, which takes its rise
+towards lake Erie.
+
+It is by this river of the Miamis that the Canadians come to
+Louisiana. For this purpose they embark on the river St. Laurence, go
+up this river, pass the cataracts quite to the bottom of Lake Erie,
+where they find a small river, on which they also go up to a place
+called the Carriage of the Miamis; because that people come and take
+their effects, and carry them on their backs for two leagues from
+thence to the banks of the river of their name, which I just said
+empties itself into {162} the Ohio. From thence the Canadians go down
+that river, enter the Wabache, and at last the Missisippi, which
+brings them to New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana. They reckon
+eighteen hundred leagues [Footnote: It is but nine hundred leagues.]
+from the capital of Canada to that of Louisiana, on account of the
+great turns and windings they are obliged to take.
+
+The river of the Miamis is thus the first to the north, which falls
+into the Ohio; then that of the Chaouanons to the south; and lastly,
+that of the Cherakees; all which together empty themselves into the
+Missisippi. This is what we call the Wabache, and what in Canada and
+New England they call the Ohio. This river is beautiful, greatly
+abounding in fish, and navigable almost up to its source.
+
+To the north of this river lies Canada, which inclines more to the
+east than the source of the Ohio, and extends to the country of the
+Illinois. It is of little importance to dispute here about the limits
+of these two neighbouring colonies, as they both appertain to France.
+The lands of the Illinois are reputed to be a part of Louisiana; we
+have there a post near a village of that nation, called Tamaroueas.
+
+The country of the Illinois is extremely good, and abounds with
+buffalo and other game. On the north of the Wabache we begin to see
+the Orignaux; a species of animals which are said to partake of the
+buffalo and the stag; they have, indeed, been described to me to be
+much more clumsy than the stag. Their horns have something of the
+stag, but are shorter and more massy; the meat of them, as they say,
+is pretty good. Swans and other water-fowl are common in these
+countries.
+
+The French Post of the Illinois is, of all the colony, that in which
+with the greatest ease they grow wheat, rye, and other like grain, for
+the sowing of which you need only to turn the earth in the slightest
+manner; that slight culture is sufficient to make the earth produce as
+much as we can reasonably desire. I have been assured, that in the
+last war, when the flour from France was scarce, the Illinois sent
+down to New Orleans upwards of eight hundred thousand weight thereof
+in {163} one winter. Tobacco also thrives there, but comes to maturity
+with difficulty. All the plants transported thither from France
+succeed well, as do also the fruits.
+
+In those countries there is a river, which takes its name from the
+Illinois. It was by this river that the first travellers came from
+Canada into the Missisippi. Such as come from Canada, and have
+business only on the Illinois, pass that way yet: but such as want to
+go directly to the sea, go down the river of the Miamis into the
+Wabache, or Ohio, and from thence into the Missisippi.
+
+In this country there are mines, and one in particular, called De la
+Mothe's mine, which is silver, the assay of which has been made; as
+also of two lead-mines, so rich at first as to vegetate, or shoot a
+foot and a half at least out of the earth.
+
+The whole continent north of the river of the Illinois is not much
+frequented, consequently little known. The great extent of Louisiana
+makes us presume, that these parts will not soon come to our
+knowledge, unless some curious person should go thither to open mines,
+where they are said to be in great numbers, and very rich.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering, and
+manufacturing the Commodities that are proper Articles of Commerce. Of
+the Culture of_ Maiz, Rice, _and other Fruits of the Country. Of the_
+Silk-worm.
+
+
+In order to give an account of the several sorts of plants cultivated
+in Louisiana, I begin with Maiz, as being the most useful grain,
+seeing it is the principal food of the people of America, and that the
+French found it cultivated by the Indians.
+
+Maiz, which in France we call Turkey corn, (and we Indian-corn) is a
+grain of the size of a pea; there is of it as large as our sugar-pea:
+it grows on a sort of husks, (Quenouille) in ascending rows: some of
+these husks have to the {164} number of seven hundred grains upon
+them, and I have counted even to a greater number. This husk may be
+about two inches thick, by seven or eight inches and upwards in
+length: it is wrapped up in several covers or thin leaves, which
+screen it from the avidity of birds. Its foot or stalk is often of the
+same size: it has leaves about two inches and upwards broad, by two
+feet and a half long, which are chanelled, or formed like gutters, by
+which they collect the dew which dissolves at sun-rising, and trickles
+down to the stalk, sometimes in such plenty, as to wet the earth
+around them for the breadth of six or seven inches. Its flower is on
+the top of the stalk, which is sometimes eight feet high. We
+ordinarily find five or six ears on each stalk, and in order to
+procure a greater crop, the part of the stalk above the ears ought to
+be cut away.
+
+For sowing the Maiz in a field already cleared and prepared, holes are
+made four feet asunder every way, observing to make the rows as
+straight as may be, in order to weed them the easier: into every hole
+five or six grains are put, which are previously to be steeped for
+twenty-four hours at least, to make them rise or shoot the quicker,
+and to prevent the fox and birds from eating such quantities of them:
+by day there are people to guard them against birds; by night fires
+are made at proper distances to frighten away the fox, who would
+otherwise turn up the ground, and eat the corn of all the rows, one
+after another, without omitting one, till he has his fill, and is
+therefore the most pernicious animal to this corn. The corn, as soon
+as shot out of the earth, is weeded: when it mounts up, and its stalks
+are an inch big, it is hilled, to secure it against the wind. This
+grain produces enough for two negroes to make fifty barrels, each
+weighing an hundred and fifty pounds.
+
+Such as begin a plantation in woods, thick set with cane, have an
+advantage in the Maiz, that makes amends for the labour of clearing
+the ground; a labour always more fatiguing than cultivating a spot
+already cleared. The advantage is this: they begin with cutting down
+the canes for a great extent of ground; the trees they peel two feet
+high quite round: this operation is performed in the beginning of
+March, as then the sap is in motion in that country: about fifteen
+days after, the canes, {165} being dry, are set on fire: the sap of
+the trees are thereby made to descend, and the branches are burnt,
+which kills the trees.
+
+On the following day they sow the corn in the manner I have just
+shewn: the roots of the cane, which are not quite dead, shoot fresh
+canes, which are very tender and brittle; and as no other weeds grow
+in the field that year, it is easy to be weeded of these canes, and as
+much corn again may be made, as in a field already cultivated.
+
+This grain they eat in many different ways; the most common way is to
+make it into Sagamity, which is a kind of gruel made with water, or
+strong broth. They bake bread of it like cakes (by baking it over the
+fire on an iron plate, or on a board before the fire,) which is much
+better than what they bake in the oven, at least for present use; but
+you must make it every day; and even then it is too heavy to soak in
+soup of any kind. They likewise make Parched Meal [Footnote: See Book
+III, Chap. I.] of it, which is a dish of the natives, as well as the
+Cooedlou, or bread mixt with beans. The ears of corn roasted are
+likewise a peculiar dish of theirs; and the small corn dressed in that
+manner is as agreeable to us as to them. A light and black earth
+agrees much better with the Maiz than a strong and rich one.
+
+The Parched Meal is the best preparation of this corn; the French like
+it extremely well, no less than the Indians themselves: I can affirm
+that it is a very good food, and at the same time the best sort of
+provision that can be carried on a journey, because it is refreshing
+and extremely nourishing.
+
+As for the small Indian corn, you may see an account of it in the
+first chapter of the third Book; where you will likewise find an
+account of the way of sowing wheat, which if you do not observe, you
+may as well sow none.
+
+Rice is sown in a soil well laboured, either by the plough or hoe, and
+in winter, that it may be sowed before the time of the inundation. It
+is sown in furrows of the breadth of a hoe: when shot, and three or
+four inches high, they let water into the furrows, but in a small
+quantity, in proportion as it grows, and then give water in greater
+plenty.
+
+{166} The ear of this grain nearly resembles that of oats; its grains
+are fastened to a beard, and its chaff is very rough, and full of
+those fine and hard beards: the bran adheres not to the grain, as that
+of the corn of France; it consists of two lobes, which easily separate
+and loosen, and are therefore readily cleaned and broke off.
+
+They eat their rice as they do in France, but boiled much thicker, and
+with much less cookery, although it is not inferior in goodness to
+ours: they only wash it in warm water, taken out of the same pot you
+are to boil it in, then throw it in all at once, and boil it till it
+bursts, and so it is dressed without any further trouble. They make
+bread of it that is very white and of a good relish; but they have
+tried in vain to make any that will soak in soup.
+
+The culture of the Water-melon is simple enough. They choose for the
+purpose a light soil, as that of a rising ground, well exposed: they
+make holes in the earth, from two and a half to three feet in
+diameter, and distant from each other fifteen feet every way, in each
+of which holes they put five or six seeds. When the seeds are come up,
+and the young plants have struck out five or six leaves, the four most
+thriving plants are pitched upon, and the others plucked up to prevent
+their starving each other, when too numerous. It is only at that time
+that they have the trouble of watering them, nature alone performing
+the rest, and bringing them to maturity; which is known by the green
+rind beginning to change colour. There is no occasion to cut or prune
+them. The other species of melons are cultivated in the same manner,
+only that between the holes the distance is but five or six feet.
+
+All sorts of garden plants and greens thrive extremely well in
+Louisiana, and grow in much greater abundance than in France: the
+climate is warmer, and the soil much better. However, it is to be
+observed, that onions and other bulbous plants answer not in the low
+lands, without a great deal of pains and labour; whereas in the high
+grounds they grow very large and of a fine flavour.
+
+The inhabitants of Louisiana may very easily make Silk, having
+mulberries ready at hand, which grow naturally in the {167} high
+lands, and plantations of them may be easily made. The leaves of the
+natural mulberries of Louisiana are what the silk-worms are very fond
+of; I mean the more common mulberries with a large leaf, but tender,
+and the fruit of the colour of Burgundy wine. The province produces
+also the White Mulberry, which has the same quality with the red.
+
+I shall next relate some experiments that have been made on this
+subject, by people who were acquainted with it. Madam Hubert, a native
+of Provence, where they make a great deal of silk, which she
+understood the management of, was desirous of trying whether they
+could raise silk-worms with the mulberry leaves of this province, and
+what sort of silk they would afford. The first of her experiments was,
+to give some large silk-worms a parcel of the leaves of the Red
+Mulberry, and another parcel of the White Mulberry both upon the same
+frame. She observed the worms went over the leaves of both sorts,
+without shewing any greater liking to the one than to the other: then
+she put to the other two sorts of leaves some of the leaves of the
+White-sweet or Sugar-Mulberry, and she found that the worms left the
+other sorts to go to these, and that they preferred them to the leaves
+of the common Red and White Mulberry. [Footnote: See an account of
+these different sorts of Mulberry, in the notes at the end of this
+Volume.]
+
+The second experiment of Madam Hubert was, to raise and feed some
+silk-worms separately. To some she gave the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, and to others the leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry; in
+order to see the difference of the silk from the difference of their
+food. Moreover, she raised and fed some of the native silk-worms of
+the country, which were taken very young from the mulberry-trees; but
+she observed that these last were very flighty, and did nothing but
+run up and down, their nature being, without doubt, to live upon
+trees: she then changed their place, that they might not mix with the
+other worms that came from France, and gave them little branches with
+the leaves on them, which made them a little more settled.
+
+{168} This industrious lady waited till the cocoons were perfectly
+made, in order to observe the difference between them in unwinding the
+silk; the success of which, and of all her other experiments, she was
+so good as to give me a particular account of. When the cocoons were
+ready to be wound, she took care of them herself, and found that the
+wild worms yielded less silk than those from France; for although they
+were of a larger size, they were not so well furnished with silk,
+which proceeded, no doubt, from their not being sufficiently
+nourished, by their running incessantly up and down; and accordingly
+she observed that they were but meagre; but notwithstanding, their
+silk was strong and thick, though coarse.
+
+Those who were fed with the leaves of the Red Mulberry made cocoons
+well furnished with silk; which was stronger and finer than that of
+France. Those that were fed upon the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, had the same silk with those that were fed on the leaves of
+the Red Mulberry. The fourth sort, again, that had been fed with the
+leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry, had but little silk; it was indeed
+as fine as the preceding, but it was so weak and so brittle, that it
+was with great difficulty they could wind it.
+
+These are the experiments of this lady on silk-worms, which every one
+may make his own uses of, in order to have the sorts of silk,
+mulberries, or worms, that are most suitable to his purpose, and most
+likely to turn to his account: which we are very glad of this
+opportunity to inform them of, that they may see how much society owes
+to those persons who take care to study nature, in order to promote
+industry and public utility.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_Of_ Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, _and_ Saffron.
+
+
+The high lands of Louisiana produce a natural Indigo: what I saw in
+two or three places where I have observed it, grew at the edges of the
+thick woods, which shews it delights in a good, but light soil. One of
+these stalks was but ten or twelve inches high, its wood at least
+three lines in diameter, and of as {169} fine a green as its leaf; it
+was as tender as the rib of a cabbage leaf; when its head was blown a
+little, the two other stalks shot in a few days, the one seventeen,
+the other nineteen inches high; the stem was six lines thick below,
+and of a very lively green, and still very tender, the lower part only
+began to turn brown a little; the tops of both were equally ill
+furnished with leaves, and without branches; which makes it to be
+presumed, that being so thriving and of so fine a growth, it would
+have shot very high, and surpass in vigour and heighth the cultivated
+Indigo. The stalk of the Indigo, cultivated by the French at the
+Natchez, turned brown before it shot eleven or twelve inches; when in
+seed it was five feet high and upwards, and surpassed in vigour what
+was cultivated in the Lower Louisiana, that is, in the quarter about
+New Orleans: but the natural, which I had an opportunity of seeing
+only young and tender, promised to become much taller and stouter than
+ours, and to yield more.
+
+[Illustration: Indigo.]
+
+The Indigo cultivated in Louisiana comes from the islands; its grain is
+of the bigness of one line, and about a quarter longer, brown and hard,
+flatted at the extremities, because it is compressed in its pod. This
+grain is sown in a soil prepared like a garden, and the field where it
+is cultivated is called the Indigo-garden. In order to sow it, holes are
+made on a straight line with a small hoe, a foot asunder; in each hole
+four or five {170} seeds are put, which are covered with earth; great
+care is had not to suffer any strange plants to grow near it, which
+would choak it; and it is sown a foot asunder, to the end it may draw
+the fuller nourishment, and be weeded without grazing or ruffling the
+leaf, which is that which gives the Indigo. When its leaf is quite come
+to its shape, it resembles exactly that of the Acacia, so well known in
+France, only that it is smaller.
+
+It is cut with large pruning-knives, or a sort of sickles, with about
+six or seven inches aperture, which should be pretty strong. It ought
+to be cut before its wood hardens; and to be green as its leaf, which
+ought, however, to have a bluish eye or cast. When cut it is conveyed
+into the rotting-tub, as we shall presently explain. According as the
+soil is better or worse, it shoots higher or lower; the tuft of the
+first cutting, which grows round, does not exceed eight inches in
+heighth and breadth: the second cutting rises sometimes to a foot. In
+cutting the Indigo you are to set your foot upon the root, in order to
+prevent the pulling it out of the earth; and to be upon your guard not
+to cut yourself, as the tool is dangerous.
+
+In order to make an Indigo-work, a shed is first of all to be built:
+this building is at least twenty feet high, without walls or flooring,
+but only covered. The whole is built upon posts, which may be closed
+with mats, if you please: this building has twenty feet in breadth,
+and at least thirty in length. In this shed three vats or large tubs
+are set in such a manner, that the water may be easily drained off
+from the first, which is the lowermost and smallest. The second rests
+with the edge of its bottom on the upper edge of the first, so that
+the water may easily run from it into the one below. This second vat
+is not broader but deeper than the first, and is called the Battery;
+for this reason it has its beaters, which are little buckets formed of
+four ends of boards, about eight inches long, which together have the
+figure of the hopper of a mill; a stick runs across them, which is put
+into a wooden fork, in order to beat the Indigo: there are two of them
+on each side, which in all make four.
+
+The third vat is placed in the same manner over the second, and is as
+big again, that it may hold the leaves; it is called the {171}
+Rotting-tub, because the leaves which are put into it are deadened,
+not corrupted or spoiled therein. The Indigo-operator, who conducts
+the whole work, knows when it is time to let the water into the second
+vat; then he lets go the cock; for if the leaves were left too long,
+the Indigo would be too black; it must have no more time than what is
+sufficient to discharge a kind of flower or froth that is found upon
+the leaf.
+
+The water, when it is all in the second vat, is beat till the
+Indigo-operator gives orders to cease; which he does not before he has
+several times taken up some of this water with a silver cup, by way of
+assay, in order to know the exact time in which they ought to give
+over beating the water: and this is a secret which practice alone can
+teach with certainty.
+
+When the Indigo-operator finds that the water is sufficiently beaten,
+he lets it settle till he can draw off the water clear; which is done
+by means of several cocks one above another, for fear of losing the
+Indigo. For this purpose, if the water is clear, the highest cock is
+opened, the second in like manner, till the water is observed to be
+tinged; then they shut the cock: the same is done in all the cocks
+till all the Indigo be in a pap at the bottom of the second vat. The
+first, or small vat, serves only to purify the water which is found to
+be tinged, and let run while clear.
+
+When the Indigo is well settled, they put it in cloth bags a foot and
+six inches wide, with a small circle at top, which helps to receive
+the Indigo with ease; it is suffered to drain till it gives no more
+water: however, it must be moist enough to spread it in the mould with
+a wooden knife or spatula.
+
+In order to have the seed, they suffer it to run up as many feet as
+they foresee shall be necessary for seed; it shoots four or five feet
+high, according to the quality of the soil. There are four cuttings of
+it in the islands, where the climate is warmer; three good cuttings
+are made in Louisiana, and of as good a quality at least as in the
+islands.
+
+Tobacco, which was found among the Indians of Louisiana, seems also to
+be a native of the country, seeing their ancient tradition informs us,
+that from time immemorial they {172} have, in their treaties of peace
+and in their embassies, used the pipe, the principal use of which is
+that the deputies shall all smoke therein. This native Tobacco is very
+large; its stalk, when suffered to run to seed, shoots to five feet
+and a half and six feet; the lower part of its stem is at least
+eighteen lines in diameter, and its leaves often near two feet long,
+which are thick and succulent, its juice is strong, but never
+disorders the head. The Tobacco of Virginia has a broader but shorter
+leaf; its stalk is smaller, and runs not up so high; its smell is not
+disagreeable, but not so strong; it takes more plants to make a pound,
+because its leaf is thinner, and not so full of sap as the native.
+What is cultivated in the Lower Louisiana is smaller, and not so
+strong; but that made in the islands is thinner than that of
+Louisiana, but much stronger, and disorders the head.
+
+In order to sow Tobacco, you make a bed on the best piece of ground
+you are master of, and give it six inches in heighth; this earth you
+beat and make level with the back of a spade; you afterwards sow the
+seed, which is extremely fine, nearly resembling poppy seed. It must
+be sown thin, and notwithstanding that attention, it often happens to
+be too thick. When the seed is sown, the earth is no longer stirred,
+but the seed is covered with ashes the thickness of a farthing, to
+prevent the worms from eating the tobacco when it is just shooting out
+of the earth.
+
+As soon as the tobacco has four leaves, it is transplanted into a soil
+prepared for it, put into holes a foot broad made in a line, and
+distant three feet every way; a distance not too great, in order to
+weed it with ease, without breaking the leaves.
+
+The best time for transplanting it is after rain, otherwise you must
+water it: in like manner, when the seed is in the earth, if it rains
+not, you must gently sprinkle it towards evening, because it is
+somewhat slow in rising, and when it is sprouted it requires a little
+water. You must lightly cover the plant in the day time with some
+leaves plucked the night before; a precaution on no account to be
+dispensed with, till the young plant has fully struck root. You must
+also daily visit the {173} tobacco, to clear it of caterpillars, which
+fasten upon it, and would entirely eat it up, if they are not
+destroyed. The tobacco-caterpillar is of the shape of a silk-worm, has
+a prickle on its back towards its extremity; its colour is of the most
+beautiful sea-green, striped with silver-streaks; in a word, it is as
+beautiful to the eye as it is fatal to the plant it is fond of.
+
+I gave great attention to keep my plantation clear of all weeds,
+observing in weeding it with the hoe not to touch the stalks, about
+which I caused to lay new earth, as well to secure them against gusts
+of wind, as to enable them to draw from the earth a more abundant
+nourishment. When the tobacco began to put forth suckers, I plucked
+them off, because they would have shot into branches, which would
+impoverish the leaves, and for the same reason stopped the tobacco
+from shooting above the twelfth leaf, afterwards stripping off the
+four lowermost, which never come to any thing. Hitherto I did nothing
+but what was ordinarily done by those who cultivate tobacco with some
+degree of care; but my method of proceeding afterwards was different.
+
+I saw my neighbours strip the leaves of tobacco from the stalk, string
+them, set them to dry, by hanging them out in the air, then put them
+in heaps, to make them sweat. As for me, I carefully examined the
+plant, and when I observed the stem begin to turn yellow here and
+there, I caused the stalk to be cut with a pruning-knife, and left it
+for some time on the earth to deaden. Afterwards it was carried off,
+on handbarrows, because it is thus less exposed to be broken than on
+the necks of negroes. When it was brought to the house, I caused it to
+be hung up, with the big end of the stem turned upwards, the leaves of
+each stalk slightly touching one another, being well assured they
+would shrivel in drying, and no longer touch each other. It hereby
+happened, that the juice contained in the pith (sometimes as big as
+one's finger) of the stem of the plant, flowed into the leaves, and
+augmenting their sap, made them much more mild and waxy. As fast as
+these leaves assumed a bright chesnut colour, I stripped them from the
+stalk, and made them directly into bundles, which I wrapped up in a
+cloth, and bound it close with a cord for twenty four hours; {174}
+then undoing the cloth, they were tied up closer still. This tobacco
+turned black and so waxy, that it could not be rasped in less than a
+year; but then it had a substance and flavour so much the more
+agreeable, as it never affected the head; and so I sold it for double
+the price of the common.
+
+The cotton which is cultivated in Louisiana, is of the species of the
+white Siam, [Footnote: This East-India annual cotton has been found to
+be much better and whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies,
+which is of the Turkey kind. Both of them keep their colour better in
+washing, and are whiter than the perennial cotton that comes from the
+islands, although this last is of a longer staple.] though not so
+soft, nor so long as the silk-cotton; it is extremely white and very
+fine, and a very good use may be made of it. This cotton is produced,
+not from a tree, as in the East-Indies, but from a plant, and thrives
+much better in light than in strong and fat lands, such as those of
+the Lower Louisiana, where it is not so fine as on the high grounds.
+
+This plant may be cultivated in lands newly cleared, and not yet
+proper for tobacco, much less for indigo, which requires a ground well
+worked like a garden. The seeds of cotton are planted three feet
+asunder, more or less according to the quality of the soil: the field
+is weeded at the proper season, in order to clear it of the noxious
+weeds, and fresh earth laid to the root of the plant, to secure it
+against the winds. The cotton requires weeding, neither so often, nor
+so carefully as other plants; and the care of gathering is the
+employment of young people, incapable of harder labour.
+
+When the root of the cotton is once covered with fresh earth, and the
+weeds are removed, it is suffered to grow without further touching it,
+till it arrives to maturity. Then its heads or pods open into five
+parts, and expose their cotton to view. When the sun has dried the
+cotton well, it is gathered in a proper manner, and conveyed into the
+conservatory; after which comes on the greatest task, which is to
+separate it from the grain or seed to which it closely adheres; and it
+is this part of the work, which disgusts the inhabitants in the
+cultivation {175} of it. I contrived a mill for the purpose, tried it,
+and found it to succeed, so as to dispatch the work very much.
+
+[Illustration: Top: Cotton on the stalk--Bottom: Rice on the stalk]
+
+The culture of indigo, tobacco, and cotton, may be easily carried on
+without any interruption to the making of silk, as any one of these is
+no manner of hindrance to the other. In the first place, the work
+about these three plants does not come on till after the worms have
+spun their silk: in the second place, {176} the feeding and cleaning
+the silk-worm requires no great degree of strength; and thus the care
+employed about them interrupts no other sort of work, either as to
+time, or as to the persons employed therein. It suffices for this
+operation to have a person who knows how to feed and clean the worms;
+young negroes of both sexes might assist this person, little skill
+sufficing for this purpose: the oldest of the young negroes, when
+taught, might shift the worms and lay the leaves; the other young
+negroes gather and fetch them; and all this labour, which takes not up
+the whole day, lasts only for about six weeks. It appears therefore,
+that the profit made of the silk is an additional benefit, so much the
+more profitable, as it diverts not the workmen from their ordinary
+tasks. If it be objected, that buildings are requisite to make silk to
+advantage; I answer, buildings for the purpose cost very little in a
+country where wood may be had for taking; I add farther, that these
+buildings may be made and daubed with mud by any persons about the
+family; and besides, may serve for hanging tobacco in, two months
+after the silk-worms are gone.
+
+I own I have not seen the wax-tree cultivated in Louisiana; people
+content themselves to take the berries of this tree, without being at
+pains to rear it; but as I am persuaded it would be very advantageous
+to make plantations of it, I shall give my sentiments on the culture
+proper for this tree, after the experiments I made in regard to it.
+
+I had some seeds of the wax-tree brought me to Fontenai le Comte, in
+Poictou, some of which I gave to several of my friends, but not one of
+them came up. I began to reflect, that Poictou not being by far so
+warm as Louisiana, these seeds would have difficulty to shoot; I
+therefore thought it was necessary to supply by art the defect of
+nature; I procured horse, cow, sheep, and pigeon's dung in equal
+quantity, all which I put in a vessel of proportionable size, and
+poured on them water, almost boiling, in order to dissolve their
+salts: this water I drew off, and steeped the grains in a sufficient
+quantity thereof for forty-eight hours; after which I sowed them in a
+box full of good earth; seven of them came up, and made shoots between
+seven and eight inches high, but they were all {177} killed by the
+frost for want of putting them into the greenhouse.
+
+This seed having such difficulty to come up, I presume that the wax,
+in which it is wrapped up, hinders the moisture from penetrating into,
+and making its kernel shoot; and there fore I should think that those
+who choose to sow it, would do well if they previously rolled it
+lightly between two small boards just rough from the saw; this
+friction would cause the pellicle of wax to scale off with so much the
+greater facility, as it is naturally very dry; and then it might be
+put to steep.
+
+Hops grow naturally in Louisiana, yet such as have a desire to make
+use of them for themselves, or sell them to brewers, cultivate this
+plant. It is planted in alleys, distant asunder six feet, in holes two
+feet and one foot deep, in which the root is lodged. When shot a good
+deal, a pole of the size of one's arm, and between twelve and fifteen
+feet long, is fixed in the hole; care is had to direct the shoots
+towards it, which fail not to run up the pole. When the flower is ripe
+and yellowish, the stem is cut quite close to the earth and the pole
+pulled out, in order to pick the flowers, which are saved.
+
+If we consider the climate of Louisiana, and the quality of the high
+lands of that province, we might easily produce saffron there. The
+culture of this plant would be so much the more advantageous to the
+planters, as the neighbourhood of Mexico would procure a quick and
+useful vent for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_Of the Commerce that, and may be carried on in_ Louisiana. _Of the
+Commodities which that Province may furnish in return for those of_
+Europe. _Of the Commerce of_ Louisiana _with the Isles_.
+
+
+I have often reflected on the happiness of France in the portion which
+Providence has allotted her in America. She has found in her lands
+neither the gold nor silver of Mexico and Peru, nor the precious
+stones and rich stuffs of the East-Indies; but she will find therein,
+when she pleases, mines of iron, lead, and copper. She is there
+possessed of a fertile soil, {178} which only requires to be occupied
+in order to produce not only all the fruits necessary and agreeable to
+life, but also all the subjects on which human industry may exercise
+itself in order to supply our wants. What I have already said of
+Louisiana ought to make this very plain; but to bring the whole
+together, in order, and under one point of view, I shall next relate
+every thing that regards the commerce of this province.
+
+_Commodities which_ Louisiana _may furnish in return for those
+of_ Europe.
+
+France might draw from this colony several sorts of furs, which would
+not be without their value, though held cheap in France; and by their
+variety, and the use that might be made of them, would yield
+satisfaction. Some persons have dissuaded the traders from taking any
+furs from the Indians, on a supposition that they would be moth-eaten
+when carried to New-Orleans, on account of the heat of the climate:
+but I am acquainted with people of the business, who know how to
+preserve them from such an accident.
+
+Dry buffalo hides are of sufficient value to encourage the Indians to
+procure them, especially if they were told, that only their skins and
+tallow were wanted; they would then kill the old bulls, which are so
+fat as scarce to be able to go: each buffalo would yield at least a
+hundred pounds of tallow; the value of which, with the skin, would
+make it worth their while to kill them, and thus none of our money
+would be sent to Ireland in order to have tallow from that country;
+besides the species of buffaloes would not be diminished, because
+these fat buffaloes are always the prey of wolves.
+
+Deer-skins, which were bought of the Indians at first, did not please
+the manufacturers of Niort, where they are dressed, because the
+Indians altered the quality by their way of dressing them; but since
+these skins have been called for without any preparation but taking
+off the hair, they make more of them, and sell them cheaper than
+before.
+
+The wax-tree produces wax, which being much drier than bees-wax, may
+bear mixture, which will not hinder its lasting longer than bees-wax.
+Some of this wax was sent to Paris to {179} a factor of Louisiana, who
+set so low a price upon it as to discourage the planters from sowing
+any more. The sordid avarice of this factor has done a service to the
+islands, where it gives a higher price than that of France.
+
+The islands also draw timber for building from Louisiana, which might
+in time prevent France from making her profits of the beauty,
+goodness, and quantity of wood of this province. The quality of the
+timber is a great inducement to build docks there for the construction
+of ships: the wood might be had at a low price of the inhabitants,
+because they would get it in winter, which is almost an idle time with
+them. This labour would also clear the grounds, and so this timber
+might be had almost for nothing. Masts might be also had in the
+country, on account of the number of pines which the coast produces;
+and for the same reason pitch and tar would be common. For the planks
+of ships, there is no want of oak; but might not very good one be made
+of cypress? this wood is, indeed, softer than oak, but endowed with
+qualities surpassing this last: it is light, not apt to split or warp,
+is supple and easily worked; in a word, it is incorruptible both in
+air and water; and thus making the planks stouter than ordinary, there
+would be no inconvenience from the use of cypress. I have observed,
+that this wood is not injured by the worm, and ship-worms might
+perhaps have the same aversion to it as other worms have.
+
+Other wood fit for the building of ships is very common in this
+country; such as elm, ash, alder, and others. There are likewise in
+this country several species of wood, which might sell in France for
+joiners work and fineering, as the cedar, the black walnut, and the
+cotton-tree. Nothing more would therefore be wanting for compleating
+ships but cordage and iron. As to hemp, it grows so strong as to be
+much fitter for making cables than cloth. The iron might be brought
+from France, as also sails; however, there needs only to open the iron
+mine at the cliffs of the Chicasaws, called Prud'homme, to set up
+forges, and iron will be readily had. The king, therefore, might cause
+all sorts of shipping to be built there at so small a charge, that a
+moderate expence would procure a numerous fleet. If the English build
+ships in their colonies {180} from which they draw great advantages,
+why might not we do the same in Louisiana?
+
+France fetches a great deal of saltpetre from Holland and Italy; she
+may draw from Louisiana more than she will have occasion for, if once
+she sets about it. The great fertility of the country is an evident
+proof thereof, confirmed by the avidity of cloven-footed animals to
+lick the earth, in all places where the torrents have broke it up: it
+is well known how fond these creatures are of salt. Saltpetre might be
+made there with all the ease imaginable, on account of the plenty of
+wood and water; it would besides be much more pure than what is
+commonly had, the earth not being fouled with dunghills; and on the
+other hand, it would not be dearer than what is now purchased by
+France in other places.
+
+What commerce might not be made with Silk? The silk-worms might be
+reared with much greater success in this country than in France, as
+appears from the trials that have been made, and which I have above
+related.
+
+The lands of Louisiana are very proper for the culture of Saffron, and
+the climate would contribute to produce it in great abundance; and,
+what would still be a considerable advantage, the Spaniards of Mexico,
+who consume a great deal of it, would enhance its price.
+
+I have spoken of Hemp, in respect to the building of ships: but such
+as might be built there, would never be sufficient to employ all the
+hemp which might be raised in that colony, did the inhabitants
+cultivate as much of it as they well might. But you will say, Why do
+they not? My answer is, the inhabitants of this colony only follow the
+beaten track they have got into: but if they saw an intelligent person
+sow hemp without any great expence or labour, as the soil is very fit
+for it; if, I say, they saw that it thrives without weeding; that in
+the winter evenings the negroes and their children can peel it; in a
+word, if they saw that there is good profit to be had by the sale of
+it; they then would all make hemp. They think and act in the same
+manner as to all the other articles of culture in this country.
+
+{181} Cotton is also a good commodity for commerce; and the culture of
+it is attended with no difficulty. The only impediment to the culture
+of it in a greater quantity, is the difficulty of separating it from
+the seed. However, if they had mills, which would do this work with
+greater dispatch, the profit would considerably increase.
+
+The Indigo of Louisiana, according to intelligent merchants, is as
+good as that of the islands; and has even more of the copper colour.
+As it thrives extremely well, and yields more herb than in the
+islands, as much Indigo may be made as there, though they have four
+cuttings, and only three in Louisiana. The climate is warmer in the
+islands, and therefore they make four gatherings; but the soil is
+drier, and produces not so much as Louisiana: so that the three
+cuttings of this last are as good as the four cuttings in the islands.
+
+The Tobacco of this colony is so excellent, that if the commerce
+thereof was free, it would sell for one hundred sols and six livres
+the pound, so fine and delicate is its juice and flavour. Rice may
+also form a fine branch of trade. We go to the East-Indies for the
+rice we consume in France; and why should we draw from foreign
+countries, what we may have of our own countrymen? We should have it
+at less trouble, and with more security. Besides, as sometimes,
+perhaps too often, years of scarcity happen, we might always depend
+upon finding rice in Louisiana, because it is not subject to fail, an
+advantage which few provinces enjoy.
+
+We may add to this commerce some drugs, used in medicine and dying. As
+to the first, Louisiana produces Sassafras, Sarsaparilla, Esquine, but
+above all the excellent balm of Copalm (Sweet-gum) the virtues of
+which, if well known, would save the life of many a person. This
+colony also furnishes us with bears oil, which is excellent in all
+rheumatic pains. For dying, I find only the wood Ayac, or Stinking
+Wood, for yellow; and the Achetchi for red; of the beauty of which
+colours we shall give an account in the third book.
+
+Such are the commodities which may form a commerce of this colony with
+France, which last may carry in exchange all {182} sorts of European
+goods and merchandize; the vent whereof is certain, as every thing
+answers there, where luxury reigns equally as in France. Flour, wines,
+and strong liquors sell well; and though I have spoken of the manner
+of growing wheat in this country, the inhabitants, towards the lower
+part of the river especially, will never grow it, any more than they
+will cultivate the vine, because in these sorts of work a negro will
+not earn his master half as much as in cultivating Tobacco; which,
+however, is less profitable than Indigo.
+
+_The Commerce of_ Louisiana _with the Islands._
+
+From Louisiana to the Islands they carry cypress wood squared for
+building, of different scantlings: sometimes they transport houses,
+all framed and marked out, ready to set up, on landing at their place
+of destination.
+
+Bricks, which cost fourteen or fifteen livres the thousand, delivered
+on board the ship.
+
+
+Tiles for covering houses and sheds, of the same price.
+
+Apalachean beans, (Garavanzas) worth ten livres the barrel, of two
+hundred weight.
+
+Maiz, or Indian corn.
+
+Cypress plank of ten or twelve feet.
+
+Red peas, which cost in the country twelve or thirteen livres the
+barrel.
+
+Cleaned rice, which costs twenty livres the barrel, of two hundred
+weight.
+
+There is a great profit to be made in the islands, by carrying thither
+the goods I have just mentioned: this profit is generally _cent. per
+cent._ in returns. The shipping which go from the colony bring back
+sugar, coffee, rum, which the negroes consume in drink; besides other
+goods for the use of the country.
+
+The ships which come from France to Louisiana put all in at Cape
+Francois. Sometimes there are ships, which not having a lading for
+France, because they may have been paid in money or bills of exchange,
+are obliged to return by Cape Francois, in order to take in their
+cargo for France.
+
+{183}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_Of the Commerce with the_ Spaniards. _The Commodities they bring to the
+Colony, if there is a Demand for them. Of such as may be given in
+return, and may suit them. Reflections on the Commerce of this
+Province, and the great Advantage which the State and particular
+Persons may derive therefrom._
+
+
+_The Commerce with the_ Spaniards.
+
+The commodities which suit the Spaniards are sufficiently known by
+traders, and therefore it is not necessary to give an account of them:
+I have likewise forebore to give the particulars of the commodities
+which they carry to this colony, though I know them all: that is not
+our present business. I shall only apprise such as shall settle in
+Louisiana, in order to traffick with the Spaniards, that it is not
+sufficient to be furnished with the principal commodities which suit
+their commerce, but they should, besides, know how to make the proper
+assortments; which are most advantageous to us, as well as to them,
+when they carry them to Mexico.
+
+_The Commodities which the_ Spaniards _bring to_ Louisiana, _if there is
+a demand for them_.
+
+Campeachy wood, which is generally worth from ten to fifteen livres
+the hundred weight.
+
+Brasil wood, which has a quality superior to that of Campeachy.
+
+Very good Cacoa, which is to be met with in all the ports of Spain,
+worth between eighteen and twenty livres the quintal, or hundred
+weight.
+
+Cochineal, which comes from Vera Cruz: there is no difficulty to have
+as much of it as one can desire, because so near; it is worth fifteen
+livres the pound: there is an inferior sort, called Sylvester.
+
+Tortoise-shell, which is common in the Spanish islands, is worth seven
+or eight livres the pound.
+
+Tanned leather, of which they have great quantities; that marked or
+stamped is worth four livres ten sols the levee.
+
+{184} Marroquin, or Spanish leather, of which they have great
+quantities, and cheap.
+
+Turned calf, which is also cheap.
+
+Indigo, which is manufactured at Guatimala, is worth three or four
+livres the pound: there is of it of a perfect good quality, and
+therefore sells at twelve livres the pound.
+
+Sarsaparilla, which they have in very great quantities, and sell at
+thirteen or fifteen sols.
+
+Havanna snuff, which is of different prices and qualities: I have seen
+it at three shillings the pound, which in our money make thirty-seven
+sols six deniers.
+
+Vanilla, which is of different prices. They have many other things
+very cheap, on which great profits might be made, and for which an
+easy vent may be found in Europe; especially for their drugs: but a
+particular detail would carry me too far, and make me lose sight of
+the object I had in view.
+
+What I have just said of the commerce of Louisiana, may easily shew
+that it will necessarily encrease in proportion as the country is
+peopled; and industry also will be brought to perfection. For this
+purpose nothing more is requisite than some inventive and industrious
+geniuses, who coming from Europe, may discover such objects of
+commerce as may turn to account. I imagine a good tanner might in this
+colony tan the leather of the country, and cheaper than in France; I
+even imagine that the leather might there be brought to its perfection
+in less time; and what makes me think so, is, that I have heard it
+averred, that the Spanish leather is extremely good, and is never
+above three or four months in the tan-pit.
+
+The same will hold of many other things, which would prevent money
+going out of the kingdom to foreign countries. Would it not be more
+suitable and more useful, to devise means of drawing the same
+commodities from our own colonies? As these means are so easy, at
+least money would not go out of our hands; France and her colonies
+would be as two families who traffick together, and render each other
+mutual service. Besides, there would not be occasion for so much money
+to carry on a commerce to Louisiana, seeing the inhabitants have need
+of European goods. It would therefore be a commerce {185} very
+different from that which, without exporting the merchandise of the
+kingdom, exports the money; a commerce still very different from that
+which carries to France commodities highly prejudicial to our own
+manufactures.
+
+I may add to all that I have said on Louisiana, as one of the great
+advantages of this country, that women are very fruitful in it, which
+they attribute to the waters of the Missisippi. Had the intentions of
+the Company been pursued, and their orders executed, there is no doubt
+but this colony had at this day been very strong, and blessed with a
+numerous young progeny, whom no other climate would allure to go and
+settle in; but being retained by the beauty of their own, they would
+improve its riches, and multiplied anew in a short time, could offer
+their mother-country succours in men and ships, and in many other
+things that are not to be contemned.
+
+I cannot too much shew the importance of the succours in corn, which
+this colony might furnish in a time of scarcity. In a bad year we are
+obliged to carry our money to foreigners for corn, which has been
+oftentimes purchased in France, because they have had the secret of
+preserving their corn; but if the colony of Louisiana was once well
+settled, what supplies of corn might not be received from that
+fruitful country? I shall give two reasons which will confirm my
+opinion.
+
+The first is, That the inhabitants always grow more corn than is
+necessary for the subsistence of themselves, their workmen, and
+slaves. I own, that in the lower part of the colony only rice could be
+had, but this is always a great supply. Now, were the colony gradually
+settled to the Arkansas, they would grow wheat and rye in as great
+quantities as one could well desire, which would be of great service
+to France, when her crops happen to fail.
+
+The second reason is, That in this colony a scarcity is never to be
+apprehended. On my arrival in it, I informed myself of what had happened
+therein from 1700, and I myself remained in it till 1734; and since my
+return to France I have had accounts from it down to this present year
+1757; and from these accounts I can aver, that no intemperature of
+season has caused {186} any scarcity since the beginning of this
+century. I was witness to one of the severest winters that had been
+known in that country in the memory of the oldest people living; but
+provisions were then not dearer than in other years. The soil of this
+province being excellent, and the seasons always suitable, the
+provisions and other commodities cultivated in it never fail to thrive
+surprizingly.
+
+One will, perhaps, be surprized to hear me promise such fine things of
+a country which has been reckoned to be so much inferior to the
+Spanish or Portuguese colonies in America; but such as will take the
+trouble to reflect on that which constitutes the genuine strength of
+states, and the real goodness of a country, will soon alter their
+opinion, and agree with me, that a country fertile in men, in
+productions of the earth, and in necessary metals, is infinitely
+preferable to countries from which men draw gold, silver, and
+diamonds: the first effect of which is to pamper luxury and render the
+people indolent; and the second to stir up the avarice of neighbouring
+nations. I therefore boldly aver, that Louisiana, well governed, would
+not long fail to fulfil all I have advanced about it; for though there
+are still some nations of Indians who might prove enemies to the
+French, the settlers, by their martial character, and their zeal for
+their king and country, aided by a few troops, commanded, above all,
+by good officers, who at the same time know how to command the
+colonists: the settlers, I say, will be always match enough for them,
+and prevent any foreigners whatever from invading the country. What
+would therefore be the consequence if, as I have projected, the first
+nation that should become our enemy were attacked in the manner I have
+laid down in my reflections on an Indian war? They would be directly
+brought to such a pass as to make all other nations tremble at the
+very name of the French, and to be ever cautious of making war upon
+them. Not to mention the advantage there is in carrying on wars in
+this manner; for as they cost little, as little do they hazard the
+loss of lives.
+
+In 1734, M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was relieved by M. de
+Biainville, and the King's plantation put on a new footing, by an
+arrangement suitable to the notions of the person {187} who advised
+it. A sycophant, who wanted to make his court to Cardinal Fleury,
+would persuade that minister, that the plantation cost his Majesty ten
+thousand livres a year, and that this sum might be well saved; but
+took care not to tell his Eminence, that for these ten thousand it
+saved at least fifty thousand livres.
+
+Upon this, my place of Director of the public plantations was
+abolished, and I at length resolved to quit the colony and return to
+France, nothwithstanding all the fair promises and warm solicitations
+of my superiors to prevail upon me to stay. A King's ship, La Gironde,
+being ready to sail, I went down the river in her to Balise, and from
+thence we set sail, on the 10th of May, 1734. We had tolerable fine
+weather to the mouth of the Bahama Streights; afterwards we had the
+wind contrary, which retarded our voyage for a week about the banks of
+Newfoundland, to which we were obliged to stretch for a wind to carry
+us to France: from thence we made the passage without any cross
+accident, and happily arrived in the road of Chaidbois before
+Rochelle, on the 25th of June following, which made it a passage of
+forty-five days from Louisiana to France.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, by_ M. Du
+Mont.
+
+I
+
+_Of_ Tobacco, _with the way of cultivating and curing it._
+
+The lands of Louisiana are as proper as could be desired, for the
+culture of tobacco; and, without despising what is made in other
+countries, we may affirm that the tobacco which grows in the country
+of the Natchez, is even preferable to that of Virginia or St. Domingo;
+I say, in the country of the Natchez, because the soil at that post
+appears to be more suitable to this plant than any other: although it
+must be owned, that there is but very little difference betwixt the
+tobacco which grows there and in some other parts of the colony, as at
+the Cut-point, at the Nachitoches, and even at New Orleans; but
+whether it is owing to the exposure, or to the goodness of {188} the
+soil, it is allowed that the tobacco of the Natchez and Yasous is
+preferable to the rest.
+
+The way of planting and curing tobacco in this country, is as follows:
+they sow it on beds well worked with the hoe or spade in the months of
+December, January, or February; and because the seed is very small,
+they mix it with ashes, that it may be thinner sowed: then they rake
+the beds, and trample them with their feet, or clap them with a plank,
+that the seed may take sooner in the ground. The tobacco does not come
+up till a month afterwards, or even for a longer time; and then they
+ought to take great care to cover the beds with straw or cypress-bark,
+to preserve the plants from the white frosts, that are very common in
+that season. There are two sorts of tobacco; the one with a long and
+sharp-pointed leaf, the other has a round and hairy leaf; which last
+they reckon the best sort.
+
+At the end of April, and about St. George's day, the plants have about
+four leaves, and then they pull the best and strongest of them: these
+they plant out on their tobacco-ground by a line stretched across it,
+and at three feet distance one from another: this they do either with
+a planting-stick, or with their finger, leaving a hole on one side of
+the plant, to receive the water, with which they ought to water it.
+The tobacco being thus planted, it should be looked over evening and
+morning, in order to destroy a black worm, which eats the bud of the
+plant, and afterwards buries itself in the ground. If any of the
+plants are eat by this worm, you must set another one by it. You must
+choose a rainy season to plant your tobacco, and you should water it
+three times to make it take root. But they never work their ground in
+this country to plant their tobacco; they reckon it sufficient to stir
+it a little about four inches square round the plant.
+
+When the tobacco is about four or five inches high, they weed it, and
+clean the ground all about it, and hill up every plant. They do the
+same again, when it is about a foot and a half high. And when the
+plant has, about eight or nine leaves, and is ready to put forth a
+stalk, they nip off the top, which they call topping the tobacco: this
+amputation makes the {189} leaves grow longer and thicker. After this,
+you must look over every plant, and every leaf, in order to sucker it,
+or to pull off the buds, which grow at the joints of the leaves; and
+at the same time you must destroy the large green worms that are found
+on the tobacco, which are often as large as a man's finger, and would
+eat up the whole plant in a night's time.
+
+After this, you must take care to have ready a hanger (or
+tobacco-house,) which in Louisiana they make in the following manner:
+they set several posts in the ground, at equal distances from one
+another, and lay a beam or plate on the top of them, making thus the
+form of a house of an oblong square. In the middle of this square they
+set up two forks, about one third higher than the posts, and lay a pole
+cross them, for the ridge-pole of the building; upon which they nail the
+rafters, and cover them with cypress-bark, or palmetto-leaves. The first
+settlers likewise build their dwelling-houses in this manner, which
+answer the purpose very well, and as well as the houses which their
+carpenters build for them, especially for the curing of tobacco; which
+they hang in these houses upon sticks or canes, laid across the
+building, and about four feet and a half asunder, one above another.
+
+The tobacco-house being ready, you wait till your tobacco is ripe, and
+fit to be cut; which you may know by the leaves being brittle, and
+easily broke between the fingers, especially in the morning before
+sun-rising; but those versed in it know when the tobacco is fit to cut
+by the looks of it, and at first sight. You cut your tobacco with a
+knife as nigh the ground as you can, after which you lay it upon the
+ground for some time, that the leaves may fall, or grow tender, and
+not break in carrying. When you carry your tobacco to the house, you
+hang it first at the top by pairs, or two plants together, thus
+continuing from story to story, taking care that the plants thus hung
+are about two inches asunder, and that they do not touch one another,
+lest they should rot. In this manner they fill their whole house with
+tobacco, and leave it to sweat and dry.
+
+After the tobacco is cut, they weed and clean the ground on which it
+grew: each root then puts out several suckers, which are all pulled
+off, and only one of the best is left to {190} grow, of which the same
+care is taken as of the first crop. By this means a second crop is
+made on the same ground, and sometimes a third. These seconds, indeed,
+as they are called, do not usually grow so high as the first plant,
+but notwithstanding they make very good tobacco. [Footnote: This is an
+advantage that they have in Louisiana over our tobacco planters, who
+are prohibited by law to cultivate these seconds; the summers are so
+short, that they do not come to due maturity in our tobacco colonies;
+whereas in Louisiana the summers are two or three months longer, by
+which they make two or three crops of tobacco a year upon the same
+ground, as early as we make one. Add to this, their fresh lands will
+produce three times as much of that commodity, as our old plantations;
+which are now worn out with culture, by supplying the whole world
+almost with tobacco for a hundred and fifty years. Now if their
+tobacco is worth five and six shillings a pound, as we are told above,
+or even the tenth part of it, when ours is worth but two pence or
+three pence, and they give a bounty upon ships going to the
+Missisippi, when our tobacco is loaded with a duty equal to seven
+times its prime cost; they may, with all these advantages, soon get
+this trade from us, the, only one this nation has left entire to
+itself. These advantages enable the planters to give a much better
+price for servants and slaves, and thereby to engross the trade. It
+was by these means, that the French got the sugar trade from us, after
+the treaty of Utrecht, by being allowed to transport their people from
+St. Christopher's to the rich and fresh lands of St. Domingo; and by
+removing from Canada to Louisiana, they may in the like manner get not
+only this, but every other branch of the trade of North America.]
+
+If you have a mind to make your tobacco into rolls, there is no
+occasion to wait till the leaves are perfectly dry; but as soon as
+they have acquired a yellowish brown colour, although the stem is
+green, you unhang your tobacco, and strip the leaves from the stalks,
+lay them up in heaps, and cover them with woolen cloths, in order to
+sweat them. After that you stem the tobacco, or pull out the middle
+rib of the leaf, which you throw away with the stalks, as good for
+nothing; laying by the longest and largest of the leaves, that are of
+a good blackish brown colour, and keep them for a covering for your
+rolls. After this you take a piece of coarse linen, at least eight
+inches broad and a foot long, which you spread on the ground, and on
+it lay the large leaves you have picked out, and the others over them
+in handfuls, taking care always to have more in the middle than at the
+ends: then you roll the {191} tobacco up in the cloth, tying it in the
+middle and at each end. When you have made a sufficient number of
+these bundles, the negroes roll them up as hard as they can with a
+cord about as big as the little finger, which is commonly about
+fifteen or sixteen fathom long: you tighten them three times, so as to
+make them as hard as possible; and to keep them so, you might tie them
+up with a string.
+
+But since the time of the West India company, we have seldom cured our
+tobacco in this manner, if it is not for our own use; we now cure it
+in hands, or bundles of the leaves, which they pack in hogsheads, and
+deliver it thus in France to the farmers general. In order to cure the
+tobacco in this manner, they wait till the leaves of the stem are
+perfectly dry, and in moist, giving weather, they strip the leaves
+from the stalk, till they have a handful of them, called a hand, or
+bundle of tobacco, which they tie up with another leaf. These bundles
+they lay in heaps, in order to sweat them, for which purpose they
+cover those heaps with blankets, and lay boards or planks over them.
+But you should take care that the tobacco is not over-heated, and does
+not take fire, which may easily happen; for which purpose you uncover
+your heaps from time to time, and give the tobacco air, by spreading
+it abroad. This you continue to do till you find no more heat in the
+tobacco; then you pack it in hogsheads, and may transport it any
+where, without danger either of its heating or rotting.
+
+II.
+
+_Of the way of making_ Indigo.
+
+The blue stone, known by the name of Indigo, is the extract of a plant
+which they who have a sufficient number of slaves to manage it, make
+some quantities throughout all this colony. For this purpose they
+first weed the ground, and make small holes in it with a hoe, about
+five inches asunder, and on a straight line. In each of these holes
+they put five or six seeds of the indigo, which are small, long, and
+hard. When they come up, they put forth leaves somewhat like those of
+box, but a little longer and broader, and not so thick and indented.
+When the plant is five or six inches high, they take {192} care to
+loosen the earth about the root, and at the same time to weed it. They
+reckon it has acquired a proper maturity, when it is about three feet
+and a half high: this you may likewise know, if the leaf cracks as you
+squeeze the plant in your hand.
+
+Before you cut it, you get ready a place that is covered in the same
+manner with the one made for tobacco, about twenty-five feet high; in
+which you put three vats, one above another, as it were in different
+stories, so that the highest is the largest; that in the middle is
+square, and the deepest; the third, at bottom, is the least.
+
+After these operations, you cut the indigo, and when you have several
+arms-full, or bundles of the plant, to the quantity judged necessary
+for one working, you fill the vat at least three quarters full; after
+which you pour water thereon up to the brim, and the plant is left to
+steep, in order to rot it; which is the reason why this vat is called
+the rotting-tub. For the three or four hours which the plant takes to
+rot, the water is impregnated with its virtue; and, though the plant
+is green, communicates thereto a blue colour.
+
+At the bottom of the great vat, and where it bears on the one in the
+middle (which, as was said, is square) is a pretty large hole, stopped
+with a bung; which is opened when the plant is thought to be
+sufficiently rotten, and all the water of this vat, mixed with the
+mud, formed by the rotting of the plant, falls by this hole into the
+second vat; on the edges of which are placed, at proper distances,
+forks of iron or wood, on which large long poles are laid, which reach
+from the two sides to the middle of the water in the vat; the end
+plunged in the water is furnished with a bucket without a bottom. A
+number of slaves lay hold on these poles, by the end which is out of
+the water; and alternately pulling them down, and then letting the
+buckets fall into the vat, they thus continue to beat the water; which
+being thus agitated and churned, comes to be covered with a white and
+thick scum; and in such quantity as that it would rise up and flow
+over the brim of the vat, if the operator did not take care to throw
+in, from time to time, some fish-oil, which he sprinkles with a
+feather upon this scum. For these reasons this vat is called the
+battery.
+
+{193} They continue to beat the water for an hour and a half, or two
+hours; after which they give over, and the water is left to settle.
+However, they from time to time open three holes, which are placed at
+proper distances from top to bottom in one of the sides of this second
+vat in order to let the water run off clear. This is repeated for
+three several times; but when at the third time the muddy water is
+ready to come out at the lowermost hole, they stop it, and open
+another pierced in the lower part of that side, which rests on the
+third vat. Then all the muddy water falls through that hole of the
+second vat, into the third, which is the least, and is called the
+_deviling (diablotin.)_
+
+They have sacks, a foot long, made of a pretty close cloth, which they
+fill with this liquid thick matter, and hang them on nails round the
+indigo-house. The water drains out gradually; and the matter which is
+left behind, resembles a real mud, which they take out of these sacks,
+and put in moulds, made like little drawers, two feet long by half a
+foot broad, and with a border, or ledge, an inch and a half high. Then
+they lay them out in the sun, which draws off all the moisture: and as
+this mud comes to dry, care is taken to work it with a mason's trowel:
+at length it forms a body, which holds together, and is cut in pieces,
+while fresh, with wire. It is in this manner that they draw from a
+green herb this fine blue colour, of which there are two sorts, one of
+which is of a purple dove colour.
+
+III.
+
+_Of Tar; the way of making it; and of making it into Pitch_.
+
+I have said, that they made a great deal of tar in this colony, from
+pines and firs; which is done in the following manner. It is a common
+mistake, that tar is nothing but the sap or gum of the pine, drawn
+from the tree by incision; the largest trees would not yield two
+pounds by this method; and if it were, to be made in that manner, you
+must choose the most thriving and flourishing trees for the purpose;
+whereas it is only made from the trees that are old, and are beginning
+to decay, because the older they are, the greater quantities they
+contain of that fat bituminous substance, which yields tar; it {194}
+is even proper that the tree should be felled a long time, before they
+use them for this purpose. It is usually towards the mouth of the
+river, and along the sea-coasts, that they make tar; because it is in
+those places that the pines chiefly grow.
+
+When they have a sufficient number of these trees, that are fit for
+the purpose, they saw them in cuts with a cross-cut saw, about two
+feet in length; and while the slaves are employed in sawing them,
+others split these cuts lengthwise into small pieces, the smaller the
+better. They sometimes spend three or four months in cutting and
+preparing the trees in this manner. In the mean time they make a
+square hollow in the ground, four or five feet broad, and five or six
+inches deep: from one side of which goes off a canal or gutter, which
+discharges itself into a large and pretty deep pit, at the distance of
+a few paces. From this pit proceeds another canal, which communicates
+with a second pit; and even from the first square you make three or
+four such trenches, which discharge themselves into as many pits,
+according to the quantity of wood you have, or the quantity of tar you
+imagine you may draw from it. Then you lay over the square hole four
+or five pretty strong bars of iron, and upon these bars you arrange
+crosswise the split pieces of pine, of which you should have a
+quantity ready; laying them so, that there may be a little air between
+them. In this manner you raise a large and high pyramid of the wood,
+and when it is finished, you set fire to it at the top. As the wood
+burns, the fire melts the resin in the pine, and this liquid tar
+distills into the square hole, and from thence runs into the pits made
+to receive it.
+
+If you would make pitch of this tar, take two or three red-hot cannon
+bullets, and throw them into the pits, full of the tar, which you
+intend for this purpose: immediately upon which, the tar takes fire
+with a terrible noise and a horrible thick smoke, by which the
+moisture that may remain in the tar is consumed and dissipated, and
+the mass diminishes in proportion; and when they think it is
+sufficiently burnt, they extinguish the fire, not with water, but with
+a hurdle covered with turf and earth. As it grows cold, it becomes
+hard and shining, so that you cannot take it out of the pits, but by
+cutting it with an axe.
+
+{195}
+
+IV.
+
+_Of the Mines of_ Louisiana.
+
+Before we quit this subject, I shall conclude this account by
+answering a question, which has often been proposed to me. Are there
+any Mines, say they, in this province? There are, without all dispute;
+and that is so certain, and so well known, that they who have any
+knowledge of this country never once called it in question. And it is
+allowed by all, that there are to be found in this country quarries of
+plaster of Paris, slate, and very fine veined marble; and I have
+learned from one of my friends, who as well as myself had been a great
+way on discoveries, that in travelling this province he had found a
+place full of fine stones of rock-crystal. As for my share, I can
+affirm, without endeavoring to impose on any one, that in one of my
+excursions I found, upon the river of the Arkansas, a rivulet that
+rolled down with its waters gold-dust; from which there is reason to
+believe that there are mines of this metal in that country. And as for
+silver-mines, there is no doubt but they might be found there, as well
+as in New Mexico, on which this province borders. A Canadian
+traveller, named Bon Homme, as he was hunting at some distance from
+the Post of the Nachitoches, melted some parcels of a mine, that is
+found in rocks at a very little distance from that Post, which
+appeared to be very good silver, without any farther purification.
+[Footnote: See a farther account and assay of this mine above.]
+
+It will be objected to me, perhaps, that if there is any truth in what
+I advance, I should have come from that country laden with silver and
+gold; and that if these precious metals are to be found there, as I
+have said, it is surprizing that the French have never thought of
+discovering and digging them in thirty years, in which they have been
+settled in Louisiana. To this I answer, that this objection is only
+founded on the ignorance of those who make it; and that a traveller,
+or an officer, ordered by his superiors to go to reconnoitre the
+country, to draw plans, and give an account of what he has seen, in
+nothing but immense woods and deserts, where they cannot so {196} much
+as find a path, but what is made by the wild beasts; I say, that such
+people have enough to do to take care of themselves and of their
+present business, instead of gathering riches; and think it
+sufficient, that they return in a whole skin.
+
+With regard to the negligence that the French seem hitherto to have
+shewn in searching for these mines, and in digging them, we ought to
+take due notice, that in order to open a silver-mine, for example, you
+must advance at least a hundred thousand crowns, before you can expect
+to get a penny of profit from it, and that the people of the country
+are not in a condition to be at any such charge. Add to this, that the
+inhabitants are too ignorant of these mines; the Spaniards, their
+neighbours, are too discreet to teach them; and the French in Europe
+are too backward and timorous to engage in such an undertaking. But
+notwithstanding, it is certain that the thing has been already done,
+and that just reasons, without doubt, but different from an
+impossibility, have caused it to be laid aside.
+
+This author gives a like account of the culture of Rice in Louisiana,
+and of all the other staple commodities of our colonies in North
+America.
+
+{197} _Extract from a late_ French _Writer, concerning the Importance
+of_ Louisiana _to France_.
+
+"One cannot help lamenting the lethargic state of that colony,
+(Louisiana) which carries in its bosom the bed of the greatest riches;
+and in order to produce them, asks only arms proper for tilling the
+earth, which is wholly disposed to yield an hundred fold. Thanks to
+the fertility of our islands, our Sugar plantations are infinitely
+superior to those of the English, and we likewise excel them in our
+productions of Indigo, Coffee, and Cotton.
+
+"Tobacco is the only production of the earth which gives the English
+an advantage over us. Providence, which reserved for us the discovery
+of Louisiana, has given us the possession of it, that we may be their
+rivals in this particular, or at least that we may be able to do
+without their Tobacco. Ought we to continue tributaries to them in
+this respect, when we can so easily do without them?
+
+"I cannot help remarking here, that among several projects presented
+of late years for giving new force to this colony, a company of
+creditable merchants proposed to furnish negroes to the inhabitants,
+and to be paid for them in Tobacco alone at a fixed valuation.
+
+"The following advantages, they demonstrated, would attend their
+scheme. I. It would increase a branch of commerce in France, which
+affords subsistence to two of the English colonies in America, namely
+Virginia and Maryland, the inhabitants of which consume annually a
+very considerable quantity of English stuffs, and employ a great
+number of ships in the transportation of their Tobacco. The
+inhabitants of those two provinces are so greatly multiplied, in
+consequence of the riches they have acquired by their commerce with
+us, that they begin to spread themselves upon territories that belong
+to us. II. The second advantage arising from the scheme would be, to
+carry the cultivation of Tobacco to its greatest extent and
+perfection. III. To diminish in proportion the cultivation of the
+English plantations, as well as lessen their navigation in that part.
+IV. To put an end entirely to the {198} importation of any Tobacco
+from Great-Britain into France, in the space of twelve years. V. To
+diminish annually, and in the same space of time finally put an end
+to, the exportation of specie from France to Great-Britain, which
+amounts annually to five millions of our money for the purchase of
+Tobacco, and the freightage of English ships, which bring it into our
+ports. VI. By diminishing the cause of the outgoing specie, to augment
+the balance of commerce in favour of the nation. These are the
+principal advantages which France would have reason to have expected
+from the establishment of this company, if it had been effected."
+_Essai sur les Interets du Commerce Maritime, par_ M. du Haye. 1754.
+
+The probability of succeeding in such a scheme will appear from the
+foregoing accounts of Tobacco in Louisiana, pag. 172, 173, 181, 188,
+&c. They only want hands to make any quantities of Tobacco in
+Louisiana. The consequences of that will appear from the following
+account.
+
+{199} _An Account of the Quantity of Tobacco imported into_ Britain,
+_and exported from it, in the four Years of Peace, after the late
+Tobacco-Law took place, according to the Custom-House Accounts._
+
+
+                                 Imported     Exported
+                                  Hhds.        Hhds.
+                       1752 - - - 55,997 - -  48,922
+    England,           1753 - - - 70,925 - -  57,353
+                       1754 - - - 59,744 - -  50,476
+                       1755 - - - 71,881 - -  54,384
+                                ---------   ---------
+                                 258,547 - - 211,135
+                                ---------   ---------
+                       1752 - - - 22,322 - -  21,642
+    Scotland,          1753 - - - 26,210 - -  24,728
+                       1754 - - - 22,334 - -  21,764
+                       1755 - - - 20,698 - -  19,711
+                                ---------   ---------
+                                  91,564 - -  87,845
+                                ---------   ---------
+                     Total - - - 350,111 - - 298,980
+                     Average - -  87,528 - -  74,745
+                 Imported yearly - - -  hhds  87,528
+                 Exported - - - - - - - - -   74,745
+                                            ---------
+                  Home consumption - - - - -  12,783
+  To 87,528 hogsheads, at 10L per hogshead, L875,280
+  To duty on 12,783 hogsheads at 20L - - -   255,660
+                                           ---------
+  Annual income from Tobacco - - - - -     1,130,940
+
+
+The number of seamen employed in the Tobacco trade is computed at
+4500;--in the Sugar trade 3600;--and in the Fishery of Newfoundland
+4000, from Britain.
+
+{201}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+_The Natural History of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Of Corn and Pulse_.
+
+
+Having, in the former part of this work, given an account of the
+nature of the soil of Louisiana, and observed that some places were
+proper for one kind of plants, and some for another; and that almost
+the whole country was capable of producing, and bringing to the utmost
+maturity, all kinds of grain, I shall now present the industrious
+planter with an account of the trees and plants which may be
+cultivated to advantage in those lands with which he is now made
+acquainted.
+
+During my abode in that country, where I myself have a grant of lands,
+and where I lived sixteen years, I have had leisure to study this
+subject, and have made such progress in it, that I have sent to the
+West-India Company in France no less than three hundred medicinal
+plants, found in their possessions, and worthy of the attention of the
+public. The reader may depend upon my being faithful and exact; he
+must not however here expect a description of every thing that
+Louisiana produces of the vegetable kind. Its prodigious fertility
+makes it impracticable for me to undertake so extensive a work. I
+shall chiefly describe those plants and fruits that are most useful to
+the inhabitants, either in regard to their own subsistence or
+preservation, or in regard to their foreign commerce; {202} and I
+shall add the manner of cultivating and managing the plants that are
+of greatest advantage to the colony.
+
+Louisiana produces several kinds of Maiz, namely Flour-maiz, which is
+white, with a flat and shrivelled surface, and is the softest of all
+the kinds; Homony corn, which is round, hard, and shining; of this
+there are four sorts, the white, the yellow, the red, and the blue;
+the Maiz of these two last colours is more common in the high lands
+than in the Lower Louisiana. We have besides small corn, or small
+Maiz, so called because it is smaller than the other kinds. New
+settlers sow this corn upon their first arrival, in order to have
+whereon to subsist as soon as possible; for it rises very fast, and
+ripens in so short a time, that from the same field they may have two
+crops of it in one year. Besides this, it has the advantage of being
+more agreeable to the taste than the large kind.
+
+Maiz, which in France is called Turkey Corn, (and in England Indian
+Corn) is the natural product of this country; for upon our arrival we
+found it cultivated by the natives. It grows upon a stalk six, seven,
+and eight feet high; the ear is large, and about two inches diameter,
+containing sometimes seven hundred grains and upwards; and each stalk
+bears sometimes six or seven ears, according to the goodness of the
+ground. The black and light soil is that which agrees best with it;
+but strong ground is not so favourable to it.
+
+This corn, it is well known, is very wholesome both for man and other
+animals, especially for poultry. The natives, that they may have
+change of dishes, dress it in various ways. The best is to make it
+into what is called Parched Meal, (Farine Froide.) As there is nobody
+who does not eat of this with pleasure, even though not very hungry, I
+will give the manner of preparing it, that our provinces of France,
+which reap this grain, may draw the same advantage from it.
+
+The corn is first parboiled in water; then drained and well dried.
+When it is perfectly dry, it is then roasted in a plate made for that
+purpose, ashes being mixed with it to hinder it from burning; and they
+keep continually stirring it, that it may take only the red colour
+which they want. When it has taken that colour, they remove the ashes,
+rub it well, and then {203} put it in a mortar with the ashes of dried
+stalks of kidney beans, and a little water; they then beat it gently,
+which quickly breaks the husk, and turns the whole into meal. This
+meal, after being pounded, is dried in the sun, and after this last
+operation it may be carried any where, and will keep six months, if
+care be taken from time to time to expose it to the sun. When they
+want to eat of it, they mix in a vessel two thirds water with one
+third meal, and in a few minutes the mixture swells greatly in bulk,
+and is fit to eat. It is a very nourishing food, and is an excellent
+provision for travellers, and those who go to any distance to trade.
+
+This parched meal, mixed with milk and a little sugar, may be served
+up at the best tables. When mixed with milk-chocolate it makes a very
+lasting nourishment. From Maiz they make a strong and agreeable beer;
+and they likewise distil brandy from it.
+
+Wheat, rye, barley, and oats grow extremely well in Louisiana; but I
+must add one precaution in regard to wheat; when it is sown by itself,
+as in France, it grows at first wonderfully; but when it is in flower,
+a great number of drops of red water may be observed at the bottom of
+the stalk within six inches of the ground, which are collected there
+during the night, and disappear at sun-rising. This water is of such
+an acrid nature, that in a short time it consumes the stalk, and the
+ear falls before the grain is formed. To prevent this misfortune,
+which is owing to the too great richness of the soil, the method I
+have taken, and which has succeeded extremely well, is to mix with the
+wheat you intend to sow, some rye and dry mould, in such a proportion
+that the mould shall be equal to the rye and wheat together. This
+method I remember to have seen practised in France; and when I asked
+the reason of it, the farmer told me that as the land was new, and had
+lately been a wood, it contained an acid that was prejudicial to the
+wheat; and that as the rye absorbed that acid without being hurt, it
+thereby preserved the other grain. I have seen barley and oats in that
+country three feet high.
+
+The rice which is cultivated in that country was brought from
+Carolina. It succeeds surprizingly well, and experience {204} has
+there proved, contrary to the common notion, that it does not want to
+have its foot always in the water. It has been sown in the flat
+country without being flooded, and the grain that was reaped was full
+grown, and of a very delicate taste. The fine relish need not surprise
+us; for it is so with all plants and fruits that grow without being
+watered, and at a distance from watery places. Two crops may be reaped
+from the same plant; but the second is poor if it be not flooded. I
+know not whether they have attempted, since I left Louisiana, to sow
+it upon the sides of hills.
+
+The first settlers found in the country French-beans of various
+colours, particularly red and black, and they have been called beans
+of forty days, because they require no longer time to grow and to be
+fit to eat green. The Apalachean beans are so called because we
+received them from a nation of the natives of that name. They probably
+had them from the English of Carolina, whither they had been brought
+from Guinea. Their stalks spread upon the ground to the length of four
+or five feet. They are like the other beans, but much smaller, and of
+a brown colour, having a black ring round the eye, by which they are
+joined to the shell. These beans boil tender, and have a tolerable
+relish, but they are sweetish, and somewhat insipid.
+
+The potatoes are roots more commonly long than thick; their form is
+various, and their fine skin is like that of the Topinambous (Irish
+potatoes.) In their substance and taste they very much resemble sweet
+chesnuts. They are cultivated in the following manner; the earth is
+raised in little hills or high furrows about a foot and a half broad,
+that by draining the moisture, the roots may have a better relish. The
+small potatoes being cut in little pieces with an eye in each, four or
+five of those pieces are planted on the head of the hills. In a short
+time they push out shoots, and these shoots being cut off about the
+middle of August within seven or eight inches of the ground, are
+planted double, cross-ways, in the crown of other hills. The roots of
+these last are the most esteemed, not only on account of their fine
+relish, but because they are easier kept during the winter. In order to
+preserve them during {205} that season, they dry them in the sun as
+soon as they are dug up, and then lay them up in a close and dry place,
+covering them first with ashes, over which they lay dry mould. They
+boil them, or bake them, or roast them on hot coals like chesnuts; but
+they have the finest relish when baked or roasted. They are eat dry, or
+cut into small slices in milk without sugar, for they are sweet of
+themselves. Good sweetmeats are also {206} made of them, and some
+Frenchmen have drawn brandy from them.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Appalachean Beans,_--Bottom: _Sweet Potatoes_
+(on p. 205)]
+
+The Cushaws are a kind of pompion. There are two sorts of them, the
+one round, and the other in the shape of a hunting horn. These last
+are the best, being of a more firm substance, which makes them keep
+much better than the others; their sweetness is not so insipid, and
+they have fewer seeds. They make sweetmeats of these last, and use
+both kinds in soup; they make fritters of them, fry them, bake them,
+and roast them on the coals, and in all ways of cooking they are good
+and palatable.
+
+All kinds of melons grow admirably well in Louisiana. Those of Spain,
+of France, of England, which last are called white melons, are there
+infinitely finer than in the countries from whence they have their
+name; but the best of all are the water melons. As they are hardly
+known in France, except in Provence, where a few of the small kind
+grow, I fancy a description of them will not be disagreeable to the
+reader.
+
+The stalk of this melon spreads like ours upon the ground, and extends
+to the length of ten feet. It is so tender, that when it is any way
+bruised by treading upon it, the fruit dies; and if it is rubbed in
+the least, it grows warm. The leaves are very much indented, as broad
+as the hand when they are spread out, and are somewhat of a sea-green
+colour. The fruit is either round like a pompion, or long. There are
+some good melons of this last kind, but the first sort are most
+esteemed, and deservedly so. The weight of the largest rarely exceeds
+thirty pounds, but that of the smallest is always above ten pounds.
+Their rind is of a pale green colour, interspersed with large white
+spots. The substance that adheres to the rind is white, crude, and of
+a disagreeable tartness, and is therefore never eaten. The space
+within that is filled with a light and sparkling substance, that may
+be called for its properties a rose-coloured snow. It melts in the
+mouth as if it were actually snow, and leaves a relish like that of
+the water prepared for sick people from gooseberry jelly. This fruit
+cannot fail therefore of being very refreshing, and is so wholesome,
+that persons in all kinds of distempers may satisfy their {207}
+appetite with it, without any apprehension of being the worse for it.
+The water-melons of Africa are not near so relishing as those of
+Louisiana.
+
+[Illustration: Watermelon]
+
+The seeds of water-melons are placed like those of the French melons.
+Their shape is oval and flat, being as thick at the ends as towards
+the middle; their length is about six lines, and their breadth four.
+Some are black and others red; but the black are the best, and it is
+those you ought to choose {208} for sowing, if you would wish to have
+good fruit; which you cannot fail of, if they are not planted in
+strong ground, where they would degenerate and become red.
+
+All kinds of greens and roots which have been brought from Europe into
+that colony succeed better there than in France, provided they be
+planted in a soil suited to them; for it is certainly absurd to think
+that onions and other bulbous plants should thrive there in a soft and
+watery soil, when every where else they require a light and dry earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Of the Fruit Trees of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+I shall now proceed to give an account of the fruit trees of this
+colony, and shall begin with the Vine, which is so common in
+Louisiana, that whatever way you walk from the sea coast for five
+hundred leagues northwards, you cannot proceed an hundred steps
+without meeting with one; but unless the vine-shoots should happen to
+grow in an exposed place, it cannot be expected that their fruit
+should ever come to perfect maturity. The trees to which they twine
+are so high, and so thick of leaves, and the intervals of underwood
+are so filled with reeds, that the sun cannot warm the earth, or ripen
+the fruit of this shrub. I will not undertake to describe all the
+kinds of grapes which this country produces; it is even impossible to
+know them all; I shall only speak of three or four.
+
+The first sort that I shall mention does not perhaps deserve the name
+of a grape, although its wood and its leaf greatly resemble the vine.
+This shrub bears no bunches, and you hardly ever see upon it above two
+grapes together. The grape in substance and colour is very like a
+violet damask plum, and its stone, which is always single, greatly
+resembles a nut. Though not very relishing, it has not however that
+disagreeable sharpness of the grape that grows in the neighbourhood of
+New Orleans.
+
+On the edge of the savannahs or meadows we meet with a grape, the
+shoots of which resemble those of the Burgundy {209} grape. They make
+from this a tolerable good wine, if they take care to expose it to the
+sun in summer, and to the cold in winter. I have made this experiment
+myself, and must say that I never could turn it into vinegar.
+
+There is another kind of grape which I make no difficulty of classing
+with the grapes of Corinth, commonly called currants. It resembles
+them in the wood, the leaf, the tree, the size, and the sweetness. Its
+tartness is owing to its being prevented from ripening by the thick
+shade of the large trees to which it twines. If it were planted and
+cultivated in an open field, I make not the least doubt but it would
+equal the grape of Corinth, with which I class it.
+
+Muscadine grapes, of an amber colour, of a very good kind, and very
+sweet, have been found upon declivities of a good exposure, even so
+far north as the latitude of 31 degrees. There is the greatest
+probability that they might make excellent wine of these, as it cannot
+be doubted but the grapes might be brought to great perfection in this
+country, since in the moist soil of New Orleans, the cuttings of the
+grape which some of the inhabitants of that city brought from France,
+have succeeded extremely well, and afforded good wine.
+
+As a proof of the fertility of Louisiana, I cannot forbear mentioning
+the following fact; an inhabitant of New Orleans having planted in his
+garden a few twigs of this Muscadine vine, with a view of making an
+arbour of them, one of his sons, with another negro boy, entered the
+garden in the month of June, when the grapes are ripe, and broke off
+all the bunches they could find. The father, after severely chiding
+the two boys, pruned the twigs that had been broken and bruised; and
+as several months of summer still remained, the vine pushed out new
+shoots, and new bunches, which ripened and were as good as the former.
+
+The Persimmon, which the French of the colony call Placminier, very
+much resembles our medlar-tree in its leaf and wood: its flower, which
+is about an inch and a half broad, is white, and is composed of five
+petals; its fruit is about the size of a large hen's egg; it is shaped
+like our medlar, but its substance is sweeter and more delicate. This
+fruit is astringent; {210} when it is quite ripe the natives make
+bread of it, which they keep from year to year; and the bread has this
+remarkable property that it will stop the most violent looseness or
+dysentery; therefore it ought to be used with caution, and only after
+physic. The natives, in order to make this bread, squeeze the fruit
+over fine sieves to separate the pulp from the skin and the kernels.
+Of this pulp, which is like paste or thick pap, they make cakes about
+a foot and a half long, a foot broad, and a finger's breadth in
+thickness: these they dry in an oven, upon gridirons, or else in the
+sun; which last method of drying gives a greater relish to the bread.
+This is one of their articles of traffick with the French.
+
+Their plum-trees are of two sorts: the best is that which bears
+violet-coloured plums, quite like ours, which are not disagreeable,
+and which certainly would be good if they did not grow in the middle
+of woods. The other kind bears plums of the colour of an unripe
+cherry, and these are so tart that no body can eat them; but I am of
+opinion they might be preserved like gooseberries; especially if pains
+were taken to cultivate them in open grounds. The small cherries,
+called the Indian cherry, are frequent in this country. Their wood is
+very beautiful, and their leaves differ in nothing from those of the
+cherry tree.
+
+The Papaws are only to be found far up in Higher Louisiana. These
+trees, it would seem, do not love heat; they do not grow so tall as
+the plum-trees; their wood is very hard and flexible; for the lower
+branches are sometimes so loaded with fruit that they hang
+perpendicularly downwards; and if you unload them of their fruit in
+the evening, you will find them next morning in their natural erect
+position. The fruit resembles a middle-sized cucumber; the pulp is
+very agreeable and very wholesome; but the rind, which is easily
+stripped off, leaves on the fingers so sharp an acid, that if you
+touch your eye with them before you wash them, it will be immediately
+inflamed, and itch most insupportably for twenty-four hours after.
+
+The natives had doubtless got the peach-trees and fig-trees from the
+English colony of Carolina, before the French {211} established
+themselves in Louisiana. The peaches are of the kind which we call
+Alberges; are of the size of the fist, adhere to the stone, and
+contain so much water that they make a kind of wine of it. The figs
+are either blue or white; are large and well enough tasted. Our
+colonists plant the peach stones about the end of February, and suffer
+the trees to grow exposed to all weathers. In the third year they will
+gather from one tree at least two hundred peaches, and double that
+number for six {212} or seven years more, when the tree dies
+irrecoverably. As new trees are so easily produced, the loss of the
+old ones is not in the least regretted.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Pawpaw_--Bottom: _Blue Whortle-berry_ (on p. 211)]
+
+The orange-trees and citron-trees that were brought from Cape Francois
+have succeeded extremely well; however I have seen so severe a winter
+that those kinds of trees were entirely frozen to the very trunk. In
+that case they cut the trees down to the ground, and the following
+summer they produced shoots that were better than the former. If these
+trees have succeeded in the flat and moist soil of New Orleans, what
+may we not expect when they are planted in better soil, and upon
+declivities of a good exposure? The oranges and citrons are as good as
+those of other countries; but the rind of the orange in particular is
+very thick, which makes it the better for a sweet-meat.
+
+There is plenty of wild apples in Louisiana, like those in Europe; and
+the inhabitants have got many kind of fruit trees from France, such as
+apples, pears, plums, cherries, &c. which in the low grounds run more
+into wood than fruit; the few I had at the Natches proved that high
+ground is much more suited to them than the low.
+
+The blue Whortle-berry is a shrub somewhat taller than our largest
+gooseberry bushes, which are left to grow as they please. Its berries
+are of the shape of a gooseberry, grow single, and are of a blue
+colour: they taste like a sweetish gooseberry, and when infused in
+brandy it makes a good dram. They attribute several virtues to it,
+which, as I never experienced, I cannot answer for. It loves a poor
+gravelly soil.
+
+Louisiana produces no black mulberries: but from the sea to the
+Arkansas, which is an extent of navigation upon the river of two
+hundred leagues, we meet very frequently with three kinds of
+mulberries; one a bright red, another perfectly white, and a third
+white and sweetish. The first of these kinds is very common, but the
+two last are more rare. Of the red mulberries they make excellent
+vinegar, which keeps a long time, provided they take care in the
+making of it to keep it in the shade in a vessel well stopped,
+contrary to the practice in France. They make vinegar also of bramble
+berries, but this {213} is not so good as the former. I do not doubt
+but the colonists at present apply themselves seriously to the
+cultivation of mulberries, to feed silk-worms, especially as the
+countries adjoining to France, and which supplied us with silk, have
+now made the exportation of it difficult.
+
+The olive-trees in this colony are surprisingly beautiful. The trunk
+is sometimes a foot and a half diameter, and thirty feet high before
+it spreads out into branches. The Provencals settled in the colony
+affirm, that its olives would afford as good an oil as those of their
+country. Some of the olives that were prepared to be eat green, were
+as good as those of Provence. I have reason to think, that if they
+were planted on the coasts, the olives would have a finer relish.
+
+They have great numbers and a variety of kinds of walnut-trees in
+this country. There is a very large kind, the wood of which is almost
+as black as ebony, but very porous. The fruit, with the outer shell,
+is of the size of a large hen's egg: the shell has no cleft, is very
+rough and so hard as to require a hammer to break it. Though the fruit
+be very relishing, yet it is covered with such a thick film, that few
+can bestow the pains of separating the one from the other. The natives
+make bread of it, by throwing the fruit into water, and rubbing it
+till the film and oil be separated from it. If those trees were
+engrafted with the French walnut, their fruit would probably be
+improved.
+
+Other walnut-trees have a very white and flexible wood. Of this wood
+the natives make their crooked spades for hoeing their fields. The nut
+is smaller than ours, and the shell more tender; but the fruit is so
+bitter that none but perroquets can put up with it.
+
+The Hicori bears a very small kind of nut, which at first sight one
+would take for filberts, as they have the same shape and colour, and
+their shell is as tender, but within they are formed like walnuts.
+They have such an excellent relish, that the French make fried cakes
+of them as good as those of almonds.
+
+Louisiana produces but a few filberts, as the filbert requires a poor
+gravelly soil which is not to be met with in this {214} province,
+except in the neighbourhood of the sea, especially near the river
+Mobile.
+
+[Illustration: Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber]
+
+The large chesnuts are not to be met with but at the distance of one
+hundred leagues from the sea, and far from rivers in the heart of the
+woods, between the country of the Chactaws and that of the Chicasaws.
+The common chesnuts succeed best upon high declivities, and their
+fruit is like the chesnuts that grow in our woods. There is another
+kind of chesnuts, which are called the Acorn chesnuts, as they are
+shaped like an acorn, {215} and grow in such a cup. But they have the
+colour and taste of a chesnut; and I have often thought that those
+were the acorns which the first of men were said to have lived upon.
+
+The Sweet-Gum, or Liquid-Ambar (Copalm) is not only extremely common,
+but it affords a balm, the virtues of which are infinite. Its bark is
+black and hard, and its wood so tender and supple, that when the tree
+is felled you may draw from the middle of it rods of five or six feet
+in length. It cannot be employed in building or furniture, as it warps
+continually; nor is it fit for burning on account of its strong smell;
+but a little of it in a fire yields an agreeable perfume. Its leaf is
+indented with five points like a star.
+
+I shall not undertake to particularize all the virtues of this
+Sweet-Gum or Liquid-Ambar, not having learned all of them from the
+natives of the country, who would be no less surprised to find that we
+used it only as a varnish, than they were to see our surgeons bleed
+their patients. This balm, according to them, is an excellent
+febrifuge; they take ten or a dozen drops of it in gruel fasting, and
+before their meals; and if they should take a little more, they have
+no reason to apprehend any danger. The physicians among the natives
+purge their patients before they give it them. It cures wounds in two
+days without any bad consequences: it is equally sovereign for all
+kinds of ulcers, after having applied to them for some days a plaster
+of bruised ground-ivy. It cures consumptions, opens obstructions; it
+affords relief in the colic and all internal diseases; it comforts the
+heart; in short, it contains so many virtues, that they are every day
+discovering some new property that it has.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Of Forest Trees.
+
+
+Having described the most remarkable of their fruit trees, I shall now
+proceed to give an account of their forest trees. White and red cedars
+are very common upon the coast. The incorruptibility of the wood, and
+many other excellent properties which are well known, induced the
+first French settlers to build their houses of it; which were but very
+low.
+
+{216} [Illustration: Cypress]
+
+Next to the cedar the cypress-tree is the most valuable wood. Some
+reckon it incorruptible; and if it be not, it is at least a great many
+years in rotting. The tree that was found twenty feet deep in the
+earth near New Orleans was a cypress, and was uncorrupted. Now if the
+lands of Lower Louisiana are augmented two leagues every century, this
+tree must have been buried at least twelve centuries. The cypress
+grows very straight and tall, with a proportionable thickness. They
+commonly {217} make their pettyaugres of a single trunk of this tree,
+which will carry three or four thousand weight, and sometimes more. Of
+one of those trees a carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+which carried sixteen ton, and the other fourteen. There is a cypress
+at Baton Rouge, a French settlement twenty-six leagues above New
+Orleans, which measures twelve yards round, and is of a prodigious
+height. The cypress has few branches, and its leaf is long and narrow.
+The trunk close by the ground sometimes sends off two or three stems,
+which enter the earth obliquely, and serve for buttresses to the tree.
+Its wood is of a beautiful colour, somewhat reddish; it is soft,
+light, and smooth; its grain is straight, and its pores very close. It
+is easily split by wedges, and though used green it never warps. It
+renews itself in a very extraordinary manner: a short time after it is
+cut down, a shoot is observed to grow from one of its roots exactly in
+the form of a sugar-loaf, and this sometimes rises ten feet high
+before any leaf appears: the branches at length arise from the head of
+this conical shoot. [Footnote: This is a mistake, according to
+Charlevoix.]
+
+The cypresses were formerly very common in Louisiana; but they have
+wasted them so imprudently, that they are now somewhat rare. They
+felled them for the sake of their bark, with which they covered their
+houses, and they sawed the wood into planks which they exported at
+different places. The price of the wood now is three times as much as
+it was formerly.
+
+The Pine-tree, which loves a barren soil, is to be found in great
+abundance on the sea coasts, where it grows very high and very
+beautiful. The islands upon the coast, which are formed wholly of
+shining sand, bear no other trees, and I am persuaded that as fine
+masts might be made of them as of the firs of Sweden.
+
+All the south parts of Louisiana abound with the Wild Laurel, which
+grows in the woods without any cultivation: the same may be said of
+the stone laurel, but if a person is not upon his guard he may take
+for the laurel a tree natural to the country, which would communicate
+its bad smell to every thing it is applied to. Among the laurels the
+preference ought to be {218} given to the tulip laurel (magnolia)
+which is not known in Europe. This tree is of the height and bulk of
+one of our common walnut-trees. Its head is naturally very round, and
+so thick of leaves that neither the sun nor rain can penetrate it. Its
+leaves are full four inches long, near three inches broad, and very
+thick, of a beautiful sea-green on the upperside, and resembling white
+velvet on the under-side: its bark is smooth and of a grey colour; its
+wood is white, soft and flexible, and {219} the grain interwoven. It
+owes its name to the form of its great white flowers, which are at
+least two inches broad. These appearing in the spring amidst the
+glossy verdure of the leaves, have a most beautiful effect. As the top
+is naturally round, and the leaves are ever-green, avenues of this
+tree would doubtless be worthy of a royal garden. After it has shed
+its leaves, its fruit appears in the form of a pine apple, and upon
+the first approach of the cold its grain turns into a lively red. Its
+{220} kernel is very bitter, and it is said to be a specific against
+fevers.
+
+[Illustration: _Magnolia_ (on p. 218)]
+
+[Illustration: _Sassafras_ (on p. 219)]
+
+The sassafras, the name of which is familiar to botanists on account
+of its medicinal qualities, is a large and tall tree. Its bark is
+thick, and cracked here and there; its wood is some what of the colour
+of cinnamon, and has an agreeable smell. It will not burn in the fire
+without the mixture of other wood, and even in the fire, if it should
+be separated from the flaming wood, it is immediately extinguished as
+if it were dipped in water.
+
+The maple grows upon declivities in cold climates, and is much more
+plentiful in the northern than the southern parts of the colony. By
+boring it they draw from it a sweet syrup which I have drunk of, and
+which they alledge is an excellent stomachic.
+
+The myrtle wax-tree is one of the greatest blessings with which nature
+has enriched Louisiana, as in this country the bees lodge their honey
+in the earth to save it from the ravages of the bears, who are very
+fond of it, and do not value their stings. One would be apt to take it
+at first sight, both from its bark and its height, for that kind of
+laurel used in the kitchens. It rises in several stems from the root;
+its leaf is like that of the laurel, but not so thick nor of such a
+lively green. It bears its fruit in bunches like a nosegay, rising
+from the same place in various stalks about two inches long: at the
+end of each of those stalks is a little pea, containing a kernel in a
+nut, which last is wholly covered with wax. The fruit, which is very
+plentiful, is easily gathered, as the shrub is very flexible. The tree
+thrives as well in the shade of other trees as in the open air; in
+watry places and cold countries, as well as in dry grounds and hot
+climates; for I have been told that some of them have been found in
+Canada, a country as cold as Denmark.
+
+This tree yields two kinds of wax, one a whitish yellow, and the
+other green. It was a long time before they learned to separate them,
+and they prepared the wax at first in the, following manner. They
+threw the grains and the stalks into a large kettle of boiling water,
+and when the wax was detached {221} from them, they scummed off the
+grains. When the water cooled the wax floated in a cake at the top,
+and being cut small, bleached in a shorter time than bees wax. They
+now prepare it in this manner; they throw boiling water upon the
+stalks and grains till they are entirely floated, and when they have
+stood thus a few minutes, they pour off the water, which carries the
+finest wax with it. This wax when cold is of a {222} pale yellow
+colour, and may be bleached in six or seven days. Having separated the
+best wax, they pour the water again upon the stalks and grains, and
+boil all together till they think they have separated all the wax.
+Both kinds are exported to our sugar islands, where the first is sold
+for a hundred sols the pound, and the second for forty.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Myrtle Wax Tree_--BOTTOM: _Vinegar tree (Acacia or
+Locust)_ (on p. 221)]
+
+This wax is so brittle and dry that if it falls it breaks into several
+pieces; on this account however it lasts longer than that of France, and
+is preferred to it in our sugar islands, where the latter is softened by
+the great heats, and, consumes like tallow. I would advise those who
+prepare this wax to separate the grain from the short stalk before they
+boil it, as the stalk is greener than the grain, and seems to part easily
+with its colour. The water which serves to melt and separate the wax is
+far from being useless. The fruit communicates to it such an astringent
+virtue, as to harden the tallow that is melted in it to such a degree,
+that the candles made of that tallow are as firm as the wax candles of
+France. This astringent quality likewise renders it an admirable specific
+against a dysentery or looseness. From what I have said of the myrtle
+wax-tree, it may well be believed that the French of Louisiana cultivate
+it carefully, and make plantations of it.
+
+The cotton-tree (a poplar) is a large tree which no wise deserves the
+name it bears, unless for some beards that it throws out. Its fruit
+which contains the grain is about the size of a walnut, and of no use;
+its wood is yellow, smooth, somewhat hard, of a fine grain, and very
+proper for cabinet work. The bark of its root is a sovereign remedy
+for cuts, and so red that it may even serve to dye that colour.
+
+The acacia (locust) is the same in Louisiana as in France, much more
+common, and less streight. The natives call it by a name that
+signifies hard wood, and they make their bows of it because it is very
+stiff. They look upon it as an incorruptible wood, which induced the
+French settlers to build their houses of it. The posts fixed in the
+earth must be entirely {223} stripped of their bark, for
+notwithstanding their hardness, if the least bark be left upon them
+they will take root.
+
+[Illustration: _Poplar ("Cotton Tree")_]
+
+The holm-oak grows to a surprising bulk and height in this country; I
+have seen of them a foot and a half diameter, and about 30 feet from
+the ground to the lowest branches.
+
+The mangrove is very common all over America. it grows in Louisiana
+near the sea, even to the bounds of low water mark. It is more
+prejudicial than useful, inasmuch as {224} it occupies a great deal of
+good land, prevents sailors from landing, and affords shelter to the
+fish from the fishermen.
+
+[Illustration: _Black Oak_]
+
+Oak-trees abound in Louisiana; there are some red, some white, and
+some ever-green. A ship-builder of St. Maloes assured me that the red
+is as good as the ever-green upon which we set so high a value in
+France. The ever-green oak is most common toward the sea-coasts, and
+near the banks of rivers, consequently may be transported with great
+ease, and {225} become a great resource for the navy of France.
+[Footnote: Eleven leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi, on the
+west side, there is great plenty of ever-green oaks, the wood of which
+is very proper for the timbers of ships, as it does not rot in water.
+_Dumont_, I. & 50.
+
+Accordingly the best ships built in America are well known to be those
+that have their timbers of ever-green oak, and their plank of cedar,
+of both which there are great plenty on all the coasts of Louisiana.]
+I forgot to mention a fourth kind of oak, namely the black oak, so
+called from the colour of its bark. Its wood is very hard, and of a
+{226} deep red. It grows upon the declivities of hills and in the
+savannahs. Happening after a shower of rain to examine one of these
+which I cut down, I observed some water to come from it as red as
+blood, which made me think that it might be used for dying.
+
+[Illustration: _Linden or Bass Tree_ (on p. 225)]
+
+The ash is very common in this country; but more and better upon the
+sea-coasts than in the inland parts. As it is easy to be had, and is
+harder than the elm, the wheel-wrights make use of it for wheels,
+which it is needless to, ring with iron in a country where there are
+neither stones nor gravel.
+
+The elm, beech, lime, and hornbeam, are exactly the same in Louisiana
+as in France; the last of these trees is very common here. The bark of
+the lime-tree of this country is equally proper for the making of
+ropes, as the bark of the common lime; but its leaf is twice as large,
+and shaped like an oblong trefoil leaf with the point cut off.
+
+The white woods are the aspen, willow, alder and liart. This last
+grows very large, its wood is white and light, and its fibres are
+interwoven; it is very flexible and is easily cut, on which account
+they make their large pettyaugres of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Of Shrubs and Excrescences.
+
+
+The ayac, or stinking-wood, is usually a small tree, seldom exceeding
+the thickness of a man's leg; its leaf is of a yellowish green,
+glossy, and of an oval form, being about three inches in length. The
+wood is yellow, and yields a water of the same colour, when it is cut
+in the sap: but both the wood and the water that comes from it have a
+disagreeable, smell. The natives use the wood for dying; they cut it
+into small bits, pound them, and then boil them in water. Having
+strained this water, they dip the feathers and hair into it, which it
+is their custom to dye first yellow, and then red. When they intend to
+use it for the yellow dye, they take care to cut the wood in the
+winter, but if they want only a slight colour they never mind the
+season of cutting it.
+
+{227} [Illustration: _Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree_]
+
+The machonchi, or vinegar-tree, is a shrub with leaves, somewhat
+resembling those of the ash; but the foot-stalk from which the leaves
+hang is much longer. When the leaves are dry the natives mix them with
+their tobacco to weaken it a little, for they do not love strong
+tobacco for smoaking. The wood is of an astringent nature, and if put
+into vinegar makes it stronger.
+
+{228} [Illustration: TOP: _Cassine or Yapon_--BOTTOM: _Tooth-ache Tree or
+Prickly Ash_]
+
+The cassine, or yapon, is a shrub which never grows higher than 15
+feet; its bark is very smooth, and the wood flexible. Its leaf is very
+much indented, and when used as tea is reckoned good for the stomach.
+The natives make an intoxicating liquor from it, by boiling it in
+water till great part of the liquor evaporate.
+
+The tooth-ache tree does not grow higher than 10 to 12 feet. The
+trunk, which is not very large, is wholly covered over with {229}
+short thick prickles, which are easily rubbed off. The pith of this
+shrub is almost as large as that of the elder, and the form of the
+leaf is almost the same in both. It has two barks, the outer almost
+black, and the inner white, with somewhat of a pale reddish hue. This
+inner bark has the property of curing the tooth-ach. The patient rolls
+it up to the size of a bean, puts it upon the aching tooth, and chews
+it till the pain ceases. Sailors and other such people powder it, and
+use it as pepper.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Passion Thorn or Honey Locust_--BOTTOM: _Bearded
+Creeper_]
+
+{230} [Illustration: _Palmetto_]
+
+The passion-thorn does not rise above the height of a shrub; but its
+trunk is rather thick for its height. This shrub is in great esteem
+among the Natches; but I never could learn for what reason. Its leaf
+resembles that of the black thorn; and its wood while it is green is
+not very hard. Its prickles are at least two inches long, and are very
+hard and piercing; within half an inch of their root two other small
+prickles grow out from them so as to form a cross. The whole trunk is
+covered {231} with these prickles, so that you must be very wary how
+you approach it, or cut it.
+
+The elder-tree is exactly like that of France, only that its leaf is a
+little more indented. The juice of its leaves mixed with hog's lard is
+a specific against the haemorrhoids.
+
+The palmetto has its leaves in the form of an open fan, scolloped at
+the end of each of its folds. Its bark is more rough and knotty than
+that of the palm-tree. Although it is less than that of the East
+Indies, it may however serve to the same purposes. Its wood is not
+harder than that of a cabbage, and its trunk is so soft that the least
+wind overturns it, so that I never saw any but what were lying on the
+ground. It is very common in Lower Louisiana, where there are no wild
+oxen; for those animals who love it dearly, and are greatly fattened
+by it, devour it wherever they can find it. The Spanish women make
+hats of its leaves that do not weigh an ounce, riding-hoods, and other
+curious works.
+
+The birch-tree is the same with that of France. In the north they make
+canoes of its bark large enough to hold eight persons. When the sap
+rises they strip off the bark from the tree in one piece with wedges,
+after which they sew up the two ends of it to serve for stem and
+stern, and anoint the whole with gum.
+
+I make not the least doubt but that there are great numbers of other
+trees in the forests of Louisiana that deserve to be particularly
+described; but I know of none, nor have I heard of any, but what I
+have already spoken of. For our travellers, from whom alone we can get
+any intelligence of those things, are more intent upon discovering
+game which they stand in need of for their subsistence, than in
+observing the productions of nature in the vegetable kingdom. To what
+I have said of trees, I shall only add, from my own knowledge, an
+account of two singular excrescences.
+
+The first is a kind of agaric or mushroom, which grows from the root
+of the walnut-tree, especially when it is felled. The natives, who are
+very careful in the choice of their food, gather it with great
+attention, boil it in water, and eat it with {232} their gruel. I had
+the curiosity to taste of it, and found it very delicate, but rather
+insipid, which might easily be corrected with a little seasoning.
+
+The other excrescence is commonly found upon trees near the banks of
+rivers and lakes. It is called Spanish beard, which name was given it
+by the natives, who, when the Spaniards first appeared in their
+country about 240 years ago, were greatly surprised at their
+mustachios and beards. This excrescence appears like a bunch of hair
+hanging from the large branches of trees, and might at first be easily
+mistaken for an old perruque, especially when it is dancing with the
+wind. As the first settlers of Louisiana used only mud walls for their
+houses, they commonly mixed it with the mud for strengthening the
+building. When gathered it is of a grey colour, but when it is dry its
+bark falls off, and discovers black filaments as long and as strong as
+the hairs of a horse's tail. I dressed some of it for stuffing a
+mattress, by first laying it up in a heap to make it part with the
+bark, and afterwards beating it to take off some small branches that
+resemble so many little hooks. It is affirmed by some to be
+incorruptible: I myself have seen of it under old rotten trees that
+was perfectly fresh and strong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Of Creeping Plants._
+
+
+The great fertility of Louisiana renders the creeping plants extremely
+common, which, exclusive of the ivy, are all different from those
+which we have in France. I shall only mention the most remarkable.
+
+The bearded-creeper is so called from having its whole stalk covered
+with a beard about an inch long, hooked at the end, and somewhat thicker
+than a horse's hair. There is no tree which it loves to cling to so much
+as to the sweet gum; and so great is its sympathy, if I may be allowed
+the expression, for that tree, that if it grow between it and any other
+tree, it turns solely towards the sweet gum, although it should be at
+the greatest distance from it. This is likewise the tree upon which
+{233} it thrives best. It has the same virtue with its balm of being a
+febrifuge, and this I affirm after a great number of proofs. The
+physicians among the natives use this simple in the following manner.
+They take a piece of it, above the length of the finger, which they
+split into as many threads as possible; these they boil in a quart of
+water, till one third of the decoction evaporate, and the remainder is
+strained clear. They then purge the patient, and the next day, upon the
+approach of the fit, they give a third of the decoction to drink. If the
+patient be not cured with the first dose, he is again purged and drinks
+another third, which seldom fails of having the wished-for effect. This
+medicine is indeed very bitter, but it strengthens the stomach; a
+singular advantage it has over the Jesuits bark, which is accused of
+having a contrary effect.
+
+There is another creeper very like salsaparilla, only that it bears
+its leaves by threes. It bears a fruit smooth on one side like a
+filbert, and on the other as rough as the little shells which serve
+for money on the Guinea coast. I shall not speak of its properties;
+they are but too well known by the women of Louisiana, especially the
+girls, who very often have recourse to it.
+
+Another creeper is called by the native physicians the remedy against
+poisoned arrows. It is large and very beautiful; its leaves are pretty
+long, and the pods it bears are narrow, about an inch broad, and eight
+inches long.
+
+The salsaparilla grows naturally in Louisiana, and it is not inferior
+in its qualities to that of Mexico. It is so well known that it is
+needless to enlarge upon it.
+
+The esquine partly resembles a creeper and partly a bramble. It is
+furnished with hard spikes like prickles, and its oblong leaves are
+like those of the common creeper (liane;) its stalk is straight, long,
+shining, and hard, and it runs up along the reeds: its root is spungy,
+and sometimes as large as one's head, but more long than round.
+Besides the sudorific virtue which the esquine possesses in common
+with the salsaparilla, it has the property of making the hair grow,
+and the women among the natives use it successfully with this view.
+{234} They cut the root into small bits, boil them in water, and wash
+their heads with the decoction. I have seen several of them whose hair
+came down below their knees, and one particularly whose hair came
+lower than the ankle bones.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Bramble_--BOTTOM: _Sarsaparilla_]
+
+Hops grow naturally in the gullies in the high lands.
+
+Maiden-hair grows in Louisiana more beautiful, at least as good as
+that of Canada, which is in so great repute. It {235} grows in gullies
+upon the sides of hills, in places that are absolutely impenetrable to
+the most ardent rays of the sun. It seldom rises above a foot, and it
+bears a thick shaggy head. The native physicians know more of its
+virtues than we do in France.
+
+The canes or reeds which I have mentioned so often may be divided into
+two kinds. One kind grows in moist places to the height of eighteen
+feet, and the thickness of the wrist. The natives makes matts, sieves,
+small boxes, and other works of it. Those that grow in dry places are
+neither so high nor so thick, but are so hard, that before the arrival
+of the French, the natives used splits of those canes to cut their
+victuals with. After a certain number of years, the large canes bear a
+great abundance of grain, which is somewhat like oats, but about three
+times as large. The natives carefully gather these grains and make
+bread or gruel of them. This flour swells as much as that of wheat.
+When the reeds have yielded the grain they die, and none appear for a
+long time after in the same place, especially if fire has been set to
+the old ones.
+
+The flat-root receives its name from the form of its root, which is
+thin, flat, pretty often indented, and sometimes even pierced through:
+it is a line or sometimes two lines in thickness, and its breadth is
+commonly a foot and a half. From this large root hang several other
+small straight roots, which draw the nourishment from the earth. This
+plant, which grows in meadows that are not very rich, sends up from
+the same root several straight stalks about eighteen inches high,
+which are as hard as wood, and on the top of the stalks it bears small
+purplish, flowers, in their figure greatly resembling those of heath;
+its seed is contained in a deep cup closed at the head, and in a
+manner crowned. Its leaves are about an inch broad, and about two
+long, without any indenting, of a dark green, inclining to a brown. It
+is so strong a sudorific, that the natives never use any other for
+promoting sweating, although they are perfectly acquainted with
+sassafras, salsaparilla, the esquine and others.
+
+The rattle-snake-herb has a bulbous root, like that of the tuberose,
+but twice as large. The leaves of both have the same {236} shape and
+the same colour, and on the under side have some flame-coloured spots;
+but those of the rattle-snake plant are twice as large as the others,
+end in a very firm point, and are armed with very hard prickles on
+both sides. Its stalk grows to the height of about three feet, and
+from the head rise five or six sprigs in different directions, each of
+which bears a purple flower an inch broad, with five leaves in the
+form of a {237} cup. After these leaves are shed there remains a head
+about the size of a small nut, but shaped like the head of a poppy.
+This head is separated into four divisions, each of which contains
+four black seeds, equally thick throughout, and about the size of a
+large lentil. When the head is ripe, it will, when shaken, give the
+same sound as the tail of a rattle-snake, which seems to indicate the
+property of the plant; for it is the specific remedy against the bite
+of that dangerous reptile. The person who has been bit ought
+immediately to take a root, bite off part of it, chew it for some
+time, and apply it to the wound. In five or six hours it will extract
+the whole poison, and no bad consequences need be apprehended.
+
+[Illustration: _Rattlesnake herb_ (on p. 236)]
+
+Ground-ivy is said by the natives to possess many more virtues than
+are known to our botanists. It is said to ease women in labour when
+drank in a decoction; to cure ulcers, if bruised and laid upon the
+ulcered part; to be a sovereign remedy for the head-ach; a
+considerable quantity of its leaves bruised, and laid as a cataplasm.
+upon the head, quickly removes the pain. As this is an inconvenient
+application to a person that wears his hair, I thought of taking the
+salts of the plant, and I gave some of them in vulnerary water to a
+friend of mine who was often attacked with the head-ach, advising him
+likewise to draw up some drops by the nose: he seldom practised this
+but he was relieved a few moments after.
+
+The Achechy is only to be found in the shade of a wood, and never
+grows higher than six or seven inches. It has a small stalk, and its
+leaves are not above three lines long. Its root consists of a great
+many sprigs a line in diameter, full of red juice like chickens blood.
+Having transplanted this plant from an overshadowed place into my
+garden, I expected to see it greatly improved; but it was not above an
+inch taller, and its head was only a little bushier than usual. It is
+with the juice of this plant that the natives dye their red colour.
+Having first dyed their feathers or hair yellow or a beautiful citron
+colour with the ayac wood, they boil the roots of the achechy in
+water, then squeeze them with all their force, and the expressed
+liquor serves for the red dye. That which was naturally white before
+it was dyed yellow, takes a beautiful scarlet; {238} that which was
+brown, such as buffalo's hair, which is of a chesnut colour, becomes a
+reddish brown.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Red Dye Plant_--BOTTOM: _Flat Root_]
+
+I shall not enlarge upon the strawberries, which are of an excellent
+flavour, and so plentiful, that from the beginning of April the
+savannahs or meadows appear quite red with them. I shall also only
+just mention the tobacco, which I reserve for the article of
+agriculture; but I ought not to omit to take notice, that hemp grows
+naturally on the lands adjoining to the lakes {239} on the west of the
+Missisippi. The stalks are as thick as one's finger, and about six
+feet long. They are quite like ours both in the wood, the leaf, and
+the rind. The flax which was sown in this country rose three feet
+high.
+
+I cannot affirm from my own knowledge that the soil in this province
+produces either white mushrooms or truffles. But morelles in their
+season are to be found in the greatest abundance, and round mushrooms
+in the autumn.
+
+When I consider the mild temperature of this climate, I am persuaded
+that all our flowers would succeed extremely well in it. The country
+has flowers peculiar to itself, and, in such abundance, that from the
+month of May till the end of summer, you can hardly see the grass in
+the meadows; and of such various hues that one is at a loss which to
+admire most and declare to be the most beautiful. The number and
+diversity of those flowers quite enchant the sight. I will not however
+attempt to give a particular account of them, as I am not qualified on
+this head to satisfy the desires of the curious, from my having
+neglected to consider the various flowers themselves. I have seen
+single and small roses without any smell; and another kind of rose
+with four white petals, which in its smell, chives, and pointal,
+differed in nothing from our damask roses. But of all the flowers of
+this country, that which struck me most, as it is both very common and
+lasts a long time, is the flower called Lion's Mouth. The flowers
+which decorate its stalk, its shady colours, its blowing for more than
+three months, justly entitle it to the preference before all other
+flowers. It forms of itself an agreeable nosegay; and in my opinion,
+it deserves to be ranked with the finest flowers, and to be cultivated
+with attention in the gardens of our kings.
+
+As to cotton and indigo, I defer speaking of them till I come to the
+chapter of agriculture.
+
+{240}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_Of the Quadrupedes._
+
+
+Before I speak of the animals which the first settlers found in
+Louisiana, it is proper to observe, that all those which were brought
+hither from France, or from New Spain and Carolina, such as horses,
+oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, and others, have multiplied and
+thriven perfectly well. However it ought to be remarked, that in Lower
+Louisiana, where the ground is moist and much covered with wood, they
+can neither be so good nor so beautiful as in Higher Louisiana, where
+the soil is dry, where there are most extensive meadows, and where the
+sun warms the earth to a much greater degree.
+
+The buffalo is about the size of one of our largest oxen, but he
+appears rather bigger, on account of his long curled wool, which makes
+him appear to the eye much larger than he really is. This wool is very
+fine and very thick, and is of a dark chesnut colour, as are likewise
+his bristly hairs, which are also curled, and so long, that the bush
+between his horns often falls over his eyes, and hinders him from
+seeing before him; but his sense of hearing and smelling is so
+exquisite as in some measure to supply the want of the other. A pretty
+large bunch rises on his shoulders in the place where they join to the
+neck. His horns are thick, short, and black; and his hoof is also
+black. The cows of this species have small udders like those of a
+mare.
+
+This buffalo is the chief food of the natives, and of the French also
+for a long time past; the best piece is the bunch on the shoulders,
+the taste of which is extremely delicate. They hunt this animal in the
+winter; for which purpose they leave Lower Louisiana, and the river
+Missisippi, as he cannot penetrate thither on account of the thickness
+of the woods; and besides loves to feed on long grass, which is only
+to be found in the meadows of the high lands. In order to get near
+enough to fire upon him, they go against the wind, and they take aim
+at the hollow of the shoulder, that they may bring him to the ground
+at once, for if he is only slightly wounded, he runs against his
+enemy. The natives when hunting seldom {241} choose to kill any but
+the cows, having experienced that the flesh of the male smells rank;
+but this they might easily prevent, if they did but cut off the
+testicles from the beast as soon as he is dead, as they do from stags
+and wild boars. By killing the males there is less hazard of
+diminishing the species than by killing the females; and besides, the
+males have much more tallow, and their skins are the largest and best.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Panther or Catamount_--BOTTOM: _Bison or Buffalo_]
+
+{242} These skins are an object of no small consideration. The natives
+dress them with their wool on, to such great perfection, as to render
+them more pliable than our buff. They dye them different colours, and
+cloath themselves therewith. To the French they supply the place of
+the best blankets, being at the same time very warm and very light.
+
+The stag is entirely the same with that of France, only he is a little
+larger. They are only to be found in Upper Louisiana, where the woods
+are much thinner than in Lower Louisiana, and the chesnuts which the
+stag greatly loves are very common.
+
+The deer is very frequent in this province, notwithstanding the great
+numbers of them that are killed by the natives. According to the
+hunters, he partly resembles the stag, the rein-deer, and the
+roe-buck. As to myself, I can only say what I have seen; that he is
+about four feet high, has large horns bending forwards, and decorated
+with several antlers, the ends of which are formed somewhat like a
+rose; that his flesh is dry like that of ours, and when he is fat
+tastes like mutton. They feed in herds, and are not in the least of a
+fierce nature. They are excessively capricious, hardly remain a moment
+in one place, but are coming and going continually. The natives dress
+the skin extremely well, like buff, and afterwards paint it. Those
+skins that are brought to France are often called does skins.
+
+The natives hunt the deer sometimes in companies, and sometimes alone.
+The hunter who goes out alone, furnishes himself with the dried head of
+a deer, with part of the skin of the neck fastened to it, and this skin
+is stretched out with several hoops made of split cane, which are kept
+in their places by other splits placed along the inside of the skin, so
+that the hands and arms may be easily put within the neck. Being thus
+provided, he goes in quest of the deer, and takes all necessary
+precautions not to be discovered by that animal: when he sees one, he
+approaches it as gently as possible, hiding himself behind a bush which
+he carries in his hand, till he be within shot of it. But if, before he
+can come near enough, the buck shakes its head, which is a sign that he
+is going to make some {243} capers and run away, the hunter immediately
+counterfeits the cries of those animals when they call each other, in
+which case the buck frequently comes up towards him. He then shews the
+head which he holds in his hand, and by lowering and lifting his arm by
+turns, it makes the appearance of a buck feeding, and lifting his head
+from time to time to graze. The hunter still keeps himself behind the
+bush, till the buck comes near enough to him, and the moment he turns
+his side, he fires at the hollow of his shoulder, and lays him dead.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian Deer Hunt_]
+
+{244} When the natives want to make the dance of the deer; or if they
+want to exercise themselves merrily; or if it should happen that the
+Great Sun inclines to such sport, they go about an hundred of them in
+a company to the hunting of this animals, which they must bring home
+alive. As it is a diverting exercise, many young men are generally of
+the party, who disperse themselves in the meadows among the thickets
+in order to discover the deer. They no sooner perceive one than they
+advance towards him in a wide crescent, one point of which may be a
+quarter of a league from the other. Part of the crescent draws near to
+him, which frightens him away to another point; that part likewise
+advancing, he immediately flies back to the other sidee. He is kept
+thus running from one side to another a considerable time, on purpose
+to exercise the young men, and afford diversion to the Great Sun, or
+to another Little Sun, who is nominated to supply his place. The deer
+sometimes attempts to get out and escape by the openings of the
+crescent, in which case those who are at the points run forwards, and
+oblige him to go back. The crescent then gradually forms a circle; and
+when they perceive the deer beginning to be tired, part of them stoop
+almost to the ground, and remain in that posture till he approaches
+them, when they rise and shout: he instantly flies off to the other
+side, where they do the same; by which means he is at length so
+exhausted, that he is no longer able to stand on his legs, and suffers
+himself to be taken like a lamb. Sometimes, however, he defends
+himself on the ground with his antlers and forefeet; they therefore
+use the precaution to seize upon him behind, and even in that case
+they are sometimes wounded.
+
+The hunters having seized the deer present it to the Great Sun, or in
+his absence, to the person whom he sent to represent him. If he says,
+_well_, the roe-buck is immediately opened, and its four quarters
+carried to the hut of the Great Sun, who gives portions of them to the
+chief men among the hunters.
+
+The wolf is not above fifteen inches high, and of a proportionable
+length. He is not so brown as our wolves, nor so fierce and dangerous;
+he is therefore more like a dog than a wolf, especially the dog of the
+natives, who differs from him {245} in nothing, but that he barks. The
+wolf is very common in the hunting countries; and when the hunter
+makes a hut for himself in the evening upon the bank of a river, if he
+sees the wolf, he may be confident that the buffaloes are not at a
+very great distance. It is said, that this animal, not daring to
+attack the buffalo when in a herd, will come and give notice to the
+hunter that he may kill him, in hopes of coming in for the offals. The
+wolves are actually so familiar, that they come and go on all sides
+when looking for something to eat, without minding in the least
+whether they be near or at a distance from the habitations of men.
+
+In my time two very large black wolves were seen in Louisiana. The
+oldest inhabitants, and those who travel to the remotest parts of the
+colony, declared that they had never before seen any such; from whence
+it was concluded, that they were foreign wolves which had lost their
+way. Fortunately they killed them both; for one of them was a she-wolf
+big with young.
+
+The bear appears in Louisiana in winter, as the snows, which then
+cover the northern climates, hinder him from procuring a subsistence
+there, and force him southwards. If some few are seen in the summer
+time, they are only the slow young bears, that have not been strong
+enough to follow the herd northwards. The bear lives upon roots and
+fruits, particularly acorns; but this most delicate food is honey and
+milk. When he meets with either of these last, he will suffer himself
+to be killed than quit his prize. Our colonists have sometimes
+diverted themselves by burying a small pail with some milk in it
+almost up to the edge in the ground, and setting two young bears to
+it. The contest then was which of the two should hinder the other from
+tasting the milk, and both of them so tore the earth with their paws,
+and pulled at the pail, that they generally overturned the milk,
+before either of them had tasted of it.
+
+In opposition to the general opinion, which supposes the bear a
+carnivorous animal, I affirm, with all the inhabitants of this colony,
+and the neighbouring countries, that he never feeds upon flesh. It is
+indeed to be lamented that the first {246} travellers had the
+impudence to publish to the world a thousand false stories, which were
+easily believed because they were new. People, so far from wishing to
+be undeceived, have even been offended with those who attempted to
+detect the general errors; but it is my duty to speak the truth, for
+the sake of those who are willing to hear it. What I maintain here is
+not a mere conjectural supposition, but a known fact over all North
+America, which may be attested by the evidence of a great number of
+people who have lived there, and by the traders who are going and
+coming continually. There is not one instance can be given of their
+having devoured men, notwithstanding their great multitudes, and the
+extreme hunger which they must sometimes have suffered; for even in
+that case they never so much as touch the butchers meat which they
+meet with.
+
+The bears seldom quit the banks of the Missisippi, as it is there that
+they can best procure a subsistence; but when I lived at the Natchez
+there happened so severe a winter, that those animals came from the
+north in such numbers that they starved each other, and were very
+lean. Their great hunger obliged them to quit the woods which line the
+banks of the river: they were seen at night running among the
+settlements; and they sometimes even entered those court-yards that
+were not well shut; they there found butchers meat exposed to the open
+air, but they never touched it, and eat only the corn or roots they
+could meet with. Certainly on such occasion as this, and in such a
+pressing want, they would have proved carnivorous, if it had been in
+the least degree their natural disposition.
+
+But perhaps one will say, "It is true they never touch dead flesh; it
+is only living flesh that they devour." That is being very delicate
+indeed, and what I can by no means allow them: for if they were
+flesh-eaters, I greatly suspect that, in the severe famine which I
+have spoken of, they would have made a hearty meal of the butchers
+meat which they found in the court-yards; or at least would have
+devoured several persons, who fell in their way, which they never did.
+The following fact however will be a more compleat answer to this
+objection.
+
+{247} Two Canadians, who were on a journey, landed on a sand-bank,
+when they perceived a bear crossing the river. As he appeared fat, and
+consequently would yield a great deal of oil, one of the travellers
+ran forwards and fired at him. Unhappily however he only slightly
+wounded him; and as the bears in that case always turn upon their
+enemy, the hunter was immediately seized by the wounded bear, who in a
+few moments squeezed him to death, without wounding him in the least
+with his teeth, although his muzzle was against his face, and he must
+certainly have been exasperated. The other Canadian, who was not above
+three hundred paces distance, ran to save his comrade with the utmost
+speed, but he was dead before he came up to him; and the bear escaped
+into the wood. Upon examining the corpse he found the place, where the
+bear had squeezed it, pressed in two inches more than the rest of the
+breast.
+
+Some perhaps may still add, that the mildness of the climate of
+Louisiana may have an effect upon the disposition of the bears, and
+prevent them from being so voracious as those of our continent; but I
+affirm that carnivorous animals retain the same disposition in all
+countries. The wolves of Louisiana are carnivorous as well as those of
+Europe, although they differ in other particulars. The tigers of
+Africa, and those of America, are equally mischievous animals. The
+wild-cats of America, though very different from those of Europe,
+have however the same appetite for mice when they are tamed. It is the
+same with other species, naturally inclined to live upon other
+animals; and the bears of America, if flesh-eaters, would not quit the
+countries covered with snow, where they would find men and other
+animals in abundance, to come so far in search of fruits and roots;
+which kind of nourishment carnivorous animals refuse to taste.
+[Footnote: Since I wrote the above account of the bears, I have been
+certainly informed, that in the mountains of Savoy there are two sorts
+of bears. The one black, like that of Louisiana, and not carnivorous;
+the other red, and no less carnivorous than the wolves. Both turn upon
+their enemy when wounded.]
+
+
+Bears are seen very frequently in Louisiana in the winter time, and
+they are so little dreaded, that the people sometimes {248} make it a
+diversion to hunt them. When they are fat, that is about the end of
+December, they cannot run so fast as a man; therefore the hunters are
+in no danger if they should turn upon them. The she-bears are
+tolerably fat when they are big with young; but after they have
+littered they quickly become lean.
+
+The bears usually arrive in Louisiana towards the end of autumn; and
+then they are very lean, as they do not leave the north till the earth
+be wholly covered with snow, and find often but a very scanty
+subsistence in their way southwards. I said above, that those animals
+seldom go to any great distance from the river; and on both banks
+travellers meet with such a beaten path in winter, that to those who
+are not acquainted with it, it appears like the track of men. I
+myself, the first time I observed it, was deceived by it. I was then
+near two hundred miles from any human dwelling, yet the path at first
+appeared to me as if it had been made by thousands of men, who had
+walked that way bare-footed. Upon a narrower inspection however, I
+observed, that the prints of the feet were shorter than that of a man,
+and that there was the impression of a claw at the end of each toe. It
+is proper to observe that in those paths the bear does not pique
+himself upon politeness, and will yield the way to nobody; therefore
+it is prudent in a traveller not to fall out with him for such a
+trifling affair.
+
+The bears, after they have been a short time in the country, and found
+abundance of fruits, turn fat and lazy, and it is then the natives go
+out to hunt them. The bear, when he is fat, huts himself, that is,
+retires into the hollow trunk of some rotten tree that has died on
+end. The natives, when they meet with any of those trees, which they
+suspect contains a bear in it, give two or three strong blows against
+the trunk, and immediately run behind the next tree opposite to the
+lowest breach. If there be a bear within, he appears in a few minutes
+at the breach, to look out and spy the occasion of the disturbance;
+but upon observing nothing likely to annoy him, he goes down again to
+the bottom of his castle.
+
+The natives having once seen their prey, gather a heap of dried canes,
+which they bruise with their feet, that they may {249} burn the
+easier, and one of them mounting upon a tree adjoining to that in
+which the bear is, sets fire to the reeds, and darts them one after
+another into the breach; the other hunters having planted themselves
+in ambuscade upon other trees. The bear is quickly burned out of his
+habitation, and he no sooner appears on the outside, than they let fly
+their arrows at him, and often kill him before he gets to the bottom
+of the tree.
+
+He is no sooner dead than some of the hunters are dispatched to look
+for a deer, and they seldom fail of bringing in one or two. When a
+deer is brought, they cut off the head, and then take off the skin
+whole, beginning at the neck, and rolling it down, as they cut it,
+like a stocking. The legs they cut off at the knee-joints, and having
+cleaned and washed the skin, they stop all the holes except the neck,
+with a kind of paste made of the fat of the deer mixed with ashes,
+over which they tie several bindings with the bark of the lime-tree.
+Having thus provided a kind of cask, they fill it with the oil of the
+bear, which they prepare by boiling the flesh and fat together. This
+Deer of Oil, as it is called, they sell to the French for a gun, a
+yard of cloth, or any other thing of that value. The French, before
+they use it, purify it, by putting it into a large kettle, with a
+handful of laurel leaves; and sprinkling it when it begins to be hot
+with some water, in which they have dissolved a large quantity of
+salt. The smoke that rises upon this sprinkling carries off with it
+any bad smell the fat may have; they next pour it off into a vessel,
+and eight days after there is found on the top of it a clear oil which
+serves all the purposes of olive oil; what remains below is a fine
+kind of lard, proper for the kitchen, and a sovereign remedy for all
+kinds of pains. I myself was cured of the rheumatism in my shoulder by
+it.
+
+The Tiger is not above a foot and a half high, and long in proportion:
+his hair is somewhat of a bright bay colour, and he is brisk as all
+tigers naturally are. His flesh when boiled tastes like veal, only it
+is not so insipid. There are very few of them to be seen; I never saw
+but two near my settlement; and I have great reason to think that it
+was the same beast I saw both times. The first time he laid hold of my
+dog, who barked and howled; but upon my running towards him the {250}
+tiger left him. The next time he seized a pig; but this I likewise
+rescued, and his claws had gone no deeper than the fat. This animal is
+not more carnivorous than fearful; he flies at the sight of a man, and
+makes off with greater speed, if you shout and halloo as he runs.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Wild Cat_--MIDDLE: _Opossum_--BOTTOM: _Skunk_]
+
+The Cat-a-mount is a kind of wild cat, as high as the tiger, but not
+so thick, and his skin is extremely beautiful. He is a great destroyer
+of poultry, but fortunately his species is rare.
+
+{251} Foxes are so numerous, that upon the woody heights you
+frequently see nothing but their holes. As the woods afford them
+plenty of game, they do not molest the poultry, which are always
+allowed to run at large. The foxes are exactly shaped like ours, but
+their skin is much more beautiful. Their hair is fine and thick, of a
+deep brown colour, and over this rise several long silver-coloured
+hairs, which have a fine effect.
+
+The Wild Cat has been improperly so called by the first French
+settlers in Louisiana; for it has nothing of the cat but its nimble
+activity, and rather resembles a monkey. It is not above eight or ten
+inches high, and about fifteen long. Its head is like that of a fox;
+it has long toes, but very short claws, not made for seizing game;
+accordingly it lives upon fruit, bread, and other such things. This
+animal may be tamed, and then becomes very frolicksome and full of
+tricks. The hair of those that are tame is grey; but of the wild is
+reddish; neither of them is so beautiful as that of the fox; it grows
+very fat, and its flesh is good to eat. I shall not describe the real
+wild cat, as it is entirely like ours.
+
+The Rabbit is extremely common over all Louisiana; it is particular in
+this, that its pile is like that of the hare, and it never burrows.
+Its flesh is white and delicate, and has the usual taste, without any
+rankness. There is no other kind of rabbit or hare, if you please to
+call it, in all the colony, than that above described.
+
+The Wood-Rat has the head and tail of a common rat, but has the bulk
+and length of a cat. Its legs are short, its paws long, and its toes
+are armed with claws: its tail is almost without hair, which serves
+for hooking itself to any thing; for when you take hold of it by that
+part, it immediately twists itself round your finger. Its pile is
+grey, and though very fine, yet is never smooth. The women among the
+natives spin it and dye it red. It hunts by night, and makes war upon
+the poultry, only sucking their blood and leaving their flesh. It is
+very rare to see any creature walk so slow; and I have often catched
+them when walking my ordinary pace. When he sees himself upon the
+point of being caught, instinct prompts him to counterfeit being dead;
+and in this he perseveres with such {252} constancy, that though laid
+on a hot gridiron, he will not make the least sign of life. He never
+moves, unless the person go to a distance or hide himself, in which
+case he endeavors as fast as possible to escape into some hole or
+bush.
+
+When the she-one is about to litter, she chooses a place in the thick
+bushes at the foot of a tree, after which she and the male crop a
+great deal of fine dry grass, which is loaded upon her belly, and then
+the male drags her and her burden by the tail to the littering-place.
+She never quits her young a moment; but when she is obliged to change
+her lodging, carries them with her in a pouch or double skin that
+wraps round her belly, and there they may sleep or suck at their ease.
+The two sides of this pouch lap so close that the joining can hardly
+be observed; nor can they be separated without tearing the skin. If
+the she-one be caught carrying her young thus with her, she will
+suffer herself to be roasted alive, without the least sign of life,
+rather than open the pouch and expose her young ones. The flesh of
+this animal is very good, and tastes somewhat like that of a sucking
+pig, when it is first broiled, and afterwards roasted on the spit.
+
+The Pole-cat or Skunk is about the size of a kitten eight months old.
+The male is of a beautiful black, but the female has rings of white
+intermixed with the black. Its ear and its paw are like that of a
+mouse, and it has a very lively eye. I suppose it lives upon fruits
+and seeds. It is most justly called the Stinking Beast, for its odour
+is so strong, that it may be pursued upon the track twenty-four hours
+after it has passed. It goes very slow, and when the hunter approaches
+it, it squirts out, far and wide such a stinking urine, that neither
+man nor beast can hardly approach it. A drop of this creature's blood,
+and probably some of its urine, having one day fallen upon my coat
+when I was hunting, I was obliged as fast as possible to go home and
+change my cloaths; and before I, could use my coat, it was scoured and
+exposed for several days to the dew.
+
+The Squirrels of Louisiana are like those of France, excepting one
+kind, which are called Flying-Squirrels, because they leap from one
+tree to another, though the distance between them be twenty-five or
+thirty feet. It is about the size of a {253} rat, and of a deep
+ash-colour. Its two fore-legs are joined to its two hind-legs by two
+membranes, so that when it leaps it seems to fly, though it always
+leaps somewhat downwards. This animal may be very easily tamed; but
+even then it is best to chain it. There is another sort, not much
+bigger than a mouse, and of a bright bay-colour. These are so familiar
+that they will come out of the woods, will enter the houses, and sit
+within two yards of the people of the house, if they do not make any
+motion; and there they will feed on any maiz within their reach. I
+never was so well diverted in my life with the frolics of any animal,
+as I have been with the vivacity and attitudes of this little
+squirrel.
+
+The Porcupine is large and fine of this kind; but as he lives only
+upon fruit, and loves cold, is most common about the river Illinois,
+where the climate is somewhat cold, and there is plenty of wild
+fruits. The skin, when stripped of the quills, is white and brown. The
+natives dye part of the white, yellow and red, and the brown they dye
+black. They have likewise the art of splitting the skin, and applying
+it to many curious works, particularly to trim the edges of their
+deer-skin, and to line small bark-boxes, which are very neat.
+
+The Hedge-hog of Louisiana is in every respect the same with that of
+Europe.
+
+I shall not enlarge upon the Beavers, which are universally known,
+from the many descriptions we have of them.
+
+The Otters are the same with those of France, and there are but few of
+them to be seen.
+
+Some Turtle are seen in this country; but very rarely. In the many
+hundred leagues of country that I have passed over, I have hardly seen
+above a hundred.
+
+Frogs are very common, especially in Lower Louisiana, notwithstanding
+the great number of snakes that destroy them. There are some that grow
+very large, sometimes above a foot and a half long, and astonish
+strangers at first by their croaking especially if they are in a
+hollow tree.
+
+The Crocodile is very common in the river Missisippi. Although this
+amphibious animal be almost as well known as {254} those I have just
+mentioned, I cannot however omit taking some notice of it. Without
+troubling the reader with a description of it, which he will meet with
+every where, I shall observe that it shuns the banks of the river
+frequented by men. It lays its eggs in the months of May, when the sun
+is already hot in that country, and it deposits them in the most
+concealed place it can find among grass exposed to the heats of the
+south. The eggs are about the size of those of a goose, but longer in
+proportion. Upon breaking them you will find hardly any thing but
+white, the yolk being about the size of that of a young hen. I never
+saw any that were new hatched. The smallest I ever met with, which I
+concluded to be about three months old, was as long as a middle-sized
+eel, and an inch and a half thick. I have killed one nineteen feet
+long, and three feet and a half in its greatest breadth. A friend of
+mine killed one twenty-two feet long, and the legs of both these,
+which on land seemed to move with great difficulty, were not above a
+foot in length. But however sluggish they be on land, in the water
+they move with great agility.
+
+This animal has his body always covered with slime, which is the case
+with all fishes that live in muddy waters. When he comes on shore his
+track is covered with that slime, as his belly trails on the ground,
+and this renders the earth very slippery in that part, especially as
+he returns by the same path to the water. He never hunts the fish upon
+which he subsists; but places himself in ambuscade, and catches them
+as they pass. For that purpose he digs a hole in the bank of the
+river, below the surface of the water, where the current is strong,
+having a small entrance, but large enough within to turn himself round
+in. The fish, which are fatigued with the strong current, are glad to
+get into the smooth water in that corner, and there they are
+immediately seized by the crocodile.
+
+I shall not contradict the accounts of venerable antiquity about the
+crocodiles of the Nile, who fall upon men and devour them; who cross
+the roads, and make a slippery path upon them to trip passengers, and
+make them slide into the river; who counterfeit the voice of an
+infant, to draw children into their snares; neither shall I contradict
+the travellers who have {255} confirmed those stories from mere
+hearsays. But as I profess to speak the truth, and to advance nothing
+but what I am certain of from my own knowledge, I may safely affirm
+that the crocodiles of Louisiana are doubtless of another species than
+those of other countries. In fact, I never heard them imitate the
+cries of an infant, nor is it at all probable that they can
+counterfeit them. Their voice is as strong as that of a bull. It is
+true they attack men in the water, but never on land, where they are
+not at all formidable. Besides, there are nations that in great part
+subsist upon this animal, which is hunted out by the fathers and
+mothers, and killed by the children. What can we then believe of those
+stories that have been told us of the crocodile? I myself killed all
+that ever I met of them; and they are so much the less to be dreaded,
+in that they can neither run nor rise up against a man. In the water
+indeed, which is their favourite element, they are dangerous; but in
+that case it is easy to guard against them.
+
+The largest of all the reptiles of Louisiana, is the Rattle-Snake:
+some of them have been seen fifteen inches thick, and long in
+proportion; but this species is naturally shorter in proportion to
+their thickness than the other kinds of serpents. This serpent gets
+its name from several hollow knots at its tail, very thin and dry,
+which make a rattling noise. These knots, though inserted into each
+other, are yet quite detached, and only the first of them is fastened
+to the skin. The number of the knots, it is said, marks the age of the
+serpent, and I am much inclined to believe it; for as I have killed a
+great number of them, I always observed, that the longer and thicker
+the serpent was, it had the more knots. Its skin is almost black; but
+the lower part of its belly is striped black and white.
+
+As soon as it hears or sees a man, it rouses itself by shaking its
+tail, which makes a rattling noise that may be heard at several paces
+distance, and gives warning to the traveller to be upon his guard. It
+is much to be dreaded when it coils itself up in a spiral line, for
+then it may easily dart upon a man. It shuns the habitations of men,
+and by a singular providence, wherever it retires to, there the herb
+which cures its bite, is likewise to be found.
+
+{256} [Illustration: TOP: _Alligator_--MIDDLE: _Rattle Snake_--BOTTOM:
+_Green Snake_]
+
+There are several other kinds of serpents to be seen here, some of
+which resemble those of France, and attempt to slip into the
+hen-houses to devour the eggs and new-hatched chickens. Others are
+green, about two feet long, and not thicker than a goose-quill; they
+frequent the meadows, and may be seen running over the spires of
+grass, such is their lightness and nimbleness.
+
+{257} Vipers are very rare in Lower Louisiana, as that reptile loves
+stoney grounds. In the highlands they are now-and-then to met with,
+and there they quite resemble ours.
+
+Lizards are very common: there is a small kind of these that are
+called Cameleons, because they change their colour according to that
+of the place they pass over. [Footnote: When the Cameleon is angry, a
+nerve rises arch-wise from his mouth to the middle of his throat; and
+the skin which covers it is so stretched as to remain red, whatever
+colour the rest of the body be. He never does any hurt, and always
+runs away when observed.]
+
+Among the spiders of Louisiana there is one kind that will appear very
+extraordinary. It is as large, but rather longer than a pigeon's egg,
+black with gold-coloured specks. Its claws are pierced through above
+the joints. It does not carry its eggs like the rest, but encloses
+them in a kind of cup covered with its silk. It lodges itself in a
+kind of nut made of the same silk, and hung to the branches of the
+trees. The web which this insect weaves is so strong, that it not only
+stops birds, but cannot even be broken by men without a considerable
+effort.
+
+I never saw any Moles in Louisiana, nor heard of any being seen by
+others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_Of Birds, and Flying Insects_.
+
+
+Birds are so very numerous in Louisiana, that if all the different
+kinds of them were known, which is far from being the case at present,
+the description of them alone would require an entire volume. I only
+undertake the description of all those which have come within my
+knowledge, the number of which, I am persuaded, will be sufficient to
+satisfy the curious reader.
+
+The Eagle, the king of the birds, is smaller than the eagle of the
+Alps; but he is much more beautiful, being entirely white, excepting
+only the tips of his wings, which are black. As he is also very rare,
+this is another reason for heightening his value to the native, who
+purchase at a great price the large {258} feathers of his wings, with
+which they ornament the Calumet, or Symbol of Peace, as I have
+elsewhere described.
+
+When speaking of the king of birds, I shall take notice of the Wren,
+called by the French Roitelet (Petty King) which is the same in
+Louisiana as in France. The reason of its name in French will plainly
+enough appear from the following history. A magistrate, no less
+remarkable for his probity than for the rank he holds in the law,
+assured me that, when he was at Sables d'Olonne in Poitou, on account
+of an estate which he had in the neighbourhood of that city, he had
+the curiosity to go and see a white eagle which was then brought from
+America. After he had entered the house a wren was brought, and let
+fly in the hall where the eagle was feeding. The wren perched upon a
+beam, and was no sooner perceived by the eagle, than he left off
+feeding, flew into a corner, and hung down his head. The little bird,
+on the other hand, began to chirp and appear angry, and a moment after
+flew upon the neck of the eagle, and pecked him with the greatest
+fury, the eagle all the while hanging his head in a cowardly manner,
+between his feet. The wren, after satisfying its animosity, returned
+to the beam.
+
+The Falcon, the Hawk, and the Tassel are the same as in France; but
+the falcons are much more beautiful than ours.
+
+The Carrion-Crow, or Turky Bustard, is of the size and shape of a
+Turky-cock; his head is covered with red flesh, and his plumage is
+black: he has a hooked beak, but his toes are armed with very small
+talons, and are therefore very improper for seizing live game, which
+indeed he does not chuse to attack, as his want of agility prevents
+him from darting upon it with the rapidity of a bird of prey.
+Accordingly he lives only upon the dead beasts that he happens to meet
+with, and yet notwithstanding this kind of food he smells of musk.
+Several people maintain, that the Carrion-Crow, or Carancro, is the
+same with our Vulture. The Spaniards forbid the killing of it under
+pain of corporal punishment; for as they do not use the whole carcase
+of the buffaloes which they kill, those birds eat what they leave,
+which otherwise, by rotting on the ground, would, according to them,
+infect the air.
+
+{259}
+
+The Cormorant is shaped very much like a duck, but its plumage is
+different and much more beautiful. This bird frequents the shores of
+the sea and of lakes, but rarely appears in rivers. Its usual food is
+fish; but as it is very voracious, it likewise eats dead flesh; and
+this it can tear to pieces by means of a notch in its bill, which is
+about the size of that of a duck.
+
+The Swan of Louisiana are like those of France, only they are larger.
+However, notwithstanding their bulk and their weight, they often rise
+so high in the air, that they cannot be distinguished but by their
+shrill cry. Their flesh is very good to eat, and their fat is a
+specific against cold humours. The natives set a great value upon the
+feathers of the Swan. Of the large ones they make the diadems of their
+sovereigns, hats, and other ornaments; and they weave the small ones
+as the peruke-makers weave hair, and make coverings of them for their
+noble women. The young people of both sexes make tippets of the skin,
+without stripping it of its down.
+
+The Canada-Goose is a water-fowl, of the shape of a goose; but twice
+as large and heavy. Its plumage is ash-coloured; its eyes are covered
+with a black spot; its cries are different from those of a goose, and
+shriller; its flesh is excellent.
+
+The Pelican is so called from its large head, its large bill, and
+above all for its large pouch, which hangs from its neck, and has
+neither feather nor down. It fills this pouch with fish, which it
+afterwards disgorges for the nourishment of its young. It never
+removes from the shores of the sea, and is often killed by sailors for
+the sake of the pouch, which when dried serves them as a purse for
+their tobacco.
+
+The Geese are the same with the wild geese of France. They abound upon
+the shores of the sea and of lakes, but are rarely seen in rivers.
+
+In this country there are three kinds of Ducks; first, the Indian
+Ducks, so called because they came originally from that country. These
+are almost entirely white, having but a very few grey feathers. On
+each side of their head they have flesh of a more lively red than that
+of the Turky-cock, and they are larger than our tame ducks. They are
+as tame as those of {260} Europe, and their flesh when young is
+delicate, and of a fine flavour. The Wild Ducks are fatter, more
+delicate, and of better taste than those of France; but in other
+respects they are entirely the same. For one you see in France you may
+here count a thousand. The Perching-Ducks, or Carolina Summer-Ducks,
+are somewhat larger than our teals. Their plumage is quite beautiful,
+and so changeable that no painting can imitate it. Upon their head
+they have a beautiful tuft of the most {261} lively colours, and their
+red eyes appear like flames. The natives ornament their calumets or
+pipes with the skin of their neck. Their flesh is very good, but when
+it is too fat it tastes oily. These ducks are to be met with the whole
+year round; they perch upon the branches of trees, which the others do
+not, and it is from this they have their name.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Pelican_--BOTTOM: _Wood Stock_ (on p. 260)]
+
+The Teal are found in every season; and they differ nothing from those
+of France but in having a finer relish.
+
+The Divers of Louisiana are the same with those of France: they no
+sooner see the fire in the pan, than they dive so suddenly that the
+shot cannot touch them, and they are therefore called Lead-Eaters.
+
+The Saw-bill has the inside of its beak indented like the edge of a
+saw: it is said to live wholly upon shrimps, the shells of which it
+can easily break.
+
+The Crane is a very common water-fowl; it is larger than a turkey,
+very lean, and of an excellent taste. It eats somewhat like beef, and
+makes very good soup.
+
+The Flamingo has only a little down upon its head; its plumage is
+grey, and its flesh good.
+
+The Spatula has its name from the form of its bill, which is about
+seven or eight inches long, an inch broad towards the head, and two
+inches and a half towards the extremity; it is not quite so large as a
+wild goose; its thighs and legs are about the height of those of a
+turkey. Its plumage is rose-coloured, the wings being brighter than
+any other part. This is a water-fowl, and its flesh is very good.
+
+The Heron of Louisiana is not in the least different from that of
+Europe.
+
+The Egret, or White Heron, is so called from tufts of feathers upon
+the wings near the body, which hinder it from flying high; it is a
+water-fowl with white plumage; but its flesh tastes very oily.
+
+The Bec-croche, or Crook-bill, has indeed a crooked bill, with which
+it seizes the cray-fish upon which it subsists. Its {262} flesh has
+that taste, and is red. Its plumage is a whitish grey; and it is about
+the size of a capon.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Flying Squirrel_--MIDDLE: _Roseate
+Spoon-bill_--BOTTOM: _Snowy Heron_]
+
+The Indian Water-Hen, and the Green-Foot, are the same as in France.
+
+The Hatchet-Bill is so called on account of its bill, which is red,
+and formed like the edge of an ax. Its feet are also Of a beautiful
+red, and it is therefore often called Red-Foot. As {263} it lives upon
+shell-fish, it never removes from the sea-coast, but upon the approach
+of a storm, which is always sure to follow its retiring into the
+inland parts.
+
+The King-Fisher excels ours in nothing but in the beauty of its
+plumage, which is as various as the rainbow. This bird, it is well
+known, goes always against the wind; but perhaps few people know that
+it preserves the same property when it is dead. I myself hung a dead
+one by a silk thread directly over a sea-compass, and I can declare it
+as a fact, that the bill was always turned towards the wind.
+
+The Sea-Lark and Sea-Snipe never quit the sea; their flesh may be eat,
+as it has very little of the oily taste.
+
+The Frigate-Bird is a large bird, which in the day-time keeps itself
+in the air above the shore of the sea. It often rises very high,
+probably for exercise; for it feeds upon fish, and every night retires
+to the coast. It appears larger than it really is, as it is covered
+with a great many feathers of a grey colour. Its wings are very long,
+its tail forked, and it cuts the air with great swiftness.
+
+The Draught-Bird is a large bird, not much unlike the Frigate-Bird, as
+light, but not so swift. The under-part of its plumage is chequered
+brown and white, but the upper-part is of greyish brown.
+
+The Fool is of a yellowish colour, and about the size of a hen; it is
+so called, because it will suffer a man to approach it so near as to
+seize it with his hand: but even then it is too soon to cry victory;
+for if the person who seizes it does not take the greatest precaution,
+it will snap off his finger at one bite.
+
+When those three last birds are observed to hover very low over the
+shore, we may most certainly expect an approaching storm. On the other
+hand, when the sailors see the Halcyons behind their vessel, they
+expect and generally meet with fine weather for some days.
+
+Since I have mentioned the Halcyon, I shall here describe it. It is a
+small bird, about the size of a swallow, but its beak {264} is longer,
+and its plumage is violet-coloured. It has two streaks of a yellowish
+brown at the end of the feathers of its wings, which when it sits
+appear upon its back. When we left Louisiana, near an hundred halcyons
+followed our vessel for near three days: they kept at the distance of
+about a stone-cast, and seemed to swim, yet I could never discover
+that their feet were webbed, and was therefore greatly surprised. They
+probably live upon the small insects that drop from the outside of the
+vessel when sailing; for they now-and-then dived, and came up in the
+same place. I have some suspicion that, by keeping in the wake of the
+ship, they float after it without swimming; for when they happened to
+be out of the wake of the ship, they were obliged to fly, in order to
+come up with the ship again. This bird is said to build its nest of
+the glutinous froth of the sea close upon the shore, and to launch it
+when a land breeze arises, raising one of its wings in the form of a
+sail, which receiving the wind, helps to carry it out to sea.
+
+I shall now proceed to speak of the fowls which frequent the woods,
+and shall begin with the Wild-Turky, which is very common all over the
+colony. It is finer, larger, and better than that in France. The
+feathers of the turky are of a duskish grey, edged with a streak of
+gold colour, near half an inch broad. In the small feathers the
+gold-coloured streak is not above one tenth of an inch broad. The
+natives make fans of the tail, and of four tails joined together, the
+French make an umbrella. The women among the natives weave the
+feathers as our peruke-makers weave their hair, and fasten them to an
+old covering of bark, which they likewise line with them, so that it
+has down on both sides. Its flesh is more delicate, fatter, and more
+juicy than that of ours. They go in flocks, and with a dog one may
+kill a great many of them. I never could procure any of the turky's
+eggs, to try to hatch them, and discover whether they were as
+difficult to bring up in this country as in France, since the climate
+of both countries is almost the same. My slave told me, that in his
+nation they brought up the young turkies as easily as we do chickens.
+
+The Pheasant is the most beautiful bird that can be painted, and in
+every respect entirely like that of Europe. {265} Their rarity, in my
+opinion, makes them more esteemed than they deserve. I would at any
+time prefer a slice off the fillet of a buffalo to any pheasant.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _White Ibis_--MIDDLE: _Tobacco Worm_--BOTTOM: _Cock
+Roach_]
+
+The Partridges of Louisiana are not larger than a wood-pigeon. Their
+plumage is exactly the same with that of our grey partridges; they
+have also the horse-shoe upon the breast; they perch upon trees, and
+are seldom seen in flocks. Their {266} cry consists only of two strong
+notes, somewhat resembling the name given them by the natives, who
+call them Ho-ouy. Their flesh is white and delicate, but, like all the
+other game in this country, it has no _fumet_, and only excels in the
+fine taste.
+
+The Woodcock is very rare, because it is only to be met with in
+inhabited countries. It is like that of France; its flesh is white,
+but rather plumper and more delicate than that of ours, which is owing
+to the plenty and goodness of its fruit.
+
+The Snipe is much more common than the woodcock, and in this country
+is far from being shy. Its flesh is white, and of a much better relish
+than that of ours.
+
+I am of opinion that the Quail is very rare in Louisiana; I have
+sometimes heard it, but never saw it, nor know any Frenchman that ever
+did.
+
+Some of our colonists have thought proper to give the name of Ortolan
+to a small bird which has the same plumage, but in every other respect
+does not in the least resemble it.
+
+The Corbijeau is as large as the woodcock, and very common. Its
+plumage is varied with several shady colours, and is different from
+that of the woodcock; its feet and beak are also longer, which last is
+crooked and of a reddish yellow colour; its flesh is likewise firmer
+and better tasted.
+
+The Parroquet of Louisiana is not quite so large as those that are
+usually brought to France. Its plumage is usually of a fine sea-green,
+with a pale rose-coloured spot upon the crown, which brightens into
+red towards the beak, and fades off into green towards the body. It is
+with difficulty that it learns to speak, and even then it rarely
+practices it, resembling in this the natives themselves, who speak
+little. As a silent parrot would never make its fortune among our
+French ladies, it is doubtless on this account that we see so few of
+these in France.
+
+The Turtle-Dove is the same with that of Europe, but few of them are
+seen here.
+
+The Wood-Pigeons are seen in such prodigious numbers, that I do not
+fear to exaggerate, when I affirm that they sometimes {267} cloud the
+sun. One day on the banks of the Missisippi I met with a flock of them
+which was so large, that before they all passed, I had leisure to fire
+with the same piece four times at them. But the rapidity of their
+flight was so great, that though I do not fire ill, with my four shots
+I brought down but two.
+
+These birds come to Louisiana only in the winter, and remain in Canada
+during the summer, where they devour the corn, as they eat the acorns
+in Louisiana. The Canadians have used every art to hinder them from
+doing so much mischief, but without success. But if the inhabitants of
+those colonies were to go a fowling for those birds in the manner that
+I have done, they would insensibly destroy them. When they walk among
+the high forest trees, they ought to remark under the trees the
+largest quantity of dung is to be seen. Those trees being once
+discovered, the hunters ought to go out when it begins to grow dark,
+and carry with them a quantity of brimstone which they must set fire
+to in so many earthen plates placed at regular distances under the
+trees. In a very short time they will hear a shower of wood-pigeons
+falling to the ground, which, by the light of some dried canes, they
+may gather into sacks, as soon as the brimstone is extinguished.
+
+I shall here give an instance that proves not only the prodigious number
+of those birds, but also their singular instinct. In one of my journeys
+at land, when I happened to be upon the bank of the river, I heard a
+confused noise which seemed to come along the river from a considerable
+distance below us. As the sound continued uniformly I embarked, as fast
+as I could, on board the pettyaugre, with four other men, and steered
+down the river, keeping in the middle, that I might go to any side that
+best suited me. But how great was my surprise when I approached the
+place from whence the noise came, and observed it to proceed from a
+thick short pillar on the bank of the river. When I drew still nearer to
+it, I perceived that it was formed by a legion of wood-pigeons, who kept
+continually flying up and down successively among the branches of an
+ever-green oak, in order to beat down the acorns with their wings. Every
+now and then some alighted to eat the {268} acorns which they themselves
+or the others had beat down; for they all acted in common, and eat in
+common; no avarice nor private interest appearing among them, but each
+labouring as much for the rest as for himself.
+
+Crows are common in Louisiana, and as they eat no carrion their flesh
+is better tasted than that of the crows of France. Whatever their
+appetite may be, they dare not for the carrion crow approach any
+carcass.
+
+I never saw any Ravens in this country, and if there be any they must
+be very rare.
+
+The Owls are larger and whiter than in France, and their cry is much
+more frightful. The Little Owl is the same with ours, but much more
+rare. These two birds are more common in Lower Louisiana than in the
+higher.
+
+The Magpye resembles those of Europe in nothing but its cry; it is
+more delicate, is quite black, has a different manner of flying, and
+chiefly frequents the coasts.
+
+The Blackbirds are black all over, not excepting their bills nor their
+feet, and are almost as large again as ours. Their notes are
+different, and their flesh is hard.
+
+There are two sorts of Starlings in this country; one grey and
+spotted, and the other black. In both the tip of the shoulder is of a
+bright red. They are only to be seen in winter; and then they are so
+numerous, that upwards of three hundred of them have been taken at
+once in a net. A beaten path is made near a wood, and after it is
+cleaned and smoothed, it is strewed with rice. On each side of this
+path is stretched a long narrow silken net, with very small meshes,
+and made to turn over at once by strings fastened to the stick that
+stretches the end of it. The starlings no sooner alight to pick up the
+grain, than the fowler, who lies concealed with the strings in his
+hand, pulls the net over them.
+
+The Wood-pecker is much the same as in France; but here there are two
+kinds of them; one has grey feathers spotted with black; the other has
+the head and the neck of a bright red, and the rest of the body as the
+former. This bird lives upon the {269} worms which it finds in rotten
+wood, and not upon ants, as a modern author would have us believe, for
+want of having considered the nature of the things which he relates.
+The bird, when looking for its food, examines the trunks of trees that
+have lost their bark; it clasps by its feet with its belly close to
+the tree, and hearkens if it can hear a worm eating the wood; in this
+manner it leaps from place to place upon the trunk till it hears a
+worm, then it pierces the wood in that part, pricks the worm with its
+hard and pointed tongue, and draws it out. The arms which nature has
+furnished it with are very proper for this kind of hunting; its claws
+are hard and very sharp; its beak is formed like a little ax, and is
+very hard; its neck is long and flexible, to give proper play to its
+beak; and its hard tongue, which it can extend three or four inches,
+has a most sharp point with several beards that help to hold the prey.
+
+The Swallows of this country have that part yellow which ours have
+white, and they, as well as the martins, live in the woods.
+
+The Nightingale differs in nothing from ours in respect to its shape
+or plumage, unless that it has the bill a little longer. But in this
+it is particular that it is not shy, and sings through the whole year,
+though rarely. It is very easy to entice them to your roof, where it
+is impossible for the cats to reach them, by laying something for them
+to eat upon a lath, with a piece of the shell of a gourd which serves
+to hold their nest. You may in that case depend upon their not
+changing their habitation.
+
+The Pope is a bird that has a red and black plumage. It has got that
+name perhaps because its colour makes it look somewhat old, and none
+but old men are promoted to that dignity; or because its notes are
+soft, feeble, and rare; or lastly, because they wanted a bird of that
+name in the colony, having two other kinds named cardinals and
+bishops.
+
+The Cardinal owes its name to the bright red of the feathers, and to a
+little cowl on the hind part of the head, which resembles that of the
+bishop's ornament, called a camail. It is as large as a black-bird,
+but not so long. Its bill and toes are {270} large, strong, and black.
+Its notes are so strong and piercing that they are only agreeable in
+the woods. It is remarkable for laying up its winter provision in the
+summer, and near a Paris bushel of maiz has been found in its retreat,
+artfully covered, first with leaves and then with small branches, with
+only a little opening for the bird itself to enter.
+
+The Bishop is a bird smaller than the linnet; its plumage is a
+violet-coloured blue, and its wings, which serve it for a cope, are
+entirely violet-colour. Its notes are so sweet, so variable, and
+tender, that those who have once heard it, are apt to abate in their
+praises of the nightingale. I had such great pleasure in hearing this
+charming bird, that I left an oak standing very near my apartment,
+upon which he used to come and perch, though I very well knew, that
+the tree, which stood single, might be overturned by a blast of wind,
+and fall upon my house to my great loss.
+
+The Humming-Bird is not larger even with its feathers than a large
+beetle. The colour of its feathers is variable, according to the light
+they are exposed in; in the sun they appear like enamel upon a gold
+ground, which delights the eyes. The longest feathers of the wings of
+this bird are not much more than half an inch long; its bill is about
+the same length, and pointed like an awl; and its tongue resembles a
+sowing-needle; its feet are like those of a large fly. Notwithstanding
+its little size, its flight is so rapid, that it is always heard
+before it be seen. Although like the bee it sucks the flowers, it
+never rests upon them, but supports itself upon its wings, and passes
+from one flower to another with the rapidity of lightening. It is a
+rare thing to catch a humming-bird alive; one of my friends however
+had the happiness to catch one. He had observed it enter the flower of
+a convolvulus, and as it had quite buried itself to get at the bottom,
+he ran forwards, shut the flower, cut it from the stalk, and carried
+off the bird a prisoner. He could not however prevail upon it to eat,
+and it died four days after.
+
+The Troniou is a small bird about the size of a sparrow; its plumage
+is likewise the same; but its beak is slenderer. Its notes seem to
+express its name.
+
+{271} The French settlers raise in this province turkies of the same
+kind with those of France, fowls, capons, &c. of an excellent taste.
+The pigeons for their fine flavour and delicacy are preferred by
+Europeans to those of any other country. The Guinea fowl is here
+delicious.
+
+In Louisiana we have two kinds of Silk-worms; one was brought from
+France, the other is natural to the country. I shall enlarge upon them
+under the article of agriculture.
+
+The Tobacco-worm is a caterpillar of the size and figure of a
+silk-worm. It is of a fine sea-green colour, with rings of a silver
+colour; on its rump it has a sting near a quarter of an inch long.
+These insects quickly do a great deal of mischief, therefore care is
+taken every day, while the tobacco is rising, to pick them off and
+kill them.
+
+In summer Caterpillars are sometimes found upon the plants, but these
+insects are very rare in the colony. Glow-worms are here the same as
+in France.
+
+Butterflies are not near so common as in France; the consequence of
+there being fewer caterpillars; but they are of incomparable beauty,
+and have the most brilliant colours. In the meadows are to be seen
+black grasshoppers, which almost always walk, rarely leap, and still
+seldomer fly. They are about the size of a finger or thum, and their
+head is shaped somewhat like that of a horse. Their four small wings
+are of a most beautiful purple. Cats are very fond of grasshoppers.
+
+The Bees of Louisiana lodge in the earth, to secure their honey from
+the ravages of the bears. Some few indeed build their combs in the
+trunks of trees, as in Europe; but by far the greatest number in the
+earth in the lofty forests, where the bears seldom go.
+
+The Flies are of two kinds, one a yellowish brown, as in France, and
+the other black.
+
+The Wasps in this country take up their abode near the houses where
+they smell victuals. Several French settlers endeavored to root them
+out of their neighbourhood; but I acted otherwise; for reflecting,
+that no flies are to be seen where the {272} wasps frequent, I invited
+them by hanging up a piece of flesh in the air.
+
+The quick-stinger is a long and yellowish fly, and it receives its
+name from its stinging the moment it lights. The common flies of
+France are very common also in Louisiana.
+
+The Cantharides, or Spanish flies, are very numerous, and larger than
+in Europe; they are of such an acid nature, that if they but slightly
+touch the skin as they pass, a pretty large blister instantly rises.
+These flies live upon the leaves of the oak.
+
+The Green-flies appear only every other year, and the natives
+superstitiously look upon their appearance as a presage of a good
+crop. It is a pity that the cattle are so greatly molested by them,
+that they cannot remain in the fields; for they are extremely
+beautiful and twice as large as bees.
+
+Fire flies are very common; when the night is serene they are so very
+numerous, that if the light they dart out were constant, one might see
+as clearly as in fine moonshine.
+
+The Fly-ants, which we see attach themselves to the flower of the
+acacia, and which disappear when that flower is gone, do not proceed
+from the common ants. The fly ants, though shaped like the other kind,
+are however longer and larger. They have a square head; their colour
+is a brownish red bordered with black; they have four red and grey
+wings, and fly like common flies, which the other ants do not even
+when they have wings.
+
+The Dragon-flies are pretty numerous; they do not want to destroy them
+because they feed upon moskitos, which is one of the most troublesome
+kind of insects.
+
+
+The Moskitos are famous all over America, for their multitude, the
+troublesomeness of their buzzing and the venom of their stings, which
+occasion an insupportable itching, and often form so many ulcers, if
+the person stung does not immediately put some spittle on the wound.
+In open places they are less tormenting; but still they are
+troublesome; and the best way of driving them out of the houses is to
+burn a little brimstone in {273} the mornings and evenings. The smoke
+of this infallibly kills them, and the smell keeps others away for
+several days. An hour after the brimstone has been burnt, the
+apartments may be safely entered into by men.
+
+By the same means we may rid ourselves of the flies and moskitos,
+whose sting is so painful and so frequent during the short time they
+fly about; for they do not rise till about sun-set, and they retire at
+night. This is not the case with the Burning-fly. These, though not
+much larger than the point of a pin, are insupportable to the people
+who labour in the fields. They fly from sun-rising to sun-setting, and
+the wounds they give burn like fire.
+
+The Lavert is an insect about an inch and a quarter long, a little
+more than a quarter broad, and a tenth part of an inch thick. It
+enters the houses by the smallest crevices and in the night-time it
+falls upon dishes that are covered even with a plate, which renders it
+very troublesome to those whose houses are only built of wood. Bue
+they are so relishing to the cats, that these last quit everything to
+fall upon them wherever they perceive them. When a new settler has
+once cleared the ground about his house, and is at some distance from
+the woods, he is quickly freed from them.
+
+In Louisiana there are white ants, which seem to love dead wood.
+Persons who have been in the East-Indies have assured me, that they
+are quite like those which in that country are called _cancarla_, and
+that they would eat through glass, which I never had the experience
+of. There are in Louisiana, as in France, red, black, and flying ants.
+
+{274}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Of Fishes and Shell-Fish_.
+
+
+Though there is an incredible quantity of fishes in this country, I
+shall however be very concise in my account of them; because during my
+abode in the country they were not sufficiently known; and the people
+were not experienced enough in the art of catching them. The most of
+the rivers being very deep, and the Missisippi, as I have mentioned,
+being between thirty-eight and forty fathoms, from its mouth to the
+fall of St. Anthony, it may be easily conceived that the instruments
+used for fishing in France, cannot be of any use in Louisiana, because
+they cannot go to the bottom of the rivers, or at least so deep as to
+prevent the fish from escaping. The line therefore can be only used
+and it is with it they catch all the fish that are eaten by the
+settlers upon the river. I proceed to an account of those fish.
+
+The Barbel is of two sorts, the large and the small. The first is
+about four feet long, and the smallest of this sort that is ever seen
+is two feet long, the young ones doubtless keeping at the bottom of
+the water. This kind has a very large head, and a round body, which
+gradually lessens toward the tail. The fish has no scales, nor any
+bones, excepting that of the middle: its flesh is very good and
+delicate, but in a small degree vary insipid, which is easily
+remedied; in other respects it eats very like the fresh cod of the
+country.
+
+The small is from a foot to two in length. Its head is shaped like
+that of the other kind; but its body is not so round, nor so pointed
+at the tail.
+
+The Carp of the river Missisippi is monstrous. None are seen under two
+feet long; and many are met with three and four feet in length. The
+carps are not so very good in the lower part of the river; but the
+higher one goes the finer they are, on account of the plenty of sand
+in those parts. A great number of carps are carried into the lakes
+that are filled by the overflowing of the river, and in those lakes
+they are found {275} of all sizes, in great abundance, and of a better
+relish than those of the river.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Cat Fish_--Middle: _Gar Fish_--Bottom: _Spoonbill
+Catfish_]
+
+The Burgo-Breaker is an excellent fish; it is usually a foot and a
+foot and a half long: it is round, with gold-coloured scales. In its
+throat it has two bones with a surface like that of a file to break
+the shell-fish named Burgo. Though delicate, it is nevertheless very
+firm. It is best when not much boiled.
+
+{276} The Ring-Skate is found in the river up as far as New Orleans,
+but no higher. It is very good, and no way tough. In other respects it
+is exactly like that of France.
+
+The Spatula is so called, because from its snout a substance extends
+about a foot in length, in the form of an apothecary's Spatula. This
+fish, which is about two feet in length, is neither round or flat, but
+square, having at its sides and in the under part bones that forman
+angle like those of the back.
+
+No Pikes are caught above a foot and a half long. As this is a
+voracious fish, perhaps the Armed-fish pursues it, both from jealousy
+and appetite. The pike, besides being small, is very rare.
+
+The Choupic is a very beautiful fish; many people mistake it for the
+trout, as it takes a fly in the same manner. But it is very different
+from the trout, as it prefers muddy and dead water to a clear stream,
+and its flesh is so soft that it is only good when fried.
+
+The Sardine or small Pilchard of the river Missisippi, is about three
+or four fingers in breadth, and between six and seven inches long; it
+is good and delicate. One year I salted about the quantity of forty
+pints of them, and all the French who eat of them acknowledged them to
+be Sardines from their flesh, their bones, and their taste. They
+appear only for a short season, and are caught by the natives, when
+swimming against the strongest current, with nets made for that
+purpose only.
+
+The Patassa, so called by the natives for its flatness, is the roach
+or fresh-water mullet of this country.
+
+The Armed-Fish has its name from its arms, and its scaly mail. Its
+arms are its very sharp teeth, about the tenth of an inch in diameter,
+and as much distant from each other, and near half an inch long. The
+interval of the larger teeth is filled with shorter teeth. These arms
+are a proof of its voracity. Its mail is nothing but its scales, which
+are white, as hard as ivory, and about the tenth of an inch in
+thickness. They are near an inch long, about half as much in breadth,
+end in a {277} point, and have two cutting sides. There are two ranges
+of them down the back, shaped exactly like the head of a spontoon, and
+opposite to the point of the scale has a little shank, about three
+tenths of an inch long, which the natives insert into the end of their
+arrows, making the scale serve for a head. The flesh of this fish is
+hard and not relishing.
+
+There are a great number of Eels in the river Missisippi, and very
+large ones are found in all the rivers and creeks.
+
+The whole lower part of the river abounds in Crayfish. Upon my first
+arrival in the colony the ground was covered with little hillocks,
+about six or seven inches high, which the crayfish had made for taking
+the air out of the water; but since dikes have been raised for keeping
+off the river from the low grounds, they no longer shew themselves.
+Whenever they are wanted, they fish for them with the leg of a frog,
+and in a few moments they will catch a large dish of them.
+
+The Shrimps are diminutive crayfish; they are usually about three
+inches long, and of the size of the little finger. Although in other
+countries they are generally found in the sea only, yet in Louisiana
+you will meet with great numbers of them more than an hundred leagues
+up the river. In the lake St. Louis, about two leagues from New
+Orleans, the waters of which, having a communication with the sea, are
+somewhat brackish, are found several sorts both of sea fish, and fresh
+water fish. As the bottom of the lake is very level, they fish in it
+with large nets lately brought from France.
+
+Near the lake, when we pass by the outlets to the sea, and continue
+along the coasts, we meet with small oysters in great abundance, that
+are very well tasted. On the other hand, when we quit the lake by
+another lake that communicates with one of the mouths of the river, we
+meet with oysters four or five inches broad, and six or seven long.
+These large oysters eat best fried, having hardly any saltness, but in
+other respects are large and delicate.
+
+Having spoken of the oysters of Louisiana, I shall take some notice of
+the oysters that are found on the trees at St. Domingo. When I arrived
+at the harbour of Cape Francois in {278} my way to Louisiana, I was
+much surprised to see oysters hanging to the branches of some shrubs;
+but M. Chaineau, who was our second captain, explained the phaenomenon
+to me. According to him, the twigs of the shrubs are bent down at high
+water, to the very bottom of the shore, whenever the sea is any ways
+agitated. The oysters in that place no sooner feel the twigs than they
+lay hold of them, and when the sea retires they appear suspended upon
+them.
+
+Towards the mouths of the river we meet with mussels no salter than
+the large oysters above mentioned; and this is owing to the water
+being only brackish in those parts, as the river there empties itself
+by three large mouths, and five other small ones, besides several
+short creeks, which all together throw at once an immense quantity of
+water into the sea; the whole marshy ground occupies an extent of ten
+or twelve leagues.
+
+
+There are likewise excellent mussels upon the northern shore of the
+lake St. Louis, especially in the river of Pearls; they may be about
+six or seven inches long, and sometimes contain pretty large pearls,
+but of no great value.
+
+The largest of the shell-fish on the coast is the Burgo, well known in
+France. There is another fish much smaller and of a different shape.
+Its hollow shell is strong and beautiful, and the flat one is
+generally black; some blue ones are found, and are much esteemed.
+These shells have long been in request for tobacco-boxes.
+
+{279}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_The Origin of the Americans._
+
+
+The remarkable difference I observed between the Natchez, including in
+that name the nations whom they treat as brethren, and the other
+people of Louisiana, made me extremely desirous to know whence both of
+them might originally come. We had not then that full information
+which we have since received from the voyages and discoveries of M. De
+Lisle in the eastern parts of the Russian empire. I therefore applied
+myself one day to put the keeper of the temple in good humour, and
+having succeeded in that without much difficulty, I then told him,
+that from the little resemblance I observed between the Natchez and
+the neighbouring nations, I was inclined to believe that they were not
+originally of the country which they then inhabited; and that if the
+ancient speech taught him any thing on that subject, he would do me a
+great pleasure to inform me of it. At these words he leaned his head
+on his two hands, with which he covered his eyes, and having remained
+in that posture about a quarter of an hour, as if to recollect
+himself, he answered to the following effect:
+
+"Before we came into this land we lived yonder under the sun,
+(pointing with his finger nearly south-west, by which I understood
+that he meant Mexico;) we lived in a fine country where the earth is
+always pleasant; there our Suns had their abode, and our nation
+maintained itself for a long time against the ancients of the country,
+who conquered some of our villages {280} in the plains, but never
+could force us from the mountains. Our nation extended itself along
+the great water where this large river loses itself; but as our
+enemies were become very numerous, and very wicked, our Suns sent some
+of their subjects who lived near this river, to examine whether we
+could retire into the country through which it flowed. The country on
+the east side of the river being found extremely pleasant, the Great
+Sun, upon the return of those who had examined it, ordered all his
+subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselves
+against the antients of this country, to remove into this land, here
+to build a temple, and to preserve the eternal fire.
+
+"A great part of our nation accordingly settled here, where they lived
+in peace and abundance for several generations. The Great Sun, and
+those who had remained with him, never thought of joining us, being
+tempted to continue where they were by the pleasantness of the
+country, which was very warm, and by the weakness of their enemies,
+who had fallen into civil dissentions, in consequence of the ambition
+of one of their chiefs, who wanted to raise himself from a state of
+equality with the other chiefs of the villages, and to treat all the
+people of his nation as slaves. During those discords among our
+enemies, some of them even entered into an alliance with the Great
+Sun, who still remained in our old country, that he might conveniently
+assist our other brethren who had settled on the banks of the Great
+Water to the east of the large river, and extended themselves so far
+on the coast and among the isles, that the Great Sun did not hear of
+them sometimes for five or six years together.
+
+"It was not till after many generations that the Great Suns came and
+joined us in this country, where, from the fine climate, and the peace
+we had enjoyed, we had multiplied like the leaves of the trees.
+Warriors of fire, who made the earth to tremble, had arrived in our
+old country, and having entered into an alliance with our brethren,
+conquered our ancient enemies; but attempting afterwards to make
+slaves of our Suns, they, rather than submit to them, left our
+brethren who refused to follow them, and came hither attended only
+with their slaves."
+
+{281} Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he replied,
+that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a brownish colour, who
+carried arms that darted out fire with a great noise, and killed at a
+great distance; that they had likewise heavy arms which killed a great
+many men at once, and like thunder made the earth tremble; and that
+they came from the sun-rising in floating villages.
+
+The ancients of the country he said were very numerous, and inhabited
+from the western coast of the great water to the northern countries on
+his side the sun, and very far upon the same coast beyond the sun.
+They had a great number of large and small villages, which were all
+built of stone, and in which there were houses large enough to lodge a
+whole village. Their temples were built with great labour and art, and
+they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials.
+
+But ye yourselves, said I, whence are ye come? The ancient speech, he
+replied, does not say from what land we came; all that we know is,
+that our fathers, to come hither, followed the sun, and came with him
+from the place where he rises; that they were a long time on their
+journey, were all on the point of perishing, and were brought into
+this country without seeking it.
+
+To this account of the keeper of the temple, which was afterwards
+confirmed to me by the Great Sun, I shall add the following passage of
+Diodorus Siculus, which seems to confirm the opinion of those who
+think the eastern Americans are descended from the Europeans, who may
+have been driven by the winds upon the coasts of Guiana or Brazil.
+
+"To the west of Africa, he says, lies a very large island, distant
+many days sail from that part of our continent. Its fertile soil is
+partly plain, and partly mountainous. The plain country is most sweet
+and pleasant, being watered every where with rivulets, and navigable
+rivers; it is beautified with many gardens, which are planted with all
+kinds of trees, and the orchards particularly are watered with
+pleasant streams. The villages are adorned with houses built in a
+magnificent taste, having parterres ornamented with arbours covered
+with flowers. Hither the inhabitants retire during the summer to enjoy
+the fruits which the country furnishes them with in the greatest {282}
+abundance. The mountainous part is covered with large woods, and all
+manner of fruit trees, and in the vallies, which are watered with
+rivulets, the inhabitants meet with every thing that can render life
+agreeable. In a word, the whole island, by its fertility and the
+abundance of its springs, furnishes the inhabitants not only with
+every thing that may flatter their wishes, but with what may also
+contribute to their health and strength of body. Hunting furnishes
+them with such an infinite number of animals, that in their feasts
+they have nothing to wish for in regard either to plenty or delicacy.
+Besides, the sea, which surrounds the island, supplies them
+plentifully with all kinds of fish, and indeed the sea in general is
+very abundant. The air of this island is so temperate that the trees
+bear leaves and fruit almost the whole year round. In a word, this
+island is so delicious, that it seems rather the abode of the gods
+than of men.
+
+"Anciently, on account of its remote situation, it was altogether
+unknown; but afterwards it was discovered by accident. It is well
+known, that from the earliest ages the Phenicians undertook long
+voyages in order to extend their commerce, and in consequence of those
+voyages established several colonies in Africa and the western parts
+of Europe. Every thing succeeding to their wish, and being become very
+powerful, they attempted to pass the pillars of Hercules and enter the
+ocean. They accordingly passed those pillars, and in their
+neighbourhood built a city upon a peninsula of Spain, which they named
+Gades. There, amongst the other buildings proper for the place, they
+built a temple to Hercules, to whom they instituted splendid
+sacrifices after the manner of their country. This temple is in great
+veneration at this day, and several Romans who have rendered
+themselves illustrious by their exploits, have performed their vows to
+Hercules for the success of their enterprizes.
+
+"The Phenicians accordingly having passed the Streights of Spain,
+sailed along Africa, when by the violence of the winds they were
+driven far out to sea, and the storm continuing several days, they
+were at length thrown on this island. Being the first who were
+acquainted with its beauty and fertility, they {283} published them to
+other nations. The Tuscans, when they were masters at sea, designed to
+send a colony thither, but the Carthaginians found means to prevent
+them on the two following accounts; first, they were afraid lest their
+citizens, tempted by the charms of that island, should pass over
+hither in too great numbers, and desert their own country; next they
+looked upon it as a secure asylum for themselves, if ever any terrible
+disaster should befal their republic."
+
+This description of Diodorus is very applicable in many circumstances
+to America, particularly in the agreeable temperature of the climate
+to Africans, the prodigious fertility of the earth, the vast forests,
+the large rivers, and the multitude of rivulets and springs. The
+Natchez may then justly be supposed to be descended from some
+Phenicians or Carthaginians, who had been wrecked on the shores of
+South America, in which case they might well be imagined to have but
+little acquaintance with the arts, as those who first landed would be
+obliged to apply all their thoughts to their immediate subsistence,
+and consequently would soon become rude and barbarous. Their worship
+of the eternal fire likewise implies their descent from the
+Phenicians; for every body knows that this superstition, which first
+took its rise in Egypt, was introduced by the Phenicians into all the
+countries that they visited. The figurative stile, and the bold and
+Syriac expressions in the language of the Natchez, is likewise another
+proof of their being descended from the Phenicians. [Footnote: The
+author might have mentioned a singular custom, in which both nations
+agree; for it appears from _Polybius_, 1 I. c. 6. that Carthaginians
+practised scalping.]
+
+As to those whom the Natchez, long after their first establishment,
+found inhabiting the western coasts of America, and whom we name
+Mexicans, the arts which they possessed and cultivated with success,
+obliged me to give them a different origin. Their temples, their
+sacrifices, their buildings, their form of government, and their
+manner of making war, all denote a people who have transmigrated in a
+body, and brought with them the arts, the sciences, and the customs of
+their country. Those people had the art of writing, and also of {284}
+painting. Their archives consisted of cloths of cotton, whereon they
+had painted or drawn all those transactions which they thought worthy
+of being transmitted to posterity. It were greatly to be wished that
+the first conquerors of this new world had preserved to us the figures
+of those drawings; for by comparing them with the characters used by
+other nations, we might perhaps have discovered the origin of the
+inhabitants. The knowledge which we have of the Chinese characters,
+which are rather irregular drawings than characters, would probably
+have facilitated such a discovery; and perhaps those of Japan would
+have been found greatly to have resembled the Mexican; for I am
+strongly of opinion that the Mexicans are descended from one of those
+two nations.
+
+In fact, where is the impossibility, that some prince in one of those
+countries, upon failing in an attempt to raise himself to the
+sovereign power, should leave his native country with all his
+partizans, and look for some new land, where, after he had established
+himself, he might drop all foreign correspondence? The easy navigation
+of the South Sea renders the thing probable; and the new map of the
+eastern bounds of Asia, and the western of North America, lately
+published by Mr. De Lisle, makes it still more likely. This map makes
+it plainly appear, that between the islands of Japan, or northern
+coasts of China, and those of America, there are other lands, which to
+this day have remained unknown; and who will take upon him to say
+there is no land, because it has never yet been discovered? I have
+therefore good grounds to believe, that the Mexicans came originally
+from China or Japan, especially when I consider their reserved and
+uncommunicative disposition, which to this day prevails among the
+people of the eastern parts of Asia. The great antiquity of the
+Chinese nation likewise makes it possible that a colony might have
+gone from thence to America early enough to be looked upon as _the
+Ancients of the country_, by the first of the Phenicians who could be
+supposed to arrive there. As a further corroboration of my
+conjectures, I was informed by a man of learning in 1752, that in the
+king's library there is a Chinese manuscript, which positively affirms
+that America was peopled by the inhabitants of Corea.
+
+{285} When the Natchez retired to this part of America, where I saw
+them, they there found several nations, or rather the remains of
+several nations, some on the east, others on the west of the
+Missisippi. These are the people who are distinguished among the
+natives by the name of Red Men; and their origin is so much the more
+obscure, as they have not so distinct a tradition, as the Natchez, nor
+arts and sciences like the Mexicans, from whence we might draw some
+satisfactory inferences. All that I could learn from them was, that
+they came from between the north and the sun-setting; and this account
+they uniformly adhered to whenever they gave any account of their
+origin. This lame tradition no ways satisfying the desire I had to be
+informed on this point, I made great inquiries to know if there was
+any wise old man among the neighbouring nations, who could give me
+further intelligence about the origin of the natives. I was happy
+enough to discover one, named Moncacht-ape among the Yazous, a nation
+about forty leagues north from the Natchez. This man was remarkable
+for his solid understanding and elevation of sentiments; and I may
+justly compare him to those first Greeks, who travelled chiefly into
+the east to examine the manners and customs of different nations, and
+to communicate to their fellow-citizens, upon their return, the
+knowledge which they had acquired. Moncacht-ape, indeed, never
+executed so noble a plan; but he had however conceived it, and had
+spared no labour and pains to effectuate it. He was by the French
+called the Interpreter, because he understood several of the North
+American languages; but the other name which I have mentioned was
+given him by his own nation, and signifies _the killer of pain and
+fatigue_. This name was indeed most justly applicable to him; for, to
+satisfy his curiosity, he had made light of the most dangerous and
+painful journeys, in which he had spent several years of his life. He
+stayed two or three days with me; and upon my desiring him to give me
+an account of his travels, he very readily complied with my request,
+and spoke to the following effect:
+
+"I had lost my wife, and all the children whom I had by her, when I
+undertook my journey towards the sun-rising. I set out from my village
+contrary to the inclinations of all my {286} relations, and went first
+to the Chicasaws, our friends and neighbours. I continued among them
+several days to inform myself whether they knew whence we all came, or
+at least whence they themselves came; they, who were our elders; since
+from them came the language of the country. As they could not inform
+me, I proceeded on my journey. I reached the country of the
+Chaouanous, and afterwards went up the Wabash or Ohio, almost to its
+source, which is in the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. I
+left them however towards the north; and during the winter, which in
+that country is very severe and very long, I lived in a village of the
+Abenaquis, where I contracted an acquaintance with a man somewhat
+older than myself, who promised to conduct me the following spring to
+the Great Water. Accordingly when the snows were melted, and the
+weather was settled, we proceeded eastward, and, after several days
+journey, I at length saw the Great Water, which filled me with such
+joy and admiration that I could not speak. Night drawing on, we took
+up our lodging on a high bank above the water, which was sorely vexed
+by the wind, and made so great a noise that I could not sleep. Next
+day the ebbing and flowing of the water filled me with great
+apprehension; but my companion quieted my fears, by assuring me that
+the water observed certain bounds both in advancing and retiring.
+Having satisfied our curiosity in viewing the Great Water, we returned
+to the village of the Abenaquis, where I continued the following
+winter; and after the snows were melted, my companion and I went and
+viewed the great fall of the river St. Laurence at Niagara, which was
+distant from the village several days journey. The view of this great
+fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out
+of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, I had the courage to
+walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio, and my
+companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we
+formed it into a pettiaugre, which served to conduct me down the Ohio
+and the Missisippi, after which, with much difficulty I went up our
+small river; and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were
+rejoiced to see me in good health.
+
+{287} "This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my
+curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the
+antient speech informed them that the Red Men of the north came
+originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river
+Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from
+whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey
+westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up
+along the eastern bank of the river Missisippi, till I came to the
+Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river about the fourth
+part of a day's journey, that I might be able to cross it without
+being carried into the Missisippi. There I formed a Cajeux or raft of
+canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next
+day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat
+one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon
+after I arrived among the Tamaroas, a village of the nation of the
+Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards
+to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river,
+runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with
+the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Missisippi, I went
+up the Missouri along its northern bank, and after several days
+journey I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long
+time to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along
+the Missouri I passed through meadows a whole day's journey in length,
+which were quite covered with buffaloes.
+
+"When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my
+journey up along the Missouri till I came to the nation of the West,
+or the Canzas. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I
+proceeded in the same course near thirty days, and at length I met
+with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that
+neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone. I continued with
+the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them and
+his wife, who was near her time of lying-in, to their village, which
+lay far off betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along
+the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched {288} directly
+northwards for five days more, when we came to the Fine River, which
+runs westwards in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We
+proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village
+of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been
+of their own nation. A few days after I joined a party of the Otters,
+who were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them,
+and we embarked in a pettiaugre, and went down the river for eighteen
+days, landing now and then to supply ourselves with provisions. When I
+arrived at the nation who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with
+them till the cold was passed, that I might learn their language,
+which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.
+
+"The cold was hardly gone, when I again embarked on the Fine River,
+and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally
+staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one
+day's journey from the Great Water on the west. This nation live in
+the woods about the distance of a league from the river, from their
+apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating
+villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These
+men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down
+to their breasts; they were thick and short, had large heads, which
+were covered with cloth; they were always dressed, even in the
+greatest heats; their cloaths fell down to the middle of their legs,
+which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their
+arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves
+outnumbered by Red Men, they retired on board their large pettiaugre,
+their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.
+
+"Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow
+stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this
+nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed
+all those kind of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood
+however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were
+still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them,
+had invited their allies to assist them in making an attack upon them
+the next {289} time they should return. The following summer I
+accordingly joined in this expedition, and after traveling five long
+days journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually
+landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red Men,
+by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprize the
+strangers, and accordingly when they landed to cut the wood, we were
+so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping
+on board two large pettiaugres, and flying westward upon the Great
+Water.
+
+"Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller
+than ourselves, and very white; they had a large head, and in the
+middle of the crown the hair was very long; their head was wrapt in a
+great many folds of stuff, and their cloaths seemed to be made neither
+of wool nor silk; they were very soft, and of different colours. Two
+only of the eleven who were slain had fire-arms with powder and ball.
+I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than
+yours, and did not kill at so great a distance.
+
+"After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my
+journey, and with that design I let the Red Men return home, and
+joined myself to those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with
+whom I travelled along the shore of the Great Water, which bends
+directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the
+villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long and
+the night very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all
+thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended
+still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting,
+after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great
+Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young,
+he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was
+eat away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low,
+many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it therefore
+impracticable to proceed much further, on account of the severity of
+the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by
+which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westward to days
+journeys, I compute that they would have employed {290} me thirty-six
+moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before
+I returned to my relations among the Yazous."
+
+Moncacht-ape, after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or
+five days visiting among the Natchez, and then returned to take leave
+of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value,
+among which was a concave mirror about two inches and a half diameter,
+which had cost me about three halfpence. As this magnified the face to
+four or five times its natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with
+it, and would not have exchanged it with the best mirror in France.
+After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly
+satisfied to his own nation.
+
+Moncacht-ape's account of the junction of America with the eastern
+parts of Asia seems confirmed from the following remarkable fact. Some
+years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were
+discovered in a marsh near the river Ohio; and as they were not much
+consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many
+years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the
+manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will
+appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the
+north-east parts of Asia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_An Account of the Several Nations of_ Indians _in_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+If to the history of the discoveries and conquests of the Spaniards we
+join the tradition of all the nations of America, we shall be fully
+persuaded, that this quarter of the world, before it was discovered by
+Christopher Columbus, was very populous, not only on the continent but
+also in the islands.
+
+However, by an incomprehensible fatality, the arrival of the Spaniards
+in this new world seems to have been the unhappy epoch of the
+destruction of all the nations of America, {291} not only by war, but
+by nature itself. As it is but too well known how many millions of
+natives were destroyed by the Spanish sword, I shall not therefore
+present my readers with that horrible detail; but perhaps many people
+do not know that an innumerable multitude of the natives of Mexico and
+Peru voluntarily put an end to their own lives, some by sacrificing
+themselves to the manes of their sovereigns who had been cut off, and
+whose born victims they, according to their detestable customs, looked
+upon themselves to be; and others, to avoid falling under the
+subjection of the Spaniards, thinking death a less evil by far than
+slavery.
+
+The same effect has been produced among the people of North America by
+two or three warlike nations of the natives. The Chicasaws have not
+only cut off a great many nations who were adjoining to them, but have
+even carried their fury as far as New Mexico, near six hundred miles
+from the place of their residence, to root out a nation that had
+removed at that distance from them, in a firm expectation that their
+enemies would not come so far in search of them. They were however
+deceived and cut off. The Iroquois have done the same in the east
+parts of Louisiana; and the Padoucas and others have acted in the same
+manner to nations in the west of the colony. We may here observe, that
+those nations could not succeed against their enemies without
+considerable loss to themselves, and that they have therefore greatly
+lessened their own numbers by their many warlike expeditions.
+
+I mentioned that nature had contributed no less than war to the
+destruction of these people. Two distempers, that are not very fatal
+in other parts of the world, make dreadful ravages among them; I mean
+the small-pox and a cold, which baffle all the art of their
+physicians, who in other respects are very skilful. When a nation is
+attacked by the small-pox, it quickly makes great havock; for as a
+whole family is crowded into a small hut, which has no communications
+with the external air, but by a door about two feet wide and four feet
+high, the distemper, if it seizes one, is quickly communicated to all.
+The aged die in consequence of their advanced years and the bad
+quality of their food; and the young, if they are not {292} strictly
+watched, destroy themselves, from an abhorrence of the blotches in
+their skin. If they can but escape from their hut, they run out and
+bathe themselves in the river, which is certain death in that
+distemper. The Chatkas, being naturally not very handsome, are not so
+apt to regret the loss of their beauty; consequently suffer less, and
+are much more numerous than the other nations.
+
+Colds, which are very common in the winter, likewise destroy great
+numbers of the natives. In that season they keep fires in their huts
+day and night; and as there is no other opening but the door, the air
+within the hut is kept excessive warm without any free circulation; so
+that when they have occasion to go out, the cold seizes them, and the
+consequences of it are almost always fatal.
+
+The first nations that the French were acquainted with in this part of
+North America, were those on the east of the colony; for the first
+settlement we made there was at Fort Louis on the river Mobile. I
+shall therefore begin my account of the different nations of Indians
+on this side of the colony, and proceed westwards in the same order as
+they are situated.
+
+But however zealous I may be in displaying not only the beauties, but
+the riches and advantages of Louisiana, yet I am not at all inclined
+to attribute to it what it does not possess; therefore I warn my
+reader not to be surprised, if I make mention of a few nations in this
+colony, in comparison of the great number which he may perhaps have
+seen in the first maps of this country. Those maps were made from
+memoirs sent by different travellers, who noted down all the names
+they heard mentioned, and then fixed upon a spot for their residence;
+so that a map appeared stiled with the names of nations, many of whom
+were destroyed, and others were refugees among nations who had adopted
+them and taken them under their protection. Thus, though the nations
+on this continent were formerly both numerous and populous, they are
+now so thinned and diminished, that there does not exist at present a
+third part of the nations whose names are to be found in the maps.
+
+The most eastern nation of Louisiana is that called the Apalaches,
+which is a branch of the great nation of the Apalaches, {293} who
+inhabited near the mountains to which they have given their name. This
+great nation is divided into several branches, who take different
+names. The branch in the neighbourhood of the river Mobile is but
+inconsiderable, and part of it is Roman Catholic.
+
+On the north of the Apalaches are the Alibamous, a pretty considerable
+nation; they love the French, and receive the English rather out of
+necessity than friendship. On the first settling of the colony we had
+some commerce with them; but since the main part of the colony has
+fixed on the river, we have somewhat neglected them, on account of the
+great distance.
+
+East from the Alibamous are the Caouitas, whom M. de Biainville,
+governor of Louisiana, wanted to distinguish above the other nations,
+by giving the title of emperor to their sovereign, who then would have
+been chief of all the neighbouring nations; but those nations refused
+to acknowledge him as such, and said that it was enough if each nation
+obeyed its own chief; that it was improper for the chiefs themselves
+to be subject to other chiefs, and that such a custom had never
+prevailed among them, as they chose rather to be destroyed by a great
+nation than to be subject to them. This nation is one of the most
+considerable; the English trade with them, and they suffer the traders
+to come among them from policy.
+
+To, the north of the Alibamous are the Abeikas and Conchacs, who, as
+far as I can learn, are the same people; yet the name of Conchac seems
+appropriated to one part more than another. They are situated at a
+distance from the great rivers and consequently have no large canes in
+their territory. The canes that grow among them are not thicker than
+one's finger, and are at the same time so very hard, that when they
+are split, they cut like knives, which these people call _conchacs_. The
+language of this nation is almost the same with that of the Chicasaws,
+in which the word _conchac_ signifies a knife.
+
+The Abeikas, on the east of them, have the Cherokees, divided into
+several branches, and situated very near the Apalachean mountains. All
+the nations whom I have mentioned {294} have been united in a general
+alliance for a long time past, in order to defend themselves against the
+Iroquois, or Five Nations, who, before this alliance was formed, made
+continual war upon them; but have ceased to molest them since they have
+seen them united. All these nations, and some small ones intermixed
+among them, have always been looked upon as belonging to no colony,
+excepting the Apalaches; but since the breaking out of the war with the
+English in 1756, it is said they have voluntarily declared for us.
+
+The nations in the neighbourhood of the Mobile, are first the Chatots,
+a small nation consisting of about forty huts, adjoining to the river
+and the sea. They are Roman Catholics, or reputed such; and are
+friends to the French, whom they are always ready to serve upon being
+paid for it. North from the Chatots, and very near them, is the French
+settlement of Fort Louis on the Mobile.
+
+A little north from Fort Louis are situated the Thomez, which are not
+more numerous than the Chatots, and are said to be Roman Catholics.
+They are our friends to to such a degree as even to teaze us with
+their officiousness.
+
+Further north live the Taensas, who are a branch of the Natchez, of
+whom I shall have occasion to speak more at large. Both of these
+nations keep the eternal fire with the utmost care; but they trust the
+guard of it to men, from a persuasion that none of their daughters
+would sacrifice their liberty for that office. The whole nation of the
+Taensas consists only of about one hundred huts.
+
+Proceeding still northwards along the bay, we meet with the nation of
+the Mobiliens, near the mouth of the river Mobile, in the bay of that
+name. The true name of this nation is Mouvill, which the French have
+turned into Mobile, calling the river and the bay from the nation that
+inhabited near them. All these small nations were living in peace upon
+the arrival of the French, and still continue so; the nations on the
+east of the Mobile serving as a barrier to them against the incursions
+of the Iroquois. Besides, the Chicasaws look upon them as their
+brethren, as both they, and their neighbours on the east of the {295}
+Mobile, speak a language which is nearly the same with that of the
+Chicasaws.
+
+Returning towards the sea, on the west of the Mobile, we find the
+small nation of the Pacha-Ogoulas, that is, Nation of Bread, situated
+upon the bay of the same name. This nation consists only of one
+village of about thirty huts. Some French Canadians have settled in
+their neighbourhood, and they live together like brethren, as the
+Canadians, who are naturally of a peaceable disposition, know the
+character of the natives, and have the art of living with the nations
+of America. But what chiefly renders the harmony betwixt them durable,
+is the absence of soldiers, who never appear in this nation.
+
+Further northwards, near the river Pacha-Ogoulas, is situated the
+great nation of the Chatkas, or Flat-heads. I call them the great
+nation, for I have not known or heard of any other near so numerous.
+They reckon in this nation twenty-five thousand warriors. There may
+perhaps be such a number of men among them, who take that name; but I
+am far from thinking that all these have a title to the character of
+warriors.
+
+According to the tradition of the natives, this nation arrived so
+suddenly, and passed so rapidly through the territories of others,
+that when I asked them, whence came the Chatkas? they answered me,
+that they sprung out of the ground; by which they meant to express
+their great surprize at seeing them appear so suddenly. Their great
+numbers awed the natives near whom they passed; their character being
+but little inclined to war, did not inspire them with the fury of
+conquest; thus they at length arrived in an uninhabited country which
+nobody disputed with them. They have since lived without any disputes
+with their neighbours; who on the other hand have never dared to try
+whether they were brave or not. It is doubtless owing to this that
+they have increased to their present numbers.
+
+They are called Flat-heads; but I do not know why that name has been
+given to them more than to others, since all the nations of Louisiana
+have their heads as flat, or nearly so. They are situated about two
+hundred and fifty miles north {296} from the sea, and extend more from
+east to west than from south to north.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian Buffalo Hunt on foot_]
+
+Those who travel from the Chatkas to the Chicasaws, seldom go by the
+shortest road, which extends about one hundred and eighty miles, and
+is very woody and mountainous. They choose rather to go along the
+river Mobile, which is both the easiest and most pleasant route. The
+nation of the Chicasaws is very warlike. The men have very regular
+features, {297} are large, well-shaped, and neatly dressed; they are
+fierce, and have a high opinion of themselves. They seem to be the
+remains of a populous nation, whose warlike disposition had prompted
+them to invade several nations, whom they have indeed destroyed, but
+not without diminishing their own numbers by those expeditions. What
+induces me to believe that this nation has been formerly very
+considerable, is that the nations who border upon them, and whom I
+have just mentioned, speak the Chicasaw language, though somewhat
+corrupted, and those who speak it best value themselves upon it.
+
+I ought perhaps to except out of this number the Taensas, who being a
+branch of the Natchez, have still preserved their peculiar language;
+but even these speak, in general, the corrupted Chicasaw language,
+which our French settlers call the Mobilian language. As to the
+Chatkas, I suppose, that being very numerous, they have been able to
+preserve their own language in a great measure; and have only adopted
+some words of the Chicasaw language. They always spoke to me in the
+Chicasaw tongue.
+
+In returning towards the coast next the river Missisippi, we meet with
+a small nation of about twenty huts, named Aquelou-Pissas, that is,
+_Men who understand and see_. This nation formerly lived within three of
+four miles of the place where New Orleans is built; but they are
+further north at present, and not far from the lake St. Lewis, or
+Pontchartrain. They speak a language somewhat approaching to that of
+the Chicasaws. We have never had great dealings with them.
+
+Being now arrived at the river Missisippi, I shall proceed upwards
+along its banks as far as to the most distant nations that are known
+to us.
+
+The first nation that I meet with is the Oumas, which signifies the
+Red Nation. They are situated about twenty leagues from New Orleans,
+where I saw some of them upon my arrival in this province. Upon the
+first establishment of the colony, some French went and settled near
+them; and they have been very fatal neighbours, by furnishing them
+with brandy, which they drink to great excess.
+
+{298} Crossing the Red River, and proceeding still upwards, we find
+the remains of the nation of the Tonicas, who have always been very
+much attached to the French, and have even been our auxiliaries in
+war. The Chief of this nation was our very zealous friend; and as he
+was full of courage, and always ready to make war on the enemies of
+the French, the king sent him a brevet of brigadier of the red armies,
+and a blue ribbon, from whence hung a silver medal, which on one side
+represented the marriage of the king, and on the reverse had the city
+of Paris. He likewise sent him a gold-headed cane; and the Indian
+Chief was not a little proud of wearing those honourable distinctions,
+which were certainly well bestowed. This nation speaks a language so
+far different from that of their neighbours, in that they pronounce
+the letter R, which the others have not. They have likewise different
+customs.
+
+The Natchez in former times appear to have been one of the most
+respectable nations in the colony, not only from their own tradition,
+but from that of the other nations, in whom their greatness and
+civilized customs raised no less jealousy than admiration. I could
+fill a volume with what relates to this people alone; but as I am now
+giving a concise account of the people of Louisiana, I shall speak of
+them as of the rest, only enlarging a little upon some important
+transactions concerning them.
+
+When I arrived in 1720 among the Natchez, that nation was situated
+upon a small river of the same name; the chief village where the Great
+Sun resided was built along the banks of the river, and the other
+villages were planted round it. They were two leagues above the
+confluence of the river, which joins the Missisippi at the foot of the
+great precipices of the Natchez. From thence are four leagues to its
+source, and as many to Rosalie, and they were situated within a league
+of the fort.
+
+Two small nations lived as refugees among the Natchez. The most
+ancient of these adopted nations were the Grigras, who seem to have
+received that name from the French, because when talking with one
+another they often pronounce those two syllables, which makes them be
+remarked as strangers among the Natchez, who, as well as the
+Chicasaws, and all the nations {299} that speak the Chicasaw language,
+cannot pronounce the letter R.
+
+The other small nation adopted by the Natchez, are the Thioux, who
+have also the letter R in their language. These were the weak remains
+of the Thioux nation, formerly one of the strongest in the country.
+However, according to the account of the other nations, being of a
+turbulent disposition, they drew upon themselves the resentment of the
+Chicasaws, which was the occasion of their ruin; for by their many
+engagements they were at length so weakened that they durst not face
+their enemy, and consequently were obliged to take refuge among the
+Natchez.
+
+The Natchez, the Grigras, and the Thioux, may together raise about
+twelve hundred warriors; which is but a small force in comparison of
+what the Natchez could formerly have raised alone; for according to
+their traditions they were the most powerful nation of all North
+America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors,
+and on that account respected by them. To give an idea of their power,
+I shall only mention, that formerly they extended from the river
+Manchac, or Iberville, which is about fifty leagues from the sea, to
+the river Wabash, which is distant from the sea about four hundred and
+sixty leagues; and that they had about five hundred Suns or princes.
+From these facts we may judge how populous this nation formerly has
+been; but the pride of their Great Suns, or sovereigns, and likewise
+of their inferior Suns, joined to the prejudices of the people, has
+made greater havock among them, and contributed more to their
+destruction, than long and bloody wars would have done.
+
+As their sovereigns were despotic, they had for a long time past
+established the following inhuman and impolitic custom, that when any
+of them died, a great number of their subjects, both men and women,
+should likewise be put to death. A proportionable number of subjects
+were likewise killed upon the death of any of the inferior Suns; and
+the people on the other hand had imbibed a belief that all those who
+followed their princes into the other world, to serve them there,
+would be eternally happy. It is easy to conceive how ruinous such an
+{300} inhuman custom would be among a nation who had so many princes
+as the Natchez.
+
+It would seem that some of the Suns, more humane than the rest, had
+disapproved of this barbarous custom, and had therefore retired to
+places at a remote distance from the centre of their nation. For we
+have two branches of this great nation settled in other parts of the
+colony, who have preserved the greatest part of the customs of the
+Natchez. One of these branches is the nation of the Taensas on the
+banks of the Mobile, who preserve the eternal fire, and several other
+usages of the nation from whom they are descended. The other branch is
+the nation of the Chitimachas, whom the Natchez have always looked
+upon as their brethren.
+
+Forty leagues north from the Natchez is the river Yasous, which runs
+into the Missisippi, and is so called from a nation of the same name
+who had about a hundred huts on its banks.
+
+Near the Yazous, on the same river, lived the Coroas, a nation
+consisting of about forty huts. These two nations pronounce the letter
+R.
+
+Upon the same river likewise lived the Chacchi-Oumas, a name which
+signifies _red Cray-fish_. These people had not above fifty huts.
+
+Near the same river dwelt the Ouse-Ogoulas, or the Nation of the Dog,
+which might have about sixty huts.
+
+The Tapoussas likewise inhabited upon the banks of this river, and had
+not above twenty-five huts. These three last nations do not pronounce
+the letter R, and seem to be branches of the Chicasaws, especially as
+they speak their language. Since the massacre of the French settlers
+at the Natchez, these five small nations, who had joined in the
+conspiracy against us, have all retired among the Chicasaws, and make
+now but one nation with them.
+
+To the north of the Ohio, not far from the banks of the Missisippi,
+inhabit the Illinois, who have given their name to the river on the
+banks of which they have settled. They are divided into several
+villages, such as the Tamaroas, the Caskaquias, {301} the Caouquias,
+the Pimiteouis, and some others. Near the village of the Tamaroas is a
+French post, where several French Canadians have settled.
+
+This is one of the most considerable posts in all Louisiana, which
+will appear not at all surprising, when we consider that the Illinois
+were one of the first nations whom we discovered in the colony, and
+that they have always remained most faithful allies of the French; an
+advantage which is in a great measure owing to the proper manner of
+living with the natives of America, which the Canadians have always
+observed. It is not their want of courage that renders them so
+peaceable, for their valour is well known. The letter R is pronounced
+by the Illinois.
+
+Proceeding further northwards we meet with a pretty large nation,
+known by the name of the Foxes, with whom we have been at war near
+these forty years past, yet I have not heard that we have had any
+blows with them for a long time.
+
+From the Foxes to the fall of St. Anthony, we meet with no nation, nor
+any above the Fall for near an hundred leagues. About that distance
+north of the Fall, the Sioux are settled, and are said to inhabit
+several scattered villages both on the east and west of the
+Missisippi.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+Having described as exactly as possible all the nations on the east of
+the Missisippi, as well those who are included within the bounds of
+the colony, as those who are adjoining to it, and have some connection
+with the others; I shall now proceed to give an account of those who
+inhabit on the west of the river, from the sea northwards.
+
+Between the river Missisippi, and those lakes which are filled by its
+waters upon their overflowing, is a small nation named Chaouchas, or
+Ouachas, who inhabit some little villages, but are of so little
+consequences that they are no otherwise known to our colonists but by
+their name.
+
+{302} In the neighbourhood of the lakes abovementioned live the
+Chitimachas. These are the remains of a nation which was formerly
+pretty considerable; but we have destroyed part of them by exciting
+our allies to attack them. I have already observed that they were a
+branch of the Natchez, and upon my first settling among these, I found
+several Chitimachas, who had taken refuge among them to avoid the
+calamities of the war which had been made upon them near the lakes.
+
+Since the peace that was concluded with them in 1719, they have not
+only remained quiet, but kept themselves so prudently retired, that,
+rather than have any intercourse with the French, or traffic with them
+for what they look upon as superfluities, they choose to live in the
+manner they did an hundred years ago.
+
+Along the west coast, not far from the sea, inhabit the nation named
+Atacapas, that is, Man-eaters, being so called by the other nations on
+account of their detestable custom of eating their enemies, or such as
+they believe to be their enemies. In this vast country there are no
+other cannibals to be met with besides the Atacapas; and since the
+French have gone among them, they have raised in them so great an
+horror of that abominable practice of devouring creatures of their own
+species, that they have promised to leave it off; and accordingly for
+a long time past we have heard of no such barbarity among them.
+
+The Bayouc-Ogoulas were formerly situated in the country that still
+bears their name. This nation is now confounded with the others to
+whom it is joined.
+
+The Oque-Loussas are a small nation situated north-west from the Cut
+Point. They live on the banks of two small lakes, the waters of which
+appear black by reason of the great number of leaves which cover the
+bottom of them, and have given name to the nation, Oque-Loussas in
+their language signifying Black Water.
+
+From the Oque-Loussas to the Red River, we meet with no other nation;
+but upon the banks of this river, a little above the Rapid, is seated
+the small nation of the Avoyels. These are the people who bring to our
+settlers horses, oxen, and cows. {303} I know not in what fair they
+buy them, nor with what money they pay for them; but the truth is,
+they sell them to us for about seventeen shillings a-piece. The
+Spaniards of New-Spain have such numbers of them that they do not know
+what to do with them, and are obliged to those who will take them off
+their hands. At present the French have a greater number of them than
+they want, especially of horses.
+
+About fifty leagues higher up the Red River, live the Nachitoches,
+near a French post of the same name. They are a pretty considerable
+nation, having about two hundred huts. They have always been greatly
+attached to the French; but never were friends to the Spaniards. There
+are some branches of this nation situated further westward; but the
+huts are not numerous.
+
+Three hundred miles west from the Missisippi, upon the Red River, we
+find the great nation of the Cadodaquioux. It is divided into several
+branches which extend very widely. This people, as well as the
+Nachitoches, have a peculiar language; however, there is not a village
+in either of the nations, nor indeed in any nation of Louisiana, where
+there are not some who can speak the Chicasaw language, which is
+called the vulgar tongue, and is the same here as the Lingua Franca is
+in the Levant.
+
+Between the Red River and the Arkansas there is at present no nation.
+Formerly the Ouachites lived upon the Black River, and gave their name
+to it; but at this time there are no remains of that nation; the
+Chicasaws having destroyed great part of them, and the rest took
+refuge among the Cadodaquioux, where their enemies durst not molest
+them. The Taensas lived formerly in this neighbourhood upon a river of
+their name; but they took refuge on the banks of the Mobile near the
+allies of the Chicasaws, who leave them undisturbed.
+
+The nation of the Arkansas have given their name to the river on which
+they are situated, about four leagues from its confluence with the
+Missisippi. This nation is pretty considerable, and its men are no
+less distinguished for being good hunters than stout warriors. The
+Chicasaws, who are of a {304} restless disposition, have more than
+once wanted to make trial of the bravery of the Arkansas; but they
+were opposed with such firmness, that they have now laid aside all
+thoughts of attacking them, especially since they have been joined by
+the Kappas, the Michigamias, and a part of the Illinois, who have
+settled among them. Accordingly there is no longer any mention either
+of the Kappas or Michigamias, who are now all adopted by the Arkansas.
+
+The reader may have already observed in this account of the natives of
+Louisiana, that several nations of those people had joined themselves
+to others, either because they could no longer resist their enemies,
+or because they hoped to improve their condition by intermixing with
+another nation. I am glad to have this occasion of observing that
+those people respect the rights of hospitality, and that those rights
+always prevail, notwithstanding any superiority that one nation may
+have over another with whom they are at war, or even over those people
+among whom their enemies take refuge. For example, a nation of two
+thousand warriors makes war upon, and violently pursues another nation
+of five hundred warriors, who retire among a nation in alliance with
+their enemies. If this last nation adopt the five hundred, the first
+nation, though two thousand in number, immediately lay down their
+arms, and instead of continuing hostilities, reckon the adopted nation
+among the number of their allies.
+
+Besides the Arkansas, some authors place other nations upon their
+river. I cannot take upon me to say that there never were any; but I
+can positively affirm, from my own observation upon the spot, that no
+other nation is to be met with at present on this river, or even as
+far as the Missouri.
+
+Not far from the river Missouri is situated the nation of the Osages,
+upon a small river of the same name. This nation is said to have been
+pretty considerable formerly, but at present they can neither be said
+to be great nor small.
+
+The nation of the Missouris is very considerable, and has given its
+name to the large river that empties itself into the Missisippi. It is
+the first nation we meet with from the confluence {305} of the two
+rivers, and yet it is situated above forty leagues up the Missouri.
+The French had a settlement pretty near this nation, at the time when
+M. de Bourgmont was commandant in those parts; but soon after he left
+them, the inhabitants massacred the French garrison.
+
+The Spaniards, as well as our other neighbours, being continually
+jealous of our superiority over them, formed a design of establishing
+themselves among the Missouris, about forty leagues from the Illinois,
+in order to limit our boundaries westward. They judged it necessary,
+for the security of their colony, entirely to cut off the Missouris,
+and for that purpose they courted the friendship of the Osages, whose
+assistance they thought would be of service to them in their
+enterprize, and who were generally at enmity with the Missouris. A
+company of Spaniards, men, women, and soldiers, accordingly set out
+from Santa Fe, having a Dominican for their chaplain, and an engineer
+for their guide and commander. The caravan was furnished with horses,
+and all other kinds of beasts necessary; for it is one of their
+prudent maxims, to send off all those things together. By a fatal
+mistake the Spaniards arrived first among the Missouris, whom they
+mistook for the Osages, and imprudently discovering their hostile
+intentions, they were themselves surprised and cut off by those whom
+they intended for destruction. The Missouris some time afterwards
+dressed themselves with the ornaments of the chapel; and carried them
+in a kind of triumphant procession to the French commandant among the
+Illinois. Along with the ornaments they brought a Spanish map, which
+seemed to me to be a better draught of the west part of our colony,
+towards them, than of the countries we are most concerned with. From
+this map it appears, that we ought to bend the Red River, and that of
+the Arkansas, somewhat more, and place the source of the Missisippi
+more westerly than our geographers do.
+
+The principal nations who inhabit upon the banks, or in the
+neighbourhood of the Missouri, are, besides those already mentioned,
+the Canzas, the Othoues, the White Panis, the Black Panis, the
+Panimachas, the Aiouez, and the Padoucas. The most numerous of all
+those nations are the Padoucas, the smallest {306} are the Aiouez, the
+Othoues, and the Osages; the others are pretty considerable.
+
+To the north of all those nations, and near the river Missisippi, it
+is pretended that a part of the nation of the Sioux have their
+residence. Some affirm that they inhabit now on one side of the river,
+now on another. From what I could learn from travellers, I am inclined
+to think, that they occupy at the same time both sides of the
+Missisippi, and their settlements, as I have elsewhere observed, are
+more than an hundred leagues above the Fall of St. Anthony. But we
+need not yet disquiet ourselves about the advantages which might
+result to us from those very remote countries. Many ages must pass
+before we can penetrate into the northern parts of Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_A Description of the natives of_ Louisiana; _of their manners and
+customs, particularly those of the_ Natchez: _of their language, their
+religion, ceremonies_, Rulers _or_ Suns, _feasts, marriages, &c._
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_A description of the natives; the different employments of the two
+sexes; and their manner of bringing up their children._
+
+
+In the concise history which I have given of the people of Louisiana,
+and in several other places where I have happened to mention them, the
+reader may have observed that these nations have not all the same
+character, altho' they live adjoining to each other. He therefore
+ought not to expect a perfect uniformity in their manners, or that I
+should describe all the different usages that prevail in different
+parts, which would create a disagreeable medley, and tend only to
+confound his ideas which cannot be too clear. My design is only to
+shew in general, from the character of those people, what course we
+ought to observe, in order to draw advantage from our intercourse with
+them. I shall however be more full in speaking of the Natchez, a
+populous nation, among whom I lived the space of eight years, and
+whose sovereign, the chief of war, and the chief of the keepers of the
+temple, were among my most intimate {307} friends. Besides, their
+manners were more civilized, their manner of thinking more just and
+fuller of sentiment, their customs more reasonable, and their
+ceremonies more natural and serious; on all which accounts they were
+eminently distinguished above the other nations.
+
+All the natives of America in general are extremely well made; very
+few of them are to be seen under five feet and a half, and very many
+of them above that; their leg seems as if it was fashioned in a mould;
+it is nervous, and the calf is firm; they are long waisted; their head
+is upright and somewhat flat in the upper part, and their features are
+regular; they have black eyes, and thick black hair without curls. If
+we see none that are extremely fat and pursy, neither do we meet with
+any that are so lean as if they were in a consumption. The men in
+general are better made than the women; they are more nervous, and the
+women more plump and fleshy; the men are almost all large, and the
+women of a middle size. I have always been inclined to think, that the
+care they take of their children in their infancy contributes greatly
+to their fine shapes, tho' the climate has also its share in that, for
+the French born in Louisiana are all large, well shaped, and of good
+flesh and blood.
+
+When any of the women of the natives is delivered, she goes
+immediately to the water and washes herself and the infant; she then
+comes home and lies down, after having disposed her infant in the
+cradle, which is about two feet and a half long, nine inches broad,
+and half a foot deep, being formed of straight pieces of cane bent up
+at one end, to serve for a foot or stay. Betwixt the canes and the
+infant is a kind of matrass of the tufted herb called Spanish Beard,
+and under its head is a little skin cushion, stuffed with the same
+herb. The infant is laid on its back in the cradle, and fastened to it
+by the shoulders, the arms, the legs, the thighs, and the hips; and
+over its forehead are laid two bands of deer-skin which keeps its head
+to the cushion, and renders that part flat. As the cradle does not
+weigh much above two pounds, it generally lies on the mother's bed,
+who suckles the infant occasionally. The infant is rocked not
+side-ways but end-ways, and when it is a {308} month old they put
+under its knees garters made of buffalo's wool which is very soft, and
+above the ankle bones they bind the legs with threads of the same wool
+for the breadth of three or four inches. And these ligatures the child
+wears till it be four or five years old.
+
+The infants of the natives are white when they are born, but they soon
+turn brown, as they are rubbed with bear's oil and exposed to the sun.
+They rub them with oil, both to render their nerves more flexible, and
+also to prevent the flies from stinging them, as they suffer them to
+roll about naked upon all fours, before they are able to walk upright.
+They never put them upon their legs till they are a year old, and they
+suffer them to suck as long as they please, unless the mother prove
+with child, in which case she ceases to suckle.
+
+When the boys are about twelve years of age, they give them a bow and
+arrows proportioned to their strength, and in order to exercise them
+they tie some hay, about twice as large as the fist, to the end of a
+pole about ten feet high. He who brings down the hay receives the
+prize from an old man who is always present: the best shooter is
+called the young warrior, the next best is called the apprentice
+warrior, and so on of the others, who are prompted to excel more by
+sentiments of honour than by blows.
+
+As they are threatened from their most tender infancy with the
+resentment of the old man, if they are any ways refractory or do any
+mischievous tricks, which is very rare, they fear and respect him above
+every one else. This old man is frequently the great-grandfather, or
+the great-great-grand-father of the family, for those natives live to a
+very great age. I have seen some of them not able to walk, without
+having any other distemper or infirmity than old age, so that when the
+necessities of nature required it, or they wanted to take the air, they
+were obliged to be carried out of their hut, an assistance which is
+always readily offered to the old men. The respect paid to them by
+their family is so great, that they are looked upon as the judges of
+all differences, and their counsels are decrees. An old man who is the
+head of a family is called father, even by his grand-children, and
+great-grand-children, {309} who to distinguish their immediate father
+call him their true father.
+
+If any of their young people happen to fight, which I never saw nor
+heard of during the whole time I resided in their neighbourhood, they
+threaten to put them in a hut at a great distance from their nation,
+as persons unworthy to live among others; and this is repeated to them
+so often, that if they happen to have had a battle, they take care
+never to have another. I have already observed that I studied them a
+considerable number of years; and I never could learn that there ever
+were any disputes or boxing matches among either their boys or men.
+
+As the children grow up, the fathers and mothers take care each to
+accustom those of their own sex to the labours and exercises suited to
+them, and they have no great trouble to keep them employed; but it
+must be confessed that the girls and the women work more than the men
+and the boys. These last go a hunting and fishing, cut the wood, the
+smallest bits of which are carried home by the women; they clear the
+fields for corn, and hoe it; and on days when they cannot go abroad
+they amuse themselves with making, after their fashion, pickaxes,
+oars, paddles, and other instruments, which once made last a long
+while. The women on the other hand have their children to bring up,
+have to pound the maiz for the subsistence of the family, have to keep
+up the fire, and to make a great many utensils, which require a good
+deal of work, and last but a short time, such as their earthen ware,
+their matts, their clothes, and a thousand other things of that kind.
+
+When the children are about ten or twelve years of age they accustom
+them by degrees to carry small loads, which they increase with their
+years. The boys are from time to time exercised in running; but they
+never suffer them to exhaust themselves by the length of the race,
+lest they should overheat themselves. The more nimble at that exercise
+sometimes sportfully challenges those who are more slow and heavy; but
+the old man who presides hinders the raillery from being carried to
+any excess, carefully avoiding all subjects of quarrel and dispute, on
+which account doubtless it is that they will never suffer them to
+wrestle.
+
+{310} Both boys and girls are early accustomed to bathe every morning,
+in order to strengthen the nerves, and harden them against cold and
+fatigue, and likewise to teach them to swim, that they may avoid or
+pursue an enemy, even across a river. The boys and girls, from the
+time they are three years of age, are called out every morning by an
+old man, to go to the river; and here is some more employment for the
+mothers who accompany them thither to teach them to swim. Those who
+can swim tolerably well, make a great noise in winter by beating the
+water in order to frighten away the crocodiles, and keep themselves
+warm.
+
+The reader will have observed that most of the labour and fatigue
+falls to the share of the women; but I can declare that I never heard
+them complain of their fatigues, unless of the trouble their children
+gave them, which complaint arose as much from maternal affection, as
+from any attention that the children required. The girls from their
+infancy have it instilled into them, that if they are sluttish or
+unhandy they will have none but a dull aukward fellow for their
+husband; I observed in all the nations I visited, that this
+threatening was never lost upon the young girls.
+
+I would not have it thought however, that the young men are altogether
+idle. Their occupations indeed are not of such a long continuance; but
+they are much more laborious. As the men have occasion for more
+strength, reason requires that they should not exhaust themselves in
+their youth; but at the same time they are not exempted from those
+exercises that fit them for war and hunting. The children are educated
+without blows; and the body is left at full liberty to grow, and to
+form and strengthen itself with their years. The youths accompany the
+men in hunting, in order to learn the wiles and tricks necessary to be
+practised in the field, and accustom themselves to suffering and
+patience. When they are full grown men, they dress the field or waste
+land, and prepare it to receive the seed; they go to war or hunting,
+dress the skins, cut the wood, make their bows and arrows, and assist
+each other in building their huts.
+
+They have still I allow a great deal of more spare time than the
+women; but this is not all thrown away. As these {311} people have not
+the assistance of writing, they are obliged to have recourse to
+tradition, in order to preserve the remembrance of any remarkable
+transactions; and this tradition cannot be learned but by frequent
+repetitions, consequently many of the youths are often employed in
+hearing the old men narrate the history of their ancestors, which is
+thus transmitted from generation to generation. In order to preserve
+their traditions pure and uncorrupt, they are careful not to deliver
+them indifferently to all their young people, but teach them only to
+those young men of whom they have the best opinion.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the language, government, religion, ceremonies, and feasts of the
+natives._
+
+
+During my residence among the Natchez I contracted an intimate
+friendship, not only with the chiefs or guardians of the temple, but
+with the Great Sun, or the sovereign of the nation, and his brother
+the Stung Serpent, the chief of the warriors; and by my great intimacy
+with them, and the respect I acquired among the people, I easily
+learned the peculiar language of the nation.
+
+This language is easy in the pronunciation, and expressive in the
+terms. The natives, like the Orientals, speak much in a figurative
+stile, the Natchez in particular more than any other people of
+Louisiana. They have two languages, that of the nobles and that of the
+people, and both are very copious. I will give two or three examples
+to shew the difference of these two languages. When I call one of the
+common people, I say to him _aquenan_, that is, hark ye: if, on the
+other hand, I want to speak to a Sun, or one of their nobles, I say to
+him, _magani_, which signifies, hark ye. If one of the common people
+call at my house, I say to him, _tachte-cabanacte, are you there_, or I
+am glad to see you, which is equivalent to our goodmorrow. I express
+the same thing to a Sun by the word _apapegouaiche_. Again, according to
+their custom, I say to one of the common people, _petchi, sit you down_;
+but to a Sun, when I desire him to sit down, I say, _caham_. The two
+languages are {312} nearly the same in all other respects; for the
+difference of expression seems only to take place in matters relating
+to the persons of the Suns and nobles, in distinction from those of
+the people.
+
+Tho' the women speak the same language with the men, yet, in their
+manner of pronunciation, they soften and smooth the words, whereas the
+speech of the men is more grave and serious. The French, by chiefly
+frequenting the women, contracted their manner of speaking, which was
+ridiculed as an effeminacy by the women, as well as the men, among the
+natives.
+
+
+From my conversations with the chief of the guardians of the temple, I
+discovered that they acknowledged a supreme being, whom they called
+_Coyococop-Chill_, or _Great Spirit_. The _Spirit infinitely great_, or
+the _Spirit_ by way of excellence. The word _chill_, in their language,
+signifies the most superlative degree of perfection, and is added by
+them to the word which signifies _fire_, when they want to mention the
+Sun; thus _Oua_ is _fire_, and _Oua-chill_ is the _supreme fire_, or the
+_Sun_; therefore, by the word _Coyocop-Chill_ they mean a spirit that
+surpasses other spirits as much as the sun does common fire.
+
+"God," according to the definition of the guardian of the temple, "was
+so great and powerful, that, in comparison with him, all other things
+were as nothing; he had made all that we see, all that we can see, and
+all that we cannot see; he was so good, that he could not do ill to
+any one, even if he had a mind to it. They believe that God had made
+all things by his will; that nevertheless the little spirits, who are
+his servants, might, by his orders, have made many excellent works in
+the universe, which we admire; but that God himself had formed man
+with his own hands."
+
+The guardian added, that they named those little spirits,
+_Coyocop-techou_, that is, a _free servant_, but as submissive and as
+respectful as a slave; that those spirits were always present before
+God, ready to execute his pleasure with an extreme diligence; that the
+air was filled with other spirits, some good some wicked; and that the
+latter had a chief, who was more {313} wicked than them all; that God
+had found him so wicked, that he had bound him for ever, so that the
+other spirits of the air no longer did so much harm, especially when
+they were by prayers entreated not to do it; for it is one of the
+religious customs of those people to invoke the spirits of the air for
+rain or fine weather, according as each is needed. I have seen the
+Great Sun fast for nine days together, eating nothing but maiz-corn,
+without meat or fish, drinking nothing but water, and abstaining from
+the company of his wives during the whole time. He underwent this
+rigorous fast out of complaisance to some Frenchmen, who had been
+complaining that it had not rained for a long time. Those
+inconsiderate people had not remarked, that notwithstanding the want
+of rain, the fruits of the earth had not suffered, as the dew is so
+plentiful in summer as fully to supply that deficiency.
+
+The guardian of the temple having told me that God had made man with
+his own hands, I asked him if he knew how that was done. He answered,
+"that God had kneaded some clay, such as that which potters use, and
+had made it into a little man; and that after examining it, and
+finding it well formed, he blew up his work, and forthwith that little
+man had life, grew, acted, walked, and found himself a man perfectly
+well shaped." As he made no mention of the woman, I asked him how he
+believed she was made; he told me, "that probably in the same manner
+as the man; that their _antient speech_ made no mention of any
+difference, only told them that the man was made first, and was the
+strongest and most courageous, because he was to be the head and
+support of the woman, who was made to be his companion."
+
+Here I did not omit to rectify his notions on the subjects we had been
+talking about, and to give him those just ideas which religion teaches
+us, and the sacred writings have transmitted to us. He hearkened to me
+with great attention, and promised to repeat all that I had told him
+to the old men of his nation, who certainly would not forget it;
+adding, that we were very happy in being able to retain the knowledge
+of such fine things by means of the speaking cloth, so they name books
+and manuscripts.
+
+{314} I next proceeded to ask him, who had taught them to build a
+temple; whence had they their eternal fire, which they preserved with
+so much care; and who was the person that first instituted their
+feasts? He replied, "The charge I am entrusted with obliges me to know
+all these things you ask of me; I will therefore satisfy you: hearken
+to me. A great number of years ago there appeared among us a man and
+his wife, who came down from the sun. Not that we believe that the sun
+had a wife who bore him children, or that these were the descendants
+of the sun; but when they first appeared among us they were so bright
+and luminous that we had no difficulty to believe that they came down
+from the sun. This man told us, that having seen from on high that we
+did not govern ourselves well; that we had no master; that each of us
+had presumption enough to think himself capable of governing others,
+while he could not even conduct himself; he had thought fit to come
+down among us to teach us to live better.
+
+"He moreover told us, that in order to live in peace among ourselves,
+and to please the supreme Spirit, we must indispensably observe the
+following points; we must never kill any one but in defence of our own
+lives; we must never know any other woman besides our own; we must
+never take any thing that belongs to another; we must never lye nor
+get drunk; we must not be avaricious, but must give liberally, and
+with joy, part of what we have to others who are in want, and
+generously share our subsistence with those who are in need of it."
+
+"The words of this man deeply affected us, for he spoke them with
+authority, and he procured the respect even of the old men themselves,
+tho' he reprehended them as freely as the rest. Next day we offered to
+acknowledge him as our sovereign. He at first refused, saying that he
+should not be obeyed, and that the disobedient would infallibly die;
+but at length he accepted the offer that was made him on the following
+condition:
+
+"That we would go and inhabit another country, better than that in
+which we were, which he would shew us; that we would afterwards live
+conformable to the instructions he had given us; that we would promise
+never to acknowledge any {315} other sovereigns but him and his
+descendants; that the nobility should be perpetuated by the women
+after this manner; if I, said he, have male and female children, they
+being brothers and sisters cannot marry together; the eldest boy may
+chuse a wife from among the people, but his sons shall be only nobles;
+the children of the eldest girl, on the other hand, shall be princes
+and princesses, and her eldest son be sovereign; but her eldest
+daughter be the mother of the next sovereign, even tho' she should
+marry one of the common people; and, in defect of the eldest daughter,
+the next female relation to the person reigning shall be the mother of
+the future sovereign; the sons of the sovereign and princes shall lose
+their rank, but the daughters shall preserve theirs."
+
+"He then told us, that in order to preserve the excellent precepts he
+had given us, it was necessary to build a temple, into which it should
+be lawful for none but the princes and princesses to enter, to speak
+to the Spirit. That in the temple they should eternally preserve a
+fire, which he would bring down from the sun, from whence he himself
+had descended, that the wood with which the fire was supplied should
+be pure wood without bark; that eight wise men of the nation should be
+chosen for guarding the fire night and day; that those eight men
+should have a chief, who should see them do their duty, and that if
+any of them failed in it he should be put to death. He likewise
+ordered another temple to be built in a distant part of our nation,
+which was then very populous, and the eternal fire to be kept there
+also, that in case it should be extinguished in the one it might be
+brought from the other; in which case, till it was again lighted, the
+nation would be afflicted with a great mortality."
+
+"Our nation having consented to these conditions, he agreed to be our
+sovereign; and in presence of all the people he brought down the fire
+from the sun, upon some wood of the walnut-tree which he had prepared,
+which fire was deposited in both the temples. He lived a long time,
+and saw his children's children. To conclude, he instituted our feasts
+such as you see them."
+
+The Natchez have neither sacrifices, libations, nor offerings: their
+whole worship consists in preserving the eternal {316} fire, and this
+the Great Sun watches over with a peculiar attention. The Sun, who
+reigned when I was in the country, was extremely solicitous about it,
+and visited the temple every day. His vigilance had been awakened by a
+terrible hurricane which some years before had happened in the
+country, and was looked upon as an extraordinary event, the air being
+generally clear and serene in that climate. If to that calamity should
+be joined the extinction of the eternal fire, he was apprehensive
+their whole nation would be destroyed.
+
+One day, when the Great Sun called upon me, he gave me an account of a
+dreadful calamity that had formerly befallen the nation of the
+Natchez, in consequence, as he believed, of the extinction of the
+eternal fire. He introduced his account in the following manner: "Our
+nation was formerly very numerous and very powerful; it extended more
+than twelve days journey from east to west, and more than fifteen from
+south to north. We reckoned then 500 Suns, and you may judge by that
+what was the number of the nobles, of the people of rank, and the
+common people. Now in times past it happened, that one of the two
+guardians, who were upon duty in the temple, left it on some business,
+and the other fell asleep, and suffered the fire to go out. When he
+awaked and saw that he had incurred the penalty of death, he went and
+got some profane fire, as tho' he had been going to light his pipe,
+and with that he renewed the eternal fire. His transgression was by
+that means concealed; but a dreadful mortality immediately ensued, and
+raged for four years, during which many Suns and an infinite number of
+the people died.
+
+"The guardian at length sickened, and found himself dying, upon which
+he sent for the Great Sun, and confessed the heinous crime he had been
+guilty of. The old men were immediately assembled, and, by their
+advice, fire being snatched from the other temple, and brought into
+this, the mortality quickly ceased." Upon my asking him what he meant
+by "snatching the fire," he replied, "that it must always be brought
+away by violence, and that some blood must be shed, unless some tree
+on the road was set on fire by lightning, and {317} then the fire
+might be brought from thence; but that the fire of the sun was always
+preferable."
+
+It is impossible to express his astonishment when I told him, that it
+was a trifling matter to bring down fire from the sun, and that I had it
+in my power to do it whenever I pleased. As he was extremely desirous to
+see me perform that seeming miracle, I took the smallest of two burning
+glasses which I had brought from France, and placing some dry punk (or
+agaric) upon a chip of wood, I drew the focus of the glass upon it, and
+with a tone of authority pronounced the word _Caheuch_, that is, _come_,
+as tho' I had been commanding the fire to come down. The punk
+immediately smoking, I blew a little and made it flame to the utter
+astonishment of the Great Sun and his whole retinue, some of whom stood
+trembling with amazement and religious awe. The prince himself could not
+help exclaiming, "Ah, what an extraordinary thing is here!" I confirmed
+him in his idea, by telling him, that I greatly loved and esteemed that
+useful instrument, as it was most valuable, and was given to me by my
+grandfather, who was a very learned man.
+
+Upon his asking me, if another man could do the same thing with that
+instrument that he had seen me do, I told him that every man might do
+it, and I encouraged him to make the experiment himself. I accordingly
+put the glass in his hand, and leading it with mine over another piece
+of agaric, I desired him to pronounce the word _Caheuch_, which he did,
+but with a very faint and diffident tone; nevertheless, to his great
+amazement, he saw the agaric begin to smoke, which so confounded him
+that he dropt both the chip on which it was laid and the glass out of
+his hands, crying out, "Ah, what a miracle!"
+
+Their curiosity being now fully raised, they held a consultation in my
+yard, and resolved to purchase at any rate my wonderful glass, which
+would prevent any future mortality in their nation, in consequence of
+the extinction of the eternal fire. I, in the mean time, had gone out
+to my field, as if about some business; but in reality to have a
+hearty laugh at the comical scene which I had just occasioned. Upon my
+return the Great Sun entered my apartment with me, and laying his hand
+upon mine, told me, that tho' he loved all the French, he {318} was
+more my friend than of any of the rest, because most of the French
+carried all their understanding upon their tongue, but that I carried
+mine in my whole head and my whole body. After this preamble he
+offered to bargain for my glass, and desired me to set what value I
+pleased upon it, adding that he would not only cause the price to be
+paid by all the families of the nation, but would declare to them that
+they lay under an obligation to me for giving up to them a thing which
+saved them from a general mortality. I replied, that tho' I bore his
+whole nation in my heart, yet nothing made me part with my glass, but
+my affection for him and his brother; that, besides, I asked nothing
+in return but things necessary for my subsistence, such as corn,
+fowls, game, and fish, when they brought him any of these. He offered
+me twenty barrels of maiz, of 150 pounds each, twenty fowls, twenty
+turkies, and told me that he would send me game and fish every time
+his warriors brought him any, and his promise was punctually
+fulfilled. He engaged likewise not to speak any thing about it to the
+Frenchmen, lest they should be angry with me for parting with an
+instrument of so great a value. Next day the glass was tried before a
+general assembly of all the Suns, both men and women, the nobles, and
+the men of rank, who all met together at the temple; and the same
+effect being produced as the day before, the bargain was ratified; but
+it was resolved not to mention the affair to the common people, who,
+from their curiosity to know the secrets of their court, were
+assembled in great numbers not far from the temple, but only to tell
+them, that the whole nation of the Natchez were under great
+obligations to me.
+
+The Natchez are brought up in a most perfect submission to their
+sovereign; the authority which their princes exercise over them is
+absolutely despotic, and can be compared to nothing but that of the
+first Ottoman emperors. Like these, the Great Sun is absolute master
+of the lives and estates of his subjects, which he disposes of at his
+pleasure, his will being the only law; but he has this singular
+advantage over the Ottoman princes, that he has no occasion to fear
+any seditious tumults, or any conspiracy against his person. If he
+orders a man guilty of a capital crime to be put to death, the
+criminal {319} neither supplicates, nor procures intercession to be
+made for his life, nor attempts to run away. The order of the
+sovereign is executed on the spot, and nobody murmurs. But however
+absolute the authority of the Great Sun may be, and although a number
+of warriors and others attach themselves to him, to serve him, to
+follow him wherever he goes, and to hunt for him, yet he raises no
+stated impositions; and what he receives from those people appears
+given, not so much as a right due, as a voluntary homage, and a
+testimony of their love and gratitude.
+
+The Natchez begin their year in the month of March, as was the
+practice a long time in Europe, and divide it into thirteen moons. At
+every new moon they celebrate a feast, which takes its name from the
+principal fruits reaped in the preceding moon, or from animals that
+are then usually hunted. I shall give an account of one or two of
+these feasts as concisely as I can.
+
+The first moon is called that of the Deer, and begins their new year,
+which is celebrated by them with universal joy, and is at the same
+time an anniversary memorial of one of the most interesting events in
+their history. In former times a Great Sun, upon hearing a sudden
+tumult in his village, had left his hut in a great hurry, in order to
+appease it, and fell into the hands of his enemies; but was quickly
+after rescued by his warriors, who repulsed the invaders, and put them
+to flight.
+
+In order to preserve the remembrance of this honourable exploit, the
+warriors divide themselves into two bodies, distinguished from each
+other by the colour of their feathers. One of these bodies represents
+the invaders, and after raising loud shouts and cries, seize the Great
+Sun, who comes out of his hut undressed, and rubbing his eyes, as
+though he were just awake. The Great Sun defends himself intrepidly
+with a wooden tomahawk, and lays a great many of his enemies upon the
+ground, without however giving them a single blow, for he only seems
+to touch them with his weapon. In the mean time the other party come
+out of their ambuscade, attack the invaders, and, after fighting with
+them for some time, rescue their prince, and drive them into a wood,
+which is represented by an arbour {320} made of canes. During the
+whole time of the skirmish, the parties keep up the war-cry, or the
+cry of terror, as each of them seem to be victors or vanquished. The
+Great Sun is brought back to his hut in a triumphant manner; and the
+old men, women, and children, who were spectators of the engagement,
+rend the sky with their joyful acclamations. The Great Sun continues
+in his hut about half an hour, to repose himself after his great
+fatigues, which are such that an actor of thirty years of age would
+with difficulty have supported them, and he however, when I saw this
+feast, was above ninety. He then makes his appearance again to the
+people, who salute him with loud acclamations, which cease upon his
+proceeding towards the temple. When he is arrived in the middle of the
+court before the temple, he makes several gesticulations, then
+stretches out his arms horizontally, and remains in that posture
+motionless as a statute for half an hour. He is then relieved by the
+master of the ceremonies, who places himself in the same attitude, and
+half an hour after is relieved by the great chief of war, who remains
+as long in the same posture. When this ceremony is over, the Great
+Sun, who, when he was relieved, had returned to his hut, appears again
+before the people in the ornaments of his dignity, is placed upon his
+throne, which is a large stool with four feet cut out of one piece of
+wood, has a fine buffalo's skin thrown over his shoulders, and several
+furs laid upon his feet, and receives various presents from the women,
+who all the while continue to express their joy by their shouts and
+acclamations. Strangers are then invited to dine with the Great Sun,
+and in the evening there is a dance in his hut, which is about thirty
+feet square, and twenty feet high, and like the temple is built upon a
+mount of earth, about eight feet high, and sixty feet over on the
+surface.
+
+The second moon, which answers to our April, is called the Strawberry
+moon, as that fruit abounds then in great quantities.
+
+The third moon is that of the Small Corn. This moon is often
+impatiently looked for, their crop of large corn never sufficing to
+nourish them from one harvest to another.
+
+{321} The fourth is that of Water-melons, and answers to our June.
+
+The fifth moon is that of the Fishes: in this month also they gather
+grapes, if the birds have suffered them to ripen.
+
+The sixth, which answers to our August, is that of the Mulberries. At
+this feast they likewise carry fowls to the Great Sun.
+
+The seventh, which is that of Maiz, or Great Corn. This feast is
+beyond dispute the most solemn of all. It principally consists in
+eating in common, and in a religious manner, of new corn, which had
+been sown expressly with that design, with suitable ceremonies. This
+corn is sown upon a spot of ground never before cultivated; which
+ground is dressed and prepared by the warriors alone, who also are the
+only persons that sow the corn, weed it, reap it, and gather it. When
+this corn is near ripe, the warriors fix on a place proper for the
+general feast, and close adjoining to that they form a round granary,
+the bottom and sides of which are of cane; this they fill, with the
+corn, and when they have finished the harvest, and covered the
+granary, they acquaint the Great Sun, who appoints the day for the
+general feast. Some days before the feast, they build huts for the
+Great Sun, and for all the other families, round the granary, that of
+the Great Sun being raised upon a mount of earth about two feet high.
+On the feast-day the whole nation set out from their village at
+sun-rising, leaving behind only the aged and infirm that are not able
+to travel, and a few warriors, who are to carry the Great Sun on a
+litter upon their shoulders. The seat of this litter is covered with
+several deer skins, and to its four sides are fastened four bars which
+cross each other, and are supported by eight men, who at every hundred
+paces transfer their burden to eight other men, and thus successively
+transport it to the place where the feast is celebrated, which may be
+near two miles from the village. About nine o'clock the Great Sun
+comes out of his hut dressed in the ornaments of his dignity, and
+being placed in his litter, which has a canopy at the head formed of
+flowers, he is carried in a few minutes to the sacred granary, shouts
+of {322} joy re-echoing on all sides. Before he alights he makes the
+tour of the whole place deliberately, and when he comes before the
+corn, he salutes it thrice with the words, _hoo, hoo, hoo_, lengthened
+and pronounced respectfully. The salutation is repeated by the whole
+nation, who pronounce the word _hoo_ nine times distinctly, and at the
+ninth time he alights and places himself on his throne.
+
+Immediately after they light a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood
+violently against each other, and when every thing is prepared for
+dressing the corn, the chief of war, accompanied by the warriors
+belonging to each family, presents himself before the throne, and
+addresses the Sun in these words, "speak, for I hear thee." The
+sovereign then rises up, bows towards the four quarters of the world,
+and advancing to the granary, lifts his eyes and hands to heaven, and
+says, "Give us corn:" upon which the great chief of war, the princes
+and princesses, and all the men, thank him separately, by pronouncing
+the word _hoo_. The corn is then distributed, first to the female Suns,
+and then to all the women, who run with it to their huts, and dress it
+with the utmost dispatch. When the corn is dressed in all the huts, a
+plate of it is put into the hands of the Great Sun, who presents it to
+the four quarters of the world, and then says to the chief of war,
+_eat_; upon this signal the warriors begin to eat in all the huts; after
+them the boys of whatever age, excepting those who are on the breast;
+and last of all the women. When the warriors have finished their
+repast, they form themselves into two choirs before the huts, and sing
+war songs for half an hour; after which the chief of war, and all the
+warriors in succession, recount their brave exploits, and mention, in
+a boasting manner, the number of enemies they have slain. The youths
+are next allowed to harangue, and each tells in the best manner he
+can, not what he has done, but what he intends to do; and if his
+discourse merits approbation, he is answered by a general _hoo_; if not,
+the warriors hang down their heads and are silent.
+
+This great solemnity is concluded with a general dance by torch-light.
+Upwards of two hundred torches of dried canes, each of the thickness
+of a child, are lighted round the place, {323} where the men and women
+often continue dancing till day-light; and the following is the
+disposition of their dance. A man places himself on the ground with a
+pot covered with a deer-skin, in the manner of a drum, to beat time to
+the dances; round him the women form themselves into a circle, not
+joining hands, but at some distance from each other; and they are
+inclosed by the men in another circle, who have in each hand a
+chichicois, or calabash, with a stick thrust through it to serve for a
+handle. When the dance begins, the women move round {324} the men in
+the centre, from left to right, and the men contrariwise from right to
+left, and they sometimes narrow and sometimes widen their circles. In
+this manner the dance continues without intermission the whole night,
+new performers successively taking the place of those who are wearied
+and fatigued.
+
+[Illustration: _Dance of the Natchez indians_ (on p. 323)]
+
+Next morning no person is seen abroad before the Great Sun comes out
+of his hut, which is generally about nine o'clock, and then upon
+signal made by the drum, the warriors make their appearance
+distinguished into two troops, by the feathers which they wear on
+their heads. One of these troops is headed by the Great Sun, and the
+other by the chief of war, who begin a new diversion by tossing a ball
+of deer-skin stuffed with Spanish beard from the one to the other. The
+warriors quickly take part in the sport, and a violent contest ensues
+which of the two parties shall drive the ball to the hut of the
+opposite chief. The diversion generally lasts two hours, and the
+victors are allowed to wear the feathers of superiority till the
+following year, or till the next time they play at the ball. After
+this the warriors perform the war dance; and last of all they go and
+bathe; an exercise which they are very fond of when they are heated or
+fatigued.
+
+The rest of that day is employed as the preceding; for the feasts
+holds as long as any of the corn remains. When it is all eat up, the
+Great Sun is carried back in his litter, and they all return to the
+village, after which he sends the warriors to hunt both for themselves
+and him.
+
+The eighth moon is that of Turkies, and answers to our October.
+
+The ninth moon is that of the Buffalo; and it is then they go to hunt
+that animal. Having discovered whereabouts the herd feeds, they go out
+in a body to hunt them. Young and old, girls and married women, except
+those who are with child, are all of the party, for there is generally
+work for them all. Some nations are a little later in going out to
+this hunting, that they may find the cows fatter, and the herds more
+numerous.
+
+The tenth moon is that of Bears; at this time of hunting the feasts
+are not so grand and solemn, because great part of the nations are
+accompanying the hunters in their expeditions.
+
+{325} The eleventh answers to our January, and is named as Cold-meal
+Moon. The twelfth is that of Chesnuts. That fruit has been gathered
+long before, nevertheless it gives its name to this moon.
+
+Lastly, the thirteenth is that of Walnuts, and it is added to compleat
+the year. It is then they break the nuts to make bread of them by
+mixing with them the flour of Maiz.
+
+The feasts which I saw celebrated in the chief village of the Natchez,
+which is the residence of the Great Sun, are celebrated in the same
+manner in all the villages of the nation, which are each governed by a
+Sun, who is subordinate to the Great Sun, and acknowledge his absolute
+authority.
+
+It is not to be conceived how exact these people are in assigning the
+pre-eminence to the men. In every assembly, whether of the whole
+nation in general, or of several families together, or of one family,
+the youngest boys have the preference to the women of the most
+advanced age; and at their meals, when their food is distributed, none
+is presented to the women, till all the males have received their
+share, so that a boy of two years old is served before his mother.
+
+The women being always employed, without ever being diverted from
+their duty, or seduced by the gallantries of lovers, never think of
+objecting to the propriety of a custom, in which they have been
+constantly brought up. Never having seen any example that contradicted
+it, they have not the least idea of varying from it. Thus being
+submissive from the habit, as well as from reason, they, by their
+docility, maintain that peace in their families, which they find
+established upon entering them.
+
+{326}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+_Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks._
+
+
+Paternal authority, as I have elsewhere observed, is not less sacred
+and inviolable than the pre-eminence of the men. It still subsists
+among the Natchez, such as it was in the first ages of the world. The
+children belong to the father, and while he lives they are under his
+power. They live with him, they, their wives, and their children; the
+same hut contains the whole family. The old man alone commands there,
+and nothing but death puts an end to his empire. As these people have
+seldom or rather never any differences among them, the paternal
+authority appears in nothing more conspicuous than in the marriages.
+
+When the boys and girls arrive at the perfect age of puberty, they
+visit each other familiarly, and are suffered so to do. The girls,
+sensible that they will be no longer mistresses of their heart, when
+once they are married, know how to dispose of it to advantage, and
+form their wardrobe by the sale of their favours; for there, as well
+as in other countries, nothing for nothing. The lover, far from having
+any thing to object to this, on the contrary, rates the merit of his
+future spouse, in proportion to the fruits she has produced. But when
+they are married they have no longer any intrigues, neither the
+husband nor the wife, because their heart is no longer their own. They
+may divorce their wives; it is, however, so rare to see the man and
+wife part, that during the eight years I lived in their neighbourhood,
+I knew but one example of it, and then each took with them the
+children of their own sex.
+
+If a young man has obtained a girl's consent, and they desire to marry,
+it is not their fathers, and much less their mothers, or male or female
+relations who take upon them to, conclude the match; it is the heads of
+the two families alone, who are usually great-grandfathers, and
+sometimes more. These two old men have an interview, in which, after the
+young man has formally made a demand of the girl, they examine if there
+be any relation between the two parties, and if any, what degree {327}
+it is; for they do not marry within the third degree. Notwithstanding
+this interview, and the two parties be found not within the prohibited
+degrees, yet if the proposed wife be disagreeable to the father,
+grandfather, &c. of the husband, the match is never concluded. On the
+other hand, ambition, avarice, and the other passions, so common with
+us, never stifle in the breasts of the fathers those dictates of nature,
+which make us desire to see ourselves perpetuated in our offspring, nor
+influence them to thwart their children, improperly, and much less to
+force their inclinations. By an admirable harmony, very worthy of our
+imitation, they only marry those who love one another, and those who
+love one another, are only married when their parents agree to it. It is
+rare for young men to marry before they be five-and-twenty. Till they
+arrive at that age they are looked upon as too weak, without
+understanding and experience.
+
+When the marriage-day is once fixed, preparations are made for it both
+by the men and women; the men go a hunting, and the women prepare the
+maiz, and deck out the young man's cabin to the best of their power.
+On the wedding-day the old man on the part of the girl leaves his hut,
+and conducts the bride to the hut of the bridegroom; his whole family
+follow him in order and silence; those who are inclined to laugh or be
+merry, indulging themselves only in a smile.
+
+He finds before the other hut all the relations of the bridegroom, who
+receive and salute him with their usual expression of congratulation,
+namely, _hoo, hoo_, repeated several times. When he enters the hut, the
+old man on the part of the bridegroom says to him in their language,
+_are you there?_ to which he answers, _yes_. He is next desired to sit
+down, and then not a word passes for near ten minutes, it being one of
+their prudent customs to suffer a guest to rest himself a little after
+his arrival, before they begin a conversation; and besides, they look
+upon the time spent in compliments as thrown away.
+
+After both the old men are fully rested, they rise, and the bridegroom
+and bride appearing before them, they ask them, if they love each
+other? and if they are willing to take one another for man and wife?
+observing to them at the same time, {328} that they ought not to marry
+unless they propose to live amicably together; that nobody forces
+them, and that as they are each other's free choice, they will be
+thrust out of the family if they do not live in peace. After this
+remonstrance the father of the bridegroom delivers the present which
+his son is to make into his hands, the bride's father at the same time
+placing himself by her side. The bridegroom then addresses the bride;
+"Will you have me for your husband?" she answers, "Most willingly, and
+it gives me joy; love me, as well as I love you; for I love, and ever
+will love none but you." At these words the bridegroom covers the head
+of the bride with the present which he received from his father, and
+says to her, "I love you, and have therefore taken you for my wife,
+and this I give to your parents, to purchase you." He then gives the
+present to the bride's father.
+
+The husband wears a tuft of feathers fastened to his hair, which is in
+the form of a cue, and hangs over his left ear, to which is fastened a
+sprig of oak with the leaves on, and in his left hand he bears a bow
+and arrows. The young wife bears in her left hand a small branch of
+laurel, and in her right a stalk of maiz, which was delivered to her
+by her mother at the time she received the present from her husband.
+This stalk she presents to her husband, who takes it from her with his
+right hand, and says, "I am your husband;" she answers, and "I am your
+wife." They then shake hands reciprocally with each other's relations;
+after which he leads her towards the bed, and says, "There is our bed,
+keep it tight;" which is as much as to say, do not defile the nuptial
+bed.
+
+The marriage ceremony being thus concluded, the bridegroom and the
+bride, with their friends, sit down to a repast, and in the evening
+they begin their dances, which continue often till day-light.
+
+The nation of the Natchez is composed of nobility and common people.
+The common people are named in their language _Miche-Miche-Quipy_, that
+is, _Stinkards_; a name however which gives them great offense, and
+which it is proper to avoid pronouncing before them, as it would not
+fail to put them into a very bad humour. The common people are to the
+{329} last degree submissive to the nobility, who are divided into
+Suns, nobles, and men of rank.
+
+The Suns are the descendants of the man and woman who pretended to
+have come down from the sun. Among the other laws they gave to the
+Natchez, they ordained that their race should always be distinguished
+from the bulk of the nation, and that none of them should ever be put
+to death upon any account. They established likewise another usage
+which is found among no other people, except a nation of Scythians
+mentioned by Herodotus. They ordained that nobility should only be
+transmitted by the women. Their male and female children were equally
+named Suns, and regarded as such, but with this difference, that the
+males enjoyed this privilege only in their own person, and during
+their own lives. Their children had only the title of nobles, and the
+male children of those nobles were only men of rank. Those men of
+rank, however, if they distinguished themselves by their war-like
+exploits, might raise themselves again to the rank of nobles; but
+their children became only men of rank, and the children of those men
+of rank, as well as of the others, were confounded with the common
+people, and classed among the Stinkards. Thus as these people are very
+long-lived, and frequently see the fourth generation, it often happens
+that a Sun sees some of his posterity among the Stinkards; but they
+are at great pains to conceal this degradation of their race,
+especially from strangers, and almost totally disown those great-grand
+children; for when they speak of them they only say, they are dear to
+them. It is otherwise with the female posterity of the Suns, for they
+continue through all generations to enjoy their rank. The descendants
+of the Suns being pretty numerous, it might be expected that those who
+are out of the prohibited degrees might intermarry, rather than ally
+with the Stinkards; but a most barbarous custom obliges them to their
+mis-alliances. When any of the Suns, either male or female, die, their
+law ordains that the husband or wife of the Sun shall be put to death
+on the day of the interment of the deceased: now as another law
+prohibits the issue of the Suns from being put to death, it is
+therefore impossible for the descendants of the Suns to match with
+each other.
+
+{330} Whether it be that they are tired of this law, or that they with
+their Suns descended of French blood, I shall not determine; but the
+wife of the Great Sun came one day to visit me so early in the morning
+that I was not got out of bed. She was accompanied with her only
+daughter, a girl between fourteen and fifteen years of age, handsome
+and well shaped; but she only sent in her own name by my slave; so
+that without getting up, I made no scruple of desiring her to come in.
+When her daughter appeared I was not a little surprized; but I shook
+hands with them both, and desired them to sit down. The daughter sat
+down on the foot of my bed, and kept her eyes continually fixed on me,
+while the mother addressed herself to me in the most serious and
+pathetic tone. After some compliments to me, and commendations of our
+customs and manners, she condemned the barbarous usages that prevailed
+among themselves, and ended with proposing me as a husband for her
+daughter, that I might have it in my power to civilize their nation by
+abolishing their inhuman customs, and introducing those of the French.
+As I foresaw the danger of such an alliance, which would be opposed by
+the whole nation of the Natchez, and at the same time was sensible
+that the resentment of a slighted woman is very formidable, I returned
+her such an answer as might shew my great respect for her daughter,
+and prevent her from making the same application to some brainless
+Frenchman, who, by accepting the offer, might expose the French
+settlement to some disastrous event. I told her that her daughter was
+handsome, and pleased me much, as she had a good heart, and a well
+turned mind; but the laws we received from the Great Spirit, forbad us
+to marry women who did not pray; and that those Frenchmen who lived
+with their daughters took them only for a time; but it was not proper
+that the daughter of the Great Sun should be disposed of in that
+manner. The mother acquiesced in my reasons; but when they took their
+leave I perceived plainly that the daughter was far from being
+satisfied. I never saw her from that day forwards; and I heard she was
+soon after married to another.
+
+From this relation the reader may perceive that there needs nothing
+but prudence and good sense to persuade those people {331} to what is
+reasonable, and to preserve their friendship without interruption. We
+may safely affirm that the differences we have had with them have been
+more owing to the French than to them. When they are treated
+insolently or oppressively, they have no less sensibility of injuries
+than others. If those who have occasion to live among them, will but
+have sentiments of humanity, they will in them meet with men.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+_Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious Ceremonies of the
+People of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+I shall now proceed to give some account of the customs that prevail
+in general among all the nations of North America; and these have a
+great resemblance to each other, as there is hardly any difference in
+the manner of thinking and acting among the several nations. These
+people have no religion expressed by any external worship. The
+strongest evidences that we discover of their having any religion at
+all, are their temples, and the eternal fire therein kept up by some
+of them. Some of them indeed do not keep up the eternal fire, and have
+turned their temples into charnel-houses.
+
+However, all those people, without exception, acknowledge a supreme
+Being, but they never on any account address their prayers to him,
+from their fixt belief that God, whom they call the Great Spirit, is
+so good, that he cannot do evil, whatever provocation he may have.
+They believe the existence of two Great Spirits, a good and a bad.
+They do not, as I have said, invoke the Good Spirit; but they pray to
+the bad, in order to avert from their persons and possessions the
+evils which he might inflict upon them. They pray to the evil spirit,
+not because they think him almighty; for it is the Good Spirit whom
+they believe so; but because, according to them, he governs the air,
+the seasons, the rain, the fine weather, and all that may benefit or
+hurt the productions of the earth.
+
+They are very superstitious in respect to the flight of birds, and the
+passage of some animals that are seldom seen in their country. They
+are much inclined to hear and believe {332} diviners, especially in
+regard to discovering things to come; and they are kept in their
+errors by the Jongleurs, who find their account in them.
+
+The natives have all the same manner of bringing up their children,
+and are in general well shaped, and their limbs are justly
+proportioned. The Chicasaws are the most fierce and arrogant, which
+they undoubtedly owe to their frequent intercourse with the English of
+Carolina. They are brave; a disposition they may have inherited as the
+remains of that martial spirit that prompted them to invade their
+neighbouring nations, by which they themselves were at length greatly
+weakened. All the nations on the north of the colony are likewise
+brave, but they are more humane than the Chicasaws, and have not their
+high-spirited pride. All these nations of the north, and all those of
+Louisiana, have been inviolably attached to us ever since our
+establishment in this colony. The misfortune of the Natchez, who,
+without dispute, were the finest of all those nations, and who loved
+us, ought not in the least to lessen our sentiments of those people,
+who are in general distinguished for their natural goodness of
+character. All those nations are prudent, and speak little; they are
+sober in their diet, but they are passionately fond of brandy, though
+they are singular in never tasting any wine, and neither know nor care
+to learn any composition of liquors. In their meals they content
+themselves with maiz prepared various ways, and sometimes they use
+fish and flesh. The meat that they eat is chiefly recommended to them
+for being wholesome; and therefore I have conjectured that dog's
+flesh, for which we have such an aversion, must however be as good as
+it is beautiful, since they rate it so highly as to use it by way of
+preference in their feasts of ceremony. They eat no young game, as
+they find plenty of the largest size, and do not think delicacy of
+taste alone any recommendation; and therefore, in general, they would
+not taste our ragouts, but, condemning them as unwholesome, prefer to
+them gruel made of maiz, called in the colony Sagamity.
+
+The Chactaws are the only ugly people among all the nations in
+Louisiana; which is chiefly owing to the fat with which {333} they rub
+their skin and their hair, and to their manner of defending themselves
+against the moskitos, which they keep off by lighting fires of
+fir-wood, and standing in the smoke.
+
+Although all the people of Louisiana have nearly the same usages and
+customs, yet as any nation is more or less populous, it has
+proportionally more or fewer ceremonies. Thus when the French first
+arrived in the colony, several nations kept up the eternal fire, and
+observed other religious ceremonies, which they have now disused,
+since their numbers have been greatly diminished. Many of them still
+continue to have temples, but the common people never enter these, nor
+strangers, unless peculiarly favoured by the nation. As I was an
+intimate friend of the sovereign of the Natchez, he shewed me their
+temple, which is about thirty feet square, and stands upon an
+artificial mount about eight feet high, by the side of a small river.
+The mount slopes insensibly from the main front, which is northwards,
+but on the other sides it is somewhat steeper. The four corners of the
+temple consist of four posts, about a foot and an half diameter, and
+ten feet high, each made of the heart of the cypress tree, which is
+incorruptible. The side-posts are of the same wood, but only about a
+foot square; and the walls are of mud, about nine inches thick; so
+that in the inside there is a hollow between every post. The inner
+space is divided from east to west into two apartments one of which is
+twice as large as the other. In the largest apartment the eternal fire
+is kept, and there is likewise a table or altar in it, about four feet
+high, six long, and two broad. Upon this table lie the bones of the
+late Great Sun in a coffin of canes very neatly made. In the inner
+apartment, which is very dark, as it receives no light but from the
+door of communication, I could meet with nothing but two boards, on
+which were placed some things like small toys, which I had not light
+to peruse. The roof is in the form of a pavilion, and very neat both
+within and without, and on the top of it are placed three wooden
+birds, twice as large as a goose, with their heads turned towards the
+east. The corner and side-posts, as has been mentioned, rise above the
+earth ten feet high, and it is said they are as much sunk under
+ground; it cannot therefore but appear surprising how the natives
+could transport such large beams, fashion them, and raise them {334}
+upright, when we know of no machines they had for that purpose.
+Besides the eight guardians of the temple, two of whom are always on
+watch, and the chief of those guardians, there also belongs to the
+service of the temple a master of the ceremonies, who is also master
+of the mysteries; since, according to them, he converses very
+familiarly with the Spirit. Above all these persons is the Great Sun,
+who is at the same time chief priest and sovereign of the nation. The
+temples of some of the nations of Louisiana are very mean, and one
+would often be apt to mistake them for the huts of private persons,
+but to those who are acquainted with their manners, they are easily
+distinguishable, as they have always before the door two posts formed
+like the ancient Termini, that is, having the upper part cut into the
+shape of a man's head. The door of the temple, which is pretty
+weighty, is placed between the wall and those two posts, so that
+children may not be able to remove it, to go and play in the temple.
+The private huts have also posts before their doors, but these are
+never formed like Termini.
+
+None of the nations of Louisiana are acquainted with the custom of
+burning their dead, which was practised by the Greeks and Romans; nor
+with that of the Egyptians, who studied to preserve them to
+perpetuity. The different American nations have a most religious
+attention for their dead, and each have some peculiar customs in
+respect to them; but all of them either inter them, or place them in
+tombs, and carefully carry victuals to them for some time. These tombs
+are either within their temples, or close adjoining to them, or in
+their neighbourhood. They are raised about three feet above the earth,
+and rest upon four pillars, which are forked stakes fixed fast in the
+ground. The tomb, or rather bier, is about eight feet long, and a foot
+and a half broad; and after the body is placed upon it, a kind of
+basket-work of twigs is wove round it, and covered with mud, an
+opening being left at the head for placing the victuals that are
+presented to the dead person. When the body is all rotted but the
+bones, these are taken out of the tomb, and placed in a box of canes,
+which is deposited in the temple. They usually weep and lament for
+their dead three days; but for those who are killed in war, they make
+a much longer and more grievous lamentation.
+
+{335} Among the Natchez the death of any of their Suns, as I have
+before observed, is a most fatal event; for it is sure to be attended
+with the destruction of a great number of people of both sexes. Early
+in the spring 1725, the Stung Serpent, who was the brother of the
+Great Sun, and my intimate friend, was seized with a mortal distemper,
+which filled the whole nation of the Natchez with the greatest
+consternation and terror; for the two brothers had mutually engaged to
+follow each other to the land of spirits; and if the Great Sun should
+kill himself for the sake of his brother, very many people would
+likewise be put to death. When the Stung Serpent was despaired of, the
+chief of the guardians of the temple came to me in the greatest
+confusion, and acquainting me with the mutual engagements of the two
+brothers, begged of me to interest myself in preserving the Great Sun,
+and consequently a great part of the nation. He made the same request
+to the commander of the fort. Accordingly we were no sooner informed
+of the death of the Stung Serpent, than the commander, some of the
+principal Frenchmen, and I, went in a body to the hut of the Great
+Sun. We found him in despair; but, after some time, he seemed to be
+influenced by the arguments I used to dissuade him from putting
+himself to death. The death of the Stung Serpent was published by the
+firing of two muskets, which were answered by the other villages, and
+immediately cries and lamentations were heard on all sides. The Great
+Sun, in the mean time, remained inconsolable, and sat bent forwards,
+with his eyes towards the ground. In the evening, while we were still
+in his hut, he made a sign to his favourite wife; who in consequence
+of that threw a pailful of water on the fire, and extinguished it.
+This was a signal for extinguishing all the fires of the nation, and
+filled every one with terrible alarms, as it denoted that the Great
+Sun was still resolved to put himself to death. I gently chided him
+for altering his former resolution, but he assured me he had not, and
+desired us to go and sleep securely. We accordingly left him,
+pretending to rely on the assurance he had given us; but we took up
+our lodging in the hut of his chief servants, and stationed a soldier
+at the door of his hut, whom we ordered to give us notice of whatever
+happened. There was no need to fear our being betrayed by the wife of
+{336} the Great Sun, or any others about him; for none of them had the
+least inclination to die, if they could help it. On the contrary, they
+all expressed the greatest thankfulness and gratitude to us for our
+endeavors to avert the threatened calamity from their nation.
+
+Before we went to our lodgings we entered the hut of the deceased, and
+found him on his bed of state, dressed in his finest cloaths, his face
+painted with vermilion, shod as if for a journey, with his
+feather-crown on his head. To his bed were fastened his arms, which
+consisted of a double-barreled gun, a pistol, a bow, a quiver full of
+arrows, and a tomahawk. Round his bed were placed all the calumets of
+peace he had received during his life, and on a pole, planted in the
+ground near it, hung a chain of forty-six rings of cane painted red,
+to express the number of enemies he had slain. All his domesticks were
+round him, and they presented victuals to him at the usual hours, as
+if he were alive. The company in his hut were composed of his
+favourite wife, of a second wife, which he kept in another village,
+and visited when his favourite was with child; of his chancellor, his
+physician, his chief domestic, his pipe-bearer, and some old women,
+who were all to be strangled at his interment. To these victims a
+noble woman voluntarily joined herself, resolving, from her friendship
+to the Stung Serpent, to go and live with him in the country of
+spirits. I regretted her on many accounts, but particularly as she was
+intimately acquainted with the virtues of simples, had by her skill
+saved many of our people's lives, and given me many useful
+instructions. After we had satisfied our curiosity in the hut of the
+deceased, we retired to our hut, where we spent the night. But at
+day-break we were suddenly awaked, and told that it was with
+difficulty the Great Sun was kept from killing himself. We hastened to
+his hut, and upon entering it I remarked dismay and terror painted
+upon the countenances of all who were present. The Great Sun held his
+gun by the butt-end, and seemed enraged that the other Suns had seized
+upon it, to prevent him from executing his purpose. I addressed myself
+to him, and after opening the pan of the lock, to let the priming fall
+out, I chided him gently for his not acting according to his former
+resolution. He pretended at first {337} not to see me; but, after some
+time, he let go his hold of the musket, and shook hands with me
+without speaking a word. I then went towards his wife, who all this
+while had appeared in the utmost agony and terror, and I asked her if
+she was ill. She answered me, "Yes, very ill," and added, "if you
+leave us, my husband is a dead man, and all the Natchez will die; stay
+then, for he opens his ears only to your words, which have the
+sharpness and strength of arrows. You are his true friend, and do not
+laugh when you speak, like most of the Frenchmen." The Great Sun at
+length consented to order his fire to be again lighted, which was the
+signal for lighting the other fires of the nation, and dispelled all
+their apprehensions.
+
+Soon after the natives begun the dance of death, and prepared for the
+funeral of the Stung Serpent. Orders were given to put none to death
+on that occasion, but those who were in the hut of the deceased. A
+child however had been strangled already by its father and mother,
+which ransomed their lives upon the death of the Great Sun, and raised
+them from the rank of Stinkards to that of Nobles. Those who were
+appointed to die were conducted twice a day, and placed in two rows
+before the temple, where they acted over the scene of their death,
+each accompanied by eight of their own relations who were to be their
+executioners, and by that office exempted themselves from dying upon
+the death of any of the Suns, and likewise raised themselves to the
+dignity of men of rank.
+
+Mean while thirty warriors brought in a prisoner, who had formerly
+been married to a female Sun; but, upon her death, instead of
+submitting to die with her, had fled to New Orleans, and offered to
+become the hunter and slave of our commander in chief. The commander
+accepting his offer, and granting him his protection, he often visited
+his countrymen, who, out of complaisance to the commander, never
+offered to apprehend him: but that officer being now returned to
+France, and the runaway appearing in the neighbourhood, he was now
+apprehended, and numbered among the other victims. Finding himself
+thus unexpectedly trapped, he began to cry bitterly; but three old
+women, who were his relations, offering to die in his stead, he was
+not only again exempted from death, but {338} raised to the dignity of
+a man of rank. Upon this he afterwards became insolent, and profiting
+by what he had seen and learned at New Orleans, he easily, on many
+occasions, made his fellow-countrymen his dupes.
+
+[Illustration: _Burial of the Stung Serpent_]
+
+On the day of the interment, the wife of the deceased made a very
+moving speech to the French who were present, recommending her
+children, to whom she also addressed herself, to their friendship, and
+advising perpetual union between {339} the two nations. Soon after the
+master of the ceremonies appeared in a red-feathered crown, which half
+encircled his head, having a red staff in his hand in the form of a
+cross, at the end of which hung a garland of black feathers. All the
+upper part of his body was painted red, excepting his arms, and from
+his girdle to his knees hung a fringe of feathers, the rows of which
+were alternately white and red. When he came before the hut of the
+deceased, he saluted him with a great _hoo_, and then began the cry of
+death, in which he was followed by the whole people. Immediately after
+the Stung Serpent was brought out on his bed of state, and was placed
+on a litter, which six of the guardians of the temple bore on their
+shoulders. The procession then began, the master of the ceremonies
+walking first, and after him the oldest warrior, holding in one hand
+the pole with the rings of canes, and in the other the pipe of war, a
+mark of the dignity of the deceased. Next followed the corpse, after
+which came those who were to die at the interment. The whole
+procession went three times round the hut of the deceased, and then
+those who carried the corpse proceeded in a circular kind of march,
+every turn intersecting the former, until they came to the temple. At
+every turn the dead child was thrown by its parents before the bearers
+of the corpse, that they might walk over it; and when the corpse was
+placed in the temple the victims were immediately strangled. The Stung
+Serpent and his two wives were buried in the same grave within the
+temple; the other victims were interred in different parts, and after
+the ceremony they burnt, according to custom, the hut of the deceased.
+
+{340}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION V.
+
+_Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives._
+
+
+The arts and manufactures of the natives are so insignificant, when
+compared with ours, that I should not have thought of treating of
+them, if some persons of distinction had not desired me to say
+something of them, in order to shew the industry of those people, and
+how far invention could carry them, in supplying those wants which
+human nature is continually exposed to.
+
+As they would have frequent occasion for fire, the manner of lighting
+it at pleasure must have been one of the first things that they
+invented. Not having those means which we use, they bethought
+themselves of another ingenious method which they generally practise.
+They take a dry dead stick from a tree, about the thickness of their
+finger, and pressing one end against another dry piece of wood, they
+turn it round as swiftly as they can till they see the smoke appear,
+then blowing gently soon make the wood flame.
+
+Cutting instruments are almost continually wanted; but as they had no
+iron, which, of all metals, is the most useful in human society, they
+were obliged, with infinite pains, to form hatchets out of large
+flints, by sharpening their thin edge, and making a hole through them
+for receiving the handle. To cut down trees with these axes would have
+been almost an impracticable work; they were therefore obliged to
+light fires round the roots of them, and to cut away the charcoal as
+the fire eat into the tree. They supplied the want of knives for
+cutting their victuals with thin splits of a hard cane, which they
+could easily renew as they wore out.
+
+
+They made their bows of acacia wood, which is hard and easily cleft;
+and at first their bowstrings were made of the bark of the wood, but
+now they make them of the thongs of hides. Their arrows are made of a
+shrub that sends out long straight shoots; but they make some of small
+hard reeds: those that are intended for war, or against the buffalo,
+the deer, or large carp, are pointed with the sharp scale of the armed
+fish, which is neatly fastened to the head of the arrow with splits of
+cane and fish-glue.
+
+{341} The skins of the beasts which they killed in hunting naturally
+presented themselves for their covering; but they must be dressed
+however before they could be properly used. After much practice they
+at length discovered that the brain of any animal suffices to dress
+its skin. To sew those skins they use the tendons of animals beat and
+split into threads, and to pierce the skins they apply the bone of a
+heron's leg, sharpened like an awl.
+
+To defend themselves against the inclemencies of the weather, they
+built huts of wood, which were close and strong enough to resist the
+impetuosity of the wind. These huts are each a perfect square; none of
+them are less than fifteen feet square, and some of them are more than
+thirty feet in each of their fronts. They erect these huts in the
+following manner: they bring from the woods several young
+walnut-trees, about four inches in diameter, and thirteen or twenty
+feet high; they plant the strongest of these in the four corners, and
+the others fifteen inches from each other in straight lines, for the
+sides of the building; a pole is then laid horizontally along the
+sides in the inside, and all the poles are strongly fastened to it by
+split canes. Then the four corner poles are bent inwards till they all
+meet in the centre, where they are strongly fastened together; the
+side-poles are then bent in the same direction, and bound down to the
+others; after which they make a mortar of mud mixed with Spanish
+beard, with which they fill up all the chinks, leaving no opening but
+the door, and the mud they cover both outside and inside with mats
+made of the splits of cane. The roof is thatched with turf and straw
+intermixed, and over all is laid a mat of canes, which is fastened to
+the tops of the walls by the creeping plant. These huts will last
+twenty years without any repairs.
+
+The natives having once built for themselves fixed habitations, would
+next apply themselves to the cultivation of the ground. Accordingly,
+near all their habitations, they have fields of maiz, and of another
+nourishing grain called Choupichoul, which grows without culture. For
+dressing their fields they invented hoes, which are formed in the
+shape of an L, having the lower part flat and sharp; and to take the
+husk {342} from their corn they made large wooden mortars, by
+hollowing the trunks of trees with fire.
+
+To prepare their maiz for food, and likewise their venison and game,
+there was a necessity for dressing them over the fire, and for this
+purpose they bethought themselves of earthen ware, which is made by
+the women, who not only form the vessel, but dig up and mix the clay.
+In this they are tolerable artists; they make kettles of an
+extraordinary size, pitchers with a small opening, gallon bottles with
+long necks, pots or pitchers for their bear oil, which will hold forty
+pints; lastly, large and small plates in the French fashion: I had
+some made out of curiosity upon the model of my delf-ware, which were
+a very pretty red. For sifting the flour of their maiz, and for other
+uses, the natives make sieves of various finenesses of the splits of
+cane. To supply themselves with fish they make nets of the bark of the
+limetree; but the large fish they shoot with arrows.
+
+The beds of the natives are placed round the sides of their huts,
+about a foot and a half from the ground, and are formed in this
+manner. Six forked stakes support two poles, which are crossed by
+three others, over which canes are laid so close as to form an even
+surface, and upon these are laid several bear skins, which serve for
+the bed furniture; a buffalo's skin is the coverlet, and a sack stuft
+with Spanish beard is the bolster. The women sometimes add to this
+furniture of the bed mats wove of canes, dyed of three colours, which
+colours in the weaving are formed into various figures. These mats
+render the bottom of the bed still smoother, and in hot weather they
+remove the bear skins and lie upon them. Their seats or stools, which
+they seldom use, are about six or seven inches high, and the seat and
+feet are made of the same piece.
+
+The women likewise make a kind of hampers to carry corn, flesh, fish,
+or any other thing which they want to transport from one place to
+another; they are round, deeper than broad, and of all sizes. Here, as
+well as in other countries, the women take special care to lay up
+securely all their trinkets and finery. They make baskets with long
+lids that roll doubly over them, and in these they place their
+ear-rings and pendants, their {343} bracelets, garters, their ribbands
+for their hair, and their vermilion for painting themselves, if they
+have any, but when they have no vermilion they boil ochre, and paint
+themselves with that.
+
+The women also make the men's girdles and garters, and the collars for
+carrying their burdens. These collars are formed of two belts of the
+breadth of the hand of bear's skin, dressed so as to soften it, and
+these belts are joined together by long cross straps of the same
+leather, that serve to tie the bundles, which are oftener carried by
+the women than the men. One of the broad belts goes over their
+shoulders, and the other across their forehead, so that those two
+parts mutually ease each other.
+
+The women also make several works in embroidery with the skin of the
+porcupine, which is black and white, and is cut by them into thin
+threads, which they dye of different colours. Their designs greatly
+resemble those which we meet with on gothic architecture; they are
+formed of straight lines, which when they meet always cross each
+other, or turn off at square angles.
+
+The conveniences for passing rivers would soon be suggested to them by
+the floating of wood upon the water. Accordingly one of their methods
+of crossing rivers is upon floats of canes, which are called by them
+Cajeu, and are formed in this manner: They cut a great number of
+canes, which they tie up into faggots, part of which they fasten
+together side-ways, and over these they lay a row crossways, binding
+all close together, and then launching it into the water. For carrying
+a great number of men with their necessary baggage, they soon found it
+necessary to have other conveniences; and nothing appeared so proper
+for this as some of their large trees hollowed; of these they
+accordingly made their pettyaugres, which as I mentioned above are
+sometimes so large as to carry ten or twelve ton weight. These
+pettyaugres are conducted by short oars, called Pagaies, about six
+feet long, with broad points, which are not fastened to the vessel,
+but managed by the rowers like shovels.
+
+{344}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VI.
+
+_Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their Meals and
+Fastings._
+
+
+The natives of Louisiana, both men and women, wear a very thin dress
+in the summer. During the heat the men wear only a little apron of
+deer skin, dressed white or dyed black; but hardly any but chiefs wear
+black aprons. Those who live in the neighbourhood of the French
+settlements wear aprons of coarse limbourgs, a quarter of a yard
+broad, and the whole breadth of the cloth, or five quarters long;
+these aprons are fastened by a girdle about their waists, and tucked
+up between the thighs.
+ I
+During the heats the women wear only half a yard of limbourg stuff
+about their middle, which covers them down to the knees; or in place
+of that they use deer skin; and the rest of the body both in men and
+women is naked.
+
+Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the mulberry-tree, or of
+the feathers of swans, turkies, or India ducks. The bark they take
+from young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have
+been cut down; after it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all
+the woody part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a
+second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the
+dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the coarseness
+of pack-thread, and weave them in the following manner: they plant
+two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, and having
+stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads
+of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious
+manner into a cloak of about a yard square with a wrought border round
+the edges.
+
+The young boys and girls go quite naked; but the girls at the age of
+eight or ten put on a little petticoat, which is a kind of fringe made
+of threads of mulberry bark. The boys do not wear any covering till
+they are twelve or thirteen years of age.
+
+Some women even in hot weather have a small cloak wrapt round like a
+waistcoat; but when the cold sets in, they wear a {345} second, the
+middle of which passes under the right arm, and the two ends are
+fastened over the left shoulder, so that the two arms are at liberty,
+and one of the breasts is covered. They wear nothing on their heads;
+their hair is suffered to grow to its full length, except in the
+fore-part, and it is tied in a cue behind in a kind of net made of
+mulberry threads. They carefully pick out all the hairs that grow upon
+any part of the body.
+
+The shoes of the men and women are of the same fashion, but they
+rarely wear any but when they travel. They are made of deer-skin, the
+sole and upper-leather of the same piece, which is sewed together on
+the upper part of the foot; they are cut about three inches longer
+than the foot, and are folded over the toes; the quarters are about
+nine inches high, and fasten round the leg like a buskin. The womens'
+ear-rings are made of the center part of a large shell, called burgo,
+which is about the thickness of one's little finger, and there is a
+hole in the ear about that size for holding it. Their necklaces are
+composed of several strings of longish or roundish kernel-stones,
+somewhat resembling porcelaine; and with the smallest of these
+kernel-stones they ornament their furs, garters, &c.
+
+From their early youth the women get a streak pricked cross their
+nose; some of them have a streak pricked down the middle of their
+chin; others in different parts, especially the women of the nations
+who have the R in their language. I have seen some who were pricked
+all over the upper part of the body, not even excepting the breasts
+which are extremely sensible.
+
+In the cold weather the men cover themselves with a shirt made of two
+dressed deer-skins, which is more like a fur night-gown than a shirt:
+they likewise, at the same time, wear a kind of breeches, which cover
+both the thighs and the legs. If the weather be very severe, they
+throw over all a buffalo's skin, which is dressed with the wool on,
+and this they keep next to their body to increase the warmth. In the
+countries where they hunt beavers, they make robes of six skins of
+those animals sewed together.
+
+{346} The youths here are as much taken up about dress, and as fond of
+vying with each other in finery as in other countries; they paint
+themselves with vermilion very often; they deck themselves with
+bracelets made of the ribs of deer, which are bent by the means of
+boiling water, and when polished, look as fine as ivory; they wear
+necklaces like the women, and sometimes have a fan in their hand; they
+clip off the hair from the crown of the head, and there place a piece
+of swan's skin with the down on; to a few hairs that they leave on
+that part they fasten the finest white feathers that they can meet
+with; a part of their hair which is suffered to grow long, they weave
+into a cue, which hangs over their left ear.
+
+They likewise have their nose pricked, but no other part till they are
+warriors, and have performed some brave action, such as killing an
+enemy, and bringing off his scalp. Those who have signalized
+themselves by some gallant exploit, cause a tomahawk to be pricked on
+their left shoulder, underneath which is also pricked the hieroglyphic
+sign of the conquered nation. Whatever figure they intend to prick, is
+first traced on the skin with a bit of charcoal, and having fixed six
+needles in a piece of wood in two rows, in such a manner that they
+only stick out about the tenth part of an inch, they prick the skin
+all over the mark, and then rub charcoal dust over the part, which
+enters the punctures, and leaves a mark that can never be effaced.
+This pricking generally gives a fit of sickness to the patient, who is
+obliged for some time to live only on boiled maiz. The warriors also
+pierce the lower part of their ears, and make a hole an inch diameter,
+which they fill with iron wire. Besides these ear-rings they have a
+belt hung round with little bells, if they can purchase any from the
+French, so that they march more like mules than men. When they can get
+no bells, they fasten to their belts wild gourds with two or three
+pebbles in each. The chief ornament of the sovereigns, is their crown
+of feathers; this crown is composed of a black bonnet of net work,
+which is fastened to a red diadem about two inches broad. The diadem
+is embroidered with white kernel-stones, and surmounted with white
+feathers, which in the fore-part are about eight inches long, and half
+as much behind. This crown or feather hat makes a very pleasing
+appearance.
+
+{347} All nations are not equally ingenious at inventing feasts,
+shews, and diversions, for employing the people agreeably, and filling
+up the void of their usual employments. The natives of Louisiana have
+invented but a very few diversions, and these perhaps serve their turn
+as well as a greater variety would do. The warriors practise a
+diversion which is called the game of _the pole_, at which only two play
+together at a time. Each has a pole about eight feet long, resembling
+a Roman f, and the game consists in rolling a flat round stone, about
+three inches diameter and an inch thick, with the edge somewhat
+sloping, and throwing the pole at the same time in such a manner, that
+when the stone rests, the pole may touch it or be near it. Both
+antagonists throw their poles at the same time, and he whose pole is
+nearest the stone counts one, and has the right of rolling the stone.
+The men fatigue themselves much at this game, as they run after their
+poles at every throw; and some of them are so bewitched by it, that
+they game away one piece of furniture after another. These gamesters
+however are very rare, and are greatly discountenanced by the rest of
+the people.
+
+The women play with small bits of cane, about eight or nine inches
+long. Three of these they hold loosely in one hand, and knock them to
+the ground with another; if two of them fall with the round side
+undermost, she that played counts one; but if only one, she counts
+nothing. They are ashamed to be seen or found playing; and as far as I
+could discover, they never played for any stake.
+
+The young people, especially the girls, have hardly any kind of
+diversion but that of the ball: this consists in tossing a ball from
+one to the other with the palm of the hand, which they perform with a
+tolerable address.
+
+When the natives meet with a Frenchman whom they know, they shake
+hands with him, incline their head a little, and say in their own
+language, "Are you there, my friend?" If he has no serious affair to
+propose to them, or if they themselves have nothing of consequence to
+say, they pursue their journey.
+
+If they happen to be going the same way with a French man, they never
+go before him, unless something of consequence {348} oblige them. When
+you enter into their hut, they welcome you with the word of
+salutation, which signifies "Are you there, my friend?" then shake
+hands with you, and pointing to a bed, desire you to sit down. A
+silence of a few minutes then ensues till the stranger begins to
+speak, when he is offered some victuals, and desired to eat. You must
+taste of what they offer you, otherwise they will imagine that you
+despise them.
+
+When the natives converse together, however numerous the assembly be,
+never more than one person speaks at once. If one of the company has
+any thing to say to another, he speaks so low that none of the rest
+hear him. Nobody is interrupted, even with the chiding of a child; and
+if the child be stubborn, it is removed elsewhere. In the council,
+when a point is deliberated upon and debated, they keep silence for a
+short time, and then they speak in their turns, no one offering to
+interrupt another.
+
+The natives being habituated to their own prudent custom, it is with
+the utmost difficulty they can keep from laughing, when they see
+several French men or French women together, and always several of
+them speaking at the same time. I had observed them for two years
+stifling a laugh on those occasions, and had often asked the reason of
+it, without receiving any satisfactory answer. At length I pressed one
+of them so earnestly to satisfy me, that after some excuses, he told
+me in their language, "Our people say, that when several Frenchmen are
+together, they speak all at once, like a flock of geese."
+
+All the nations whom I have known, and who inhabit from the sea as far
+as the Illinois, and even farther, which is a space of about fifteen
+hundred miles, carefully cultivate the maiz corn, which they make
+their principal subsistence. They make bread of it baked in cakes,
+another kind baked among the ashes, and another kind in water; they
+make of it also cold meal, roasted meal, gruel, which in this country
+is called Sagamity. This and the cold meal in my opinion are the two
+best dishes that are made of it; the others are only for a change.
+They eat the Sagamity as we eat soup, with a spoon made of a buffalo's
+horn. When they eat flesh or fish they use bread. They likewise use
+two kinds of millet, which they shell in the manner {349} of rice; one
+of these is called Choupichoul, and the other Widlogouil, and they
+both grow almost without any cultivation.
+
+In a scarcity of these kinds of corn, they have recourse to
+earth-nuts, which they find in the woods; but they never use these or
+chestnuts but when necessity obliges them.
+
+The flesh-meats they usually eat are the buffalo, the deer, the bear,
+and the dog: they eat of all kind of water-fowl and fish; but they
+have no other way of dressing their meat but by roasting or boiling.
+The following is their manner of roasting their meat when they are in
+the fields hunting: they plant a stake in the ground sloping towards
+the fire, and on the point of this stake they spit their meat, which
+they turn from time to time. To preserve what they do not use, they
+cut it into thin pieces, which they dry, or rather half-roast, upon a
+grate made of canes placed cross-ways. They never eat raw flesh, as so
+many people have falsely imagined, and they limit themselves to no set
+hours for their meals, but eat whenever they are hungry; so that we
+seldom see several of them eating at once, unless at their feasts,
+when they all eat off the same plate, except the women, the boys, and
+the young girls, who have each a plate to themselves.
+
+When the natives are sick, they neither eat flesh nor fish, but take
+Sagamity boiled in the broth of meat. When a man falls sick, his wife
+sleeps with the woman in the next bed to him, and the husband of that
+woman goes elsewhere. The natives, when they eat with Frenchmen, taste
+of nothing but of pure roast and boiled: they eat no sallad, and
+nothing raw but fruit. Their drink is pure water or pure brandy, but
+they dislike wine and all made liquors.
+
+Having mentioned their manner of feeding, I shall say a word or two of
+their manner of fasting. When they want rain, or when they desire hot
+weather for ripening their corn, they address themselves to the old
+man who has the greatest character for living wisely, and they intreat
+him to invoke the aerial spirits, in order to obtain what they demand.
+This old man, who never refuses his countrymen's request, prepares to
+fast for nine days together. He orders his wife to withdraw, and {350}
+during the whole time he eats nothing but a dish of gruel boiled in
+water, without salt, which is brought him once a day by his wife after
+sun-set. They never will accept of any reward for this service, that
+the spirits may not be angry with them.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII.
+
+_Of the_ Indian _Art of War._
+
+
+I will now present the reader with their manner of making war, which
+is uniformly the same among all the nations. When one nation intends
+to make war upon another in all the forms, they hold a council of war,
+which is composed of the oldest and bravest warriors. It is to be
+supposed that this nation has been insulted, that the other has
+committed some hostilities against it, or that they have disturbed
+them in their hunting country, coming thither to steal their game, as
+they call it. There is always some pretence for declaring war; and
+this pretence, whether true or false, is explained by the war-chief,
+who omits no circumstance that may excite his nation to take up arms.
+
+After he has explained the reasons for the war, the old men debate the
+question in presence of the great chief or sovereign of the nation.
+This sovereign and the great chief of war are only witnesses of the
+debate; for the opinion of the old men always prevails, and the two
+chiefs voluntarily agree to it, from their respect and their great
+regard for the experience and wisdom of those venerable counsellors.
+
+If it is resolved to demand from the other nation the reason of the
+hostilities committed by them, they name one of their bravest and most
+eloquent warriors, as a second to their speech-maker or chancellor,
+who is to carry the pipe of peace, and address that nation. These two
+are accompanied by a troop of the bravest warriors, so that the
+embassy has the appearance of a warlike expedition; and, if
+satisfaction is not given, sometimes ends in one. The ambassadors
+carry no presents with them, to shew that they do not intend to
+supplicate or beg a peace: they take with them only the pipe of peace,
+{351} as a proof that they come as friends. The embassy is always well
+received, entertained in the best manner, and kept as long as
+possible; and if the other nation is not inclined to begin a war, they
+make very large presents to the ambassadors, and all their retinue, to
+make up for the losses which their nation complains of.
+
+[Illustration: _Bringing the Pipe of Peace_]
+
+If a nation begins actual hostilities without any formalities, the
+nation invaded is generally assisted by several allies, {352} keeps
+itself on the defensive, gives orders to those who live at a great
+distance to join the main body of the nation, prepares logs for
+building a fort, and every morning sends some warriors out upon the
+scout, choosing for that purpose those who trust more to their heels
+than their heart.
+
+The assistance of the allies is generally solicited by the pipe of
+peace, the stalk of which is about four feet and a half long, and is
+covered all over with the skin of a duck's neck, the feathers of which
+are glossy and of various colours. To this pipe is fastened a fan made
+of the feathers of white eagles, the ends of which are black, and are
+ornamented with a tuft dyed a beautiful red.
+
+When the allies are assembled a general council is held in presence of
+the sovereign, and is composed of the great war-chief, the war-chiefs
+of the allies, and all the old warriors. The great war-chief opens the
+assembly with a speech, in which he exhorts them to take vengeance of
+the insults they have received; and after the point is debated, and
+the war agreed upon, all the warriors go a hunting to procure game for
+the war-feast, which, as well as the war-dance, lasts three days.
+
+The natives distinguish the warriors into three classes, namely, true
+warriors, who have always given proofs of their courage; common
+warriors, and apprentice-warriors. They likewise divide our military
+men into the two classes of true warriors and young warriors. By the
+former they mean the settlers, of whom the greatest part, upon their
+arrival, were soldiers, who being now perfectly acquainted with the
+tricks and wiles of the natives, practice them upon their enemy, whom
+they do not greatly fear. The young warriors are the soldiers of the
+regular troops, as the companies are generally composed of young men,
+who are ignorant of the stratagems used by the natives in time of war.
+
+When the war-feast is ready the warriors repair to it, painted from
+head to foot with stripes of different colours. They have nothing on
+but their belt, from whence hangs their apron, their bells, or their
+rattling gourds, and their tomahawk. In their right hand they have a
+bow, and those of the {353} north in their left carry a buckler formed
+of two round pieces of buffalo's hide sewed together.
+
+The feast is kept in a meadow, the grass of which is mowed to a great
+extent; there the dishes, which are of hollow wood, are placed round
+in circles of about twelve or fifteen feet diameter, and the number of
+those circular tables is proportioned to the largeness of the
+assembly, in the midst of whom is placed the pipe of war upon the end
+of a pole seven or eight feet high. At the foot of this pole, in the
+middle of a circle is placed the chief dish of all, which is a large
+dog roasted whole; the other plates are ranged circularly by threes;
+one of these contains maiz boiled in broth like gruel, another roasted
+deer's flesh, and the other boiled. They all begin with eating of the
+dog, to denote their fidelity and attachment to their chief; but
+before they taste of any thing, an old warrior, who, on account of his
+great age, is not able to accompany the rest to the war, makes an
+harangue to the warriors, and by recounting his own exploits, excites
+them to act with bravery against the enemy. All the warriors then,
+according to their rank, smoke in the pipe of war, after which they
+begin their repast; but while they eat, they keep walking continually,
+to signify that a warrior ought to be always in action and upon his
+guard.
+
+While they are thus employed, one of the young men goes behind a bush
+about two hundred paces off, and raises the cry of death. Instantly
+all the warriors seize their arms, and run to the place whence the cry
+comes; and when they are near it the young warrior shews himself
+again, raises the cry of death, and is answered by all the rest, who
+then return to the feast, and take up the victuals which in their
+hurry they had thrown upon the ground. The same alarm is given two
+other times, and the warriors each time act as at first. The war drink
+then goes round, which is a heady liquor drawn from the leaves of the
+Cassine after they have been a long while boiled. The feast being
+finished, they all assemble about fifty paces from a large post, which
+represents the enemy; and this each of them in his turn runs up to,
+and strikes with his tomahawk, recounting at the same time all his
+former brave exploits, and sometimes boasting of valorous deeds that
+he never performed. But {354} they have the complaisance to each other
+to pardon this gasconading.
+
+All of them having successively struck the post, they begin the dance
+of war with their arms in their hands; and this dance and the
+war-feast are celebrated for three days together, after which they set
+out for the war. The women some time before are employed in preparing
+victuals for their husbands, and the old men in engraving upon bark
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that attacks, and of their number
+of warriors.
+
+Their manner of making war is to attack by surprize; accordingly, when
+they draw near to any of the enemy's villages, they march only in the
+night; and that they may not be discovered, raise up the grass over
+which they trod. One half of the warriors watch, while the other half
+sleep in the thickest and most unfrequented part of the wood.
+
+If any of their scouts can discover a hut of the enemy detached from
+the rest, they all surround it about day-break, and some of the
+warriors entering, endeavor to knock the people on the head as they
+awake, or take some man prisoner. Having scalped the dead, they carry
+off the women and children prisoners, and place against a tree near
+the hut the hieroglyphic picture, before which they plant two arrows
+with their points crossing each other. Instantly they retreat into the
+woods, and make great turnings to conceal their route.
+
+The women and children whom they take prisoners are made slaves. But
+if they take a man prisoner the joy is universal, and the glory of
+their nation is at its height. The warriors, when they draw near to
+their own villages after an expedition, raise the cry of war three
+times successively; and if they have a man prisoner with them,
+immediately go and look for three poles to torture him upon; which,
+however weary or hungry they be, must be provided before they take any
+refreshment. When they have provided those poles, and tied the
+prisoner to them, they may then go and take some victuals. The poles
+are about ten feet long; two of them are planted upright in the ground
+at a proper distance, and the other is cut through in the middle, and
+the two pieces are fastened crossways {355} to the other two, so that
+they form a square about five feet every way. The prisoner being first
+scalped by the person who took him, is tied to this square, his hands
+to the upper part, and his feet to the lower, in such a manner that he
+forms the figure of a St. Andrew's cross. The young men in the mean
+time having prepared several bundles of canes, set fire to them; and
+several of the warriors taking those flaming canes, burn the prisoner
+in different parts of his body, while others burn him in other parts
+with their tobacco-pipes. The patience of prisoners in those miserable
+circumstances is altogether astonishing. No cries or lamentations
+proceed from them; and some have been known to suffer tortures, and
+sing for three days and nights without intermission. Sometimes it
+happens that a young woman who has lost her husband in the war, asks
+the prisoner to supply the room of the deceased, and her request is
+immediately granted.
+
+[Illustration: _Torture of Prisoners_--INSET: _Plan of Fort_]
+
+I mentioned above that when one nation declares war against another,
+they leave a picture near one of their villages. That picture is
+designed in the following manner. On the top towards the right hand is
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that declares war; next is a naked
+man with a tomahawk in his hand; and then an arrow pointed against a
+woman, who is flying away, her hair floating behind her in the air;
+immediately {356} before this woman is the proper emblem of the nation
+against whom the war is declared. All this is on one line; and below
+is drawn the figure of the moon, which is followed by one I, or more;
+and a man is here represented, before whom is a number of arrows which
+seem to pierce a woman who is running away. By this is denoted, when
+such a moon is so many days old, they will come in great numbers and
+attack such a nation; but this lower part of the picture does not
+always carry true intelligence. The nation that has offered the
+insult, or commenced hostilities wrongfully, rarely finds any allies
+even among those nations who call them brothers.
+
+In carrying on a war they have no such thing as pitched battles, or
+carrying on of sieges; all the mischief they do each other, is by
+surprise and skirmishing, and in this their courage and address
+consists. Among them flight is no ways shameful; their bravery lies
+often in their legs; and to kill a man asleep or at unawares, is quite
+as honourable among them, as to gain a signal victory after a stout
+battle.
+
+When a nation is too weak to defend itself in the field, they
+endeavour to protect themselves by a fort. This fort is built
+circularly of two rows of large logs of wood, the logs of the inner
+row being opposite to the joining of the logs of the outer row. These
+logs are about fifteen feet long, five feet of which are sunk in the
+ground. The outer logs are about two feet thick, and the inner about
+half as much. At every forty paces along the wall a circular tower
+jets out; and at the entrance of the fort, which is always next to the
+river, the two ends of the wall pass beyond each other, and leave a
+side opening. In the middle of the fort stands a tree with its
+branches lopt off within six or eight inches of the trunk, and this
+serves for a watch-tower. Round this tree are some huts, for the
+protection of the women and children from random arrows; but
+notwithstanding all these precautions for defense, if the besieged are
+but hindered from coming out to water, they are soon obliged to
+retire.
+
+When a nation finds itself no longer able to oppose its enemy, the
+chiefs send a pipe of peace to a neutral nation, and solicit their
+mediation, which is generally successful, the vanquished {357} nation
+sheltering themselves under the name of the mediators, and for the
+future making but one nation with them.
+
+Here it may be observed that when they go to attack others, it
+sometimes happens that they lose some of their own warriors. In that
+case, they immediately, if possible, scalp their dead friends, to
+hinder the enemy from having that subject of triumph. Moreover, when
+they return home, whether as victors or otherwise, the great warchief
+pays to the respective families for those whom he does, not bring back
+with him; which renders the chiefs very careful of the lives of their
+warriors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_Of the Negroes of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distemper, and the Manner of curing
+them._
+
+
+Having finished my account of the natives of Louisiana, I shall
+conclude this treatise with some observations relating to the negroes;
+who, in the lower part of the province especially, perform all the
+labours of agriculture. On that account I have thought proper to give
+some instructions concerning them, for the benefit of those who are
+inclined to settle in that province.
+
+The negroes must be governed differently from the Europeans; not
+because they are black, nor because they are slaves; but because they
+think differently from the white men.
+
+First, they imbibe a prejudice from their infancy, that the white men
+buy them for no other purpose but to drink their blood; which is owing
+to this, that when the first negroes saw the Europeans drink claret,
+they imagined it was blood, as that wine is of a deep red colour; so
+that nothing but the actual experience of the contrary can eradicate
+the false opinion. But as none of those slaves who have had that
+experience ever return to their own country, the same prejudice
+continues to subsist on the coast of Guinea where we purchase them.
+Some {358} who are strangers to the manner of thinking that prevails
+among the negroes, may perhaps think that the above remark is of no
+consequence, in respect to those slaves who are already sold to the
+French. There have been instances however of bad consequences flowing
+from this prejudice; especially if the negroes found no old slave of
+their own country upon their first arrival in our colonies. Some of
+them have killed or drowned themselves, several of them have deserted
+(which they call making themselves Marons) and all this from an
+apprehension that the white men were going to drink their blood. When
+they desert they believe they can get back to their own country by
+going round the sea, and may live in the woods upon the fruits, which
+they imagine are as common every where as with them.
+
+They are very superstitious, and are much attached to their
+prejudices, and little toys which they call _gris, gris_. It would be
+improper therefore to take them from them, or even speak of them to
+them; for they would believe themselves undone, if they were stripped
+of those trinkets. The old negroes soon make them lose conceit of
+them.
+
+The first thing you ought to do when you purchase negroes, is to cause
+them to be examined by a skilful surgeon and an honest man, to
+discover if they have the venereal or any other distemper. When they
+are viewed, both men and women are stripped naked as the hand, and are
+carefully examined from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet,
+then between the toes and between the fingers, in the mouth, in the
+ears, not excepting even the parts naturally concealed, though then
+exposed to view. You must ask your examining surgeon if he is
+acquainted with the distemper of the yaws, which is the virus of
+Guinea, and incurable by a great many French surgeons, though very
+skilful in the management of European distempers. Be careful not to be
+deceived in this point; for your surgeon may be deceived himself;
+therefore attend at the examination yourself, and observe carefully
+over all the body of the negro, whether you can discover any parts of
+the skin, which though black like the rest, are however as smooth as a
+looking-glass, without any tumor or rising. Such spots may be easily
+discovered; {359} for the skin of a person who goes naked is usually
+all over wrinkles. Wherefore if you see such marks you must reject the
+negro, whether man or woman. There are always experienced surgeons at
+the sale of new negroes, who purchase them; and many of those surgeons
+have made fortunes by that means; but they generally keep their secret
+to themselves.
+
+Another mortal distemper with which many negroes from Guinea are
+attacked, is the scurvy. It discovers itself by the gums, but
+sometimes it is so inveterate as to appear outwardly, in which case it
+is generally fatal. If any of my readers shall have the misfortune to
+have a negro attacked with one of those distempers, I will now teach
+him how to save him, by putting him in a way of being radically cured
+by the surgeons; for I have no inclination to fall out with those
+gentlemen. I learned this secret from a negro physician, who was upon
+the king's plantation, when I took the superintendence of it.
+
+You must never put an iron instrument into the yaw; such an
+application would be certain death. In order to open the yaw, you take
+iron rust reduced to an impalpable powder, and passed through a fine
+search; you afterwards mix that powder with citron juice till it be of
+the consistence of an ointment, which you spread upon a linen cloth
+greased with hog's grease, or fresh lard without salt, for want of a
+better. You lay the plastier upon the yaw, and renew it evening and
+morning, which will open the yaw in a very short time without any
+incision.
+
+The opening being once made, you take about the bulk of a goose's egg
+of hog's lard without salt, in which you incorporate about an ounce of
+good terebinthine; after which take a quantity of powdered verdigris,
+and soak it half a day in good vinegar, which you must then pour off
+gently with all the scum that floats at top. Drop a cloth all over
+with the verdigris that remains, and upon that apply your last
+ointment. All these operations are performed without the assistance of
+fire. The whole ointment being well mixed with a spatula, you dress
+the yaw with it; after that put your negro into a copious sweat, and
+he will be cured. Take special care that your surgeon uses no
+mercurial medicine, as I have seen; for that will occasion the death
+of the patient.
+
+{360} The scurvy is no less to be dreaded than the yaws; nevertheless
+you may get the better of it, by adhering exactly to the following
+prescription: take some scurvy-grass, if you have any plants of it,
+some ground-ivy, called by some St. John's wort, water-cresses from a
+spring or brook, and for want of that, wild cresses; take these three
+herbs, or the two last, if you have no scurvy-grass; pound them, and
+mix them with citron-juice, to make of them a soft paste, which the
+patient must keep upon both his gums till they be clean, at all times
+but when he is eating. In the mean while he must be suffered to drink
+nothing but an infusion of the herbs above named. You pound two
+handfuls of them, roots and all, after washing off any earth that may
+be upon the roots or leaves; to these you join a fresh citron, cut
+into slices. Having pounded all together, you then steep them in an
+earthen pan in a pint of pure water of the measure of Paris; after
+that you add about the size of a walnut of powdered and purified
+saltpetre, and to make it a little relishing to the negro, you add
+some powder sugar. After the water has stood one night, you squeeze
+out the herbs pretty strongly. The whole is performed cold, or without
+fire. Such is the dose for a bottle of water Paris measure; but as the
+patient ought to drink two pints a day, you may make several pints at
+a time in the above proportion.
+
+In these two distempers the patients must be supported with good
+nourishment, and made to sweat copiously. It would be a mistake to
+think that they ought to be kept to a spare diet; you must give them
+nourishing food, but a little at a time. A negro can no more than any
+other person support remedies upon bad food, and still less upon a
+spare diet; but the quantity must be proportioned to the state of the
+patient, and the nature of the distemper. Besides, good food makes the
+best part of the remedy to those who in common are but poorly fed. The
+negro who taught me these two remedies, observing the great care I
+took of both the negro men and negro women, taught me likewise the
+cure of all the distempers to which the women are subject; for the
+negro women are as liable to diseases as the white women.
+
+{361}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the Manner of governing the Negroes._
+
+
+When a negro man or woman comes home to you, it is proper to caress
+them, to give them something good to eat, with a glass of brandy; it
+is best to dress them the same day, to give them something to sleep
+on, and a covering. I suppose the others have been treated in the same
+manner; for those marks of humanity flatter them, and attach them to
+their masters. If they are fatigued or weakened by a journey, or by
+any distempers, make them work little; but keep them always busy as
+long as they are able to do any thing, never suffering them to be
+idle, but when they are at their meals. Take care of them when they
+are sick, and give attention both to their remedies and their food,
+which last ought then to be more nourishing than what they usually
+subsist upon. It is your interest so to do, both for their
+preservation, and to attach them more closely to you; for though many
+Frenchmen say that negroes are ungrateful, I have experienced that it
+is very easy to render them much attached to you by good treatment,
+and by doing them justice, as I shall mention afterwards.
+
+If a negro woman lies-in, cause her to be taken care of in every thing
+that her condition makes necessary, and let your wife, if you have
+one, not disdain to take the immediate care of her herself, or at
+least have an eye over her.
+
+A Christian ought to take care that the children be baptised and
+instructed, since they have an immortal soul. The mother ought then to
+receive half a ration more than usual, and a quart of milk a day, to
+assist her to nurse her child.
+
+Prudence requires that your negroes be lodged at a proper distance, to
+prevent them from being troublesome or offensive; but at the same time
+near enough for your conveniently observing what passes among them.
+When I say that they ought not to be placed so near your habitation as
+to be offensive, I mean by that the smell which is natural to some
+nations of negroes, such as the Congos, the Angolas, the Aradas, and
+others. On this account it is proper to have in their camp a bathing
+place formed by thick planks, buried in the earth about a foot or a
+{362} foot and a half at most, and never more water in it than about
+that depth, for fear lest the children should drown themselves in it;
+it ought likewise to have an edge, that the little children may not
+have access to it, and there ought to be a pond without the camp to
+supply it with water and keep fish. The negro camp ought to be
+inclosed all round with palisades, and to have a door to shut with a
+lock and key. The huts ought to be detached from each other, for fear
+of fire, and to be built in direct lines, both for the sake of
+neatness, and in order to know easily the hut of each negro. But that
+you may be as little incommoded as possible with their natural smell,
+you must have the precaution to place the negro camp to the north or
+north-east of your house, as the winds that blow from these quarters
+are not so warm as the others, and it is only when the negroes are
+warm that they send forth a disagreeable smell.
+
+The negroes that have the worst smell are those that are the least
+black; and what I have said of their bad smell, ought to warn you to
+keep always on the windward side of them when you visit them at their
+work; never to suffer them to come near your children, who, exclusive
+of the bad smell, can learn nothing good from them, either as to
+morals, education, or language.
+
+From what I have said, I conclude that a French father and his wife
+are great enemies to their posterity when they give their children
+such nurses. For the milk being the purest blood of the woman, one
+must be a step-mother indeed to give her child to a negro nurse in
+such a country as Louisiana, where the mother has all conveniences of
+being served, of accommodating and carrying their children, who by
+that means may be always under their eyes. The mother then has nothing
+else to do but to give the breast to her child.
+
+I have no inclination to employ my pen in censuring the over-delicacy
+and selfishness of the women, who thus sacrifice their children; it
+may, without further illustration, be easily perceived how much
+society is interested in this affair. I shall only say, that for any
+kind of service whatever about the house, I would advise no other kind
+of negroes, either young or old, but Senegals, called among themselves
+Diolaufs, because of all {363} the negroes I have known, these have
+the purest blood; they have more fidelity and a better understanding
+than the rest, and are consequently fitter for learning a trade, or
+for menial services. It is true they are not so strong as the others
+for the labours of the field, and for bearing the great heats.
+
+The Senegals however are the blackest, and I never saw any who had a
+bad smell. They are very grateful; and when one knows how to attach
+them to him, they have been found to sacrifice their own life to save
+that of their master. They are good commanders over other negroes,
+both on account of their fidelity and gratitude, and because they seem
+to be born for commanding. As they are high-minded, they may be easily
+encouraged to learn a trade, or to serve in the house, by the
+distinction they will thereby acquire over the other negroes, and the
+neatness of dress which that condition will entitle them to.
+
+When a settler wants to make a fortune, and manage his plantation with
+oeconomy, he ought to prefer his interest to his pleasure, and only
+take the last by snatches. He ought to be the first up and the last
+a-bed, that he may have an eye over every thing that passes in his
+plantation. It is certainly his interest that his negroes labour a
+good deal: but it ought to be an equal and moderate labour, for
+violent and continual labours would soon exhaust and ruin them;
+whereas by keeping them always moderately employed, they neither
+exhaust their strength nor ruin their constitution. By this they are
+kept in good health, and labour longer, and with more good will:
+besides it must be allowed that the day is long enough for an
+assiduous labourer to deserve the repose of the evening.
+
+To accustom them to labour in this manner I observed the following
+method: I took care to provide one piece of work for them before
+another was done, and I informed their commander or driver in their
+presence, that they might not lose time, some in coming to ask what
+they were to do, and others in waiting for an answer. Besides I went
+several times a day to view them, by roads which they did not expect,
+pretending to be going a hunting or coming from it. If I observed them
+idle, I reprimanded them, and if when they saw me coming, they wrought
+too hard, I told them that they fatigued themselves, {364} and that
+they could not continue at such hard labour during the whole day,
+without being harassed, which I did not want.
+
+When I surprised them singing at their work, and perceived that they
+had discovered me, I said to them chearfully, Courage, my boys, I love
+to see you merry at your work; but do not sing so loud, that you may
+not fatigue yourselves, and at night you shall have a cup of Tafia (or
+rum) to give you strength and spirits. One cannot believe the effect
+such a discourse would have upon their spirits, which was easily
+discernible from the chearfulness upon their countenances, and their
+ardour at work.
+
+If it be necessary not to pass over any essential fault in the
+negroes, it is no less necessary never to punish them but when they
+have deserved it, after a serious enquiry and examination supported by
+an absolute certainty, unless you happen to catch them in the fact.
+But when you are fully convinced of the crime, by no means pardon them
+upon any assurances or protestations of theirs, or upon the
+solicitations of others; but punish them in proportion to the fault
+they have done, yet always with humanity, that they may themselves be
+brought to confess that they have deserved the punishment they have
+received. A Christian is unworthy of that name when he punishes with
+cruelty, as is done to my knowledge in a certain colony, to such a
+degree that they entertain their guests with such spectacles, which
+have more of barbarity than humanity in them. When a negro comes from
+being whipped, cause the sore parts to be washed with vinegar mixed
+with salt, Jamaica pepper, which grows in the garden, and even a
+little gun-powder.
+
+As we know from experience that most men of a low extraction, and
+without education, are subject to thieving in their necessities, it is
+not at all surprising to see negroes thieves, when they are in want of
+every thing, as I have seen many badly fed, badly cloathed, and having
+nothing to lie upon but the ground. I shall make but one reflection.
+If they are slaves, it is also true that they are men, and capable of
+becoming Christians: besides, it is your intention to draw advantage
+from them, is it not therefore reasonable to take all the care of
+{365} them that you can? We see all those who understand the
+government of horses give an extraordinary attention to them, whether
+they be intended for the saddle or the draught. In the cold season
+they are well covered and kept in warm stables. In the summer they
+have a cloth thrown over them, to keep them from the dust, and at all
+times good litter to lie upon. Every morning their dung is carried
+away, and they are well curried and combed. If you ask those masters,
+why they bestow so much pains upon beasts? they will tell you, that,
+to make a horse serviceable to you, you must take a good deal of care
+of him, and that it is for the interest of the person to whom a horse
+belongs, so to do. After this example, can one hope for labour from
+negroes, who very often are in want of necessaries? Can one expect
+fidelity from a man, who is denied what he stands most in need of?
+When one sees a negro, who labours hard and with much assiduity, it is
+common to say to him, by way of encouragement, that they are well
+pleased with him, and that he is a good negro. But when any of them,
+who understand our language, are so complimented, they very properly
+reply, _Masser, when negre be much fed, negre work much; when negre has
+good masser, negre be good._
+
+If I advise the planters to take great care of their negroes, I at the
+same time shew them that their interest is connected in that with
+their humanity. But I do no less advise them always to distrust them,
+without seeming to fear them, because it is as dangerous to shew a
+concealed enemy that you fear him, as to do him an injury.
+
+Therefore make it your constant custom to shut your doors securely,
+and not to suffer any negro to sleep in the house with you, and have
+it in their power to open your door. Visit your negroes from time to
+time, at night and on days and hours when they least expect you, in
+order to keep them always in fear of being found absent from their
+huts. Endeavour to assign each of them a wife, to keep clear of
+debauchery and its bad consequences. It is necessary that the negroes
+have wives, and you ought to know that nothing attaches them so much
+to a plantation as children. But above all do not suffer any of them
+to abandon his wife, when he has once made choice of one {366} in your
+presence. Prohibit all fighting under pain of the lash, otherwise the
+women will often raise squabbles among the men.
+
+Do not suffer your negroes to carry their children to the field with
+them, when they begin to walk, as they only spoil the plants and take
+off the mothers from their work. If you have a few negro children, it
+is better to employ an old negro woman to keep them in the camp, with
+whom the mothers may leave something for their children to eat. This
+you will find to be the most profitable way. Above all do not suffer
+the mothers ever to carry them to the edge of the water, where there
+is too much to be feared.
+
+For the better subsistence of your negroes, you ought every week to
+give them a small quantity of salt and of herbs of your garden, to
+give a better relish to their Couscou, which is a dish made of the
+meal of rice or maiz soaked in broth.
+
+If you have any old negro, or one in weak health, employ him in
+fishing both for yourself and your negroes. His labour will be well
+worth his subsistence.
+
+It is moreover for your own interest to give your negroes a small
+piece of waste ground to improve at the end of your own, and to engage
+them to cultivate it for their own profit, that they may be able to
+dress a little better, by selling the produce of it, which you ought
+to buy from them upon fair and just terms. It were better that they
+should employ themselves in cultivating that field on Sundays, when
+they are not Christians, than do worse. In a word, nothing is more to
+be dreaded than to see the negroes assemble together on Sundays,
+since, under pretence of Calinda or the dance, they sometimes get
+together to the number of three or four hundred, and make a kind of
+Sabbath, which it is always prudent to avoid; for it is in those
+tumultuous meetings that they sell what they have stolen to one
+another, and commit many crimes. In these likewise they plot their
+rebellions.
+
+To conclude, one may, by attention and humanity, easily manage
+negroes; and, as an inducement, one has the satisfaction to draw great
+advantage from their labours.
+
+[THE END]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Index
+
+
+Abeikas Indians--293
+Acacia Tree--222
+Achechy--237
+Adaies Indians--9;
+    Post of, 54
+Agriculture, Indian--341
+Aiaouez Indians--59, 62; 63; 66; 305
+Alaron, Martin de--9, 10
+Algonquins--93
+Alder--226
+Alibamous Indians--293
+Alibamous River--135
+Alligator--
+    slave girl kills, 19;
+    author kills large one, 22;
+    description of, 253-255
+Amite River--113
+Ants--272; 273
+Aplaches Indians--293
+Apples, wild--212
+Aquelou-Pissas Indians--18; 297
+Arkansas--
+    German colonists there, 29; 88
+Arkansas Indians--
+    mate with Canadians, 4; 57; 303
+Arkansas River--
+    reached by Tonti, 4; 112; 113; 153-154
+Armed-fish--276-277
+Ascension Bay--114; 139
+Ash--226
+Aspen--226
+Assinais Indians--5-9
+Attakapas Indians--
+    cannibals, 302
+Avoyelles Indians--149;
+    home of, 302-303
+Ayac Shrub--226
+
+Balers, Marquis of--9
+Barataria--145
+Barbel, description of--274
+Barley--203
+Baton Rouge--52;
+    named after a cypress tree, 217
+Bay of St. Bernard--3
+Bay of St. Esprit--2
+Bay of St. Louis--16; 17; 114;
+    lands around, 138
+Bayou Choupic--17; 18
+Bayou Goula--141
+Bayou-Ogoulas Indians--52; 302
+Bayou St. John--17; 18; 49; 52
+Beans--
+    cultivation in La., 204
+Bears--132; 133;
+    description of, 245-249;
+    feast of, 324
+Beavers--
+    description of, 127-131
+Bec-croche--261
+Bees--271
+Bienville--
+    becomes Gov. Gen. of La., 10-11;
+    founds New Orleans, 15;
+    breeds hogs, 16; 28; 38;
+    defeats Natchez Indians, 39; 42; 49; 71; 87; 88; 92; 93;
+    war against Chicasaws, 94-95; 109;
+    returns to La., 186
+Biloxi--11; 16;
+    not suitable for settlement, 28;
+    distress of German colonists, 29;
+    country back of, 30; 47;
+    settlement destroyed, 137.
+Birch Tree--231
+Bishop (Bird)--270
+Blackbirds--268
+Black River--113;
+    land around it, 148;
+    lands along, 151-154
+Bon Homme--195
+Bois-Briant--58
+Bonita Fish--12
+Bourgrnont, Commander de--
+    voyage to Missouri and Kansas, 59-68;
+    his journal, 69; 160; 305
+Bows--
+    how made, 340
+Buffalo--64;
+    hunt by author, 122; 132; 134; 146; 147; 152;
+    hunt in New Mexico, 155;
+    hides and tallow, 155-156; 162, 178;
+    description of, 240;
+    Indian hunt, 240;
+    feast of, 324
+Burgo-Breaker (fish)--275
+Burial customs--333-337
+Butterflies--271
+Buzzard--
+    deseciption of, 258
+
+Caouquias Indians--301
+Caouitas Indians--293
+Caddo Indians--151; 303
+Cadillac, de la Motte--
+    arrives in La., 5; 6; 8; 9;
+    death of, 10;
+    his mine, 163
+Calendar of Natchez--319
+Calumet (Pipe of Peace)--35;
+    feathers for, 258
+Campeachy wood--183
+Canadians--
+    early voyagers to La., 4;
+    at Dauphin Island, 16;
+    at Mobile, 46; 58; 59;
+    get salt, 157;
+    Route to La., 161-163
+Candlemas Islands--138
+Cannes Brulee's--52
+Canoe--
+    how made, 69
+Cantharadies--272
+Canzas (see Kansas)
+Cape Anthony--13
+Cape Francois--11-13; 182
+Capuchins--51
+Caranco--22
+Cardinal--269
+Carolina--
+    population, IX; 47
+Carp--17; 146; 274
+Carrion-Crow--258
+Carthaginians--
+    practised scalping, 283
+Caskaquias (see Kaskasia)
+Cassine Shrub--228
+Castin Bayou--113
+Castine Mine--133
+Catamounts--134; 144
+Caterpillars--271
+Catfish--
+    description of, 274
+Cat Island--16; 138
+Cedar Trees--215; 225
+Celoron, Capt. de--93; 94
+Chacchi-Oumas Indians--300
+Chactaw Indians (see Choctaws)
+Chaineau, M.--278
+Chameleons--257
+Champmelin, Commander--
+    captures Pensacola XXIV; 104; 105
+Chandeleur Islands--13
+Chaouachas Indians--140; 301
+Chaouanous River--162
+Charleville, M. de--109; 110
+Charlevoix--I; III; IV; XXV; XXVI; 24; 30
+Chateauguier--101
+Chatkas Indians--295;
+    language, 297
+Chatots Indians--294
+Cherokees--293
+Cherokee River--162
+Chestnut Trees--214
+Chicasaw Cliffs--133
+Chicasaw Indians--46;
+    murder French, 56-57;
+    war with, 87-90;
+    make peace, 94;
+    country of, 137;
+    destructive wars, 291;
+    language, 297;
+    destroy other tribes, 303-304;
+    fierce and arrogant, 332.
+Chitimachas Indians--18;
+    war with, 71; 300;
+    home of, 302
+Choctaws--46; 80; 84; 85; 113
+Chopart, de--73; his death, 82
+Choupic--276
+Choupichoul (buck wheat)-156-157
+Clerac (Gascony)-27
+Climate--
+    of Gulf Coast, III; VIII;
+    severe weather, 36;
+    at Mobile, 46;
+    of the Miss. Valley, 57;
+    of La., 107-108
+Clothing of Indians--344-346
+Cochineal--183
+Cockle-Island--17, 138
+Codfish--14
+Cola-Pissas--18
+Colbert--3
+Coligni, Admiral de--2
+Conchac Indians--293
+Copper Mines--30, 145
+Corbijeau--266
+Cormorant, 259
+Coroas Indians--300
+Cooking, Indian--342
+Corn--
+    description of, 164-165;
+    importance of.185;
+    its cultivation in La., 202;
+    feast of, 321-322; 347
+Cotton--145; 158;
+    how cultivated, 174-175;
+    for export, 181
+Cotton Tree--222
+Coxe--
+    account of Carolina, VI; XIII; 47
+Cranes--22; 126;
+    description of, 261
+Crayfish--277
+Creeper, bearded--232
+Crocodile--253-255
+Crows--268
+Crozat--
+    La. ceded to, 5;
+    full store-houses, 8;
+    transfers to West India Co., 10; 107
+Cuba--13
+Cushaws--
+    cultivation in La., 206
+Cypress Tree--IV;
+    at Baton Rouge, 52; 216; 217
+
+
+d'Artaguette--28; 52; 88; 92
+Dauphin Isle--13; 15; 45; 46; 49; 101; 103
+d'Avion--23
+Deer--64;
+    white, 124; 132; 134; 144; 152;
+    hunt, 242-244; feast of, 319
+Deer Oil--249
+DeLaet--2
+De Lisle--279
+de Meuse--
+    grant, 54
+de Soto--2
+de Ville, Father--26
+Diodorus Siculus--
+    his description of lands west of Africa, 281-282
+Diseases--
+    fatal to Indians--291;
+    of Negroes, 359-360
+Dove--266
+Dragon flies--272
+Draught (Bird)--263
+Ducks--126;
+    description of, 259-261
+du Crenet--84
+du Haye--198
+Dumont (Historian)--I; V; VII; XXV; 46; 56; 66; 113; 135;
+    historical memoirs, 187; 225
+Du Pratz--1eaves La., 187
+du Tiffenet--88; 89
+du Vernai, Paris--52
+
+Eagles--257
+Eels--277
+Egret--261
+Elder Tree--231
+
+Elephant--
+    skeletons found in Ohio--290
+Elk--64, 132, 134, 144
+Elm--226
+English--
+    extent of American possessions, XIV;
+    shipping, XVII;
+    at English Turn, 47-51;
+    on the Yazoo, 56; 57;
+    on the Miss. River, 140;
+    tobacco trade, 199
+English Turn (Reach)--47; 51;
+    why its name, 139-140
+Epidemic--13
+Episingles Indians--93
+Esquine--181, 233
+Eye Inflammation--
+    treatment for, 43
+Exports--
+    from La. to Islands, 182
+
+Falcon--258
+Feast of War--352-353
+Feasts of Indians--320-322
+Ferns--
+    Maiden hair, 234-235
+Fig Trees--210-211
+Filberts--213
+Fire, how made--340
+Fireflies--272
+Fish--
+    plentiful in La., 274
+Five Nations--294
+Flamingo--22; 126;
+    description of, 261
+Flat root--235
+Flaucourt, Loire de, 24
+Flax--145
+Fleury, Cardinal--187
+Flies--271
+Florida--
+    French settle there, 2;
+    Spanish attack them, 2;
+    French later attack Spanish, 2
+Flowers--239
+Flying Fish--12
+Food of Indians--348-350
+Fool--
+    description of, 263
+Forant, M. de--85
+Fort Assumption--57; 93; 95
+Fort Balise--47; 48; 116; 118;
+    where built, 139
+Fort Carolin (Fla.)--2
+Fort Chartres--58
+Fort Crevecoeur--3
+Fort Louis--46; 294
+Fort Mobile--88; 92
+Fort Orleans--59; 61; 62; 69; 160
+Fort Rosalie--23-24; 33; 34; 35
+Fort St. Francis--92; 95
+Fort St. John Baptist--6; 7; 9; 10
+Fort St. Louis--136
+Fox Indians--
+    home of, 301
+Foxes--251
+French--
+    shipping, XVII;
+    in Fla., 2, 18;
+    at Natchez, 32-33;
+    bad influence, 41;
+    massacre at Natchez, 82-83;
+    commerce with La., 177-182
+Frigate (Bird)--263
+Frogs--253
+Fur trade--178
+
+Gar fish--
+    description of, 276-277
+Gaillard--61-63; 65
+Games--
+    Indian, 347
+Geese--
+    wild, 127; 259
+Gentilly--52
+Germans--
+    in La., 29
+Gold--145; plentiful in Mexico, 150
+Gourges, Dominque de--2; 8
+Grapes--208-209
+Grass Point--17
+Great Sun--40; 42-43
+    burial, 333-336
+Green flies--272
+Grigas Indians--298
+Guenot--34
+Gulf of Mexico Coast--1;
+  northern boundary, 13;
+  description of land bordering, 135-137
+Gypsum--124
+
+Habitations of Indians--341
+Hakluyt (Fla.)--2
+Halcyon--
+    description of, 263-264
+Hatchet-bill--262
+Havana--102
+Hawks--258
+Hedge-hog--253
+Hennepin, Father--3
+Herons--126; 261
+Hemp--
+    cultivation, 180; 238
+Hickory Trees--213
+Horn Island--16
+Hornbean Trees--226
+Hops--177; 234
+Howard, John--58
+Hubert--
+    planter, 20; 22; 24; 25
+Hubert, Mme.--136; 167
+Humming Bird--270
+Hurons--93
+Hurricane--30; 31; 32
+Huts--
+    how made, 341
+
+Iapy, Commander--104
+Iberville--
+    made Gov. Gen. of La., 4;
+    his death, 5; 8; 10
+Iberville River--113
+Illinois--
+    visited by Hennepin and LaSalle, 3;
+    hurricane, 30; 57; 58; 88; 162; 163
+Illinois Indians--66;
+    home of, 300-301
+Illinois River--110
+Indians--
+    travel, 60-61;
+    how to fight, 99-100;
+    origin of, 279;
+    descended from Europeans, 281
+Indigo--
+    cultivation and processing, 168-171;
+    for export, 181;
+    Dumont's method of making, 191-193
+Iron--145
+Iroquois--93;
+    destructive wars of, 291
+Ivy--
+    ground, 237
+
+Jamaica--13
+Jesuits--51; 58
+
+Kappas Indians--304
+Kansas Indians--59; 60; 61; 62; 66; 68; 69; 305
+Kansas River--63; 64; 110;
+    description of, 159
+Kayemans--13
+Kaskasia--58
+Kaskasia Indians--301
+King-fisher--
+    description of, 263
+
+la Chaise, Director Gen.--44; 45
+Lake Borgne--17; 138
+Lake Erie--111; 161
+Lake Maurepas--17; 113
+
+Lake Pontchartrain--17
+Lake St. Louis--17; 46; 49; 52; 113; 135
+Lafourche (the Fork)--141
+Language of Natchez--311
+LaSalle--
+    travels from Canada to the Gulf, 3;
+    is killed on second trip, 4; 116
+Lavert--273
+Laudonviere, Rene de--2
+Laurel Trees--217
+Laval, Father--XXIII; XXV
+Lavigne, Sieur--18
+Law, John--29
+Lead--132; 145; 158; 163
+LeBlanc--
+    grant, 56; 88
+LeSueur--83
+LeSueur, Bayou--116
+Levans--29
+Liart Trees--226
+Lime Trees--226
+Linarez, Duke of--7-9
+Lion's Mouth (flower) 239
+Lizards--257
+Locust Tree--222
+Longevity of Indians--329
+L'Orient--29
+Loubois, Lieut. de--83; 84
+Louis XIV--3; 5; 107
+Louisiana--
+    poor colonization, XXVI;
+    named after Louis XIV, 3;
+    names, 15;
+    boundary of, 107;
+    description of soil, 117-118;
+    a fine country, 185;
+    fertility of, 197
+Luchereau, M. de--4
+
+Magnolia Trees--218-219
+Magpie--268
+Maize--163-165; 202-203
+Manchac River--111; 114
+Mangrove--223
+Maple Trees--220
+Marameg Mine--158
+Marameg River--58
+Margat River--57; 93
+Marriage customs--326-328
+Massacre Island--
+    Now Dauphin Isle, 13;
+    how it was named, 14
+Massacre of French at Natchez--73; 82
+Medicines--44; 45; 181; 215
+Medicine, Indian--26; 27; 43; 44
+Mehane--22
+Mexicans--
+    descent from Chinese or Japanese, 284
+Mexico--6; 7; 10;
+    home of ancient Natchez tribe, 279;
+    natives kill themselves, 291
+Mezieres, Marquis de--52
+Miami River--111; 161; 162; 163
+Michigamias Indians--304
+Mines in Illinois--163;
+    in La., 195-196
+Miragouine, Sieur--103
+Mississippi River--
+    lands of lower basin, VI; VII;
+    commands continent, IX;
+    navigation of, XI-XII;
+    mouths of, XIII;
+    reached by Hennepin, 3; 15; 18; 24;
+    hurricane, 30; 47; 48; 49; 51;
+    inhabitants along, 52; 53; 55; 58; 59; 63; 107;
+    As names, 109;
+    attempts to find source, 109;
+    mouths of, 114-115;
+    the passes, 117; 133;
+    soil at mouth, 138-139;
+    on east bank, 141-142;
+    lands west of, 145; 161; 162; 163;
+    voyage to source by Indian, 289-290
+Mississippi Scheme--II; 58
+Missionary--23
+Missouri Indians--59; 60; 66;
+    home of, 304-305
+Missouri River--
+    navigation of, XII; 60; 63; 69; 110;
+    description of, 159
+
+Mobile--
+    barren lands, XX; 9; 11;
+    birth place of La., 15; 45; 49; 89;
+    native of land, 135-136;
+    fertility of animals and women, 136
+Mobile Bay--114
+Mobile Indians--294
+Mobile River--
+    Canadians settle on, 4-5; 46; 135
+Moingona River--110
+Moncacht-ape, old wise man of Yazoo tribe--
+    his voyages, 285-290
+Montplaisir, M. de--27
+Montreal--59
+Mosquitoes--
+    description of, 272-273;
+    how Indians fight, 333
+Mulberry Trees--145; 158;
+    for silk growing, 167-168; 212;
+    feast of, 321
+Muscadine Grapes--209
+Mushroom--231
+Myrtle Wax-tree--220
+
+Narvaez--1
+Natchez--
+    goodness of the country, 20-21;
+    commandment, 27-28;
+    terrible storm, 30-32;
+    settlement at, 38-39; 55-56
+Natchez Indians--
+    DuPratz arrives among, 23-27;
+    first war with French, 32-36;
+    second war, 38-39; 55; 69;
+    council of war, 76-77; 84;
+    destroyed by French, 86-87; 153;
+    grow grain, 156;
+    origin of, 279-280; 297;
+    home of, 298;
+    power of, 299;
+    description of social habits--
+        birth and rearing children, 306-311;
+        language, government, religion, 311-320
+Natchitoches--
+    French settle, 5;
+    St. Denis at, 6;
+    Spanish settle near, 8; 54;
+    quality of land, 148;
+    silver there, 195
+Natchitoches Indians--112;
+    home of, 303
+Negroes--
+    revolt, 71;
+    choice of for slaves, 357;
+    how to handle, 361;
+    odors of, 362
+Nesunez, Pamphilo--1
+New Orleans--V;
+    health good, IX;
+    settlement of, 11;
+    founded, 15; 17; 18; 22;
+    physicians and surgeons of, 26; 30; 45; 46;
+    forts below, 48;
+    description of, 49-52;
+    harbor of, 52; 58; 71;
+    climate, 108; 136;
+    nature of soil, 141;
+    distance from Canada, 162
+New Mexico--6; 54; 55; 112;
+    nature of land, 147;
+    hunting there, 155
+Niagara Falls--286
+Nightingale--269
+Nobility--
+    Natchez, 328
+North America--
+    extent of, XV;
+    its products, XVI
+
+Oak Trees--IV; V; 223-225
+Oats--203
+Ohio River--
+    navigation of, XII; 58; 111; 161; 162; 163;
+    skeleton of elephants found, 290
+Ochre--23
+Olivarez, Friar--9
+Olive Trees--213
+Orange Trees--212
+Opelousas Indians--302
+Opossum (wood-rat)--251
+Orignaux--162
+Osage Indians--59-60; 66; 304; 305
+Osage River--159
+Othouez Indians--59; 60; 61; 62; 66; 305
+Otters--253
+Otter Indians--287-288
+Ouachas Indians--140
+Ouchitas Indains--
+    former home of, 303
+Ouachita River--113
+Oumas Indians--52; 80; home of, 297
+Ouse-Ogoulas Indians--300
+Owls--268
+Oysters--
+    in La., 277;
+    on trees in St. Domingo, 278
+
+Paducah Indians--59; 61; 62; 63; 65;
+    Customs and manners, 66-68
+    destructive wars of, 291; 305
+Paillou, Major General--
+    at N. O., 15; 18; 39
+Parroquets--266
+Palmetto--231
+Panimahas Indians--59; 63; 66; 305
+Panis Indians--305
+Partridges--144; 265
+Paseagoulas River--114; 136
+Pasca-Ogoulas Indians--15; 46; 295
+Patassa (fish)--276
+Pawpaws--158; 210
+Peach Trees--210-211
+Pearl River--114
+Pelican--
+    description of, 259
+Pensacola--
+    description of, XXIII; 2;
+    Spanish settle, 8;
+    captured by French, 100-105
+Perdido River--104; 116; 135
+Perrier--
+    Gov. of La., 71; 73; 83; 85;
+    defeats Natchez Indians, 86-87; 153;
+    leaves La., 186
+Perrier de Salvert--72; 86
+Persimmons--209
+Peru--
+    natives killed themselves, 291
+Petits Ecores--52; 53
+Pheasant--264
+Phoenicians--
+    ancestors of Natchez Indians, 283
+Phenomenon--
+    alarming, 30;
+    at Natchez, 36-38;
+    extraordinary, 70
+Pigeons--
+    description of, 266-267
+Pike--276
+Pilchard--14; description of, 276
+Pimiteouis Indians--301
+Pin--IV;
+    for tar, 193-194; 217
+Pipe of Peace--59; 60; 63; 65; 258
+Pitch--
+    how to make, 194
+Plaquemine Bayou--114
+Plums--210
+Pointe Coupee--52; 53; 54
+Pole Cat--252
+Pope (Bird)--269
+Poplar--222
+Porcupine--253
+Port de Paix--13
+Puerto Rico--11
+Potatoes (sweet)--
+    cultivation in La., 204-205
+Pottery--
+    how made, 342
+Provencals--
+    in La., 29
+Prud'homme Cliffs--93
+Prud'homme River--57
+Pumpkins--206
+
+Quail--266
+Quebec--3; 111
+
+Rabbits--251
+Raimond, Diego--6; 10
+Rattle snake--
+    cure for bite, 237;
+    description of, 255
+Rattle-snake herb--235-237
+Red fish--14
+Red River--54; 55; 112;
+    nature of land, 148; 151
+Red Shoe, Prince of Chactaws--95
+Religion of Natchez--312
+Rice--
+    how grown, 165;
+    how eaten, 166;
+    in La., 204-205
+Richebourg, Captain--101; 102
+Ring-skate (fish)--276
+Rio del Norte--6
+Rochelle--
+    author leaves, 11;
+    returns to, 187
+Rye--
+    in Illinois, 162; 203
+
+Saffron--180
+Sagamity--348; 349
+St. Anthony's Falls--109; 110
+St. Augustin, Fla.--2
+St. Bernard's Bay--116
+St. Catherine's Creek--33; 34; 35; 38
+St. Come--
+    Missionary, 71
+St. Croix River--110
+St. Denis--
+    journey to Mexico, 6-11; 54; 104;
+    popular with natives, 150
+St. Domingo--4; 11; 13;
+    oysters on trees, 277
+St. Francis River--57;
+
+    lands around, 157-158; 112
+St. Hilaire, Surgeon--42
+St. Laurent--93; 94
+St. Lawrence River--111; 161; 286
+St. Louis Church--51
+St. Louis River--3; 4; 8
+St. Rose Isle--101; 102
+St. Peter River--110
+Sallee--58
+Salmont, Com. Gen.--85
+Salt--
+    in lower La., 147;
+    spring near Natchitoches, 149;
+    mines, 153
+Salt petre--147; 180
+Samba--72
+Santa Fe--112
+Sarde (fish)--14
+Sardine--276
+Sarsaparilla--233
+Sassafras--181; 220
+Saw Bill--261
+Scalping--283
+Scotland--
+    tobacco trade, 199
+Scurvy--
+    how to cure--360
+Sea-Lark--263
+Sea Snipe--263
+Ship Island--16; 28
+Shrimp--277
+Siam distemper--13
+Silk--
+    growing experiments, 167-168
+    cultivation possible, 176;
+    worms, 271
+Silver--145; 151; 158; 163; 195
+Sioux Indians--109;
+    home of, 301-306
+Skunk--252
+Smallpox--
+    fatal to Indians, 291
+Snipe--266
+Spanish--
+    claim La., 5; 54; 55;
+    on west of La., colony, 146;
+    near Natchitoches, 150;
+    how they hunt in Mexico, 155;
+    commerce with La., 183-184;
+    attempt to settle Missouri, 305
+Starlings--268
+Stag--242
+Spatula--
+    description of, 261; 276
+Spiders--
+    description of, 257
+Squirrels--252
+Stink Wood Tree--226
+Strawberries--238;
+    feast of, 320
+Stung Arm--79; 80; 81
+Stung Serpent--35; 40;
+    death of, 335-336
+Sturgeon--14
+Sun of the Apple Village--
+    negotiates with the French, 73-78
+Swallows--269
+Swans--127; 162; 259
+Sweet gum--181; 215
+
+Tamarouas Indians--58; 162; 300; 301
+Tangipahoa River--113
+Tar--
+    how to make--193-194
+Tassel--258
+Tattooing--346
+Tchefuncte River--113; 136
+Teal--261
+Temple, Indian--
+    description of, 333
+Tensas Indians--
+    near Mobile, 294;
+    language, 297; 300;
+    former home of, 303
+Tensas River--
+    lands along, 152
+Termites--273
+Thioux Indians--299
+Thomez Indians--294
+Thorn, Passion--229-230
+Thornback (fish)--14
+Tigers--134;
+    description of, 249-250
+Timber--
+    for shipbuilding, 179
+Tobacco--
+    trade, XVII;
+    plantation, 25; 145; 158;
+    in Illinois, 163;
+    how cultivated, 171-174;
+    for export, 181;
+    DuMont's description of cultivation, 187-191;
+    advantages of La. cultivation, 197-198;
+    British imports and exports, 199;
+    worm, 271
+Tombigbee--46; 89
+Tonicas Indians--23; 27; 44; 80; 84; 85;
+    language of, 298
+Tonti, Chevalier de--3; 4
+Topoussas Indians--300
+Torture, Indian--354-355
+Tortuga--13
+Tooth-ache Tree--228
+Tradewinds--12
+Troniou--270
+Turkeys, wild--120; 144;
+    description of, 264;
+    feast of, 324
+Turkey Buzzard--258
+Turtles--253
+
+Ursuline Nuns--51
+
+Vanilla--184
+Vasquez de Aillon, Lucas--1
+Vauban--46
+Vaudreuil, Gov.--95; 96
+Vinegar Tree--227
+Virginia--58
+
+Wabash River--110; 111; 161; 162; 163
+Walnut Tree--158; 213
+War--
+    with Natchez Indians, 32-36; 38-39;
+    causes of Indian wars, 96-97;
+    how they fight, 350;
+    war feast, 352-353
+Wasps--271
+Water-hen--262
+Water Melons--
+    how grown, 166;
+    cultivation of in La., 206-207;
+    feast of, 321
+Wax--
+    from Wax Tree, 220-222
+Wax Tree--176; 220-222
+West India Company--
+    Takes over La., 10;
+    sends colonists, 11; 18; 32; 44;
+    gives up colony, 85
+Wheat--145;
+    in Illinois, 162;
+    in La., 203
+White Apple Village--33; 39;
+    demanded by French, 73
+Whortle-berries--212
+Wild Cat--251
+Wild Geese--22; 259
+Wild Turkey--
+    description of, 264
+    (see turkey)
+Willow Tree--226
+Wolves--134; 144;
+    kill buffaloes, 156;
+    description of, 244-245
+Women--
+    "fruitful" in La., 185
+Woodcock--266
+Wood-pecker--
+    description of, 268-269
+Wood-Rat--251
+Wren--258
+
+Yapon Shrub--228
+Yaws--359
+Yazoo Indians--56;
+    kill the garrison at their Post, 83; 300
+Yazoo River--56; 112
+Ydalgo, Friar--5; 7; 9
+
+[Illustration: A Map of Louisiana]
+
+[Illustration: THE GULPH OF MEXICO]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's History of Louisisana, by Le Page Du Pratz
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF LOUISISANA ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Louisisana, by Le Page Du Pratz
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+
+Title: History of Louisisana
+       Or Of The Western Parts Of Virginia And Carolina: Containing A
+       Description Of The Countries That Lie On Both Sides Of The River
+       Missisippi
+
+Author: Le Page Du Pratz
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9153]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 8, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF LOUISISANA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stan Goodman and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA,
+OR OF THE WESTERN PARTS
+OF VIRGINIA AND CAROLINA:
+
+Containing a DESCRIPTION
+of the Countries
+that lie on both Sides
+of the River Missisippi:
+
+With an ACCOUNT of the
+SETTLEMENTS,
+INHABITANTS,
+SOIL,
+CLIMATE,
+AND
+PRODUCTS.
+
+Translated from the FRENCH
+Of M. LE PAGE Du PRATZ;
+
+With some Notes and Observations
+relating to our Colonies.
+
+
+
+
+Foreword
+
+Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz was a Dutchman, as his birth in Holland
+about 1695 apparently proves. He died in 1775, just where available
+records do not tell us, but the probabilities are that he died in
+France, for it is said he entered the French Army, serving with the
+Dragoons, and saw service in Germany. While there is some speculation
+about all the foregoing, there can be no speculation about the
+statement that on May 25, 1718 he left La Rochelle, France, in one of
+three ships bound for a place called Louisiana.
+
+For M. Le Page tells us about this in a three-volume work he wrote
+called, Histoire de la Louisiane, recognized as the authority to be
+consulted by all who have written on the early history of New Orleans
+and the Louisiana province.
+
+Le Page, who arrived in Louisiana August 25, 1718, three months after
+leaving La Rochelle, spent four months at Dauphin Island before he and
+his men made their way to Bayou St. John where he set up a plantation.
+He had at last reached New Orleans, which he correctly states,
+"existed only in name," and had to occupy an old lodge once used by an
+Acolapissa Indian. The young settler, he was only about 23 at the
+time, after arranging his shelter tells us: "A few days afterwards I
+purchased from a neighbour a native female slave, so as to have a
+woman to cook for us. My slave and I could not speak each other's
+language; but I made myself understood by means of signs." This slave,
+a girl of the Chitimacha tribe, remained with Le Page for years, and
+one draws the inference that she was possessed of a vigorous
+personality, and was not devoid of charm or bravery. Le Page writes
+that when frightened by an alligator approaching his camp fire, he ran
+to the lodge for his gun. However, the Indian girl calmly picked up a
+stick and hammered the 'gator so lustily on its nose that it
+retreated. As Le Page arrived with his gun, ready to shoot "the
+monster," he tells us: "She began to smile, and said many things which
+I did not comprehend, but she made me understand by signs, that there
+was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast."
+
+It is unfortunate, for the purpose of sociological study, that this
+Indian girl appears so infrequently in the many accounts Le Page has
+left us in his highly interesting studies of early Louisiana and its
+original inhabitants. He does not even tell us the Indian girl's name.
+
+We are told that after living on the banks of Bayou St. John for about
+two years, he left for the bluff lands of the Natchez country. His
+Indian girl decided she would go with him, as she had relatives there.
+Hearing of her plan, her old father offered to buy her back from Le
+Page. The Chitimacha girl, however, refused to leave her master,
+whereupon, the Indian father performed a rite of his tribe, which made
+her the ward of the white man--a simple ceremony of joining hands.
+
+Le Page spent eight years among the Natchez and what he wrote about
+them--their lives, their customs, their ceremonials--has been
+acknowledged to be the best and most accurate accounts we have of
+these original inhabitants of Louisiana. He has left us, in his
+splendid history, much information on the other Indian tribes of the
+lower Mississippi River country.
+
+Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz tells us he spent sixteen years in
+Louisiana before returning to France in 1734. They were years well
+spent--to judge by what he wrote.
+
+As it was written and published in the French language, Le Page's
+history proved in many instances to be a tantalizing casket of
+historical treasure that could not be opened by those who had not
+mastered French. The original edition, published in Paris in 1758, a
+score of years after the author landed in New Orleans, was followed in
+1763 by a two-volume edition in English, and eleven years later in
+1774, by a one-volume edition in English, entitled: "The History of
+Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina." The
+texts in the English editions are identical.
+
+Fortunately, early historians who could not read the French edition,
+were now able to read M. Le Page's accounts of his adventures in the
+New World. Unfortunately, especially for present day historians, the
+English editions have become increasingly rare--many libraries do not
+have them on their shelves. Therefore, the present re-publication
+fills a long-felt want.
+
+The English translation, with its added matter, is reproduced exactly
+as it was printed for T. Becket to be sold in his shop at the corner
+of the Adelphi in the Strand, London, 1774. Errors of grammar and
+spelling are not corrected. The only change is the modernizing of the
+old _s_'s which look like _f_'s.
+
+The present edition is really two works in one, for the English
+translation did not include any of the original edition's many
+illustrations. The London books did have two folding maps, one of the
+Louisiana province, the other of the country about the mouths of the
+Mississippi River. Not only are these maps reproduced in the present
+work, but in addition, all the other illustrations, including the rare
+map of New Orleans, appearing in the original French edition, are
+included. These quaint engravings of the birds, the beasts, the
+flowers, the shrubs, the trees, fish, the deer and buffalo hunts, and
+the habits and customs of the Natchez Indians, add much to the value
+of the present re-publication. I have captioned them with present-day
+names of the flora and fauna.
+
+STANLEY CLISBY ARTHUR.
+
+(_Mr. Arthur is a naturalist, historian and writer, and
+executive-director of the Louisiana State Museum.--J. S. W.
+Harmanson, Publisher_.)
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  Preface
+
+  BOOK I.
+    The Transactions of the French in Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Of the first Discovery and Settlement of Louisiana
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the Spaniards
+      at the Assinaïs. His second Journey to Mexico, and Return
+      from thence
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the West-India Company
+      to Louisiana. Arrival and Stay at Cape François.  Arrival
+      at the Isle Dauphine. Description of that Island
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the
+      Places he passed through, as far as New Orleans
+
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      The Author put in Possession of his Territory.  His
+      Resolution to go and settle among the Natchez
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      The Voyage of the Author to Biloxi. Description of that
+      Place. Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two
+      Copper Mines. His Return to the Natchez
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      First War with the Natchez. Cause of the War
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      The Governor surprized the Natchez with seven hundred
+      Men. Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The
+      Author sends upwards of three hundred Simples to the
+      Company
+
+    CHAP. IX.
+      French Settlements, or Posts. Post at Mobile.  The Mouths
+      of the Missisippi. The Situation and Description of New
+      Orleans
+
+    CHAP. X.
+      The Voyages of the French to the Missouris, Canzas, and
+      Padoucas. The Settlements they in vain attempted to make
+      in those Countries; with a Description of an extraordinary
+      Phaenomenon
+
+    CHAP. XI.
+      The War with the Chitimachas. The Conspiracy of the Negroes
+      against the French. Their Execution
+
+    CHAP. XII.
+      The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the French in 1729.
+      Extirpation of the Natchez in 1730
+
+    CHAP. XIII.
+      The War with the Chicasaws. The first Expedition by the
+      River Mobile. The second by the River Missisippi. The War
+      with the Chactaws terminated by the Prudence of M. de
+      Vaudreuil
+
+    CHAP. XIV.
+      Reflections on what gives Occasion to Wars in Louisiana.
+      The Means of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the
+      Manner of coming off with Advantage and little Expence in
+      them
+
+    CHAP. XV.
+      Pensacola taken by Surprize by the French. Retaken by the
+      Spaniards. Again retaken by the French, and demolished
+
+  BOOK II.
+    Of the Country and its Products.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its climate
+
+      Description of the Lower Louisiana, and the Mouths of the
+      Missisippi.
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      The Author's journey in Louisiana, from the Natchez to the
+      River St. Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      The Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the
+      Coast.
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Quality of the Lands above the Fork.  A Quarry of Stone
+      for building.  High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility.
+      West Coast: West Lands: Saltpetre
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      Quality of the Lands of the Red River. Posts of
+      Nachitoches. A Silver Mine. Lands of the Black River
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      A Brook of salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River
+      of the Arkansas. Red-veined Marble: Slate: Plaster.
+      Hunting the Buffalo. The dry Sand-banks in the Missisippi
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      The Lands of the River St. Francis. Mine of Marameg, and
+      other Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone, resembling
+      Porphyry. Lands of the Missouri. The Lands North of the
+      Wabache. The Lands of the Illinois. De La Mothe's Mine,
+      and other Mines
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering,
+      and manufacturing the Commodities that are proper
+      Articles of Commerce. Of the Culture of Maiz, Rice, and
+      other Fruits of the Country. Of the Silk Worm
+
+    CHAP. IX.
+      Of Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, and Saffron
+
+    CHAP. X.
+      Of the Commerce that is, and may be carried on in
+      Louisiana. Of the Commodities which that Province
+      may furnish in Return for those of Europe. Of the
+      Commerce of Louisiana with the Isles
+
+    CHAP. XI.
+      Of the Commerce with the Spaniards. The Commodities
+      they bring to the Colony, if there is a Demand for
+      them. Of such as may be given in Return, and may suit
+      them. Reflections on the Commerce of this Province,
+      and the great Advantages which the State and
+      particular Persons may derive therefrom
+
+    Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana,
+    by M. Dumont.
+
+      I.   Of Tobacco, with the Way of cultivating and curing it
+
+      II.  Of the Way of making Indigo
+
+      III. Of Tar; the Way of making it; and of making it into
+           pitch
+
+      IV.  Of the Mines of Louisiana
+
+    Extract from a late French Writer, concerning the Importance
+    of Louisiana to France
+
+  BOOK III.
+    The Natural History of Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      Of Corn and Pulse
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      Of the Fruit Trees of Louisiana
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      Of Forest Trees
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Of Shrubs and Excrescences
+
+    CHAP. V.
+      Of Creeping Plants
+
+    CHAP. VI.
+      Of the Quadrupedes
+
+    CHAP. VII.
+      Of Birds and flying Insects
+
+    CHAP. VIII.
+      Of Fishes and Shell-Fish
+
+  BOOK IV.
+    Of the Natives of Louisiana.
+
+    CHAP. I.
+      The Origin of the Americans
+
+    CHAP. II.
+      An Account of the several Nations of Louisiana
+
+
+      SECT. I.
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the Missisippi
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the Missisippi
+
+    CHAP. III.
+      A Description of the Natives of Louisiana; of their
+      Manners and Customs, particularly those of the Natchez:
+      Of their Language, their Religion, Ceremonies, Rulers,
+      or Suns, Feasts, Marriages, &c
+
+      SECT. I.
+        A Description of the Natives; the different Employments
+        of the two Sexes; and their Manner of bringing up their
+        Children
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Language, Government, Religion, Ceremonies, and
+        Feasts of the Natives
+
+      SECT. III.
+        Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks
+
+      SECT. IV.
+        Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious
+        Ceremonies of the People of Louisiana
+
+      SECT. V.
+        Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives
+
+      SECT. VI.
+        Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their
+        Meals and Fastings
+
+      SECT. VII.
+        Of the Indian Art of War
+
+    CHAP. IV.
+      Of the Negroes of Louisiana
+
+      SECT. I.
+        Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distempers, and the
+        Manner of curing them
+
+      SECT. II.
+        Of the Manner of governing the Negroes
+
+  INDEX
+
+  List of Illustrations
+
+    Indian in Summer Time
+    Indian in Winter Time
+    Indian Woman and Daughter
+    Plan of New Orleans, 1720
+    Beaver, Beaver lodge, Beaver dam
+    Indians of the North Leaving in the Winter with their
+    Families for a Hunt
+    Indigo
+    Cotton and Rice on the Stalk
+    Appalachean Beans. Sweet Potatoes
+    Watermelon
+    Pawpaw. Blue Whortle-berry
+    Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber
+    Cypress
+    Magnolia
+    Sassafras
+    Myrtle Wax Tree. Vinegar Tree
+    Poplar ("Cotton Tree")
+    Black Oak
+    Linden or Bass Tree
+    Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree
+    Cassine or Yapon. Tooth-ache Tree or Prickly Ash
+    Passion Thorn or Honey Locust. Bearded Creeper
+    Palmetto
+    Bramble, Sarsaparilla
+    Rattlesnake Herb
+    Red Dye Plant. Flat Root
+    Panther or Catamount. Bison or Buffalo
+
+    Indian Deer Hunt
+    Wild Cat. Opossum. Skunk
+    Alligator. Rattle Snake. Green Snake
+    Pelican. Wood Stock
+    Flying Squirrel. Roseate Spoonbill. Snowy Heron
+    White Ibis. Tobacco Worm. Cock Roach
+    Cat Fish. Gar Fish. Spoonbill Catfish
+    Indian Buffalo Hunt on Foot
+    Dance of the Natchez Indians
+    Burial of the Stung Serpent
+    Bringing the Pipe of Peace
+    Torture of Prisoners. Plan of Fort
+
+
+
+
+{i}
+
+PREFACE
+
+The History of Louisiana, which we here present to the public, was
+wrote by a planter of sixteen years experience in that country, who
+had likewise the advantage of being overseer or director of the public
+plantations, both when they belonged to the company, and afterwards
+when they fell to the crown; by which means he had the best
+opportunities of knowing the nature of the soil and climate, and what
+they produce, or what improvements they are likely to admit of; a
+thing in which this nation is, without doubt, highly concerned and
+interested. And when our author published this history in 1758, he had
+likewise the advantage, not only of the accounts of F. Charlevoix, and
+others, but of the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published at Paris
+in 1753, by Mr. Dumont, an officer who resided two-and-twenty years in
+the country, and was personally concerned and acquainted with many of
+the transactions in it; from whom we have extracted some passages, to
+render this account more complete.
+
+But whatever opportunities our author had of gaining a knowledge of
+his subject, it must be owned, that he made his accounts of it very
+perplexed. By endeavoring to take in every thing, he descends to many
+trifles; and by dwelling too long on a subject, he comes to render it
+obscure, by being prolix in things which hardly relate to what he
+treats of. He interrupts the thread of his discourse with private
+anecdotes, long harangues, and tedious narrations, which have little
+or no relation to the subject, and are of much less consequence to the
+reader. The want of method and order throughout the whole work is
+still more apparent; and that, joined to these digressions, renders
+his accounts, however just and interesting, so tedious and irksome to
+read, and at the same time so indistinct, that few seem to have reaped
+the benefit of them. For these reasons it was necessary to methodize
+the whole work; to abridge some parts of it; and to leave out many
+things that appear to be trifling. This we have endeavored to do in
+the translation, by reducing the whole work to four general heads or
+books; and {ii} by bringing the several subjects treated of, the
+accounts of which lie scattered up and down in different parts of the
+original, under these their proper heads; so that the connection
+between them, and the accounts of any one subject, may more easily
+appear.
+
+This, it is presumed, will appear to be a subject of no small
+consequence and importance to this nation, especially at this time.
+The countries here treated of, have not only by right always belonged
+to Great-Britain, but part of them is now acknowledged to it by the
+former usurpers: and it is to be hoped, that the nation may now reap
+some advantages from those countries, on which it has expended so many
+millions; which there is no more likely way to do, than by making them
+better known in the first place, and by learning from the experience
+of others, what they do or are likely to produce, that may turn to
+account to the nation.
+
+It has been generally suspected, that this nation has suffered much,
+from the want of a due knowledge of her dominions in America, which we
+should endeavor to prevent for the future. If that may be said of any
+part of America, it certainly may of those countries, which have been
+called by the French Louisiana. They have not only included under that
+name all the western parts of Virginia and Carolina; and thereby
+imagined, that they had, from this nominal title, a just right to
+those antient dominions of the crown of Britain: but what is of worse
+consequence perhaps, they have equally deceived and imposed upon many,
+by the extravagant hopes and unreasonable expectations they had formed
+to themselves, of the vast advantages they were to reap from those
+countries, as soon as they had usurped them; which when they came to
+be disappointed in, they ran from one extreme to another, and
+condemned the country as good for nothing, because it did not answer
+the extravagant hopes they had conceived of it; and we seem to be
+misled by their prejudices, and to be drawn into mistakes by their
+artifice or folly. Because the Missisippi scheme failed in 1719, every
+other reasonable scheme of improving that country, and of reaping any
+advantage from it, must do the same. It is to wipe off these
+prejudices, that the following account of these countries, which
+appears to be both {iii} just and reasonable, and agreeable to every
+thing we know of America, may be the more necessary.
+
+We have been long ago told by F. Charlevoix, from whence it is, that
+many people have formed a contemptible opinion of this country that
+lies on and about the Missisippi. They are misled, says he, by the
+relations of some seafaring people, and others, who are no manner of
+judges of such things, and have never seen any part of the country but
+the coast side, about Mobile, and the mouths of the Mississippi; which
+our author here tells us is as dismal to appearance, the only thing
+those people are capable of judging of, as the interior parts of the
+country, which they never saw, are delightful, fruitful, and inviting.
+They tell us, besides, that the country is unhealthful; because there
+happens to be a marsh at the mouth of the Missisippi, (and what river
+is there without one?) which they imagine must be unhealthful, rather
+than that they know it to be so; not considering, that all the coast
+both of North and South America is the same; and not knowing, that the
+whole continent, above this single part on the coast, is the most
+likely, from its situation, and has been found by all the experience
+that has been had of it, to be the most healthy part of all North
+America in the same climates, as will abundantly appear from the
+following and all other accounts.
+
+To give a general view of those countries, we should consider them as
+they are naturally divided into four parts; 1. The sea coast; 2. The
+Lower Louisiana, or western part of Carolina; 3. The Upper Louisiana,
+or western part of Virginia; and 4, the river Missisippi.
+
+I. The sea coast is the same with all the rest of the coast of North
+America to the southward of New York, and indeed from thence to Mexico,
+as far as we are acquainted with it. It is all a low flat sandy beach,
+and the soil for some twenty or thirty miles distance from the shore,
+more or less, is all a _pine barren_, as it is called, or a sandy
+desart; with few or no good ports or harbours on the coast, especially
+in all those southern parts of America, from Chesapeak bay to Mexico.
+But however barren this coast is in other respects, it is entirely
+covered with tall pines, which afford great store of pitch, tar, and
+turpentine. {iv} These pines likewise make good masts for ships; which I
+have known to last for twenty odd years, when it is well known, that our
+common masts of New England white pine will often decay in three or four
+years. These masts were of that kind that is called the pitch pine, and
+lightwood pine; of which I knew a ship built that ran for sixteen years,
+when her planks of this pine were as sound and rather harder than at
+first, although her oak timbers were rotten. The cypress, of which there
+is such plenty in the swamps on this coast, is reckoned to be equally
+serviceable, if not more so, both for masts (of which it would afford
+the largest of any tree that we know), and for ship building. And ships
+might be built of both these timbers for half the price perhaps of any
+others, both on account of the vast plenty of them, and of their being
+so easily worked.
+
+In most parts of these coasts likewise, especially about the
+Missisippi, there is great plenty of cedars and ever-green oaks; which
+make the best ships of any that are built in North America. And we
+suspect it is of these cedars and the American cypress, that the
+Spaniards build their ships of war at the Havanna. Of these there is
+the greatest plenty, immediately; to the westward of the mouth of the
+Missisippi where "large vessels can go to the lake of the Chetimachas,
+and nothing hinders them to go and cut the finest oaks in the world,
+with which all that coast is covered;" [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. N.
+France, Tom. III. p. 444.] which, moreover, is a sure sign of a very
+good, instead of a bad soil; and accordingly we see the French have
+settled their tobacco plantations thereabouts. It is not without
+reason then, that our author tells us, the largest navies might be
+built in that country at a very small expence.
+
+From this it appears, that even the sea coast, barren as it is, from
+which the whole country has been so much depreciated, is not without
+its advantages, and those peculiarly adapted to a trading and maritime
+nation. Had these sandy desarts indeed been in such a climate as
+Canada, they would have been of as little value, as many would make
+them here. It might be difficult indeed to settle colonies merely for
+these or any other {v} productions of those poor lands: but to the
+westward of the Missisippi, the coast is much more fruitful all along
+the bay of Mexico; being watered with a great number of rivers, the
+banks of which are very fertile, and are covered with forests of the
+tallest oaks, &c. as far as to New Mexico, a thing not to be seen any
+where else on these coasts. The coast alone will supply all the
+products of North America, and is as convenient to navigation as any
+part of it, without going nigh the Missisippi; so that it is with good
+reason our author says, "That country promises great riches to such as
+shall inhabit it, from the excellent quality of its lands," [Footnote:
+See p. 163.] in such a climate.
+
+These are the productions of the dry (we cannot call them high)
+grounds: the swamps, with which this coast abounds, are still more
+fruitful, and abundantly compensate the avidity and barrenness of the
+soil around them. They bear rice in such plenty, especially the marsh
+about New Orleans, "That the inhabitants reap the greatest advantage
+from it, and reckon it the manna of the land." [Footnote: _Dumont_,
+I. 15.] It was such marshes on the Nile, in the same climate, that were
+the granary of the Roman empire. And from a few such marshes in
+Carolina, not to be compared to those on the Missisippi, either in
+extent or fertility, Britain receives at least two or three hundred
+thousand pounds a year, and might vend twice that value of their
+products.
+
+But however barren or noxious these low lands on the sea coast may be,
+they extend but a little way about the Missisippi, not above thirty or
+forty miles in a straight line, on the east side of that river, and
+about twice as far on the west side; in which last, the lands are, in
+recompence, much more fruitful. To follow the course of the river
+indeed, which runs very obliquely south-east and north-west, as well
+as crooked, they reckon it eighty-two leagues from the mouth of the
+river to the Cut-Point, where the high lands begin.
+
+II. By the Lower Louisiana, our author means only the Delta of the
+Missisippi, or the drowned lands made by the overflowing of the river.
+But we may more properly give {vi} that appellation to the whole
+country, from the low and flat sea coast above described, to the
+mountains, which begin about the latitude 35°, a little above the
+river St. Francis; that is, five degrees of latitude, or three hundred
+and fifty statute miles from the coast; which they reckon to be six
+hundred and sixty miles up the Missisippi. About that latitude a
+continued ridge of mountains runs westward from the Apalachean
+mountains nigh to the banks of the Missisippi, which are thereabouts
+very high, at what we have called the Chicasaw Cliffs. Opposite to
+these on the west side of the Missisippi, the country is mountainous,
+and continues to be so here and there, as far as we have any accounts
+of it, westward to the mountains of New Mexico; which run in a chain
+of continued ridges from north to south, and are reckoned to divide
+that country from Louisiana, about 900 miles west from the Missisippi.
+
+This is one entire level champaign country; the part of which that
+lies west of the Missisippi is 900 miles (of sixty to a degree) by
+300, and contains 270,000 square miles, as much as both France and
+Spain put together. This country lies in the latitude of those
+fruitful regions of Barbary, Syria, Persia, India, and the middle of
+China, and is alone sufficient to supply the world with all the
+products of North America. It is very fertile in every thing, both in
+lands and metals, by all the accounts we have of it; and is watered by
+several large navigable rivers, that spread over the whole country
+from the Missisippi to New Mexico; besides several smaller rivers on
+the coast west of the Missisippi, that fall into the bay of Mexico; of
+which we have no good accounts, if it be not that Mr. Coxe tells us of
+one, the river of the Cenis, which, he says, "is broad, deep, and
+navigable almost to its heads, which chiefly proceed from the ridge of
+hills that separate this province from New Mexico," [Footnote:
+Description of Carolina, p. 37] and runs through the rich and
+fertile country on the coast above mentioned.
+
+The western part of this country is more fertile, says our author,
+than that on the east side of the Missisippi; in which part, however,
+says he, the lands are very fertile, with a rich {vii} black mould
+three feet deep in the hills, and much deeper in the bottoms, with a
+strong clayey foundation. Reeds and canes even grow upon the hill
+sides; which, with the oaks, walnuts, tulip-trees, &c. are a sure sign
+of a good and rich soil. And all along the Missisippi on both sides,
+Dumont tells, "The lands, which are all free from inundations, are
+excellent for culture, particularly those about Baton Rouge,
+Cut-Point, Arkansas, Natchez, and Yasous, which produce Indian corn,
+tobacco, indigo, &c. and all kinds of provisions and esculent plants,
+with little or no care or labour, and almost without culture; the soil
+being in all those places a black mould of an excellent quality."
+[Footnote: Memoires, I. 16.]
+
+These accounts are confirmed by our own people, who were sent by the
+government of Virginia in 1742, to view these the western parts of
+that province; and although they only went down the Ohio and
+Missisippi to New Orleans, they reported, that "they saw more good
+land on the Missisippi, and its many large branches, than they judge
+is in all the English colonies, as far as they are inhabited;" as
+appears from the report of that government to the board of trade.
+
+What makes this fertile country more eligible and valuable, is, that
+it appears both from its situation, and from the experience the French
+have had of it, [Footnote: See p. 120, 121.] to be by far the most
+healthful of any in all these southern parts of North America; a thing
+of the last consequence in settling colonies, especially in those
+southern parts of America, which are in general very unhealthful. All
+the sea coasts of our colonies, to the southward of Chesapeak bay, or
+even of New-York, are low and flat, marshy and swampy, and very
+unhealthful on that account and those on and about the bay of Mexico,
+and in Florida, are withal excessively hot and intemperate, so that
+white people are unfit for labour in them; by which all our southern
+colonies, which alone promise to be of any great advantage to the
+nation, are so thin of people, that we have but 25,000 white people in
+all South Carolina. [Footnote: Description of South Carolina. by----,
+p. 30.] But those lands on the Missisippi are, on {viii} the
+contrary, high, dry, hilly, and in some places mountainous at no great
+distance from the river, besides the ridges of the Apalachean
+mountains above mentioned, that lie to the northward of them; which
+must greatly refresh and cool the air all over the country, especially
+in comparison of what it is on the low and flat, sandy and parched sea
+coasts of our present colonies. These high lands begin immediately
+above the Delta, or drowned lands, at the mouth of the Missisippi;
+above which the banks of that river are from one hundred to two
+hundred feet high, without any marshes about them; and continue such
+for nine hundred miles to the river Ohio, especially on the east side
+of the river. [Footnote: See p. 158]
+
+Such a situation on rich and fertile lands in that climate, and on a
+navigable river, must appear to be of the utmost consequence. It is only
+from the rich lands on the river sides (which indeed are the only lands
+that can generally be called rich in all countries, and especially in
+North America), that this nation reaps any thing of value from all the
+colonies it has in that part of the world. But "rich lands on river
+sides in hot climates are extremely unhealthful," says a very good judge,
+[Footnote: _Arbuthnot_ on Air. _App_.] and we have often found to our
+cost. How ought we then to value such rich and healthful countries on
+the Missisippi? As much surely as some would depreciate and vilify them.
+It may be observed, that all the countries in America are only populous
+in the inland parts, and generally at a distance from navigation; as the
+sea coasts both of North and South America are generally low, damp,
+excessively hot, and unhealthful; at least in all the southern parts,
+from which alone we can expect any considerable returns. Instances of
+this may be seen in the adjacent provinces of Mexico, New Mexico, Terra
+Firma, Peru, Quito, etc. and far more in our southern colonies, which
+never became populous, till the people removed to the inland parts, at a
+distance from the sea. This we are in a manner prevented to do in our
+colonies, by the mountains which surround us, and confine us to the
+coast; whereas on the Missisippi the whole continent is open to them,
+and they have, besides, this healthy {ix} situation on the lower parts
+of that river, at a small distance from the sea.
+
+If those things are duly considered, it will appear, that they who are
+possessed of the Missisippi, will in time command that continent; and
+that we shall be confined on the sea coasts of our colonies, to that
+unhealthful situation, which many would persuade us is so much to be
+dreaded on the Missisippi. It is by this means that we have so very few
+people in all our southern colonies; and have not been able to get in
+one hundred years above twenty-five thousand people in South Carolina;
+when the French has not less than eighty or ninety thousand in Canada,
+besides ten or twelve thousand on the Missisippi, to oppose to them. The
+low and drowned lands, indeed, about the mouth of the Missisippi must no
+doubt be more or less unhealthful; but they are far from being so very
+pernicious as many represent them. The waters there are fresh, which we
+know, by manifold experience in America, are much less prejudicial to
+health than the offensive fetid marshes, that are to be found every
+where else on the salt waters. Accordingly we are credibly informed,
+that some of the inhabitants of New Orleans say, they never enjoyed
+better health even in France; and for that reason they invite their
+countrymen, in their letters to them, we are told, to come and partake
+of the salutary benefits of that delightful country. The clearing,
+draining, and cultivating of those low lands, must make a very great
+change upon them, from the accounts we have had of them in their rude
+and uncultivated state.
+
+III. The Upper Louisiana we call that part of the continent, which
+lies to the northward of the mountains above mentioned in latitude
+35°. This country is in many places hilly and mountainous for which
+reason we cannot expect it to be so fertile as the plains below it.
+But those hills on the west side of the Missisippi are generally
+suspected to contain mines, as well as the mountains of New Mexico, of
+which they are a continuation. But the fertile plains of Louisiana are
+perhaps more valuable than all the mines of Mexico; which there would
+be no doubt of, if they were duly cultivated. They will breed and
+maintain ten times as many people, and supply them with {x} many more
+necessaries, and articles of trade and navigation, than the richest
+mines of Peru.
+
+The most important place in this country, and perhaps in all North
+America, is at the Forks of the Missisippi, where the Ohio falls into
+that river; which, like another ocean, is the general receptacle of
+all the rivers that water the interior parts of that vast continent.
+Here those large and navigable rivers, the Ohio, river of the
+Cherokees, Wabache, Illinois, Missouri, and Missisippi, besides many
+others, which spread over that whole continent, from the Apalachean
+mountains to the mountains of New Mexico, upwards of one thousand
+miles, both north, south, east, and west, all meet together at this
+spot; and that in the best climate, and one of the most fruitful
+countries of any in all that part of the world, in the latitude 37°,
+the latitude of the Capes of Virginia, and of Santa Fe, the capital of
+New Mexico. By that means there is a convenient navigation to this
+place from our present settlements to New Mexico; and from all the
+inland parts of North America, farther than we are acquainted with it:
+and all the natives of that continent, those old friends and allies of
+the French, have by that means a free and ready access to this place;
+nigh to which the French formed a settlement, to secure their interest
+on the frontiers of all our southern colonies. In short this place is
+the centre of that vast continent, and of all the nations in it, and
+seems to be intended by nature to command them both; for which reason
+it ought no longer to be neglected by Britain. As soon as we pass the
+Apalachean mountains, this seems to be the most proper place to settle
+at; and was pitched upon for that purpose, by those who were the best
+acquainted with those countries, and the proper places of making
+settlements in them, of any we know. And if the settlements at this
+place had been made, as they were proposed, about twenty years ago,
+they might have prevented, or at least frustrated, the late attempts
+to wrest that country, and the territories of the Ohio, out of the
+hands of the English; and they may do the same again.
+
+But many will tell us, that those inland parts of North America will
+be of no use to Britain, on account of their distance {xi} from the
+sea, and inconvenience to navigation. That indeed might be said of the
+parts which lie immediately beyond the mountains, as the country of
+the Cherokees, and Ohio Indians about Pitsburg, the only countries
+thereabouts that we can extend our settlements to; which are so
+inconvenient to navigation, that nothing can be brought from them
+across the mountains, at least none of those gross commodities, which
+are the staple of North America; and they are as inconvenient to have
+any thing carried from them, nigh two thousand miles, down the river
+Ohio, and then by the Missisippi. For that reason those countries,
+which we look upon to be the most convenient, are the most
+inconvenient to us of any, although they join upon our present
+settlements. It is for these reasons, that the first settlements we
+make beyond the mountains, that is, beyond those we are now possessed
+of, should be upon the Missisippi, as we have said, convenient to the
+navigation of that river; and in time those new settlements may come
+to join to our present plantations; and we may by that means reap the
+benefit of all those inland parts of North America, by means of the
+navigation of the Missisippi, which will be secured by this post at
+the Forks. If that is not done, we cannot see how any of those inland
+parts of America, and the territories of the Ohio, which were the
+great objects of the present war, can ever be of any use to Britain,
+as the inhabitants of all those countries can otherwise have little or
+no correspondence with it.
+
+IV. This famous river, the Missisippi, is navigable upwards of two
+thousand miles, to the falls of St. Anthony in latitude 45°, the only
+fall we know in it, which is 16 degrees of latitude above its mouth;
+and even above that fall, our author tells us, there is thirty fathom
+of water in the river, with a proportionate breadth. About one
+thousand miles from its mouth it receives the river Ohio, which is
+navigable one thousand miles farther, some say one thousand five
+hundred, nigh to its source, not far from Lake Ontario in New York; in
+all which space there is but one fall or rapide in the Ohio, and that
+navigable both up and down, at least in canoes. This fall is three
+hundred miles from the Missisippi, and one thousand three hundred from
+the sea, with five fathom of water up to {xii} it. The other large
+branches of the Ohio, the river of the Cherokees, and the Wabache,
+afford a like navigation, from lake Erie in the north to the Cherokees
+in the south, and from thence to the bay of Mexico, by the Missisippi:
+not to mention the great river Missouri, which runs to the north-west
+parts of New Mexico, much farther than we have any good accounts of
+that continent. From this it appears, that the Missouri affords the
+most extensive navigation of any river we know; so that it may justly
+be compared to an inland sea, which spreads over nine tenths of all
+the continent of North America; all which the French pretended to lay
+claim to, for no other reason but because they were possessed of a
+paltry settlement at the mouth of this river.
+
+If those things are considered, the importance of the navigation of
+the Missisippi, and of a port at the mouth of it, will abundantly
+appear. Whatever that navigation is, good or bad, it is the only one
+for all the interior parts of North America, which are as large as a
+great part of Europe; no part of which can be of any service to
+Britain, without the navigation of the Missisippi, and settlements
+upon it. It is not without reason then, that we say, whoever are
+possessed of this river, and of the vast tracts of fertile lands upon
+it, must in time command that continent, and the trade of it, as well
+as all the natives in it, by the supplies which this navigation will
+enable them to furnish those people. By those means, if the French, or
+any others, are left in possession of the Missisippi, while we neglect
+it, they must command all that continent beyond the Apalachean
+mountains, and disturb our settlements much more than ever they did,
+or were able to do; the very thing they engaged in this war to
+accomplish, and we to prevent.
+
+The Missisippi indeed is rapid for twelve hundred miles, as far as to
+the Missouri, which makes it difficult to go up the river by water.
+For that reason the French have been used to quit the Missisippi at
+the river St. Francis, from which they have a nigher way to the Forks
+of the Missisippi by land. But however difficult it may be to ascend
+the river, it is, notwithstanding often done; and its rapidity
+facilitates a descent upon it, and a ready conveyance for those gross
+commodities, which {xiii} are the chief staple of North America, from
+the most remote places of the continent above mentioned: and as for
+lighter European goods, they are more easily carried by land, as our
+Indian traders do, over great part of the continent, on their horses,
+of which this country abounds with great plenty.
+
+The worst part of the navigation, as well as of the country, is
+reckoned to be at the mouth of the river; which, however, our author
+tells us, is from seventeen to eighteen feet deep, and will admit
+ships of five hundred tons, the largest generally used in the
+plantation trade. And even this navigation might be easily mended, not
+only by clearing the river of a narrow bar in the passes, which our
+author, Charlevoix, and others, think might be easily done; but
+likewise by means of a bay described by Mr. Coxe, from the actual
+survey of his people, lying to the westward of the south pass of the
+river; which, he says, has from twenty-five to six fathom water in it,
+close to the shore, and not above a mile from the Missisippi, above
+all the shoals and difficult passes in it, and where the river has one
+hundred feet of water. By cutting through that one mile then, it would
+appear that a port might be made there for ships of any burden; the
+importance of which is evident, from its commanding all the inland
+parts of North America on one side, and the pass from Mexico on the
+other; so as to be preferable in these respects even to the Havanna;
+not to mention that it is fresh water, and free from worms, which
+destroy all the ships in those parts.
+
+And as for the navigation from the Missisippi to Europe, our author
+shews that voyage may be performed in six weeks; which is as short a
+time as our ships generally take to go to and from our colonies. They
+go to the Missisippi with the trade winds, and return with the
+currents.
+
+It would lead us beyond the bounds of a preface, to shew the many
+advantages of those lands on the Missisippi to Britain, or the
+necessity of possessing them. That would require a treatise by itself,
+of which we can only give a few abstracts in this place. For this
+purpose we should compare those lands with our present colonies; and
+should be well informed of the quantity and condition of the lands we
+already possess, before {xiv} we can form any just judgement of what
+may be farther proper or requisite.
+
+Our present possessions in North America between the sea and the
+mountains appear, from many surveys and actual mensurations, as well
+as from all the maps and other accounts we have of them, to be at a
+medium about three degrees of longitude, or one hundred and forty
+miles broad, in a straight line; and they extend from Georgia, in
+latitude 32°, to the bay of Fundi, in latitude 45° (which is much
+farther both north and south, than the lands appear to be of any great
+value); which makes 13 degrees difference of latitude, or 780 miles:
+this length multiplied by the breadth 140, makes 109,200 square
+miles., This is not above as much land as is contained in Britain and
+Ireland; which, by Templeman's Survey, make 105,634 square miles.
+Instead of being as large as a great part of Europe then, as we are
+commonly told, all the lands we possess in North America, between the
+sea and mountains, do not amount to much more than these two islands.
+This appears farther, from the particular surveys of each of our
+colonies, as well as from this general estimate of the whole.
+
+Of these lands which we thus possess, both the northern and southern
+parts are very poor and barren, and produce little or nothing, at
+least for Britain. It is only in our middle plantations, Virginia,
+Maryland, and Carolina, that the lands produce any staple commodity
+for Britain, or that appear to be fit for that purpose. In short, it
+is only the more rich and fertile lands on and about Chesapeak bay,
+with a few swamps in Carolina, like the lands on the Missisippi, that
+turn to any great account to this nation in all North America, or that
+are ever likely to do it. This makes the quantity of lands that
+produce any staple commodity for Britain in North America incredibly
+small, and vastly less than what is commonly imagined. It is reckoned,
+that there are more such lands in Virginia, than in all the rest of
+our colonies; and yet it appeared from the public records, about
+twenty-five years ago, that there was not above as much land patented
+in that colony, which is at the same time the oldest of any in all
+North America, than is in the county of Yorkshire, in England, to-wit,
+{xv} 4684 square miles; although the country was then settled to the
+mountains.
+
+If we examine all our other colonies, there will appear to be as great
+a scarcity and want of good lands in them, at least to answer the
+great end of colonies, the making of a staple commodity for Britain.
+In short, our colonies are already settled to the mountains, and have
+no lands, either to extend their settlements, as they increase and
+multiply; to keep up their plantations of staple commodities for
+Britain; or to enlarge the British dominions by the number of
+foreigners that remove to them; till they pass those mountains, and
+settle on the Missisippi.
+
+This scarcity of land in our colonies proceeds from the mountains,
+with which they are surrounded, and by which they are confined to this
+narrow tract, and a low vale, along the sea side. The breadth of the
+continent from the Atlantic ocean to the Missisippi, appears to be
+about 600 miles (of 60 to a degree) of which there is about 140 at a
+medium, or 150 at most, that lies between the sea and mountains: and
+there is such another, and rather more fertile tract of level and
+improveable lands, about the same breadth, between the western parts
+of those mountains and the Missisippi: so that the mountainous country
+which lies between these two, is equal to them both, and makes one
+half of all the lands between the Missisippi and Atlantic ocean; if we
+except a small tract of a level champaign country upon the heads of
+the Ohio, which is possessed by the Six Nations, and their dependents.
+These mountainous and barren desarts, which lie immediately beyond our
+present settlements, are not only unfit for culture themselves, and so
+inconvenient to navigation, whether to the ocean, or to the
+Missisippi, that little or no use can be made of them; but they
+likewise preclude us from any access to those more fertile lands that
+lie beyond them, which would otherwise have been occupied long ago,
+but never can be settled, so at least as to turn to any account to
+Britain, without the possession and navigation of the Missisippi;
+which is, as it were, the sea of all the inland parts of North America
+beyond the Apalachean mountains, without which those inland parts of
+that continent can never turn to any account to this nation.
+
+{xvi} It is this our situation in North America, that renders all that
+continent beyond our present settlements of little or no use, at least
+to Britain; and makes the possession of the Missisippi absolutely
+necessary to reap the benefit of it. We possess but a fourth part of
+the continent between that river and the ocean; and but a tenth part
+of what lies east of Mexico; and can never enjoy any great advantages
+from any more of it, till we settle on the Missisippi.
+
+How necessary such settlements on the Missisippi may be, will farther
+appear from what we possess on this side of it. The lands in North
+America are in general but very poor or barren; and if any of them are
+more fertile, the soil is light and shallow, and soon worn out with
+culture. It is only the virgin fertility of fresh lands, such as those
+on the Missisippi, that makes the lands in North America appear to be
+fruitful, or that renders them of any great value to this nation. But
+such lands in our colonies, that have hitherto produced their staple
+commodities for Britain, are now exhausted and worn out, and we meet
+with none such on this side of the Missisippi. But when their lands
+are worn out, neither the value of their commodities, nor the
+circumstances of the planters, will admit of manuring them, at least
+to any great advantage to this nation.
+
+The staple commodities of North America are so gross and bulky, and of
+so small value, that it generally takes one half of them to pay the
+freight and other charges in sending them to Britain; so that unless
+our planters have some advantage in making them, such as cheap, rich,
+and fresh lands, they never can make any; their returns to Britain are
+then neglected, and the trade is gained by others who have these
+advantages; such as those who may be possessed of the Missisippi, or
+by the Germans, Russians, Turks, &c. who have plenty of lands, and
+labour cheap: by which means they make more of our staple of North
+America, tobacco, than we do ourselves; while we cannot make their
+staple of hemp, flax, iron, pot-ash, &c. By that means our people are
+obliged to interfere with their mother country, for want of the use of
+those lands of which there is such plenty in North America, to produce
+these commodities that are so much wanted from thence.
+
+{xvii} The consequences of this may be much more prejudicial to this
+nation, than is commonly apprehended. This trade of North America,
+whatever may be the income from it, consists in those gross and bulky
+commodities that are the chief and principal sources of navigation;
+which maintain whole countries to make them, whole fleets to transport
+them, and numbers of people to manufacture them at home; on which
+accounts this trade is more profitable to a nation, than the mines of
+Mexico or Peru. If we compare this with other branches of trade, as
+the sugar trade, or even the fishery, it will appear to be by far the
+most profitable to the nation, whatever those others may be to a few
+individuals. We set a great value on the fishery, in which we do not
+employ a third part of the seamen that we do in the plantation trade
+of North America; and the same may be said of the sugar trade. The
+tobacco trade alone employs more seamen in Britain, than either the
+fishery, or sugar trade; [Footnote: By the best accounts we have, there
+were 4000 seamen employed in the tobacco trade, in the year 1733, when
+the inspection on tobacco passed into a law; and we may perhaps reckon
+them now 4500, although some reckon them less.
+
+By the same accounts, taken by the custom-house officers, it appeared,
+that the number of British ships employed in all America, including
+the fishery, were 1400, with 17,000 seamen; besides 9000 or 10,000
+seamen belonging to North-America, who are all ready to enter into the
+service of Britain on, any emergency or encouragement.
+
+Of these there were but 4000 seamen employed in the fishery from
+Britain; and about as many, or 3600, in the sugar trade.
+
+The French, on the other hand, employ upwards of 20,000 seamen in the
+fishery, and many more than we do in the sugar trade.
+
+In short, the plantation trade of North America is to Britain, what
+the fishery is to France, the great nursery of seamen, which may be
+much improved. It is for this reason that we have always thought this
+nation ought, for its safety, to enjoy an exclusive right to the one
+or the other of these at least.] and brings in more money to the
+nation than all the products of America perhaps put together.
+
+But those gross commodities that afford these sources of navigation,
+however valuable they may be to the public, and to this nation in
+particular, are far from being so to individuals: they are cheap, and
+of small value, either to make, or to trade {xviii} in them; and for
+that reason they are neglected by private people, who never think of
+making them, unless the public takes care to give them all due
+encouragement, and to set them about those employments; for which
+purpose good and proper lands, such as those on the Missisippi, are
+absolutely necessary, without which nothing can be done.
+
+The many advantages of such lands that produce a staple for Britain,
+in North America, are not to be told. The whole interest of the nation
+in those colonies depends upon them, if not the colonies themselves.
+Such lands alone enable the colonies to take their manufactures and
+other necessaries from Britain, to the mutual advantage of both. And
+how necessary that may be will appear from the state of those colonies
+in North America, which do not make, one with another, as much as is
+sufficient to supply them only with the necessary article of
+cloathing; not to mention the many other things they want and take
+from Britain; and even how they pay for that is more than any man can
+tell. In short, it would appear that our colonies in North America
+cannot subsist much longer, if at all, in a state of dependence for
+all their manufactures and other necessaries, unless they are provided
+with other lands that may enable them to purchase them; and where they
+will find any such lands, but upon the Missisippi, is more than we can
+tell. When their lands are worn out, are poor and barren, or in an
+improper climate or situation, or that they will produce nothing to
+send to Britain, such lands can only be converted into corn and
+pasture grounds; and the people in our colonies are thereby
+necessarily obliged, for a bare subsistence, to interfere with
+Britain, not only in manufactures, but in the very produce of their
+lands.
+
+By this we may perceive the absurdity of the popular outcry, that we
+have already _land enough_, and more than we can make use of in North
+America. They who may be of that opinion should shew us, where that
+land is to be found, and what it will produce, that may turn to any
+account to the nation. Those people derive their opinion from what
+they see in Europe, where the quantity of land that we possess in
+North America, will, no doubt, maintain a greater number of people
+than we have there. But they should consider, that those people in
+{xix} Europe are not maintained by the planting of a bare raw
+commodity, with such immense charges upon it, but by farming,
+manufactures, trade, and commerce; which they will soon reduce our
+colonies to, who would confine them to their present settlements,
+between the sea coast and the mountains that surround them.
+
+Some of our colonies perhaps may imagine they cannot subsist without
+these employments; which indeed would appear to be the case in their
+present state: but that seems to be as contrary to their true
+interest, as it is to their condition of British colonies. They have
+neither skill, materials, nor any other conveniences to make
+manufactures; whereas their lands require only culture to produce a
+staple commodity, providing they are possessed of such as are fit for
+that purpose. Manufactures are the produce of labour, which is both
+scarce and dear among them; whereas lands are, or may, and should be
+made, both cheap and in plenty; by which they may always reap much
+greater profits from the one than the other. That is, moreover, a
+certain pledge for the allegiance and dependance of the colonies; and
+at the same time makes their dependance to become their interest. It
+has been found by frequent experience, that the making of a staple
+commodity for Britain, is more profitable than manufactures, providing
+they have good lands to work.
+
+It were to be wished indeed, that we could support our interest in
+America, and those sources of navigation, by countries that were more
+convenient to it, than those on the Missisippi. But that, we fear, is
+not to be done, however it may be desired. We wish we could say as much
+of the lands in Florida, and on the bay of Mexico, as of those on the
+Missisippi: but they are not to be compared to these, by all accounts,
+however convenient they may be in other respects to navigation. In all
+those southern and maritime parts of that continent the lands are in
+general but very poor and mean, being little more than _pine barrens_,
+or _sandy desarts_. The climate is at the same time so intemperate, that
+white people are in a great measure unfit for labour in it, as much as
+they are in the islands; this obliges them to make use of slaves, which
+are now become so dear, that it is to be doubted, whether all the
+produce {xx} of those lands will enable the proprietors of them to
+purchase slaves, or any other labourers; without which they can turn to
+little or no account to the nation, and those countries can support but
+very few people, if it were only to protect and defend them.
+
+The most convenient part of those countries seems to be about Mobile
+and Pensacola; which are, as it were, an entrepot between our present
+settlements and the Missisippi, and safe station for our ships. But it
+is a pity that the lands about them are the most barren, and the
+climate the most intemperate, by all accounts, of any perhaps in all
+America. [Footnote: See page 49, 111, &c. _Charlevoix_ Hist. N. France,
+Tom. III. 484. _Laval, infra_, &c.] And our author tells us, the lands
+are not much better even on the river of Mobile; which is but a very
+inconsiderable one. But the great inconvenience of those countries
+proceeds from the number of Indians in them; which will make it very
+difficult to settle any profitable plantations among them, especially
+in the inland parts that are more fertile; whereas the Missisippi is
+free from Indians for 1000 miles. It was but in the year 1715, that
+those Indians overran all the colony of Carolina, even to
+Charles-Town; by which the French got possession of that country, and
+of the Missisippi; both which they had just before, in June 1713,
+dispossessed us of.
+
+If we turn our eyes again to the lands in our northern colonies, it is
+to be feared we can expect much less from them. There is an
+inconvenience attending them, with regard to any improvements on them
+for Britain, which is not to be remedied. The climate is so severe,
+and the winters so long, that the people are obliged to spend that
+time in providing the necessaries of life, which should be employed in
+profitable colonies, on the making of some staple commodity, and
+returns to Britain. They are obliged to feed their creatures for five
+or six months in the year, which employs their time in summer, and
+takes up the best of their lands, such as they are, which should
+produce their staple commodities, to provide for themselves and their
+stocks against winter. For that reason the people in all our northern
+colonies are necessarily obliged to become farmers, {xxi} to make corn
+and provisions, instead of planters, who make a staple commodity for
+Britain; and thereby interfere with their mother country in the most
+material and essential of all employments to a nation, agriculture.
+
+In short, neither the soil nor climate will admit of any improvements
+for Britain, in any of those northern colonies. If they would produce
+any thing of that kind, it must be hemp; which never could be made in
+them to any advantage, as appears from many trials of it in New
+England. [Footnote: See _Douglas's_ Hist. N. America. _Elliot's_
+Improvements on New England, &c.] The great dependance of those
+northern colonies is upon the supplies of lumber and provisions which
+they send to the islands. But as they increase and multiply, their
+woods are cut down, lumber becomes scarce and dear, and the number of
+people inhances the value of land, and of every thing it produces,
+especially provisions.
+
+If this is the case of those northern colonies on the sea coast, what
+can we expect from the inland parts; in which the soil is not only
+more barren, and the climate more severe, but they are, with all these
+disadvantages, so inconvenient to navigation, both on account of their
+distance, and of the many falls and currents in the river St.
+Lawrence, that it is to be feared those inland parts of our northern
+colonies will never produce any thing for Britain, more than a few
+furrs; which they will do much better in the hands of the natives,
+than in ours. These our northern colonies, however, are very populous,
+and increase and multiply very fast. There are above a million of
+people in them, who can make but very little upon their lands for
+themselves, and still less for their mother country. For these reasons
+it is presumed, it would be an advantage to them, as well as to the
+whole nation, to remove their spare people, who want lands, to those
+vacant lands in the southern parts of the continent, which turn to so
+much greater account than any that they are possessed of. There they
+may have the necessaries of life in the greatest plenty; their stocks
+maintain themselves the whole year round, with little or no cost or
+labour; "by which means many people have a thousand head {xxii} of
+cattle, and for one man to have two hundred, is very common, with
+other stock in proportion." [Footnote: Description of South Carolina, p.
+68.] This enables them to bestow their whole labour, both in summer
+and winter, on the making of some staple commodity for Britain,
+getting lumber and provisions for the islands, &c. which both enriches
+them and the whole nation. That is much better, surely, than to perish
+in winter for want of cloathing, which they must do unless they make
+it; and to excite those grudges and jealousies, which must ever
+subsist between them and their mother country in their present state,
+and grow so much the worse, the longer they continue in it.
+
+The many advantages that would ensue from the peopling of those
+southern parts of the continent from our northern colonies, are hardly
+to be told. We might thereby people and secure those countries, and
+reap the profits of them, without any loss of people; which are not to
+be spared for that purpose in Britain, or any other of her dominions.
+This is the great use and advantage that may be made of the expulsion
+of the French from those northern parts of America. They have hitherto
+obliged us to strengthen those northern colonies, and have confined
+the people in them to towns and townships, in which their labour could
+turn to no great account, either to themselves or to the nation, by
+which we have, in a great measure, loss the labour of one half of the
+people in our colonies. But as they are now free from any danger on
+their borders, they may extend their settlements with safety, disperse
+themselves on plantations, and cultivate those lands that may turn to
+some account, both to them and to the whole nation. In short, they may
+now make some staple commodity for Britain; on which the interest of
+the colonies, and of the nation in them, chiefly depends; and which we
+can never expect from those colonies in their present situation.
+
+What those commodities are, that we might get from those southern
+parts of North America, will appear from the following accounts; which
+we have not room here to consider more particularly. We need only
+mention hemp, flax, and silk, those great articles and necessary
+materials of manufactures; for which alone this nation pays at least a
+million and an half {xxiii} a-year, if not two millions, and could
+never get them from all the colonies we have. Cotton and indigo are
+equally useful. Not to mention copper, iron, potash, &c. which, with
+hemp, flax, and silk, make the great balance of trade against the
+nation, and drain it of its treasure; when we might have those
+commodities from our colonies for manufactures, and both supply
+ourselves and others with them. Wine, oil, raisins, and currants, &c.
+those products of France and Spain, on which Britain expends so much
+of her treasure, to enrich her enemies, might likewise be had from
+those her own dominions. Britain might thereby cut off those resources
+of her enemies; secure her colonies for the future; and prevent such
+calamities of war, by cultivating those more laudable arts of peace:
+which will be the more necessary, as these are the only advantages the
+nation can expect, for the many millions that have been expended on
+America.
+
+_A Description of the Harbour of_ PENSACOLA.
+
+As the harbour of Pensacola will appear to be a considerable
+acquisition to Britain, it may be some satisfaction to give the
+following account of it, from F. Laval, royal professor of
+mathematics, and master of the marine academy at Toulon; who was sent
+to Louisiana, on purpose to make observations, in 1719; and had the
+accounts of the officers who took Pensacola at that time, and surveyed
+the place.
+
+"The colonies of Pensacola, and of Dauphin-Island, are at present on
+the decline, the inhabitants having removed to settle at Mobile and
+Biloxi, or at New-Orleans, where the lands are much better; for at the
+first the soil is chiefly sand, mixed with little earth. The land,
+however, is covered with woods of pines, firs, and oaks; which make
+good trees, as well as at Ship-Island. The road of Pensacola is the
+only good port thereabouts for large ships, and Ship-Island for small
+ones, where vessels that draw from thirteen to fourteen feet water,
+may ride in safety, under the island, in fifteen feet, and a good
+holding ground; as well as in the other ports, which are all only open
+roads, exposed to the south, and from west to east.
+
+"Pensacola is in north-latitude 30° 25'; and is the only road in the
+bay of Mexico, in which ships can be safe from all {xxiv} winds. It is
+land-locked on every side, and will hold a great number of ships,
+which have very good anchorage in it, in a good holding ground of soft
+sand, and from twenty-five to thirty-four feet of water. You will find
+not less than twenty-one feet of water on the barr, which is at the
+entrance into the road, providing you keep in the deepest part of the
+channel. Before a ship enters the harbour, she should bring the fort
+of Pensacola to bear between north and north 1/4 east, and keep that
+course till she is west or west 1/4 south, from the fort on the island
+of St. Rose, that is, till that fort bears east, and east 1/4 north.
+Then she must bear away a little to the land on the west side, keeping
+about mid-way between that and the island, to avoid a bank on this
+last, which runs out to some distance west-north-west from the point
+of the island.
+
+"If there are any breakers on the ledge of rocks, which lie to the
+westward of the barr, as often happens; if there is any wind, that may
+serve for a mark to ships, which steer along that ledge, at the
+distance of a good musket-shot, as they enter upon the barr; then keep
+the course above mentioned. Sometimes the currents set very strong out
+of the road, which you should take care of, less they should carry you
+upon these rocks.
+
+"As there is but half a foot rising (_levèe_) on the barr of Pensacola,
+every ship of war, if it be not in a storm, may depend upon nineteen
+(perhaps twenty) feet of water, to go into the harbour, as there are
+twenty-one feet on the barr. Ships that draw twenty feet must be towed
+in. By this we see, that ships of sixty guns may go into this harbour:
+and even seventy gun ships, the largest requisite in that country in
+time of war, if they were built flat-bottomed, like the Dutch ships,
+might pass every where in that harbour.
+
+"In 1719 Pensacola was taken by Mr. Champmelin, in the Hercules man of
+war, of sixty-four guns, but carried only fifty-six; in company with
+the Mars, pierced for sixty guns, but had in only fifty-four; and the
+Triton, pierced for fifty-four guns, but carried only fifty; with two
+frigates of thirty-six and twenty guns. [Footnote: The admiral was on
+board of the Hercules, which drew twenty-one feet of water, and there
+were but twenty-two feet into the harbour in the highest tides; so
+that they despaired of carrying in this ship. But an old Canadian,
+named Crimeau, a man of experience, who was perfectly acquainted with
+that coast, boasted of being able to do it, and succeeded; for which
+he was the next year honoured with letters of noblesse. _Dumont_ (an
+officer there at that time) 11.22.
+
+But _Bellin_, from the charts of the admiralty, makes but twenty feet of
+water on the barr of Pensacola. The difference may arise from the
+tides, which are very irregular and uncertain on all that coast,
+according to the winds; never rising above three feet, sometimes much
+less. In twenty-four hours the tide ebbs in the harbour for eighteen
+or nineteen hours, and flows five or six. _Laval_.]
+
+{xxv} "This road is subject to one inconvenience; several rivers fall
+into it, which occasion strong currents, and make boats or canoes, as
+they pass backwards and forwards, apt to run a-ground; but as the
+bottom is all sand, they are not apt to founder. On the other hand
+there is a great advantage in this road; it is free from worms, which
+never breed in fresh water, so that vessels are never worm-eaten in
+it."
+
+But F. Charlevoix seems to contradict this last circumstance: "The bay
+of Pensacola would be a pretty good port, (says he) if the worms did
+not eat the vessels in it, and if there was a little more water in the
+entrance into it; for the Hercules, commanded by Mr. Champmelin,
+touched upon it." It is not so certain then, that this harbour is
+altogether free from worms; although it may not be so subject to them,
+as other places in those climes, from the many small fresh water
+rivers that fall into this bay, which may have been the occasion of
+these accounts, that are seemingly contradictory.
+
+In such a place ships might at least be preserved from worms, in all
+likelihood, by paying their bottoms with aloes, or mixing it with
+their other stuff. That has been found to prevent the biting of these
+worms; and might be had in plenty on the spot. Many kinds of aloes
+would grow on the barren sandy lands about Pensacola, and in Florida,
+which is the proper soil for them; and would be a good improvement for
+those lands, which will hardly bear any thing else to advantage,
+whatever use is made of it.
+
+Having room in this place, we may fill it up with an answer to a
+common objection against Louisiana; which is, {xxvi} that this country
+is never likely to turn to any account, because the French have made
+so little of it.
+
+But that objection, however common, will appear to proceed only from
+the ignorance of those who make it. No country can produce any thing
+without labourers; which, it is certain, the French have never had in
+Louisiana, in any numbers at least, sufficient to make it turn to any
+greater account than it has hitherto done. The reason of this appears
+not to be owing to the country, but to their proceedings and
+misconduct in it. Out of the many thousand people who were contracted
+for by the grantees, to be sent to Louisiana in 1719, there were but
+eight hundred sent, we see; and of these the greatest part were ruined
+by their idle schemes, which made them and others abandon the country
+entirely. The few again who remained in it were cut off by an Indian
+massacre in 1729, which broke up the only promising settlements they
+had in the country, those of the Natchez, and Yasous, which were never
+afterwards reinstated. Instead of encouraging the colony in such
+misfortunes, the minister, Cardinal Fleuri, either from a spirit of
+oeconomy, or because it might be contrary to some other of his views,
+withdrew his protection from it, gave up the public plantations, and
+must thereby, no doubt, have very much discouraged others. By these
+means they have had few or no people in Louisiana, but such as were
+condemned to be sent to it for their crimes, women of ill fame,
+deserted soldiers, insolvent debtors, and galley-slaves, _forçats_, as
+they call them; "who, looking on the country only as a place of exile,
+were disheartened at every thing in it; and had no regard for the
+progress of a colony, of which they were only members by compulsion,
+and neither knew nor considered its advantages to the state. It is
+from such people that many have their accounts of this country; and
+throw the blame of all miscarriages in it upon the country, when they
+are only owing to the incapacity and negligence of those who were
+instructed to settle it." [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. New France, Tom.
+III. p. 447.]
+
+{1}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+_The Transactions of the_ French _in_ LOUISIANA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Of the first Discovery and Settlement of_ LOUISIANA.
+
+
+After the Spaniards came to have settlements on the Great Antilles, it
+was not long before they attempted to make discoveries on the coasts
+of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1520, Lucas Vasquez de Aillon landed on the
+continent to the north of that Gulf, being favourably received by the
+people of that country, who made him presents in gold, pearls, and
+plated silver. This favourable reception made him return thither four
+years after; but the natives having changed their friendly sentiments
+towards him, killed two hundred of his men, and obliged him to retire.
+
+In 1528, Pamphilo Nesunez [Footnote: Narvaez.] landed also on that
+coast, receiving from the first nations he met in his way, presents
+made in gold; which, by signs, they made him to understand, came from
+the Apalachean mountains, in the country which at this day goes under
+the name of Florida: and thither he attempted to go, undertaking a
+hazardous journey of twenty-five days. In this march he was so often
+attacked by the new people he continually discovered, and lost so many
+of his men, as only to think of re-embarking with the few that were
+left, {2} happy to have himself escaped the dangers which his
+imprudence had exposed him to.
+
+The relation published by the Historian of Dominico [Footnote:
+Ferdinando.] Soto, who in 1539 landed in the Bay of St. Esprit, is so
+romantic, and so constantly contradicted by all who have travelled
+that country, that far from giving credit to it, we ought rather to
+suppose his enterprize had no success; as no traces of it have
+remained, any more than of those that went before. The inutility of
+these attempts proved no manner of discouragement to the Spaniards.
+After the discovery of Florida, it was with a jealous eye they saw the
+French settle there in 1564, under René de Laudonniere, sent thither
+by the Admiral de Coligni, where he built Fort Carolin; the ruins of
+which are still to be seen above the Fort of Pensacola. [Footnote: This
+intended settlement of Admiral Coligni was on the east coast of
+Florida, about St. Augustin, instead of Pensacola. De Laet is of
+opinion, that their Fort Carolin was the same with St. Augustin.]
+There the Spaniards some time after attacked them, and forcing them to
+capitulate, cruelly murdered them, without any regard had to the
+treaty concluded between them. As France was at that time involved in
+the calamities of a religious war, this act of barbarity had remained
+unresented, had not a single man of Mont Marfan, named Dominique de
+Gourges, attempted, in the name of the nation, to take vengeance
+thereof. In 1567, having fitted out a vessel, and sailed for Florida,
+he took three forts built by the Spaniards; and after killing many of
+them in the several attacks he made, hanged the rest: and having
+settled there a new post, [Footnote: He abandoned the country without
+making any settlement; nor have the French ever had any settlement in
+it from that day to this. See Laudonniere. Hakluyt, &c.] returned to
+France. But the disorders of the state having prevented the
+maintaining that post, the Spaniards soon after retook possession of
+the country, where they remain to this day.
+
+From that time the French seemed to have dropped all thoughts of that
+coast, or of attempting any discoveries therein; when the wars in
+Canada with the natives afforded them the {3} knowledge of the vast
+country they are possessed of at this day. In one of these wars a
+Recollet, or Franciscan Friar, name F. Hennepin, was taken and carried
+to the Illinois. As he had some skill in surgery, he proved
+serviceable to that people, and was also kindly treated by them: and
+being at full liberty, he travelled over the country, following for a
+considerable time the banks of the river St. Louis, or Missisipi,
+without being able to proceed to its mouth. However, he failed not to
+take possession of that country, in the name of Louis XIV., calling it
+Louisiana. Providence having facilitated his return to Canada, he gave
+the most advantageous account of all he had seen; and after his return
+to France, drew up a relation thereof, dedicated to M. Colbert.
+
+The account he gave of Louisiana failed not to produce its good
+effects. Me de la Salle, equally famous for his misfortunes and his
+courage, undertook to traverse these unknown countries quite to the
+sea. In Jan. 1679 he set out from Quebec with a large detachment, and
+being come among the Illinois, there built the first fort France ever
+had in that country, calling it Crevecæur; and there he left a good
+garrison under the command of the Chevalier de Tonti. From thence he
+went down the river St. Louis, quite to its mouth; which, as has been
+said, is in the Gulf of Mexico; and having made observations, and
+taken the elevation in the best manner he could, returned by the same
+way to Quebec, from whence he passed over to France.
+
+After giving the particulars of his journey to M. Colbert, that great
+minister, who knew of what importance it was to the state to make sure
+of so fine and extensive a country, scrupled not to allow him a ship and
+a small frigate, in order to find out, by the way of the gulf of Mexico,
+the mouth of the river St. Louis. He set sail in 1685: but his
+observations, doubtless, not having had all the justness requisite,
+after arriving in the gulf, he got beyond the river, and running too far
+westward, entered the bay of St. Bernard: and some misunderstanding
+happening between him and the officers of the vessels, he debarqued with
+the men under his command, and having settled a post in that place,
+undertook to go by land in quest of {4} the great river. But after a
+march of several days, some of his people, irritated on account of the
+fatigue he exposed them to, availing themselves of an opportunity, when
+separated from the rest of his men, basely assassinated him. The
+soldiers, though deprived of their commander, still continued their
+route, and, after crossing many rivers, arrived at length at the
+Arkansas, where they unexpectedly found a French post lately settled.
+The Chevalier de Tonti was gone down from the fort of the Illinois,
+quite to the mouth of the river, about the time he judged M. de la Salle
+might have arrived by sea; and not finding him, was gone up again, in
+order to return to his post. And in his way entering the river of the
+Arkansas, quite to the village of that nation, with whom he made an
+alliance, some of his people insisted, they might be allowed to settle
+there; which was agreed to, he leaving ten of them in that place; and
+this small cantonment maintained its ground, not only because from time
+to time encreased by some Canadians, who came down this river; but above
+all, because those who formed it had the prudent precaution to live in
+peace with the natives, and treat as legitimate the children they had by
+the daughters of the Arkansas, with whom they matched out of necessity.
+
+The report of the pleasantness of Louisiana spreading through Canada,
+many Frenchmen of that country repaired to settle there, dispersing
+themselves at pleasure along the river St. Louis, especially towards
+its mouth, and even in some islands on the coast, and on the river
+Mobile, which lies nearer Canada. The facility of the commerce with
+St. Domingo was, undoubtedly, what invited them to the neighbourbood
+of the sea, though the interior parts of the country be in all
+respects far preferable. However, these scattered settlements,
+incapable to maintain their ground of themselves, and too distant to
+be able to afford mutual assistance, neither warranted the possession
+of this country, nor could they be called a taking of possession.
+Louisiana remained in this neglected state, till M. d'Hiberville, Chef
+d' Escadre, having discovered, in 1698, the mouths of the river St.
+Louis, and being nominated Governor General of that vast country,
+carried thither the first colony in 1699. As he was a native of
+Canada, the colony almost entirely consisted of Canadians, among whom
+M. de Luchereau, {5} uncle of Madam d'Hiberville, particularly
+distinguished himself.
+
+The settlement was made on the river Mobile, with all the facility
+that could be wished; but its progress proved slow: for these first
+inhabitants had no other advantage above the natives, as to the
+necessaries of life, but what their own industry, joined to some rude
+tools, to give the plainest forms to timbers, afforded them.
+
+The war which Louis IV, had at that time to maintain, and the pressing
+necessities of the state, continually engrossed the attention of the
+ministry, nor allowed them time to think of Louisiana. What was then
+thought most advisable, was to make a grant of it to some rich person;
+who, finding it his interest to improve that country, would, at the
+same time that he promoted his own interest, promote that of the
+state. Louisiana was thus ceded to M. Crozat. And it is to be
+presumed, had M. d'Hiberville lived longer, the colony would have made
+considerable progress: but that illustrious sea-officer, whose
+authority was considerable, dying at the Havannah, in 1701 (after
+which this settlement was deserted) a long time must intervene before
+a new Governor could arrive from France. The person pitched upon to
+fill that post, was M. de la Motte Cadillac, who arrived in that
+country in June 1713.
+
+The colony had but a scanty measure of commodities, and money scarcer
+yet: it was rather in a state of languor, than of vigorous activity,
+in one of the finest countries in the world; because impossible for it
+to do the laborious works, and make the first advances, always
+requisite in the best lands.
+
+The Spaniards, for a long time, considered Louisiana as a property
+justly theirs, because it constitutes the greatest Part of Florida,
+which they first discovered. The pains the French were at then to
+settle there, roused their jealousy, to form the design of cramping
+us, by settling at the Assinaïs, a nation not very distant from the
+Nactchitoches, whither some Frenchmen had penetrated. There the
+Spaniards met with no small difficulty to form that settlement, and
+being at a loss how to accomplish it, one F. Ydalgo, a Franciscan
+Friar, took it in his head to write to the French, to beg their
+assistance in {6} settling a mission among the Assinaïs. He sent three
+different copies of his letter hap-hazard three different ways to our
+settlements, hoping one of them at least might fall into the hands of
+the French.
+
+Nor was he disappointed in his hope, one of them, from one post to
+another, and from hand to hand, falling into the hands of M. de la
+Motte. That General, incessantly taken up with the concerns of the
+colony, and the means of relieving it, was not apprized of the designs
+of the Spaniards in that letter; could only see therein a sure and
+short method to remedy the present evils, by favouring the Spaniards,
+and making a treaty of commerce with them, which might procure to the
+colony what it was in want of, and what the Spaniards abounded with,
+namely, horses, cattle, and money: He therefore communicated that
+letter to M. de St. Denis, to whom he proposed to undertake a journey
+by land to Mexico.
+
+M. de St. Denis, for the fourteen years he was in Louisiana, had made
+several excursions up and down the country; and having a general
+knowledge of all the languages of the different nations which inhabit
+it, gained the love and esteem of these people, so far as to be
+acknowledged their Grand Chief.
+
+This gentleman, in other respects a man of courage, prudence, and
+resolution, was then the fittest person M. de la Motte could have
+pitched upon, to put his design in execution.
+
+How fatiguing soever the enterprize was, M. de St. Denis undertook it
+with pleasure, and set out with twenty-five men. This small company
+would have made some figure, had it continued entire; but some of them
+dropped M. de St. Denis by the way, and many of them remained among
+the Nactchitoches, to whose country he was come. He was therefore
+obliged to set out from that place, accompanied only by ten men, with
+whom he traversed upwards of an hundred and fifty leagues in a country
+entirely depopulated, having on his route met with no nation, till he
+came to the Presidio, or fortress of St. John Baptist, on the Rio
+(river) del Norte, in New Mexico.
+
+The Governor of this fort was Don Diego Raimond, an officer advanced
+in years, who favourbly received M. de St. {7} Denis, on acquainting
+him, that the motive to his journey was F. Ydalgo's letter, and that
+he had orders to repair to Mexico. But as the Spaniards do not readily
+allow strangers to travel through the countries of their dominion in
+America, for fear the view of these fine countries should inspire
+notions, the consequences of which might be greatly prejudicial to
+them, D. Diego did not chuse to permit M. de St. Denis to continue his
+route, without the previous consent of the Viceroy. It was therefore
+necessary to dispatch a courier to Mexico, and to wait his return.
+
+The courier, impatiently longed for, arrived at length, with the
+permission granted by the Duke of Linarez, Viceroy of Mexico. Upon
+which M. de St. Denis set out directly, and arrived at Mexico, June 5,
+1715. The Viceroy had naturally an affection to France; M. de St.
+Denis was therefore favourably received, saving some precautions,
+which the Duke thought proper to take, not to give any disgust to some
+officers of justice who were about him.
+
+The affair was soon dispatched; the Duke of Linarez having promised to
+make a treaty of commerce, as soon as the Spaniards should be settled
+at the Assinaïs; which M. de St. Denis undertook to do, upon his
+return to Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the_ Spaniards _at the_
+Assinaïs. _His Second Journey to_ Mexico, _and Return from thence_.
+
+
+M. De St. Denis soon returned to the fort of St. John Baptist; after
+which he resolved to form the caravan, which was to be settled at the
+Assinaïs; at whose head M. de St. Denis put himself, and happily
+conducted it to the place appointed. And then having, in quality of
+Grand Chief, assembled the nation of the Assinaïs, he exhorted them to
+receive and use the Spaniards well. The veneration which that people
+had for him, made them submit to his will in all things; and thus the
+promise he had made to the Duke of Linarez was faithfully fulfilled.
+
+{8} The Assinaïs are fifty leagues distant from the Nactchitoches. The
+Spaniards, finding themselves still at too great a distance from us,
+availed themselves of that first settlement, in order to form a second
+among the Adaies, a nation which is ten leagues from our post of the
+Nactchitoches: whereby they confine us on the west within the
+neighbourhood of the river St. Louis; and from that time it was not
+their fault, that they had not cramped us to the north, as I shall
+mention in its place.
+
+To this anecdote of their history I shall, in a word or two, add that
+of their settlement at Pensacola, on the coast of Florida, three
+months after M. d'Hiberville had carried the first inhabitants to
+Louisiana, that country having continued to be inhabited by Europeans,
+ever since the garrison left there by Dominique de Gourges; which
+either perished, or deserted, for want of being supported.[Footnote:
+They returned to France. See p. 3.]
+
+To return to M. de la Motte and M. de St. Denis: the former, ever
+attentive to the project of having a treaty of commerce concluded with
+the Spaniards, and pleased with the success of M. de St. Denis's
+journey to Mexico, proposed his return thither again, not doubting but
+the Duke of Linarez would be as good as his word, as the French had
+already been. M. de St. Denis, ever ready to obey, accepted the
+commission of his General. But this second journey was not to be
+undertaken as the first; it was proper to carry some goods, in order
+to execute that treaty, as soon as it should be concluded, and to
+indemnify himself for the expences he was to be at. Though the
+store-houses of M. Crozat were full, it was no easy matter to get the
+goods. The factors refused to give any on credit; nay, refused M. de
+la Motte's security; and there was no money to be had to pay them. The
+Governor was therefore obliged to form a company of the most
+responsible men of the colony: and to this company only the factors
+determined to advance the goods. This expedient was far from being
+agreeable to M. de St. Denis, who opened his mind to M. de la Motte on
+that head, and told him, that some or all of his partners would
+accompany the goods they had engaged to be security for; and that,
+although it was absolutely necessary the effects should appear to be
+his {9} property alone, they would not fail to discover they
+themselves were the proprietors; which would be sufficient to cause
+their confiscation, the commerce between the two nations not being
+open. M. de la Motte saw the solidity of these reasons; but the
+impossibility of acting otherwise constrained him to supersede them:
+and, as M. de St. Denis had foreseen, it accordingly happened.
+
+He set out from Mobile, August 13, 1716, escorted, as he all along
+apprehended, by some of those concerned; and being come to the
+Assinaïs, he there passed the winter. On the 19th of March, the year
+following, setting out on his journey, he soon arrived at the Presidio
+of St. John Baptist. M. de St. Denis declared these goods to be his
+own property, in order to obviate their confiscation, which was
+otherwise unavoidable; and wanted to shew some acts of bounty and
+generosity, in order to gain the friendship of the Spaniards. But the
+untractableness, the avarice, and indiscretion of the parties
+concerned, broke through all his measures; and to prevent the entire
+disconcerting of them, he hastened his departure for Mexico, where he
+arrived May 14, 1717. The Duke of Linarez was yet there, but sick, and
+on his death-bed. M. de St. Denis had, however, time to see him, who
+knew him again: and that Nobleman took care to have him recommended to
+the Viceroy his successor; namely, the Marquis of Balero, a man as
+much against the French as the Duke was for them.
+
+M. de St. Denis did not long solicit the Marquis of Balero for
+concluding the treaty of commerce; he soon had other business to mind.
+F. Olivarez, who, on the representation of P. Ydalgo, as a person of a
+jealous, turbulent, and dangerous disposition, had been excluded from
+the mission to the Assinaïs, being then at the court of the Viceroy,
+saw with an evil eye the Person who had settled F. Ydalgo in that
+mission, and resolved to be avenged on him for the vexation caused by
+that disappointment. He joined himself to an officer, named Don Martin
+de Alaron, a person peculiarly protected by the Marquis of Balero: and
+they succeeded so well with that nobleman that in the time M. de St.
+Denis least expected, he found himself arrested, and clapt in a
+dungeon; from which he was not discharged {10} till December 20 of
+this year, by an order of the Sovereign Council of Mexico, to which he
+found means to present several petitions. The Viceroy, constrained to
+enlarge him, allotted the town for his place of confinement.
+
+The business of the treaty of commerce being now at an end, M. de St.
+Denis's attention was only engaged how to make the most of the goods,
+of which Don Diego Raymond had sent as large a quantity as he could,
+to the town of Mexico; where they were seized by D. Martin de Alaron,
+as contraband; he being one of the emissaries of his protector,
+appointed to persecute such strangers as did not dearly purchase the
+permission to sell their goods. M. de St. Denis could make only enough
+of his pillaged and damaged effects just to defray certain expences of
+suit, which, in a country that abounds with nothing else but gold and
+silver, are enormous.
+
+Our prisoner having nothing further to engross his attention in
+Mexico, but the safety of his person, seriously bethought himself how
+to secure it; as he had ever just grounds to apprehend some bad
+treatment at the bands of his three avowed enemies. Having therefore
+planned the means of his flight, on September 25, 1718, as the night
+came on, he quitted Mexico, and placing himself in ambush at a certain
+distance from the town, waited till his good fortune should afford the
+means of travelling otherwise than on foot. About nine at night, a
+horseman, well-mounted, cast up. To rush of a sudden upon him,
+dismount him, mount his horse, turn the bridle, and set up a gallop,
+was the work of a moment only for St. Denis. He rode on at a good pace
+till day, then quitted the common road, to repose him: a precaution he
+observed all along, till he came near to the Presidio of St. John
+Baptist. From thence he continued his journey on foot; and at length,
+on April 2, 1719, arrived at the French colony, where he found
+considerable alterations.
+
+From the departure of M. de St. Denis from Mexico, to his return
+again, almost three years had elapsed. In that long time, the grant of
+Louisiana was transferred from M. Crozat to the West India Company; M.
+de la Motte Cadillac was dead, and M. de Biainville, brother to M.
+d'Hiberville, succeeded as {11} governor general. The capital place of
+the colony was no longer at Mobile, nor even at Old Biloxi, whither it
+had been removed: New Orleans, now begun to be built, was become the
+capital of the country, whither he repaired to give M. de Biainville
+an account of his journey; after which he retired to his settlement.
+The king afterwards conferred upon him the cross of St. Louis, in
+acknowledgement and recompence of his services.
+
+The West India Company, building great hopes of commerce on Louisiana,
+made efforts to people that country, sufficient to accomplish their
+end. Thither, for the first time, they sent, in 1718, a colony of
+eight hundred: men some of which settled at New Orleans, others formed
+the settlements of the Natchez. It was with this embarkation I passed
+over to Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the_ West India Company _to_
+Louisiana. _Arrival and Stay at _Cape François. _Arrival at_ Isle
+Dauphine. _Description of that Island_.
+
+
+The embarkation was made at Rochelle on three different vessels, on
+one of which I embarked. For the first days of our voyage we had the
+wind contrary, but no high sea. On the eighth the wind turned more
+favourable. I observed nothing interesting till we came to the Tropick
+of Cancer, where the ceremony of baptizing was performed on those who
+had never been a voyage: after passing the Tropick, the Commodore
+steered too much to the south, our captain observed. In effect, after
+several days sailing, we were obliged to bear off to the north: we
+afterwards discovered the isle of St. Juan de Porto Rico, which
+belongs to the Spaniards. Losing sight of that, we discovered the
+island of St. Domingo; and a little after, as we bore on, we saw the
+Grange, which is a rock, overtopping the steep coast, which is almost
+perpendicular to the edge of the water. This rock, seen at a distance,
+seems to have the figure of a grange, or barn. A few hours after we
+{12} arrived at Cape François, distant from that rock only twelve
+leagues.
+
+We were two months in this passage to Cape François; both on account
+of the contrary winds, we had on setting out, and of the calms, which
+are frequent in those seas: our vessel, besides, being clumsy and
+heavy, had some difficulty to keep up with the others; which, not to
+leave us behind, carried only their four greater sails, while we had
+out between seventeen and eighteen.
+
+It is in those seas we meet with the Tradewinds; which though weak, a
+great deal of way might be made, did they blow constantly, because
+their course is from east to west without varying: storms are never
+observed in these seas, but the calms often prove a great hindrance;
+and then it is necessary to wait some days, till a _grain_, or squall,
+brings back the wind: a _grain_ is a small spot seen in the air, which
+spreads very fast, and forms a cloud, that gives a wind, which is
+brisk at first, but not lasting, though enough to make way with.
+Nothing besides remarkable is here seen, but the chace of the
+_flying-fish_ by the Bonitas.
+
+The Bonita is a fish, which is sometimes two feet long; extremely fond
+of the _flying-fish_; which is the reason it always keeps to the places
+where these fish are found: its flesh is extremely delicate and of a
+good flavour.
+
+The _flying-fish_ is of the length of a herring, but rounder. From its
+sides, instead of fins, issue out two wings, each about four inches in
+length, by two in breadth at the extremity; they fold together and
+open out like a fan, and are round at the end; consisting of a very
+fine membrane, pierced with a vast many little holes, which keep the
+water, when the fish is out of it: in order to avoid the pursuit of
+the Bonita, it darts into the air, spreads out its wings, goes
+straight on, without being able to turn to the right or left; which is
+the reason, that as soon as the toilets, or little sheets of water,
+which fill up the small holes of its wings, are dried up, it falls
+down again; and the same Bonita, which pursued it in the water, still
+following it with his eye in the air, catches it when fallen into the
+water; it sometimes falls on board ships. The Bonita, in his turn,
+{13} becomes the prey of the seamen, by means of little puppets, in
+the form of _flying-fish_, which it swallows, and by that means is
+taken.
+
+We stayed fifteen days at Cape François, to take in wood and water,
+and to refresh. It is situate on the north part of the island of St.
+Domingo, which part the French are in possession of, as the Spaniards
+are of the other. The fruits and sweet-meats of the country are
+excellent, but the meat good for nothing, hard, dry, and tough. This
+country being scorched, grass is very scarce, and animals therein
+languish and droop. Six weeks before our arrival, fifteen hundred
+persons died of an epidemic distemper, called the Siam distemper.
+
+We sailed from Cape François, with the same wind, and the finest
+weather imaginable. We then passed between the islands of Tortuga and
+St. Domingo, where we espied Port de Paix, which is over-against
+Tortuga: we afterwards found ourselves between the extremities of St.
+Domingo and Cuba which belongs to the Spaniards: we then steered along
+the south coast of this last, leaving to the left Jamaica, and the
+great and little Kayemans, which are subject to the English. We at
+length quitted Cuba at Cape Anthony, steering for Louisiana a north
+west course. We espied land in coming towards it, but so flat, though
+distant but a league from us, that we had great difficulty to
+distinguish it, though we had then but four fathom water. We put out
+the boat to examine the land, which we found to be Candlemas island
+(la Chandeleur.) We directly set sail for the island of Massacre,
+since called Isle Dauphine, situated three leagues to the south of
+that continent, which forms the Gulf of Mexico to the north, at about
+27° 35' North latitude, and 288° of longitude. A little after we
+discovered the Isle Dauphine, and cast anchor before the harbour, in
+the road, because the harbour itself was choaked up. To make this
+passage we took three months, and arrived only August 25th. We had a
+prosperous voyage all along, and the more so, as no one died, or was
+even dangerously ill the whole time, for which we caused _Te Deum_
+solemnly to be sung.
+
+We were then put on shore with all our effects. The company had
+undertaken to transport us with our servants and {14} effects, at
+their expence, and to lodge, maintain and convey us to our several
+concessions, or grants.
+
+This gulf abounds with delicious fish; as the _sarde_ (pilchard) red
+fish, cod, sturgeon, ringed thornback, and many other sorts, the best
+in their kind. The _sarde_ is a large fish; its flesh is delicate, and
+of a fine flavour, the scales grey, and of a moderate size. The red
+fish is so called, from its red scales, of the size of a crown piece.
+The cod, fished for on this coast, is of the middling sort, and very
+delicate. The thornback is the same as in France. Before we quit this
+island, it will not, perhaps, be improper to mention some things about
+it.
+
+The Isle Massacre was so called by the first Frenchman who landed
+there, because on the shore of this island they found a small rising
+ground, or eminence, which appeared the more extraordinary in an
+island altogether flat, and seemingly formed only by the sand, thrown
+in by some high gusts of wind. As the whole coast of the gulf is very
+flat, and along the continent lies a chain of such islands, which seem
+to be mutually joined by their points, and to form a line parallel
+with the continent, this small eminence appeared to them
+extraordinary: it was more narrowly examined, and in different parts
+thereof they found dead mens bones, just appearing above the little
+earth that covered them. Then their curiosity led them to rake off the
+earth in several places; but finding nothing underneath, but a heap of
+bones, they cried out with horror, _Ah! what a Massacre!_ They
+afterwards understood by the natives, who are at no great distance
+off, that a nation adjoining to that island, being at war with another
+much more powerful, was constrained to quit the continent, which is
+only three leagues off, and to remove to this island, there to live in
+peace the rest of their days; but that their enemies, justly confiding
+in their superiority, pursued them to this their feeble retreat, and
+entirely destroyed them; and after raising this inhuman trophy of
+their victorious barbarity, retired again. I myself saw this fatal
+monument, which made me imagine this unhappy nation must have been
+even numerous toward its period, as only the bones of their warriors,
+and aged men must have lain there, their custom being to make slaves
+of their {15} young people. Such is the origin of the first name of
+this island, which, on our arrival, was changed to that of Isle
+Dauphine: an act of prudence, it should-seem, to discontinue an
+appellation, so odious, of a place that was the cradle of the colony;
+as Mobile was its birth-place.
+
+This island is very flat, and all a white sand, as are all the others,
+and the coast in like manner. Its length is about seven leagues from
+east to west; its breadth a short league from south to north,
+especially to the east, where the settlement was made, on account of
+the harbour which was at the south end of the island, and choaked up
+by a high sea, a little before our arrival: this east end runs to a
+point. It is tolerably well stored with pine; but so dry and parched,
+on account of its crystal sand, as that no greens or pulse can grow
+therein, and beasts are pinched and hard put to it for sustenance.
+
+In the mean time, M. de Biainville, commandant general for the company
+in this colony, was gone to mark out the spot on which the capital was
+to be built, namely, one of the banks of the river Missisippi, where
+at present stands the city of New Orleans, so called in honour of the
+duke of Orleans, then regent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the Places he
+passed through, as far as_ New Orleans.
+
+
+The time of my departure, so much wished for, came at length. I set
+out with my hired servants, all my effects, and a letter for M.
+Paillou, major general at New Orleans, who commanded there in the
+absence of M. de Biainville. We coasted along the continent, and came
+to lie in the mouth of the river of the Pasca-Ogoulas; so called,
+because near its mouth, and to the east of a bay of the same name,
+dwells a nation, called Pasca-Ogoulas, which denotes the Nation of
+Bread. Here it may be remarked, that in the province of Louisiana, the
+appellation of several people terminates in the word Ogoula, which
+signifies _nation_; and that most of the rivers derive their names from
+the nations which dwell on {16} their banks. We then passed in view of
+Biloxi, where formerly was a petty nation of that name; then in view
+of the bay of St. Louis, leaving to the left successively Isle
+Dauphine, Isle a Corne, (Horne-island,) Isle aux Vaisseaux,
+(Ship-island,) and Isle aux Chats, (Cat-island).
+
+I have already described Isle Dauphine, let us now proceed to the
+three following. Horn-island is very flat and tolerably wooded, about
+six leagues in length, narrowed to a point to the west side. I know
+not whether it was for this reason, or on account of the number of
+horned cattle upon it, that it received this name; but it is certain,
+that the first Canadians, who settled on Isle Dauphine, had put most
+of their cattle, in great numbers, there; whereby they came to grow
+rich even when they slept. These cattle not requiring any attendance,
+or other care, in this island, came to multiply in such a manner, that
+the owners made great profits of them on our arrival in the colony.
+
+Proceeding still westward, we meet Ship-island; so called, because
+there is a small harbour, in which vessels at different times have put
+in for shelter. But as the island is distant four leagues from the
+coast, and that this coast is so flat, that boats cannot approach
+nearer than half a league, this harbour comes to be entirely useless.
+This island may be about five leagues in length, and a large league in
+breadth at the west point. Near that point to the north is the
+harbour, facing the continent; towards the east end it may be half a
+league in breadth: it is sufficiently wooded, and inhabited only by
+rats, which swarm there.
+
+At two leagues distance, going still westward, we meet Cat-island; so
+called, because at the time it was discovered, great numbers of cats
+were found upon it. This island is very small, not above half a league
+in diameter. The forests are over-run with underwood: a circumstance
+which, doubtless, determined M. de Biainville to put in some hogs to
+breed; which multiplied to such numbers, that, in 1722, going to hunt
+them, no other creatures were to be seen; and it was judged, that in
+time they must have devoured each other. It was found they had
+destroyed the cats.
+
+{17} All these islands are very flat, and have the same bottom of
+white sand; the woods, especially of the three first, consist of pine;
+they are almost all at the same distance from the continent, the coast
+of which is equally sandy.
+
+After passing the bay of St. Louis, of which I have spoken, we enter
+the two channels which lead to Lake Pontchartrain, called at present
+the Lake St. Louis: of these channels, one is named the Great, the
+other the Little; and they are about two leagues in length, and formed
+by a chain of islets, or little isles, between the continent and
+Cockle-island. The great channel is to the south.
+
+We lay at the end of the channels in Cockle-island; so called, because
+almost entirely formed of the shells named Coquilles des Palourdes, in
+the sea-ports, without a mixture of any others. This isle lies before
+the mouth of the Lake St. Louis to the east, and leaves at its two
+extremities two outlets to the lake; the one, by which we entered,
+which is the channel just mentioned; the other, by the Lake Borgne.
+The lake, moreover, at the other end westward, communicates, by a
+channel, with the Lake Maurepas; and may be about ten leagues in
+length from east to west, and seven in breadth. Several rivers, in
+their course southward, fall into it. To the south of the lake is a
+great creek (Bayouc, a stream of dead water, with little or no
+observable current) called Bayouc St. Jean; it comes close to New
+Orleans, and falls into this lake at Grass Point (Pointe aux Herbes)
+which projects a great way into the lake, at two leagues distance from
+Cockle-island. We passed near that Point, which is nothing but a
+quagmire. From thence we proceeded to the Bayouc Choupic, so
+denominated from a fish of that name, and three leagues from the
+Pointe aux Herbes. The many rivulets, which discharge themselves into
+this lake, make its waters almost fresh, though it communicates with
+the sea: and on this account it abounds not only with sea fish but
+with fresh water fish, some of which, particularly carp, would appear
+to be of a monstrous size in France.
+
+We entered this Creek Choupic: at the entrance of which is a fort at
+present. We went up this creek for the space of a league, and landed
+at a place where formerly stood the village {18} of the natives, who
+are called Cola-Pissas, an appellation corrupted by the French, the
+true name of that nation being Aquelou-Pissas, that is, _the nation of
+men that hear and see_. From this place to New Orleans, and the river
+Missisippi, on which that capital is built, the distance is only a
+league.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_The Author put in Possession of his Territory. His Resolution to go
+and settle among the_ Natchez.
+
+
+Being arrived at the Creek Choupic the Sicur Lavigne, a Canadian, lodged
+me in a cabin of the Aquelou-Pissas, whose village he had bought. He
+gave others to my workmen for their lodging; and we were all happy to
+find, upon our arrival, that we were under shelter, in a place that was
+uninhabited. A few days after my arrival I bought an Indian female slave
+of one of the inhabitants, in order to have a person who could dress our
+victuals, as I perceived the inhabitants did all they could to entice
+away our labourers, and to gain them by fair promises. As for my slave
+and me, we did not understand one another's language; but I made myself
+to be understood by signs, which these natives comprehend very easily:
+she was of the nation of the Chitimachas, with whom the French had been
+at war for some years.
+
+I went to view a spot on St. John's Creek, about half a league distant
+from the place where the capital was to be founded, which was yet only
+marked out by a hut, covered with palmetto-leaves, and which the
+commandant had caused to be built for his own lodging; and after him
+for M. Paillou, whom he left commandant of that post. I had chosen
+that place preferably to any others, with a view to dispose more
+easily of my goods and provisions, and that I might not have them to
+transport to a great distance. I told M. Paillou of my choice, who
+came and put me in possession, in the name of the West-India company.
+
+I built a hut upon my settlement, about forty yards from the creek of
+St. John, till I could build my house, and lodging {19} for my people.
+As my hut was composed of very combustible materials, I caused a fire
+to be made at a distance, about half way from the creek, to avoid
+accidents: which occasioned an adventure, that put me in mind of the
+prejudices they have in Europe, from the relations that are commonly
+current. The account I am going to give of it, may have upon those who
+think as I did then, the same effect that it had upon me.
+
+It was almost night, when my slave perceived, within two yards of the
+fire, a young alligator, five feet long, which beheld the fire without
+moving. I was in the garden hard by, when she made me repeated signs
+to come to her; I ran with speed, and upon my arrival she shewed me
+the crocodile, without speaking to me; the little time that I examined
+it, I could see, its eyes were so fixed on the fire, that all our
+motions could not take them off. I ran to my cabin to look for my gun,
+as I am a pretty good marksman: but what was my surprize, when I came
+out, and saw the girl with a great stick in her hand attacking the
+monster! Seeing me arrive, she began to smile, and said many things,
+which I did not comprehend. But she made me understand, by signs, that
+there was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast; for the stick
+she shewed me was sufficient for the purpose.
+
+The next day the former master of my slave came to ask me for some
+salad-plants; for I was the only one who had any garden-stuff, having
+taken care to preserve the seeds I had brought over with me. As he
+understood the language of the natives, I begged him to ask the girl,
+why she had killed the alligator so rashly. He began to laugh, and
+told me, that all new comers were afraid of those creatures, although
+they have no reason to be so: and that I ought not to be surprized at
+what the girl had done, because her nation inhabited the borders of a
+lake, which was full of those creatures; that the children, when they
+saw the young ones come on land, pursued them, and killed them, by the
+assistance of the people of the cabin, who made good cheer of them.
+
+I was pleased with my habitation, and I had good reasons, which I have
+already related, to make me prefer it to others; notwithstanding I had
+room to believe, that the situation was {20} none of the healthiest,
+the country about it being very damp. But this cause of an unwholesome
+air does not exist at present, since they have cleared the ground, and
+made a bank before the town. The quality of that land is very good,
+for what I had sown came up very well. Having found in the spring some
+peach-stones which began to sprout, I planted them; and the following
+autumn they had made shoots, four feet high, with branches in
+proportion.
+
+Notwithstanding these advantages, I took a resolution to quit this
+settlement, in order to make another one, about a hundred leagues
+higher up; and I shall give the reasons, which, in my opinion, will
+appear sufficient to have made me take that step.
+
+My surgeon came to take his leave of me, letting me know, he could be
+of no service to me, near such a town as was forming; where there was
+a much abler surgeon than himself; and that they had talked to him so
+favourably of the post of the Natchez, that he was very desirous to go
+there, and the more so, as that place, being unprovided with a
+surgeon, might be more to his advantage. To satisfy me of the truth of
+what he told me, he went immediately and brought one of the old
+inhabitants, of whom I had bought my slave, who confirmed the account
+he had given me of the fineness of the country of the Natchez. The
+account of the old man, joined to many other advantages, to be found
+there, had made him think of abandoning the place where we were, to
+settle there; and he reckoned to be abundantly repaid for it in a
+little time.
+
+My slave heard the discourse that I have related, and as she began to
+understand French, and I the language of the country, she addressed
+herself to me thus: "Thou art going, then, to that country; the sky is
+much finer there; game is in much greater plenty; and as I have
+relations, who retired there in the war which we had with the French,
+they will bring us every thing we want: they tell me that country is
+very fine, that they live well in it, and to a good old age."
+
+Two days afterwards I told M. Hubert what I had heard of the country
+of the Natchez. He made answer, that he was {21} so persuaded of the
+goodness of that part of the country, that he was making ready to go
+there himself, to take up his grant, and to establish a large
+settlement for the company: and, continued he, "I shall be very glad,
+if you do the same: we shall be Company to one another, and you will
+unquestionably do your business better there than here."
+
+[Illustration: _Indian in summer time_]
+
+This determined me to follow his advice: I quitted my settlement, and
+took lodgings in the town, till I should find an {22} opportunity to
+depart, and receive some negroes whom I expected in a short time.
+[Footnote: Chap. VIII.] My stay at New Orleans appeared long, before I
+heard of the arrival of the negroes. Some days after the news of their
+arrival, M. Hubert brought me two good ones, which had fallen to me by
+lot. One was a young negro about twenty, with his wife of the same
+age; which cost me both together 1320 livres, or 55&#163;. sterling.
+
+Two days after that I set off with them alone in a pettyaugre (a large
+canoe,) because I was told we should make much better speed in such a
+vessel, than in the boats that went with us; and that I had only to
+take powder and ball with me, to provide my whole company with game
+sufficient to maintain us; for which purpose it was necessary to make
+use of a paddle, instead of oars, which make too much noise for the
+game. I had a barrel of powder, with fifteen pounds of shot, which I
+thought would be sufficient for the voyage: but I found by experience,
+that this was not sufficient for the vast plenty of game that is to be
+met with upon that river, without ever going out of your way. I had
+not gone above twenty-eight leagues, to the grant of M. Paris du
+Vernai, when I was obliged to borrow of him fifteen pounds of shot
+more. Upon this I took care of my ammunition, and shot nothing but
+what was fit for our provision; such as wild ducks, summer ducks,
+teal, and saw-bills. Among the rest I killed a carancro, wild geese,
+cranes, and flamingo's; I likewise often killed young alligators; the
+tail of which was a feast for the slaves, as well as for the French
+and Canadian rowers.
+
+Among other things I cannot omit to give an account of a monstrous
+large alligator I killed with a musquet ball, as it lay upon the bank,
+about ten feet above the edge of the water. We measured it, and found
+it to be nineteen feet long, its head three feet and a half long,
+above two feet nine inches broad, and the other parts in proportion:
+at the belly it was two feet two inches thick; and it infected the
+whole air with the odor of musk. M. Mehane told me, he had killed one
+twenty-two feet long.
+
+{23} After several days navigation, we arrived at Tonicas on Christmas
+eve; where we heard mass from M. d' Avion, of the foreign missions,
+with whom we passed the rest of the holy days, on account of the good
+reception and kind invitation he gave us. I asked him, if his great
+zeal for the salvation of the natives was attended with any success;
+he answered me, that notwithstanding the profound respect the people
+shewed him, it was with the greatest difficulty he could get leave to
+baptize a few children at the point of death; that those of an
+advanced age excused themselves from embracing our holy religion
+because they are too old, say they, to accustom themselves to rules,
+that are so difficult to be observed; that the chief, who had killed
+the physician, that attended his only son in a distemper of which he
+died, had taken a resolution to fast every Friday while he lived, in
+remorse for his inhumanity with which he had been so sharply
+reproached by him. This grand chief attended both morning and evening
+prayers; the women and children likewise assisted regularly at them;
+but the men, who did not come very often, took more pleasure in
+ringing the bell. In other respects, they did not suffer this zealous
+pastor to want for any thing, but furnished him with whatever he
+desired.
+
+We were yet twenty-five leagues to the end of our journey to the
+Natchez, and we left the Tonicas, where we saw nothing interesting, if
+it were not several steep hills, which stand together; among which
+there is one that they name the White Hill, because they find in it
+several veins of an earth, that is white, greasy, and very fine, with
+which I have seen very good potters ware made. On the same hill there
+are veins of ochre, of which the Natchez had just taken some to stain
+their earthen Ware, which looked well enough; when it was besmeared
+with ochre, it became red on burning.
+
+At last we arrived at the Natchez, after a voyage of twenty-four
+leagues; and we put on shore at a landing-place, which is at the foot
+of a hill two hundred feet high, upon the top of which Fort Rosalie
+[Footnote: Fort Rosalie, in the country of the Natchez, was at first
+pitched upon for the metropolis of this colony. But though it be
+necessary to begin by a settlement near the sea; yet if ever Louisiana
+comes to be in a flourishing condition, as it may very well be, it
+appears to me, that the capital of it cannot be better situated than
+in this place. It is not subject to inundations of the river; the air
+is pure; the country very extensive; the land fit for every thing, and
+well watered; it is not at too great a distance from the sea, and
+nothing hinders vessels to go up to it. In fine, it is within reach of
+every place intended to be settled. Charlevoix, Hist. de la N. France,
+III. 415.
+
+This is on the east side of the Missisippi, and appears to be the
+first post on that river which we ought to secure.] is built,
+surrounded only with pallisadoes. {24} About the middle of the hill
+stands the magazine, nigh to some houses of the inhabitants, who are
+settled there, because the ascent is not so steep in that place; and
+it is for the same reason that the magazine is built there. When you
+are upon the top of this hill, you discover the whole country, which
+is an extensive beautiful plain, with several little hills
+interspersed here and there, upon which the inhabitants have built and
+made their settlements. The prospect of it is charming.
+
+On our arrival at the Natchez I was very well received by M. Loire de
+Flaucourt, storekeeper of this post, who regaled us with the game that
+abounds in this place; and after two days I hired a house near the
+fort, for M. Hubert and his family, on their arrival, till he could
+build upon his own plantation. He likewise desired me to choose two
+convenient parcels of land, whereon to settle two considerable
+plantations, one for the company, and the other for himself. I went to
+them in two or three days after my arrival, with an old inhabitant for
+my guide, and to shew me the proper places, and at the same time to
+choose a spot of ground for myself; this last I pitched upon the first
+day, because it is more easy to choose for one's self than for others.
+
+I found upon the main road that leads from the chief village of the
+Natchez to the fort, about an hundred paces from this last, a cabin of
+the natives upon the road side, surrounded with a spot of cleared
+ground, the whole of which I bought by means of an interpreter. I made
+this purchase with the more pleasure, as I had upon the spot,
+wherewithal to lodge me and my people, with all my effects: the
+cleared ground was about six acres, which would form a garden and a
+plantation for {25} tobacco, which was then the only commodity
+cultivated by the inhabitants. I had water convenient for my house,
+and all my land was very good. On one side stood a rising ground with
+a gentle declivity, covered with a thick field of canes, which always
+grow upon the rich lands; behind that was a great meadow, and on the
+other side was a forest of white walnuts (Hiecories) of nigh fifty
+acres, covered with grass knee deep. All this piece of ground was in
+general good, and contained about four hundred acres of a measure
+greater than that of Paris: the soil is black and light.
+
+The other two pieces of land, which M. Hubert had ordered me to look
+for, I took up on the border of the little river of the Natchez, each
+of them half a league from the great village of that nation, and a
+league from the fort; and my plantation stood between these two and
+the fort, bounding the two others. After this I took up my lodging
+upon my own plantation, in the hut I had bought of the Indian, and put
+my people in another, which they built for themselves at the side of
+mine; so that I was lodged pretty much like our wood-cutters in
+France, when they are at work in the woods.
+
+As soon as I was put in possession of my habitation, I went with an
+interpreter to see the other fields, which the Indians had cleared
+upon my land, and bought them all, except one, which an Indian would
+never sell to me: it was situated very convenient for me, I had a mind
+for it, and would have given him a good price; but I could never make
+him agree to my proposals. He gave me to understand, that without
+selling it, he would give it up to me, as soon as I should clear my
+ground to his; and that while he stayed on his own ground near me, I
+should always find him ready to serve me, and that he would go
+a-hunting and fishing for me. This answer satisfied me, because I must
+have had twenty negroes, before I could have been able to have reached
+him; they assured me likewise, that he was an honest man; and far from
+having any occasion to complain of him as a neighbour, his stay there
+was extremely serviceable to me.
+
+I had not been settled at the Natchez six months, when I found a pain
+in my thigh, which, however, did not hinder me {26} to go about my
+business. I consulted our surgeon about it, who caused me to be
+bleeded; on which the humour fell upon the other thigh, and fixed
+there with such violence, that I could not walk without extreme pain.
+I consulted the physicians and surgeons of New Orleans, who advised me
+to use aromatic baths; and if they proved of no service, I must go to
+France, to drink the waters, and to bathe in them. This answer
+satisfied me so much the less, as I was neither certain of my cure by
+that means, nor would my present situation allow me to go to France.
+This cruel distemper, I believe, proceeded from the rains, with which
+I was wet, during our whole voyage; and might be some effects of the
+fatigues I had undergone in war, during several campaigns I had made
+in Germany.
+
+As I could not go out of my hut, several neighbours were so good as to
+come and see me, and every day we were no less than twelve at table
+from the time of our arrival, which was on the fifth of January, 1720.
+Among the rest F. de Ville, who waited there, in his journey to the
+Illinois, till the ice, which began to come down from the north, was
+gone. His conversation afforded me great satisfaction in my
+confinement, and allayed the vexation I was under from my two negroes
+being run away. In the mean time my distemper did not abate, which
+made me resolve to apply to one of the Indian conjurers, who are both
+surgeons, divines, and sorcerers; and who told me he would cure me by
+sucking the place where I felt my pain. He made several scarifications
+upon the part with a sharp flint, each of them about as large as the
+prick of a lancet, and in such a form, that he could suck them all at
+once, which gave me extreme pain for the space of half an hour. The
+next day I found myself a little better, and walked about into my
+field, where they advised me to put myself in the hands of some of the
+Natchez, who, they said, did surprising cures, of which they told me
+many instances, confirmed by creditable people. In such a situation a
+man will do any thing for a cure, especially as the remedy, which they
+told me of, was very simple: it was only a poultice, which they put
+upon the part affected, and in eight days time I was able to walk to
+the fort, finding myself perfectly cured, as I have felt no return of
+my pain since that {27} time. This was, without doubt, a great
+satisfaction to a young man, who found himself otherwise in good
+health, but had been confined to the house for four months and a half,
+without being able to go out a moment; and gave me as much joy as I
+could well have, after the loss of a good negro, who died of a
+defluxion on the breast, which he catched by running away into the
+woods, where his youth and want of experience made him believe he
+might live without the toils of slavery; but being found by the
+Tonicas, constant friends of the French, who live about twenty leagues
+from the N&#224;tchez, they carried him to their village, where he and
+his wife were given to a Frenchman, for whom they worked, and by that
+means got their livelihood; till M. de Montplaisir sent them home to
+me.
+
+This M. de Montplaisir, one of the most agreeable gentlemen in the
+colony, was sent by the company from Clerac in Gascony, to manage
+their plantation at the Natchez, to make tobacco upon it, and to shew
+the people the way of cultivating and curing it; the company having
+learned, that this place produced excellent tobacco, and that the
+people of Clerac were perfectly well acquainted with the culture and
+way of managing it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_The Voyage of the Author to_ Biloxi. _Description of that Place.
+Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two Coppermines. His Return
+to the Natchez._
+
+
+<b>The</b> second year after my settling among the Natchez, I went to
+New Orleans, as I was desirous to sell my goods and commodities
+myself, instead of selling them to the travelling pedlars, who often
+require too great a profit for their pains. Another reason that made
+me undertake this voyage, was to send my letters to France myself,
+which I was certainly informed, were generally intercepted.
+
+Before my departure, I went to the commandant of the fort, and asked
+him whether he had any letters for the government. I was not on very
+good terms of friendship with this commandant of the Natchez, who
+endeavoured to pay his court {28} to the governor, at the expence of
+others. I knew he had letters for M. de Biainville, although he told
+me he had none, which made me get a certificate from the commissary
+general of this refusal to my demand; and at the same time the
+commissary begged me to carry down a servant of the company, and gave
+me an order to pay for his maintenance. As I made no great haste, but
+stopt to see my friends, in my going down the river, the commandant
+had time to send his letters, and to write to the governor, that I
+refused to take them. As soon as I arrived at Biloxi, this occasioned
+M. de Biainville to tell me, with some coldness, that I refused to
+charge myself with his letters. Upon this I shewed him the certificate
+of the commissary general; to which he could give no other answer,
+than by telling me, that at least I could not deny, that I had brought
+away by stealth a servant of the company. Upon this I shewed him the
+other certificate of the commissary general, by which he desired the
+directors to reimburse me the charges of bringing down this servant,
+who was of no use to him above; which put the governor in a very bad
+humour.
+
+Upon my arrival at New Orleans I was informed, that there were several
+grantees arrived at New Biloxi. I thought fit then to go thither, both
+to sell my goods, and to get sure conveyance for my letters to France.
+Here I was invited to sup with M. d'Artaguette, king's lieutenant, who
+usually invited all the grantees, as well as myself. I there found
+several of the grantees, who were all my friends; and among us we made
+out a sure conveyance for our letters to France, of which we
+afterwards made use.
+
+Biloxi is situate opposite to Ship-Island, and four leagues from it.
+But I never could guess the reason, why the principal settlement was
+made at this place, nor why the capital should be built at it; as
+nothing could be more repugnant to good sense; vessels not being able
+to come within four leagues of it; but what was worse, nothing could
+be brought from them, but by changing the boats three different times,
+from a smaller size to another still smaller; after which they had to
+go upwards of an hundred paces with small carts through the water to
+unload the least boats. But what ought still to have {29} been a
+greater discouragement against making a settlement at Biloxi, was,
+that the land is the most barren of any to be found thereabouts; being
+nothing but a fine sand, as white and shining as snow, on which no
+kind of greens can be raised; besides, the being extremely incommoded
+with rats, which swarm there in the sand, and at that time ate even
+the very stocks of the guns, the famine being there so very great,
+that more than five hundred people died of hunger; bread being very
+dear, and flesh-meat still more rare. There was nothing in plenty but
+fish, with which this place abounds.
+
+This scarcity proceeded from the arrival of several grantees all at
+once; so as to have neither provisions, nor boats to transport them to
+the places of their destination, as the company had obliged themselves
+to do. The great plenty of oysters, found upon the coast, saved the
+lives of some of them, although obliged to wade almost up to their
+thighs for them, a gun-shot from the shore. If this food nourished
+several of them, it threw numbers into sickness; which was still more
+heightened by the long time they were obliged to be in the water.
+
+The grants were those of M. Law, who was to have fifteen hundred men,
+consisting of Germans, Proven&#231;als, &c. to form the settlement.
+His land being marked out at the Arkansas, consisted of four leagues
+square, and was erected into a duchy, with accoutrements for a company
+of dragoons, and merchandize for more than a million of livres. M.
+Levans, who was a trustee of it, had his chaise to visit the different
+posts of the grant. But M. Law soon after becoming bankrupt, the
+company seized on all the effects and merchandise; and but a few of
+those who engaged in the service of that grant, remained at the
+Arkansas; they were afterwards all dispersed and set at liberty. The
+Germans almost to a man settled eight leagues above, and to the west
+of the capital. This grant ruined near a thousand persons at L'Orient
+before their embarkation, and above two hundred at Biloxi; not to
+mention those who came out at the same time with me in 1718. All this
+distress, of which I was a witness at Biloxi, determined me to make an
+excursion a few leagues on the coast, in order to pass some days {30}
+with a friend, who received me with pleasure. We mounted horse to
+visit the interior part of the country a few leagues from the sea. I
+found the fields pleasant enough, but less fertile than along the
+Missisippi; as they have some resemblance of the neighbouring coast,
+which has scarce any other plants but pines, that run a great way, and
+some red and white cedars.
+
+When we came to the plain, I carefully searched every spot that I
+thought worth my attention. In consequence of the search I found two
+mines of copper, whose metal plainly appeared above ground. They stood
+about half a league asunder. We may justly conclude that they are very
+rich, as they thus disclose themselves on the surface of the earth.
+
+When I had made a sufficient excursion, and judged I could find
+nothing further to satisfy my curiosity, I returned to Biloxi, where I
+found two boats of the company, just preparing to depart for New
+Orleans, and a large pettyaugre, which belonged to F. Charlevoix the
+jesuit, whose name is well known in the republic of letters: with him
+I returned to New Orleans.
+
+Some time after my return from New Orleans to the Natchez, towards the
+month of March 1722, a phaenomenon happened, which frightened the
+whole province. Every morning, for eight days running, a hollow noise,
+somewhat loud, was heard to reach from the sea to the Illinois; which
+arose from the west. In the afternoon it was heard to descend from the
+east, and that with an incredible quickness; and though the noise
+seemed to bear on the water, yet without agitating it, or discovering
+any more wind on the river than before. This frightful noise was only
+the prelude of a most violent tempest. The hurricane, the most furious
+ever felt in the province, lasted three days. As it arose from the
+south-west and north-east, it reached all the settlements which were
+along the Missisippi; and was felt for some leagues more or less
+strong, in proportion to the greater or less distance: but in the
+places, where the force or height of the hurricane passed, it
+overturned every thing in its way, which was an extent of a large
+quarter of a league broad; so that one would take it for {31} an
+avenue made on purpose, the place where it passed being entirely laid
+flat, whilst every thing stood upright on each side. The largest trees
+were torn up by the roots, and their branches broken to pieces and
+laid flat to the earth, as were also the reeds of the woods. In the
+meadows, the grass itself, which was then but six inches high, and
+which is very fine, could not escape, but was trampled, faded, and
+laid quite flat to the earth.
+
+[Illustration: Indian in winter time]
+
+{32} The height of the hurricane passed at a league from my
+habitation; and yet my hose, which was built on piles, would have been
+overturned, had I not speedily propped it with a timber, with the
+great end in the earth, and nailed to the house with an iron hook
+seven or eight inches long. Several houses of our post were
+overturned. But it was happy for us in this colony, that the height of
+the hurricane passed not directly oer any post, but obliquely
+traversed the Missisippi, over a country intirely uninhabited. As this
+hurricane came from the south, it so swelled the sea, that the
+Missisippi flowed back against its current, so as to rise upwards of
+fifteen feet high.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_First War with the_ Natchez. _Cause of the War._
+
+
+In the same year, towards the end of summer, we had the first war with
+the Natchez. The French had settled at the Natchez, without any
+opposition from these people; so far from opposing them, they did them
+a great deal of service, and gave them very material assistance in
+procuring provisions; for those, who were sent by the West India
+Comany with the first fleet, had been detained at New Orleans. Had it
+not been for the natives, the people must have perished by famine and
+distress: for, how excellent soever a new country it may be, it must
+be cleared, grubbed up, and sown, and then at least we are to wait the
+first harvest, or crop. But during all that time people must live, and
+the company was well apprized of this, as they had send, witht he
+eight hundred men they had transported to Louisiana, provisions for
+three years. The grantees and planters, obliged _to treat_, or truck for
+provisions with the Natchez, in consequence of that saw their funds
+wasted, and themselves incapable of forming so considerable a
+settlement, without this trucking, as necessary, as it was frequent.
+
+However, some benefit resulted from this; namely that the Natchez,
+enticed by the facility of trucking for goods, before unknown to them,
+as fusils, gun-powder, lead, brandy, linen, cloths, and other like
+things, by means of an exchange of what they abounded with, came to be
+more and more attached {33} to the French; and would have continued
+very useful friends, had not the little satisfaction which the
+commandant of Fort Rosalie had given them, for the misbehavior of one
+of his soldiers, alienated their minds. This fort covered the
+settlement of the Natchez, and protected that of St. Catharine, which
+was on the banks of the rivulet of the Natchez; but botht he defence
+and protection it afforded were very inconsiderable; for this fort was
+only pallisadoed, open at six breaches, without a ditch, and with a
+very weak garrison. On the other hand, the houses of the inhabitants,
+though considerably numerous, were of themselves of no strength; and
+then the inhabitants, dispersed in the country, each amidst his field,
+far from affording mutual assistance, as they would had they been in a
+body, stood each of them, upon any accident, in need of the assistance
+of others.
+
+A young soldier of Fort Rosalie had given some credit to an old
+warrior of a village of the Natchez; which was that of the White
+Apple, each village having its peculiar name: the warrior, in return,
+was to give him some corn. Towards the beginning of the winter 1723,
+this soldier lodging near the fort, the old warrior came to see him;
+the soldier insisted on his corn; the native answered calmly, that the
+corn was not yet dry enough to shake out the grain; that besides, his
+wife had been ill, and that he would pay him as soon as possible. The
+young man, little satisfied with this answer, threatened to cudgel the
+old man: upon which, this last, who was in the soldier's hut,
+affronted at this threat, told him, he should turn out, and try who
+was the best man. On this challenge, the soldier, calling out murder,
+brings the guard to his assistance. The guard being come, the young
+fellow pressed them to fire upon the warrior, who was returning to his
+village at his usual pace; a soldier was imprudent enough to fire: the
+old man dropt down. The commandant was soon apprized of what happened,
+and came to the spot; where the witnesses, both French and Natchez,
+informed him of the fact. Both justice and prudence demanded to take
+an exemplary punishment of the soldier; but he got off with a
+reprimand. After this the natives made a litter, and carried off their
+warrior, who died the {34} following night of his wounds, though the
+fusil was only charged with great shot.
+
+Revenge is the predominant passion of the people in America: so that
+we ought not to be surprised, if the death of this old warrior raised
+his whole village against the French. The rest of the nation took no
+part at first in the quarrel.
+
+The first effect of the resentment of the Natchez fell upon a
+Frenchman named M. Guenot, whom they surprised returning from the fort
+to St. Catharine, and upon another inhabitant, whom they killed in his
+bed. Soon after they attacked, all in a body, the settlement of St.
+Catharine, and the other below Fort Rosalie. It was at this last I had
+fixed my abode: I therefore saw myself exposed, like many others, to
+pay with my goods, and perhaps my life, for the rashness of a soldier,
+and the too great indulgence of his captain. But as I was already
+acquainted with the character of the people we had to deal with, I
+despaired not to save both. I therefore barricadoed myself in my
+house, and having put myself in a posture of defence, when they came
+in the night, according to their custom, to surprise me, they durst
+not attack me.
+
+This first attempt, which I justly imagined was to be followed by
+another, if not by many such, made me resolve, as soon as day came, to
+retire under the fort, as all the inhabitants also did, and thither to
+carry all the provisions I had at my lodge. I could execute only half
+of my scheme. My slaves having begun to remove the best things, I was
+scarce arrived under the fort, but the commandant begged I might put
+myself at the head of the inhabitants, to go to succour St. Catharine.
+He had already sent thither all his garrison, reserving only five men
+to guard the fort; but this succour was not sufficient to relieve the
+settlement, which the natives in great numbers vigorously straitned.
+
+I departed without delay: we heard the firing at a distance, but the
+noise ceased as soon as I was come, and the natives appeared to have
+retired: they had, doubtless, discovered me on my march, and the sight
+of a reinforcement which I had brought with me, deceived them. The
+officer who commanded the detachment of the garrison, and whom I
+relieved, returned {35} to the fort with his men; and the command
+being thus devolved on me, I caused all the Negroes to be assembled,
+and ordered them to cut down all the bushes; which covering the
+country, favoured the approach of the enemy, quite to the doors of the
+houses of that Grant. This operation was performed without
+molestation, if you except a few shot, fired by the natives from the
+woods, where they lay concealed on the other side of the rivulet; for
+the plain round St. Catharine being entirely cleared of every thing
+that could screen them, they durst not shew themselves any more.
+
+However, the commandant of Fort Rosalie sent to treat with the _Stung
+Serpent_; in order to prevail with him to appease that part of his
+nation, and procure a peace. As that great warrior was our friend, he
+effectually laboured therein, and hostilities ceased. After I had
+passed twenty-four hours in St. Catharine, I was relieved by a new
+detachment from the inhabitants, whom, in my turn, I relieved next
+day. It was on this second guard, which I mounted, that the village we
+had been at war with sent me, by their deputies, the _calumet_ or _pipe
+of peace_. I at first had some thoughts of refusing it, knowing that
+this honour was due to the commandant of the fort; and it appeared to
+me a thing so much the more delicate to deprive him of it, as we were
+not upon very good terms with each other. However, the evident risk of
+giving occasion to protract the war, by refusing it, determined me to
+accept of it; after having, however, taken the advice of those about
+me; who all judged it proper to treat these people gently, to whom the
+commandant was become odious.
+
+I asked the deputies, what they would have? They answered, faultering,
+_Peace_. "Good, said I; but why bring you the Calumet of Peace to me? It
+is to the Chief of the Fort you are to carry it, if you wish to have a
+Peace." "Our orders" said they, "are to carry it first to you, if you
+choose to receive it by only smoking therein: after which we will
+carry it to the Chief of the Fort; but if you refuse receiving it, our
+orders are to return."
+
+Upon this I told them, that I agreed to smoke in their pipe, on
+condition they would carry it to the Chief of the Fort. {36} They then
+made me an harangue; to which I answered, that it were best to resume
+our former manner of living together, and that the French and the
+_Red-men_ should entirely forget what had passed. To conclude, that they
+had nothing further to do, but to go and carry the Pipe to the Chief
+of the Fort, and then go home and sleep in peace.
+
+This was the issue of the first war we had with the Natchez, which
+lasted only three or four days.
+
+The commerce, or truck, was set again on the same footing it had been
+before; and those who had suffered any damage, now thought only how
+they might best repair it. Some time after, the Major General arrived
+from New Orleans, being sent by the Governor of Louisiana to ratify
+the peace; which he did, and mutual sincerity was restored, and became
+as perfect as if there had never been any rupture between us.
+
+It had been much to be wished, that matters had remained on so good a
+footing. As we were placed in one of the best and finest countries of
+the world; were in strict connection with the natives, from whom we
+derived much knowledge of the nature of the productions of the
+country, and of the animals of all sorts, with which it abounds; and
+likewise reaped great advantage in our traffic for furs and
+provisions; and were aided by them in many laborious works, we wanted
+nothing but a profound peace, in order to form solid settlements,
+capable of making us lay aside all thoughts of Europe: but Providence
+had otherwise ordered.
+
+The winter which succeeded this war was so severe, that a colder was
+never remembered. The rain fell in icicles in such quantities as to
+astonish the oldest Natchez, to whom this great cold appeared new and
+uncommon.
+
+Towards the autumn of this year I saw a phaenomenon which struck the
+superstitious with great terror: it was in effect so extraordinary,
+that I never remember to have heard of any thing that either
+resembled, or even came up to it. I had just supped without doors, in
+order to enjoy the cool of the evening; my face was turned to the
+west, and I sat before my table to examine some planets which had
+already appeared. {37} I perceived a glimmering light, which made me
+raise my eyes; and immediately I saw, at the elevation of about 45
+degrees above the horizon, a light proceeding from the south, of the
+breadth of three inches, which went off to the north, always spreading
+itself as it moved, and made itself heard by a whizzing light like
+that of the largest sky-rocket. I judged by the eye that this light
+could not be above our atmosphere, and the whizzing noise which I
+heard confirmed me in that notion. {38} When it came in like manner to
+be about 45 degrees to the north above the horizon, it stopped short,
+and ceased enlargeing itself: in that place it appeared to be twenty
+inches broad; so that in its course, which had been very rapid, it
+formed the figure of a trumpet-marine, and left in its passage very
+lively sparks, shining brighter than those which fly from under a
+smith's hammer; but they were extinguished almost as fast as they were
+emitted.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian woman and daughter_ (on p. 37)]
+
+At the north elevation I just mentioned, there issued out with a great
+noise from the middle of the large end, a ball quite round, and all on
+fire: this ball was about six inches in diameter; it fell below the
+horizon to the north, and emitted, about twenty minutes after, a
+hollow, but very loud noise for the space of a minute, which appeared
+to come from a great distance. The light began to be weakened to the
+south, after emitting the ball, and at length disappeared, before the
+noise of the ball was heard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_The Governor surprized the_ Natchez _with seven hundred Men.
+Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The Author sends upwards of
+three hundred Simples to the Company._
+
+
+
+M. De Biainville, at the beginning of the winter which followed this
+phaenomenonived very privately at our quarter of the Natchez, his
+march having been communicated to none but the Commandant of this
+Post, who had orders to seize all the Natchez that should come to the
+Fort that day, to prevent the news of his arrival being carried to
+their country men. He brought with him, in regular troops, inhabitants
+and natives, who were our allies, to the number of seven hundred men.
+
+Orders were given that all our settlers at the Natchez should repair
+before his door at midnight at the latest: I went thither and mixed
+with the crowd, without making myself known.
+
+We arrived two hours before day at the settlement of St. Catharine.
+The Commandant having at length found me out, {39} ordered me, in the
+King's name, to put myself at the head of the settlers among the
+Natchez, and to take the command upon me; and these he ordered to pay
+the same obedience to me as to himself. We advanced with great silence
+towards the village of the Apple. It may be easily seen that all this
+precaution was taken in order to surprise our enemies, who ought so
+much the less to expect this act of hostility, as they had fairly made
+peace with us, and as M. Paillou, Major General, had come and ratified
+this peace in behalf of the Governor. We marched to the enemy and
+invested the first hut of the Natchez, which we found separate; the
+drums, in concert with the fifes, beat the charge; we fired upon the
+hut, in which were only three men and two women.
+
+From thence we afterwards moved on to the village, that is, several
+huts that stood together in a row. We halted at three of them that lay
+near each other, in which between twelve and fifteen Natchez had
+entrenched themselves. By our manner of proceeding one would have
+thought that we came only to view the huts. Full of indignation that
+none exerted himself to fall upon them, I took upon me with my men to
+go round and take the enemy in rear. They took to their heels, and I
+pursued; but we had need of the swiftness of deer to be able to come
+up with them. I came so near, however, that they threw away their
+cloaths, to run with the greater speed.
+
+I rejoined our people, and expected a reprimand for having forced the
+enemy without orders; though I had my excuse ready. But here I was
+mistaken; for I met with nothing but encomiums.
+
+This war, of which I shall give no further detail, lasted only four
+days. M. de Biainville demanded the head of an old mutinous Chief of
+this village; and the natives, in order to obtain a peace, delivered
+him up.
+
+I happened to live at some distance from the village of the Apple, and
+very seldom saw any of the people. Such as lived nearer had more
+frequent visits from them; but after this war, and the peace which
+followed upon it, I never saw one of them. My neighbours who lived
+nearer to them saw but a few of them, even a long time after the
+conclusion of the war. The {40} natives of the other villages came but
+very seldom among us; and indeed, if we could have done well without
+them, I could have wished to have been rid of them for ever. But we
+had neither a flesh nor a fish-market; therefore, without them, we
+must have taken up with what the poultry-yard and kitchen-garden
+furnished; which would have been extremely inconvenient.
+
+I one day stopped the Stung Serpent, who was passing without taking
+notice of any one. He was brother to the Great Sun, and Chief of the
+Warriors of the Natchez. I accordingly called to him, and said, "We
+were formerly friends, are we no longer so?" He answered, _Noco_; that
+is, I cannot tell. I replied, "You used to come to my house; at
+present you pass by. Have you forgot the way; or is my house
+disagreeable to you? As for me, my heart is always the same, both
+towards you and all my friends. I am not capable of changing, why then
+are you changed?"
+
+He took some time to answer, and seemed to be embarrassed by what I
+said to him. He never went to the fort, but when sent for the
+Commandant, who put me upon sounding him; in order to discover whether
+his people still retained any grudge.
+
+He at length broke silence, and told me, "he was ashamed to have been
+so long without seeing me; but I imagined," said he, "that you were
+displeased at our nation; because among all the French who were in the
+war, you were the only one that fell upon us." "You are in the wrong,"
+said I, "to think so. M. de Biainville being our War-chief, we are
+bound to obey him; in like manner as you, though a Sun, are obliged to
+kill, or cause to be killed, whomsoever your brother, the Great Sun
+orders to be put to death. Many other Frenchmen, besides me, sought an
+opportunity to attack your countrymen, in obedience to the orders of
+M. de Biainville; and several other Frenchmen fell upon the nearest
+hut, one of whom was killed by the first shot which the Natchez
+fired."
+
+He then said: "I did not approve, as you know, the war our people made
+upon the French to avenge the death of their {41} relation, seeing I
+made them carry the _pipe of peace_ to the French. This you well know,
+as you first smoked in the pipe yourself. Have the French two hearts, a
+good one today, and tomorrow a bad one? As for my brother and me, we
+have but one heart and one word. Tell me then, if thou art, as thou
+sayest, my true friend, what thou thinketh of all this, and shut thy
+mouth to every thing else. We know not what to think of the French, who,
+after having begun the war, granted a peace, and offered it of
+themselves; and then at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to
+be at peace, people come to kill us, without saying a word."
+
+"Why," continued he, with an air of displeasure, "did the French come
+into our country? We did not go to seek them: they asked for land of
+us, because their country was too little for all the men that were in
+it. We told them they might take land where they pleased, there was
+enough for them and for us; that it was good the same sun should
+enlighten us both, and that we would walk as friends in the same path;
+and that we would give them of our provisions, assist them to build,
+and to labour in their fields. We have done so; is not this true? What
+occasion then had we for Frenchmen? Before they came, did we not live
+better than we do, seeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn,
+our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what respect, then, had
+we occasion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which
+we used, were sufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white,
+blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo skins,
+which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankets for the winter,
+and mulberry-mantles for the summer; which indeed were not so
+beautiful; but our women were more laborious and less vain than they
+are now. In fine, before the arrival of the French, we lived like men
+who can be satisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are
+like slaves, who are not suffered to do as they please."
+
+To this unexpected discourse I know not what answer another would have
+made; but I frankly own, that if at my first address he seemed to be
+confused, I really was so in my turn. "My heart," said I to him,
+"better understands thy {42} reasons than my ears, though they are
+full of them; and though I have a tongue to answer, my ears have not
+heard the reasons of M. de Biainville, to tell them thee: but I know
+it was necessary to have the head he demanded, in order to a peace.
+When our Chiefs command us, we never require the reasons: I can say
+nothing else to thee. But to shew you that I am always your real
+friend, I have here a beautiful _pipe of peace_, which I wanted to carry
+to my own country. I know you have ordered all your warriors to kill
+some white eagles, in order to make one, because you have occasion for
+it. I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I
+reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure."
+
+I went to look for it, and I gave it him, telling him, that it was
+_without design;_ that is, according to them, from no interested motive.
+The natives put as great a value on a _pipe of peace_ as on a gun. Mine
+was adorned with tinsel and silver wire: so that in their estimation
+my pipe was worth two guns. He appeared to be extremely well pleased
+with it; put it up hastily in his case, squeezed my hand with a smile,
+and called me his true friend.
+
+The winter was now drawing to a close, and in a little time the
+natives were to bring us bear-oil to truck. I hoped that by his means
+I should have of the best preferably to any other; which was the only
+compensation I expected for my pipe. But I was agreeably disappointed.
+He sent me a deer-skin of bear-oil, so very large that a stout man
+could hardly carry it, and the bearer told me, that he sent it to me
+as his true friend, _without design_. This deer-skin contained
+thirty-one pots of the measure of the country, or sixty-two pints
+Paris measure.
+
+Three days after, the Great Sun, his brother, sent me another
+deer-skin of the same oil, to the quantity of forty pints. The
+commonest sort sold this year at twenty sols a pint, and I was sure
+mine was not of the worst kind.
+
+For some days a _fistula lacrymalis_ had come into my left eye, which
+discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger. I shewed it
+to M. St. Hilaire, an able surgeon, who {43} had practised for about
+twelve years in the Hôtel Dieu at Paris.
+
+He told me it was necessary to use the fire for it; and that,
+notwithstanding this operation, my sight would remain as good as ever,
+only my eye would be blood-shot: and that if I did not speedily set
+about the operation, the bone of the nose would become carious.
+
+These reasons gave me much uneasiness, as having both to fear and to
+suffer at the same time: however, after I had resolved to undergo the
+operation, the Grand Sun and his brother came one morning very early,
+with a man loaded with game, as a present for me.
+
+The Great Sun observed I had a swelling in my eye, and asked me what
+was the matter with it. I shewed it him, and told him, that in order
+to cure it, I must have fire put to it; but that I had some difficulty
+to comply, as I dreaded the consequences of such an operation. Without
+replying, or in the least apprizing me, he ordered the man who brought
+the game to go in quest of his physician, and tell him, he waited for
+him at my house. The messenger and physician made such dispatch, that
+this last came in an hour after. The Great Sun ordered him to look at
+my eye, and endeavour to cure me: after examining it, the physician
+said, he would undertake to cure me with simples and common water. I
+consented to this with so much the greater pleasure and readiness, as
+by this treatment I ran no manner of risque.
+
+That very evening the physician came with his simples, all pounded
+together, and making but a single ball, which he put with the water in
+a deep bason, he made me bend my head into it, so as the eye affected
+stood dipt quite open in the water. I continued to do so for eight or
+ten days, morning and evening; after which, without any other
+operation, I was perfectly cured, and never after had any return of
+the disorder.
+
+It is easy from this relation to understand what dextrous physicians
+the natives of Louisiana are. I have seen them perform surprising
+cures on Frenchmen; on two especially, who had put themselves under
+the hands of a French surgeon {44} settled at this post. Both patients
+were about to undergo the grand cure; and after having been under the
+hands of the surgeon for some time, their heads swelled to such a
+degree, that one of them made his escape, with as much agility as a
+criminal would from the hands of justice, when a favourable
+opportunity offers. He applied to a Natchez physician, who cured him
+in eight days: his comrade continuing still under the French surgeon,
+died under his hands three days after the escape of his companion,
+whom I saw three years after in a state of perfect health.
+
+In the war which I lately mentioned, the Grand Chief of the Tonicas,
+our allies, was wounded with a ball, which went through his cheek,
+came out under the jaw, again entered his body at the neck, and
+pierced through to the shoulder-blade, lodging at last between the
+flesh and the skin: the wound had its direction in this manner;
+because when he received it, he happened to be in a stooping posture,
+as were all his men, in order to fire. The French surgeon, under whose
+care he was, and who dressed him with great precaution, was an able
+man, and spared no pains in order to effect a cure. But the physicians
+of this Chief, who visited him every day, asked the Frenchman what
+time the cure would take? he answered, six weeks at least: they
+returned no answer, but went directly and made a litter; spoke to
+their Chief, and put him on it, carried him off, and treated him in
+their own manner, and in eight days affected a complete cure.
+
+These are facts well known in the colony. The physicians of the
+country have performed many other cures, which, if they were to be all
+related, would require a whole volume apart; but I have confined
+myself to the three above mentioned, in order to shew that disorders
+frequently accounted almost incurable, are, without any painful
+operation, and in a short time, cured by physicians, natives of
+Louisiana.
+
+The West India Company being informed that this province produces a
+great many simples, whose virtues, known by the natives, afforded so
+easy a cure to all sorts of distempers, ordered M. de la Chaise, who
+was sent from France in quality of Director General of this colony, to
+cause enquiry to be made {45} into the simples proper for physick and
+for dying, by means of some Frenchmen, who might perhaps be masters of
+the secrets of the natives. I was pointed out for this purpose to M.
+de la Chaise, who was but just arrived, and who wrote to me, desiring
+my assistance in this enquiry; which I gave him with pleasure, and in
+which I exerted myself to my utmost, because I well knew the Company
+continually aimed at what might be for the benefit of the colony.
+
+After I thought I had done in that respect, what might give
+satisfaction to the Company, I transplanted in earth, put into cane
+baskets, above three hundred simples, with their numbers, and a
+memorial, which gave a detail of their virtues, and taught the manner
+of using them. I afterwards understood that they were planted in a
+botanic garden made for the purpose, by order of the Company.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_French Settlements, or Posts. The Post at Mobile. The Mouths of the
+Missisippi. The Situation and Description of_ New Orleans.
+
+
+The Settlement at Mobile was the first seat of the colony in this
+province. It was the residence of the Commandant General, the
+Commissary General, the Staff-officers, &c. As vessels could not enter
+the river Mobile, and there was a small harbour at Isle Dauphine, a
+settlement was made suited to the harbour, with a guardhouse for its
+security: so that these two settlements may be said to have made but
+one; both on account of their proximity, and necessary connection with
+each other. The settlement of Mobile, ten leagues, however, from its
+harbour, lies on the banks of the river of that name; and Isle
+Dauphine, over against the mouth of that river, is four leagues from
+the coast.
+
+Though the settlement of Mobile be the oldest, yet it is far from
+being the most considerable. Only some inhabitants remained there, the
+greatest part of the first inhabitants having left it, in order to
+settle on the river Missisippi, ever since New Orleans became the
+capital of the colony. That old post is the {46} ordinary residence of
+a King's Lieutenant, a Regulating Commissary, and a Treasurer. The
+fort, with four bastions, terraced and palisaded, has a garrison.
+
+This post is a check upon the nation of Choctaws, and cuts off the
+communication of the English with them; it protects the neighbouring
+nations, and keeps them in our alliance; in fine, it supports our
+peltry trade, which is considerable with the Choctaws and other
+nations. [Footnote: Fort Lewis at Mobile is built upon the river that
+bears the same name, which falls into the sea opposite to Dauphine
+island. The fort is about 15 or 16 leagues distant from that island;
+and is built of brick, fortified with four bastions, in the manner of
+Vauban, with half-moons, a covered way and glacis. There is a magazine
+in it, with barracks for the troops of the garrison, which is
+generally pretty numerous, and a flag for the commandant.
+
+I must own, I never could see for what reason this fort was built, or
+what could be the use of it. For although it is 120 leagues from the
+capital, to go down the river, yet it is from thence that they must
+have every thing that is necessary for the support of the garrison:
+and the soil is so bad, being nothing but sand, that it produces
+nothing but pines and firs, with a little pulse, which grows there but
+very indifferently: so that there are here but very few people. The
+only advantage of this place is, that the air is mild and healthful,
+and that it affords a traffick with the Spaniards who are near it. The
+winter is the most agreeable season, as it is mild, and affords plenty
+of game. But in summer the heats are excessive; and the inhabitants
+have nothing hardly to live upon but fish, which are pretty plentiful
+on the coast, and in the river. _Dumont_, II. 80.]
+
+The same reason which pointed out the necessity of this post, with
+respect to the Choctaws, also shewed the necessity of building a fort
+at Tombecbé, to check the English in their ambitious views on the side
+of the Chicasaws. That fort was built only since the war with the
+Chicasaws in 1736.
+
+Near the river Mobile stands the small settlement of the
+Pasca-Ogoulas; which consists only of a few Canadians, lovers of
+tranquillity, which they prefer to all the advantages they could reap
+from commerce. They content themselves with a frugal country life, and
+never go to New Orleans but for necessaries.
+
+From that settlement quite to New Orleans, by the way of Lake St.
+Louis, there is no post at present. Formerly, and {47} just before the
+building of the capital, there were the old and new Biloxi:
+settlements, which have deserved an oblivion as lasting as their
+duration was short.
+
+To proceed with order and perspicuity, we will go up the Missisippi
+from its mouth.
+
+Fort Balise is at the entrance of the Missisippi, in 29° degrees North
+Latitude, and 286° 30' of Longitude. This fort is built on an isle, at
+one of the mouths of the Missisippi. Tho' there are but seventeen feet
+water in the channel, I have seen vessels of five hundred ton enter
+into it. I know not why this entrance is left so neglected, as we are
+not in want of able engineers in France, in the hydraulic branch, a
+part of the mathematics to which I have most applyed myself. I know it
+is no easy matter so to deepen or hollow the channel of a bar, that it
+may never after need clearing, and that the expences run high: but my
+zeal for promoting the advantage of this colony having prompted me to
+make reflections on those passes, or entrances of the Missisippi, and
+being perfectly well acquainted both with the country and the nature
+of the soil, I dare flatter myself, I may be able to accomplish it, to
+the great benefit of the province, and acquit myself therein with
+honour, at a small charge, and in a manner not to need repetition.
+[Footnote: Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two
+other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered; one is
+called the Otter Pass, and the other the East Pass; and they assure
+me, it is only by this last Pass that ships now go up or down the
+river, they having entirely deserted the ancient middle pass. _Dumont,_
+I. 4.
+
+Many other bays and rivers, not known to our authors, lying along the
+bay of Mexico, to the westward of the Missisippi, are described by Mr.
+Coxe, in his account of Carolina, called by the French Louisiana.]
+
+I say, fort Balise is built upon an island; a circumstance, I imagine,
+sufficient to make it understood, that this fort is irregular; the
+figure and extent of this small island not admitting it to be
+otherwise.
+
+In going up the Missisippi, we meet with nothing remarkable before we
+come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the
+river takes a large compass; so that {48} the same wind, which was
+before fair, proves contrary in this elbow, or reach. For this reason
+it was thought proper to build two forts at that place, one on each
+side of the river, to check any attempts of strangers. These forts are
+more than sufficient to oppose the passage of an hundred sail; as
+ships can go up the river, only one after another, and can neither
+cast anchor, nor come on shore to moor.
+
+It will, perhaps, be thought extraordinary that ships cannot anchor in
+this place. I imagine the reader will be of my opinion, when I tell
+him, the bottom is only a soft mud, or ooze, almost entirely covered
+with dead trees, and this for upwards of an hundred leagues. As to
+putting on shore, it is equally impossible and needless to attempt it;
+because the place where these forts stand, is but a neck of land
+between the river and the marshes: now it is impossible for a shallop,
+or canoe, to come near to moor a vessel, in sight of a fort well
+guarded, or for an enemy to throw up a trench in a neck of land so
+soft. Besides, the situation of the two forts is such, that they may in
+a short time receive succours, both from the inhabitants, who are on
+the interior edge of the crescent, formed by the river, and from New
+Orleans, which is very near thereto.
+
+The distance from this place to the capital is reckoned six leagues by
+water, and the course nearly circular; the winding, or reach, having
+the figure of a C almost close. Both sides of the river are lined with
+houses, which afford a beautiful prospect to the eye; however, as this
+voyage is tedious by water, it is often performed on horseback by
+land.
+
+The great difficulties attending the going up the river under sail,
+particularly at the English Reach, for the reasons mentioned, put me
+upon devising a very simple and cheap machine, to make vessels go up
+with ease quite to New-Orleans. Ships are sometimes a month in the
+passage from Balise to the capital; whereas by my method they would
+not be eight days, even with a contrary wind; and thus ships would go
+four times quicker than by towing, or turning it. This machine might
+be deposited at Balise, and delivered to the vessel, in order to go up
+the current, and be returned again on its setting sail. It is besides
+proper to observe, that this machine would be no detriment {49} to the
+forts, as they would always have it in their power to stop the vessels
+of enemies, who might happen to use it.
+
+New Orleans, the capital of the colony, is situated to the East, on
+the banks of the Missisippi, in 30° of North Latitude. At my first
+arrival in Louisiana, it existed only in name; for on my landing I
+understood M. de Biainville, commandant general, was only gone to mark
+out the spot; whence he returned three days after our arrival at Isle
+Dauphine.
+
+He pitched upon this spot in preference to many others, more agreeable
+and commodious; but for that time this was a place proper enough:
+besides, it is not every man that can see so far as some others. As
+the principal settlement was then at Mobile, it was proper to have the
+capital fixed at a place from which there could be an easy
+communication with this post: and thus a better choice could not have
+been made, as the town being on the banks of the Missisippi, vessels,
+tho' of a thousand ton, may lay their sides close to the shore even at
+low water; or at most, need only lay a small bridge, with two of their
+yards, in order to load or unload, to roll barrels and bales, &c.
+without fatiguing the ship's crew. This town is only a league from St.
+John's creek, where passengers take water for Mobile, in going to
+which they pass Lake St. Louis, and from thence all along the coast; a
+communication which was necessary at that time.
+
+I should imagine, that if a town was at this day to be built in this
+province, a rising ground would be pitched upon, to avoid inundations;
+besides, the bottom should be sufficiently firm, for bearing grand
+stone edifices.
+
+Such as have been a good way in the country, without seeing stone, or
+the least pebble, in upwards of a hundred leagues extent, will doubtless
+say, such a proposition is impossible, as they never observed stone
+proper for building in the parts they travelled over. I might answer,
+and tell them, they have eyes, and see not. I narrowly considered the
+nature of this country, and found quarries in it; and if there were any
+in the colony I ought to find them, as my condition and profession of
+architect should have procured me the knowledge of {51} them. After
+giving the situation of the capital, it is proper I describe the order
+in which it is built.
+
+[Illustration: _Plan of New Orleans, 1720_ (on p. 50)]
+
+The place of arms is in the middle of that part of the town which
+faces the river; in the middle of the ground of the place of arms
+stands the parish church, called St. Louis, where the Capuchins
+officiate, whose house is to the left of the church. To the right
+stand the prison, or jail, and the guard-house: both sides of the
+place of arms are taken up by two bodies or rows of barracks. This
+place stands all open to the river.
+
+All the streets are laid out both in length and breadth by the line,
+and intersect and cross each other at right angles. The streets divide
+the town into sixty-six isles; eleven along the river lengthwise, or
+in front, and six in depth: each of those isles is fifty square
+toises, and each again divided into twelve emplacements, or
+compartments, for lodging as many families. The Intendant's house
+stands behind the barracks on the left; and the magazine, or
+warehouse-general behind the barracks on the right, on viewing the
+town from the river side. The Governor's house stands in the middle of
+that part of the town, from which we go from the place of arms to the
+habitation of the Jesuits, which is near the town. The house of the
+Ursulin Nuns is quite at the end of the town, to the right; as is also
+the hospital of the sick, of which the nuns have the inspection. What
+I have just described faces the river.
+
+On the banks of the river runs a causey, or mole, as well on the side
+of the town as on the opposite side, from the English Reach quite to
+the town, and about ten leagues beyond it; which makes about fifteen
+or sixteen leagues on each side the river; and which may be travelled
+in a coach or on horseback, on a bottom as smooth as a table.
+
+The greatest part of the houses is of brick; the rest are of timber
+and brick.
+
+The length of the causeys, I just mentioned, is sufficient to shew,
+that on these two sides of the Missisippi there are many habitations
+standing close together; each making a causey to secure his ground
+from inundations, which fail not to come every year with the spring:
+and at that time, if any ships {52} happen to be in the harbour of New
+Orleans, they speedily set sail; because the prodigious quantity of
+dead wood, or trees torn up by the roots, which the river brings down,
+would lodge before the ship, and break the stoutest cables.
+
+At the end of St. John's Creek, on the banks of the Lake St. Louis,
+there is a redoubt, and a guard to defend it.
+
+From this creek to the town, a part of its banks is inhabited by
+planters; in like manner as are the long banks of another creek: the
+habitations of this last go under the name of Gentilly.
+
+After these habitations, which are upon the Missisippi quite beyond
+the Cannes Brulées, Burnt Canes, we meet none till we come to the
+Oumas, a petty nation so called. This settlement is inconsiderable,
+tho' one of the oldest next to the capital. It lies on the east of the
+Missisippi.
+
+The Baton Rogue is also on the east side of the Missisippi, and
+distant twenty-six leagues from New Orleans: it was formerly the grant
+of M. Artaguette d'Iron: it is there we see the famouse cypress-tree
+of which a ship-carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+sixteen, the other of fourteen tons. Some one of the first
+adventurers, who landed in this quarter, happened to say, that tree
+would make a fine walking-stick, and as cypress is a red wood, it was
+afterwards called le Baton Rouge. Its height could never be measured,
+it rises so out of sight.
+
+Two leagues higher up than le Baton Rouge, was the Grant of M. Paris
+du Vernai. This settlement is called Bayou-Ogoulas, from a nation of
+that name, which formerly dwelt here. It is on the west side of the
+Missisippi, and twenty-eight leagues from New Orleans.
+
+At a league on this side of Pointe Coupée, are les Petits Ecores,
+(little Cliffs) where was the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres. At
+this grant were a director and under-director; but the surgeon found
+out the secret of remaining sole master. The place is very beautiful,
+especially behind les Petits Ecores, where we go up by a gentle
+ascent. Near these cliffs, a rivulet falls into the Missisippi, into
+which a spring discharges its waters, which so attract the buffalos,
+that they are very often {53} found on its banks. 'Tis a pity this
+ground was deserted; there was enough of it to make a very
+considerable grant: a good water-mill might be guilt on the brook I
+just mentioned.
+
+At forty leagues from New Orleans lies a la Pointe Coupée, so called,
+because the Missisippi made there an elbow or winding, and formed the
+figure of a circle, open only about an hundred and odd toises, thro'
+which it made itself a shorter way, and where all its water runs at
+present. This was not the work of nature alone: two travellers, coming
+down the Missisippi, were forced to stop short at this place, because
+they observed at a distance the surff, or waves, to be very high, the
+wind beating against the current, and the river being out, so that they
+durst not venture to proceed. Just by them passed a rivulet, caused by
+the inundation, which might be a foot deep, by four or five feet broad,
+more or less. One of the travellers, seeing himself without any thing to
+do, took his fusil and followed the course of this rivulet, in hopes of
+killing some game. He had not gone an hundred toises, before he was put
+into a very great surprize, on perceiving a great opening, as when one
+is just getting out of a thick forest. He continues to advance, sees a
+large extent of water, which he takes for a lake; but turning on his
+left, he espies les Petits Ecores, just mentioned, and by experience he
+knew, he must go ten leagues to get thither: Upon this he knew, these
+were the waters of the river. He runs to acquaint his companion: this
+last wants to be sure of it: certain as they are both of it, they
+resolve, that it was necessary to cut away the roots, which stood in the
+passage, and to level the more elevated places. They attempted at length
+to pass their pettyaugre through, by pushing it before them. They
+succeeded beyond their expectation; the water which came on, aided them
+as much by its weight as by its depth, which was increased by the
+obstacle it met in its way: and they saw themselves in a short time in
+the Missisippi, ten leagues lower down than they were an hour before; or
+than they would have been, if they had followed the bed of the river, as
+they were formerly constrained to do.
+
+This little labour of our travellers moved the earth; the roots being
+cut away in part, proved no longer an obstacle to {54} the course of
+the water; the slope or descent in this small passage was equal to
+that in the river for the ten leagues of the compass it took; in fine,
+nature, though feebly aided, performed the rest. The first time I went
+up the river, its entire body of water passed through this part; and
+though the channel was only made six years before, the old bed was
+almost filled with the ooze, which the river had there deposited; and
+I have seen trees growing there of an astonishing size, that one might
+wonder how they should come to be so large in so short a time.
+
+In this spot, which is called la Pointe Coupée, the Cut-point, was the
+Grant of M. de Meuse, at present one of the most considerable posts of
+the colony, with a fort, a garrison, and an officer to command there.
+The river is on each side lined with inhabitants, who make a great
+deal of tobacco. There an Inspector resides, who examines and receives
+it, in order to prevent the merchants being defrauded. The inhabitants
+of the west side have high lands behind them, which form a very fine
+country, as I have observed above.
+
+Twenty leagues above this Cut-point, and sixty leagues from New
+Orleans, we meet with the Red River. In an island formed by that
+river, stands a French post, with a fort, a garrison, its commandant
+and officers. The first inhabitants who settled there, were some
+soldiers of that post, discharged after their time of serving was
+expired, who set themselves to make tobacco in the island. But the
+fine sand, carried by the wind upon the leaves of the tobacco, made it
+of a bad quality, which obliged them to abandon the island and settle
+on the continent, where they found a good soil, on which they made
+better tobacco. This post is called the Nachitoches, from a nation of
+that name, settled in the neighbourhood. At this post M. de St. Denis
+commanded.
+
+Several inhabitants of Louisiana, allured thither by the hopes of making
+soon great fortunes, because distant only seven leagues from the
+Spaniards, imagined the abundant treasures of New Mexico would pour in
+upon them. But in this they happened to be mistaken; for the Spanish
+post, called the Adaïes less money in it than the poorest village in
+Europe: the Spaniards being ill clad, ill fed, and always ready to buy
+{55} goods of the French on credit: which may be said in general of all
+the Spaniards of New Mexico, amidst all their mines of gold and silver.
+This we are well informed of by our merchants, who have dealt with the
+Spaniards of this post, and found their habitations and way of living to
+be very mean, and more so than those of the French.
+
+From the confluence of this Red River, in going up the Missisippi, as
+we have hitherto done, we find, about thirty leagues higher up, the
+post of the Natchez.
+
+Let not the reader be displeased at my saying often, _nearly_, or _about
+so many leagues_: we can ascertain nothing justly as to the distances
+in a country where we travel only by water. Those who go up the
+Missisippi, having more trouble, and taking more time than those who
+go down, reckon the route more or less long, according to the time in
+which they make their voyage; besides, when the water is high, it
+covers passes, which often shorten the way a great deal.
+
+The Natchez are situate in about 32° odd minutes of north latitude,
+and 280° of longitude. The fort at this post stands two hundred feet
+perpendicular above low-water mark. From this fort the point of view
+extends west of the Missisippi quite to the horizon, that is, on the
+side opposite to that where the fort stands, though the west side be
+covered with woods, because the foot of the fort stands much higher
+than the trees. On the same side with the fort, the country holds at a
+pretty equal height, and declines only by a gentle and almost
+imperceptible slope, insensibly losing itself from one eminence to
+another.
+
+The nation which gave name to this post, inhabited this very place at
+a league from the landing-place on the Missisippi, and dwelt on the
+banks of a rivulet, which has only a course of four or five leagues to
+that river. All travellers who passed and stopped here, went to pay a
+visit to the natives, the Natchez. The distance of the league they
+went to them is through so fine and good a country, the natives
+themselves were so obliging and familiar, and the women so amiable,
+that all travellers failed not to make the greatest encomiums both on
+the country, and on the native inhabitants.
+
+{56} The just commendations bestowed upon them drew thither
+inhabitants in such numbers, as to determine the Company to give
+orders for building a fort there, as well to support the French
+already settled, and those who should afterwards come thither, as to
+be a check on that nation. The garrison consisted only of between
+thirty and forty men, a Captain, a Lieutenant, Under Lieutenant, and
+two Serjeants.
+
+The Company had there a warehouse for the supply of the inhabitants, who
+were daily increasing in spite of all the efforts of one of the
+principal Superiors, who put all imaginable obstacles in the way: and
+notwithstanding the progress this settlement made, and the encomiums
+bestowed upon it, and which it deserved, God in his providence gave it
+up to the rage of its enemies, in order to take vengeance of the sins
+committed there; for without mentioning those who escaped the general
+massacre, there perished of them upwards of five hundred.
+
+Forty leagues higher up than the Natchez, is the river Yasou. The
+Grant of M. le Blanc, Minister, or Secretary at War, was settled
+there, four leagues from the Missisippi, as you go up this little
+river. [Footnote: The village of the Indians (Yasous) is a league from
+this settlement; and on one side of it there is a hill, on which they
+pretend that the English formerly had a fort; accordingly there are
+still some traces of it to be seen. _Dumont_, II. 296.] There a fort
+stands, with a company of men, commanded by a Captain, a Lieutenant,
+Under-Lieutenant, and two Serjeants. This company, together with the
+servants, were in the pay of this Minister.
+
+This post was very advantageously situated, as well for the goodness
+of the air as the quality of the soil, like to that of the Natchez, as
+for the landing-place, which was very commodious, and for the commerce
+with the natives, if our people but knew how to gain and preserve
+their friendship. But the neighbourhood of the Chicasaws, ever fast
+friends of the English, and ever instigated by them to give us
+uneasiness, almost cut off any hopes of succeeding. This post was on
+these accounts threatened with utter ruin, sooner or later; as
+actually happened in 1722, by means of those wretched Chicasaws; {57}
+who came in the night and murdered the people in the settlements that
+were made by two serjeants out of the fort. But a boy who was scalped
+by them was cured, and escaped with life.
+
+Sixty miles higher up than the Yasouz, and at the distance of two
+hundred leagues from New Orleans, dwell the Arkansas, to the west of
+the Missisippi. At the entrance of the river which goes by the name of
+that nation, there is a small fort, which defends that post, which is
+the second of the colony in point of time.
+
+It is a great pity so good and fine a country is distant from the sea
+upwards of two hundred leagues. I cannot omit mentioning, that wheat
+thrives extremely well here, without our being obliged ever to manure
+the land; and I am so prepossessed in its favour, that I persuade
+myself the beauty of the climate has a great influence on the
+character of the inhabitants, who are at the same time very gentle and
+very brave. They have ever had an inviolable friendship for the
+French, uninfluenced thereto either by fear or views of interest; and
+live with the French near them as brethren rather than as neighbours.
+
+In going from the Arkansas to the Illinois, we meet with the river St.
+Francis, thirty leagues more to the north, and on the west side of the
+Missisippi. There a small fort has been built since my return to
+France. To the East of the Missisippi, but more to the north, we also
+meet, at about thirty leagues, the river Margot, near the steep banks
+of Prud'homme: there a fort was also built, called Assumption, for
+undertaking an expedition against the Chicasaws, who are nearly in the
+same latitude. These two forts, after that expedition, were entirely
+demolished by the French, because they were thought to be no longer
+necessary. It is, however, probable enough, that this fort Assumption
+would have been a check upon the Chicasaws, who are always roving in
+those parts. Besides, the steep banks of Prud'homme contain iron and
+pit-coal. On the other hand, the country is very beautiful, and of an
+excellent quality, abounding with plains and meadows, which favour the
+excursions of the Chicasaws, and which they will ever continue to make
+upon us, till we have the address to divert them from their commerce
+with the English.
+
+{58} We have no other French settlements to mention in Louisiana, but
+that of the Illinois; in which part of the colony we had the first
+fort. At present the French settlement here is on the banks of the
+Missisippi, near one of the villages of the Illinois. [Footnote: They
+have, or had formerly, other settlements hereabouts, at Kaskaskies,
+fort Chartres, Tamaroas, and on the river Marameg, on the west side of
+the Missisippi, where they found those mines that gave rise to the
+Missisippi scheme in 1719. In 1742, when John Howard, Sallee and
+others, were sent from Virginia to view those countries, they were
+made prisoners by the French; who came from a settlement they had on
+an island in the Missisippi, a little above the Ohio, where they made
+salt, lead, &c. and went from thence to New Orleans, in a fleet of
+boats and canoes, guarded by a large armed schooner. _Report of the
+Government of Virginia_.] That post is commanded by one of the
+principal officers; and M. de Bois-Briant, who was lieutenant of the
+king, has commanded at it.
+
+Many French inhabitants both from Canada and Europe live there at this
+day; but the Canadians make three-fourths at least. The Jesuits have
+the Cure there, with a fine habitation and a mill; in digging the
+foundation of which last, a quarry of orbicular flat stones was found,
+about two inches in diameter, of the shape of a buffoon's cap, with
+six sides, whose groove was set with small buttons of the size of the
+head of a minikin or small pin. Some of these stones were bigger, some
+smaller; between the stones which could not be joined, there was no
+earth found.
+
+The Canadians, who are numerous in Louisiana, are most of them at the
+Illinois. This climate, doubtless, agrees better with them, because
+nearer Canada than any other settlement of the colony. Besides, in
+coming from Canada, they always pass through this settlement; which
+makes them choose to continue here. They bring their wives with them,
+or marry the French or India women. The ladies even venture to make
+this long and painful voyage from Canada, in order to end their days in
+a country which the Canadians look upon as a terrestrial paradise
+[Footnote: It is this that has made the French undergo so many long and
+perilous voyages in North-America, upwards of two thousand miles,
+against currents, cataracts, and boisterous winds on the lakes, in
+order to get to this settlement of the Illinois, which is nigh to the
+Forks of the Missisippi, the most important place in all the inland
+parts of North-America, to which the French will sooner or later remove
+from Canada; and there erect another Montreal, that will be much more
+dangerous and prejudicial to us, than ever the other in Canada was.
+They will here be in the midst of all their old friends and allies, and
+much more convenient to carry on a trade with them, to spirit them up
+against the English, &c. than ever they were at Montreal. To this
+settlement, where they likewise are not without good hopes of finding
+mines, the French will for ever be removing, as long as any of them are
+left in Canada.]
+
+{59}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_The Voyages of the_ French _to the_ Missouris, Canzas, _and_ Padoucas.
+_The Settlements they in vain attempted to make in those Countries; with
+a Description of an extraordinary Phaenomenon._
+
+
+The Padoucas, who lie west by northwest of the Missouris, happened at
+that time to be at war with the neighbouring nations, the Canzas,
+Othouez, Aiaouez, Osages, Missouris, and Panimahas, all in amity with
+the French. To conciliate a peace between all these nations and the
+Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont sent to engage them, as being our allies, to
+accompany him on a journey to the Padoucas, in order to bring about a
+general pacification, and by that means to facilitate the traffick or
+truck between them and us, and conclude an alliance with the Padoucas.
+
+For this purpose M. de Bourgmont set out on the 3d of July, 1724, from
+Fort Orleans, which lies near the Missouris, a nation dwelling on the
+banks of the river of that name, in order to join that people, and
+then to proceed to the Canzas, where the general rendezvous of the
+several nations was appointed.
+
+M. de Bourgmont was accompanied by an hundred Missouris, commanded by
+their Grand Chief, and eight other Chiefs of war, and by sixty-four
+Osages, commanded by four Chiefs of war, besides a few Frenchmen. On
+the sixth he joined the Grand Chief, six other Chiefs of war, and
+several Warriors of the Canzas, who presented him the Pipe of Peace,
+{60} and performed the honours customary on such occasions, to the
+Missouris and Osages.
+
+On the 7th they passed through extensive meadows and woods, and
+arrived on the banks of the river Missouri, over against the village
+of the Canzas.
+
+On the 8th the French crossed the Missouri in a pettyaugre, the
+Indians on floats of cane, and the horses were swam over. They landed
+within a gun-shot of the Canzas, who flocked to receive them with the
+Pipe; their Grand Chief, in the name of the nation, assuring M. de
+Bourgmont that all their warriors would accompany him in his journey
+to the Padoucas, with protestations of friendship and fidelity,
+confirmed by smoking the Pipe. The same assurances were made him by
+the other Chiefs, who entertained him in their huts, and [Footnote: It
+is thus they express their joy and caresses, at the sight of a person
+they respect.] rubbed him over and his companions.
+
+On the 9th M. de Bourgmont dispatched five Missouris to acquaint the
+Othouez with his arrival at the Canzas. They returned on the 10th, and
+brought word that the Othouez promised to hunt for him and his
+Warriors, and to cause provisions to be dried for the journey; that
+their Chief would set out directly, in order to wait on M. de
+Bourgmont, and carry him the word of the whole nation.
+
+The Canzas continued to regale the French; brought them also great
+quantities of grapes, of which the French made a good wine.
+
+On the 24th of July, at six in the morning, this little army set out,
+consisting of three hundred Warriors, including the Chiefs of the
+Canzas, three hundred women, about five hundred young people, and at
+least three hundred dogs. The women carried considerable loads, to the
+astonishment of the French, unaccustomed to such a sight. The young
+women also were well loaded for their years; and the dogs were made to
+trail a part of the baggage, and that in the following manner: the
+back of the dog was covered with a skin, with its pile on, then the
+dog was girthed round, and his breast-leather put on; and {61} taking
+two poles of the thickness of one's arm, and twelve feet long, they
+fastened their two ends half a foot asunder, laying on the dog's
+saddle the thong that fastened the two poles; and to the poles they
+also fastened, behind the dog, a ring or hoop, lengthwise, on which
+they laid the load.
+
+On the 28th and 29th the army crossed several brooks and small rivers,
+passed through several meadows and thickets, meeting every where on
+their way a great deal of game.
+
+On the 30th M. de Bourgmont, finding himself very ill, was obliged to
+have a litter made, in order to be carried back to Fort Orleans till
+he should recover. Before his departure he gave orders about two
+Padouca slaves whom he had ransomed, and was to send before him to
+that nation, in order to ingratiate himself by this act of generosity.
+These he caused to be sent by one Gaillard, who was to tell their
+nation, that M. de Bourgmont, being fallen ill on his intended journey
+to their country, was obliged to return home; but that as soon as he
+got well again, he would resume his journey to their country, in order
+to procure a general peace between them and the other nations.
+
+On the evening of the same day arrived at the camp the Grand Chief of
+the Othouez: who acquainted M. de Bourgmont, that a great part of his
+Warriors waited for him on the road to the Padoucas, and that he came
+to receive his orders; but was sorry to find him ill.
+
+At length, on the 4th of August, M. de Bourgmont set out from the
+Canzas in a pettyaugre, and arrived the 5th at Fort Orleans.
+
+On the 6th of September, M. de Bourgmont, who was still at Fort
+Orleans, was informed of the arrival of the two Padouca slaves on the
+25th of August at their own nation; and that meeting on the way a body
+of Padouca hunters, a day's journey from their village, the Padouca
+slaves made the signal of their nation, by throwing their mantles
+thrice over their heads: that they spoke much in commendation of the
+generosity of M. de Bourgmont, who had ransomed them: told all he had
+done in order to a general pacification: in fine, extolled the French
+to such a degree, that their discourse, held in presence {62} of the
+Grand Chief and of the whole nation, diffused an universal joy that
+Gaillard told them, the flag they saw was the symbol of Peace, and the
+word of the Sovereign of the French: that in a little time the several
+nations would come to be like brethren, and have but one heart.
+
+The Grand Chief of the Padoucas was so well assured that the war was
+now at an end, that he dispatched twenty Padoucas with Gaillard to the
+Canzas, by whom they were extremely well received. The Padoucas, on
+their return home, related their good reception among the Canzas; and
+as a plain and real proof of the pacification meditated by the French,
+brought with them fifty of the Canzas and three of their women; who,
+in their turn, were received by the Padoucas with all possible marks
+of friendship.
+
+Though M. de Bourgmont was but just recovering of his illness; he,
+however, prepared for his departure, and on the 20th of September
+actually set out from Fort Orleans by water, and arrived at the Canzas
+on the 27th.
+
+Gaillard arrived on the 2nd of October at the camp of the Canzas, with
+three Chiefs of war, and three Warriors of the Padoucas, who were
+received by M. de Bourgmont with flag displayed, and other testimonies
+of civility, and had presents made them of several goods, proper for
+their use.
+
+On the 4th of October arrived at the Canzas the Grand Chief, and seven
+other Chiefs of war of the Othouez; and next day, very early, six
+Chiefs of war of the Aiaouez.
+
+M. de Bourgmant assembled all the Chiefs present, and setting them
+round a large fire made before his tent, rose up, and addressing
+himself to them, said, he was come to declare to them, in the name of
+his Sovereign, and of the Grand French Chief in the country, [Footnote:
+The Governor of Louisiana.] that it was the will of his Sovereign,
+they should all live in peace for the future, like brethren and
+friends, if they expected to enjoy his love and protection: and since,
+says he, you are here all assembled this day, it is good you conclude
+a peace, and all smoke in the same pipe.
+
+{63} The Chiefs of these different nations rose up to a man, and said
+with one consent, they were well satisfied to comply with his request;
+and instantly gave each other their pipes of peace.
+
+After an entertainment prepared for them, the Padoucas sung the songs,
+and danced the dances of peace; a kind of pantomimes, representing the
+innocent pleasures of peace.
+
+On the 6th of October, M. de Bourgmont caused three lots of goods to
+be made out; one for the Othouez, one for the Aiaouez, and one for the
+Panimahas, which last arrived in the mean time; and made them all
+smoke in the same pipe of peace.
+
+On the 8th M. de Bourgmont set out from the Canzas with all the
+baggage, and the flag displayed, at the head of the French and such
+Indians as he had pitched on to accompany him, in all forty persons.
+The goods intended for presents were loaded on horses. As they set out
+late, they travelled but five leagues, in which they crossed a small
+river and two brooks, in a fine country, with little wood.
+
+The same day Gaillard, Quenel, and two Padoucas were dispatched to
+acquaint their nation with the march of the French. That day they
+travelled ten leagues, crossed one river and two brooks.
+
+The 10th they made eight leagues, crossed two small rivers and three
+brooks. To their right and left they had several small hills, on which
+one could observe pieces of rock even with the ground. Along the
+rivers there is found a slate, and in the meadows, a reddish marble,
+standing out of the earth, one, two, and three feet; some pieces of it
+upwards of six feet in diameter.
+
+The 11th they passed over several brooks and a small river, and then
+the river of the Canzas, which had only three feet water. Further on,
+they found several brooks, issuing from the neighbouring little hills.
+The river of the Canzas runs directly from west to east, and falls
+into the Missouri; is very great in floods, because, according to the
+report of the Padoucas, it comes a great way off. The woods, which
+border this river, afford a retreat to numbers of buffaloes and other
+game. On the left were seen great eminences, with hanging rocks.
+
+{64} The 12th of October, the journey, as the preceding day, was
+extremely diversified by the variety of objects. They crossed eight
+brooks, beautiful meadows, covered with herds of elks and buffaloes.
+To the right the view was unbounded, but to the left small hills were
+seen at a distance, which from time to time presented the appearance
+of ancient castles.
+
+The 13th, on their march they saw the meadows covered almost entirely
+with buffaloes, elks and deer; so that one could scarce distinguish
+the different herds, so numerous and so intermixed they were. The same
+day they passed through a wood almost two leagues long, and a pretty
+rough ascent; a thing which seemed extraordinary, as till then they
+only met with little groves, the largest of which scarce contained an
+hundred trees, but straight as a cane; groves too small to afford a
+retreat to a quarter of the buffaloes and elks seen there.
+
+The 14th the march was retarded by ascents and descents; from which
+issued many springs of an extreme pure water, forming several brooks,
+whose waters uniting make little rivers that fall into the river of
+the Canzas: and doubtless it is this multitude of brooks which
+traverse and water these meadows, extending a great way out of sight,
+that invite those numerous herds of buffaloes.
+
+The 15th they crossed several brooks and two little rivers. It is
+chiefly on the banks of the waters that we find those enchanting
+groves, adorned with grass underneath, and so clear of underwood, that
+we may there hunt down the stag with ease.
+
+The 16th they continued to pass over a similar landscape, the beauties
+of which were never cloying. Besides the larger game, these groves
+afforded also a retreat to flocks of turkeys.
+
+The 17th they made very little way, because they wanted to get into
+the right road, from which they had strayed the two preceding days,
+which they at length recovered; and, at a small distance from their
+camp, saw an encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to have been
+quitted only about eight days before. This yielded them so much the
+more pleasure, as it shewed the nearness of that nation, which made
+them encamp, after having travelled only six leagues, in order {65} to
+make signals from that place, by setting fire to the parts of the
+meadows which the general fire had spared. In a little time after the
+signal was answered in the same manner; and confirmed by the arrival
+of two Frenchmen, who had orders given them to make the signals.
+
+On the 18th they met a little river of brackish water; on the banks of
+which they found another encampment of the Padoucas, which appeared to
+have been abandoned but four days before: at half a league further on,
+a great smoke was seen to the west, at no great distance off, which
+was answered by setting fire to the parts of the meadows, untouched by
+the general fire.
+
+About half an hour after, the Padoucas were observed coming at full
+gallop with the flag which Gaillard had left them on his first journey
+to their country. M. de Bourgmont instantly ordered the French under
+arms, and at the head of his people thrice saluted these strangers
+with his flag, which they also returned thrice, by raising their
+mantles as many times over their heads.
+
+After this first ceremony, M. de Bourgmont made them all sit down and
+smoke in the Pipe of Peace. This action, being the seal of the peace,
+diffused a general joy, accompanied with loud acclamations.
+
+The Padoucas, after mounting the French and the Indians who
+accompanied them, on their horses, set out for their camp: and after a
+journey of three leagues, arrived at their encampment; but left a
+distance of a gun-shot between the two camps.
+
+The day after their arrival at the Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont caused
+the goods allotted for this nation to be unpacked, and the different
+species parcelled out, which he made them all presents of.[Footnote:
+Red and blue Limburgs, shirts, fusils, sabres, gun-powder, ball,
+musket-flints, gunscrews, mattocks, hatchets, looking-glasses, Flemish
+knives, wood cutters knives, clasp-knives, scissars, combs, bells,
+awls, needles, drinking glasses, brass-wire, boxes, rings, &c.]
+
+
+After which M. de Bourgmont sent for the Grand Chief and other Chiefs
+of the Padoucas, who came to the camp to the number of two hundred:
+and placing himself between them and {66} the goods thus parcelled and
+laid out to view, told them, he was sent by his Sovereign to carry
+them the word of peace, this flag, and these goods, and to exhort them
+to live as brethren with their neighbours the Panimahas, Aiaouez,
+Othouez, Canzas, Missouris, Osages, and Illinois, to traffick and
+truck freely together, and with the French.
+
+He at the same time gave the flag to the Grand Chief of the Padoucas,
+who received it with demonstrations of respect, and told him, I accept
+this flag, which you present to me on the part of your Sovereign: we
+rejoice at our having peace with all the nations you have mentioned;
+and promise in the name of our nation never to make war on any of your
+allies; but receive them, when they come among us, as our brethren; as
+we shall, in like manner, the French, and conduct them, when they want
+to go to the Spaniards, who are but twelve days journey from our
+village, and who truck with us in horses, of which they have such
+numbers, they know not what to do with them; also in bad hatchets of a
+soft iron, and some knives, whose points they break off, lest we
+should use them one day against themselves. You may command all my
+Warriors; I can furnish you with upwards of two thousand. In my own,
+and in the name of my whole nation, I entreat you to send some
+Frenchmen to trade with us; we can supply them with horses, which we
+truck with the Spaniards for buffalo-mantles, and with great
+quantities of furs.
+
+Before I quit the Padoucas, I shall give a summary of their manners;
+it may not, perhaps, be disagreeable to know in what respects they
+differ from other Indian nations.[Footnote: The Author should likewise
+have informed us of the fate of those intended settlements of the
+French, which Dumont tells us were destroyed, and all the French
+murdered by the Indians, particularly among the Missouris; which is
+confirmed below in book 11. ch. 7.]
+
+The Padoucas, who live at a distance from the Spaniards, cultivate no
+grain, and live only on hunting. But they are not to be considered as
+a wandering nation, tho' employed in hunting winter and summer; seeing
+they have large villages, consisting of a great number of cabins,
+which contain very numerous families: these are their permanent
+abodes; from which a {67} hundred hunters set out at a time with their
+horses, their bows, and a good stock of arrows. They go thus two or
+three days journey from home, where they find herds of buffaloes, the
+least of which consists of a hundred head. They load their horses with
+their baggage, tents and children, conducted by a man on horseback: by
+this means the men, women, and young people travel unencumbered and
+light, without being fatigued by the journey. When come to the
+hunting-spot, they encamp near a brook, where there is always wood;
+the horses they tie by one of their fore-feet with a string to a stake
+or bush.
+
+Next morning they each of them mount a horse, and proceed to the first
+herd, with the wind at their back, to the end the buffaloes may scent
+them, and take to flight, which they never fail to do, because they
+have a very quick scent. Then the hunters pursue them close at an easy
+gallop, and in a crescent, or half ring, till they hang out the tongue
+through fatigue, and can do no more than just walk: the hunters then
+dismount, point a dart at the extremity of the shoulder, and kill each
+of them one cow, sometimes more: for, as I said above, they never kill
+the males. Then they flay them, take out the entrails, and cut the
+carcasse in two; the head, feet, and entrails they leave to the wolves
+and other carnivorous animals: the skin they lay on the horse, and on
+that the flesh, which they carry home. Two days after they go out
+again; and then they bring home the meat stript from the bones; the
+women and young people dress it in the Indian fashion; while the men
+return for some days longer to hunt in the same manner. They carry
+home their dry provisions, and let their horses rest for three or four
+days: at the end of which, those who remained in the village, set out
+with the others to hunt in the like manner; which has made ignorant
+travellers affirm this people was a wandering nation.
+
+If they sow little or no maiz, they as little plant any citruis, never
+any tobacco; which last the Spaniards bring them in rolls, along with
+the horses they truck with them for buffalo-mantles.
+
+The nation of the Padoucas is very numerous, extends almost two
+hundred leagues, and they have villages quite close {68} to the
+Spaniards of New Mexico. They are acquainted with silver, and made the
+French understand they worked at the mines. The inhabitants of the
+villages at a distance from the Spaniards, have knives made of
+fire-stone, (_pierre de feu_,) of which they also make hatchets; the
+largest to fell middling and little trees with; the less, to flay and
+cut up the beasts they kill.
+
+These people are far from being savage, nor would it be a difficult
+matter to civilize them; a plain proof they have had long intercourse
+with the Spaniards. The few days the French stayed among them, they
+were become very familiar, and would fain have M. de Bourgmont leave
+some Frenchmen among them; especially they of the village at which the
+peace was concluded with the other nations. This village consisted of
+an hundred and forty huts, containing about eight hundred warriors,
+fifteen hundred women, and at least two thousand children, some
+Padoucas having four wives. When they are in want of horses, they
+train up great dogs to carry their baggage.
+
+The men for the most part wear breeches and stockings all of a piece,
+made of dressed skins, in the manner of the Spaniards: the women also
+wear petticoats and bodices all of a piece, adorning their waists with
+fringes of dressed skins.
+
+They are almost without any European goods among them, and have but a
+faint knowledge of them. They knew nothing of fire-arms before the
+arrival of M. de Bourgmont; were much frighted at them; and on hearing
+the report, quaked and bowed their heads.
+
+They generally go to war on horseback, and cover their horses with
+dressed leather, hanging down quite round, which secures them from
+darts. All we have hitherto remarked is peculiar to this people,
+besides the other usages they have in common with the nations of
+Louisiana.
+
+On the 22nd of October, M. de Bourginont set out from the Padoucas,
+and travelled only five leagues that day: the 23d, and the three
+following days, he travelled in all forty leagues: the 27th, six
+leagues: the 28th, eight leagues: the 29th, six leagues; and the 30th,
+as many: the 31st, he travelled only four leagues, and that day
+arrived within half a league of the Canzas. From the Padoucas to the
+Canzas, proceeding always {69} east, we may now very safely reckon
+sixty-five leagues and a half. The river of the Canzas is parallel to
+this route.
+
+On the 1st of November they all arrived on the banks of the Missouri.
+M. de Bourgmont embarked the 2d on a canoe of skins; and at length, on
+the 5th of November, arrived at Fort Orleans.
+
+I shall here subjoin the description of one of these canoes. They
+choose for the purpose branches of a white and supple wood, such as
+poplar; which are to form the ribs or curves, and are fastened on the
+outside with three poles, one at bottom and two on the sides, to form
+the keel; to these curves two other stouter poles are afterwards made
+fast, to form the gunnels; then they tighten these sides with cords,
+the length of which is in proportion to the intended breadth of the
+canoe: after which they tie fast the ends. When all the timbers are
+thus disposed, they sew on the skins, which they take care previously
+to soak a considerable time to render them manageable.
+
+From the account of this journey, extracted and abridged from M. de
+Bourgmont's Journal, we cannot fail to observe the care and attention
+necessary to be employed in such enterprizes; the prudence and policy
+requisite to manage the natives, and to behave with them in an affable
+manner.
+
+If we view these nations with an eye to commerce, what advantages
+might not be derived from them, as to furs? A commerce not only very
+lucrative, but capable of being carried on without any risque;
+especially if we would follow the plan I am to lay down under the
+article Commerce.
+
+The relation of this journey shews, moreover, that Louisiana maintains
+its good qualities throughout; and that the natives of North America
+derive their origin from the same country, since at bottom they all
+have the same manners and usages, as also the same manner of speaking
+and thinking.
+
+I, however, except the Natchez, and the people they call their
+brethren, who have preserved festivals and ceremonies, which clearly
+shew they have a far nobler origin. Besides, the richness of their
+language distinguishes them from all those other people that come from
+Tartary; whose language, on the {70} contrary, is very barren: but if
+they resemble the others in certain customs, they were constrained
+thereto from the ties of a common society with them, as in their wars,
+embassies, and in every thing that regards the common interests of
+these nations.
+
+Before I put an end to this chapter, I shall relate an extraordinary
+phænomenon which appeared in Louisiana.
+
+Towards the end of May 1726, the sun was then concealed for a whole
+day by large clouds, but very distinct one from another; they left but
+little void space between, to permit the view of the azure sky, and
+but in very few places: the whole day was very calm; in the evening
+especially these clouds were entirely joined; no sky was to be seen;
+but all the different configurations of the clouds were
+distinguishable: I observed they stood very high above the earth.
+
+The weather being so disposed, the sun was preparing to set. I saw him
+in the instant he touched the horizon, because there was a little
+clear space between that and the clouds. A little after, these clouds
+turned luminous, or reflected the light: the contour or outlines of
+most of them seemed to be bordered with gold, others but with a faint
+tincture thereof. It would be a very difficult matter to describe all
+the beauties which these different colourings presented to the view:
+but the whole together formed the finest prospect I ever beheld of the
+kind.
+
+I had my face turned to the east; and in the little time the sun
+formed this decoration, he proceeded to hide himself more and more;
+when sufficiently low, so that the shadow of the earth could appear on
+the convexity of the clouds, there was observed as if a veil,
+stretched north to south, had concealed or removed the light from off
+that part of the clouds which extended eastwards, and made them dark,
+without hindering their being perfectly well distinguished; so that
+all on the same line were partly luminous, partly dark.
+
+This very year I had a strong inclination to quit the post at the
+Natchez, where I had continued for eight years. I had taken that
+resolution, notwithstanding my attachment to that {71} settlement. I
+sold off my effects and went down to New Orleans, which I found
+greatly altered by being entirely built. I intended to return to
+Europe; but M. Perier, the Governor, pressed me so much, that I
+accepted the inspection of the plantation of the Company; which, in a
+little time after, became the King's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_The War with the_ Chitimachas. _The Conspiracy of the Negroes against
+the_ French. _Their Execution._
+
+
+Before my arrival in Louisiana, we happened to be at war with the
+nation of the Chitimachas; owing to one of that people, who being gone
+to dwell in a bye-place on the banks of the Missisippi, had
+assassinated M. de St. Come, a Missionary of that colony; who, in
+going down the river, imagined he might in safety retire into this
+man's hut for a night. M. de Biainville charged the whole nation with
+this assassination; and in order to save his own people, caused them
+to be attacked by several nations in alliance with the French.
+
+Prowess is none of the greatest qualities of the Indians, much less of
+the Chitimachas. They were therefore worsted, and the loss of their
+bravest warriors constrained them to sue for peace. This the Governor
+granted, on condition that they brought him the head of the assassin;
+which they accordingly did, and concluded a peace by the ceremony of
+the Calumet, hereafter described.
+
+At the time the succours were expected from France, in order to
+destroy the Natchez, the negroes formed a design to rid themselves of
+all the French at once, and to settle in their room, by making
+themselves masters of the capital, and of all the property of the
+French. It was discovered in the following manner.
+
+A female negroe receiving a violent blow from a French soldier for
+refusing to obey him, said in her passion, that the French should not
+long insult negroes. Some Frenchmen overhearing these threats, brought
+her before the Governor, {72} who sent her to prison. The Judge
+Criminal not being able to draw any thing out of her, I told the
+Governor, who seemed to pay no great regard to her threats, that I was
+of opinion, that a man in liquor, and a woman in passion, generally
+speak truth. It is therefore highly probable, said I that there is
+some truth in what she said: and if so, there must be some conspiracy
+ready to break out, which cannot be formed without many negroes of the
+King's plantation being accomplices therein: and if there are any, I
+take upon me, said I, to find them out, and arrest them, if necessary,
+without any disorder or tumult.
+
+The Governor and the whole Court approved of my reasons: I went that
+very evening to the camp of the negroes, and from hut to hut, till I
+saw a light. In this hut I heard them talking together of their
+scheme. One of them was my first commander and my confidant, which
+surprised me greatly; his name was Samba.
+
+I speedily retired for fear of being discovered; and in two days
+after, eight negroes, who were at the head of the conspiracy, were
+separately arrested, unknown to each other, and clapt in irons without
+the least tumult.
+
+The day after, they were put to the torture of burning matches, which,
+though several times repeated, could not bring them to make any
+confession. In the mean time I learnt that Samba had in his own
+country been at the head of the revolt by which the French lost Fort
+Arguin; and when it was recovered again by M. Perier de Salvert, one
+of the principal articles of the peace was, that this negro should be
+condemned to slavery in America: that Samba, on his passage, had laid
+a scheme to murder the crew, in order to become master of the ship;
+but that being discovered, he was put in irons, in which he continued
+till he landed in Louisiana.
+
+I drew up a memorial of all this; which was read before Samba by the
+Judge Criminal; who, threatening him again with torture, told him, he
+had ever been a seditious fellow: upon which Samba directly owned all
+the circumstances of the conspiracy; and the rest being confronted
+with him, confessed {73} also: after which, the eight negroes were
+condemned to be broke alive on the wheel, and the woman to be hanged
+before their eyes; which was accordingly done, and prevented the
+conspiracy from taking effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+_The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the_ French _in 1729. Extirpation
+of the_ Natchez _in 1730._
+
+
+In the beginning of the month of December 1729, we heard at New
+Orleans, with the most affecting grief, of the massacre of the French
+at the post of the Natchez, occasioned by the imprudent conduct of the
+Commandant. I shall trace that whole affair from its rise.
+
+The Sieur de Chopart had been Commandant of the post of the Natchez,
+from which he was removed on account of some acts of injustice. M.
+Perier, Commandant General, but lately arrived, suffered himself to be
+prepossessed in his favour, on his telling him, that he had commanded
+that post with applause: and thus he obtained the command from M.
+Perier, who was unacquainted with his character.
+
+This new Commandant, on taking possession of his post, projected the
+forming one of the most eminent settlements of the whole colony. For
+this purpose he examined all the grounds unoccupied by the French, but
+could not find any thing that came up to the grandeur of his views.
+Nothing but the village of the White Apple, a square league at least
+in extent, could give him satisfaction; where he immediately resolved
+to settle. This ground was distant from the fort about two leagues.
+Conceited with the beauty of his project, the Commandant sent for the
+Sun of that village to come to the fort.
+
+The Commandant, upon his arrival at the fort, told him, without
+further ceremony, that he must look out for another ground to build
+his village on, as he himself resolved, as soon as possible, to build
+on the village of the Apple; that he must directly clear the huts, and
+retire somewhere else. The better to cover his design, he gave out,
+that it was necessary for the {74} French to settle on the banks of
+the rivulet, where stood the Great Village, and the abode of the Grand
+Sun. The Commandant, doubtless, supposed that he was speaking to a
+slave, whom we may command in a tone of absolute authority. But he
+knew not that the natives of Louisiana are such enemies to a state of
+slavery, that they prefer death itself thereto; above all, the Suns,
+accustomed to govern despotically, have still a greater aversion to
+it.
+
+The Sun of the Apple thought, that if he was talked to in a reasonable
+manner, he might listen to him: in this he had been right, had he to
+deal with a reasonable person. He therefore made answer, that his
+ancestors had lived in that village for as many years as there were
+hairs in his double cue; and therefore it was good they should
+continue there still.
+
+Scarce had the interpreter explained this answer to the Commandant,
+but he fell into a passion, and threatened the Sun, if he did not quit
+his village in a few days, he might repent it. The Sun replied, when
+the French came to ask us for lands to settle on, they told us there
+was land enough still unoccupied, which they might take; the same sun
+would enlighten them all, and all would walk in the same path. He
+wanted to proceed, farther in justification of what he alleged; but
+the Commandant, who was in a passion, told him, he was resolved to be
+obeyed, without any further reply. The Sun, without discovering any
+emotion or passion, withdrew; only saying, he was going to assemble
+the old men of his village, to hold a council on this affair.
+
+He actually assembled them: and in this council it was resolved to
+represent to the Commandant, that the corn of all the people of their
+village was already shot a little out of the earth, and that all the
+hens were laying their eggs; that if they quitted their village at
+present, the chickens and corn would be lost both to the French and to
+themselves; as the French were not numerous enough to weed all the
+corn they had sown in their fields.
+
+This resolution taken, they sent to propose it to the Commandant, who
+rejected it with a menace to chastise them if they did not obey in a
+very short time, which he prefixed. {75} The Sun reported this answer
+to his council, who debated the question, which was knotty. But the
+policy of the old men was, that they should propose to the Commandant,
+to be allowed to stay in their village till harvest, and till they had
+time to dry their corn, and shake out the grain; on condition each hut
+of the village should pay him in so many moons (months,) which they
+agreed on, a basket of corn and a fowl; that this Commandant appeared
+to be a man highly self-interested; and that this proposition would be
+a means of gaining time, till they should take proper measures to
+withdraw themselves from the tyrrany of the French.
+
+The Sun returned to the Commandant, and proposed to pay him the
+tribute I just mentioned, if he waited till the first colds, (winter;)
+and then the corn would be gathered in, and dry enough to shake out
+the grain; that thus they would not be exposed to lose their corn, and
+die of hunger: that the Commandant himself would find his account in
+it; and that as soon as any corn was shaken out, they should bring him
+some.
+
+The avidity of the Commandant made him accept the proposition with
+joy, and blinded him with regard to the consequences of his tyrrany.
+He, however, pretended that he agreed to the offer out of favour, to
+do a pleasure to a nation so beloved, and who had ever been good
+friends of the French. The Sun appeared highly satisfied to have
+obtained a delay sufficient for taking the precautions necessary to
+the security of the nation; for he was by no means the dupe of the
+feigned benevolence of the Commandant.
+
+The Sun, upon his return, caused the council to be assembled; told the
+old men, that the French Commandant had acquiesced in the offers which
+he had made him, and granted the term of time they demanded. He then
+laid before them, that it was necessary wisely to avail themselves of
+this time, in order to withdraw themselves from the proposed payment
+and tyrannic domination of the French, who grew dangerous in
+proportion as they multiplied. That the Natchez ought to remember the
+war made upon them, in violation of the peace concluded between them:
+that this war having been made upon their village alone, they ought to
+consider of the surest means {76} to take a just and bloody vengeance:
+that this enterprise being of the utmost consequence, it called for
+much secrecy, for solid measures, and for much policy: that thus it
+was proper to cajole the French Chief more than ever: that this affair
+required some days to reflect on, before they came to a resolution
+therein, and before it should be proposed to the Grand Sun and his
+council: that at present they had only to retire; and in a few days he
+would assemble them again, that they might then determine the part
+they were to act.
+
+In five or six days he brought together the old men, who in that
+interval were consulting with each other: which was the reason that
+all the suffrages were unanimous in the same and only means of
+obtaining the end they proposed to themselves, which was the entire
+destruction of the French in this province.
+
+The Sun, seeing them all assembled, said: "You have had time to
+reflect on the proposition I made you; and so I imagine you will soon
+set forth the best means how to get rid of your bad neighbours without
+hazard." The Sun having done speaking, the oldest rose up, saluted his
+Chief after his manner, and said to him:
+
+"We have a long time been sensible that the neighbourhood of the
+French is a greater prejudice than benefit to us: we, who are old men,
+see this; the young see it not. The wares of the French yield pleasure
+to the youth; but in effect, to what purpose is all this, but to
+debauch the young women, and taint the blood of the nation, and make
+them vain and idle? The young men are in the same case; and the
+married must work themselves to death to maintain their families, and
+please their children. Before the French came amongst us, we were men,
+content with what we had, and that was sufficient: we walked with
+boldness every road, because we were then our own masters: but now we
+go groping, afraid of meeting thorns, we walk like slaves, which we
+shall soon be, since the French already treat us as if we were such.
+When they are sufficiently strong, they will no longer dissemble. For
+the least fault of our young people, they will tie them to a post, and
+whip them as they do their black slaves. Have they not {77} already
+done so to one of our young men; and is not death preferable to
+slavery?"
+
+Here he paused a while, and after taking breath, proceeded thus:
+
+"What wait we for? Shall we suffer the French to multiply, till we are
+no longer in a condition to oppose their efforts? What will the other
+nations say of us, who pass for the most ingenious of all the Red-men?
+They will then say, we have less understanding than other people. Why
+then wait we any longer? Let us set ourselves at liberty, and show we
+are really men, who can be satisfied with what we have. From this very
+day let us begin to set about it, order our women to get provisions
+ready, without telling them the reason; go and carry the Pipe of Peace
+to all the nations of this country; make them sensible, that the
+French being stronger in our neighbourhood than elsewhere, make us,
+more than others, feel that they want to enslave us; and when become
+sufficiently strong, will in like manner treat all the nations of the
+country; that it is their interest to prevent so great a misfortune;
+and for this purpose they have only to join us, and cut off the French
+to a man, in one day and one hour; and the time to be that on which
+the term prefixed and obtained of the French Commandant, to carry him
+the contribution agreed on, is expired; the hour to be the quarter of
+the day (nine in the morning;) and then several warriors to go and
+carry him the corn, as the beginning of their several payments, also
+carry with them their arms, as if going out to hunt: and that to every
+Frenchman in a French house, there shall be two or three Natchez; to
+ask to borrow arms and ammunition for a general hunting-match, on
+account of a great feast, and to promise to bring them meat; the
+report of the firing at the Commandant's, to be the signal to fall at
+once upon, and kill the French: that then we shall be able to prevent
+those who may come from the old French village, (New Orleans) by the
+great water (Missisippi) ever to settle here."
+
+He added, that after apprising the other nations of the necessity of
+taking that violent step, a bundle of rods, in number equal to that
+they should reserve for themselves, should be {78} left with each
+nation, expressive of the number of days that were to precede that on
+which they were to strike the blow at one and the same time. And to
+avoid mistakes, and to be exact in pulling out a rod every day, and
+breaking and throwing it away, it was necessary to give this in charge
+to a person of prudence. Here he ceased and sat down: they all
+approved his counsel, and were to a man of his mind.
+
+The project was in like manner approved of by the Sun of the Apple:
+the business was to bring over the Grand Sun, with the other petty
+Suns, to their opinion; because all the Princes being agreed as to
+that point, the nation would all to a man implicitly obey. They
+however took the precaution to forbid apprising the women thereof, not
+excepting the female Suns, (Princesses) or giving them the least
+suspicion of their designs against the French.
+
+The Sun of the Apple was a man of good abilities; by which means he
+easily brought over the Grand Sun to favour his scheme, he being a
+young man of no experience in the world, and having no great
+correspondence with the French: he was the more easily gained over, as
+all the Suns were agreed, that the Sun of the Apple was a man of
+solidity and penetration; who having repaired to the Sovereign of
+nation, apprised him of the necessity of taking that step, as in time
+himself would be forced to quit his own village; also of the wisdom of
+the measures concerted, such as even ascertained success; and of the
+danger to which his youth was exposed with neighbours so enterprising;
+above all, with the present French Commandant, of whom the
+inhabitants, and even the soldiers complained: that as long as the
+Grand Sun, his father, and his uncle, the Stung Serpent, lived, the
+Commandant of the fort durst never undertake any thing to their
+detriment; because the Grand Chief of the French, who resides at their
+great village (New Orleans,) had a love for them: but that he, the
+Grand Sun, being unknown to the French, and but a youth, would be
+despised. In fine, that the only means to preserve his authority, was
+to rid himself of the French, by the method, and with the precautions
+projected by the old men.
+
+{79} The result of this conversation was, that on the day following,
+when the Suns should in the morning come to salute the Grand Sun, he
+was to order them to repair to the Sun of the Apple, without taking
+notice of it to any one. This was accordingly executed, and the
+seducing abilities of the Sun of the Apple drew all the Suns into his
+scheme. In consequences of which they formed a council of Suns and
+aged Nobles, who all approved of the design: and then these aged
+Nobles were nominated heads of embassies to be sent to the several
+nations; had a guard of Warriors to accompany them, and on pain of
+death, were discharged from mentioning it to any one whatever. This
+resolution taken, they set out severally at the same time, unknown to
+the French.
+
+Notwithstanding the profound secrecy observed by the Natchez, the
+council held by the Suns and aged Nobles gave the people uneasiness,
+unable as they were to penetrate into the matter. The female Suns
+(Princesses) had alone in this nation a right to demand why they were
+kept in the dark in this affair. The young Grand female Sun was a
+Princess scarce eighteen: and none but the Stung Arm, a woman of great
+wit, and no less sensible of it, could be offended that nothing was
+disclosed to her. In effect, she testified her displeasure at this
+reserve with respect to herself, to her son; who replied, that the
+several deputations were made, in order to renew their good intelligence
+with the other nations, to whom they had not of a long time sent an
+embassy, and who might imagine themselves slighted by such a neglect.
+This feigned excuse seemed to appease the Princess, but not quite to rid
+her of all her uneasiness; which, on the contrary, was heightened, when,
+on the return of the embassies, she saw the Suns assemble in secret
+council together with the deputies, to learn what reception they met
+with; whereas ordinarily they assembled in public.
+
+At this the female Sun was filled with rage, which would have openly
+broke out, had not her prudence set bounds to it. Happy it was for the
+French, she imagined herself neglected: for I am persuaded the colony
+owes its preservation to the vexation of this woman rather than to any
+remains of affection {80} she entertained for the French, as she was
+now far advanced in years, and her gallant dead some time.
+
+In order to get to the bottom of the secret, she prevailed on her son
+to accompany her on a visit to a relation, that lay sick at the
+village of the Meal; and leading him the longest way about, and most
+retired, took occasion to reproach him with the secrecy he and the
+other Suns observed with regard to her, insisting with him on her
+right as a mother, and her privilege as a Princess: adding, that
+though all the world, and herself too, had told him he was the son of
+a Frenchman, yet her own blood was much dearer to her than that of
+strangers; that he needed not apprehend she would ever betray him to
+the French, against whom, she said, you are plotting.
+
+Her son, stung with these reproaches, told her, it was unusual to
+reveal what the old men of the council had once resolved upon;
+alledging, he himself, as being Grand Sun, ought to set a good example
+in this respect: that the affair was concealed from the Princess his
+consort as well as from her; and that though he was the son of a
+Frenchman, this gave no mistrust of him to the other Suns. But seeing,
+says he, you have guessed the whole affair, I need not inform you
+farther; you know as much as I do myself, only hold your tongue.
+
+She was in no pain, she replied, to know against whom he had taken his
+precautions: but as it was against the French, this was the very thing
+that made her apprehensive he had not taken his measures aright in
+order to surprise them; as they were a people of great penetration,
+though their Commandant had none: that they were brave, and could
+bring over by their presents, all the Warriors of the other nations;
+and had resources, which the Red-men were without.
+
+Her son told her she had nothing to apprehend as to the measures
+taken: that all the nations had heard and approved their project, and
+promised to fall upon the French in their neighbourhood, on the same
+day with the Natchez: that the Chactaws took upon them to destroy all
+the French lower down and along the Missisippi, up as far as the
+Tonicas; to which last people, he said, we did not send, as they and
+the Oumas {81} are too much wedded to the French; and that it was
+better to involve both these nations in the same general destruction
+with the French. He at last told her, the bundle of rods lay in the
+temple, on the flat timber.
+
+The Stung Arm being informed of the whole design, pretended to approve
+of it, and leaving her son at ease, henceforward was only solicitous
+how she might defeat this barbarous design: the time was pressing, and
+the term prefixed for the execution was almost expired.
+
+This woman, unable to bear to see the French cut off to a man in one
+day by the conspiracy of the natives, sought how to save the greatest
+part of them: for this purpose she be thought herself of acquainting
+some young women therewith, who loved the French, enjoining them never
+to tell from whom they had their information.
+
+She herself desired a soldier she met, to go and tell the Commandant,
+that the Natchez had lost their senses, and to desire him to be upon
+his guard: that he need only make the smallest repairs possible on the
+fort, in presence of some of them, in order to shew his mistrust; when
+all their resolutions and bad designs would vanish and fall to the
+ground.
+
+The soldier faithfully performed his commission: but the Commandant,
+far from giving credit to the information, or availing himself
+thereof; or diving into, and informing him self of the grounds of it,
+treated the soldier as a coward and a visionary, caused him to be
+clapt in irons, and said, he would never take any step towards
+repairing the fort, or putting himself on his guard, as the Natchez
+would then imagine he was a man of no resolution, and was struck with
+a mere panick.
+
+The Stung Arm fearing a discovery, notwithstanding her utmost
+precaution, and the secrecy she enjoined, repaired to the temple, and
+pulled some rods out of the fatal bundle: her design was to hasten or
+forward the term prefixed, to the end that such Frenchmen as escaped
+the massacre, might apprize their countrymen, many of whom had
+informed the Commandant; who clapt seven of them in irons, treating
+them as cowards on that account.
+
+{82} The female Sun, seeing the term approaching, and many of those
+punished, whom she had charged to acquaint the Governor, resolved to
+speak to the Under-Lieutenant; but to no better purpose, the
+Commandant paying no greater regard to him than to the common
+soldiers.
+
+Notwithstanding all these informations, the Commandant went out the
+night before on a party of pleasure, with some other Frenchmen, to the
+grand village of the Natchez, without returning to the fort till break
+of day; where he was no sooner come, but he had pressing advice to be
+upon his guard.
+
+The Commandant, still flustered with his last night's debauch, added
+imprudence to his neglect of these last advices; and ordered his
+interpreter instantly to repair to the grand village, and demand of
+the Grand Sun, whether he intended, at the head of his Warriors, to
+come and kill the French, and to bring him word directly. The Grand
+Sun, though but a young man, knew how to dissemble, and spoke in such
+a manner to the interpreter, as to give full satisfaction to the
+Commandant, who valued himself on his contempt of former advices; he
+then repaired to his house, situate below the fort.
+
+The Natchez had too well taken their measures to be disappointed in
+the success thereof. The fatal moment was at last come. The Natchez
+set out on the Eve of St. Andrew, 1729, taking care to bring with them
+one of the lower sort, armed with a wooden hatchet, in order to knock
+down the Commandant: they had so high a contempt for him, that no
+Warrior would deign to kill him. [Footnote: Others say he was shot:
+but neither account can be ascertained, as no Frenchman present
+escaped.] The houses of the French filled with enemies, the fort in
+like manner with the natives, who entered in at the gate and breaches,
+deprived the soldiers, without officers, or even a serjeant at their
+head, of the means of self defence. In the mean time the Grand Sun
+arrived, with some Warriors loaded with corn, in appearance as the
+first payment of the contribution; when several shot were fired. As
+this firing was the signal, several shot were heard at the same
+instant. Then at length the Commandant saw, but too late, his folly:
+he ran into his garden, whither he was pursued {83} and killed. This
+Massacre was executed every where at the same time. Of about seven
+hundred persons, but few escaped to carry the dreadful news to the
+capital; on receiving which the Governor and Council were sensibly
+affected, and orders were dispatched every where to put people on
+their guard.
+
+The other Indians were displeased at the conduct of the Natchez,
+imagining they had forwarded the term agreed on, in order to make them
+ridiculous, and proposed to take vengeance the first opportunity, not
+knowing the true cause of the precipitation of the Natchez.
+
+After they had cleared the fort, warehouse, and other houses, the
+Natchez set them all on fire, not leaving a single building standing.
+
+The Yazous, who happened to be at that very time on an embassy to the
+Natchez, were prevailed on to destroy the post of the Yazous; which
+they failed not to effect some days after, making themselves masters
+of the fort, under colour of paying a visit, as usual, and knocking
+all the garrison on the head.
+
+M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was then taking the proper steps to
+be avenged: he sent M. le Sueur to the Chactaws, to engage them on our
+side against the Natchez; in which he succeeded without any
+difficulty. The reason of their readiness to enter into this design
+was not then understood, it being unknown that they were concerned in
+the plot of the Natchez to destroy all the French, and that it was
+only to be avenged of the Natchez, who had taken the start of them,
+and not given them a sufficient share of the booty.
+
+M. de Loubois, king's lieutenant, was nominated to be at the head of
+this expedition: he went up the river with a small army, and arrived
+at the Tonicas. The Chactaws at length in the month of February near
+the Natchez, to the number of fifteen or sixteen hundred men, with M.
+le Sueur at their head; whither M. de Loubois came the March
+following.
+
+The army encamped near the ruins of the old French settlement; and
+after resting five days there, they marched to the enemy's fort, which
+was a league from thence.
+
+{84} After opening the trenches and firing for several days upon the
+fort without any great effect, the French at last made their approach
+so near as to frighten the enemy, who sent to offer to release all the
+French women and children, on the condition of obtaining a lasting
+peace, and of being suffered to live peaceably on their ground,
+without being driven from thence, or molested for the future.
+
+M. de Loubois assured them of peace on their own terms, if they also
+gave up the French, who were in the fort, and all the negroes they had
+taken belonging to the French; and if they agreed to destroy the fort
+by fire. The Grand Sun accepted these conditions, provided the French
+general should promise, he would neither enter the fort with the
+French, nor suffer their auxiliaries to enter; which was accepted by
+the general; who sent the allies to receive all the slaves.
+
+The Natchez, highly pleased to have gained time, availed themselves of
+the following night, and went out of the fort, with their wives and
+children, loaded with their baggage and the French plunder, leaving
+nothing but the cannon and ball behind.
+
+M. de Loubois was struck with amazement at this escape, and only
+thought of retreating to the landing-place, in order to build a fort
+there: but first it was necessary to recover the French out of the
+hands of the Chactaws, who insisted on a very high ransom. The matter
+was compromised by means of the grand chief of the Tonicas, who
+prevailed on them to accept what M. de Loubois was constrained to
+offer them, to satisfy their avarice; which they accordingly accepted,
+and gave up the French slaves, on promise of being paid as soon as
+possible: but they kept as security a young Frenchman and some negro
+slaves, whom they would never part with, till payment was made.
+
+M. de Loubois gave orders to build a terrace-fort, far preferable to a
+stoccado; there he left M. du Crenet, with an hundred and twenty men
+in garrison, with cannon and ammunition; after which he went down the
+Missisippi to New Orleans. The Chactaws, Tonicas, and other allies,
+returned home.
+
+{85} After the Natchez had abandoned the fort, it was demolished, and
+its piles, or stakes, burnt. As the Natchez dreaded both the vengeance
+of the French, and the insolence of the Chactaws, that made them take
+the resolution of escaping in the night.
+
+A short time after, a considerable party of the Natchez carried the
+Pipe of Peace to the Grand Chief of the Tonicas, under pretence of
+concluding a peace with him and all the French. The Chief sent to M.
+Perier to know his pleasure: but the Natchez in the mean time
+assassinated the Tonicas, beginning with their Grand Chief; and few of
+them escaped this treachery.
+
+M. Perier, Commandant General, zealous for the service, neglected no
+means, whereby to discover in what part the Natchez had taken refuge.
+And after many enquiries he was told, they had entirely quitted the
+east side of the Missisippi, doubtless to avoid the troublesome and
+dangerous visits of the Chactaws; and in order to be more concealed
+from the French, had retired to the West of the Missisippi, near the
+Silver Creek, about sixty leagues from the mouth of the Red River.
+
+These advices were certain: but the Commandant General not thinking
+himself in a condition fit to attack them without succours, had
+applied for that purpose to the Court; and succours were accordingly
+sent him.
+
+In the mean time the Company, who had been apprized of the misfortune
+at the Post of the Natchez, and the losses they had sustained by the
+war, gave up that Colony to the King, with the privileges annexed
+thereto. The Company at the same time ceded to the King all that
+belonged to them in that Colony, as fortresses, artillery, ammunition,
+warehouses, and plantations, with the negroes belonging thereto. In
+consequence of which, his Majesty sent one of his ships, commanded by
+M. de Forant, who brought with him M. de Salmont, Commissary-General
+of the Marine, and Inspector of Louisiana, in order to take possession
+of that Colony in the King's name.
+
+I was continued in the inspection of this plantation, now become the
+King's in 1730, as before.
+
+{86} M. Perier, who till then had been Commandant General of Louisiana
+for the West India Company, was now made Governor for the King; and
+had the satisfaction to see his brother arrive, in one of the King's
+ships, commanded by M. Perier de Salvert, with the succours he
+demanded, which were an hundred and fifty soldiers of the marine. This
+Officer had the title of Lieutenant General of the Colony conferred
+upon him.
+
+The Messrs. Perier set out with their army in very favourable weather;
+and arrived at last, without obstruction, near to the retreat of the
+Natchez. To get to that place, they went up the Red river, then the
+Black River, and from thence up the Silver Creek, which communicates
+with a small Lake at no great distance from the fort, which the
+Natchez had built, in order to maintain their ground against the
+French.
+
+The Natchez, struck with terror at the sight of a vigilant enemy, shut
+themselves up in their fort. Despair assumed the place of prudence,
+and they were at their wits end, on seeing the trenches gain ground on
+the fort: they equip themselves like warriors, and stain their bodies
+with different colours, in order to make their last efforts by a
+sally, which resembled a transport of rage more than the calmness of
+valour, to the terror, at first, of the soldiers.
+
+The reception they met from our men, taught them, however, to keep
+themselves shut up in their fort; and though the trench was almost
+finished, our Generals were impatient to have the mortars put in a
+condition to play on the place. At last they are set in battery; when
+the third bomb happened to fall in the middle of the fort, the usual
+place of residence of the women and children, they set up a horrible
+screaming; and the men, seized with grief at the cries of their wives
+and children, made the signal to capitulate.
+
+The Natchez, after demanding to capitulate, started difficulties,
+which occasioned messages to and fro till night, which they waited to
+avail themselves of, demanding till next day to settle the articles of
+capitulation. The night was granted them, but being narrowly watched
+on the side next the gate, they could not execute the same project of
+escape, as in the war {87} with M. de Loubois. However, they attempted
+it, by taking advantage of the obscurity of the night, and of the
+apparent stillness of the French: but they were discovered in time,
+the greatest part being constrained to retire into the fort. Some of
+them only happened to escape, who joined those that were out a
+hunting, and all together retired to the Chicasaws. The rest
+surrendered at discretion, among whom was the Grand Sun, and the
+female Suns, with several warriors, many women, young people, and
+children.
+
+The French army re-embarked, and carried the Natchez as slaves to New
+Orleans, where they were put in prison; but afterwards, to avoid an
+infection, the women and children were disposed of in the King's
+plantation, and elsewhere; among these women was the female Sun,
+called the Stung Arm, who then told me all she had done, in order to
+save the French.
+
+Some time after, these slaves were embarked for St. Domingo, in order
+to root out that nation in the Colony; which was the only method of
+effecting it, as the few that escaped had not a tenth of the women
+necessary to recruit the nation. And thus that nation, the most
+conspicuous in the Colony, and most useful to the French, was
+destroyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+_The War with the_ Chicasaws. _The first Expedition by the river_
+Mobile. _The second by the_ Missisippi. _The war with the_ Chactaws
+_terminated by the prudence of_ M. de Vaudreuil.
+
+
+The war with the Chicasaws was owing to their having received and
+adopted the Natchez: though in this respect they acted only according
+to an inviolable usage and sacred custom, established among all the
+nations of North America; that when a nation, weakened by war, retires
+for shelter to another, who are willing to adopt them, and is pursued
+thither by their enemies, this is in effect to declare war against the
+nation adopting.
+
+But M. de Biainville, whether displeased with this act of hospitality,
+or losing sight of this unalterable law, constantly {88} prevailing
+among those nations, sent word to the Chicasaws, to give up the
+Natchez. In answer to his demand they alledged, that the Natchez
+having demanded to be incorporated with them, were accordingly
+received and adopted; so as now to constitute but one nation, or
+people, under the name of Chicasaws, that of Natchez being entirely
+abolished. Besides, added they, had Biainville received our enemies,
+should we go to demand them? or, if we did, would they be given up?
+
+Notwithstanding this answer, M. de Biainville made warlike
+preparations against the Chicasaws, sent off Captain le Blanc, with
+six armed boats under his command; one laden with gun-powder, the rest
+with goods, the whole allotted for the war against the Chicasaws; the
+Captain at the same time carrying orders to M. d'Artaguette,
+Commandant of the Post of the Illinois, to prepare to set out at the
+head of all the troops, inhabitants and Indians, he could march from
+the Illinois, in order to be at the Chicasaws the 10th of May
+following, as the Governor himself was to be there at the same time.
+
+The Chicasaws, apprized of the warlike preparations of the French,
+resolved to guard the Missisippi, imagining they would be attacked on
+that side. In vain they attempted to surprise M. le Blanc's convoy,
+which got safe to the Arkansas, where the gun-powder was left, for
+reasons no one can surmise.
+
+From thence he had no cross accident to the Illinois, at which place
+he delivered the orders the Governor had dispatched for M.
+d'Artaguette; who finding a boat laden with gun-powder, designed for
+his post, and for the service of the war intended against the
+Chicasaws, left at the Arkansas, sent off the same day a boat to fetch
+it up; which on its return was taken by a party of Chicasaws; who
+killed all but M. du Tiffenet, junior, and one Rosalie, whom they made
+slaves.
+
+In the mean time, M. de Biainville went by sea to Fort Mobile, where
+the Grand Chief of the Chactaws waited for him, in consequence of his
+engaging to join his Warriours with ours, in order to make war upon
+the Chicasaws, in consideration of a certain quantity of goods, part
+to be paid down directly, the rest at a certain time prefixed. The
+Governor, {89} after this, returned to New Orleans, there to wait the
+opening of the campaign.
+
+M. de Biainville, on his return, made preparations against his own
+departure, and that of the army, consisting of regular troops, some
+inhabitants and free negroes, and some slaves, all which set out from
+New Orleans for Mobile; where, on the 10th of March, 1736, the army,
+together with the Chactaws, was assembled; and where they rested till
+the 2d of April, when they began their march, those from New Orleans
+taking their route by the river Mobile, in thirty large boats and as
+many pettyaugres; the Indians by land, marching along the east bank of
+that river; and making but short marches, they arrived at Tombecbec
+only the 20th of April, where M. de Biainville caused a fort to be
+built: here he gave the Chactaws the rest of the goods due to them,
+and did not set out from thence till the 4th of May. All this time was
+taken up with a Council of War, held on four soldiers, French and
+Swiss, who had laid a scheme to kill the Commandant and garrison, to
+carry off M. du Tiffenet and Rosalie, who had happily made their
+escape from the Chicasaws, and taken refuge in the fort, and to put
+them again into the hands of the enemy, in order to be better received
+by them, and to assist, and shew them how to make a proper defence
+against the French, and from thence to go over to the English of
+Carolina.
+
+From the 4th of May, on which the army set out from Tombeebee, they
+took twenty days to come to the landing-place. After landing, they
+built a very extensive inclosure of palisadoes, with a shed, as a
+cover for the goods and ammuninition, then the army passed the night.
+On the 25th powder and ball were given out to the soldiers, and
+inhabitants, the sick with some raw soldiers being left to guard this
+old sort of fort.
+
+From this place to the fort of the Chicasaws are seven leagues: this
+day they marched five leagues and a half in two columns and in file,
+across the woods. On the wings marched the Chactaws, to the number of
+twelve hundred at least, commanded by their Grand Chief. In the
+evening they encamped in a meadow, surrounded with wood.
+
+{90} On the 26th of May they marched to the enemy's fort, across thin
+woods; and with water up to the waist, passed over a rivulet, which
+traverses a small wood; on coming out of which, they entered a fine
+plain: in this plain stood the fort of the Chicasaws, with a village
+defended by it. This fort is situated on an eminence, with an easy
+ascent; around it stood several huts, and at a greater distance
+towards the bottom, other huts, which appeared to have been put in a
+state of defence: quite close to the fort ran a little brook, which
+watered a part of the plain.
+
+The Chactaws no sooner espied the enemy's fort, than they rent the air
+with their death-cries, and instantly flew to the fort: but their
+ardour flagged at a carabin-shot from the place. The French marched in
+good order, and got beyond a small wood, which they left in their
+rear, within cannon-shot of the enemy's fort, where an English flag
+was seen flying. At the same time four Englishmen, coming from the
+huts, were seen to go up the ascent, and enter the fort, where their
+flag was set up.
+
+Upon this, it was imagined, they would be summoned to quit the enemy's
+fort, and to surrender, as would in like manner the Chicasaws: but
+nothing of this was once proposed. The General gave orders to the
+Majors to form large detachments of each of their corps, in order to
+go and take the enemy's fort. These orders were in part executed:
+three large detachments were made; namely, one of grenadiers, one of
+soldiers, and another of militia, or train-bands; who, to the number
+of twelve hundred men, advanced with ardour towards the enemy's fort,
+crying out aloud several times, _Vive le Roi_, as if already masters of
+the place; which, doubtless, they imagined to carry sword in hand; for
+in the whole army there was not a single iron tool to remove the
+earth, and form the attacks.
+
+The rest of the army marched in battle-array, ten men deep; mounted
+the eminence whereon the fort stood, and being come there, set fire to
+some huts, with wild-fire thrown at the ends of darts; but the smoke
+stifled the army.
+
+The regular troops marched in front, and the militia, or train-bands,
+in rear. According to rule these train-bands {91} made a quarter turn
+to right and left, with intent to go and invest the place. But M. de
+Jusan, Aid-Major of the troops, stopt short their ardor, and sent them
+to their proper post, reserving for his own corps the glory of
+carrying the place, which continued to make a brisk defence.
+Biainville remained at the quarters of reserve; where he observed what
+would be the issue of the attack, than which none could be more
+disadvantageous.
+
+Both the regulars and inhabitants, or train-bands, gave instances of the
+greatest valour: but what could they do, open and exposed as they were,
+against a fort, whose stakes or wooden posts were a fathom in compass,
+and their joinings again lined with other posts, almost as big? From
+this fort, which was well garrisoned, issued a shower of balls; which
+would have mowed down at least half the assailants, if directed by men
+who knew how to fire. The enemy were under cover from all the attacks of
+the French, and could have defended themselves by their loop-holes.
+Besides, they formed a gallery of flat pallisadoes quite round, covered
+with earth, which screened it from the effects of grenadoes. In this
+manner the troops lavished their ammunition against the wooden posts, or
+stakes, of the enemy's fort, without any other effect than having
+thirty-two men killed, and almost seventy wounded; which last were
+carried to the body of reserve; from whence the General, seeing the bad
+success of the attack, ordered to beat the retreat, and sent a large
+detachment to favour it. It was now five in the evening, and the attack
+had been begun at half an hour after one. The troops rejoined the body
+of the army, without being able to carry off their dead, which were left
+on the field of battle, exposed to the rage of the enemy.
+
+After taking some refreshment, they directly fortified themselves, by
+felling trees, in order to pass the night secure from the insults of
+the enemy, by being carefully on their guard. Next day it was observed
+the enemy had availed themselves of that night to demolish some huts,
+where the French, during the attack, had put themselves under cover,
+in order from thence to batter the fort.
+
+{92} On the 27th, the day after the attack, the army began its march,
+and lay at a league from the enemy. The day following, at a league
+from the landing-place, whither they arrived next day, the French
+embarked for Fort Mobile, and from thence for the Capital, from which
+each returned to his own home.
+
+A little time after, a serjeant of the garrison of the Illinois
+arrived at New Orleans, who reported, that, in consequence of the
+General's orders, M. d'Artaguette had taken his measures so well, that
+on the 9th of May he arrived with his men near the Chicasaws, sent out
+scouts to discover the arrival of the French army; which he continued
+to do till the 20th: that the Indians in alliance hearing no accounts
+of the French, wanted either to return home, or to attack the
+Chicasaws; which last M. d'Artaguette resolved upon, on the 21st, with
+pretty good success at first, having forced the enemy to quit their
+village and fort: that he then attacked another village with the same
+success, but that pursuing the runaways, M. d'Artaguette had received
+two wounds, which the Indians finding, resolved to abandon that
+Commandant, with forty-six soldiers and two serjeants, who defended
+their Commandant all that day, but were at last obliged to surrender;
+that they were well used by the enemy, who understanding that the
+French were in their country, prevailed on M. d'Artaguette to write to
+the General: but that this deputation having had no success, and
+learning that the French were retired, and despairing of any ransom
+for their slaves, put them to death by a slow fire. The serjeant
+added, he had the happiness to fall into the hands of a good master,
+who favoured his escape to Mobile.
+
+M. de Biainville, desirous to take vengeance of the Chicasaws, wrote
+to France for succours, which the Court sent, ordering also the Colony
+of Canada to send succours. In the mean time M. de Biainville sent off
+a large detachment for the river St. Francis, in order to build a fort
+there, called also St. Francis.
+
+The squadron which brought the succours from France being arrived,
+they set out, by going up the Missisippi, for the fort that had been
+just built. This army consisted of Marines, {93} of the troops of the
+Colony, of several Inhabitants, many Negroes, and some Indians, our
+allies; and being assembled in this place, took water again, and still
+proceeded up the Missisippi to a little river called Margot, near the
+Cliffs called Prud'homme, and there the whole army landed. They
+encamped on a fine plain, at the foot of a hill, about fifteen leagues
+from the enemy; fortified themselves by way of precaution, and built
+in the fort a house for the Commandant, some cazerns, and a warehouse
+for the goods. This fort was called Assumption, from the day on which
+they landed.
+
+They had waggons and sledges made, and the roads cleared for
+transporting cannon, ammunition, and other necessaries for forming a
+regular siege. There and then it was the succours from Canada arrived,
+consisting of French, Iroquois, Hurons, Episingles, Algonquins, and
+other nations: and soon after arrived the new Commandant of the
+Illinois, with the garrison, inhabitants, and neighbouring Indians,
+all that he could bring together, with a great number of horses.
+
+This formidable army, consisting of so many different nations, the
+greatest ever seen, and perhaps that ever will be seen, in those
+parts, remained in this camp without undertaking any thing, from the
+month of August 1739, to the March following. Provisions, which at
+first were in great plenty, came at last to be so scarce, that they
+were obliged to eat the horses which were to draw the artillery,
+ammunition, and provisions: afterwards sickness raged in the army. M.
+de Biainville, who hitherto had attempted nothing against the
+Chicasaws, resolved to have recourse to mild methods. He therefore
+detached, about the 15th of March, the company of Cadets, with their
+Captain, M. de Celoron, their Lieutenant, M. de St. Laurent, and the
+Indians, who came with them from Canada, against the Chicasaws, with
+orders to offer peace to them in his name, if they sued for it.
+
+What the General had foreseen, failed not to happen. As soon as the
+Chicasaws saw the French, followed by the Indians of Canada, they
+doubted not in the least, but the rest of that numerous army would
+soon follow; and they no sooner saw them approach, but they made
+signals of peace, and came out {94} of their fort in the most humble
+manner, exposing themselves to all the consequences that might ensue,
+in order to obtain peace. They solemnly protested that they actually
+were, and would continue to be inviolable friends of the French; that
+it was the English, who prevailed upon them to act in this manner; but
+that they had fallen out with them on this account, and at that very
+time had two of that nation, whom they made slaves; and that the
+French might go and see whether they spoke truth.
+
+M. de St. Laurent asked to go, and accordingly went with a young
+slave: but he might have had reason to have repented it, had not the
+men been more prudent than the women, who demanded the head of the
+Frenchman: but the men, after consulting together, were resolved to
+save him, in order to obtain peace of the French, on giving up the two
+Englishmen. The women risk scarce any thing near so much as the men;
+these last are either slain in battle, or put to death by their
+enemies; whereas the women at worst are but slaves; and they all
+perfectly well know, that the Indian women are far better off when
+slaves to the French, than if married at home. M. de St. Laurent,
+highly pleased with this discovery, promised them peace in the name of
+M. de Biainville, and of all the French: after these assurances, they
+went all in a body out of the fort, to present the Pipe to M. de
+Celoron, who accepted it, and repeated the same promise.
+
+In a few days after, he set out with a great company of Chicasaws,
+deputed to carry the Pipe to the French General, and deliver up the
+two Englishmen. When they came before M. de Biainville, they fell
+prostrate at his feet, and made him the same protestations of fidelity
+and friendship, as they had already made to M. de Celoron; threw the
+blame on the English; said they were entirely fallen out with them,
+and had taken these two, and put them in his hands, as enemies. They
+protested, in the most solemn manner, they would for ever be friends
+of the French and of their friends, and enemies of their enemies; in
+fine, that they would make war on the English, if it was thought
+proper, in order to shew that they renounced them as traitors.
+
+{95} Thus ended the war with the Chicasaws, about the beginning of
+April, 1740. M. de Biainville dismissed the auxiliaries, after making
+them presents; razed the Fort Assumption, thought to be no longer
+necessary, and embarked with his whole army; and in passing down,
+caused the Fort St. Francis to be demolished, as it was now become
+useless; and he repaired to the Capital, after an absence of more than
+ten months.
+
+Some years after, we had disputes with a part of the Chactaws, who
+followed the interests of the Red-Shoe, a Prince of that nation, who,
+in the first expedition against the Chicasaws, had some disputes with
+the French. This Indian, more insolent than any one of his nation,
+took a pretext to break out, and commit several hostilities against
+the French. M. de Vaudreuil, then Governor of Louisiana, being
+apprised of this, and of the occasion thereof, strictly forbad the
+French to frequent that nation, and to truck with them any arms or
+ammunition, in order to put a stop to that disorder in a short time,
+and without drawing the sword.
+
+M. de Vaudreuil, after taking these precautions, sent to demand of the
+Grand Chief of the whole nation, whether, like the Red-Shoe, he was
+also displeased with the French. He made answer, he was their friend:
+but that the Red-Shoe was a young man, without understanding. Having
+returned this answer, they sent him a present: but he was greatly
+surprised to find neither arms, powder, nor ball in this present, at a
+time when they were friends as before. This manner of proceeding,
+joined to the prohibition made of trucking with them arms or
+ammunition, heightened their surprise, and put them on having an
+explication on this head with the Governor; who made answer, That
+neither arms nor ammunition would be trucked with them, as long as the
+Red-Shoe had no more understanding; that they would not fail, as being
+brethren, to share a good part of the ammunition and arms with the
+Warriors of the Red-Shoe. This answer put them on remonstrating to the
+Village that insulted us; told them, if they did not instantly make
+peace with the French, they would themselves make war upon them. This
+threatening declaration made them sue for peace with the French, who
+were not in a condition to maintain {96} a war against a nation so
+numerous. And thus the prudent policy of M. de Vaudreuil put a stop to
+this war, without either expence or the loss of a man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+_Reflections on what gives Occasions to Wars in_ Louisiana. _The Means
+of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the Manner of coming off with
+Advantage and little Expence in them._
+
+
+The experience I have had in the art of war, from some campaigns I
+made in a regiment of dragoons till the peace of 1713, my application
+to the study of the wars of the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient
+people, and the wars I have seen carried on with the Indians of
+Louisiana, during the time I resided in that Province, gave me
+occasion to make several reflections on what could give rise to a war
+with the Indians, on the means of avoiding such a war, and on such
+methods as may be employed, in order either to make or maintain a war
+to advantage against them, when constrained thereto.
+
+In the space of sixteen years that I resided in Louisiana, I remarked,
+that the war, and even the bare disputes we have had with the Indians
+of this Colony, never had any other origin, but our too familiar
+intercourse with them.
+
+In order to prove this, let us consider the evils produced by this
+familiarity. In the first place, it makes them gradually drop that
+respect, which they naturally entertain for our nation.
+
+In the second place, the French traffickers, or traders, are generally
+young people without experience, who, in order to gain the good-will
+of these people, afford them lights, or instruction, prejudicial to
+our interest. These young merchants are not, it is true, sensible of
+these consequences: but again, these people never lose sight of what
+can be of any utility to them, and the detriment thence accruing is
+not less great, nor less real.
+
+In the third place, this familiarity gives occasion to vices, whence
+dangerous distempers ensue, and corruption of blood, {97} which is
+naturally highly pure in this colony. These persons, who frequently
+resort to the Indians, imagined themselves authorized to give a loose
+to their vices, from the practice of these last, which is to give
+young women to their guests upon their arrival; a practice that
+greatly injures their health, and proves a detriment to their
+merchandizing.
+
+In the fourth place, this resorting to the Indians puts these last
+under a constraint, as being fond of solitude; and this constraint is
+still more heightened, if the French settlement is near them; which
+procures them too frequent visits, that give them so much more
+uneasiness, as they care not on any account that people should see or
+know any of their affairs. And what fatal examples have we not of the
+dangers the settlements which are too near the Indians incur. Let but
+the massacre of the French be recollected, and it will be evident that
+this proximity is extremely detrimental to the French.
+
+In the fifth and last place, commerce, which is the principal
+allurement that draws us to this new world instead of flourishing, is,
+on the contrary, endangered by the too familiar resort to the Indians
+of North America. The proof of this is very simple.
+
+All who resort to countries beyond sea, know by experience, that when
+there is but one ship in the harbour, the Captain sells his cargo at
+what price he pleases: and then we hear it said, such a ship gained
+two, three, and sometimes as high as four hundred per cent. Should
+another ship happen to arrive in that harbour, the profit abates at
+least one half; but should three arrive, or even four successively,
+the goods then are, so to speak, thrown at the head of the buyer: so
+that in this case a merchant has often great difficulty to recover his
+very expenses of fitting out. I should therefore be led to believe,
+that it would be for the interest of commerce, if the Indians were
+left to come to fetch what merchandize they wanted, who having none
+but us in their neighbourhood, would come for it, without the French
+running any risk in their commerce, much less in their lives.
+
+For this purpose, let us suppose a nation of Indians on the banks of
+some river or rivulet, which is always the case, as all {98} men
+whatever have at all times occasion for water. This being supposed, I
+look out for a spot proper to build a small terras-fort on, with
+fraises or stakes, and pallisadoes. In this fort I would build two
+small places for lodgings, of no great height; one to lodge the
+officers, the other the soldiers: this fort to have an advanced work,
+a half-moon, or the like, according to the importance of the post. The
+passage to be through this advanced work to the fort, and no Indian
+allowed to enter on any pretence whatever; not even to receive the
+Pipe of Peace there, but only in the advanced work; the gate of the
+fort to be kept shut day and night against all but the French. At the
+gate of the advanced work a sentinel to be posted, and that gate to be
+opened and shut on each person appearing before it. By these
+precautions we might be sure never to be surprised, either by avowed
+enemies, or by treachery. In the advanced work a small building to be
+made for the merchants, who should come thither to traffick or truck
+with the neighbouring Indians; of which last only three or four to be
+admitted at a time, all to have the merchandize at the same price, and
+no one to be favoured above another. No soldier or inhabitant to go to
+the villages of the neighbouring Indians, under severe penalties. By
+this conduct disputes would be avoided, as they only arise from too
+great a familiarity with them. These forts to be never nearer the
+villages than five leagues, or more distant than seven or eight. The
+Indians would make nothing of such a jaunt; it would be only a walk
+for them, and their want of goods would easily draw them, and in a
+little time they would become habituated to it. The merchants to pay a
+salary to an interpreter, who might be some orphan, brought up very
+young among these people.
+
+This fort, thus distant a short journey, might be built without
+obstruction, or giving any umbrage to the Indians: as they might be
+told it was built in order to be at hand to truck their furs, and at
+the same time to give them no manner of uneasiness. One advantage
+would be, besides that of commerce, which would be carried on there,
+that these forts would prevent the English from having any
+communication with the Indians, as these last would find a great
+facility for their truck, and in forts so near them, every thing they
+could want.
+
+{99} The examples of the surprise of the forts of the Natchez, the
+Yazoux, and the Missouris, shew but too plainly the fatal consequences
+of negligence in the service, and of a misplaced condescension in
+favour of the soldiers, by suffering them to build huts near the fort,
+and to lie in them. None should be allowed to lie out of the fort, not
+even the Officers. The Commandant of the Natchez, and the other
+Officers, and even the Serjeants, were killed in their houses without
+the fort. I should not be against the soldiers planting little fields
+of tobacco, potatoes, and other plants, too low to conceal a man: on
+the contrary, these employments would incline them to become settlers;
+but I would never allow them houses out of the fort. By this means a
+fort becomes impregnable against the most numerous; because they never
+will attack, should they have ever so much cause, as long as they see
+people on their guard.
+
+Should it be objected that these forts would cost a great deal: I
+answer, that though there was to be a fort for each nation, which is
+not the case, it would not cost near so much as from time to time it
+takes to support wars, which in this country are very expensive, on
+account of the long journeys, and of transporting all the implements
+of war, hitherto made use of. Besides, we have a great part of these
+forts already built, so that we only want the advanced works; and two
+new forts more would suffice to compleat this design, and prevent the
+fraudulent commerce of the English traders.
+
+As to the manner of carrying on the war in Louisiana, as was hitherto
+done, it is very expensive, highly fatiguing, and the risk always great;
+because you must first transport the ammunition to the landing-place;
+from thence travel for many leagues; then drag the artillery along by
+main force, and carry the ammunition on men's shoulders, a thing that
+harasses and weakens the troops very much. Moreover, there is a great
+deal of risk in making war in this manner: you have the approaches of a
+fort to make, which cannot be done without loss of lives: and should you
+make a breach, how many brave men are lost, before you can force men who
+fight like desperadoes, because they prefer death to slavery.
+
+{100} I say, should you make a breach; because in all the time I
+resided in this Province, I never saw nor heard that the cannon which
+were brought against the Indian forts, ever made a breach for a single
+man to pass: it is therefore quite useless to be at that expence, and
+to harass the troops to bring artillery, which can be of no manner of
+service.
+
+That cannon can make no breach in Indian forts may appear strange: but
+not more strange than true; as will appear, if we consider that the
+wooden posts or stakes which surround these forts, are too big for a
+bullet of the size of those used in these wars, to cut them down,
+though it were even to hit their middle. If the bullet gives more
+towards the edge of the tree, it glides off, and strikes the next to
+it; should the ball hit exactly between two posts, it opens them, and
+meets the post of the lining, which stops it short: another ball may
+strike the same tree, at the other joining, then it closes the little
+aperture the other had made.
+
+Were I to undertake such a war, I would bring only a few Indian
+allies; I could easily manage them; they would not stand me so much in
+presents, nor consume so much ammunition and provisions: a great
+saving this; and bringing no cannon with me, I should also save
+expences. I would have none but portable arms; and thus my troops
+would not be harassed. The country every where furnishes wherewithal
+to make moveable intrenchments and approaches, without opening the
+ground: and I would flatter myself to carry the fort in two days time.
+There I stop: the reader has no need of this detail, nor I to make it
+public.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Pensacola _taken by Surprize by the_ French. _Retaken by the_ Spaniards.
+_Again retaken by the_ French, _and demolished_.
+
+
+Before I go any farther, I think it necessary to relate what happened
+with respect to the Fort of Pensacola in Virginia. [Footnote: The
+author must mean Carolina.] This fort belongs to the Spaniards, and
+serves for an {101} Entrepot, or harbour for the Spanish galleons to
+put into, in their passage from La Vera Cruz to Europe.
+
+Towards the beginning of the year 1719, the Commandant General having
+understood by the last ships which arrived, that war was declared
+between France and Spain, resolved to take the post of Pensacola from
+the Spaniards; which stands on the continent, about fifteen leagues
+from Isle Dauphine, is defended by a staccado-fort the entrance of the
+road: over against it stands a fortin, or small fort, on the west
+point of the Isle St. Rose; which, on that side, defends the entrance
+of the road: this fort has only a guard-house to defend it.
+
+The Commandant General, persuaded it would be impossible to besiege
+the place in form, wanted to take it by surprise, confiding in the
+ardor of the French, and security of the Spaniards, who were as yet
+ignorant of our being at war with them in Europe. With that view he
+assembled the few troops he had, with several Canadian and French
+planters, newly arrived, who went as volunteers. M. de Chateauguier,
+the Commandant's brother, and King's Lieutenant, commanded under him;
+and next him, M. de Richebourg, Captain. After arming this body of
+men, and getting the necessary supplies of ammunition and provisions,
+he embarked with his small army, and by the favour of a prosperous
+wind, arrived in a short time at his place of destination. The French
+anchored near the Fortin, made their descent undiscovered, seized on
+the guard-house, and clapt the soldiers in irons; which was done in
+less than half an hour. Some French soldiers were ordered to put on
+the cloaths of the Spaniards, in order to facilitate the surprising
+the enemy. The thing succeeded to their wish. On the morrow at
+day-break, they perceived the boat which carried the detachment from
+Pensacola, in order to relieve the guard of the fortin; on which the
+Spanish march was caused to be beat up; and the French in disguise
+receiving them, and clapping them in irons, put on their cloaths; and
+stepping into the same boat, surprised the sentinel, the guard-house,
+and at last the garrison, to the very Governor himself, who was taken
+in bed; so that they all were made prisoners without any bloodshed.
+
+{102} The Commandant General, apprehensive of the scarcity of
+provisions, shipped off the prisoners, escorted by some soldiers,
+commanded by M. de Richebourg, in order to land them at the Havanna:
+he left his brother at Pensacola, to command there, with a garrison of
+sixty men. As soon as the French vessel had anchored at the Havanna,
+M. de Richebourg went on shore, to acquaint the Spanish Governor with
+his commission; who received him with politeness, and as a testimony
+of his gratitude, made him and his officers prisoners, put the
+soldiers in irons and in prison, where they lay for some time, exposed
+to hunger and the insults of the Spaniards, which determined many of
+them to enter into the service of Spain, in order to escape the
+extreme misery under which they groaned.
+
+Some of the French, newly enlisted in the Spanish troops, informed the
+Governor of the Havanna, that the French garrison left at Pensacola
+was very weak: he, in his turn, resolved to carry that fort by way of
+reprisal. For that purpose he caused a Spanish vessel, with that which
+the French had brought to the Havanna, to be armed. The Spanish vessel
+stationed itself behind the Isle St. Rose, and the French vessel came
+before the fort with French colours. The sentinel enquired, who
+commanded the vessel? They answered, M. de Richebourg. This vessel,
+after anchoring, took down her French, and hoisted Spanish colours,
+firing three guns: at which signal, agreed on by the Spaniards, the
+Spanish vessel joined the first; then they summoned the French to
+surrender. M. de Chateauguiere rejected the proposition, fired upon
+the Spaniards, and they continued cannonading each other till night.
+
+On the following day the cannonading was continued till noon, when the
+Spaniards ceased firing, in order to summon the Commandant anew to
+surrender the fort: he demanded four days, and was allowed two. During
+that time, he sent to ask succours of his brother, who was in no
+condition to send him any.
+
+The term being expired, the attack was renewed, the Commandant bravely
+defending himself till night; which two thirds of the garrison availed
+themselves of, to abandon their Governor, {103} who, having only
+twenty men left, saw himself unable to make any longer resistance,
+demanded to capitulate, and was allowed all the honours of war; but in
+going out of the place, he and all his men were made prisoners. This
+infraction of the capitulation was occasioned by the shame the
+Spaniards conceived, of being constrained to capitulate in this manner
+with twenty men only.
+
+As soon as the Governor of the Havanna was apprised of the surrender
+of the fort, vainly imagining he had overthrown half his enemies at
+least, he caused great rejoicings to be made in the island, as if he
+had gained a decisive victory, or carried a citadel of importance. He
+also sent off several vessels to victual and refresh his warriors,
+who, according to him, must have been greatly fatigued in such an
+action as I have just described.
+
+The new Governor of Pensacola caused the fortifications to be repaired
+and even augmented; sent afterwards the vessel, named the Great Devil,
+armed with six pieces of cannon, to take Dauphin Island, or at least
+to strike terror into it. The vessel St. Philip, which lay in the
+road, entered a gut or narrow place, and there mooring across, brought
+all her guns to bear on the enemy; and made the Great Devil sensible,
+that Saints resist all the efforts of Hell.
+
+This ship, by her position, served for a citadel to the whole island,
+which had neither fortifications nor intrenchments, nor any other sort
+of defence, excepting a battery of cannon at the east point, with some
+inhabitants, who guarded the coast, and prevented a descent. The Great
+Devil, finding she made no progress, was constrained, by way of
+relaxation, to go and pillage on the continent the habitation of the
+Sieur Miragouine, which was abandoned. In the mean time arrived from
+Pensacola, a little devil, a pink, to the assistance of the Great
+Devil. As soon as they joined, they began afresh to cannonade the
+island, which made a vigorous defence.
+
+In the time that these two vessels attempted in vain to take the
+island, a squadron of five ships came in sight, four of them with
+Spanish colours, and the least carrying French hoisted to {104} the
+top of the staff, as if taken by the four others. In this the French
+were equally deceived with the Spaniards: the former, however, knew
+the small vessel, which was the pink, the Mary, commanded by the brave
+M. Iapy. The Spaniards, convinced by these appearances, that succours
+were sent them, deputed two officers in a shallop on board the
+commodore: but they were no sooner on board, than they were made
+prisoners.
+
+They were in effect three French men of war, with two ships of the
+Company, commanded by M. Champmelin. These ships brought upwards of
+eight hundred men, and thirty officers, as well superior as subaltern,
+all of them old and faithful servants of the King, in order to remain
+in Louisiana. The Spaniards, finding their error, fled to Pensacola,
+to carry the news of this succour being arrived for the French.
+
+The squadron anchored before the island, hoisted French colours, and
+fired a salvo, which was answered by the place. The St. Philip was
+drawn out and made to join the squadron: a new embarkation of troops
+was made, and the Mary left before Isle Dauphine.
+
+On September the 7th, finding the wind favourable, the squadron set
+sail for Pensacola: by the way, the troops that were to make the
+attack on the continent, were landed near Rio Perdido; after which the
+ships, preceded by a boat, which shewed the way, entered the harbour,
+and anchored, and laid their broad sides, in spite of several
+discharges of cannon from the fort, which is upon the Isle of St.
+Rose. The ships had no sooner laid their broad-sides, but the
+cannonade began on both sides. Our ships had two forts to batter, and
+seven sail of ships that lay in the harbour. But the great land fort
+fired only one gun on our army, in which the Spanish Governor, having
+observed upwards of three hundred Indians, commanded by M. de St.
+Denis, whose bravery was universally acknowledged, was struck with
+such a panick, from the fear of falling into their hands, that he
+struck, and surrendered the place.
+
+The fight continued for about two hours longer: but the heavy metal of
+our Commodore making great execution, the Spaniards cried out several
+times on board their ships, to {105} strike; but fear prevented their
+executing these orders: none but a French prisoner durst do it for
+them. They quitted their ships, leaving matches behind, which would
+have soon set them on fire. The French prisoners between decks, no
+longer hearing the least noise, surmised a flight, came on deck,
+discovered the stratagem of the Spaniards, removed the matches, and
+thus hindered the vessels from taking fire, acquainting the Commodore
+therewith. The little fort held out but an hour longer, after which it
+surrendered for want of gunpowder. The Commandant came himself to put
+his sword in the hands of M. Champmelin, who embraced him, returned
+him his sword, and told him, he knew how to distinguish between a
+brave officer, and one who was not. He made his own ship his place of
+confinement, whereas the Commandant of the great fort was made the
+laughing-stock of the French.
+
+All the Spaniards on board the ships, and those of the two forts were
+made prisoners of war: but the French deserters, to the number of
+forty, were made to cast lots; half of them were hanged at the
+yard-arms, the rest condemned to be galley-slaves to the Company for
+ten years in the country.
+
+M. Champmelin caused the two forts to be demolished, preserving only
+three or four houses, with a warehouse. These houses were to lodge the
+officer, and the few soldiers that were left there, and one to be a
+guard-house. The rest of the planters were transported to Isle
+Dauphine, and M. Champmelin set sail for France. [Footnote: At the
+peace that soon succeeded between France and Spain, Pensacola was
+restored to the last.]
+
+The history of Pensacola is the more necessary, as it is so near our
+settlements, that the Spaniards hear our guns, when we give them
+notice by that signal of our design to come and trade with them.
+
+{107}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+_Of the Country, and its Products_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its Climate_
+
+
+Louisiana that part of North America, which is bounded on the south by
+the Gulf of Mexico; on the east by Carolina, an English colony, and by
+a part of Canada; on the west by New Mexico; and on the north, in part
+by Canada; in part it extends, without any assignable bounds, to the
+Terrae Incognitae, adjoining to Hudson's Bay. [Footnote: By the
+charter granted by Louis XIV. to M. Crozat, Louisiana extends only
+"from the edge of the sea as far as the Illinois," which is not above
+half the extent assigned by our author.] Its breadth is about two
+hundred leagues, [Footnote: According to the best maps and accounts
+extant, the distance from the Missisippi to the mountains of New
+Mexico is about nine hundred miles, and from the Missisippi to the
+Atlantic Ocean about six hundred; reckoning sixty miles to a degree,
+and in a straight line.] extending between the Spanish and English
+settlements; its length undetermined, as being altogether unknown.
+However, the source of the Missisippi will afford us some light on
+this head.
+
+The climate of Louisiana varies in proportion as it extends northward:
+all that can be said of it in general is, that its southern parts are
+not so scorching as those of Africa in the {108} same latitude; and
+that the northern parts are colder than the corresponding parts of
+Europe. New Orleans, which lies in lat. 30°, as do the more northerly
+coasts of Barbary and Egypt, enjoys the same temperature of climate as
+Languedoc. Two degrees higher-up, at the Natchez, where I resided for
+eight years, the climate is far more mild than at New Orleans, the
+country lying higher: and at the Illinois, which is between 45° and
+46°, the summer is in no respect hotter than at Rochelle; but we find
+the frosts harder, and a more plentiful fall of snow. This difference
+of climate from that of Africa and Europe, I ascribe to two causes:
+the first is, the number of woods, which, though scattered up and
+down, cover the face of this country: the second, the great number of
+rivers. The former prevent the sun from warming the earth; and the
+latter diffuse a great degree of humidity: not to mention the
+continuity of this country with those to the northward; from which it
+follows, that the winds blowing from that quarter are much colder than
+if they traversed the sea in their course. For it is well known that
+the air is never so hot, and never so cold at sea, as on land.
+
+We ought not therefore to be surprised, if in the southern part of
+Louisiana, a north wind obliges people in summer to be warmer
+cloathed; or if in winter a south wind admits of a lighter dress; as
+naturally owing, at the one time to the dryness of the wind, at the
+other, to the proximity of the Equator.
+
+Few days pass in Louisiana without seeing the sun. The rain pours down
+there in sudden heavy showers, which do not last long, but disappear
+in half an hour, perhaps. The dews are very plentiful, advantageously
+supplying the place of rain.
+
+We may therefore well imagine that the air is perfectly good there;
+the blood is pure; the people are healthy; subject to few diseases in
+the vigour of life, and without decrepitude in old age, which they
+carry to a far greater length than in France. People live to a long
+and agreeable old age in Louisiana, if they are but sober and
+temperate.
+
+This country is extremely well watered, but much more so in some
+places than in others. The Missisippi divides this {109} colony from
+north to south into two parts almost equal. The first discoverers of
+this river by the way of Canada, called it Colbert, in honour of that
+great Minister. By some of the savages of the north it is called
+Meact-Chassipi, which literally denotes, The Ancient Father of Rivers,
+of which the French have, by corruption formed Missisippi. Other
+Indians, especially those lower down the river, call it Balbancha; and
+at last the French have given it the name of St. Louis.
+
+Several travellers have in vain attempted to go up to its source;
+which, however, is well known, whatever some authors, misinformed, may
+alledge to the contrary. We here subjoin the accounts that may be most
+depended upon.
+
+M. de Charleville, a Canadian, and a relation of M. de Biainville,
+Commandant General of this colony, told me, that at the time of the
+settlement of the French, curiosity alone had led him to go up this
+river to its sources; that for this end he fitted out a canoe, made of
+the bark of the birch-tree, in order to be more portable in case of
+need. And that having thus set out with two Canadians and two Indians,
+with goods, ammunition, and provisions, he went up the river three
+hundred leagues to the north, above the Illinois: that there be found
+the Fall, called St. Antony's. This fall is a flat-rock, which
+traverses the river, and gives it only between eight or ten feet fall.
+He caused his canoe and effects to be carried over that place; and
+that embarking afterwards above the fall, he continued going up the
+river an hundred leagues more to the north, where he met the Sioux, a
+people inhabiting that country, at some distance from the Missisippi;
+some say, on each side of it.
+
+The Sioux, little accustomed to see Europeans, were surprized at seeing
+him, and asked whither he was going. He told them, up the Missisippi to
+its source. They answered, that the country whither he was going was
+very bad, and where he would have great difficulty to find game for
+subsistence; that it was a great way off, reckoned as far from the
+source to the fall, as from this last to the sea. According to this
+information, the Missisippi must measure from its source to its mouth
+between fifteen and sixteen hundred leagues, as they reckon eight
+hundred leagues from St. Antony's Fall to the sea. This {110} conjecture
+is the more probable, as that far to the north, several rivers of a
+pretty long course fall into the Missisippi; and that even above St.
+Antony's Fall, we find in this river between thirty and thirty-five
+fathom water, and a breadth in proportion; which can never be from a
+source at no great distance off. I may add, that all the Indians,
+informed by those nearer the source, are of the same opinion.
+
+Though M. de Charleville did not see the source of the Missisippi, he,
+however, learned, that a great many rivers empty their waters into it:
+that even above St. Antony's Fall, he saw rivers on each side of the
+Missisippi, having a course of upwards of an hundred leagues.
+
+It is proper to observe, that in going down the river from St.
+Antony's Fall, the right hand is the west, the left the east. The
+first river we meet from the fall, and some leagues lower down, is the
+river St. Peter, which comes from the west: lower down to the east, is
+the river St. Croix, both of them tolerable large rivers. We meet
+several others still less, the names of which are of no consequence.
+Afterwards we meet with the river Moingona, which comes from the west,
+about two hundred and fifty leagues below the fall, and upwards of an
+hundred and fifty leagues in length. This river is somewhat brackish.
+From that river to the Illinois, several rivulets or brooks, both to
+the right and left, fall into the Missisippi. The river of the
+Illinois comes from the east, and takes its rise on the frontiers of
+Canada; its length is two hundred leagues.
+
+The river Missouri comes from a source about eight hundred leagues
+distant; and running from north-west to south-east, discharges itself
+into the Missisippi, about four or five leagues below the river of the
+Illinois. This river receives several others, in particular the river
+of the Canzas, which runs above an hundred and fifty leagues. From the
+rivers of the Illinois and the Missouri to the sea are reckoned five
+hundred leagues, and three hundred to St. Antony's Fall: from the
+Missouri to the Wabache, or Ohio, an hundred leagues. By this last
+river is the passage from Louisiana to Canada. This voyage is
+performed from New Orleans by going up the Missisippi to the Wabache;
+which they go up in the same manner quite to {111} the river of the
+Miamis; in which they proceed as far as the Carrying-place; from which
+there are two leagues to a little river which falls into Lake Erie.
+Here they change their vessels; they come in pettyaugres, and go down
+the river St. Laurence to Quebec in birch canoes. On the river St.
+Laurence are several carrying-places, on account of its many falls or
+cataracts.
+
+
+Those who have performed this voyage, have told me they reckoned
+eighteen hundred leagues from New Orleans to Quebec. [Footnote: It is
+not above nine hundred leagues.] Though the Wabache is considered in
+Louisiana, as the most considerable of the rivers which come from
+Canada, and which, uniting in one bed, form the river commonly called
+by that name, yet all the Canadian travellers assure me, that the
+river called Ohio, and which falls into the Wabache, comes a much
+longer way than this last; which should be a reason for giving it the
+name Ohio; but custom has prevailed in this respect. [Footnote: But
+not among the English; we call it the Ohio.]
+
+From the Wabache, and on the same side, to Manchac, we see but very
+few rivers, and those very small ones, which fall into the Missisippi,
+though there are nearly three hundred and fifty leagues from the
+Wabache to Manchac. [Footnote: That is, from the mouth of the Ohio to
+the river Iberville, which other accounts make but two hundred and
+fifty leagues.] This will, doubtless, appear something extraordinary
+to those unacquainted with the country.
+
+The reason, that may be assigned for it, appears quite natural and
+striking. In all that part of Louisiana, which is to the east of the
+Missisippi, the lands are so high in the neighbourhood of the river,
+that in many places the rain-water runs off from the banks of the
+Missisippi, and discharges itself into rivers, which fall either
+directly into the sea, or into lakes.
+
+Another very probable reason is, that from the Wabache to the sea, no
+rain falls but in sudden gusts; which defect is compensated by the
+abundant dews, so that the plants lose nothing by that means. The
+Wabache has a course of three hundred {112} leagues, and the Ohio has
+its source a hundred leagues still farther off.
+
+In continuing to go down the Missisippi, from the Wabache to the river
+of the Arkansas, we observe but few rivers, and those pretty small.
+The most considerable is that of St. Francis, which is distant thirty
+and odd leagues from that of the Arkansas. It is on this river of St.
+Francis, that the hunters of New Orleans go every winter to make salt
+provisions, tallow, and bears oil, for the supply of the capital.
+
+The river of the Arkansas, which is thirty-five leagues lower down,
+and two hundred leagues from New Orleans, is so denominated from the
+Indians of that name, who dwell on its banks, a little above its
+confluence with the Missisippi. It runs three hundred leagues, and its
+source is in the same latitude with Santa-Fé, in New Mexico, in the
+mountains of which it rises. It runs up a little to the north for a
+hundred leagues, by forming a flat elbow, or winding, and returns from
+thence to the south-east, quite to the Missisippi. It has a cataract,
+or fall, about the middle of its course. Some call it the White River,
+because in its course it receives a river of that name. The Great
+Cut-point is about forty leagues below the river of the Arkansas: this
+was a long circuit which the Missisippi formerly took, and which it
+has abridged, by making its way through this point of land.
+
+Below this river, still going towards the sea, we observe scarce any
+thing but brooks or rivulets, except the river of the Yasous, sixty
+leagues lower down. This river runs but about fifty leagues, and will
+hardly admit of a boat for a great way: it has taken its name from the
+nation of the Yasous, and some others dwelling on its banks.
+Twenty-eight leagues below the river of the Yasous, is a great cliff
+of a reddish free-stone: over-against this cliff are the great and
+little whirlpools.
+
+From this little river, we meet but with very small ones, till we come
+to the Red River, called at first the Marne, because nearly as big as
+that river, which falls into the Seine. The Nachitoches dwell on its
+banks, and it was distinguished by the name of that nation; but its
+common name, and which it still bears, is that of the Red River. It
+takes its rise in New Mexico, {113} forms an elbow to the north, in
+the same manner as the river of the Arkansas, falls down afterwards
+towards the Missisippi, running south east. They generally allow it a
+course of two hundred leagues. At about ten leagues from its
+confluence it receives the Black River, or the river of the Wachitas,
+which takes its rise pretty near that of the Arkansas. This rivulet,
+or source, forms, as is said, a fork pretty near its rise, one arm of
+which falls into the river of the Arkansas; the largest forms the
+Black River. Twenty leagues below the Red River is the Little
+Cut-point, and a league below that point are the little cliffs.
+
+From the Red River to the sea we observe nothing but some small
+brooks: but on the east side, twenty-five leagues above New Orleans,
+we find a channel, which is dry at low water. The inundations of the
+Missisippi formed this channel (which is called Manchac) below some
+high lands, which terminate near that place. It discharges itself into
+the lake Maurepas, and from thence into that of St. Louis, of which I
+gave an account before.
+
+The channel runs east south-east: formerly there was a passage through
+it; but at present it is so choaked up with dead wood, that it begins
+to have no water [Footnote: Manchac is almost dry for three quarters
+of the year: but during the inundation, the waters of the river have a
+vent through it into the lakes Ponchartrain and St. Louis. _Dumont_, II.
+297.
+
+This is the river Iberville, which is to be the boundary of the
+British dominions.] but at the place where it receives the river
+Amité, which is pretty large, and which runs seventy leagues in a very
+fine country.
+
+A very small river falls into the lake Maurepas, to the east of
+Manchac. In proceeding eastward, we may pass from this lake into that
+of St. Louis, by a river formed by the waters of the Amité. In going
+to the north of this lake, we meet to the east the little river
+Tandgipao. From thence proceeding always east, we come to the river
+Quéfoncté, which is long and beautiful, and comes from the Chactaws.
+Proceeding in the same route, we meet the river Castin-Bayouc: we may
+afterwards quit the lake by the channel, which borders the same
+country, {114} and proceeding eastward we meet with Pearl River which
+falls into this channel.
+
+Farther up the coast, which lies from west to east, we meet St.
+Louis's Bay, into which a little river of that name discharges itself:
+farther on, we meet the river of the Paska-Ogoulas: and at length we
+arrive at the Bay of Mobile, which runs upwards of thirty leagues into
+the country, where it receives the river of the same name, which runs
+for about a hundred and fifty leagues from north to south. All the
+rivers I have just mentioned, and which fall not into the Missisippi,
+do in like manner run from north to south.
+
+_Description of the Lower_ Louisiana, _and the Mouths of the_
+Missisippi.
+
+I return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi. At a little
+distance from Manchac we meet the river of the Plaqumines; it lies to
+the west, and is rather a creek than a river. Three or four leagues
+lower down is the Fork, which is channel running to the west of the
+Missisippi, through which part of the inundations of that river run
+off. These waters pass through several lakes, and from thence to the
+sea, by Ascension Bay. As to the other rivers to the west of this bay,
+their names are unknown.
+
+The waters which fall into those lakes consist not only of such as
+pass through this channel, but also of those that come out of the
+Missisippi, when overflowing its banks on each side: for, of all the
+water which comes out of the Missisippi over its banks, not a drop
+ever returns into its bed; but this is only to be understood of the
+low lands, that is, between fifty and sixty leagues from the sea
+eastward, and upwards of a hundred leagues westward.
+
+It will, doubtless, seem strange, that a river which overflows its
+banks, should never after recover its waters again, either in whole or
+in part; and this will appear so much the more singular, as every
+where else it happens otherwise in the like circumstances.
+
+It appeared no less strange to myself; and I have on all occasions
+endeavoured to the utmost, to find out what could {115} produce an
+effect, which really appeared to me very extraordinary, and, I
+imagine, not without success.
+
+From Manchac down to the sea, it is probable, and even in some degree
+certain, that all the lands thereabouts are brought down and
+accumulated by means of the ooze which the Missisippi carries along
+with it in its annual inundations; which begin in the month of March,
+by the melting of the snow to the north, and last for about three
+months. Those oozy or muddy lands easily produce herbs and reeds; and
+when the Missisippi happens to overflow the following year, these
+herbs and reeds intercept a part of this ooze, so that those at a
+distance from the river cannot retain so large a quantity of it, since
+those that grow next the river have stopt the greatest part; and by a
+necessary consequence, the others farther off, and in proportion as
+they are distant from the Missisippi, can retain a much less quantity
+of the mud. In this manner the land rising higher along the river, in
+process of time the banks of the Missisippi became higher than the
+lands about it. In like manner also these neighbouring lakes on each
+side of the river are remains of the sea, which are not yet filled up.
+Other rivers have firm banks, formed by the lands of Nature, a land of
+the same nature with the continent, and always adhering thereto: these
+sorts of banks, instead of augmenting, do daily diminish, either by
+sinking, or tumbling down into the bed of the river. The banks of the
+Missisippi, on the contrary, increase, and cannot diminish in the low
+and accumulated lands; because the ooze, alone deposited on its banks,
+increase them; which, besides, is the reason that the Missisippi
+becomes narrower, in place of washing away the earth, and enlarging
+its bed, as all other known rivers do. If we consider these facts,
+therefore, we ought no longer to be surprised that the waters of the
+Missisippi, when once they have left their bed, can never return
+thither again.
+
+In order to prove this augmentation of lands, I shall relate what
+happened near Orleans: one of the inhabitants caused a well to be sunk
+at a little distance from the Missisippi, in order to procure a
+clearer water. At twenty feet deep there was found a tree laid flat,
+three feet in diameter: the height of the earth was therefore
+augmented twenty feet since the fall or lodging of that tree, as well
+by the accumulated mud, as by the {116} rotting of the leaves, which
+fall every winter, and which the Missisippi carries down in vast
+quantities. In effect, it sweeps down a great deal of mud, because it
+runs for twelve hundred leagues at least across a country which is
+nothing else but earth, which the depth of the river sufficiently
+proves. It carries down vast quantities of leaves, canes and trees,
+upon its waters, the breadth of which is always above half a league,
+and sometimes a league and a quarter. Its banks are covered with much
+wood, sometimes for the breadth of a league on each side, from its
+source to its mouth. There is nothing therefore more easy to be
+conceived, than that this river carries down with its waters a
+prodigious quantity of ooze, leaves, canes and trees, which it
+continually tears up by the roots, and that the sea throwing back
+again all these things, they should necessarily produce the lands in
+question, and which are sensibly increasing. At the entrance of the
+pass or channel to the south-east, there was built a small fort, still
+called Balise. This fort was built on a little island, without the
+mouth of the river. In 1734 it stood on the same spot, and I have been
+told that at present it is half a league within the river: the land
+therefore hath in twenty years gained this space on the sea. Let us
+now resume the sequel of the Geographical Description of Louisiana.
+
+The coast is bounded to the west by St. Bernard's Bay, where M. de la
+Salle landed; into this bay a small river falls, and there are some
+others which discharge their waters between this bay and Ascension
+bay; the planters seldom frequent that coast. On the east the coast is
+bounded by Rio Perdido, which the French corruptedly call aux Perdrix;
+Rio Perdido signifying Lost River, aptly so called by the Spaniards,
+because it loses itself under ground, and afterwards appears again,
+and discharges itself into the sea, a little to the East of Mobile, on
+which the first French planters settled.
+
+From the Fork down to the sea, there is no river; nor is it possible
+there should be any, after what I have related: on the contrary, we
+find at a small distance from the Fork, another channel to the east,
+called the Bayoue of le Sueur: it is full of a soft ooze or mud, and
+communicates with the lakes which lie to the east.
+
+{117} On coming nearer to the sea, we meet, at about eight leagues
+from the principal mouth of the Missisippi, the first Pass; and a
+league lower down, the Otter Pass. These two passes or channels are
+only for pettyaugres. From this place there is no land fit to tread
+on, it being all a quagmire down to the sea. There also we find a
+point, which parts the mouths of the Missisippi: that to the right is
+called the South-Pass, or Channel; the west point of which runs two
+leagues farther into the sea than the point of the South-east Pass,
+which is to the left of that of the South Pass. At first vessels
+entered by the South-east Pass, but before we go down to it, we find
+to the left the East-Pass, which is that by which ships enter at
+present.
+
+At each of these three Passes or Channels there is a Bar, as in all
+other rivers: these bars are three quarters of a league broad, with
+only eight or nine feet water: but there is a channel through this
+bar, which being often subject to shift, the coasting pilot is obliged
+to be always sounding, in order to be sure of the pass: this channel
+is, at low water, between seventeen and eighteen feet deep. [Footnote:
+I shall make no mention of the islands, which are frequent in the
+Missisippi, as being, properly speaking, nothing but little isles,
+produced by some trees, though the soil be nothing but a sand
+bottom.]
+
+This description may suffice to shew that the falling in with the land
+from sea is bad; the land scarce appears two leagues off; which
+doubtless made the Spaniards call the Missisippi Rio Escondido, the
+Hid River. This river is generally muddy, owing to the waters of the
+Missouri; for before this junction the water of the Missisippi is very
+clear. I must not omit mentioning that no ship can either enter or
+continue in the river when the waters are high, on account of the
+prodigious numbers of trees, and vast quantities of dead wood, which
+it carries down, and which, together with the canes, leaves, mud, and
+sand, which the sea throws back upon the coast, are continually
+augmenting the land, and make it project into the Gulf of Mexico, like
+the bill of a bird.
+
+I should be naturally led to divide Louisiana into the Higher and
+Lower, on account of the great difference between {118} the two
+principal parts of this vast country. The Higher I would call that
+part in which we find stone, which we first meet with between the
+river of the Natchez and that of the Yasous, between which is a cliff
+of a fine free stone; and I would terminate that part at Manchac,
+where the high lands end. I would extend the Lower Louisiana from
+thence down to the sea. The bottom of the lands on the hills is a red
+clay, and so compact, as might afford a solid foundation for any
+building whatever. This clay is covered by a light earth, which is
+almost black, and very fertile. The grass grows there knee deep; and
+in the bottoms, which separate these small eminences, it is higher
+than the tallest man. Towards the end of September both are
+successively set on fire; and in eight or ten days young grass shoots
+up half a foot high. One will easily judge, that in such pastures
+herds of all creatures fatten extraordinarily. The flat country is
+watery, and appears to have been formed by every thing that comes down
+to the sea. I shall add, that pretty near the Nachitoches, we find
+banks of muscle-shells, such as those of which Cockle-Island is
+formed. The neighbouring nation affirms, that according to their old
+tradition, the sea formerly came up to this place. The women of this
+nation go and gather these shells, and make a powder of them, which
+they mix with the earth, of which they make their pottery, or earthen
+ware. However, I would not advise the use of these shells
+indifferently for this purpose, because they are naturally apt to
+crack in the fire: I have therefore reason to think, that those found
+at the Nachitoches have acquired their good quality only by the
+discharge of their salts, from continuing for so many ages out of the
+sea.
+
+If we may give credit to the tradition of these people, and if we
+would reason on the facts I have advanced, we shall be naturally led
+to believe, and indeed every thing in this country shews it, that the
+Lower Louisiana is a country gained on the sea, whose bottom is a
+crystal sand, white as snow, fine as flour, and such as is found both
+to the east and west of the Missisippi; and we may expect, that in
+future ages the sea and river may form another land like that of the
+Lower Louisiana. The Fort Balise shews that a century is sufficient to
+extend Louisiana two leagues towards the sea.
+
+{119}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_The Author's Journey in_ Louisiana, _from the Natchez to the River St.
+Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws._
+
+
+Ever since my arrival in Louisiana, I made it my business to get
+information in whatever was new therein, and to make discoveries of
+such things as might be serviceable to society. I therefore resolved
+to take a journey through the country. And after leaving my plantation
+to the care of my friends and neighbours, I prepared for a journey
+into the interior parts of the province, in order to learn the nature
+of the soil, its various productions, and to make discoveries not
+mentioned by others.
+
+I wanted to travel both for my own instruction, and for the benefit of
+the publick: but at the same time I desired to be alone, without any
+of my own countrymen with me; who, as they neither have patience, nor
+are made for fatigue, would be ever teazing me to return again, and
+not readily take up either with the fare or accommodations, to be met
+with on such a journey. I therefore pitched upon ten Indians, who were
+indefatigable, robust, and tractable, and sufficiently skilled in
+hunting, a qualification necessary on such journeys. I explained to
+them my whole design; told them, we should avoid passing through any
+inhabited countries, and would take our journeys through such as were
+unknown and uninhabited; because I travelled in order to discover what
+no one before could inform me about. This explication pleased them;
+and on their part they promised, I should have no reason to be
+dissatisfied with them. But they objected, they were under
+apprehensions of losing themselves in countries they did not know. To
+remove these apprehensions, I shewed them a mariner's compass, which
+removed all their difficulties, after I had explained to them the
+manner of using it, in order to avoid losing our way.
+
+We set out in the month of September, which is the best season of the
+year for beginning a journey in this country: in the first place,
+because, during the summer, the grass is too high for travelling;
+whereas in the month of September, the meadows, the grass of which is
+then dry, are set on fire, and {120} the ground becomes smooth, and
+easy to walk on: and hence it is, that at this time, clouds of smoke
+are seen for several days together to extend over a long track of
+country; sometimes to the extent of between twenty and thirty leagues
+in length, by two or three leagues in breadth, more or less, according
+as the wind sets, and is higher or lower. In the second place, this
+season is the most commodious for travelling over those countries;
+because, by means of the rain, which ordinarily falls after the grass
+is burnt, the game spread themselves all over the meadows, and delight
+to feed on the new grass; which is the reason why travellers more
+easily find provisions at this time than at any other. What besides
+facilitates these excursions in Autumn, or in the beginning of Winter,
+is, that all works in the fields are then at an end, or at least the
+hurry of them is over.
+
+For the first days of our journey the game was pretty rare, because
+they shun the neighbourhood of men; if you except the deer, which are
+spread all over the country, their nature being to roam indifferently
+up and down; so that at first we were obliged to put up with this
+fare. We often met with flights of partridges, which the natives
+cannot kill, because they cannot shoot flying; I killed some for a
+change. The second day I had a turkey-hen brought to regale me. The
+discoverer, who killed it, told me, there were a great many in the
+same place, but that he could do nothing without a dog. I have often
+heard of a turkey-chace, but never had an opportunity of being at one:
+I went with him and took my dog along with me. On coming to the spot,
+we soon descried the hens, which ran off with such speed, that the
+swiftest Indian would lose his labour in attempting to outrun them. My
+dog soon came up with them, which made them take to their wings, and
+perch on the next trees; as long as they are not pursued in this
+manner, they only run, and are soon out of sight. I came near their
+place of retreat, killed the largest, a second, and my discoverer a
+third. We might have killed the whole flock; for, while they see any
+men, they never quit the tree they have once perched on. Shooting
+scares them not, as they only look at the bird that drops, and set up
+a timorous cry, as he falls.
+
+{121} Before I proceed, it is proper to say a word concerning my
+discoverers, or scouts. I had always three of them out, one a-head, and
+one on each hand of me; commonly distant a league from me, and as much
+from each other. Their condition of scouts prevented not their carrying
+each his bed, and provisions for thirty-six hours upon occasion. Though
+those near my own person were more loaded, I however sent them out,
+sometimes one, sometimes another, either to a neighbouring mountain or
+valley: so that I had three or four at least, both on my right and left,
+who went out to make discoveries a small distance off. I did thus, in
+order to have nothing to reproach myself with, in point of vigilance,
+since I had begun to take the trouble of making discoveries.
+
+The next business was, to make ourselves mutually understood,
+notwithstanding our distance: we agreed, therefore, on certain
+signals, which are absolutely necessary on such occasions. Every day,
+at nine in the morning, at noon, and at three in the afternoon, we
+made a smoke. This signal was the hour marked for making a short halt,
+in order to know, whether the scouts followed each other, and whether
+they were nearly at the distance agreed on. These smokes were made at
+the hours I mentioned, which are the divisions of the day according to
+the Indians. They divide their day into four equal parts; the first
+contains the half of the morning; the second is at noon; the third
+comprizes the half of the afternoon; and the fourth, the other half of
+the afternoon to the evening. It was according to this usage our
+signals were mutually made, by which we regulated our course, and
+places of rendezvous.
+
+We marched for some days without finding any thing which could either
+engage my attention, or satisfy my curiosity. True it is, this was
+sufficiently made up in another respect; as we travelled over a
+charming country, which might justly furnish our painters of the
+finest imagination with genuine notions of landskips. Mine, I own, was
+highly delighted with the sight of fine plains, diversified with very
+extensive and highly delightful meadows. The plains were intermixed
+with thickets, planted by the hand of Nature herself; and interspersed
+with hills, running off in gentle declivities, and with {122} valleys,
+thick set, and adorned with woods, which serve for a retreat to the
+most timorous animals, as the thickets screen the buffaloes from the
+abundant dews of the country.
+
+I longed much to kill a buffalo with my own hand; I therefore told my
+people my intention to kill one of the first herd we should meet; nor
+did a day pass, in which we did not see several herds; the least of
+which exceeded a hundred and thirty or a hundred and fifty in number.
+
+Next morning we espied a herd of upwards of two hundred. The wind
+stood as I could have wished, being in our faces, and blowing from the
+herd; which is a great advantage in this chace; because when the wind
+blows from you towards the buffaloes, they come to scent you, and run
+away, before you can come within gun-shot of them; whereas, when the
+wind blows from them on the hunters, they do not fly till they can
+distinguish you by sight; and then, what greatly favours your coming
+very near to them is, that the curled hair, which falls down between
+their horns upon their eyes, is so bushy, as greatly to confuse their
+sight. In this manner I came within full gun-shot of them, pitched
+upon one of the fattest, shot him at the extremity of the shoulder,
+and brought him down stone-dead. The natives, who stood looking on,
+were ready to fire, had I happened to wound him but slightly; for in
+that case, these animals are apt to turn upon the hunter, who thus
+wounds them.
+
+Upon seeing the buffalo drop down dead, and the rest taking to flight,
+the natives told me, with a smile: "You kill the males, do you intend
+to make tallow?" I answered, I did it on purpose, to shew them the
+manner of making him good meat, though a male. I caused his belly to
+be opened quite warm, the entrails to be taken out directly, the
+bunch, tongue, and chines to be cut out; one of the chines to be laid
+on the coals, of which I made them all taste; and they all agreed the
+meat was juicy, and of an exquisite flavour.
+
+I then took occasion to remonstrate to them, that if, instead of
+killing the cows, as was always their custom, they killed the bulls,
+the difference in point of profit would be very considerable: {123}
+as, for instance, a good commerce with the French in tallow, with
+which the bulls abound; bull's flesh is far more delicate and tender
+than cow's; a third advantage is, the selling of the skins at a higher
+rate, as being much better; in fine, this kind of game, so
+advantageous to the country, would thereby escape being quite
+destroyed; whereas, by killing the cows, the breed of these animals is
+greatly impaired.
+
+I made a soup, that was of an exquisite flavour, but somewhat fat, of
+the broth boiled from the marrow-bones of this buffalo, the rest of
+the broth serving to make maiz-gruel, called Sagamity, which to my
+taste surpassed the best dish in France: the bunch on the back would
+have graced the table of a prince.
+
+In the route I held, I kept more on the sides of the hills than on the
+plains. Above some of these sides, or declivities, I found, in some
+places, little eminences, which lay peeled, or bare, and disclosed a
+firm and compact clay, or pure matrix, and of the species of that of
+Lapis Calaminaris. The intelligent in Mineralogy understand what I
+would be at. The little grass, which grows there, was observed to
+droop, as also three or four misshapen trees, no bigger than one's
+leg; one of which I caused to be cut down; when, to my astonishment, I
+saw it was upwards of sixty years standing. The neighbouring country
+was fertile, in proportion to its distance from this spot. Near that
+place we saw game of every kind, and in plenty, and never towards the
+summit.
+
+We crossed the Missisippi several times upon Cajeux (rafts, or floats,
+made of several bundles of canes, laid across each other; a kind of
+extemporaneous pontoon,) in order to take a view of mountains which
+had raised my curiosity. I observed, that both sides of the river had
+their several advantages; but that the West side is better watered;
+appeared also to be more fruitful both in minerals, and in what
+relates to agriculture; for which last it seems much more adapted than
+the East side.
+
+Notwithstanding our precaution to make signals, one of my scouts
+happened one day to stray, because the weather was {124} foggy; so
+that he did not return at night to our hut; at which I was very
+uneasy, and could not sleep; as he was not returned, though the
+signals of call had been repeated till night closed. About nine the
+next morning he cast up, telling us he had been in pursuit of a drove
+of deer, which were led by one that was altogether white: but that not
+being able to come up with them, he picked up, on the side of a hill,
+some small sharp stones, of which he brought a sample.
+
+These stones I received with pleasure, because I had not yet seen any
+in all this country, only a hard red free-stone in a cliff on the
+Missisippi. After carefully examining those which my discoverer
+brought me, I found they were a gypsum. I took home some pieces, and
+on my return examined them more attentively; found them to be very
+clear, transparent, and friable; when calcined, they turned extremely
+white, and with them I made some factitious marble. This gave me hopes
+that this country, producing Plaster of Paris, might, besides, have
+stones for building.
+
+I wanted to see the spot myself: we set out about noon, and travelled
+for about three leagues before we came to it. I examined the spot,
+which to me appeared to be a large quarry of Plaster.
+
+As to the white deer above mentioned, I learned from the Indians, that
+some such were to be met with, though but rarely, and that only in
+countries not frequented by the hunters.
+
+The wind being set in for rain, we resolved to put ourselves under
+shelter. The place where the bad weather overtook us was very fit to
+set up at. On going out to hunt, we discovered at five hundred paces
+off, in the defile, or narrow pass, a brook of a very clear water, a
+very commodious watering-place for the buffaloes, which were in great
+numbers all around us.
+
+My companions soon raised a cabin, well-secured to the North. As we
+resolved to continue there for eight days at least, they made it so
+close as to keep out the cold: in the night, I felt nothing of the
+severity of the North wind, though I lay but lightly covered. My bed
+consisted of a bear's skin, and two robes or coats of buffalo; the
+bear skin, with the flesh side {125} undermost, being laid on leaves,
+and the pile uppermost by way of straw-bed; one of the buffalo coats
+folded double by way of feather-bed; one half of the other under me
+served for a matrass, and the other over me for a coverlet: three
+canes, or boughs, bent to a semicircle, one at the head, another in
+the middle, and a third at the feet, supported a cloth which formed my
+tester and curtains, and secured me from the injuries of the air, and
+the stings of gnats and moskitto's. My Indians had their ordinary
+hunting and travelling beds, which consist of a deer skin and a
+buffalo coat, which they always carry with them, when they expect to
+lie out of their villages. We rested nine days, and regaled ourselves
+with choice buffalo, turkey, partridge, pheasants, &c.
+
+The discovery I had made of the plaster, put me to look out, during our
+stay, in all the places round about, for many leagues. I was at last
+tired of beating about such fine plains, without discovering the least
+thing, and I had resolved to go forward to the North when at the
+noon-signal the scout a-head waited to shew me a shining and sharp
+stone, of the length and size of one's thumb, and as square as a joiner
+could have made a piece of wood of the same bigness. I imagined it might
+be rock-crystal; to be assured thereof, I took a large musquet flint in
+my left hand, presenting its head, or thick end, on which I struck with
+one of the edges of the crystal, and drew much more fire than with the
+finest steel: and notwithstanding the many strokes I gave, the piece of
+crystal was not in the least scratched or streaked.
+
+I examined these stones, and found pieces of different magnitudes,
+some square, others with six faces, even and smooth like mirrors,
+highly transparent, without any veins or spots. Some of these pieces
+jutted out of the earth, like ends of beams, two feet and upwards in
+length; others in considerable numbers, from seven to nine inches;
+above all, those with six panes or faces. There was a great number of
+a middling and smaller sort: my people wanted to carry some with them;
+but I dissuaded them. My reason was, I apprehended some Frenchman
+might by presents prevail on them to discover the place.
+
+{126} For my part, I carefully observed the latitude, and followed, on
+setting out, a particular point of the compass, to come to a river
+which I knew. I took that route, under pretense of going to a certain
+nation to procure dry provisions, which we were in want of, and which
+are of great help on a journey.
+
+We arrived, after seven days march, at that nation, by whom we were
+well received. My hunters brought in daily many duck and teal. I
+agreed with the natives of the place for a large pettyaugre of black
+walnut, to go down the river, and afterwards to go up the Missisippi.
+
+I had a strong inclination to go up still higher north, in order to
+discover mines. We embarked, and the eleventh day of our passage I
+caused the pettyaugre to be unladen of every thing, and concealed in
+the water, which was then low. I loaded seven men with the things we
+had.
+
+Matters thus ordered, we set out according to the intention I had to
+go to the northward. I observed every day, with new pleasure, the more
+we advanced to that quarter, the more beautiful and fertile the
+country was, abounding in game of every kind: the herds of deer are
+numerous; at every turn we meet with them; and not a day passed
+without seeing herds of buffaloes, sometimes five or six, of upwards
+of an hundred in a drove.
+
+In such journeys as these we always take up our night's lodging near
+wood and water, where we put up in good time: then at sun-set, when
+every thing in nature is hushed, we were charmed with the enchanting
+warbling of different birds; so that one would be inclined to say,
+they reserved this favourable moment for the melody and harmony of
+their song, to celebrate undisturbed and at their ease, the benefits
+of the Creator. On the other hand, we are disturbed in the night, by
+the hideous noise of the numberless water-fowls that are to be seen on
+the Missisippi, and every river or lake near it, such as cranes,
+flamingo's, wild geese, herons, saw-bills, ducks, &c.
+
+As we proceeded further north, we began to see flocks of swans roam
+through the air, mount out of sight, and proclaim {127} their passage
+by their piercing shrill cries. We for some days followed the course
+of a river, at the head of which we found, in a very retired place, a
+beaver-dam.
+
+We set up our hut within reach of this retreat, or village of beavers,
+but at such a distance, as that they could not observe our fire. I put
+my people on their guard against making any noise, or firing their
+pieces, for fear of scaring those animals; and thought it even
+necessary to forbid them to cut any wood, the better to conceal
+ourselves.
+
+After taking all these precautions, we rose and were on foot against the
+time of moonshine, posted ourselves in a place as distant from the huts
+of the beavers, as from the causey or bank, which dammed up the waters
+of the place where they were. I took my fusil and pouch, according to my
+custom of never travelling without them. But each Indian was only to
+take with him a little hatchet, which all travellers in this country
+carry with them. I took the oldest of my retinue, after having pointed
+out to the others the place of ambush, and the manner in which the
+branches of trees we had cut were to be set to cover us. I then went
+towards the middle of the dam, with my old man, who had his hatchet, and
+ordered him softly to make a gutter or trench, a foot wide, which he
+began on the outside of the causey or dam, crossing it quite to the
+water. This he did by removing the earth with his hands. As soon as the
+gutter was finished, and the water ran into it, we speedily, and without
+any noise, retired to our place of ambush, in order to observe the
+behaviour of the beavers in repairing this breach.
+
+A little after we were got behind our screen of boughs, we heard the
+water of the gutter begin to make a noise: and a moment after, a beaver
+came out of his hut and plunged into the water. We could only know this
+by the noise, but we saw him at once upon the bank or dam, and
+distinctly perceived that he took a survey of the gutter, after which he
+instantly gave with all his force four blows with his tail; and had
+scarce struck the fourth, but all the beavers threw themselves pell-mell
+into the water, and came upon the dam: when they were all come thither,
+one of them muttered and mumbled to the {128} rest (who all stood very
+attentive) I know not what orders, but which they doubtless understood
+well, because they instantly departed, and went out on the banks of the
+pond, one party one way; another, another way. Those next us were
+between us and the dam, and we at the proper distance not to be seen,
+and to observe them. Some of them made mortar, others carried it on
+their tails, which served for sledges. I observed they put themselves
+two and two, side by side, the one with his head to the other's tail,
+and thus mutually loaded each other, and trailed the mortar, which was
+pretty stiff, quite to the dam, where others remained to take it, put it
+into the gutter, and rammed it with blows of their tails.
+
+The noise which the water made before by its fall, soon ceased, and
+the breach was closed in a short time: upon which one of the beavers
+struck two great blows with his tail, and instantly they all took to
+the water without any noise, and disappeared. We retired, in order to
+take a little rest in our hut, where we remained till day; but as soon
+as it appeared, I longed much to satisfy my curiosity about these
+creatures.
+
+My people together made a pretty large and deep breach, in order to
+view the construction of the dam, which I shall describe presently: we
+then made noise enough without further ceremony. This noise, and the
+water, which the beavers observed soon to lower, gave them much
+uneasiness; so that I saw one of them at different times come pretty
+near to us, in order to examine what passed.
+
+As I apprehended that when the water was run off they would all take
+flight to the woods, we quitted the breach, and went to conceal
+ourselves all round the pond, in order to kill only one, the more
+narrowly to examine it; especially as these beavers were of the grey
+kind, which are not so common as the brown.
+
+One of the beavers ventured to go upon the breach, after having
+several times approached it, and returned again like a spy. I lay in
+ambush in the bottom, at the end of the dam: I saw him return; he
+surveyed the breach, then struck four blows, which saved his life, for
+I then aimed at him. But these {129} four blows, so well struck, made
+me judge it was the signal of call for all the rest, just as the night
+before. This also made me think he might be the overseer of the works,
+and I did not choose to deprive the republic of beavers of a member
+who appeared so necessary to it. I therefore waited till others should
+appear: a little after, one came and passed close by me, in order to
+go to work; I made no scruple to lay him at his full length, on the
+persuasion he might only be a common labourer. My shot made them all
+return to their cabins, with greater speed than a hundred blows of the
+tail of their Overseer could have done. As soon as I had killed this
+beaver, I called my companions; and finding the water did not run off
+quick enough, I caused the breach to be widened, and I examined the
+dead.
+
+I observed these beavers to be a third less than the brown or common
+sort, but their make the same; having the same head, same sharp teeth,
+same beards, legs as short, paws equally furnished with claws, and
+with membranes or webs, and in all respects made like the others. The
+only difference is, that they are of an ash-gray, and that the long
+pile, which passes over the soft wool, is silvered, or whitish.
+
+During this examination, I caused my people to cut boughs, canes, and
+reeds, to be thrown in towards the end of the pond, in order to pass
+over the little mud which was in that place; and at the same time I
+caused some shot to be fired on the cabins that lay nearest us. The
+report of the guns, and the rattling of the shot on the roofs of the
+cabins, made them all fly into the woods with the greatest
+precipitation imaginable. We came at length to a cabin, in which there
+were not six inches of water. I caused to undo the roof without
+breaking any thing, during which I saw the piece of aspin-tree, which
+was laid under the cabin for their provisions.
+
+I observed fifteen pieces of wood, with their bark in part gnawed. The
+cabin also had fifteen cells round the hole in the middle, at which
+they went out; which made me think each had his own cell.
+
+I am now to give a sketch of the architecture of these amphibious
+animals, and an account of their villages; it is thus {130} I call the
+place of their abode, after the Canadians and the Indians, with whom I
+agree; and allow, these animals deserve, so much the more to be
+distinguished from others, as I find their instinct far superior to
+that of other animals. I shall not carry the parallel any farther, it
+might become offensive.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Beaver_--MIDDLE: _Beaver lodge_--BOTTOM:
+_Beaver dam_]
+
+The cabins of the beavers are round, having about ten or twelve feet
+in diameter, according to the number, more or {131} less, of fixed
+inhabitants. I mean, that this diameter is to be taken on the flooring
+at about a foot above the water, when it is even with the dam: but as
+the upper part runs to a point, the under is much larger than the
+flooring, which we may represent to ourselves, by supposing all the
+upright posts to resemble the legs of a great A, whose middle stroke
+is the flooring. These posts are picked out, and we might say, well
+proportioned, seeing, at the height this flooring is to be laid at,
+there is a hook for bearing bars, which by that means form the
+circumference of the flooring. The bars again bear traverses, or cross
+pieces of timber, which are the joists; canes and grass complete this
+flooring, which has a hole in the middle to go out at, when they
+please, and into this all the cells open.
+
+The dam is formed of timbers, in the shape of St. Andrew's cross, or
+of a great X, laid close together, and kept firm by timbers laid
+lengthwise, which are continued from one end of the dam to the other,
+and placed on the St. Andrew's crosses: the whole is filled with
+earth, clapped close by great blows of their tails. The inside of the
+dam, next the water, is almost perpendicular; but on the outside it
+has a great slope, that grass coming to grow thereon, may prevent the
+water that passes there, to carry away the earth.
+
+I saw them neither cut nor convey the timbers along, but it is to be
+presumed their manner is the same as that of other Beavers, who never
+cut but a soft wood; for which purpose they use their fore-teeth,
+which are extremely sharp. These timbers they push and roll before
+them on the land, as they do on the water, till they come to the place
+where they want to lay them. I observed these grey Beavers to be more
+chilly, or sensible of cold, than the other species: and it is
+doubtless for this reason they draw nearer to the south.
+
+We set out from this place to come to a high ground, which seemed to
+be continued to a great distance. We came the same evening to the foot
+of it, but the day was too far advanced to ascend it. The day
+following we went to its top, found it a flat, except some small
+eminences at intervals. There appeared to be very little wood on it,
+still less water, and least of all stone; though probably there may be
+some in its bowels, having {132} observed some stones in a part where
+the earth was tumbled down.
+
+We accurately examined all this rising ground, without discovering any
+thing; and though that day we travelled upwards of five leagues, yet
+we were not three leagues distant from the hut we set out from in the
+morning. This high ground would have been a very commodious situation
+for a fine palace; as from its edges is a very distant prospect.
+
+Next day, after a ramble of about two leagues and a half, I had the
+signal of call to my right. I instantly flew thither; and when I came,
+the scout shewed me a stump sticking out of the earth knee high, and
+nine inches in diameter. The Indian took it at a distance for the
+stump of a tree, and was surprised to find wood cut in a country which
+appeared to have been never frequented: but when he came near enough
+to form a judgement about it, he saw from the figure, that it was a
+very different thing: and this was the reason he made the signal of
+call.
+
+I was highly pleased at this discovery, which was that of a lead-ore.
+I had also the satisfaction to find my perseverance recompensed; but
+in particular I was ravished with admiration, on seeing this wonderful
+production, and the power of the soil of this province, constraining,
+as it were, the minerals to disclose themselves. I continued to search
+all around, and I discovered ore in several places. We returned to
+lodge at our last hut, on account of the convenience of water, which
+was too scarce on this high ground.
+
+We set out from thence, in order to come nearer to the Missisippi:
+through every place we passed, nothing but herds of buffaloes, elk,
+deer, and other animals of every kind, were to be seen; especially
+near rivers and brooks. Bears, on the other hand, keep in the thick
+woods, where they find their proper food.
+
+After a march of five days I espied a mountain to my right, which
+seemed so high as to excite my curiosity. Next morning I directed
+thither my course, where we arrived about three in the afternoon. We
+stopped at the foot of the mountain, where we found a fine spring
+issuing out of the rock.
+
+{133} The day following we went up to its top, where it is stony.
+Though there is earth enough for plants, yet they are so thin sown,
+that hardly two hundred could be found on an acre of ground. Trees are
+also very rare on that spot, and these poor, meagre, and cancerous.
+The stones I found there are all fit for making lime.
+
+We from thence took the route that should carry us to our pettyaugre,
+a journey but of a few days. We drew the pettyaugre out of the water,
+and there passed the night. Next day we crossed the Missisippi; in
+going up which we killed a she-bear, with her cubs: for during the
+winter, the banks of the Missisippi are lined with them; and it is
+rare, in going up the river, not to see many cross it in a day, in
+search of food: the want of which makes them quit the banks.
+
+I continued my route in going up the Missisippi quite to the Chicasaw
+Cliffs, (Ecores à Prud'homme) where I was told I should find something
+for the benefit of the colony: this was what excited my curiosity.
+
+Being arrived at those cliffs we landed, and concealed, after unlading
+it, the pettyaugre in the water; and from that day I sought, and at
+length found the iron-mine, of which I had some hints given me. After
+being sure of this, I carefully searched all around, to find Castine:
+but this was impossible: however, I believe it may be found higher up in
+ascending the Missisippi, but that care I leave to those who hereafter
+shall choose to undertake the working that mine. I had, however, some
+amends made me for my trouble; as in searching, I found some marks of
+pit-coal in the neighbourhood, a thing at least as useful in other parts
+of the colony as in this.
+
+After having made my reflections, I resolved in a little time to
+return home; but being loth to leave so fine a country, I penetrated a
+little farther into it; and in his short excursion I espied a small
+hill, all bare and parched, having on its top only two trees in a very
+drooping condition, and scarce any grass, besides some little tufts,
+distant enough asunder, which grew on a very firm clay. The bottom of
+this hill was not so barren, and the adjacent country fertile as in
+other parts. {134} These indications made me presume there might be a
+mine in that spot.
+
+I at length returned towards the Missisippi, in order to meet again the
+pettyaugre. As in all this country, and in all the height of the colony
+we find numbers of buffaloes, elk, deer, and other game; so we find
+numbers of wolves, some tigers, Cat-a-mounts, (Pichous) and
+carrion-crows, all of them carnivorous animals, which I shall hereafter
+describe. When we came near the Missisippi we made the signal of
+recognition, which was answered, though at some distance. It was there
+my people killed some buffaloes, to be dressed and cured in their
+manner, for our journey. We embarked at length, and went down the
+Missisippi, till we came within a league of the common landing-place.
+The Indians hid the pettyaugre, and went to their village. As for
+myself, I got home towards dusk, where I found my neighbours and slaves
+surprised, and at the same time glad, at my unexpected return, as if it
+had been from a hunting-match in the neighbourhood.
+
+I was really well pleased to have got home, to see my slaves in
+perfect health, and all my affairs in good order: But I was strongly
+impressed with the beauties of the countries I had seen. I could have
+wished to end my days in those charming solitudes, at a distance from
+the tumultuous hurry of the world, far from the pinching gripe of
+avarice and deceit. There it is, said I to myself, one relishes a
+thousand innocent delights, and which are repeated with a satisfaction
+ever new. It is there one lives exempt from the assaults of censure,
+detraction, and calumny. In those delightsome meadows, which often
+extend far out of sight, and where we see so many different species of
+animals, there it is we have occasion to admire the beneficence of the
+Creator. To conclude, there it is, that at the gentle purling of a
+pure and living water, and enchanted with the concerts of birds, which
+fill the neighbouring thickets, we may agreeably contemplate the
+wonders of nature, and examine them all at our leisure.
+
+I had reasons for concealing my journey, and stronger reasons still to
+suppress what I had discovered, in order to avail myself thereof
+afterwards: but the crosses I underwent, and {135} the misfortunes of
+my life, have, to this day, prevented me from profiting by these
+discoveries, in returning to that charming country, and even so much
+as to lay them before the public.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Of the Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the Coast._
+
+
+In order to describe the nature of this country with some method, I
+shall first speak of the place we land at, and shall therefore begin
+with the coast: I shall then go up the Missisippi; the reverse of what
+I did in the Geographical Description, in which I described that river
+from its source down to its mouth.
+
+The coast, which was the first inhabited, extends from Rio Perdido to
+the lake of St. Louis: this ground is a very fine land, white as snow,
+and so dry, as not to be fit to produce any thing but pine, cedar, and
+some ever-green oaks.
+
+The river Mobile is the most considerable of that coast to the east.
+[Footnote: This river, which they call Mobile, and which after the
+rains of winter is a fine river in spring, is but a brook in summer,
+especially towards its source. _Dumont_, II, 228.] It rolls its waters
+over a pure sand, which cannot make it muddy. But if this water is
+clear, it partakes of the sterility of its bottom, so that it is far
+from abounding so much in fish as the Missisippi. Its banks and
+neighbourhood are not very fertile from its source down to the sea.
+The ground is stony, and scarce any thing but gravel, mixt with a
+little earth. Though these lands are not quite barren, there is a wide
+difference between their productions and those of the lands in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi. Mountains there are, but whether
+stone fit for building, I know not.
+
+In the confines of the river of the Alibamous (Creeks) the lands are
+better: the river falls into the Mobile, above the bay of the same
+name. This bay may be about thirty leagues in length, after having
+received the Mobile, which runs from {136} north to south for about
+one hundred and fifty leagues. On the banks of this river was the
+first settlement of the French in Louisiana, which stood till New
+Orleans was founded, which is at this day the capital of the colony.
+
+The lands and water of the Mobile are not only unfruitful in all kinds
+of vegetables and fish, but the nature of the waters and the soil
+contributes also to prevent the multiplication of animals; even women
+have experienced this. I understood by Madam Hubert, whose husband was
+at my arrival Commissary Director of the colony, that in the time the
+French were in that post, there were seven or eight barren women, who
+all became fruitful, after settling with their husbands on the banks
+of the Missisippi, where the capital was built, and whither the
+settlement was removed.
+
+Fort St. Louis of Mobile was the French post. This fort stands on the
+banks of that river, near another small river, called Dog River, which
+falls into the bay to the south of the fort.
+
+Though these countries are not so fertile as those in the
+neighbourhood of the Missisippi; we are, however, to observe, that the
+interior parts of the country are much better than those near the sea.
+
+On the coast to the west of Mobile, we find islands not worth
+mentioning.
+
+From the sources of the river of the Paska-Ogoulas, quite to those of
+the river of Quefoncté, which falls into the lake of St. Louis, the
+lands are light and fertile, but something gravelly, on account of the
+neighbourhood of the mountains that lie to the north. This country is
+intermixt with extensive hills, fine meadows, numbers of thickets, and
+sometimes with woods, thick set with cane, particularly on the banks
+of rivers and brooks; and is extremely proper for agriculture.
+
+The mountains which I said these countries have to the north, form
+nearly the figure of a chaplet, with one end pretty near the
+Missisippi, the other on the banks of the Mobile. The inner part of
+this chaplet or chain is filled with hills; which {137} are pretty
+fertile in grass, simples, fruits of the country, horse-chesnuts, and
+wild-chesnuts, as large, and at least as good as those of Lyons.
+
+To the north of this chain of mountains lies the country of the
+Chicasaws, very fine and free of mountains: it has only very extensive
+and gentle eminences, or rising grounds, fertile groves and meadows,
+which in springtime are all over red, from the great plenty of wood
+strawberries: in summer, the plains exhibit the most beautiful enamel,
+by the quantity and variety of the flowers: in autumn, after the
+setting fire to the grass, they are covered with mushrooms.
+
+All the countries I have just mentioned are stored with game of every
+kind. The buffalo is found on the most rising grounds; the partridge
+in thick open woods, such as the groves in meadows; the elks delight
+in large forests, as also the pheasant; the deer, which is a roving
+animal, is every where to be met with, because in whatever place it
+may happen to be, it always has something to browse on. The ring-dove
+here flies in winter with such rapidity, as to pass over a great deal
+of country in a few hours; ducks and other aquatick game are in such
+numbers, that wherever there is water, we are sure to find many more
+than it is possible for us to shoot, were we to do nothing else; and
+thus we find game in every place, and fish in plenty in the rivers.
+
+Let us resume the coast; which, though flat and dry, on account of its
+sand, abounds with delicious fish, and excellent shell-fish. But the
+crystal sand, which is pernicious to the sight by its whiteness, might
+it not be adapted for making some beautiful composition or
+manufacture? Here I leave the learned to find out what use this sand
+may be of.
+
+If this coast is flat, it has in this respect an advantage; as we
+might say, Nature wanted to make it so, in order to be self-defended
+against the descent of an enemy.
+
+Coming out of the Bay of Paska-Ogoulas, if we still proceed west, we
+meet in our way with the Bay of Old Biloxi, where a fort was built,
+and a settlement begun; but a great fire, spread by a violent wind,
+destroyed it in a few moments, which in prudence ought never to have
+been built at all.
+
+{138} Those who settled at Old Biloxi could not, doubtless, think of
+quitting the sea-coast. They settled to the west, close to New-Biloxi,
+on a sand equally dry and pernicious to the sight. In this place the
+large grants happened to be laid off, which were extremely
+inconvenient to have been made on so barren a soil; where it was
+impossible to find the least plant or greens for any money, and where
+the hired servants died with hunger in the most fertile colony in the
+whole world.
+
+In pursuing the same route and the same coast westward, the lands are
+still the same, quite to the small Bay of St. Louis, and to the
+Channels, which lead to the lake of that name. At a distance from the
+sea the earth is of a good quality, fit for agriculture; as being a
+light soil, but something gravelly. The coast to the north of the Bay
+of St. Louis is of a different nature, and much more fertile. The
+lands at a greater distance to the north of this last coast, are not
+very distant from the Missisippi; they are also much more fruitful
+than those to the cast of this bay in the same latitude.
+
+In order to follow the sea-coast down to the mouth of the Missisippi,
+we must proceed almost south, quitting the Channel. I have elsewhere
+mentioned, that we have to pass between Cat-Island, which we leave to
+the left, and Cockle-Island, which we leave to the right. In making
+this ideal route, we pass over banks almost level with the water,
+covered with a vast number of islets; we leave to the left the
+Candlemas-Isles, which are only heaps of sand, having the form of a
+gut cut in pieces; they rise but little above the sea, and scarcely
+yield a dozen of plants, just as in the neighbouring islets I have now
+mentioned. We leave to the right lake Borgne, which is another outlet
+of the lake St. Louis, and continuing the same route by several
+outlets for a considerable way, we find a little open clear sea, and
+the coast to the right, which is but a quagmire, gradually formed by a
+very soft ooze, on which some reeds grow. This coast leads soon to the
+East Pass or channel, which is one of the mouths of the Missisippi,
+and this we find bordered with a like soil, if indeed it deserves the
+name of soil.
+
+There is, moreover, the South-east Pass, where stands Balise, and the
+South Pass, which projects farther into the sea. {139} Balise is a
+fort built on an island of sand, secured by a great number of piles
+bound with good timber-work. There are lodgings in it for the officers
+and the garrison; and a sufficient number of guns for defending the
+entrance of the Missisippi. It is there they take the bar-pilot on
+board, in order to bring the ships into the river. All the passes and
+entrances of the Missisippi are as frightful to the eye, as the
+interior part of the colony is delightful to it.
+
+The quagmires continue still for about seven leagues going up the
+Missisippi, at the entrance of which we meet a bar, three fourths of a
+league broad; which we cannot pass without the bar-pilot, who alone is
+acquainted with the channel.
+
+All the west coast resembles that which I mentioned, from Mobile to
+the bay of St. Louis; it is equally flat, formed of a like sand, and a
+bar of isles, which lengthen out the coast, and hinder a descent; the
+coast continues thus, going westward, quite to Ascension Bay, and even
+a little farther. Its soil also is also barren, and in every respect
+like to that I have just mentioned.
+
+
+I again enter the Missisippi, and pass with speed over these
+quagmires, incapable to bear up the traveller, and which only afford a
+retreat to gnats and moskittos, and to some water-fowl, which,
+doubtless, find food to live on, and that in security.
+
+On coming out of these marshes, we find a neck of land on each side of
+the Missisippi; this indeed is firm land, but lined with marshes,
+resembling those at the entrance of the river. For the space of three
+or four leagues, this neck of land is at first bare of trees, but
+comes after to be covered with them, so as to intercept the winds,
+which the ships require, in order to go up the river to the capital.
+This land, though very narrow, is continued, together with the trees
+it bears, quite to the English Reach, which is defended by two forts;
+one to the right, the other to the left of the Missisippi.
+
+The origin of the name, English Reach, (Detour aux Anglois) is
+differently assigned. I made enquiry of the oldest of the country, to
+what circumstance this Reach might owe its {140} name. And they told
+me, that before the first settlement of the French in this colony, the
+English, having heard of the beauty of the country, which they had,
+doubtless, visited before, in going thither from Carolina by land,
+attempted to make themselves masters of the entrance of the
+Missisippi, and to go up the river, in order to fortify themselves on
+the first firm ground they could meet. Excited by that jealousy which
+is natural to them, they took such precautions as they imagined to be
+proper, in order to succeed.
+
+The Indians on their part, who had already seen or heard of several
+people (French) having gone up and down the Missisippi at different
+times; the Indians, I say, who, perhaps, were not so well pleased with
+such neighbours, were still more frightened at seeing a ship enter the
+river, which determined them to stop its passage; but this was
+impossible, as long as the English had any wind, of which they availed
+themselves quite to this Reach. These Indians were the Ouachas and
+Chaouachas, who dwelt to the west of the Missisippi, and below this
+Reach. There were of them on each side of the river, and they lying in
+the canes, observed the English, and followed them as they went up,
+without daring to attack them.
+
+When the English were come to the entrance of this Reach, the little
+wind they had failed them; observing besides, that the Missisippi made
+a great turn or winding, they despaired of succeeding; and wanted to
+moor in this spot, for which purpose they must bring a rope to land:
+but the Indians shot a great number of arrows at them, till the report
+of a cannon, fired at random, scattered them, and gave the signal to
+the English to go on board, for fear the Indians should come in
+greater numbers, and cut them to pieces.
+
+Such is the origin of the name of this Reach. The Missisippi in this
+place forms the figure of a crescent, almost closed; so that the same
+wind which brings up a ship, proves often contrary, when come to the
+Reach; and this is the reason that ships moor, and go up towed, or
+tacking. This Reach is six or seven leagues; some assign it eight,
+more or less, according as they happen to make way.
+
+{141} The lands on both sides of this Reach are inhabited, though the
+depth of soil is inconsiderable. Immediately above this Reach stands
+New Orleans, the capital of this colony, on the east of the
+Missisippi. A league behind the town, directly back from the river, we
+meet with a Bayouc or creek, which can bear large boats with oars. In
+following this Bayouc for the space of a league, we go to the lake St.
+Louis, and after traversing obliquely this last, we meet the Channels,
+which lead to Mobile, where I began my description of the nature of
+the soil of Louisiana.
+
+The ground on which New Orleans is situated, being an earth accumulated
+by the ooze, in the same manner as is that both below and above, a good
+way from the capital, is of a good quality for agriculture, only that it
+is strong, and rather too fat. This land being flat, and drowned by the
+inundations for several ages, cannot fail to be kept in moisture, there
+being, moreover, only a mole or bank to prevent the river from
+over-flowing it; and would be even too moist, and incapable of
+cultivation, had not this mole been made, and ditches, close to each
+other, to facilitate the draining off the waters: by this means it has
+been put in a condition to be cultivated with success.
+
+From New Orleans to Manchac on the east of the Missisippi, twenty-five
+leagues above the capital, and quite to the Fork to the west, almost
+over-against Manchac, and a little way off, the lands are of the same
+kind and quality with those of New Orleans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_Quality of the Lands above the_ Fork. _A Quarry of Stone for building_.
+_High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility. West Coast: West Lands:
+Saltpetre_.
+
+
+To the west, the Fork, the lands are pretty flat, but exempt from
+inundations. The part best known of these lands is called Baya-Ogoula,
+a name framed Bayouc and Ogoula, which signifies the nation dwelling
+near the Bayouc; there having been a nation of that name in that
+place, when the first Frenchmen {142} came down the Missisippi; it
+lies twenty-five leagues from the capital.
+
+[Illustration: _Indians of the North leaving in the winter with their
+families for a hunt_]
+
+But to the east, the lands are a good deal higher, seeing from Manchac
+to the river Wabache they are between an hundred and two hundred feet
+higher than the Missisippi in its greatest floods. The slope of these
+lands goes off perpendicularly from the Missisippi, which on that side
+receives but few rivers, and those very small, if we except the river
+of the Yasous, whose course is not above fifty leagues.
+
+All these high lands are, besides, surmounted, in a good many places,
+by little eminences, or small hills, and rising grounds running off
+lengthwise, with gentle slopes. It is only when we go a little way
+from the Missisippi, that we find these high lands are over-topped by
+little mountains, which appear to be all of earth, though steep,
+without the least gravel or pebble being perceived on them.
+
+The soil on these high lands is very good; it is a black light mold,
+about three feet deep on the hills or rising grounds. This upper earth
+lies upon a reddish clay, very strong and stiff; the lowest places
+between these hills are of the same nature, {143} but there the black
+earth is between five and six feet deep. The grass growing in the
+hollows is of the height of a man, and very slender and fine; whereas
+the grass of the same meadow on the high lands rises scarce knee deep;
+as it does on the highest eminences, unless there is found something
+underneath, which not only renders the grass shorter, but even
+prevents its growth by the efficacy of some exhalations; which is not
+ordinarily the case on hills, though rising high, but only on the
+mountains properly so called.
+
+My experience in architecture having taught me, that several quarries
+have been found under a clay like this, I was always of opinion there
+must be some in those hills.
+
+Since I made these reflections, I have had occasion, in my journey to
+the country, to confirm these conjectures. We had set up our hut at
+the foot of an eminence, which was steep towards us, and near a
+fountain, whose water was lukewarm and pure.
+
+This fountain appeared to me to issue out of a hole, which was formed
+by the sinking of the earth. I stooped in order to take a better view
+of it, and I observed stone, which to the eye appeared proper for
+building, and the upper part which was this clay, which is peculiar to
+the country. I was highly pleased to be thus ascertained, that there
+was stone fit for building in this colony, where it is imagined there
+is none, because it does not come out of the earth to shew-itself.
+
+It is not to be wondered, that there is none to be found in the Lower
+Louisiana, which is only an earth accumulated by ooze; but it is far
+more extraordinary, not to see a flint, nor even a pebble on the
+hills, for upwards of an hundred leagues sometimes; however, this is a
+thing common in this province.
+
+I imagine I ought to assign a reason for it, which seems pretty
+probable to me. This land has never been turned, or dug, and is very
+close above the clay, which is extremely hard, and covers the stone,
+which cannot shew itself through such a covering: it is therefore no
+such surprise, that we observe no stone out of the earth in these
+plains and on these eminences.
+
+{144} All these high lands are generally meadows and forests of tall
+trees, with grass up to the knee. Along gullies they prove to be
+thickets, in which wood of every kind is found, and also the fruits of
+the country.
+
+Almost all these lands on the east of the river are such as I have
+described; that is, the meadows are on those high grounds, whose slope
+is very gentle; we also find there tall forests, and thickets in the
+low bottoms. In the meadows we observe here and there groves of very
+tall and straight oaks, to the number of fourscore or an hundred at
+most: there are others of about forty or fifty, which seem to have
+been planted by men's hands in these meadows, for a retreat to the
+buffaloes, deer, and other animals, and a screen against storms, and
+the sting of the flies.
+
+The tall forests are all hiccory, or all oak: in these last we find a
+great many morels; but then there grows a species of mushrooms at the
+feet of felled walnut-trees, which the Indians carefully gather; I
+tasted of them, and found them good.
+
+The meadows are not only covered with grass fit for pasture, but
+produce quantities of wood-strawberries in the month of April; for the
+following months the prospect is charming; we scarce observe a pile of
+grass, unless what we tread under foot; the flowers, which are then in
+all their beauty, exhibit to the view the most ravishing sight, being
+diversified without end; one in particular I have remarked, which
+would adorn the most beautiful parterre; I mean the Lion's Mouth (_la
+gueule de Lion_).
+
+These meadows afford not only a charming prospect to the eye; they,
+moreover, plentifully produce excellent simples, (equally with tall
+woods) as well for the purposes of medicine as of dying. When all
+these plants are burnt, and a small rain comes on, mushrooms of an
+excellent flavour succeed to them, and whiten the surface of the
+meadows all over.
+
+Those rising meadows and tall forests abound with buffaloes, elk, and
+deer, with turkeys, partridges, and all kinds of game; consequently
+wolves, catamounts, and other carnivorous animals are found there;
+which, in following the other animals, destroy and devour such as are
+too old or too fat; and when the {145} Indians go a hunting, these
+animals are sure to have the offal, or hound's fee, which makes them
+follow the hunters.
+
+These high lands naturally produce mulberry-trees, the leaves of which
+are very grateful to the silk-worm. Indigo, in like manner, grows
+there along the thickets, without culture. There also a native tobacco
+is found growing wild, for the culture of which, as well as for other
+species of tobacco, these lands are extremely well adapted. Cotton is
+also cultivated to advantage: wheat and flax thrive better and more
+easily there, than lower down towards the capital, the land there
+being too fat; which is the reason that, indeed, oats come there to a
+greater height than in the lands I am speaking of; but the cotton and
+the other productions are neither so strong nor so fine there, and the
+crops of them are often less profitable, though the soil be of an
+excellent nature.
+
+In fine, those high lands to the east of the Missisippi, from Manchae
+to the river Wabache, may and ought to contain mines: we find in them,
+just at the surface, iron and pit-coal, but no appearance of silver
+mines; gold there may be, copper also, and lead.
+
+Let us return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi; which I
+shall cross, in order to visit the west side, as I have already done
+the east. I shall begin with the west coast, which resembles that to
+the east; but is still more dry and barren on the shore. On quitting
+that coast of white and crystal sand, in order to go northward, we
+meet five or six lakes, which communicate with one another, and which
+are, doubtless, remains of the sea. Between these lakes and the
+Missisippi, is an earth accumulated on the sand, and formed by the
+ooze of that river, as I said; between these lakes there is nothing
+but sand, on which there is so little earth, that the sand-bottom
+appears to view; so that we find there but little pasture, which some
+strayed buffaloes come to eat; and no trees, if we except a hill on
+the banks of one of these lakes, which is all covered with ever-green
+oaks, fit for ship-building. This spot may be a league in length by
+half a league in breadth; and was called Barataria, because enclosed
+by these lakes and their outlets, to form almost an island on dry
+land.
+
+{146} These lakes are stored with monstrous carp, as well for size as
+for length; which slip out of the Missisippi and its muddy stream,
+when overflowed, in search of clearer water. The quantity of fish in
+these lakes is very surprising, especially as they abound with vast
+numbers of alligators. In the neighbourhood of these lakes there are
+some petty nations of Indians, who partly live on this amphibious
+animal.
+
+Between these lakes and the banks of the Missisippi, there is some
+thin herbage, and among others, natural hemp, which grows like trees,
+and very branched. This need not surprise us, as each plant stands
+very distant from the other: hereabouts we find little wood, unless
+when we approach the Missisippi.
+
+To the west of these lakes we find excellent lands, covered in many
+places with open woods of tall trees, through which one may easily
+ride on horseback; and here we find some buffaloes, which only pass
+through these woods because the pasture under the trees is bitter; and
+therefore they prefer the grass of the meadows, which lying exposed to
+the rays of the sun, becomes thereby more savoury.
+
+In going still farther west, we meet much thicker woods, because this
+country is extremely well watered; we here find numbers of rivers,
+which fall into the sea; and what contributes to the fertility of this
+land, is the number of brooks, that fall into these rivers.
+
+This country abounds with deer and other game; buffaloes are rare; but
+it promises great riches to such as shall inhabit it, from the
+excellent quality of its lands. The Spaniards, who bound us on that
+side, are jealous enough: but the great quantities of land they
+possess in America, have made them lose sight of settling there,
+though acquainted therewith before us: however, they took some steps
+to traverse our designs, when they saw we had some thoughts that way.
+But they are not settled there as yet; and who could hinder us from
+making advantageous settlements in that country?
+
+I resume the banks of the Missisippi, above the lakes, and the lands
+above the Fork, which, as I have sufficiently acquainted {147} the
+reader, are none of the best; and I go up to the north, in order to
+follow the same method I observed in describing the nature of the
+lands to the east.
+
+The banks of the Missisippi are of a fat and strong soil; but far less
+subject to inundations than the lands of the east. If we proceed a
+little way westward, we meet land gradually rising, and of an
+excellent quality; and even meadows, which we might well affirm to be
+boundless, if they were not intersected by little groves. These
+meadows are covered with buffaloes and other game, which live there so
+much the more peaceably, as they are neither hunted by men, who never
+frequent those countries; nor disquieted by wolves or tigers, which
+keep more to the north.
+
+The country I have just described is such as I have represented it,
+till we come to New Mexico: it rises gently enough, near the Red
+River, which bounds it to the north, till we reach a high land, which
+was no more than five or six leagues in breadth, and in certain places
+only a league; it is almost flat, having but some eminences at some
+considerable distance from each other: we also meet some mountains of
+a middling height, which appear to contain something more than bare
+stone.
+
+This high land begins at some leagues from the Missisippi, and
+continues so quite to New Mexico; it lowers towards the Red River, by
+windings, where it is diversified alternately with meadows and woods.
+The top of this height, on the contrary, has scarce any wood. A fine
+grass grows between the stones, which are common there. The buffaloes
+come to feed on this grass, when the rains drive them out of the
+plains; otherwise they go but little thither, because they find there
+neither water, nor saltpetre.
+
+We are to remark, by the bye, that all cloven-footed animals are
+extremely fond of salt, and that Louisiana in general contains a great
+deal of saltpetre. And thus we are not to wonder, if the buffalo, the
+elk, and the deer, have a greater inclination to some certain places
+than to others, though they are there often hunted. We ought therefore
+to conclude, that there is more saltpetre in those places, than in such
+as they {148} haunt but rarely. This is what made me remark, that these
+animals, after their ordinary repass, fail but rarely to go to the
+torrents, where the earth is cut, and even to the clay; which they lick,
+especially after rain, because they there find a taste of salt, which
+allures them thither. Most of those who have made this remark imagine
+that these animals eat the earth; whereas in such places they only go in
+quest of the salt, which to them is so strong an allurement as to make
+them bid defiance to dangers in order to get at it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Quality of the Lands of the_ Red River. _Posts of the_ Nachitoches. _A
+Silver Mine. Lands of the_ Black River.
+
+
+The Banks of the Red River, towards its confluence, are pretty low,
+And sometimes drowned by the inundations of the Missisippi; but above
+all, the north side, which is but a marshy land for upwards of ten
+leagues in going up to the Nachitoches, till we come to the Black
+River, which falls into the Red. This last takes its name from the
+colour of its sand, which is red in several places: it is also called
+the Marne, a name given it by some geographers, but unknown in the
+country. Some call it the River of the Nachitoches, because they dwell
+on its banks: but the appellation, Red River, has remained to it.
+
+
+Between the Black River and the Red River the soil is but very light,
+and even sandy, where we find more firs than other trees; we also
+observe therein some marshes. But these lands, though not altogether
+barren, if cultivated, would be none of the best. They continue such
+along the banks of the river, only to the rapid part of it, thirty
+leagues from the Missisippi. This rapid part cannot justly be called a
+fall; however, we can scarce go up with oars, when laden, but must
+land and tow. I imagine, if the waterman's pole was used, as on the
+Loire and other rivers in France, this obstacle would be easily
+surmounted.
+
+The south side of this river, quite to the rapid part, is entirely
+different from the opposite side; it is something higher, {149} and
+rises in proportion as it approaches to the height I have mentioned;
+the quality is also very different. This land is good and light, and
+appears disposed to receive all the culture imaginable, in which we
+may assuredly hope to succeed. It naturally produces beautiful fruit
+trees and vines in plenty; it was on that side muscadine grapes were
+found. The back parts have neater woods, and the meadows intersected
+with tall forests. On that side the fruit trees of the country are
+common; above all, the hiccory and walnut-trees, which are sure
+indications of a good soil.
+
+From the rapid part to the Nachitoches, the lands on both sides of
+this river sufficiently resemble those I have just mentioned. To the
+left, in going up, there is a petty nation, called the Avoyelles, and
+known only for the services they have done the Colony by the horses,
+oxen, and cows they have brought from New Mexico for the service of
+the French in Louisiana. I am ignorant what view the Indians may have
+in that commerce: but I well know, that notwithstanding the fatigues
+of the journey, these cattle, one with another, did not come, after
+deducting all expenses, and even from the second hand, but to about
+two pistoles a head; whence I ought to presume, that they have them
+cheap in New Mexico. By means of this nation we have in Louisiana very
+beautiful horses, of the species of those of Old Spain, which, if
+managed or trained, people of the first rank might ride. As to the
+oxen and cows, they are the same as those of France, and both are at
+present very common in Louisiana.
+
+The south side conveys into the Red River only little brooks. On the
+north side, and pretty near the Nachitoches, there is, as is said, a
+spring of water very salt, running only four leagues. This spring, as
+it comes out of the earth, forms a little river, which, during the
+heats, leaves some salt on its banks. And what may render this more
+credible is, that the country whence it takes its rise contains a
+great deal of mineral salt, which discovers itself by several springs
+of salt water, and by two salt lakes, of which I shall presently
+speak. In fine, in going up we come to the French fort of the
+Nachitoches, built in an island, formed by the Red River.
+
+{150} This island is nothing but sand, and that so fine, that the wind
+drives it like dust; so that the tobacco attempted to be cultivated
+there at first was loaded with it. The leaf of the tobacco having a
+very fine down, easily retains this sand, which the least breath of
+air diffuses every where; which is the reason that no more tobacco is
+raised in this island, but provisions only, as maiz, potatoes,
+pompions, &c. which cannot be damaged by the sands.
+
+M. de St. Denis commanded at this place, where he insinuated himself
+into the good graces of the natives in such a manner, that, altho'
+they prefer death to slavery, or even to the government of a
+sovereign, however mild, yet twenty or twenty-five nations were so
+attached to his person, that, forgetting they were born free, they
+willingly surrendered themselves to him; the people and their Chiefs
+would all have him for their Grand Chief; so that at the least signal,
+he could put himself at the head of thirty thousand men, drawn out of
+those nations, which had of their own accord submitted themselves to
+his orders; and that only by sending them a paper on which he drew the
+usual hieroglyphics that represent war among them, with a large leg,
+which denoted himself. This was still the more surprising, as the
+greatest part of these people were on the Spanish territories, and
+ought rather to have attached themselves to them, than to the French,
+if it had not been for the personal merits of this Commander.
+
+At the distance of seven leagues from the French Post, the Spaniards
+have settled one, where they have resided ever since M. de la Motte,
+Governor of Louisiana, agreed to that settlement. I know not by what
+fatal piece of policy the Spaniards were allowed to make this
+settlement; but I know, that, if it had not been for the French, the
+natives would never have suffered the Spaniards to settle in that
+place.
+
+However, several French were allured to this Spanish settlement,
+doubtless imagining, that the rains which come from Mexico, rolled and
+brought gold along with them, which would cost nothing but the trouble
+of picking up. But to what purpose serves this beautiful metal, but to
+make the people vain and idle among whom it is so common, and to make
+them {151} neglect the culture of the earth, which constitutes true
+riches, by the sweets it procures to man, and by the advantages it
+furnishes to commerce.
+
+Above the Nachitoches dwell the Cadodaquious, whose scattered villages
+assume different names. Pretty near one of these villages was
+discovered a silver mine, which was found to be rich, and of a very
+pure metal. I have seen the assay of it, and its ore is very fine.
+This silver lies concealed in small invisible particles, in a stone of
+a chesnut colour, which is spongy, pretty light, and easily
+calcinable: however, it yields a great deal more than it promises to
+the eye. The assay of this ore was made by a Portuguese, who had
+worked at the mines of New Mexico, whence he made his escape. He
+appeared to be master of his business, and afterwards visited other
+mines farther north, but he ever gave the preference to that of the
+Red River.
+
+This river, according to the Spaniards, takes its rise in 32 degrees
+of north latitude; runs about fifty leagues north-east; forms a great
+elbow, or winding to the east; then proceeding thence south-east, at
+which place we begin to know it, it comes and falls into the
+Missisippi, about 31° and odd minutes.
+
+I said above, that the Black River discharges itself into the Red, ten
+leagues above the confluence of this last with the Missisippi: we now
+proceed to resume that river, and follow its course, after having
+observed, that the fish of all those rivers which communicate with the
+Missisippi, are the same as to species, but far better in the Red and
+Black Rivers, because their water is clearer and better than that of
+the Missisippi, which they always quit with pleasure. Their delicate
+and finer flavour may also arise from the nourishment they take in
+those rivers.
+
+The lands of which we are going to speak are to the north of the Red
+River. They may be distinguished into two parts; which are to the
+right and left of the Black River, in going up to its source, and even
+as far as the river of the Arkansas. It is called the Black River,
+because its depth gives it that colour, {152} which is, moreover,
+heightened by the woods which line it throughout the Colony. All the
+rivers have their banks covered with woods; but this river, which is
+very narrow, is almost quite covered by the branches, and rendered of
+a dark colour in the first view. It is sometimes called the river of
+the Wachitas, because its banks were occupied by a nation of that
+name, who are now extinct. I shall continue to call it by its usual
+name.
+
+The lands which we directly find on both sides are low, and continue
+thus for the space of three or four leagues, till we come to the river
+of the Taensas, thus denominated from a nation of that name, which
+dwelt on its banks. This river of the Taensas is, properly speaking,
+but a channel formed by the overflowings of the Missisippi, has its
+course almost parallel thereto, and separates the low lands from the
+higher. The lands between the Missisippi and the river of the Taensas
+are the same as in the Lower Louisiana.
+
+The lands we find in going up the Black River are nearly the same, as
+well for the nature of the soil, as for their good qualities. They are
+rising grounds, extending in length, and which in general may be
+considered as one very extensive meadow, diversified with little
+groves, and cut only by the Black River and little brooks, bordered
+with wood up to their sources. Buffaloes and deer are seen in whole
+herds there. In approaching to the river of the Arkansas, deer and
+pheasants begin to be very common; and the same species of game is
+found there, as is to the east of the Missisippi; in like manner
+wood-strawberries, simples, flowers, and mushrooms. The only
+difference is, that this side of the Missisippi is more level, there
+being no lands so high and so very different from the rest of the
+country. The woods are like those to the east of the Missisippi,
+except that to the west there are more walnut and hiccory trees. These
+last are another species of walnut, the nuts of which are more tender,
+and invite to these parts a greater number of parrots. What we have
+just said, holds in general of this west side; let us now consider
+what is peculiar thereto.
+
+{153}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_A Brook of Salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River of the_ Arkansas.
+_Red veined Marble: Slate: Plaster. Hunting the Buffalo. The dry
+Sand-banks in the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+After we have gone up the Black River about thirty leagues, we find to
+the left a brook of salt water, which comes from the west. In going up
+this brook about two leagues, we meet with a lake of salt water, which
+may be two leagues in length, by one in breadth. A league higher up to
+the north, we meet another lake of salt water, almost as long and
+broad as the former.
+
+This water, doubtless, passes through some mines of salt; it has the
+taste of salt, without that bitterness of the sea-water. The Indians
+come a great way off to this place, to hunt in winter, and make salt.
+Before the French trucked coppers with them, they made upon the spot
+pots of earth for this operation: and they returned home loaded with
+salt and dry provisions.
+
+To the east of the Black River we observe nothing that indicates
+mines; but to the west one might affirm there should be some, from
+certain marks, which might well deceive pretended connoisseurs. As for
+my part, I would not warrant that there were two mines in that part of
+the country, which seems to promise them. I should rather be led to
+believe that they are mines of salt, at no great depth from the
+surface of the earth, which, by their volatile and acid spirits,
+prevent the growth of plants in those spots.
+
+Ten or twelve leagues above this brook is a creek, near which those
+Natchez retreated, who escaped being made slaves with the rest of
+their nation, when the Messrs. Perier extirpated them on the east side
+of the river, by order of the Court.
+
+The Black River takes its rise to the north-west of its confluence,
+and pretty near the river of the Arkansas, into which falls a branch
+from this rise or source; by means of which we may have a
+communication from the one to the other with a middling carriage. This
+communication with the river of the {154} Arkansas is upwards of an
+hundred leagues from the Post of that name. In other respects, this
+Black River might carry a boat throughout, if cleared of the wood
+fallen into its bed, which generally traverses it from one side to the
+other. It receives some brooks, and abounds in excellent fish, and in
+alligators.
+
+I make no doubt but these lands are very fit to bear and produce every
+thing that can be cultivated with success on the east of the
+Missisippi, opposite to this side, except the canton or quarter
+between the river of the Taensas and the Missisippi; that land, being
+subject to inundations, would be proper only for rice.
+
+I imagine we may now pass on to the north of the river of the
+Arkansas, which takes its rise in the mountains adjoining to the east
+of Santa Fé. It afterwards goes up a little to the north, from whence
+it comes down to the south, a little lower than its source. In this
+manner it forms a line parallel almost with the Red River.
+
+That river has a cataract or fall, at about an hundred and fifty
+leagues from its confluence. Before we come to this fall, we find a
+quarry of red-veined marble, one of slate, and one of plaster. Some
+travellers have there observed grains of gold in a little brook: but
+as they happened to be going in quest of a rock of emeralds, they
+deigned not to amuse themselves with picking up particles of gold.
+
+This river of the Arkansas is stored with fish; has a great deal of
+water; having a course of two hundred and fifty leagues, and can carry
+large boats quite to the cataract. Its banks are covered with woods,
+as are all the other rivers of the country. In its course it receives
+several brooks or rivulets, of little consequence, unless we except
+that called the White River, and which discharges itself into the
+curve or elbow of that we are speaking of, and below its fall.
+
+In the whole tract north of this river, we find plains that extend out
+of sight, which are vast meadows, intersected by groves, at no great
+distance from one another, which are all tall woods, where we might
+easily hunt the stag; great numbers {155} of which, as also of
+buffaloes, are found here. Deer also are very common.
+
+From having seen those animals frightened at the least noise,
+especially at the report of a gun, I have thought of a method to hunt
+them, in the manner the Spaniards of New Mexico do, which would not
+scare them at all, and which would turn to the great advantage of the
+inhabitants, who have this game in plenty in their country. This
+hunting might be set about in winter, from the beginning of October,
+when the meadows are burnt, till the month of February.
+
+This hunting is neither expensive nor fatiguing: horses are had very
+cheap in that country, and maintained almost for nothing. Each hunter
+is mounted on horseback, and armed with a crescent somewhat open,
+whose inside should be pretty sharp; the top of the outside to have a
+socket, to put in a handle: then a number of people on horseback to go
+in quest of a herd of buffaloes, and always attack them with the wind
+in their backs. As soon as they smell a man, it is true, they run
+away; but at the sight of the horses they will moderate their fears,
+and thus not precipitate their flight; whereas the report of a gun
+frightens them so as to make them run at full speed. In this chace,
+the lightest would run fast enough; but the oldest, and even the young
+of two or three years old, are so fat, that their weight would make
+them soon be overtaken: then the armed hunter may strike the buffalo
+with his crescent above each ham, and cut his tendons; after which he
+is easily mastered. Such as never saw a buffalo, will hardly believe
+the quantity of fat they yield: but it ought to be considered, that,
+continuing day and night in plentiful pastures of the finest and most
+delicious grass, they must soon fatten, and that from their youth. Of
+this we have an instance in a bull at the Natchez, which was kept till
+he was two years old, and grew so fat, that he could not leap on a
+cow, from his great weight; so that we were obliged to kill him, and
+got nigh an hundred and fifty pounds of tallow from him. His neck was
+near as big as his body.
+
+From what I have said, it may be judged what profit such hunters might
+make of the skins and tallow of those buffaloes; {156} the hides would
+be large, and their wool would be still an additional benefit. I may
+add, that this hunting of them would not diminish the species, those
+fat buffaloes being ordinarily the prey of wolves, as being too heavy
+to be able to defend themselves.
+
+Besides, the wolves would not find their account in attacking them in
+herds. It is well known that the buffaloes range themselves in a ring,
+the strongest without, and the weakest within. The strong standing
+pretty close together, present their horns to the enemy, who dare not
+attack them in this disposition. But wolves, like all other animals,
+have their particular instinct, in order to procure their necessary
+food. They come so near that the buffaloes smell them some way off,
+which makes them run for it. The wolves then advance with a pretty
+equal pace, till they observe the fattest out of breath. These they
+attack before and behind; one of them seizes on the buffalo by the
+hind-quarter, and overturns him, the others strangle him.
+
+The wolves being many in a body, kill not what is sufficient for one
+alone, but as many as they can, before they begin to eat. For this is
+the manner of the wolf, to kill ten or twenty times more than he
+needs, especially when he can do it with ease, and without
+interruption.
+
+Though the country I describe has very extensive plains, I pretend not
+to say that there are no rising grounds or hills; but they are more
+rare there than elsewhere, especially on the west side. In approaching
+to New Mexico we observe great hills and mountains, some of which are
+pretty high.
+
+I ought not to omit mentioning here, that from the low lands of
+Louisiana, the Missisippi has several shoal banks of sand in it, which
+appear very dry upon the falling of the waters, after the inundations.
+These banks extend more or less in length; some of them half a league,
+and not without a considerable breadth. I have seen the Natchez, and
+other Indians, sow a sort of grain, which they called Choupichoul, on
+these dry sand-banks. This sand received no manner of culture; and the
+women and children covered the grain any how with their feet, without
+taking any great pains about it. After this sowing, {157} and manner
+of culture, they waited till autumn, when they gathered a great
+quantity of the grain. It was prepared like millet, and very good to
+eat. This plant is what is called Belle Dame Sauvage, [Footnote: He
+seems to mean Buck-wheat.] which thrives in all countries, but
+requires a good soil: and whatever good quality the soil in Europe may
+have, it shoots but a foot and a half high; and yet, on this sand of
+the Missisippi, it rises, without any culture, three feet and a half,
+and four feet high. Such is the virtue of this sand all up the
+Missisippi; or, to speak more properly, for the whole length of its
+course; if we except the accumulated earth of the Lower Louisiana,
+across which it passes, and where it cannot leave any dry sand-banks;
+because it is straitened within its banks, which the river itself
+raises, and continually augments.
+
+In all the groves and little forests I have mentioned, and which lie
+to the north of the Arkansas, pheasants, partridges, snipes, and
+woodcocks, are in such great numbers, that those who are most fond of
+this game, might easily satisfy their longing, as also every other
+species of game. Small birds are still vastly more numerous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_The Lands of the River_ St. Francis. _Mine of_ Marameg, _and other
+Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone resembling Porphyry. Lands of the_
+Missouri. _The Lands north of the _ Wabache. _The Lands of the
+Illinois_. De la Mothe's _Mine, and other Mines._
+
+
+Thirty leagues above the river of the Arkansas, to the north, and on
+the same side of the Missisippi, we find the river St. Francis.
+
+The lands adjoining to it are always covered with herds of buffaloes,
+nothwithstanding they are hunted every winter in those parts: for it
+is to this river, that is, in its neighbourhood, that the French and
+Canadians go and make their salt provisions for the inhabitants of the
+capital, and of the neighbouring {158} plantations, in which they are
+assisted by the native Arkansas, whom they hire for that purpose. When
+they are upon the spot, they chuse a tree fit to make a pettyaugre,
+which serves for a salting or powdering-tub in the middle, and is
+closed at the two ends, where only is left room for a man at each
+extremity.
+
+The trees they choose are ordinarily the poplar, which grow on the
+banks of the water. It is a white wood, soft and binding. The
+pettyaugres might be made of other wood, be cause such are to be had
+pretty large; but either too heavy for pettyaugres, or too apt to
+split.
+
+The species of wood in this part of Louisiana is tall oak; the fields
+abound with four sorts of walnut, especially the black kind; so
+called, because it is of a dark brown colour, bordering on black; this
+sort grows very large.
+
+There are besides fruit trees in this country, and it is there we
+begin to find commonly Papaws. We have also here other trees of every
+species, more or less, according as the soil is favourable. These
+lands in general are fit to produce every thing the low lands can
+yield, except rice and indigo. But in return, wheat thrives there
+extremely well: the vine is found every where; the mulberry-tree is in
+plenty; tobacco grows fine, and of a good quality; as do cotton and
+garden plants: so that by leading an easy and agreeable life in that
+country, we may at the same time be sure of a good return to France.
+
+The land which lies between the Missisippi and the river St. Francis,
+is full of rising grounds, and mountains of a middling height, which,
+according to the ordinary indications, contain several mines: some of
+them have been assayed; among the rest, the mine of Marameg, on the
+little river of that name; the other mines appear not to be so rich,
+nor so easy to be worked. There are some lead mines, and others of
+copper, as is pretended.
+
+The mine of Marameg, which is silver, is pretty near the confluence of
+the river which gives it name; which is a great advantage to those who
+would work it, because they might {159} easily by that means have
+their goods from Europe. It is situate about five hundred leagues from
+the sea.
+
+I shall continue on the west side of the Missisippi, and to the north
+of the famous river of Missouri, which we are now to cross. This river
+takes its rise at eight hundred leagues distance, as is alledged, from
+the place where it discharges itself into the Missisippi. Its waters
+are muddy, thick, and charged with nitre; and these are the waters
+that make the Missisippi muddy down to the sea, its waters being
+extremely clear above the confluence of the Missouri: the reason is,
+that the former rolls its waters over a sand and pretty firm soil; the
+latter, on the contrary, flows across rich and clayey lands, where
+little stone is to be seen; for though the Missouri comes out of a
+mountain, which lies to the north-west of New Mexico, we are told,
+that all the lands it passes through are generally rich; that is, low
+meadows, and lands without stone.
+
+This great river, which seems ready to dispute the pre-eminence with
+the Missisippi, receives in its long course many rivers and brooks,
+which considerably augment its waters. But except those that have
+received their names from some nation of Indians who inhabit their
+banks, there are very few of their names we can be well assured of,
+each traveller giving them different appellations. The French having
+penetrated up the Missouri only for about three hundred leagues at
+most, and the rivers which fall into its bed being only known by the
+Indians, it is of little importance what names they may bear at
+present, being besides in a country but little frequented. The river
+which is the best known is that of the Osages, so called from a nation
+of that name, dwelling on its banks. It falls into the Missouri,
+pretty near its confluence.
+
+The largest known river which falls into the Missouri, is that of the
+Canzas; which runs for near two hundred leagues in a very fine
+country. According to what I have been able to learn about the course
+of this great river, from its source to the Canzas, it runs from west
+to east; and from that nation it falls down to the southward, where it
+receives the river of the Canzas, which comes from the west; there it
+forms a great elbow, which terminates in the neighbourhood of the
+Missouri; {160} then it resumes its course to the south-east, to lose
+at last both its name and waters in the Missisippi, about f our
+leagues lower down than the river of the Illinois.
+
+There was a French Post for some time in an island a few leagues in
+length, overagainst the Missouris; the French settled in this fort at
+the east-point, and called it Fort Orleans. M. de Bourgmont commanded
+there a sufficient time to gain the friendship of the Indians of the
+countries adjoining to this great river. He brought about a peace
+among all those nations, who before his arrival were all at war; the
+nations to the north being more war-like than those to the south.
+
+After the departure of that commandant, they murdered all the
+garrison, not a single Frenchman having escaped to carry the news: nor
+could it be ever known whether it happened through the fault of the
+French, or through treachery.
+
+As to the nature of that country, I refer to M. de Bourgmont's
+Journal, an extract from which I have given above. That is an original
+account, signed by all the officers, and several others of the
+company, which I thought was too prolix to give at full length, and
+for that reason I have only extracted from it what relates to the
+people and the quality of the soil, and traced out the route to those
+who have a mind to make that journey; and even this we found necessary
+to abridge in this translation.
+
+In this journey of M. de Bourgmont, mention is only made of what we
+meet with from Fort Orleans, from which we set out, in order to go to
+the Padoucas: wherefore I ought to speak of a thing curious enough to
+be related, and which is found on the banks of the Missouri; and that
+is, a pretty high cliff, upright from the edge of the water. From the
+middle of this cliff juts out a mass of red stone with white spots,
+like porphyry, with this difference, that what we are speaking of is
+almost soft and tender, like sand-stone. It is covered with another
+sort of stone of no value; the bottom is an earth, like that on other
+rising grounds. This stone is easily worked, and bears the most
+violent fire. The Indians of the country have contrived to strike off
+pieces thereof with their arrows, {161} and after they fall in the
+water plunge for them. When they can procure pieces thereof large
+enough to make pipes, they fashion them with knives and awls. This
+pipe has a socket two or three inches long, and on the opposite side
+the figure of a hatchet; in the middle of all is the boot, or bowl of
+the pipe, to put the tobacco in. These sort of pipes are highly
+esteemed among them.
+
+All to the north of the Missouri is entirely unknown, unless we give
+credit to the relations of different travellers; but to which of them
+shall we give the preference? In the first place, they almost all
+contradict each other: and then, men of the most experience treat them
+as impostors; and therefore I choose to pay no regard to any of them.
+
+Let us therefore now repass the Missisippi, in order to resume the
+description of the lands to the east, and which we quitted at the
+river Wabache. This river is distant from the sea four hundred and
+sixty (three hundred) leagues; it is reckoned to have four hundred
+leagues in length, from its source to its confluence into the
+Missisippi. It is called Wabache, though, according to the usual
+method, it ought to be called the Ohio, or Beautiful River; seeing the
+Ohio is known under that name in Canada, before its confluence was
+known: and as the Ohio takes its rise at a greater distance off than
+the three others, which mix together, before they empty themselves
+into the Missisippi, this should make the others lose their names; but
+custom has prevailed on the occasion. [Footnote: But not among the
+English; we call it the Ohio.] The first river known to us, which
+falls into the Ohio, is that of the Miamis, which takes its rise
+towards lake Erié.
+
+It is by this river of the Miamis that the Canadians come to
+Louisiana. For this purpose they embark on the river St. Laurence, go
+up this river, pass the cataracts quite to the bottom of Lake Erié,
+where they find a small river, on which they also go up to a place
+called the Carriage of the Miamis; because that people come and take
+their effects, and carry them on their backs for two leagues from
+thence to the banks of the river of their name, which I just said
+empties itself into {162} the Ohio. From thence the Canadians go down
+that river, enter the Wabache, and at last the Missisippi, which
+brings them to New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana. They reckon
+eighteen hundred leagues [Footnote: It is but nine hundred leagues.]
+from the capital of Canada to that of Louisiana, on account of the
+great turns and windings they are obliged to take.
+
+The river of the Miamis is thus the first to the north, which falls
+into the Ohio; then that of the Chaouanons to the south; and lastly,
+that of the Cherakees; all which together empty themselves into the
+Missisippi. This is what we call the Wabache, and what in Canada and
+New England they call the Ohio. This river is beautiful, greatly
+abounding in fish, and navigable almost up to its source.
+
+To the north of this river lies Canada, which inclines more to the
+east than the source of the Ohio, and extends to the country of the
+Illinois. It is of little importance to dispute here about the limits
+of these two neighbouring colonies, as they both appertain to France.
+The lands of the Illinois are reputed to be a part of Louisiana; we
+have there a post near a village of that nation, called Tamaroüas.
+
+The country of the Illinois is extremely good, and abounds with
+buffalo and other game. On the north of the Wabache we begin to see
+the Orignaux; a species of animals which are said to partake of the
+buffalo and the stag; they have, indeed, been described to me to be
+much more clumsy than the stag. Their horns have something of the
+stag, but are shorter and more massy; the meat of them, as they say,
+is pretty good. Swans and other water-fowl are common in these
+countries.
+
+The French Post of the Illinois is, of all the colony, that in which
+with the greatest ease they grow wheat, rye, and other like grain, for
+the sowing of which you need only to turn the earth in the slightest
+manner; that slight culture is sufficient to make the earth produce as
+much as we can reasonably desire. I have been assured, that in the
+last war, when the flour from France was scarce, the Illinois sent
+down to New Orleans upwards of eight hundred thousand weight thereof
+in {163} one winter. Tobacco also thrives there, but comes to maturity
+with difficulty. All the plants transported thither from France
+succeed well, as do also the fruits.
+
+In those countries there is a river, which takes its name from the
+Illinois. It was by this river that the first travellers came from
+Canada into the Missisippi. Such as come from Canada, and have
+business only on the Illinois, pass that way yet: but such as want to
+go directly to the sea, go down the river of the Miamis into the
+Wabache, or Ohio, and from thence into the Missisippi.
+
+In this country there are mines, and one in particular, called De la
+Mothe's mine, which is silver, the assay of which has been made; as
+also of two lead-mines, so rich at first as to vegetate, or shoot a
+foot and a half at least out of the earth.
+
+The whole continent north of the river of the Illinois is not much
+frequented, consequently little known. The great extent of Louisiana
+makes us presume, that these parts will not soon come to our
+knowledge, unless some curious person should go thither to open mines,
+where they are said to be in great numbers, and very rich.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering, and
+manufacturing the Commodities that are proper Articles of Commerce. Of
+the Culture of_ Maiz, Rice, _and other Fruits of the Country. Of the_
+Silk-worm.
+
+
+In order to give an account of the several sorts of plants cultivated
+in Louisiana, I begin with Maiz, as being the most useful grain,
+seeing it is the principal food of the people of America, and that the
+French found it cultivated by the Indians.
+
+Maiz, which in France we call Turkey corn, (and we Indian-corn) is a
+grain of the size of a pea; there is of it as large as our sugar-pea:
+it grows on a sort of husks, (Quenouille) in ascending rows: some of
+these husks have to the {164} number of seven hundred grains upon
+them, and I have counted even to a greater number. This husk may be
+about two inches thick, by seven or eight inches and upwards in
+length: it is wrapped up in several covers or thin leaves, which
+screen it from the avidity of birds. Its foot or stalk is often of the
+same size: it has leaves about two inches and upwards broad, by two
+feet and a half long, which are chanelled, or formed like gutters, by
+which they collect the dew which dissolves at sun-rising, and trickles
+down to the stalk, sometimes in such plenty, as to wet the earth
+around them for the breadth of six or seven inches. Its flower is on
+the top of the stalk, which is sometimes eight feet high. We
+ordinarily find five or six ears on each stalk, and in order to
+procure a greater crop, the part of the stalk above the ears ought to
+be cut away.
+
+For sowing the Maiz in a field already cleared and prepared, holes are
+made four feet asunder every way, observing to make the rows as
+straight as may be, in order to weed them the easier: into every hole
+five or six grains are put, which are previously to be steeped for
+twenty-four hours at least, to make them rise or shoot the quicker,
+and to prevent the fox and birds from eating such quantities of them:
+by day there are people to guard them against birds; by night fires
+are made at proper distances to frighten away the fox, who would
+otherwise turn up the ground, and eat the corn of all the rows, one
+after another, without omitting one, till he has his fill, and is
+therefore the most pernicious animal to this corn. The corn, as soon
+as shot out of the earth, is weeded: when it mounts up, and its stalks
+are an inch big, it is hilled, to secure it against the wind. This
+grain produces enough for two negroes to make fifty barrels, each
+weighing an hundred and fifty pounds.
+
+Such as begin a plantation in woods, thick set with cane, have an
+advantage in the Maiz, that makes amends for the labour of clearing
+the ground; a labour always more fatiguing than cultivating a spot
+already cleared. The advantage is this: they begin with cutting down
+the canes for a great extent of ground; the trees they peel two feet
+high quite round: this operation is performed in the beginning of
+March, as then the sap is in motion in that country: about fifteen
+days after, the canes, {165} being dry, are set on fire: the sap of
+the trees are thereby made to descend, and the branches are burnt,
+which kills the trees.
+
+On the following day they sow the corn in the manner I have just
+shewn: the roots of the cane, which are not quite dead, shoot fresh
+canes, which are very tender and brittle; and as no other weeds grow
+in the field that year, it is easy to be weeded of these canes, and as
+much corn again may be made, as in a field already cultivated.
+
+This grain they eat in many different ways; the most common way is to
+make it into Sagamity, which is a kind of gruel made with water, or
+strong broth. They bake bread of it like cakes (by baking it over the
+fire on an iron plate, or on a board before the fire,) which is much
+better than what they bake in the oven, at least for present use; but
+you must make it every day; and even then it is too heavy to soak in
+soup of any kind. They likewise make Parched Meal [Footnote: See Book
+III, Chap. I.] of it, which is a dish of the natives, as well as the
+Cooedlou, or bread mixt with beans. The ears of corn roasted are
+likewise a peculiar dish of theirs; and the small corn dressed in that
+manner is as agreeable to us as to them. A light and black earth
+agrees much better with the Maiz than a strong and rich one.
+
+The Parched Meal is the best preparation of this corn; the French like
+it extremely well, no less than the Indians themselves: I can affirm
+that it is a very good food, and at the same time the best sort of
+provision that can be carried on a journey, because it is refreshing
+and extremely nourishing.
+
+As for the small Indian corn, you may see an account of it in the
+first chapter of the third Book; where you will likewise find an
+account of the way of sowing wheat, which if you do not observe, you
+may as well sow none.
+
+Rice is sown in a soil well laboured, either by the plough or hoe, and
+in winter, that it may be sowed before the time of the inundation. It
+is sown in furrows of the breadth of a hoe: when shot, and three or
+four inches high, they let water into the furrows, but in a small
+quantity, in proportion as it grows, and then give water in greater
+plenty.
+
+{166} The ear of this grain nearly resembles that of oats; its grains
+are fastened to a beard, and its chaff is very rough, and full of
+those fine and hard beards: the bran adheres not to the grain, as that
+of the corn of France; it consists of two lobes, which easily separate
+and loosen, and are therefore readily cleaned and broke off.
+
+They eat their rice as they do in France, but boiled much thicker, and
+with much less cookery, although it is not inferior in goodness to
+ours: they only wash it in warm water, taken out of the same pot you
+are to boil it in, then throw it in all at once, and boil it till it
+bursts, and so it is dressed without any further trouble. They make
+bread of it that is very white and of a good relish; but they have
+tried in vain to make any that will soak in soup.
+
+The culture of the Water-melon is simple enough. They choose for the
+purpose a light soil, as that of a rising ground, well exposed: they
+make holes in the earth, from two and a half to three feet in
+diameter, and distant from each other fifteen feet every way, in each
+of which holes they put five or six seeds. When the seeds are come up,
+and the young plants have struck out five or six leaves, the four most
+thriving plants are pitched upon, and the others plucked up to prevent
+their starving each other, when too numerous. It is only at that time
+that they have the trouble of watering them, nature alone performing
+the rest, and bringing them to maturity; which is known by the green
+rind beginning to change colour. There is no occasion to cut or prune
+them. The other species of melons are cultivated in the same manner,
+only that between the holes the distance is but five or six feet.
+
+All sorts of garden plants and greens thrive extremely well in
+Louisiana, and grow in much greater abundance than in France: the
+climate is warmer, and the soil much better. However, it is to be
+observed, that onions and other bulbous plants answer not in the low
+lands, without a great deal of pains and labour; whereas in the high
+grounds they grow very large and of a fine flavour.
+
+The inhabitants of Louisiana may very easily make Silk, having
+mulberries ready at hand, which grow naturally in the {167} high
+lands, and plantations of them may be easily made. The leaves of the
+natural mulberries of Louisiana are what the silk-worms are very fond
+of; I mean the more common mulberries with a large leaf, but tender,
+and the fruit of the colour of Burgundy wine. The province produces
+also the White Mulberry, which has the same quality with the red.
+
+I shall next relate some experiments that have been made on this
+subject, by people who were acquainted with it. Madam Hubert, a native
+of Provence, where they make a great deal of silk, which she
+understood the management of, was desirous of trying whether they
+could raise silk-worms with the mulberry leaves of this province, and
+what sort of silk they would afford. The first of her experiments was,
+to give some large silk-worms a parcel of the leaves of the Red
+Mulberry, and another parcel of the White Mulberry both upon the same
+frame. She observed the worms went over the leaves of both sorts,
+without shewing any greater liking to the one than to the other: then
+she put to the other two sorts of leaves some of the leaves of the
+White-sweet or Sugar-Mulberry, and she found that the worms left the
+other sorts to go to these, and that they preferred them to the leaves
+of the common Red and White Mulberry. [Footnote: See an account of
+these different sorts of Mulberry, in the notes at the end of this
+Volume.]
+
+The second experiment of Madam Hubert was, to raise and feed some
+silk-worms separately. To some she gave the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, and to others the leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry; in
+order to see the difference of the silk from the difference of their
+food. Moreover, she raised and fed some of the native silk-worms of
+the country, which were taken very young from the mulberry-trees; but
+she observed that these last were very flighty, and did nothing but
+run up and down, their nature being, without doubt, to live upon
+trees: she then changed their place, that they might not mix with the
+other worms that came from France, and gave them little branches with
+the leaves on them, which made them a little more settled.
+
+{168} This industrious lady waited till the cocoons were perfectly
+made, in order to observe the difference between them in unwinding the
+silk; the success of which, and of all her other experiments, she was
+so good as to give me a particular account of. When the cocoons were
+ready to be wound, she took care of them herself, and found that the
+wild worms yielded less silk than those from France; for although they
+were of a larger size, they were not so well furnished with silk,
+which proceeded, no doubt, from their not being sufficiently
+nourished, by their running incessantly up and down; and accordingly
+she observed that they were but meagre; but notwithstanding, their
+silk was strong and thick, though coarse.
+
+Those who were fed with the leaves of the Red Mulberry made cocoons
+well furnished with silk; which was stronger and finer than that of
+France. Those that were fed upon the leaves of the common White
+Mulberry, had the same silk with those that were fed on the leaves of
+the Red Mulberry. The fourth sort, again, that had been fed with the
+leaves of the White Sugar-Mulberry, had but little silk; it was indeed
+as fine as the preceding, but it was so weak and so brittle, that it
+was with great difficulty they could wind it.
+
+These are the experiments of this lady on silk-worms, which every one
+may make his own uses of, in order to have the sorts of silk,
+mulberries, or worms, that are most suitable to his purpose, and most
+likely to turn to his account: which we are very glad of this
+opportunity to inform them of, that they may see how much society owes
+to those persons who take care to study nature, in order to promote
+industry and public utility.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_Of_ Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, _and_ Saffron.
+
+
+The high lands of Louisiana produce a natural Indigo: what I saw in
+two or three places where I have observed it, grew at the edges of the
+thick woods, which shews it delights in a good, but light soil. One of
+these stalks was but ten or twelve inches high, its wood at least
+three lines in diameter, and of as {169} fine a green as its leaf; it
+was as tender as the rib of a cabbage leaf; when its head was blown a
+little, the two other stalks shot in a few days, the one seventeen,
+the other nineteen inches high; the stem was six lines thick below,
+and of a very lively green, and still very tender, the lower part only
+began to turn brown a little; the tops of both were equally ill
+furnished with leaves, and without branches; which makes it to be
+presumed, that being so thriving and of so fine a growth, it would
+have shot very high, and surpass in vigour and heighth the cultivated
+Indigo. The stalk of the Indigo, cultivated by the French at the
+Natchez, turned brown before it shot eleven or twelve inches; when in
+seed it was five feet high and upwards, and surpassed in vigour what
+was cultivated in the Lower Louisiana, that is, in the quarter about
+New Orleans: but the natural, which I had an opportunity of seeing
+only young and tender, promised to become much taller and stouter than
+ours, and to yield more.
+
+[Illustration: Indigo.]
+
+The Indigo cultivated in Louisiana comes from the islands; its grain is
+of the bigness of one line, and about a quarter longer, brown and hard,
+flatted at the extremities, because it is compressed in its pod. This
+grain is sown in a soil prepared like a garden, and the field where it
+is cultivated is called the Indigo-garden. In order to sow it, holes are
+made on a straight line with a small hoe, a foot asunder; in each hole
+four or five {170} seeds are put, which are covered with earth; great
+care is had not to suffer any strange plants to grow near it, which
+would choak it; and it is sown a foot asunder, to the end it may draw
+the fuller nourishment, and be weeded without grazing or ruffling the
+leaf, which is that which gives the Indigo. When its leaf is quite come
+to its shape, it resembles exactly that of the Acacia, so well known in
+France, only that it is smaller.
+
+It is cut with large pruning-knives, or a sort of sickles, with about
+six or seven inches aperture, which should be pretty strong. It ought
+to be cut before its wood hardens; and to be green as its leaf, which
+ought, however, to have a bluish eye or cast. When cut it is conveyed
+into the rotting-tub, as we shall presently explain. According as the
+soil is better or worse, it shoots higher or lower; the tuft of the
+first cutting, which grows round, does not exceed eight inches in
+heighth and breadth: the second cutting rises sometimes to a foot. In
+cutting the Indigo you are to set your foot upon the root, in order to
+prevent the pulling it out of the earth; and to be upon your guard not
+to cut yourself, as the tool is dangerous.
+
+In order to make an Indigo-work, a shed is first of all to be built:
+this building is at least twenty feet high, without walls or flooring,
+but only covered. The whole is built upon posts, which may be closed
+with mats, if you please: this building has twenty feet in breadth,
+and at least thirty in length. In this shed three vats or large tubs
+are set in such a manner, that the water may be easily drained off
+from the first, which is the lowermost and smallest. The second rests
+with the edge of its bottom on the upper edge of the first, so that
+the water may easily run from it into the one below. This second vat
+is not broader but deeper than the first, and is called the Battery;
+for this reason it has its beaters, which are little buckets formed of
+four ends of boards, about eight inches long, which together have the
+figure of the hopper of a mill; a stick runs across them, which is put
+into a wooden fork, in order to beat the Indigo: there are two of them
+on each side, which in all make four.
+
+The third vat is placed in the same manner over the second, and is as
+big again, that it may hold the leaves; it is called the {171}
+Rotting-tub, because the leaves which are put into it are deadened,
+not corrupted or spoiled therein. The Indigo-operator, who conducts
+the whole work, knows when it is time to let the water into the second
+vat; then he lets go the cock; for if the leaves were left too long,
+the Indigo would be too black; it must have no more time than what is
+sufficient to discharge a kind of flower or froth that is found upon
+the leaf.
+
+The water, when it is all in the second vat, is beat till the
+Indigo-operator gives orders to cease; which he does not before he has
+several times taken up some of this water with a silver cup, by way of
+assay, in order to know the exact time in which they ought to give
+over beating the water: and this is a secret which practice alone can
+teach with certainty.
+
+When the Indigo-operator finds that the water is sufficiently beaten,
+he lets it settle till he can draw off the water clear; which is done
+by means of several cocks one above another, for fear of losing the
+Indigo. For this purpose, if the water is clear, the highest cock is
+opened, the second in like manner, till the water is observed to be
+tinged; then they shut the cock: the same is done in all the cocks
+till all the Indigo be in a pap at the bottom of the second vat. The
+first, or small vat, serves only to purify the water which is found to
+be tinged, and let run while clear.
+
+When the Indigo is well settled, they put it in cloth bags a foot and
+six inches wide, with a small circle at top, which helps to receive
+the Indigo with ease; it is suffered to drain till it gives no more
+water: however, it must be moist enough to spread it in the mould with
+a wooden knife or spatula.
+
+In order to have the seed, they suffer it to run up as many feet as
+they foresee shall be necessary for seed; it shoots four or five feet
+high, according to the quality of the soil. There are four cuttings of
+it in the islands, where the climate is warmer; three good cuttings
+are made in Louisiana, and of as good a quality at least as in the
+islands.
+
+Tobacco, which was found among the Indians of Louisiana, seems also to
+be a native of the country, seeing their ancient tradition informs us,
+that from time immemorial they {172} have, in their treaties of peace
+and in their embassies, used the pipe, the principal use of which is
+that the deputies shall all smoke therein. This native Tobacco is very
+large; its stalk, when suffered to run to seed, shoots to five feet
+and a half and six feet; the lower part of its stem is at least
+eighteen lines in diameter, and its leaves often near two feet long,
+which are thick and succulent, its juice is strong, but never
+disorders the head. The Tobacco of Virginia has a broader but shorter
+leaf; its stalk is smaller, and runs not up so high; its smell is not
+disagreeable, but not so strong; it takes more plants to make a pound,
+because its leaf is thinner, and not so full of sap as the native.
+What is cultivated in the Lower Louisiana is smaller, and not so
+strong; but that made in the islands is thinner than that of
+Louisiana, but much stronger, and disorders the head.
+
+In order to sow Tobacco, you make a bed on the best piece of ground
+you are master of, and give it six inches in heighth; this earth you
+beat and make level with the back of a spade; you afterwards sow the
+seed, which is extremely fine, nearly resembling poppy seed. It must
+be sown thin, and notwithstanding that attention, it often happens to
+be too thick. When the seed is sown, the earth is no longer stirred,
+but the seed is covered with ashes the thickness of a farthing, to
+prevent the worms from eating the tobacco when it is just shooting out
+of the earth.
+
+As soon as the tobacco has four leaves, it is transplanted into a soil
+prepared for it, put into holes a foot broad made in a line, and
+distant three feet every way; a distance not too great, in order to
+weed it with ease, without breaking the leaves.
+
+The best time for transplanting it is after rain, otherwise you must
+water it: in like manner, when the seed is in the earth, if it rains
+not, you must gently sprinkle it towards evening, because it is
+somewhat slow in rising, and when it is sprouted it requires a little
+water. You must lightly cover the plant in the day time with some
+leaves plucked the night before; a precaution on no account to be
+dispensed with, till the young plant has fully struck root. You must
+also daily visit the {173} tobacco, to clear it of caterpillars, which
+fasten upon it, and would entirely eat it up, if they are not
+destroyed. The tobacco-caterpillar is of the shape of a silk-worm, has
+a prickle on its back towards its extremity; its colour is of the most
+beautiful sea-green, striped with silver-streaks; in a word, it is as
+beautiful to the eye as it is fatal to the plant it is fond of.
+
+I gave great attention to keep my plantation clear of all weeds,
+observing in weeding it with the hoe not to touch the stalks, about
+which I caused to lay new earth, as well to secure them against gusts
+of wind, as to enable them to draw from the earth a more abundant
+nourishment. When the tobacco began to put forth suckers, I plucked
+them off, because they would have shot into branches, which would
+impoverish the leaves, and for the same reason stopped the tobacco
+from shooting above the twelfth leaf, afterwards stripping off the
+four lowermost, which never come to any thing. Hitherto I did nothing
+but what was ordinarily done by those who cultivate tobacco with some
+degree of care; but my method of proceeding afterwards was different.
+
+I saw my neighbours strip the leaves of tobacco from the stalk, string
+them, set them to dry, by hanging them out in the air, then put them
+in heaps, to make them sweat. As for me, I carefully examined the
+plant, and when I observed the stem begin to turn yellow here and
+there, I caused the stalk to be cut with a pruning-knife, and left it
+for some time on the earth to deaden. Afterwards it was carried off,
+on handbarrows, because it is thus less exposed to be broken than on
+the necks of negroes. When it was brought to the house, I caused it to
+be hung up, with the big end of the stem turned upwards, the leaves of
+each stalk slightly touching one another, being well assured they
+would shrivel in drying, and no longer touch each other. It hereby
+happened, that the juice contained in the pith (sometimes as big as
+one's finger) of the stem of the plant, flowed into the leaves, and
+augmenting their sap, made them much more mild and waxy. As fast as
+these leaves assumed a bright chesnut colour, I stripped them from the
+stalk, and made them directly into bundles, which I wrapped up in a
+cloth, and bound it close with a cord for twenty four hours; {174}
+then undoing the cloth, they were tied up closer still. This tobacco
+turned black and so waxy, that it could not be rasped in less than a
+year; but then it had a substance and flavour so much the more
+agreeable, as it never affected the head; and so I sold it for double
+the price of the common.
+
+The cotton which is cultivated in Louisiana, is of the species of the
+white Siam, [Footnote: This East-India annual cotton has been found to
+be much better and whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies,
+which is of the Turkey kind. Both of them keep their colour better in
+washing, and are whiter than the perennial cotton that comes from the
+islands, although this last is of a longer staple.] though not so
+soft, nor so long as the silk-cotton; it is extremely white and very
+fine, and a very good use may be made of it. This cotton is produced,
+not from a tree, as in the East-Indies, but from a plant, and thrives
+much better in light than in strong and fat lands, such as those of
+the Lower Louisiana, where it is not so fine as on the high grounds.
+
+This plant may be cultivated in lands newly cleared, and not yet
+proper for tobacco, much less for indigo, which requires a ground well
+worked like a garden. The seeds of cotton are planted three feet
+asunder, more or less according to the quality of the soil: the field
+is weeded at the proper season, in order to clear it of the noxious
+weeds, and fresh earth laid to the root of the plant, to secure it
+against the winds. The cotton requires weeding, neither so often, nor
+so carefully as other plants; and the care of gathering is the
+employment of young people, incapable of harder labour.
+
+When the root of the cotton is once covered with fresh earth, and the
+weeds are removed, it is suffered to grow without further touching it,
+till it arrives to maturity. Then its heads or pods open into five
+parts, and expose their cotton to view. When the sun has dried the
+cotton well, it is gathered in a proper manner, and conveyed into the
+conservatory; after which comes on the greatest task, which is to
+separate it from the grain or seed to which it closely adheres; and it
+is this part of the work, which disgusts the inhabitants in the
+cultivation {175} of it. I contrived a mill for the purpose, tried it,
+and found it to succeed, so as to dispatch the work very much.
+
+[Illustration: Top: Cotton on the stalk--Bottom: Rice on the stalk]
+
+The culture of indigo, tobacco, and cotton, may be easily carried on
+without any interruption to the making of silk, as any one of these is
+no manner of hindrance to the other. In the first place, the work
+about these three plants does not come on till after the worms have
+spun their silk: in the second place, {176} the feeding and cleaning
+the silk-worm requires no great degree of strength; and thus the care
+employed about them interrupts no other sort of work, either as to
+time, or as to the persons employed therein. It suffices for this
+operation to have a person who knows how to feed and clean the worms;
+young negroes of both sexes might assist this person, little skill
+sufficing for this purpose: the oldest of the young negroes, when
+taught, might shift the worms and lay the leaves; the other young
+negroes gather and fetch them; and all this labour, which takes not up
+the whole day, lasts only for about six weeks. It appears therefore,
+that the profit made of the silk is an additional benefit, so much the
+more profitable, as it diverts not the workmen from their ordinary
+tasks. If it be objected, that buildings are requisite to make silk to
+advantage; I answer, buildings for the purpose cost very little in a
+country where wood may be had for taking; I add farther, that these
+buildings may be made and daubed with mud by any persons about the
+family; and besides, may serve for hanging tobacco in, two months
+after the silk-worms are gone.
+
+I own I have not seen the wax-tree cultivated in Louisiana; people
+content themselves to take the berries of this tree, without being at
+pains to rear it; but as I am persuaded it would be very advantageous
+to make plantations of it, I shall give my sentiments on the culture
+proper for this tree, after the experiments I made in regard to it.
+
+I had some seeds of the wax-tree brought me to Fontenai le Comte, in
+Poictou, some of which I gave to several of my friends, but not one of
+them came up. I began to reflect, that Poictou not being by far so
+warm as Louisiana, these seeds would have difficulty to shoot; I
+therefore thought it was necessary to supply by art the defect of
+nature; I procured horse, cow, sheep, and pigeon's dung in equal
+quantity, all which I put in a vessel of proportionable size, and
+poured on them water, almost boiling, in order to dissolve their
+salts: this water I drew off, and steeped the grains in a sufficient
+quantity thereof for forty-eight hours; after which I sowed them in a
+box full of good earth; seven of them came up, and made shoots between
+seven and eight inches high, but they were all {177} killed by the
+frost for want of putting them into the greenhouse.
+
+This seed having such difficulty to come up, I presume that the wax,
+in which it is wrapped up, hinders the moisture from penetrating into,
+and making its kernel shoot; and there fore I should think that those
+who choose to sow it, would do well if they previously rolled it
+lightly between two small boards just rough from the saw; this
+friction would cause the pellicle of wax to scale off with so much the
+greater facility, as it is naturally very dry; and then it might be
+put to steep.
+
+Hops grow naturally in Louisiana, yet such as have a desire to make
+use of them for themselves, or sell them to brewers, cultivate this
+plant. It is planted in alleys, distant asunder six feet, in holes two
+feet and one foot deep, in which the root is lodged. When shot a good
+deal, a pole of the size of one's arm, and between twelve and fifteen
+feet long, is fixed in the hole; care is had to direct the shoots
+towards it, which fail not to run up the pole. When the flower is ripe
+and yellowish, the stem is cut quite close to the earth and the pole
+pulled out, in order to pick the flowers, which are saved.
+
+If we consider the climate of Louisiana, and the quality of the high
+lands of that province, we might easily produce saffron there. The
+culture of this plant would be so much the more advantageous to the
+planters, as the neighbourhood of Mexico would procure a quick and
+useful vent for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_Of the Commerce that, and may be carried on in_ Louisiana. _Of the
+Commodities which that Province may furnish in return for those of_
+Europe. _Of the Commerce of_ Louisiana _with the Isles_.
+
+
+I have often reflected on the happiness of France in the portion which
+Providence has allotted her in America. She has found in her lands
+neither the gold nor silver of Mexico and Peru, nor the precious
+stones and rich stuffs of the East-Indies; but she will find therein,
+when she pleases, mines of iron, lead, and copper. She is there
+possessed of a fertile soil, {178} which only requires to be occupied
+in order to produce not only all the fruits necessary and agreeable to
+life, but also all the subjects on which human industry may exercise
+itself in order to supply our wants. What I have already said of
+Louisiana ought to make this very plain; but to bring the whole
+together, in order, and under one point of view, I shall next relate
+every thing that regards the commerce of this province.
+
+_Commodities which_ Louisiana _may furnish in return for those
+of_ Europe.
+
+France might draw from this colony several sorts of furs, which would
+not be without their value, though held cheap in France; and by their
+variety, and the use that might be made of them, would yield
+satisfaction. Some persons have dissuaded the traders from taking any
+furs from the Indians, on a supposition that they would be moth-eaten
+when carried to New-Orleans, on account of the heat of the climate:
+but I am acquainted with people of the business, who know how to
+preserve them from such an accident.
+
+Dry buffalo hides are of sufficient value to encourage the Indians to
+procure them, especially if they were told, that only their skins and
+tallow were wanted; they would then kill the old bulls, which are so
+fat as scarce to be able to go: each buffalo would yield at least a
+hundred pounds of tallow; the value of which, with the skin, would
+make it worth their while to kill them, and thus none of our money
+would be sent to Ireland in order to have tallow from that country;
+besides the species of buffaloes would not be diminished, because
+these fat buffaloes are always the prey of wolves.
+
+Deer-skins, which were bought of the Indians at first, did not please
+the manufacturers of Niort, where they are dressed, because the
+Indians altered the quality by their way of dressing them; but since
+these skins have been called for without any preparation but taking
+off the hair, they make more of them, and sell them cheaper than
+before.
+
+The wax-tree produces wax, which being much drier than bees-wax, may
+bear mixture, which will not hinder its lasting longer than bees-wax.
+Some of this wax was sent to Paris to {179} a factor of Louisiana, who
+set so low a price upon it as to discourage the planters from sowing
+any more. The sordid avarice of this factor has done a service to the
+islands, where it gives a higher price than that of France.
+
+The islands also draw timber for building from Louisiana, which might
+in time prevent France from making her profits of the beauty,
+goodness, and quantity of wood of this province. The quality of the
+timber is a great inducement to build docks there for the construction
+of ships: the wood might be had at a low price of the inhabitants,
+because they would get it in winter, which is almost an idle time with
+them. This labour would also clear the grounds, and so this timber
+might be had almost for nothing. Masts might be also had in the
+country, on account of the number of pines which the coast produces;
+and for the same reason pitch and tar would be common. For the planks
+of ships, there is no want of oak; but might not very good one be made
+of cypress? this wood is, indeed, softer than oak, but endowed with
+qualities surpassing this last: it is light, not apt to split or warp,
+is supple and easily worked; in a word, it is incorruptible both in
+air and water; and thus making the planks stouter than ordinary, there
+would be no inconvenience from the use of cypress. I have observed,
+that this wood is not injured by the worm, and ship-worms might
+perhaps have the same aversion to it as other worms have.
+
+Other wood fit for the building of ships is very common in this
+country; such as elm, ash, alder, and others. There are likewise in
+this country several species of wood, which might sell in France for
+joiners work and fineering, as the cedar, the black walnut, and the
+cotton-tree. Nothing more would therefore be wanting for compleating
+ships but cordage and iron. As to hemp, it grows so strong as to be
+much fitter for making cables than cloth. The iron might be brought
+from France, as also sails; however, there needs only to open the iron
+mine at the cliffs of the Chicasaws, called Prud'homme, to set up
+forges, and iron will be readily had. The king, therefore, might cause
+all sorts of shipping to be built there at so small a charge, that a
+moderate expence would procure a numerous fleet. If the English build
+ships in their colonies {180} from which they draw great advantages,
+why might not we do the same in Louisiana?
+
+France fetches a great deal of saltpetre from Holland and Italy; she
+may draw from Louisiana more than she will have occasion for, if once
+she sets about it. The great fertility of the country is an evident
+proof thereof, confirmed by the avidity of cloven-footed animals to
+lick the earth, in all places where the torrents have broke it up: it
+is well known how fond these creatures are of salt. Saltpetre might be
+made there with all the ease imaginable, on account of the plenty of
+wood and water; it would besides be much more pure than what is
+commonly had, the earth not being fouled with dunghills; and on the
+other hand, it would not be dearer than what is now purchased by
+France in other places.
+
+What commerce might not be made with Silk? The silk-worms might be
+reared with much greater success in this country than in France, as
+appears from the trials that have been made, and which I have above
+related.
+
+The lands of Louisiana are very proper for the culture of Saffron, and
+the climate would contribute to produce it in great abundance; and,
+what would still be a considerable advantage, the Spaniards of Mexico,
+who consume a great deal of it, would enhance its price.
+
+I have spoken of Hemp, in respect to the building of ships: but such
+as might be built there, would never be sufficient to employ all the
+hemp which might be raised in that colony, did the inhabitants
+cultivate as much of it as they well might. But you will say, Why do
+they not? My answer is, the inhabitants of this colony only follow the
+beaten track they have got into: but if they saw an intelligent person
+sow hemp without any great expence or labour, as the soil is very fit
+for it; if, I say, they saw that it thrives without weeding; that in
+the winter evenings the negroes and their children can peel it; in a
+word, if they saw that there is good profit to be had by the sale of
+it; they then would all make hemp. They think and act in the same
+manner as to all the other articles of culture in this country.
+
+{181} Cotton is also a good commodity for commerce; and the culture of
+it is attended with no difficulty. The only impediment to the culture
+of it in a greater quantity, is the difficulty of separating it from
+the seed. However, if they had mills, which would do this work with
+greater dispatch, the profit would considerably increase.
+
+The Indigo of Louisiana, according to intelligent merchants, is as
+good as that of the islands; and has even more of the copper colour.
+As it thrives extremely well, and yields more herb than in the
+islands, as much Indigo may be made as there, though they have four
+cuttings, and only three in Louisiana. The climate is warmer in the
+islands, and therefore they make four gatherings; but the soil is
+drier, and produces not so much as Louisiana: so that the three
+cuttings of this last are as good as the four cuttings in the islands.
+
+The Tobacco of this colony is so excellent, that if the commerce
+thereof was free, it would sell for one hundred sols and six livres
+the pound, so fine and delicate is its juice and flavour. Rice may
+also form a fine branch of trade. We go to the East-Indies for the
+rice we consume in France; and why should we draw from foreign
+countries, what we may have of our own countrymen? We should have it
+at less trouble, and with more security. Besides, as sometimes,
+perhaps too often, years of scarcity happen, we might always depend
+upon finding rice in Louisiana, because it is not subject to fail, an
+advantage which few provinces enjoy.
+
+We may add to this commerce some drugs, used in medicine and dying. As
+to the first, Louisiana produces Sassafras, Sarsaparilla, Esquine, but
+above all the excellent balm of Copalm (Sweet-gum) the virtues of
+which, if well known, would save the life of many a person. This
+colony also furnishes us with bears oil, which is excellent in all
+rheumatic pains. For dying, I find only the wood Ayac, or Stinking
+Wood, for yellow; and the Achetchi for red; of the beauty of which
+colours we shall give an account in the third book.
+
+Such are the commodities which may form a commerce of this colony with
+France, which last may carry in exchange all {182} sorts of European
+goods and merchandize; the vent whereof is certain, as every thing
+answers there, where luxury reigns equally as in France. Flour, wines,
+and strong liquors sell well; and though I have spoken of the manner
+of growing wheat in this country, the inhabitants, towards the lower
+part of the river especially, will never grow it, any more than they
+will cultivate the vine, because in these sorts of work a negro will
+not earn his master half as much as in cultivating Tobacco; which,
+however, is less profitable than Indigo.
+
+_The Commerce of_ Louisiana _with the Islands._
+
+From Louisiana to the Islands they carry cypress wood squared for
+building, of different scantlings: sometimes they transport houses,
+all framed and marked out, ready to set up, on landing at their place
+of destination.
+
+Bricks, which cost fourteen or fifteen livres the thousand, delivered
+on board the ship.
+
+
+Tiles for covering houses and sheds, of the same price.
+
+Apalachean beans, (Garavanzas) worth ten livres the barrel, of two
+hundred weight.
+
+Maiz, or Indian corn.
+
+Cypress plank of ten or twelve feet.
+
+Red peas, which cost in the country twelve or thirteen livres the
+barrel.
+
+Cleaned rice, which costs twenty livres the barrel, of two hundred
+weight.
+
+There is a great profit to be made in the islands, by carrying thither
+the goods I have just mentioned: this profit is generally _cent. per
+cent._ in returns. The shipping which go from the colony bring back
+sugar, coffee, rum, which the negroes consume in drink; besides other
+goods for the use of the country.
+
+The ships which come from France to Louisiana put all in at Cape
+François. Sometimes there are ships, which not having a lading for
+France, because they may have been paid in money or bills of exchange,
+are obliged to return by Cape François, in order to take in their
+cargo for France.
+
+{183}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_Of the Commerce with the_ Spaniards. _The Commodities they bring to the
+Colony, if there is a Demand for them. Of such as may be given in
+return, and may suit them. Reflections on the Commerce of this
+Province, and the great Advantage which the State and particular
+Persons may derive therefrom._
+
+
+_The Commerce with the_ Spaniards.
+
+The commodities which suit the Spaniards are sufficiently known by
+traders, and therefore it is not necessary to give an account of them:
+I have likewise forebore to give the particulars of the commodities
+which they carry to this colony, though I know them all: that is not
+our present business. I shall only apprise such as shall settle in
+Louisiana, in order to traffick with the Spaniards, that it is not
+sufficient to be furnished with the principal commodities which suit
+their commerce, but they should, besides, know how to make the proper
+assortments; which are most advantageous to us, as well as to them,
+when they carry them to Mexico.
+
+_The Commodities which the_ Spaniards _bring to_ Louisiana, _if there is
+a demand for them_.
+
+Campeachy wood, which is generally worth from ten to fifteen livres
+the hundred weight.
+
+Brasil wood, which has a quality superior to that of Campeachy.
+
+Very good Cacoa, which is to be met with in all the ports of Spain,
+worth between eighteen and twenty livres the quintal, or hundred
+weight.
+
+Cochineal, which comes from Vera Cruz: there is no difficulty to have
+as much of it as one can desire, because so near; it is worth fifteen
+livres the pound: there is an inferior sort, called Sylvester.
+
+Tortoise-shell, which is common in the Spanish islands, is worth seven
+or eight livres the pound.
+
+Tanned leather, of which they have great quantities; that marked or
+stamped is worth four livres ten sols the levee.
+
+{184} Marroquin, or Spanish leather, of which they have great
+quantities, and cheap.
+
+Turned calf, which is also cheap.
+
+Indigo, which is manufactured at Guatimala, is worth three or four
+livres the pound: there is of it of a perfect good quality, and
+therefore sells at twelve livres the pound.
+
+Sarsaparilla, which they have in very great quantities, and sell at
+thirteen or fifteen sols.
+
+Havanna snuff, which is of different prices and qualities: I have seen
+it at three shillings the pound, which in our money make thirty-seven
+sols six deniers.
+
+Vanilla, which is of different prices. They have many other things
+very cheap, on which great profits might be made, and for which an
+easy vent may be found in Europe; especially for their drugs: but a
+particular detail would carry me too far, and make me lose sight of
+the object I had in view.
+
+What I have just said of the commerce of Louisiana, may easily shew
+that it will necessarily encrease in proportion as the country is
+peopled; and industry also will be brought to perfection. For this
+purpose nothing more is requisite than some inventive and industrious
+geniuses, who coming from Europe, may discover such objects of
+commerce as may turn to account. I imagine a good tanner might in this
+colony tan the leather of the country, and cheaper than in France; I
+even imagine that the leather might there be brought to its perfection
+in less time; and what makes me think so, is, that I have heard it
+averred, that the Spanish leather is extremely good, and is never
+above three or four months in the tan-pit.
+
+The same will hold of many other things, which would prevent money
+going out of the kingdom to foreign countries. Would it not be more
+suitable and more useful, to devise means of drawing the same
+commodities from our own colonies? As these means are so easy, at
+least money would not go out of our hands; France and her colonies
+would be as two families who traffick together, and render each other
+mutual service. Besides, there would not be occasion for so much money
+to carry on a commerce to Louisiana, seeing the inhabitants have need
+of European goods. It would therefore be a commerce {185} very
+different from that which, without exporting the merchandise of the
+kingdom, exports the money; a commerce still very different from that
+which carries to France commodities highly prejudicial to our own
+manufactures.
+
+I may add to all that I have said on Louisiana, as one of the great
+advantages of this country, that women are very fruitful in it, which
+they attribute to the waters of the Missisippi. Had the intentions of
+the Company been pursued, and their orders executed, there is no doubt
+but this colony had at this day been very strong, and blessed with a
+numerous young progeny, whom no other climate would allure to go and
+settle in; but being retained by the beauty of their own, they would
+improve its riches, and multiplied anew in a short time, could offer
+their mother-country succours in men and ships, and in many other
+things that are not to be contemned.
+
+I cannot too much shew the importance of the succours in corn, which
+this colony might furnish in a time of scarcity. In a bad year we are
+obliged to carry our money to foreigners for corn, which has been
+oftentimes purchased in France, because they have had the secret of
+preserving their corn; but if the colony of Louisiana was once well
+settled, what supplies of corn might not be received from that
+fruitful country? I shall give two reasons which will confirm my
+opinion.
+
+The first is, That the inhabitants always grow more corn than is
+necessary for the subsistence of themselves, their workmen, and
+slaves. I own, that in the lower part of the colony only rice could be
+had, but this is always a great supply. Now, were the colony gradually
+settled to the Arkansas, they would grow wheat and rye in as great
+quantities as one could well desire, which would be of great service
+to France, when her crops happen to fail.
+
+The second reason is, That in this colony a scarcity is never to be
+apprehended. On my arrival in it, I informed myself of what had happened
+therein from 1700, and I myself remained in it till 1734; and since my
+return to France I have had accounts from it down to this present year
+1757; and from these accounts I can aver, that no intemperature of
+season has caused {186} any scarcity since the beginning of this
+century. I was witness to one of the severest winters that had been
+known in that country in the memory of the oldest people living; but
+provisions were then not dearer than in other years. The soil of this
+province being excellent, and the seasons always suitable, the
+provisions and other commodities cultivated in it never fail to thrive
+surprizingly.
+
+One will, perhaps, be surprized to hear me promise such fine things of
+a country which has been reckoned to be so much inferior to the
+Spanish or Portuguese colonies in America; but such as will take the
+trouble to reflect on that which constitutes the genuine strength of
+states, and the real goodness of a country, will soon alter their
+opinion, and agree with me, that a country fertile in men, in
+productions of the earth, and in necessary metals, is infinitely
+preferable to countries from which men draw gold, silver, and
+diamonds: the first effect of which is to pamper luxury and render the
+people indolent; and the second to stir up the avarice of neighbouring
+nations. I therefore boldly aver, that Louisiana, well governed, would
+not long fail to fulfil all I have advanced about it; for though there
+are still some nations of Indians who might prove enemies to the
+French, the settlers, by their martial character, and their zeal for
+their king and country, aided by a few troops, commanded, above all,
+by good officers, who at the same time know how to command the
+colonists: the settlers, I say, will be always match enough for them,
+and prevent any foreigners whatever from invading the country. What
+would therefore be the consequence if, as I have projected, the first
+nation that should become our enemy were attacked in the manner I have
+laid down in my reflections on an Indian war? They would be directly
+brought to such a pass as to make all other nations tremble at the
+very name of the French, and to be ever cautious of making war upon
+them. Not to mention the advantage there is in carrying on wars in
+this manner; for as they cost little, as little do they hazard the
+loss of lives.
+
+In 1734, M. Perier, Governor of Louisiana, was relieved by M. de
+Biainville, and the King's plantation put on a new footing, by an
+arrangement suitable to the notions of the person {187} who advised
+it. A sycophant, who wanted to make his court to Cardinal Fleury,
+would persuade that minister, that the plantation cost his Majesty ten
+thousand livres a year, and that this sum might be well saved; but
+took care not to tell his Eminence, that for these ten thousand it
+saved at least fifty thousand livres.
+
+Upon this, my place of Director of the public plantations was
+abolished, and I at length resolved to quit the colony and return to
+France, nothwithstanding all the fair promises and warm solicitations
+of my superiors to prevail upon me to stay. A King's ship, La Gironde,
+being ready to sail, I went down the river in her to Balise, and from
+thence we set sail, on the 10th of May, 1734. We had tolerable fine
+weather to the mouth of the Bahama Streights; afterwards we had the
+wind contrary, which retarded our voyage for a week about the banks of
+Newfoundland, to which we were obliged to stretch for a wind to carry
+us to France: from thence we made the passage without any cross
+accident, and happily arrived in the road of Chaidbois before
+Rochelle, on the 25th of June following, which made it a passage of
+forty-five days from Louisiana to France.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, by_ M. Du
+Mont.
+
+I
+
+_Of_ Tobacco, _with the way of cultivating and curing it._
+
+The lands of Louisiana are as proper as could be desired, for the
+culture of tobacco; and, without despising what is made in other
+countries, we may affirm that the tobacco which grows in the country
+of the Natchez, is even preferable to that of Virginia or St. Domingo;
+I say, in the country of the Natchez, because the soil at that post
+appears to be more suitable to this plant than any other: although it
+must be owned, that there is but very little difference betwixt the
+tobacco which grows there and in some other parts of the colony, as at
+the Cut-point, at the Nachitoches, and even at New Orleans; but
+whether it is owing to the exposure, or to the goodness of {188} the
+soil, it is allowed that the tobacco of the Natchez and Yasous is
+preferable to the rest.
+
+The way of planting and curing tobacco in this country, is as follows:
+they sow it on beds well worked with the hoe or spade in the months of
+December, January, or February; and because the seed is very small,
+they mix it with ashes, that it may be thinner sowed: then they rake
+the beds, and trample them with their feet, or clap them with a plank,
+that the seed may take sooner in the ground. The tobacco does not come
+up till a month afterwards, or even for a longer time; and then they
+ought to take great care to cover the beds with straw or cypress-bark,
+to preserve the plants from the white frosts, that are very common in
+that season. There are two sorts of tobacco; the one with a long and
+sharp-pointed leaf, the other has a round and hairy leaf; which last
+they reckon the best sort.
+
+At the end of April, and about St. George's day, the plants have about
+four leaves, and then they pull the best and strongest of them: these
+they plant out on their tobacco-ground by a line stretched across it,
+and at three feet distance one from another: this they do either with
+a planting-stick, or with their finger, leaving a hole on one side of
+the plant, to receive the water, with which they ought to water it.
+The tobacco being thus planted, it should be looked over evening and
+morning, in order to destroy a black worm, which eats the bud of the
+plant, and afterwards buries itself in the ground. If any of the
+plants are eat by this worm, you must set another one by it. You must
+choose a rainy season to plant your tobacco, and you should water it
+three times to make it take root. But they never work their ground in
+this country to plant their tobacco; they reckon it sufficient to stir
+it a little about four inches square round the plant.
+
+When the tobacco is about four or five inches high, they weed it, and
+clean the ground all about it, and hill up every plant. They do the
+same again, when it is about a foot and a half high. And when the
+plant has, about eight or nine leaves, and is ready to put forth a
+stalk, they nip off the top, which they call topping the tobacco: this
+amputation makes the {189} leaves grow longer and thicker. After this,
+you must look over every plant, and every leaf, in order to sucker it,
+or to pull off the buds, which grow at the joints of the leaves; and
+at the same time you must destroy the large green worms that are found
+on the tobacco, which are often as large as a man's finger, and would
+eat up the whole plant in a night's time.
+
+After this, you must take care to have ready a hanger (or
+tobacco-house,) which in Louisiana they make in the following manner:
+they set several posts in the ground, at equal distances from one
+another, and lay a beam or plate on the top of them, making thus the
+form of a house of an oblong square. In the middle of this square they
+set up two forks, about one third higher than the posts, and lay a pole
+cross them, for the ridge-pole of the building; upon which they nail the
+rafters, and cover them with cypress-bark, or palmetto-leaves. The first
+settlers likewise build their dwelling-houses in this manner, which
+answer the purpose very well, and as well as the houses which their
+carpenters build for them, especially for the curing of tobacco; which
+they hang in these houses upon sticks or canes, laid across the
+building, and about four feet and a half asunder, one above another.
+
+The tobacco-house being ready, you wait till your tobacco is ripe, and
+fit to be cut; which you may know by the leaves being brittle, and
+easily broke between the fingers, especially in the morning before
+sun-rising; but those versed in it know when the tobacco is fit to cut
+by the looks of it, and at first sight. You cut your tobacco with a
+knife as nigh the ground as you can, after which you lay it upon the
+ground for some time, that the leaves may fall, or grow tender, and
+not break in carrying. When you carry your tobacco to the house, you
+hang it first at the top by pairs, or two plants together, thus
+continuing from story to story, taking care that the plants thus hung
+are about two inches asunder, and that they do not touch one another,
+lest they should rot. In this manner they fill their whole house with
+tobacco, and leave it to sweat and dry.
+
+After the tobacco is cut, they weed and clean the ground on which it
+grew: each root then puts out several suckers, which are all pulled
+off, and only one of the best is left to {190} grow, of which the same
+care is taken as of the first crop. By this means a second crop is
+made on the same ground, and sometimes a third. These seconds, indeed,
+as they are called, do not usually grow so high as the first plant,
+but notwithstanding they make very good tobacco. [Footnote: This is an
+advantage that they have in Louisiana over our tobacco planters, who
+are prohibited by law to cultivate these seconds; the summers are so
+short, that they do not come to due maturity in our tobacco colonies;
+whereas in Louisiana the summers are two or three months longer, by
+which they make two or three crops of tobacco a year upon the same
+ground, as early as we make one. Add to this, their fresh lands will
+produce three times as much of that commodity, as our old plantations;
+which are now worn out with culture, by supplying the whole world
+almost with tobacco for a hundred and fifty years. Now if their
+tobacco is worth five and six shillings a pound, as we are told above,
+or even the tenth part of it, when ours is worth but two pence or
+three pence, and they give a bounty upon ships going to the
+Missisippi, when our tobacco is loaded with a duty equal to seven
+times its prime cost; they may, with all these advantages, soon get
+this trade from us, the, only one this nation has left entire to
+itself. These advantages enable the planters to give a much better
+price for servants and slaves, and thereby to engross the trade. It
+was by these means, that the French got the sugar trade from us, after
+the treaty of Utrecht, by being allowed to transport their people from
+St. Christopher's to the rich and fresh lands of St. Domingo; and by
+removing from Canada to Louisiana, they may in the like manner get not
+only this, but every other branch of the trade of North America.]
+
+If you have a mind to make your tobacco into rolls, there is no
+occasion to wait till the leaves are perfectly dry; but as soon as
+they have acquired a yellowish brown colour, although the stem is
+green, you unhang your tobacco, and strip the leaves from the stalks,
+lay them up in heaps, and cover them with woolen cloths, in order to
+sweat them. After that you stem the tobacco, or pull out the middle
+rib of the leaf, which you throw away with the stalks, as good for
+nothing; laying by the longest and largest of the leaves, that are of
+a good blackish brown colour, and keep them for a covering for your
+rolls. After this you take a piece of coarse linen, at least eight
+inches broad and a foot long, which you spread on the ground, and on
+it lay the large leaves you have picked out, and the others over them
+in handfuls, taking care always to have more in the middle than at the
+ends: then you roll the {191} tobacco up in the cloth, tying it in the
+middle and at each end. When you have made a sufficient number of
+these bundles, the negroes roll them up as hard as they can with a
+cord about as big as the little finger, which is commonly about
+fifteen or sixteen fathom long: you tighten them three times, so as to
+make them as hard as possible; and to keep them so, you might tie them
+up with a string.
+
+But since the time of the West India company, we have seldom cured our
+tobacco in this manner, if it is not for our own use; we now cure it
+in hands, or bundles of the leaves, which they pack in hogsheads, and
+deliver it thus in France to the farmers general. In order to cure the
+tobacco in this manner, they wait till the leaves of the stem are
+perfectly dry, and in moist, giving weather, they strip the leaves
+from the stalk, till they have a handful of them, called a hand, or
+bundle of tobacco, which they tie up with another leaf. These bundles
+they lay in heaps, in order to sweat them, for which purpose they
+cover those heaps with blankets, and lay boards or planks over them.
+But you should take care that the tobacco is not over-heated, and does
+not take fire, which may easily happen; for which purpose you uncover
+your heaps from time to time, and give the tobacco air, by spreading
+it abroad. This you continue to do till you find no more heat in the
+tobacco; then you pack it in hogsheads, and may transport it any
+where, without danger either of its heating or rotting.
+
+II.
+
+_Of the way of making_ Indigo.
+
+The blue stone, known by the name of Indigo, is the extract of a plant
+which they who have a sufficient number of slaves to manage it, make
+some quantities throughout all this colony. For this purpose they
+first weed the ground, and make small holes in it with a hoe, about
+five inches asunder, and on a straight line. In each of these holes
+they put five or six seeds of the indigo, which are small, long, and
+hard. When they come up, they put forth leaves somewhat like those of
+box, but a little longer and broader, and not so thick and indented.
+When the plant is five or six inches high, they take {192} care to
+loosen the earth about the root, and at the same time to weed it. They
+reckon it has acquired a proper maturity, when it is about three feet
+and a half high: this you may likewise know, if the leaf cracks as you
+squeeze the plant in your hand.
+
+Before you cut it, you get ready a place that is covered in the same
+manner with the one made for tobacco, about twenty-five feet high; in
+which you put three vats, one above another, as it were in different
+stories, so that the highest is the largest; that in the middle is
+square, and the deepest; the third, at bottom, is the least.
+
+After these operations, you cut the indigo, and when you have several
+arms-full, or bundles of the plant, to the quantity judged necessary
+for one working, you fill the vat at least three quarters full; after
+which you pour water thereon up to the brim, and the plant is left to
+steep, in order to rot it; which is the reason why this vat is called
+the rotting-tub. For the three or four hours which the plant takes to
+rot, the water is impregnated with its virtue; and, though the plant
+is green, communicates thereto a blue colour.
+
+At the bottom of the great vat, and where it bears on the one in the
+middle (which, as was said, is square) is a pretty large hole, stopped
+with a bung; which is opened when the plant is thought to be
+sufficiently rotten, and all the water of this vat, mixed with the
+mud, formed by the rotting of the plant, falls by this hole into the
+second vat; on the edges of which are placed, at proper distances,
+forks of iron or wood, on which large long poles are laid, which reach
+from the two sides to the middle of the water in the vat; the end
+plunged in the water is furnished with a bucket without a bottom. A
+number of slaves lay hold on these poles, by the end which is out of
+the water; and alternately pulling them down, and then letting the
+buckets fall into the vat, they thus continue to beat the water; which
+being thus agitated and churned, comes to be covered with a white and
+thick scum; and in such quantity as that it would rise up and flow
+over the brim of the vat, if the operator did not take care to throw
+in, from time to time, some fish-oil, which he sprinkles with a
+feather upon this scum. For these reasons this vat is called the
+battery.
+
+{193} They continue to beat the water for an hour and a half, or two
+hours; after which they give over, and the water is left to settle.
+However, they from time to time open three holes, which are placed at
+proper distances from top to bottom in one of the sides of this second
+vat in order to let the water run off clear. This is repeated for
+three several times; but when at the third time the muddy water is
+ready to come out at the lowermost hole, they stop it, and open
+another pierced in the lower part of that side, which rests on the
+third vat. Then all the muddy water falls through that hole of the
+second vat, into the third, which is the least, and is called the
+_deviling (diablotin.)_
+
+They have sacks, a foot long, made of a pretty close cloth, which they
+fill with this liquid thick matter, and hang them on nails round the
+indigo-house. The water drains out gradually; and the matter which is
+left behind, resembles a real mud, which they take out of these sacks,
+and put in moulds, made like little drawers, two feet long by half a
+foot broad, and with a border, or ledge, an inch and a half high. Then
+they lay them out in the sun, which draws off all the moisture: and as
+this mud comes to dry, care is taken to work it with a mason's trowel:
+at length it forms a body, which holds together, and is cut in pieces,
+while fresh, with wire. It is in this manner that they draw from a
+green herb this fine blue colour, of which there are two sorts, one of
+which is of a purple dove colour.
+
+III.
+
+_Of Tar; the way of making it; and of making it into Pitch_.
+
+I have said, that they made a great deal of tar in this colony, from
+pines and firs; which is done in the following manner. It is a common
+mistake, that tar is nothing but the sap or gum of the pine, drawn
+from the tree by incision; the largest trees would not yield two
+pounds by this method; and if it were, to be made in that manner, you
+must choose the most thriving and flourishing trees for the purpose;
+whereas it is only made from the trees that are old, and are beginning
+to decay, because the older they are, the greater quantities they
+contain of that fat bituminous substance, which yields tar; it {194}
+is even proper that the tree should be felled a long time, before they
+use them for this purpose. It is usually towards the mouth of the
+river, and along the sea-coasts, that they make tar; because it is in
+those places that the pines chiefly grow.
+
+When they have a sufficient number of these trees, that are fit for
+the purpose, they saw them in cuts with a cross-cut saw, about two
+feet in length; and while the slaves are employed in sawing them,
+others split these cuts lengthwise into small pieces, the smaller the
+better. They sometimes spend three or four months in cutting and
+preparing the trees in this manner. In the mean time they make a
+square hollow in the ground, four or five feet broad, and five or six
+inches deep: from one side of which goes off a canal or gutter, which
+discharges itself into a large and pretty deep pit, at the distance of
+a few paces. From this pit proceeds another canal, which communicates
+with a second pit; and even from the first square you make three or
+four such trenches, which discharge themselves into as many pits,
+according to the quantity of wood you have, or the quantity of tar you
+imagine you may draw from it. Then you lay over the square hole four
+or five pretty strong bars of iron, and upon these bars you arrange
+crosswise the split pieces of pine, of which you should have a
+quantity ready; laying them so, that there may be a little air between
+them. In this manner you raise a large and high pyramid of the wood,
+and when it is finished, you set fire to it at the top. As the wood
+burns, the fire melts the resin in the pine, and this liquid tar
+distills into the square hole, and from thence runs into the pits made
+to receive it.
+
+If you would make pitch of this tar, take two or three red-hot cannon
+bullets, and throw them into the pits, full of the tar, which you
+intend for this purpose: immediately upon which, the tar takes fire
+with a terrible noise and a horrible thick smoke, by which the
+moisture that may remain in the tar is consumed and dissipated, and
+the mass diminishes in proportion; and when they think it is
+sufficiently burnt, they extinguish the fire, not with water, but with
+a hurdle covered with turf and earth. As it grows cold, it becomes
+hard and shining, so that you cannot take it out of the pits, but by
+cutting it with an axe.
+
+{195}
+
+IV.
+
+_Of the Mines of_ Louisiana.
+
+Before we quit this subject, I shall conclude this account by
+answering a question, which has often been proposed to me. Are there
+any Mines, say they, in this province? There are, without all dispute;
+and that is so certain, and so well known, that they who have any
+knowledge of this country never once called it in question. And it is
+allowed by all, that there are to be found in this country quarries of
+plaster of Paris, slate, and very fine veined marble; and I have
+learned from one of my friends, who as well as myself had been a great
+way on discoveries, that in travelling this province he had found a
+place full of fine stones of rock-crystal. As for my share, I can
+affirm, without endeavoring to impose on any one, that in one of my
+excursions I found, upon the river of the Arkansas, a rivulet that
+rolled down with its waters gold-dust; from which there is reason to
+believe that there are mines of this metal in that country. And as for
+silver-mines, there is no doubt but they might be found there, as well
+as in New Mexico, on which this province borders. A Canadian
+traveller, named Bon Homme, as he was hunting at some distance from
+the Post of the Nachitoches, melted some parcels of a mine, that is
+found in rocks at a very little distance from that Post, which
+appeared to be very good silver, without any farther purification.
+[Footnote: See a farther account and assay of this mine above.]
+
+It will be objected to me, perhaps, that if there is any truth in what
+I advance, I should have come from that country laden with silver and
+gold; and that if these precious metals are to be found there, as I
+have said, it is surprizing that the French have never thought of
+discovering and digging them in thirty years, in which they have been
+settled in Louisiana. To this I answer, that this objection is only
+founded on the ignorance of those who make it; and that a traveller,
+or an officer, ordered by his superiors to go to reconnoitre the
+country, to draw plans, and give an account of what he has seen, in
+nothing but immense woods and deserts, where they cannot so {196} much
+as find a path, but what is made by the wild beasts; I say, that such
+people have enough to do to take care of themselves and of their
+present business, instead of gathering riches; and think it
+sufficient, that they return in a whole skin.
+
+With regard to the negligence that the French seem hitherto to have
+shewn in searching for these mines, and in digging them, we ought to
+take due notice, that in order to open a silver-mine, for example, you
+must advance at least a hundred thousand crowns, before you can expect
+to get a penny of profit from it, and that the people of the country
+are not in a condition to be at any such charge. Add to this, that the
+inhabitants are too ignorant of these mines; the Spaniards, their
+neighbours, are too discreet to teach them; and the French in Europe
+are too backward and timorous to engage in such an undertaking. But
+notwithstanding, it is certain that the thing has been already done,
+and that just reasons, without doubt, but different from an
+impossibility, have caused it to be laid aside.
+
+This author gives a like account of the culture of Rice in Louisiana,
+and of all the other staple commodities of our colonies in North
+America.
+
+{197} _Extract from a late_ French _Writer, concerning the Importance
+of_ Louisiana _to France_.
+
+"One cannot help lamenting the lethargic state of that colony,
+(Louisiana) which carries in its bosom the bed of the greatest riches;
+and in order to produce them, asks only arms proper for tilling the
+earth, which is wholly disposed to yield an hundred fold. Thanks to
+the fertility of our islands, our Sugar plantations are infinitely
+superior to those of the English, and we likewise excel them in our
+productions of Indigo, Coffee, and Cotton.
+
+"Tobacco is the only production of the earth which gives the English
+an advantage over us. Providence, which reserved for us the discovery
+of Louisiana, has given us the possession of it, that we may be their
+rivals in this particular, or at least that we may be able to do
+without their Tobacco. Ought we to continue tributaries to them in
+this respect, when we can so easily do without them?
+
+"I cannot help remarking here, that among several projects presented
+of late years for giving new force to this colony, a company of
+creditable merchants proposed to furnish negroes to the inhabitants,
+and to be paid for them in Tobacco alone at a fixed valuation.
+
+"The following advantages, they demonstrated, would attend their
+scheme. I. It would increase a branch of commerce in France, which
+affords subsistence to two of the English colonies in America, namely
+Virginia and Maryland, the inhabitants of which consume annually a
+very considerable quantity of English stuffs, and employ a great
+number of ships in the transportation of their Tobacco. The
+inhabitants of those two provinces are so greatly multiplied, in
+consequence of the riches they have acquired by their commerce with
+us, that they begin to spread themselves upon territories that belong
+to us. II. The second advantage arising from the scheme would be, to
+carry the cultivation of Tobacco to its greatest extent and
+perfection. III. To diminish in proportion the cultivation of the
+English plantations, as well as lessen their navigation in that part.
+IV. To put an end entirely to the {198} importation of any Tobacco
+from Great-Britain into France, in the space of twelve years. V. To
+diminish annually, and in the same space of time finally put an end
+to, the exportation of specie from France to Great-Britain, which
+amounts annually to five millions of our money for the purchase of
+Tobacco, and the freightage of English ships, which bring it into our
+ports. VI. By diminishing the cause of the outgoing specie, to augment
+the balance of commerce in favour of the nation. These are the
+principal advantages which France would have reason to have expected
+from the establishment of this company, if it had been effected."
+_Essai sur les Interêts du Commerce Maritime, par_ M. du Haye. 1754.
+
+The probability of succeeding in such a scheme will appear from the
+foregoing accounts of Tobacco in Louisiana, pag. 172, 173, 181, 188,
+&c. They only want hands to make any quantities of Tobacco in
+Louisiana. The consequences of that will appear from the following
+account.
+
+{199} _An Account of the Quantity of Tobacco imported into_ Britain,
+_and exported from it, in the four Years of Peace, after the late
+Tobacco-Law took place, according to the Custom-House Accounts._
+
+
+                                 Imported     Exported
+                                  Hhds.        Hhds.
+                       1752 - - - 55,997 - -  48,922
+    England,           1753 - - - 70,925 - -  57,353
+                       1754 - - - 59,744 - -  50,476
+                       1755 - - - 71,881 - -  54,384
+                                ---------   ---------
+                                 258,547 - - 211,135
+                                ---------   ---------
+                       1752 - - - 22,322 - -  21,642
+    Scotland,          1753 - - - 26,210 - -  24,728
+                       1754 - - - 22,334 - -  21,764
+                       1755 - - - 20,698 - -  19,711
+                                ---------   ---------
+                                  91,564 - -  87,845
+                                ---------   ---------
+                     Total - - - 350,111 - - 298,980
+                     Average - -  87,528 - -  74,745
+                 Imported yearly - - -  hhds  87,528
+                 Exported - - - - - - - - -   74,745
+                                            ---------
+                  Home consumption - - - - -  12,783
+  To 87,528 hogsheads, at 10£ per hogshead, £875,280
+  To duty on 12,783 hogsheads at 20£ - - -   255,660
+                                           ---------
+  Annual income from Tobacco - - - - -     1,130,940
+
+
+The number of seamen employed in the Tobacco trade is computed at
+4500;--in the Sugar trade 3600;--and in the Fishery of Newfoundland
+4000, from Britain.
+
+{201}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+_The Natural History of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Of Corn and Pulse_.
+
+
+Having, in the former part of this work, given an account of the
+nature of the soil of Louisiana, and observed that some places were
+proper for one kind of plants, and some for another; and that almost
+the whole country was capable of producing, and bringing to the utmost
+maturity, all kinds of grain, I shall now present the industrious
+planter with an account of the trees and plants which may be
+cultivated to advantage in those lands with which he is now made
+acquainted.
+
+During my abode in that country, where I myself have a grant of lands,
+and where I lived sixteen years, I have had leisure to study this
+subject, and have made such progress in it, that I have sent to the
+West-India Company in France no less than three hundred medicinal
+plants, found in their possessions, and worthy of the attention of the
+public. The reader may depend upon my being faithful and exact; he
+must not however here expect a description of every thing that
+Louisiana produces of the vegetable kind. Its prodigious fertility
+makes it impracticable for me to undertake so extensive a work. I
+shall chiefly describe those plants and fruits that are most useful to
+the inhabitants, either in regard to their own subsistence or
+preservation, or in regard to their foreign commerce; {202} and I
+shall add the manner of cultivating and managing the plants that are
+of greatest advantage to the colony.
+
+Louisiana produces several kinds of Maiz, namely Flour-maiz, which is
+white, with a flat and shrivelled surface, and is the softest of all
+the kinds; Homony corn, which is round, hard, and shining; of this
+there are four sorts, the white, the yellow, the red, and the blue;
+the Maiz of these two last colours is more common in the high lands
+than in the Lower Louisiana. We have besides small corn, or small
+Maiz, so called because it is smaller than the other kinds. New
+settlers sow this corn upon their first arrival, in order to have
+whereon to subsist as soon as possible; for it rises very fast, and
+ripens in so short a time, that from the same field they may have two
+crops of it in one year. Besides this, it has the advantage of being
+more agreeable to the taste than the large kind.
+
+Maiz, which in France is called Turkey Corn, (and in England Indian
+Corn) is the natural product of this country; for upon our arrival we
+found it cultivated by the natives. It grows upon a stalk six, seven,
+and eight feet high; the ear is large, and about two inches diameter,
+containing sometimes seven hundred grains and upwards; and each stalk
+bears sometimes six or seven ears, according to the goodness of the
+ground. The black and light soil is that which agrees best with it;
+but strong ground is not so favourable to it.
+
+This corn, it is well known, is very wholesome both for man and other
+animals, especially for poultry. The natives, that they may have
+change of dishes, dress it in various ways. The best is to make it
+into what is called Parched Meal, (Farine Froide.) As there is nobody
+who does not eat of this with pleasure, even though not very hungry, I
+will give the manner of preparing it, that our provinces of France,
+which reap this grain, may draw the same advantage from it.
+
+The corn is first parboiled in water; then drained and well dried.
+When it is perfectly dry, it is then roasted in a plate made for that
+purpose, ashes being mixed with it to hinder it from burning; and they
+keep continually stirring it, that it may take only the red colour
+which they want. When it has taken that colour, they remove the ashes,
+rub it well, and then {203} put it in a mortar with the ashes of dried
+stalks of kidney beans, and a little water; they then beat it gently,
+which quickly breaks the husk, and turns the whole into meal. This
+meal, after being pounded, is dried in the sun, and after this last
+operation it may be carried any where, and will keep six months, if
+care be taken from time to time to expose it to the sun. When they
+want to eat of it, they mix in a vessel two thirds water with one
+third meal, and in a few minutes the mixture swells greatly in bulk,
+and is fit to eat. It is a very nourishing food, and is an excellent
+provision for travellers, and those who go to any distance to trade.
+
+This parched meal, mixed with milk and a little sugar, may be served
+up at the best tables. When mixed with milk-chocolate it makes a very
+lasting nourishment. From Maiz they make a strong and agreeable beer;
+and they likewise distil brandy from it.
+
+Wheat, rye, barley, and oats grow extremely well in Louisiana; but I
+must add one precaution in regard to wheat; when it is sown by itself,
+as in France, it grows at first wonderfully; but when it is in flower,
+a great number of drops of red water may be observed at the bottom of
+the stalk within six inches of the ground, which are collected there
+during the night, and disappear at sun-rising. This water is of such
+an acrid nature, that in a short time it consumes the stalk, and the
+ear falls before the grain is formed. To prevent this misfortune,
+which is owing to the too great richness of the soil, the method I
+have taken, and which has succeeded extremely well, is to mix with the
+wheat you intend to sow, some rye and dry mould, in such a proportion
+that the mould shall be equal to the rye and wheat together. This
+method I remember to have seen practised in France; and when I asked
+the reason of it, the farmer told me that as the land was new, and had
+lately been a wood, it contained an acid that was prejudicial to the
+wheat; and that as the rye absorbed that acid without being hurt, it
+thereby preserved the other grain. I have seen barley and oats in that
+country three feet high.
+
+The rice which is cultivated in that country was brought from
+Carolina. It succeeds surprizingly well, and experience {204} has
+there proved, contrary to the common notion, that it does not want to
+have its foot always in the water. It has been sown in the flat
+country without being flooded, and the grain that was reaped was full
+grown, and of a very delicate taste. The fine relish need not surprise
+us; for it is so with all plants and fruits that grow without being
+watered, and at a distance from watery places. Two crops may be reaped
+from the same plant; but the second is poor if it be not flooded. I
+know not whether they have attempted, since I left Louisiana, to sow
+it upon the sides of hills.
+
+The first settlers found in the country French-beans of various
+colours, particularly red and black, and they have been called beans
+of forty days, because they require no longer time to grow and to be
+fit to eat green. The Apalachean beans are so called because we
+received them from a nation of the natives of that name. They probably
+had them from the English of Carolina, whither they had been brought
+from Guinea. Their stalks spread upon the ground to the length of four
+or five feet. They are like the other beans, but much smaller, and of
+a brown colour, having a black ring round the eye, by which they are
+joined to the shell. These beans boil tender, and have a tolerable
+relish, but they are sweetish, and somewhat insipid.
+
+The potatoes are roots more commonly long than thick; their form is
+various, and their fine skin is like that of the Topinambous (Irish
+potatoes.) In their substance and taste they very much resemble sweet
+chesnuts. They are cultivated in the following manner; the earth is
+raised in little hills or high furrows about a foot and a half broad,
+that by draining the moisture, the roots may have a better relish. The
+small potatoes being cut in little pieces with an eye in each, four or
+five of those pieces are planted on the head of the hills. In a short
+time they push out shoots, and these shoots being cut off about the
+middle of August within seven or eight inches of the ground, are
+planted double, cross-ways, in the crown of other hills. The roots of
+these last are the most esteemed, not only on account of their fine
+relish, but because they are easier kept during the winter. In order to
+preserve them during {205} that season, they dry them in the sun as
+soon as they are dug up, and then lay them up in a close and dry place,
+covering them first with ashes, over which they lay dry mould. They
+boil them, or bake them, or roast them on hot coals like chesnuts; but
+they have the finest relish when baked or roasted. They are eat dry, or
+cut into small slices in milk without sugar, for they are sweet of
+themselves. Good sweetmeats are also {206} made of them, and some
+Frenchmen have drawn brandy from them.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Appalachean Beans,_--Bottom: _Sweet Potatoes_
+(on p. 205)]
+
+The Cushaws are a kind of pompion. There are two sorts of them, the
+one round, and the other in the shape of a hunting horn. These last
+are the best, being of a more firm substance, which makes them keep
+much better than the others; their sweetness is not so insipid, and
+they have fewer seeds. They make sweetmeats of these last, and use
+both kinds in soup; they make fritters of them, fry them, bake them,
+and roast them on the coals, and in all ways of cooking they are good
+and palatable.
+
+All kinds of melons grow admirably well in Louisiana. Those of Spain,
+of France, of England, which last are called white melons, are there
+infinitely finer than in the countries from whence they have their
+name; but the best of all are the water melons. As they are hardly
+known in France, except in Provence, where a few of the small kind
+grow, I fancy a description of them will not be disagreeable to the
+reader.
+
+The stalk of this melon spreads like ours upon the ground, and extends
+to the length of ten feet. It is so tender, that when it is any way
+bruised by treading upon it, the fruit dies; and if it is rubbed in
+the least, it grows warm. The leaves are very much indented, as broad
+as the hand when they are spread out, and are somewhat of a sea-green
+colour. The fruit is either round like a pompion, or long. There are
+some good melons of this last kind, but the first sort are most
+esteemed, and deservedly so. The weight of the largest rarely exceeds
+thirty pounds, but that of the smallest is always above ten pounds.
+Their rind is of a pale green colour, interspersed with large white
+spots. The substance that adheres to the rind is white, crude, and of
+a disagreeable tartness, and is therefore never eaten. The space
+within that is filled with a light and sparkling substance, that may
+be called for its properties a rose-coloured snow. It melts in the
+mouth as if it were actually snow, and leaves a relish like that of
+the water prepared for sick people from gooseberry jelly. This fruit
+cannot fail therefore of being very refreshing, and is so wholesome,
+that persons in all kinds of distempers may satisfy their {207}
+appetite with it, without any apprehension of being the worse for it.
+The water-melons of Africa are not near so relishing as those of
+Louisiana.
+
+[Illustration: Watermelon]
+
+The seeds of water-melons are placed like those of the French melons.
+Their shape is oval and flat, being as thick at the ends as towards
+the middle; their length is about six lines, and their breadth four.
+Some are black and others red; but the black are the best, and it is
+those you ought to choose {208} for sowing, if you would wish to have
+good fruit; which you cannot fail of, if they are not planted in
+strong ground, where they would degenerate and become red.
+
+All kinds of greens and roots which have been brought from Europe into
+that colony succeed better there than in France, provided they be
+planted in a soil suited to them; for it is certainly absurd to think
+that onions and other bulbous plants should thrive there in a soft and
+watery soil, when every where else they require a light and dry earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Of the Fruit Trees of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+I shall now proceed to give an account of the fruit trees of this
+colony, and shall begin with the Vine, which is so common in
+Louisiana, that whatever way you walk from the sea coast for five
+hundred leagues northwards, you cannot proceed an hundred steps
+without meeting with one; but unless the vine-shoots should happen to
+grow in an exposed place, it cannot be expected that their fruit
+should ever come to perfect maturity. The trees to which they twine
+are so high, and so thick of leaves, and the intervals of underwood
+are so filled with reeds, that the sun cannot warm the earth, or ripen
+the fruit of this shrub. I will not undertake to describe all the
+kinds of grapes which this country produces; it is even impossible to
+know them all; I shall only speak of three or four.
+
+The first sort that I shall mention does not perhaps deserve the name
+of a grape, although its wood and its leaf greatly resemble the vine.
+This shrub bears no bunches, and you hardly ever see upon it above two
+grapes together. The grape in substance and colour is very like a
+violet damask plum, and its stone, which is always single, greatly
+resembles a nut. Though not very relishing, it has not however that
+disagreeable sharpness of the grape that grows in the neighbourhood of
+New Orleans.
+
+On the edge of the savannahs or meadows we meet with a grape, the
+shoots of which resemble those of the Burgundy {209} grape. They make
+from this a tolerable good wine, if they take care to expose it to the
+sun in summer, and to the cold in winter. I have made this experiment
+myself, and must say that I never could turn it into vinegar.
+
+There is another kind of grape which I make no difficulty of classing
+with the grapes of Corinth, commonly called currants. It resembles
+them in the wood, the leaf, the tree, the size, and the sweetness. Its
+tartness is owing to its being prevented from ripening by the thick
+shade of the large trees to which it twines. If it were planted and
+cultivated in an open field, I make not the least doubt but it would
+equal the grape of Corinth, with which I class it.
+
+Muscadine grapes, of an amber colour, of a very good kind, and very
+sweet, have been found upon declivities of a good exposure, even so
+far north as the latitude of 31 degrees. There is the greatest
+probability that they might make excellent wine of these, as it cannot
+be doubted but the grapes might be brought to great perfection in this
+country, since in the moist soil of New Orleans, the cuttings of the
+grape which some of the inhabitants of that city brought from France,
+have succeeded extremely well, and afforded good wine.
+
+As a proof of the fertility of Louisiana, I cannot forbear mentioning
+the following fact; an inhabitant of New Orleans having planted in his
+garden a few twigs of this Muscadine vine, with a view of making an
+arbour of them, one of his sons, with another negro boy, entered the
+garden in the month of June, when the grapes are ripe, and broke off
+all the bunches they could find. The father, after severely chiding
+the two boys, pruned the twigs that had been broken and bruised; and
+as several months of summer still remained, the vine pushed out new
+shoots, and new bunches, which ripened and were as good as the former.
+
+The Persimmon, which the French of the colony call Placminier, very
+much resembles our medlar-tree in its leaf and wood: its flower, which
+is about an inch and a half broad, is white, and is composed of five
+petals; its fruit is about the size of a large hen's egg; it is shaped
+like our medlar, but its substance is sweeter and more delicate. This
+fruit is astringent; {210} when it is quite ripe the natives make
+bread of it, which they keep from year to year; and the bread has this
+remarkable property that it will stop the most violent looseness or
+dysentery; therefore it ought to be used with caution, and only after
+physic. The natives, in order to make this bread, squeeze the fruit
+over fine sieves to separate the pulp from the skin and the kernels.
+Of this pulp, which is like paste or thick pap, they make cakes about
+a foot and a half long, a foot broad, and a finger's breadth in
+thickness: these they dry in an oven, upon gridirons, or else in the
+sun; which last method of drying gives a greater relish to the bread.
+This is one of their articles of traffick with the French.
+
+Their plum-trees are of two sorts: the best is that which bears
+violet-coloured plums, quite like ours, which are not disagreeable,
+and which certainly would be good if they did not grow in the middle
+of woods. The other kind bears plums of the colour of an unripe
+cherry, and these are so tart that no body can eat them; but I am of
+opinion they might be preserved like gooseberries; especially if pains
+were taken to cultivate them in open grounds. The small cherries,
+called the Indian cherry, are frequent in this country. Their wood is
+very beautiful, and their leaves differ in nothing from those of the
+cherry tree.
+
+The Papaws are only to be found far up in Higher Louisiana. These
+trees, it would seem, do not love heat; they do not grow so tall as
+the plum-trees; their wood is very hard and flexible; for the lower
+branches are sometimes so loaded with fruit that they hang
+perpendicularly downwards; and if you unload them of their fruit in
+the evening, you will find them next morning in their natural erect
+position. The fruit resembles a middle-sized cucumber; the pulp is
+very agreeable and very wholesome; but the rind, which is easily
+stripped off, leaves on the fingers so sharp an acid, that if you
+touch your eye with them before you wash them, it will be immediately
+inflamed, and itch most insupportably for twenty-four hours after.
+
+The natives had doubtless got the peach-trees and fig-trees from the
+English colony of Carolina, before the French {211} established
+themselves in Louisiana. The peaches are of the kind which we call
+Alberges; are of the size of the fist, adhere to the stone, and
+contain so much water that they make a kind of wine of it. The figs
+are either blue or white; are large and well enough tasted. Our
+colonists plant the peach stones about the end of February, and suffer
+the trees to grow exposed to all weathers. In the third year they will
+gather from one tree at least two hundred peaches, and double that
+number for six {212} or seven years more, when the tree dies
+irrecoverably. As new trees are so easily produced, the loss of the
+old ones is not in the least regretted.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Pawpaw_--Bottom: _Blue Whortle-berry_ (on p. 211)]
+
+The orange-trees and citron-trees that were brought from Cape François
+have succeeded extremely well; however I have seen so severe a winter
+that those kinds of trees were entirely frozen to the very trunk. In
+that case they cut the trees down to the ground, and the following
+summer they produced shoots that were better than the former. If these
+trees have succeeded in the flat and moist soil of New Orleans, what
+may we not expect when they are planted in better soil, and upon
+declivities of a good exposure? The oranges and citrons are as good as
+those of other countries; but the rind of the orange in particular is
+very thick, which makes it the better for a sweet-meat.
+
+There is plenty of wild apples in Louisiana, like those in Europe; and
+the inhabitants have got many kind of fruit trees from France, such as
+apples, pears, plums, cherries, &c. which in the low grounds run more
+into wood than fruit; the few I had at the Natches proved that high
+ground is much more suited to them than the low.
+
+The blue Whortle-berry is a shrub somewhat taller than our largest
+gooseberry bushes, which are left to grow as they please. Its berries
+are of the shape of a gooseberry, grow single, and are of a blue
+colour: they taste like a sweetish gooseberry, and when infused in
+brandy it makes a good dram. They attribute several virtues to it,
+which, as I never experienced, I cannot answer for. It loves a poor
+gravelly soil.
+
+Louisiana produces no black mulberries: but from the sea to the
+Arkansas, which is an extent of navigation upon the river of two
+hundred leagues, we meet very frequently with three kinds of
+mulberries; one a bright red, another perfectly white, and a third
+white and sweetish. The first of these kinds is very common, but the
+two last are more rare. Of the red mulberries they make excellent
+vinegar, which keeps a long time, provided they take care in the
+making of it to keep it in the shade in a vessel well stopped,
+contrary to the practice in France. They make vinegar also of bramble
+berries, but this {213} is not so good as the former. I do not doubt
+but the colonists at present apply themselves seriously to the
+cultivation of mulberries, to feed silk-worms, especially as the
+countries adjoining to France, and which supplied us with silk, have
+now made the exportation of it difficult.
+
+The olive-trees in this colony are surprisingly beautiful. The trunk
+is sometimes a foot and a half diameter, and thirty feet high before
+it spreads out into branches. The Provençals settled in the colony
+affirm, that its olives would afford as good an oil as those of their
+country. Some of the olives that were prepared to be eat green, were
+as good as those of Provence. I have reason to think, that if they
+were planted on the coasts, the olives would have a finer relish.
+
+They have great numbers and a variety of kinds of walnut-trees in
+this country. There is a very large kind, the wood of which is almost
+as black as ebony, but very porous. The fruit, with the outer shell,
+is of the size of a large hen's egg: the shell has no cleft, is very
+rough and so hard as to require a hammer to break it. Though the fruit
+be very relishing, yet it is covered with such a thick film, that few
+can bestow the pains of separating the one from the other. The natives
+make bread of it, by throwing the fruit into water, and rubbing it
+till the film and oil be separated from it. If those trees were
+engrafted with the French walnut, their fruit would probably be
+improved.
+
+Other walnut-trees have a very white and flexible wood. Of this wood
+the natives make their crooked spades for hoeing their fields. The nut
+is smaller than ours, and the shell more tender; but the fruit is so
+bitter that none but perroquets can put up with it.
+
+The Hicori bears a very small kind of nut, which at first sight one
+would take for filberts, as they have the same shape and colour, and
+their shell is as tender, but within they are formed like walnuts.
+They have such an excellent relish, that the French make fried cakes
+of them as good as those of almonds.
+
+Louisiana produces but a few filberts, as the filbert requires a poor
+gravelly soil which is not to be met with in this {214} province,
+except in the neighbourhood of the sea, especially near the river
+Mobile.
+
+[Illustration: Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber]
+
+The large chesnuts are not to be met with but at the distance of one
+hundred leagues from the sea, and far from rivers in the heart of the
+woods, between the country of the Chactaws and that of the Chicasaws.
+The common chesnuts succeed best upon high declivities, and their
+fruit is like the chesnuts that grow in our woods. There is another
+kind of chesnuts, which are called the Acorn chesnuts, as they are
+shaped like an acorn, {215} and grow in such a cup. But they have the
+colour and taste of a chesnut; and I have often thought that those
+were the acorns which the first of men were said to have lived upon.
+
+The Sweet-Gum, or Liquid-Ambar (Copalm) is not only extremely common,
+but it affords a balm, the virtues of which are infinite. Its bark is
+black and hard, and its wood so tender and supple, that when the tree
+is felled you may draw from the middle of it rods of five or six feet
+in length. It cannot be employed in building or furniture, as it warps
+continually; nor is it fit for burning on account of its strong smell;
+but a little of it in a fire yields an agreeable perfume. Its leaf is
+indented with five points like a star.
+
+I shall not undertake to particularize all the virtues of this
+Sweet-Gum or Liquid-Ambar, not having learned all of them from the
+natives of the country, who would be no less surprised to find that we
+used it only as a varnish, than they were to see our surgeons bleed
+their patients. This balm, according to them, is an excellent
+febrifuge; they take ten or a dozen drops of it in gruel fasting, and
+before their meals; and if they should take a little more, they have
+no reason to apprehend any danger. The physicians among the natives
+purge their patients before they give it them. It cures wounds in two
+days without any bad consequences: it is equally sovereign for all
+kinds of ulcers, after having applied to them for some days a plaster
+of bruised ground-ivy. It cures consumptions, opens obstructions; it
+affords relief in the colic and all internal diseases; it comforts the
+heart; in short, it contains so many virtues, that they are every day
+discovering some new property that it has.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Of Forest Trees.
+
+
+Having described the most remarkable of their fruit trees, I shall now
+proceed to give an account of their forest trees. White and red cedars
+are very common upon the coast. The incorruptibility of the wood, and
+many other excellent properties which are well known, induced the
+first French settlers to build their houses of it; which were but very
+low.
+
+{216} [Illustration: Cypress]
+
+Next to the cedar the cypress-tree is the most valuable wood. Some
+reckon it incorruptible; and if it be not, it is at least a great many
+years in rotting. The tree that was found twenty feet deep in the
+earth near New Orleans was a cypress, and was uncorrupted. Now if the
+lands of Lower Louisiana are augmented two leagues every century, this
+tree must have been buried at least twelve centuries. The cypress
+grows very straight and tall, with a proportionable thickness. They
+commonly {217} make their pettyaugres of a single trunk of this tree,
+which will carry three or four thousand weight, and sometimes more. Of
+one of those trees a carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
+which carried sixteen ton, and the other fourteen. There is a cypress
+at Baton Rouge, a French settlement twenty-six leagues above New
+Orleans, which measures twelve yards round, and is of a prodigious
+height. The cypress has few branches, and its leaf is long and narrow.
+The trunk close by the ground sometimes sends off two or three stems,
+which enter the earth obliquely, and serve for buttresses to the tree.
+Its wood is of a beautiful colour, somewhat reddish; it is soft,
+light, and smooth; its grain is straight, and its pores very close. It
+is easily split by wedges, and though used green it never warps. It
+renews itself in a very extraordinary manner: a short time after it is
+cut down, a shoot is observed to grow from one of its roots exactly in
+the form of a sugar-loaf, and this sometimes rises ten feet high
+before any leaf appears: the branches at length arise from the head of
+this conical shoot. [Footnote: This is a mistake, according to
+Charlevoix.]
+
+The cypresses were formerly very common in Louisiana; but they have
+wasted them so imprudently, that they are now somewhat rare. They
+felled them for the sake of their bark, with which they covered their
+houses, and they sawed the wood into planks which they exported at
+different places. The price of the wood now is three times as much as
+it was formerly.
+
+The Pine-tree, which loves a barren soil, is to be found in great
+abundance on the sea coasts, where it grows very high and very
+beautiful. The islands upon the coast, which are formed wholly of
+shining sand, bear no other trees, and I am persuaded that as fine
+masts might be made of them as of the firs of Sweden.
+
+All the south parts of Louisiana abound with the Wild Laurel, which
+grows in the woods without any cultivation: the same may be said of
+the stone laurel, but if a person is not upon his guard he may take
+for the laurel a tree natural to the country, which would communicate
+its bad smell to every thing it is applied to. Among the laurels the
+preference ought to be {218} given to the tulip laurel (magnolia)
+which is not known in Europe. This tree is of the height and bulk of
+one of our common walnut-trees. Its head is naturally very round, and
+so thick of leaves that neither the sun nor rain can penetrate it. Its
+leaves are full four inches long, near three inches broad, and very
+thick, of a beautiful sea-green on the upperside, and resembling white
+velvet on the under-side: its bark is smooth and of a grey colour; its
+wood is white, soft and flexible, and {219} the grain interwoven. It
+owes its name to the form of its great white flowers, which are at
+least two inches broad. These appearing in the spring amidst the
+glossy verdure of the leaves, have a most beautiful effect. As the top
+is naturally round, and the leaves are ever-green, avenues of this
+tree would doubtless be worthy of a royal garden. After it has shed
+its leaves, its fruit appears in the form of a pine apple, and upon
+the first approach of the cold its grain turns into a lively red. Its
+{220} kernel is very bitter, and it is said to be a specific against
+fevers.
+
+[Illustration: _Magnolia_ (on p. 218)]
+
+[Illustration: _Sassafras_ (on p. 219)]
+
+The sassafras, the name of which is familiar to botanists on account
+of its medicinal qualities, is a large and tall tree. Its bark is
+thick, and cracked here and there; its wood is some what of the colour
+of cinnamon, and has an agreeable smell. It will not burn in the fire
+without the mixture of other wood, and even in the fire, if it should
+be separated from the flaming wood, it is immediately extinguished as
+if it were dipped in water.
+
+The maple grows upon declivities in cold climates, and is much more
+plentiful in the northern than the southern parts of the colony. By
+boring it they draw from it a sweet syrup which I have drunk of, and
+which they alledge is an excellent stomachic.
+
+The myrtle wax-tree is one of the greatest blessings with which nature
+has enriched Louisiana, as in this country the bees lodge their honey
+in the earth to save it from the ravages of the bears, who are very
+fond of it, and do not value their stings. One would be apt to take it
+at first sight, both from its bark and its height, for that kind of
+laurel used in the kitchens. It rises in several stems from the root;
+its leaf is like that of the laurel, but not so thick nor of such a
+lively green. It bears its fruit in bunches like a nosegay, rising
+from the same place in various stalks about two inches long: at the
+end of each of those stalks is a little pea, containing a kernel in a
+nut, which last is wholly covered with wax. The fruit, which is very
+plentiful, is easily gathered, as the shrub is very flexible. The tree
+thrives as well in the shade of other trees as in the open air; in
+watry places and cold countries, as well as in dry grounds and hot
+climates; for I have been told that some of them have been found in
+Canada, a country as cold as Denmark.
+
+This tree yields two kinds of wax, one a whitish yellow, and the
+other green. It was a long time before they learned to separate them,
+and they prepared the wax at first in the, following manner. They
+threw the grains and the stalks into a large kettle of boiling water,
+and when the wax was detached {221} from them, they scummed off the
+grains. When the water cooled the wax floated in a cake at the top,
+and being cut small, bleached in a shorter time than bees wax. They
+now prepare it in this manner; they throw boiling water upon the
+stalks and grains till they are entirely floated, and when they have
+stood thus a few minutes, they pour off the water, which carries the
+finest wax with it. This wax when cold is of a {222} pale yellow
+colour, and may be bleached in six or seven days. Having separated the
+best wax, they pour the water again upon the stalks and grains, and
+boil all together till they think they have separated all the wax.
+Both kinds are exported to our sugar islands, where the first is sold
+for a hundred sols the pound, and the second for forty.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Myrtle Wax Tree_--BOTTOM: _Vinegar tree (Acacia or
+Locust)_ (on p. 221)]
+
+This wax is so brittle and dry that if it falls it breaks into several
+pieces; on this account however it lasts longer than that of France, and
+is preferred to it in our sugar islands, where the latter is softened by
+the great heats, and, consumes like tallow. I would advise those who
+prepare this wax to separate the grain from the short stalk before they
+boil it, as the stalk is greener than the grain, and seems to part easily
+with its colour. The water which serves to melt and separate the wax is
+far from being useless. The fruit communicates to it such an astringent
+virtue, as to harden the tallow that is melted in it to such a degree,
+that the candles made of that tallow are as firm as the wax candles of
+France. This astringent quality likewise renders it an admirable specific
+against a dysentery or looseness. From what I have said of the myrtle
+wax-tree, it may well be believed that the French of Louisiana cultivate
+it carefully, and make plantations of it.
+
+The cotton-tree (a poplar) is a large tree which no wise deserves the
+name it bears, unless for some beards that it throws out. Its fruit
+which contains the grain is about the size of a walnut, and of no use;
+its wood is yellow, smooth, somewhat hard, of a fine grain, and very
+proper for cabinet work. The bark of its root is a sovereign remedy
+for cuts, and so red that it may even serve to dye that colour.
+
+The acacia (locust) is the same in Louisiana as in France, much more
+common, and less streight. The natives call it by a name that
+signifies hard wood, and they make their bows of it because it is very
+stiff. They look upon it as an incorruptible wood, which induced the
+French settlers to build their houses of it. The posts fixed in the
+earth must be entirely {223} stripped of their bark, for
+notwithstanding their hardness, if the least bark be left upon them
+they will take root.
+
+[Illustration: _Poplar ("Cotton Tree")_]
+
+The holm-oak grows to a surprising bulk and height in this country; I
+have seen of them a foot and a half diameter, and about 30 feet from
+the ground to the lowest branches.
+
+The mangrove is very common all over America. it grows in Louisiana
+near the sea, even to the bounds of low water mark. It is more
+prejudicial than useful, inasmuch as {224} it occupies a great deal of
+good land, prevents sailors from landing, and affords shelter to the
+fish from the fishermen.
+
+[Illustration: _Black Oak_]
+
+Oak-trees abound in Louisiana; there are some red, some white, and
+some ever-green. A ship-builder of St. Maloes assured me that the red
+is as good as the ever-green upon which we set so high a value in
+France. The ever-green oak is most common toward the sea-coasts, and
+near the banks of rivers, consequently may be transported with great
+ease, and {225} become a great resource for the navy of France.
+[Footnote: Eleven leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi, on the
+west side, there is great plenty of ever-green oaks, the wood of which
+is very proper for the timbers of ships, as it does not rot in water.
+_Dumont_, I. & 50.
+
+Accordingly the best ships built in America are well known to be those
+that have their timbers of ever-green oak, and their plank of cedar,
+of both which there are great plenty on all the coasts of Louisiana.]
+I forgot to mention a fourth kind of oak, namely the black oak, so
+called from the colour of its bark. Its wood is very hard, and of a
+{226} deep red. It grows upon the declivities of hills and in the
+savannahs. Happening after a shower of rain to examine one of these
+which I cut down, I observed some water to come from it as red as
+blood, which made me think that it might be used for dying.
+
+[Illustration: _Linden or Bass Tree_ (on p. 225)]
+
+The ash is very common in this country; but more and better upon the
+sea-coasts than in the inland parts. As it is easy to be had, and is
+harder than the elm, the wheel-wrights make use of it for wheels,
+which it is needless to, ring with iron in a country where there are
+neither stones nor gravel.
+
+The elm, beech, lime, and hornbeam, are exactly the same in Louisiana
+as in France; the last of these trees is very common here. The bark of
+the lime-tree of this country is equally proper for the making of
+ropes, as the bark of the common lime; but its leaf is twice as large,
+and shaped like an oblong trefoil leaf with the point cut off.
+
+The white woods are the aspen, willow, alder and liart. This last
+grows very large, its wood is white and light, and its fibres are
+interwoven; it is very flexible and is easily cut, on which account
+they make their large pettyaugres of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Of Shrubs and Excrescences.
+
+
+The ayac, or stinking-wood, is usually a small tree, seldom exceeding
+the thickness of a man's leg; its leaf is of a yellowish green,
+glossy, and of an oval form, being about three inches in length. The
+wood is yellow, and yields a water of the same colour, when it is cut
+in the sap: but both the wood and the water that comes from it have a
+disagreeable, smell. The natives use the wood for dying; they cut it
+into small bits, pound them, and then boil them in water. Having
+strained this water, they dip the feathers and hair into it, which it
+is their custom to dye first yellow, and then red. When they intend to
+use it for the yellow dye, they take care to cut the wood in the
+winter, but if they want only a slight colour they never mind the
+season of cutting it.
+
+{227} [Illustration: _Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree_]
+
+The machonchi, or vinegar-tree, is a shrub with leaves, somewhat
+resembling those of the ash; but the foot-stalk from which the leaves
+hang is much longer. When the leaves are dry the natives mix them with
+their tobacco to weaken it a little, for they do not love strong
+tobacco for smoaking. The wood is of an astringent nature, and if put
+into vinegar makes it stronger.
+
+{228} [Illustration: TOP: _Cassine or Yapon_--BOTTOM: _Tooth-ache Tree or
+Prickly Ash_]
+
+The cassine, or yapon, is a shrub which never grows higher than 15
+feet; its bark is very smooth, and the wood flexible. Its leaf is very
+much indented, and when used as tea is reckoned good for the stomach.
+The natives make an intoxicating liquor from it, by boiling it in
+water till great part of the liquor evaporate.
+
+The tooth-ache tree does not grow higher than 10 to 12 feet. The
+trunk, which is not very large, is wholly covered over with {229}
+short thick prickles, which are easily rubbed off. The pith of this
+shrub is almost as large as that of the elder, and the form of the
+leaf is almost the same in both. It has two barks, the outer almost
+black, and the inner white, with somewhat of a pale reddish hue. This
+inner bark has the property of curing the tooth-ach. The patient rolls
+it up to the size of a bean, puts it upon the aching tooth, and chews
+it till the pain ceases. Sailors and other such people powder it, and
+use it as pepper.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Passion Thorn or Honey Locust_--BOTTOM: _Bearded
+Creeper_]
+
+{230} [Illustration: _Palmetto_]
+
+The passion-thorn does not rise above the height of a shrub; but its
+trunk is rather thick for its height. This shrub is in great esteem
+among the Natches; but I never could learn for what reason. Its leaf
+resembles that of the black thorn; and its wood while it is green is
+not very hard. Its prickles are at least two inches long, and are very
+hard and piercing; within half an inch of their root two other small
+prickles grow out from them so as to form a cross. The whole trunk is
+covered {231} with these prickles, so that you must be very wary how
+you approach it, or cut it.
+
+The elder-tree is exactly like that of France, only that its leaf is a
+little more indented. The juice of its leaves mixed with hog's lard is
+a specific against the haemorrhoids.
+
+The palmetto has its leaves in the form of an open fan, scolloped at
+the end of each of its folds. Its bark is more rough and knotty than
+that of the palm-tree. Although it is less than that of the East
+Indies, it may however serve to the same purposes. Its wood is not
+harder than that of a cabbage, and its trunk is so soft that the least
+wind overturns it, so that I never saw any but what were lying on the
+ground. It is very common in Lower Louisiana, where there are no wild
+oxen; for those animals who love it dearly, and are greatly fattened
+by it, devour it wherever they can find it. The Spanish women make
+hats of its leaves that do not weigh an ounce, riding-hoods, and other
+curious works.
+
+The birch-tree is the same with that of France. In the north they make
+canoes of its bark large enough to hold eight persons. When the sap
+rises they strip off the bark from the tree in one piece with wedges,
+after which they sew up the two ends of it to serve for stem and
+stern, and anoint the whole with gum.
+
+I make not the least doubt but that there are great numbers of other
+trees in the forests of Louisiana that deserve to be particularly
+described; but I know of none, nor have I heard of any, but what I
+have already spoken of. For our travellers, from whom alone we can get
+any intelligence of those things, are more intent upon discovering
+game which they stand in need of for their subsistence, than in
+observing the productions of nature in the vegetable kingdom. To what
+I have said of trees, I shall only add, from my own knowledge, an
+account of two singular excrescences.
+
+The first is a kind of agaric or mushroom, which grows from the root
+of the walnut-tree, especially when it is felled. The natives, who are
+very careful in the choice of their food, gather it with great
+attention, boil it in water, and eat it with {232} their gruel. I had
+the curiosity to taste of it, and found it very delicate, but rather
+insipid, which might easily be corrected with a little seasoning.
+
+The other excrescence is commonly found upon trees near the banks of
+rivers and lakes. It is called Spanish beard, which name was given it
+by the natives, who, when the Spaniards first appeared in their
+country about 240 years ago, were greatly surprised at their
+mustachios and beards. This excrescence appears like a bunch of hair
+hanging from the large branches of trees, and might at first be easily
+mistaken for an old perruque, especially when it is dancing with the
+wind. As the first settlers of Louisiana used only mud walls for their
+houses, they commonly mixed it with the mud for strengthening the
+building. When gathered it is of a grey colour, but when it is dry its
+bark falls off, and discovers black filaments as long and as strong as
+the hairs of a horse's tail. I dressed some of it for stuffing a
+mattress, by first laying it up in a heap to make it part with the
+bark, and afterwards beating it to take off some small branches that
+resemble so many little hooks. It is affirmed by some to be
+incorruptible: I myself have seen of it under old rotten trees that
+was perfectly fresh and strong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Of Creeping Plants._
+
+
+The great fertility of Louisiana renders the creeping plants extremely
+common, which, exclusive of the ivy, are all different from those
+which we have in France. I shall only mention the most remarkable.
+
+The bearded-creeper is so called from having its whole stalk covered
+with a beard about an inch long, hooked at the end, and somewhat thicker
+than a horse's hair. There is no tree which it loves to cling to so much
+as to the sweet gum; and so great is its sympathy, if I may be allowed
+the expression, for that tree, that if it grow between it and any other
+tree, it turns solely towards the sweet gum, although it should be at
+the greatest distance from it. This is likewise the tree upon which
+{233} it thrives best. It has the same virtue with its balm of being a
+febrifuge, and this I affirm after a great number of proofs. The
+physicians among the natives use this simple in the following manner.
+They take a piece of it, above the length of the finger, which they
+split into as many threads as possible; these they boil in a quart of
+water, till one third of the decoction evaporate, and the remainder is
+strained clear. They then purge the patient, and the next day, upon the
+approach of the fit, they give a third of the decoction to drink. If the
+patient be not cured with the first dose, he is again purged and drinks
+another third, which seldom fails of having the wished-for effect. This
+medicine is indeed very bitter, but it strengthens the stomach; a
+singular advantage it has over the Jesuits bark, which is accused of
+having a contrary effect.
+
+There is another creeper very like salsaparilla, only that it bears
+its leaves by threes. It bears a fruit smooth on one side like a
+filbert, and on the other as rough as the little shells which serve
+for money on the Guinea coast. I shall not speak of its properties;
+they are but too well known by the women of Louisiana, especially the
+girls, who very often have recourse to it.
+
+Another creeper is called by the native physicians the remedy against
+poisoned arrows. It is large and very beautiful; its leaves are pretty
+long, and the pods it bears are narrow, about an inch broad, and eight
+inches long.
+
+The salsaparilla grows naturally in Louisiana, and it is not inferior
+in its qualities to that of Mexico. It is so well known that it is
+needless to enlarge upon it.
+
+The esquine partly resembles a creeper and partly a bramble. It is
+furnished with hard spikes like prickles, and its oblong leaves are
+like those of the common creeper (liane;) its stalk is straight, long,
+shining, and hard, and it runs up along the reeds: its root is spungy,
+and sometimes as large as one's head, but more long than round.
+Besides the sudorific virtue which the esquine possesses in common
+with the salsaparilla, it has the property of making the hair grow,
+and the women among the natives use it successfully with this view.
+{234} They cut the root into small bits, boil them in water, and wash
+their heads with the decoction. I have seen several of them whose hair
+came down below their knees, and one particularly whose hair came
+lower than the ankle bones.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Bramble_--BOTTOM: _Sarsaparilla_]
+
+Hops grow naturally in the gullies in the high lands.
+
+Maiden-hair grows in Louisiana more beautiful, at least as good as
+that of Canada, which is in so great repute. It {235} grows in gullies
+upon the sides of hills, in places that are absolutely impenetrable to
+the most ardent rays of the sun. It seldom rises above a foot, and it
+bears a thick shaggy head. The native physicians know more of its
+virtues than we do in France.
+
+The canes or reeds which I have mentioned so often may be divided into
+two kinds. One kind grows in moist places to the height of eighteen
+feet, and the thickness of the wrist. The natives makes matts, sieves,
+small boxes, and other works of it. Those that grow in dry places are
+neither so high nor so thick, but are so hard, that before the arrival
+of the French, the natives used splits of those canes to cut their
+victuals with. After a certain number of years, the large canes bear a
+great abundance of grain, which is somewhat like oats, but about three
+times as large. The natives carefully gather these grains and make
+bread or gruel of them. This flour swells as much as that of wheat.
+When the reeds have yielded the grain they die, and none appear for a
+long time after in the same place, especially if fire has been set to
+the old ones.
+
+The flat-root receives its name from the form of its root, which is
+thin, flat, pretty often indented, and sometimes even pierced through:
+it is a line or sometimes two lines in thickness, and its breadth is
+commonly a foot and a half. From this large root hang several other
+small straight roots, which draw the nourishment from the earth. This
+plant, which grows in meadows that are not very rich, sends up from
+the same root several straight stalks about eighteen inches high,
+which are as hard as wood, and on the top of the stalks it bears small
+purplish, flowers, in their figure greatly resembling those of heath;
+its seed is contained in a deep cup closed at the head, and in a
+manner crowned. Its leaves are about an inch broad, and about two
+long, without any indenting, of a dark green, inclining to a brown. It
+is so strong a sudorific, that the natives never use any other for
+promoting sweating, although they are perfectly acquainted with
+sassafras, salsaparilla, the esquine and others.
+
+The rattle-snake-herb has a bulbous root, like that of the tuberose,
+but twice as large. The leaves of both have the same {236} shape and
+the same colour, and on the under side have some flame-coloured spots;
+but those of the rattle-snake plant are twice as large as the others,
+end in a very firm point, and are armed with very hard prickles on
+both sides. Its stalk grows to the height of about three feet, and
+from the head rise five or six sprigs in different directions, each of
+which bears a purple flower an inch broad, with five leaves in the
+form of a {237} cup. After these leaves are shed there remains a head
+about the size of a small nut, but shaped like the head of a poppy.
+This head is separated into four divisions, each of which contains
+four black seeds, equally thick throughout, and about the size of a
+large lentil. When the head is ripe, it will, when shaken, give the
+same sound as the tail of a rattle-snake, which seems to indicate the
+property of the plant; for it is the specific remedy against the bite
+of that dangerous reptile. The person who has been bit ought
+immediately to take a root, bite off part of it, chew it for some
+time, and apply it to the wound. In five or six hours it will extract
+the whole poison, and no bad consequences need be apprehended.
+
+[Illustration: _Rattlesnake herb_ (on p. 236)]
+
+Ground-ivy is said by the natives to possess many more virtues than
+are known to our botanists. It is said to ease women in labour when
+drank in a decoction; to cure ulcers, if bruised and laid upon the
+ulcered part; to be a sovereign remedy for the head-ach; a
+considerable quantity of its leaves bruised, and laid as a cataplasm.
+upon the head, quickly removes the pain. As this is an inconvenient
+application to a person that wears his hair, I thought of taking the
+salts of the plant, and I gave some of them in vulnerary water to a
+friend of mine who was often attacked with the head-ach, advising him
+likewise to draw up some drops by the nose: he seldom practised this
+but he was relieved a few moments after.
+
+The Achechy is only to be found in the shade of a wood, and never
+grows higher than six or seven inches. It has a small stalk, and its
+leaves are not above three lines long. Its root consists of a great
+many sprigs a line in diameter, full of red juice like chickens blood.
+Having transplanted this plant from an overshadowed place into my
+garden, I expected to see it greatly improved; but it was not above an
+inch taller, and its head was only a little bushier than usual. It is
+with the juice of this plant that the natives dye their red colour.
+Having first dyed their feathers or hair yellow or a beautiful citron
+colour with the ayac wood, they boil the roots of the achechy in
+water, then squeeze them with all their force, and the expressed
+liquor serves for the red dye. That which was naturally white before
+it was dyed yellow, takes a beautiful scarlet; {238} that which was
+brown, such as buffalo's hair, which is of a chesnut colour, becomes a
+reddish brown.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Red Dye Plant_--BOTTOM: _Flat Root_]
+
+I shall not enlarge upon the strawberries, which are of an excellent
+flavour, and so plentiful, that from the beginning of April the
+savannahs or meadows appear quite red with them. I shall also only
+just mention the tobacco, which I reserve for the article of
+agriculture; but I ought not to omit to take notice, that hemp grows
+naturally on the lands adjoining to the lakes {239} on the west of the
+Missisippi. The stalks are as thick as one's finger, and about six
+feet long. They are quite like ours both in the wood, the leaf, and
+the rind. The flax which was sown in this country rose three feet
+high.
+
+I cannot affirm from my own knowledge that the soil in this province
+produces either white mushrooms or truffles. But morelles in their
+season are to be found in the greatest abundance, and round mushrooms
+in the autumn.
+
+When I consider the mild temperature of this climate, I am persuaded
+that all our flowers would succeed extremely well in it. The country
+has flowers peculiar to itself, and, in such abundance, that from the
+month of May till the end of summer, you can hardly see the grass in
+the meadows; and of such various hues that one is at a loss which to
+admire most and declare to be the most beautiful. The number and
+diversity of those flowers quite enchant the sight. I will not however
+attempt to give a particular account of them, as I am not qualified on
+this head to satisfy the desires of the curious, from my having
+neglected to consider the various flowers themselves. I have seen
+single and small roses without any smell; and another kind of rose
+with four white petals, which in its smell, chives, and pointal,
+differed in nothing from our damask roses. But of all the flowers of
+this country, that which struck me most, as it is both very common and
+lasts a long time, is the flower called Lion's Mouth. The flowers
+which decorate its stalk, its shady colours, its blowing for more than
+three months, justly entitle it to the preference before all other
+flowers. It forms of itself an agreeable nosegay; and in my opinion,
+it deserves to be ranked with the finest flowers, and to be cultivated
+with attention in the gardens of our kings.
+
+As to cotton and indigo, I defer speaking of them till I come to the
+chapter of agriculture.
+
+{240}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_Of the Quadrupedes._
+
+
+Before I speak of the animals which the first settlers found in
+Louisiana, it is proper to observe, that all those which were brought
+hither from France, or from New Spain and Carolina, such as horses,
+oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, and others, have multiplied and
+thriven perfectly well. However it ought to be remarked, that in Lower
+Louisiana, where the ground is moist and much covered with wood, they
+can neither be so good nor so beautiful as in Higher Louisiana, where
+the soil is dry, where there are most extensive meadows, and where the
+sun warms the earth to a much greater degree.
+
+The buffalo is about the size of one of our largest oxen, but he
+appears rather bigger, on account of his long curled wool, which makes
+him appear to the eye much larger than he really is. This wool is very
+fine and very thick, and is of a dark chesnut colour, as are likewise
+his bristly hairs, which are also curled, and so long, that the bush
+between his horns often falls over his eyes, and hinders him from
+seeing before him; but his sense of hearing and smelling is so
+exquisite as in some measure to supply the want of the other. A pretty
+large bunch rises on his shoulders in the place where they join to the
+neck. His horns are thick, short, and black; and his hoof is also
+black. The cows of this species have small udders like those of a
+mare.
+
+This buffalo is the chief food of the natives, and of the French also
+for a long time past; the best piece is the bunch on the shoulders,
+the taste of which is extremely delicate. They hunt this animal in the
+winter; for which purpose they leave Lower Louisiana, and the river
+Missisippi, as he cannot penetrate thither on account of the thickness
+of the woods; and besides loves to feed on long grass, which is only
+to be found in the meadows of the high lands. In order to get near
+enough to fire upon him, they go against the wind, and they take aim
+at the hollow of the shoulder, that they may bring him to the ground
+at once, for if he is only slightly wounded, he runs against his
+enemy. The natives when hunting seldom {241} choose to kill any but
+the cows, having experienced that the flesh of the male smells rank;
+but this they might easily prevent, if they did but cut off the
+testicles from the beast as soon as he is dead, as they do from stags
+and wild boars. By killing the males there is less hazard of
+diminishing the species than by killing the females; and besides, the
+males have much more tallow, and their skins are the largest and best.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Panther or Catamount_--BOTTOM: _Bison or Buffalo_]
+
+{242} These skins are an object of no small consideration. The natives
+dress them with their wool on, to such great perfection, as to render
+them more pliable than our buff. They dye them different colours, and
+cloath themselves therewith. To the French they supply the place of
+the best blankets, being at the same time very warm and very light.
+
+The stag is entirely the same with that of France, only he is a little
+larger. They are only to be found in Upper Louisiana, where the woods
+are much thinner than in Lower Louisiana, and the chesnuts which the
+stag greatly loves are very common.
+
+The deer is very frequent in this province, notwithstanding the great
+numbers of them that are killed by the natives. According to the
+hunters, he partly resembles the stag, the rein-deer, and the
+roe-buck. As to myself, I can only say what I have seen; that he is
+about four feet high, has large horns bending forwards, and decorated
+with several antlers, the ends of which are formed somewhat like a
+rose; that his flesh is dry like that of ours, and when he is fat
+tastes like mutton. They feed in herds, and are not in the least of a
+fierce nature. They are excessively capricious, hardly remain a moment
+in one place, but are coming and going continually. The natives dress
+the skin extremely well, like buff, and afterwards paint it. Those
+skins that are brought to France are often called does skins.
+
+The natives hunt the deer sometimes in companies, and sometimes alone.
+The hunter who goes out alone, furnishes himself with the dried head of
+a deer, with part of the skin of the neck fastened to it, and this skin
+is stretched out with several hoops made of split cane, which are kept
+in their places by other splits placed along the inside of the skin, so
+that the hands and arms may be easily put within the neck. Being thus
+provided, he goes in quest of the deer, and takes all necessary
+precautions not to be discovered by that animal: when he sees one, he
+approaches it as gently as possible, hiding himself behind a bush which
+he carries in his hand, till he be within shot of it. But if, before he
+can come near enough, the buck shakes its head, which is a sign that he
+is going to make some {243} capers and run away, the hunter immediately
+counterfeits the cries of those animals when they call each other, in
+which case the buck frequently comes up towards him. He then shews the
+head which he holds in his hand, and by lowering and lifting his arm by
+turns, it makes the appearance of a buck feeding, and lifting his head
+from time to time to graze. The hunter still keeps himself behind the
+bush, till the buck comes near enough to him, and the moment he turns
+his side, he fires at the hollow of his shoulder, and lays him dead.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian Deer Hunt_]
+
+{244} When the natives want to make the dance of the deer; or if they
+want to exercise themselves merrily; or if it should happen that the
+Great Sun inclines to such sport, they go about an hundred of them in
+a company to the hunting of this animals, which they must bring home
+alive. As it is a diverting exercise, many young men are generally of
+the party, who disperse themselves in the meadows among the thickets
+in order to discover the deer. They no sooner perceive one than they
+advance towards him in a wide crescent, one point of which may be a
+quarter of a league from the other. Part of the crescent draws near to
+him, which frightens him away to another point; that part likewise
+advancing, he immediately flies back to the other sidee. He is kept
+thus running from one side to another a considerable time, on purpose
+to exercise the young men, and afford diversion to the Great Sun, or
+to another Little Sun, who is nominated to supply his place. The deer
+sometimes attempts to get out and escape by the openings of the
+crescent, in which case those who are at the points run forwards, and
+oblige him to go back. The crescent then gradually forms a circle; and
+when they perceive the deer beginning to be tired, part of them stoop
+almost to the ground, and remain in that posture till he approaches
+them, when they rise and shout: he instantly flies off to the other
+side, where they do the same; by which means he is at length so
+exhausted, that he is no longer able to stand on his legs, and suffers
+himself to be taken like a lamb. Sometimes, however, he defends
+himself on the ground with his antlers and forefeet; they therefore
+use the precaution to seize upon him behind, and even in that case
+they are sometimes wounded.
+
+The hunters having seized the deer present it to the Great Sun, or in
+his absence, to the person whom he sent to represent him. If he says,
+_well_, the roe-buck is immediately opened, and its four quarters
+carried to the hut of the Great Sun, who gives portions of them to the
+chief men among the hunters.
+
+The wolf is not above fifteen inches high, and of a proportionable
+length. He is not so brown as our wolves, nor so fierce and dangerous;
+he is therefore more like a dog than a wolf, especially the dog of the
+natives, who differs from him {245} in nothing, but that he barks. The
+wolf is very common in the hunting countries; and when the hunter
+makes a hut for himself in the evening upon the bank of a river, if he
+sees the wolf, he may be confident that the buffaloes are not at a
+very great distance. It is said, that this animal, not daring to
+attack the buffalo when in a herd, will come and give notice to the
+hunter that he may kill him, in hopes of coming in for the offals. The
+wolves are actually so familiar, that they come and go on all sides
+when looking for something to eat, without minding in the least
+whether they be near or at a distance from the habitations of men.
+
+In my time two very large black wolves were seen in Louisiana. The
+oldest inhabitants, and those who travel to the remotest parts of the
+colony, declared that they had never before seen any such; from whence
+it was concluded, that they were foreign wolves which had lost their
+way. Fortunately they killed them both; for one of them was a she-wolf
+big with young.
+
+The bear appears in Louisiana in winter, as the snows, which then
+cover the northern climates, hinder him from procuring a subsistence
+there, and force him southwards. If some few are seen in the summer
+time, they are only the slow young bears, that have not been strong
+enough to follow the herd northwards. The bear lives upon roots and
+fruits, particularly acorns; but this most delicate food is honey and
+milk. When he meets with either of these last, he will suffer himself
+to be killed than quit his prize. Our colonists have sometimes
+diverted themselves by burying a small pail with some milk in it
+almost up to the edge in the ground, and setting two young bears to
+it. The contest then was which of the two should hinder the other from
+tasting the milk, and both of them so tore the earth with their paws,
+and pulled at the pail, that they generally overturned the milk,
+before either of them had tasted of it.
+
+In opposition to the general opinion, which supposes the bear a
+carnivorous animal, I affirm, with all the inhabitants of this colony,
+and the neighbouring countries, that he never feeds upon flesh. It is
+indeed to be lamented that the first {246} travellers had the
+impudence to publish to the world a thousand false stories, which were
+easily believed because they were new. People, so far from wishing to
+be undeceived, have even been offended with those who attempted to
+detect the general errors; but it is my duty to speak the truth, for
+the sake of those who are willing to hear it. What I maintain here is
+not a mere conjectural supposition, but a known fact over all North
+America, which may be attested by the evidence of a great number of
+people who have lived there, and by the traders who are going and
+coming continually. There is not one instance can be given of their
+having devoured men, notwithstanding their great multitudes, and the
+extreme hunger which they must sometimes have suffered; for even in
+that case they never so much as touch the butchers meat which they
+meet with.
+
+The bears seldom quit the banks of the Missisippi, as it is there that
+they can best procure a subsistence; but when I lived at the Natchez
+there happened so severe a winter, that those animals came from the
+north in such numbers that they starved each other, and were very
+lean. Their great hunger obliged them to quit the woods which line the
+banks of the river: they were seen at night running among the
+settlements; and they sometimes even entered those court-yards that
+were not well shut; they there found butchers meat exposed to the open
+air, but they never touched it, and eat only the corn or roots they
+could meet with. Certainly on such occasion as this, and in such a
+pressing want, they would have proved carnivorous, if it had been in
+the least degree their natural disposition.
+
+But perhaps one will say, "It is true they never touch dead flesh; it
+is only living flesh that they devour." That is being very delicate
+indeed, and what I can by no means allow them: for if they were
+flesh-eaters, I greatly suspect that, in the severe famine which I
+have spoken of, they would have made a hearty meal of the butchers
+meat which they found in the court-yards; or at least would have
+devoured several persons, who fell in their way, which they never did.
+The following fact however will be a more compleat answer to this
+objection.
+
+{247} Two Canadians, who were on a journey, landed on a sand-bank,
+when they perceived a bear crossing the river. As he appeared fat, and
+consequently would yield a great deal of oil, one of the travellers
+ran forwards and fired at him. Unhappily however he only slightly
+wounded him; and as the bears in that case always turn upon their
+enemy, the hunter was immediately seized by the wounded bear, who in a
+few moments squeezed him to death, without wounding him in the least
+with his teeth, although his muzzle was against his face, and he must
+certainly have been exasperated. The other Canadian, who was not above
+three hundred paces distance, ran to save his comrade with the utmost
+speed, but he was dead before he came up to him; and the bear escaped
+into the wood. Upon examining the corpse he found the place, where the
+bear had squeezed it, pressed in two inches more than the rest of the
+breast.
+
+Some perhaps may still add, that the mildness of the climate of
+Louisiana may have an effect upon the disposition of the bears, and
+prevent them from being so voracious as those of our continent; but I
+affirm that carnivorous animals retain the same disposition in all
+countries. The wolves of Louisiana are carnivorous as well as those of
+Europe, although they differ in other particulars. The tigers of
+Africa, and those of America, are equally mischievous animals. The
+wild-cats of America, though very different from those of Europe,
+have however the same appetite for mice when they are tamed. It is the
+same with other species, naturally inclined to live upon other
+animals; and the bears of America, if flesh-eaters, would not quit the
+countries covered with snow, where they would find men and other
+animals in abundance, to come so far in search of fruits and roots;
+which kind of nourishment carnivorous animals refuse to taste.
+[Footnote: Since I wrote the above account of the bears, I have been
+certainly informed, that in the mountains of Savoy there are two sorts
+of bears. The one black, like that of Louisiana, and not carnivorous;
+the other red, and no less carnivorous than the wolves. Both turn upon
+their enemy when wounded.]
+
+
+Bears are seen very frequently in Louisiana in the winter time, and
+they are so little dreaded, that the people sometimes {248} make it a
+diversion to hunt them. When they are fat, that is about the end of
+December, they cannot run so fast as a man; therefore the hunters are
+in no danger if they should turn upon them. The she-bears are
+tolerably fat when they are big with young; but after they have
+littered they quickly become lean.
+
+The bears usually arrive in Louisiana towards the end of autumn; and
+then they are very lean, as they do not leave the north till the earth
+be wholly covered with snow, and find often but a very scanty
+subsistence in their way southwards. I said above, that those animals
+seldom go to any great distance from the river; and on both banks
+travellers meet with such a beaten path in winter, that to those who
+are not acquainted with it, it appears like the track of men. I
+myself, the first time I observed it, was deceived by it. I was then
+near two hundred miles from any human dwelling, yet the path at first
+appeared to me as if it had been made by thousands of men, who had
+walked that way bare-footed. Upon a narrower inspection however, I
+observed, that the prints of the feet were shorter than that of a man,
+and that there was the impression of a claw at the end of each toe. It
+is proper to observe that in those paths the bear does not pique
+himself upon politeness, and will yield the way to nobody; therefore
+it is prudent in a traveller not to fall out with him for such a
+trifling affair.
+
+The bears, after they have been a short time in the country, and found
+abundance of fruits, turn fat and lazy, and it is then the natives go
+out to hunt them. The bear, when he is fat, huts himself, that is,
+retires into the hollow trunk of some rotten tree that has died on
+end. The natives, when they meet with any of those trees, which they
+suspect contains a bear in it, give two or three strong blows against
+the trunk, and immediately run behind the next tree opposite to the
+lowest breach. If there be a bear within, he appears in a few minutes
+at the breach, to look out and spy the occasion of the disturbance;
+but upon observing nothing likely to annoy him, he goes down again to
+the bottom of his castle.
+
+The natives having once seen their prey, gather a heap of dried canes,
+which they bruise with their feet, that they may {249} burn the
+easier, and one of them mounting upon a tree adjoining to that in
+which the bear is, sets fire to the reeds, and darts them one after
+another into the breach; the other hunters having planted themselves
+in ambuscade upon other trees. The bear is quickly burned out of his
+habitation, and he no sooner appears on the outside, than they let fly
+their arrows at him, and often kill him before he gets to the bottom
+of the tree.
+
+He is no sooner dead than some of the hunters are dispatched to look
+for a deer, and they seldom fail of bringing in one or two. When a
+deer is brought, they cut off the head, and then take off the skin
+whole, beginning at the neck, and rolling it down, as they cut it,
+like a stocking. The legs they cut off at the knee-joints, and having
+cleaned and washed the skin, they stop all the holes except the neck,
+with a kind of paste made of the fat of the deer mixed with ashes,
+over which they tie several bindings with the bark of the lime-tree.
+Having thus provided a kind of cask, they fill it with the oil of the
+bear, which they prepare by boiling the flesh and fat together. This
+Deer of Oil, as it is called, they sell to the French for a gun, a
+yard of cloth, or any other thing of that value. The French, before
+they use it, purify it, by putting it into a large kettle, with a
+handful of laurel leaves; and sprinkling it when it begins to be hot
+with some water, in which they have dissolved a large quantity of
+salt. The smoke that rises upon this sprinkling carries off with it
+any bad smell the fat may have; they next pour it off into a vessel,
+and eight days after there is found on the top of it a clear oil which
+serves all the purposes of olive oil; what remains below is a fine
+kind of lard, proper for the kitchen, and a sovereign remedy for all
+kinds of pains. I myself was cured of the rheumatism in my shoulder by
+it.
+
+The Tiger is not above a foot and a half high, and long in proportion:
+his hair is somewhat of a bright bay colour, and he is brisk as all
+tigers naturally are. His flesh when boiled tastes like veal, only it
+is not so insipid. There are very few of them to be seen; I never saw
+but two near my settlement; and I have great reason to think that it
+was the same beast I saw both times. The first time he laid hold of my
+dog, who barked and howled; but upon my running towards him the {250}
+tiger left him. The next time he seized a pig; but this I likewise
+rescued, and his claws had gone no deeper than the fat. This animal is
+not more carnivorous than fearful; he flies at the sight of a man, and
+makes off with greater speed, if you shout and halloo as he runs.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Wild Cat_--MIDDLE: _Opossum_--BOTTOM: _Skunk_]
+
+The Cat-a-mount is a kind of wild cat, as high as the tiger, but not
+so thick, and his skin is extremely beautiful. He is a great destroyer
+of poultry, but fortunately his species is rare.
+
+{251} Foxes are so numerous, that upon the woody heights you
+frequently see nothing but their holes. As the woods afford them
+plenty of game, they do not molest the poultry, which are always
+allowed to run at large. The foxes are exactly shaped like ours, but
+their skin is much more beautiful. Their hair is fine and thick, of a
+deep brown colour, and over this rise several long silver-coloured
+hairs, which have a fine effect.
+
+The Wild Cat has been improperly so called by the first French
+settlers in Louisiana; for it has nothing of the cat but its nimble
+activity, and rather resembles a monkey. It is not above eight or ten
+inches high, and about fifteen long. Its head is like that of a fox;
+it has long toes, but very short claws, not made for seizing game;
+accordingly it lives upon fruit, bread, and other such things. This
+animal may be tamed, and then becomes very frolicksome and full of
+tricks. The hair of those that are tame is grey; but of the wild is
+reddish; neither of them is so beautiful as that of the fox; it grows
+very fat, and its flesh is good to eat. I shall not describe the real
+wild cat, as it is entirely like ours.
+
+The Rabbit is extremely common over all Louisiana; it is particular in
+this, that its pile is like that of the hare, and it never burrows.
+Its flesh is white and delicate, and has the usual taste, without any
+rankness. There is no other kind of rabbit or hare, if you please to
+call it, in all the colony, than that above described.
+
+The Wood-Rat has the head and tail of a common rat, but has the bulk
+and length of a cat. Its legs are short, its paws long, and its toes
+are armed with claws: its tail is almost without hair, which serves
+for hooking itself to any thing; for when you take hold of it by that
+part, it immediately twists itself round your finger. Its pile is
+grey, and though very fine, yet is never smooth. The women among the
+natives spin it and dye it red. It hunts by night, and makes war upon
+the poultry, only sucking their blood and leaving their flesh. It is
+very rare to see any creature walk so slow; and I have often catched
+them when walking my ordinary pace. When he sees himself upon the
+point of being caught, instinct prompts him to counterfeit being dead;
+and in this he perseveres with such {252} constancy, that though laid
+on a hot gridiron, he will not make the least sign of life. He never
+moves, unless the person go to a distance or hide himself, in which
+case he endeavors as fast as possible to escape into some hole or
+bush.
+
+When the she-one is about to litter, she chooses a place in the thick
+bushes at the foot of a tree, after which she and the male crop a
+great deal of fine dry grass, which is loaded upon her belly, and then
+the male drags her and her burden by the tail to the littering-place.
+She never quits her young a moment; but when she is obliged to change
+her lodging, carries them with her in a pouch or double skin that
+wraps round her belly, and there they may sleep or suck at their ease.
+The two sides of this pouch lap so close that the joining can hardly
+be observed; nor can they be separated without tearing the skin. If
+the she-one be caught carrying her young thus with her, she will
+suffer herself to be roasted alive, without the least sign of life,
+rather than open the pouch and expose her young ones. The flesh of
+this animal is very good, and tastes somewhat like that of a sucking
+pig, when it is first broiled, and afterwards roasted on the spit.
+
+The Pole-cat or Skunk is about the size of a kitten eight months old.
+The male is of a beautiful black, but the female has rings of white
+intermixed with the black. Its ear and its paw are like that of a
+mouse, and it has a very lively eye. I suppose it lives upon fruits
+and seeds. It is most justly called the Stinking Beast, for its odour
+is so strong, that it may be pursued upon the track twenty-four hours
+after it has passed. It goes very slow, and when the hunter approaches
+it, it squirts out, far and wide such a stinking urine, that neither
+man nor beast can hardly approach it. A drop of this creature's blood,
+and probably some of its urine, having one day fallen upon my coat
+when I was hunting, I was obliged as fast as possible to go home and
+change my cloaths; and before I, could use my coat, it was scoured and
+exposed for several days to the dew.
+
+The Squirrels of Louisiana are like those of France, excepting one
+kind, which are called Flying-Squirrels, because they leap from one
+tree to another, though the distance between them be twenty-five or
+thirty feet. It is about the size of a {253} rat, and of a deep
+ash-colour. Its two fore-legs are joined to its two hind-legs by two
+membranes, so that when it leaps it seems to fly, though it always
+leaps somewhat downwards. This animal may be very easily tamed; but
+even then it is best to chain it. There is another sort, not much
+bigger than a mouse, and of a bright bay-colour. These are so familiar
+that they will come out of the woods, will enter the houses, and sit
+within two yards of the people of the house, if they do not make any
+motion; and there they will feed on any maiz within their reach. I
+never was so well diverted in my life with the frolics of any animal,
+as I have been with the vivacity and attitudes of this little
+squirrel.
+
+The Porcupine is large and fine of this kind; but as he lives only
+upon fruit, and loves cold, is most common about the river Illinois,
+where the climate is somewhat cold, and there is plenty of wild
+fruits. The skin, when stripped of the quills, is white and brown. The
+natives dye part of the white, yellow and red, and the brown they dye
+black. They have likewise the art of splitting the skin, and applying
+it to many curious works, particularly to trim the edges of their
+deer-skin, and to line small bark-boxes, which are very neat.
+
+The Hedge-hog of Louisiana is in every respect the same with that of
+Europe.
+
+I shall not enlarge upon the Beavers, which are universally known,
+from the many descriptions we have of them.
+
+The Otters are the same with those of France, and there are but few of
+them to be seen.
+
+Some Turtle are seen in this country; but very rarely. In the many
+hundred leagues of country that I have passed over, I have hardly seen
+above a hundred.
+
+Frogs are very common, especially in Lower Louisiana, notwithstanding
+the great number of snakes that destroy them. There are some that grow
+very large, sometimes above a foot and a half long, and astonish
+strangers at first by their croaking especially if they are in a
+hollow tree.
+
+The Crocodile is very common in the river Missisippi. Although this
+amphibious animal be almost as well known as {254} those I have just
+mentioned, I cannot however omit taking some notice of it. Without
+troubling the reader with a description of it, which he will meet with
+every where, I shall observe that it shuns the banks of the river
+frequented by men. It lays its eggs in the months of May, when the sun
+is already hot in that country, and it deposits them in the most
+concealed place it can find among grass exposed to the heats of the
+south. The eggs are about the size of those of a goose, but longer in
+proportion. Upon breaking them you will find hardly any thing but
+white, the yolk being about the size of that of a young hen. I never
+saw any that were new hatched. The smallest I ever met with, which I
+concluded to be about three months old, was as long as a middle-sized
+eel, and an inch and a half thick. I have killed one nineteen feet
+long, and three feet and a half in its greatest breadth. A friend of
+mine killed one twenty-two feet long, and the legs of both these,
+which on land seemed to move with great difficulty, were not above a
+foot in length. But however sluggish they be on land, in the water
+they move with great agility.
+
+This animal has his body always covered with slime, which is the case
+with all fishes that live in muddy waters. When he comes on shore his
+track is covered with that slime, as his belly trails on the ground,
+and this renders the earth very slippery in that part, especially as
+he returns by the same path to the water. He never hunts the fish upon
+which he subsists; but places himself in ambuscade, and catches them
+as they pass. For that purpose he digs a hole in the bank of the
+river, below the surface of the water, where the current is strong,
+having a small entrance, but large enough within to turn himself round
+in. The fish, which are fatigued with the strong current, are glad to
+get into the smooth water in that corner, and there they are
+immediately seized by the crocodile.
+
+I shall not contradict the accounts of venerable antiquity about the
+crocodiles of the Nile, who fall upon men and devour them; who cross
+the roads, and make a slippery path upon them to trip passengers, and
+make them slide into the river; who counterfeit the voice of an
+infant, to draw children into their snares; neither shall I contradict
+the travellers who have {255} confirmed those stories from mere
+hearsays. But as I profess to speak the truth, and to advance nothing
+but what I am certain of from my own knowledge, I may safely affirm
+that the crocodiles of Louisiana are doubtless of another species than
+those of other countries. In fact, I never heard them imitate the
+cries of an infant, nor is it at all probable that they can
+counterfeit them. Their voice is as strong as that of a bull. It is
+true they attack men in the water, but never on land, where they are
+not at all formidable. Besides, there are nations that in great part
+subsist upon this animal, which is hunted out by the fathers and
+mothers, and killed by the children. What can we then believe of those
+stories that have been told us of the crocodile? I myself killed all
+that ever I met of them; and they are so much the less to be dreaded,
+in that they can neither run nor rise up against a man. In the water
+indeed, which is their favourite element, they are dangerous; but in
+that case it is easy to guard against them.
+
+The largest of all the reptiles of Louisiana, is the Rattle-Snake:
+some of them have been seen fifteen inches thick, and long in
+proportion; but this species is naturally shorter in proportion to
+their thickness than the other kinds of serpents. This serpent gets
+its name from several hollow knots at its tail, very thin and dry,
+which make a rattling noise. These knots, though inserted into each
+other, are yet quite detached, and only the first of them is fastened
+to the skin. The number of the knots, it is said, marks the age of the
+serpent, and I am much inclined to believe it; for as I have killed a
+great number of them, I always observed, that the longer and thicker
+the serpent was, it had the more knots. Its skin is almost black; but
+the lower part of its belly is striped black and white.
+
+As soon as it hears or sees a man, it rouses itself by shaking its
+tail, which makes a rattling noise that may be heard at several paces
+distance, and gives warning to the traveller to be upon his guard. It
+is much to be dreaded when it coils itself up in a spiral line, for
+then it may easily dart upon a man. It shuns the habitations of men,
+and by a singular providence, wherever it retires to, there the herb
+which cures its bite, is likewise to be found.
+
+{256} [Illustration: TOP: _Alligator_--MIDDLE: _Rattle Snake_--BOTTOM:
+_Green Snake_]
+
+There are several other kinds of serpents to be seen here, some of
+which resemble those of France, and attempt to slip into the
+hen-houses to devour the eggs and new-hatched chickens. Others are
+green, about two feet long, and not thicker than a goose-quill; they
+frequent the meadows, and may be seen running over the spires of
+grass, such is their lightness and nimbleness.
+
+{257} Vipers are very rare in Lower Louisiana, as that reptile loves
+stoney grounds. In the highlands they are now-and-then to met with,
+and there they quite resemble ours.
+
+Lizards are very common: there is a small kind of these that are
+called Cameleons, because they change their colour according to that
+of the place they pass over. [Footnote: When the Cameleon is angry, a
+nerve rises arch-wise from his mouth to the middle of his throat; and
+the skin which covers it is so stretched as to remain red, whatever
+colour the rest of the body be. He never does any hurt, and always
+runs away when observed.]
+
+Among the spiders of Louisiana there is one kind that will appear very
+extraordinary. It is as large, but rather longer than a pigeon's egg,
+black with gold-coloured specks. Its claws are pierced through above
+the joints. It does not carry its eggs like the rest, but encloses
+them in a kind of cup covered with its silk. It lodges itself in a
+kind of nut made of the same silk, and hung to the branches of the
+trees. The web which this insect weaves is so strong, that it not only
+stops birds, but cannot even be broken by men without a considerable
+effort.
+
+I never saw any Moles in Louisiana, nor heard of any being seen by
+others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_Of Birds, and Flying Insects_.
+
+
+Birds are so very numerous in Louisiana, that if all the different
+kinds of them were known, which is far from being the case at present,
+the description of them alone would require an entire volume. I only
+undertake the description of all those which have come within my
+knowledge, the number of which, I am persuaded, will be sufficient to
+satisfy the curious reader.
+
+The Eagle, the king of the birds, is smaller than the eagle of the
+Alps; but he is much more beautiful, being entirely white, excepting
+only the tips of his wings, which are black. As he is also very rare,
+this is another reason for heightening his value to the native, who
+purchase at a great price the large {258} feathers of his wings, with
+which they ornament the Calumet, or Symbol of Peace, as I have
+elsewhere described.
+
+When speaking of the king of birds, I shall take notice of the Wren,
+called by the French Roitelet (Petty King) which is the same in
+Louisiana as in France. The reason of its name in French will plainly
+enough appear from the following history. A magistrate, no less
+remarkable for his probity than for the rank he holds in the law,
+assured me that, when he was at Sables d'Olonne in Poitou, on account
+of an estate which he had in the neighbourhood of that city, he had
+the curiosity to go and see a white eagle which was then brought from
+America. After he had entered the house a wren was brought, and let
+fly in the hall where the eagle was feeding. The wren perched upon a
+beam, and was no sooner perceived by the eagle, than he left off
+feeding, flew into a corner, and hung down his head. The little bird,
+on the other hand, began to chirp and appear angry, and a moment after
+flew upon the neck of the eagle, and pecked him with the greatest
+fury, the eagle all the while hanging his head in a cowardly manner,
+between his feet. The wren, after satisfying its animosity, returned
+to the beam.
+
+The Falcon, the Hawk, and the Tassel are the same as in France; but
+the falcons are much more beautiful than ours.
+
+The Carrion-Crow, or Turky Bustard, is of the size and shape of a
+Turky-cock; his head is covered with red flesh, and his plumage is
+black: he has a hooked beak, but his toes are armed with very small
+talons, and are therefore very improper for seizing live game, which
+indeed he does not chuse to attack, as his want of agility prevents
+him from darting upon it with the rapidity of a bird of prey.
+Accordingly he lives only upon the dead beasts that he happens to meet
+with, and yet notwithstanding this kind of food he smells of musk.
+Several people maintain, that the Carrion-Crow, or Carancro, is the
+same with our Vulture. The Spaniards forbid the killing of it under
+pain of corporal punishment; for as they do not use the whole carcase
+of the buffaloes which they kill, those birds eat what they leave,
+which otherwise, by rotting on the ground, would, according to them,
+infect the air.
+
+{259}
+
+The Cormorant is shaped very much like a duck, but its plumage is
+different and much more beautiful. This bird frequents the shores of
+the sea and of lakes, but rarely appears in rivers. Its usual food is
+fish; but as it is very voracious, it likewise eats dead flesh; and
+this it can tear to pieces by means of a notch in its bill, which is
+about the size of that of a duck.
+
+The Swan of Louisiana are like those of France, only they are larger.
+However, notwithstanding their bulk and their weight, they often rise
+so high in the air, that they cannot be distinguished but by their
+shrill cry. Their flesh is very good to eat, and their fat is a
+specific against cold humours. The natives set a great value upon the
+feathers of the Swan. Of the large ones they make the diadems of their
+sovereigns, hats, and other ornaments; and they weave the small ones
+as the peruke-makers weave hair, and make coverings of them for their
+noble women. The young people of both sexes make tippets of the skin,
+without stripping it of its down.
+
+The Canada-Goose is a water-fowl, of the shape of a goose; but twice
+as large and heavy. Its plumage is ash-coloured; its eyes are covered
+with a black spot; its cries are different from those of a goose, and
+shriller; its flesh is excellent.
+
+The Pelican is so called from its large head, its large bill, and
+above all for its large pouch, which hangs from its neck, and has
+neither feather nor down. It fills this pouch with fish, which it
+afterwards disgorges for the nourishment of its young. It never
+removes from the shores of the sea, and is often killed by sailors for
+the sake of the pouch, which when dried serves them as a purse for
+their tobacco.
+
+The Geese are the same with the wild geese of France. They abound upon
+the shores of the sea and of lakes, but are rarely seen in rivers.
+
+In this country there are three kinds of Ducks; first, the Indian
+Ducks, so called because they came originally from that country. These
+are almost entirely white, having but a very few grey feathers. On
+each side of their head they have flesh of a more lively red than that
+of the Turky-cock, and they are larger than our tame ducks. They are
+as tame as those of {260} Europe, and their flesh when young is
+delicate, and of a fine flavour. The Wild Ducks are fatter, more
+delicate, and of better taste than those of France; but in other
+respects they are entirely the same. For one you see in France you may
+here count a thousand. The Perching-Ducks, or Carolina Summer-Ducks,
+are somewhat larger than our teals. Their plumage is quite beautiful,
+and so changeable that no painting can imitate it. Upon their head
+they have a beautiful tuft of the most {261} lively colours, and their
+red eyes appear like flames. The natives ornament their calumets or
+pipes with the skin of their neck. Their flesh is very good, but when
+it is too fat it tastes oily. These ducks are to be met with the whole
+year round; they perch upon the branches of trees, which the others do
+not, and it is from this they have their name.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Pelican_--BOTTOM: _Wood Stock_ (on p. 260)]
+
+The Teal are found in every season; and they differ nothing from those
+of France but in having a finer relish.
+
+The Divers of Louisiana are the same with those of France: they no
+sooner see the fire in the pan, than they dive so suddenly that the
+shot cannot touch them, and they are therefore called Lead-Eaters.
+
+The Saw-bill has the inside of its beak indented like the edge of a
+saw: it is said to live wholly upon shrimps, the shells of which it
+can easily break.
+
+The Crane is a very common water-fowl; it is larger than a turkey,
+very lean, and of an excellent taste. It eats somewhat like beef, and
+makes very good soup.
+
+The Flamingo has only a little down upon its head; its plumage is
+grey, and its flesh good.
+
+The Spatula has its name from the form of its bill, which is about
+seven or eight inches long, an inch broad towards the head, and two
+inches and a half towards the extremity; it is not quite so large as a
+wild goose; its thighs and legs are about the height of those of a
+turkey. Its plumage is rose-coloured, the wings being brighter than
+any other part. This is a water-fowl, and its flesh is very good.
+
+The Heron of Louisiana is not in the least different from that of
+Europe.
+
+The Egret, or White Heron, is so called from tufts of feathers upon
+the wings near the body, which hinder it from flying high; it is a
+water-fowl with white plumage; but its flesh tastes very oily.
+
+The Bec-croche, or Crook-bill, has indeed a crooked bill, with which
+it seizes the cray-fish upon which it subsists. Its {262} flesh has
+that taste, and is red. Its plumage is a whitish grey; and it is about
+the size of a capon.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _Flying Squirrel_--MIDDLE: _Roseate
+Spoon-bill_--BOTTOM: _Snowy Heron_]
+
+The Indian Water-Hen, and the Green-Foot, are the same as in France.
+
+The Hatchet-Bill is so called on account of its bill, which is red,
+and formed like the edge of an ax. Its feet are also Of a beautiful
+red, and it is therefore often called Red-Foot. As {263} it lives upon
+shell-fish, it never removes from the sea-coast, but upon the approach
+of a storm, which is always sure to follow its retiring into the
+inland parts.
+
+The King-Fisher excels ours in nothing but in the beauty of its
+plumage, which is as various as the rainbow. This bird, it is well
+known, goes always against the wind; but perhaps few people know that
+it preserves the same property when it is dead. I myself hung a dead
+one by a silk thread directly over a sea-compass, and I can declare it
+as a fact, that the bill was always turned towards the wind.
+
+The Sea-Lark and Sea-Snipe never quit the sea; their flesh may be eat,
+as it has very little of the oily taste.
+
+The Frigate-Bird is a large bird, which in the day-time keeps itself
+in the air above the shore of the sea. It often rises very high,
+probably for exercise; for it feeds upon fish, and every night retires
+to the coast. It appears larger than it really is, as it is covered
+with a great many feathers of a grey colour. Its wings are very long,
+its tail forked, and it cuts the air with great swiftness.
+
+The Draught-Bird is a large bird, not much unlike the Frigate-Bird, as
+light, but not so swift. The under-part of its plumage is chequered
+brown and white, but the upper-part is of greyish brown.
+
+The Fool is of a yellowish colour, and about the size of a hen; it is
+so called, because it will suffer a man to approach it so near as to
+seize it with his hand: but even then it is too soon to cry victory;
+for if the person who seizes it does not take the greatest precaution,
+it will snap off his finger at one bite.
+
+When those three last birds are observed to hover very low over the
+shore, we may most certainly expect an approaching storm. On the other
+hand, when the sailors see the Halcyons behind their vessel, they
+expect and generally meet with fine weather for some days.
+
+Since I have mentioned the Halcyon, I shall here describe it. It is a
+small bird, about the size of a swallow, but its beak {264} is longer,
+and its plumage is violet-coloured. It has two streaks of a yellowish
+brown at the end of the feathers of its wings, which when it sits
+appear upon its back. When we left Louisiana, near an hundred halcyons
+followed our vessel for near three days: they kept at the distance of
+about a stone-cast, and seemed to swim, yet I could never discover
+that their feet were webbed, and was therefore greatly surprised. They
+probably live upon the small insects that drop from the outside of the
+vessel when sailing; for they now-and-then dived, and came up in the
+same place. I have some suspicion that, by keeping in the wake of the
+ship, they float after it without swimming; for when they happened to
+be out of the wake of the ship, they were obliged to fly, in order to
+come up with the ship again. This bird is said to build its nest of
+the glutinous froth of the sea close upon the shore, and to launch it
+when a land breeze arises, raising one of its wings in the form of a
+sail, which receiving the wind, helps to carry it out to sea.
+
+I shall now proceed to speak of the fowls which frequent the woods,
+and shall begin with the Wild-Turky, which is very common all over the
+colony. It is finer, larger, and better than that in France. The
+feathers of the turky are of a duskish grey, edged with a streak of
+gold colour, near half an inch broad. In the small feathers the
+gold-coloured streak is not above one tenth of an inch broad. The
+natives make fans of the tail, and of four tails joined together, the
+French make an umbrella. The women among the natives weave the
+feathers as our peruke-makers weave their hair, and fasten them to an
+old covering of bark, which they likewise line with them, so that it
+has down on both sides. Its flesh is more delicate, fatter, and more
+juicy than that of ours. They go in flocks, and with a dog one may
+kill a great many of them. I never could procure any of the turky's
+eggs, to try to hatch them, and discover whether they were as
+difficult to bring up in this country as in France, since the climate
+of both countries is almost the same. My slave told me, that in his
+nation they brought up the young turkies as easily as we do chickens.
+
+The Pheasant is the most beautiful bird that can be painted, and in
+every respect entirely like that of Europe. {265} Their rarity, in my
+opinion, makes them more esteemed than they deserve. I would at any
+time prefer a slice off the fillet of a buffalo to any pheasant.
+
+[Illustration: TOP: _White Ibis_--MIDDLE: _Tobacco Worm_--BOTTOM: _Cock
+Roach_]
+
+The Partridges of Louisiana are not larger than a wood-pigeon. Their
+plumage is exactly the same with that of our grey partridges; they
+have also the horse-shoe upon the breast; they perch upon trees, and
+are seldom seen in flocks. Their {266} cry consists only of two strong
+notes, somewhat resembling the name given them by the natives, who
+call them Ho-ouy. Their flesh is white and delicate, but, like all the
+other game in this country, it has no _fumet_, and only excels in the
+fine taste.
+
+The Woodcock is very rare, because it is only to be met with in
+inhabited countries. It is like that of France; its flesh is white,
+but rather plumper and more delicate than that of ours, which is owing
+to the plenty and goodness of its fruit.
+
+The Snipe is much more common than the woodcock, and in this country
+is far from being shy. Its flesh is white, and of a much better relish
+than that of ours.
+
+I am of opinion that the Quail is very rare in Louisiana; I have
+sometimes heard it, but never saw it, nor know any Frenchman that ever
+did.
+
+Some of our colonists have thought proper to give the name of Ortolan
+to a small bird which has the same plumage, but in every other respect
+does not in the least resemble it.
+
+The Corbijeau is as large as the woodcock, and very common. Its
+plumage is varied with several shady colours, and is different from
+that of the woodcock; its feet and beak are also longer, which last is
+crooked and of a reddish yellow colour; its flesh is likewise firmer
+and better tasted.
+
+The Parroquet of Louisiana is not quite so large as those that are
+usually brought to France. Its plumage is usually of a fine sea-green,
+with a pale rose-coloured spot upon the crown, which brightens into
+red towards the beak, and fades off into green towards the body. It is
+with difficulty that it learns to speak, and even then it rarely
+practices it, resembling in this the natives themselves, who speak
+little. As a silent parrot would never make its fortune among our
+French ladies, it is doubtless on this account that we see so few of
+these in France.
+
+The Turtle-Dove is the same with that of Europe, but few of them are
+seen here.
+
+The Wood-Pigeons are seen in such prodigious numbers, that I do not
+fear to exaggerate, when I affirm that they sometimes {267} cloud the
+sun. One day on the banks of the Missisippi I met with a flock of them
+which was so large, that before they all passed, I had leisure to fire
+with the same piece four times at them. But the rapidity of their
+flight was so great, that though I do not fire ill, with my four shots
+I brought down but two.
+
+These birds come to Louisiana only in the winter, and remain in Canada
+during the summer, where they devour the corn, as they eat the acorns
+in Louisiana. The Canadians have used every art to hinder them from
+doing so much mischief, but without success. But if the inhabitants of
+those colonies were to go a fowling for those birds in the manner that
+I have done, they would insensibly destroy them. When they walk among
+the high forest trees, they ought to remark under the trees the
+largest quantity of dung is to be seen. Those trees being once
+discovered, the hunters ought to go out when it begins to grow dark,
+and carry with them a quantity of brimstone which they must set fire
+to in so many earthen plates placed at regular distances under the
+trees. In a very short time they will hear a shower of wood-pigeons
+falling to the ground, which, by the light of some dried canes, they
+may gather into sacks, as soon as the brimstone is extinguished.
+
+I shall here give an instance that proves not only the prodigious number
+of those birds, but also their singular instinct. In one of my journeys
+at land, when I happened to be upon the bank of the river, I heard a
+confused noise which seemed to come along the river from a considerable
+distance below us. As the sound continued uniformly I embarked, as fast
+as I could, on board the pettyaugre, with four other men, and steered
+down the river, keeping in the middle, that I might go to any side that
+best suited me. But how great was my surprise when I approached the
+place from whence the noise came, and observed it to proceed from a
+thick short pillar on the bank of the river. When I drew still nearer to
+it, I perceived that it was formed by a legion of wood-pigeons, who kept
+continually flying up and down successively among the branches of an
+ever-green oak, in order to beat down the acorns with their wings. Every
+now and then some alighted to eat the {268} acorns which they themselves
+or the others had beat down; for they all acted in common, and eat in
+common; no avarice nor private interest appearing among them, but each
+labouring as much for the rest as for himself.
+
+Crows are common in Louisiana, and as they eat no carrion their flesh
+is better tasted than that of the crows of France. Whatever their
+appetite may be, they dare not for the carrion crow approach any
+carcass.
+
+I never saw any Ravens in this country, and if there be any they must
+be very rare.
+
+The Owls are larger and whiter than in France, and their cry is much
+more frightful. The Little Owl is the same with ours, but much more
+rare. These two birds are more common in Lower Louisiana than in the
+higher.
+
+The Magpye resembles those of Europe in nothing but its cry; it is
+more delicate, is quite black, has a different manner of flying, and
+chiefly frequents the coasts.
+
+The Blackbirds are black all over, not excepting their bills nor their
+feet, and are almost as large again as ours. Their notes are
+different, and their flesh is hard.
+
+There are two sorts of Starlings in this country; one grey and
+spotted, and the other black. In both the tip of the shoulder is of a
+bright red. They are only to be seen in winter; and then they are so
+numerous, that upwards of three hundred of them have been taken at
+once in a net. A beaten path is made near a wood, and after it is
+cleaned and smoothed, it is strewed with rice. On each side of this
+path is stretched a long narrow silken net, with very small meshes,
+and made to turn over at once by strings fastened to the stick that
+stretches the end of it. The starlings no sooner alight to pick up the
+grain, than the fowler, who lies concealed with the strings in his
+hand, pulls the net over them.
+
+The Wood-pecker is much the same as in France; but here there are two
+kinds of them; one has grey feathers spotted with black; the other has
+the head and the neck of a bright red, and the rest of the body as the
+former. This bird lives upon the {269} worms which it finds in rotten
+wood, and not upon ants, as a modern author would have us believe, for
+want of having considered the nature of the things which he relates.
+The bird, when looking for its food, examines the trunks of trees that
+have lost their bark; it clasps by its feet with its belly close to
+the tree, and hearkens if it can hear a worm eating the wood; in this
+manner it leaps from place to place upon the trunk till it hears a
+worm, then it pierces the wood in that part, pricks the worm with its
+hard and pointed tongue, and draws it out. The arms which nature has
+furnished it with are very proper for this kind of hunting; its claws
+are hard and very sharp; its beak is formed like a little ax, and is
+very hard; its neck is long and flexible, to give proper play to its
+beak; and its hard tongue, which it can extend three or four inches,
+has a most sharp point with several beards that help to hold the prey.
+
+The Swallows of this country have that part yellow which ours have
+white, and they, as well as the martins, live in the woods.
+
+The Nightingale differs in nothing from ours in respect to its shape
+or plumage, unless that it has the bill a little longer. But in this
+it is particular that it is not shy, and sings through the whole year,
+though rarely. It is very easy to entice them to your roof, where it
+is impossible for the cats to reach them, by laying something for them
+to eat upon a lath, with a piece of the shell of a gourd which serves
+to hold their nest. You may in that case depend upon their not
+changing their habitation.
+
+The Pope is a bird that has a red and black plumage. It has got that
+name perhaps because its colour makes it look somewhat old, and none
+but old men are promoted to that dignity; or because its notes are
+soft, feeble, and rare; or lastly, because they wanted a bird of that
+name in the colony, having two other kinds named cardinals and
+bishops.
+
+The Cardinal owes its name to the bright red of the feathers, and to a
+little cowl on the hind part of the head, which resembles that of the
+bishop's ornament, called a camail. It is as large as a black-bird,
+but not so long. Its bill and toes are {270} large, strong, and black.
+Its notes are so strong and piercing that they are only agreeable in
+the woods. It is remarkable for laying up its winter provision in the
+summer, and near a Paris bushel of maiz has been found in its retreat,
+artfully covered, first with leaves and then with small branches, with
+only a little opening for the bird itself to enter.
+
+The Bishop is a bird smaller than the linnet; its plumage is a
+violet-coloured blue, and its wings, which serve it for a cope, are
+entirely violet-colour. Its notes are so sweet, so variable, and
+tender, that those who have once heard it, are apt to abate in their
+praises of the nightingale. I had such great pleasure in hearing this
+charming bird, that I left an oak standing very near my apartment,
+upon which he used to come and perch, though I very well knew, that
+the tree, which stood single, might be overturned by a blast of wind,
+and fall upon my house to my great loss.
+
+The Humming-Bird is not larger even with its feathers than a large
+beetle. The colour of its feathers is variable, according to the light
+they are exposed in; in the sun they appear like enamel upon a gold
+ground, which delights the eyes. The longest feathers of the wings of
+this bird are not much more than half an inch long; its bill is about
+the same length, and pointed like an awl; and its tongue resembles a
+sowing-needle; its feet are like those of a large fly. Notwithstanding
+its little size, its flight is so rapid, that it is always heard
+before it be seen. Although like the bee it sucks the flowers, it
+never rests upon them, but supports itself upon its wings, and passes
+from one flower to another with the rapidity of lightening. It is a
+rare thing to catch a humming-bird alive; one of my friends however
+had the happiness to catch one. He had observed it enter the flower of
+a convolvulus, and as it had quite buried itself to get at the bottom,
+he ran forwards, shut the flower, cut it from the stalk, and carried
+off the bird a prisoner. He could not however prevail upon it to eat,
+and it died four days after.
+
+The Troniou is a small bird about the size of a sparrow; its plumage
+is likewise the same; but its beak is slenderer. Its notes seem to
+express its name.
+
+{271} The French settlers raise in this province turkies of the same
+kind with those of France, fowls, capons, &c. of an excellent taste.
+The pigeons for their fine flavour and delicacy are preferred by
+Europeans to those of any other country. The Guinea fowl is here
+delicious.
+
+In Louisiana we have two kinds of Silk-worms; one was brought from
+France, the other is natural to the country. I shall enlarge upon them
+under the article of agriculture.
+
+The Tobacco-worm is a caterpillar of the size and figure of a
+silk-worm. It is of a fine sea-green colour, with rings of a silver
+colour; on its rump it has a sting near a quarter of an inch long.
+These insects quickly do a great deal of mischief, therefore care is
+taken every day, while the tobacco is rising, to pick them off and
+kill them.
+
+In summer Caterpillars are sometimes found upon the plants, but these
+insects are very rare in the colony. Glow-worms are here the same as
+in France.
+
+Butterflies are not near so common as in France; the consequence of
+there being fewer caterpillars; but they are of incomparable beauty,
+and have the most brilliant colours. In the meadows are to be seen
+black grasshoppers, which almost always walk, rarely leap, and still
+seldomer fly. They are about the size of a finger or thum, and their
+head is shaped somewhat like that of a horse. Their four small wings
+are of a most beautiful purple. Cats are very fond of grasshoppers.
+
+The Bees of Louisiana lodge in the earth, to secure their honey from
+the ravages of the bears. Some few indeed build their combs in the
+trunks of trees, as in Europe; but by far the greatest number in the
+earth in the lofty forests, where the bears seldom go.
+
+The Flies are of two kinds, one a yellowish brown, as in France, and
+the other black.
+
+The Wasps in this country take up their abode near the houses where
+they smell victuals. Several French settlers endeavored to root them
+out of their neighbourhood; but I acted otherwise; for reflecting,
+that no flies are to be seen where the {272} wasps frequent, I invited
+them by hanging up a piece of flesh in the air.
+
+The quick-stinger is a long and yellowish fly, and it receives its
+name from its stinging the moment it lights. The common flies of
+France are very common also in Louisiana.
+
+The Cantharides, or Spanish flies, are very numerous, and larger than
+in Europe; they are of such an acid nature, that if they but slightly
+touch the skin as they pass, a pretty large blister instantly rises.
+These flies live upon the leaves of the oak.
+
+The Green-flies appear only every other year, and the natives
+superstitiously look upon their appearance as a presage of a good
+crop. It is a pity that the cattle are so greatly molested by them,
+that they cannot remain in the fields; for they are extremely
+beautiful and twice as large as bees.
+
+Fire flies are very common; when the night is serene they are so very
+numerous, that if the light they dart out were constant, one might see
+as clearly as in fine moonshine.
+
+The Fly-ants, which we see attach themselves to the flower of the
+acacia, and which disappear when that flower is gone, do not proceed
+from the common ants. The fly ants, though shaped like the other kind,
+are however longer and larger. They have a square head; their colour
+is a brownish red bordered with black; they have four red and grey
+wings, and fly like common flies, which the other ants do not even
+when they have wings.
+
+The Dragon-flies are pretty numerous; they do not want to destroy them
+because they feed upon moskitos, which is one of the most troublesome
+kind of insects.
+
+
+The Moskitos are famous all over America, for their multitude, the
+troublesomeness of their buzzing and the venom of their stings, which
+occasion an insupportable itching, and often form so many ulcers, if
+the person stung does not immediately put some spittle on the wound.
+In open places they are less tormenting; but still they are
+troublesome; and the best way of driving them out of the houses is to
+burn a little brimstone in {273} the mornings and evenings. The smoke
+of this infallibly kills them, and the smell keeps others away for
+several days. An hour after the brimstone has been burnt, the
+apartments may be safely entered into by men.
+
+By the same means we may rid ourselves of the flies and moskitos,
+whose sting is so painful and so frequent during the short time they
+fly about; for they do not rise till about sun-set, and they retire at
+night. This is not the case with the Burning-fly. These, though not
+much larger than the point of a pin, are insupportable to the people
+who labour in the fields. They fly from sun-rising to sun-setting, and
+the wounds they give burn like fire.
+
+The Lavert is an insect about an inch and a quarter long, a little
+more than a quarter broad, and a tenth part of an inch thick. It
+enters the houses by the smallest crevices and in the night-time it
+falls upon dishes that are covered even with a plate, which renders it
+very troublesome to those whose houses are only built of wood. Bue
+they are so relishing to the cats, that these last quit everything to
+fall upon them wherever they perceive them. When a new settler has
+once cleared the ground about his house, and is at some distance from
+the woods, he is quickly freed from them.
+
+In Louisiana there are white ants, which seem to love dead wood.
+Persons who have been in the East-Indies have assured me, that they
+are quite like those which in that country are called _cancarla_, and
+that they would eat through glass, which I never had the experience
+of. There are in Louisiana, as in France, red, black, and flying ants.
+
+{274}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Of Fishes and Shell-Fish_.
+
+
+Though there is an incredible quantity of fishes in this country, I
+shall however be very concise in my account of them; because during my
+abode in the country they were not sufficiently known; and the people
+were not experienced enough in the art of catching them. The most of
+the rivers being very deep, and the Missisippi, as I have mentioned,
+being between thirty-eight and forty fathoms, from its mouth to the
+fall of St. Anthony, it may be easily conceived that the instruments
+used for fishing in France, cannot be of any use in Louisiana, because
+they cannot go to the bottom of the rivers, or at least so deep as to
+prevent the fish from escaping. The line therefore can be only used
+and it is with it they catch all the fish that are eaten by the
+settlers upon the river. I proceed to an account of those fish.
+
+The Barbel is of two sorts, the large and the small. The first is
+about four feet long, and the smallest of this sort that is ever seen
+is two feet long, the young ones doubtless keeping at the bottom of
+the water. This kind has a very large head, and a round body, which
+gradually lessens toward the tail. The fish has no scales, nor any
+bones, excepting that of the middle: its flesh is very good and
+delicate, but in a small degree vary insipid, which is easily
+remedied; in other respects it eats very like the fresh cod of the
+country.
+
+The small is from a foot to two in length. Its head is shaped like
+that of the other kind; but its body is not so round, nor so pointed
+at the tail.
+
+The Carp of the river Missisippi is monstrous. None are seen under two
+feet long; and many are met with three and four feet in length. The
+carps are not so very good in the lower part of the river; but the
+higher one goes the finer they are, on account of the plenty of sand
+in those parts. A great number of carps are carried into the lakes
+that are filled by the overflowing of the river, and in those lakes
+they are found {275} of all sizes, in great abundance, and of a better
+relish than those of the river.
+
+[Illustration: Top: _Cat Fish_--Middle: _Gar Fish_--Bottom: _Spoonbill
+Catfish_]
+
+The Burgo-Breaker is an excellent fish; it is usually a foot and a
+foot and a half long: it is round, with gold-coloured scales. In its
+throat it has two bones with a surface like that of a file to break
+the shell-fish named Burgo. Though delicate, it is nevertheless very
+firm. It is best when not much boiled.
+
+{276} The Ring-Skate is found in the river up as far as New Orleans,
+but no higher. It is very good, and no way tough. In other respects it
+is exactly like that of France.
+
+The Spatula is so called, because from its snout a substance extends
+about a foot in length, in the form of an apothecary's Spatula. This
+fish, which is about two feet in length, is neither round or flat, but
+square, having at its sides and in the under part bones that forman
+angle like those of the back.
+
+No Pikes are caught above a foot and a half long. As this is a
+voracious fish, perhaps the Armed-fish pursues it, both from jealousy
+and appetite. The pike, besides being small, is very rare.
+
+The Choupic is a very beautiful fish; many people mistake it for the
+trout, as it takes a fly in the same manner. But it is very different
+from the trout, as it prefers muddy and dead water to a clear stream,
+and its flesh is so soft that it is only good when fried.
+
+The Sardine or small Pilchard of the river Missisippi, is about three
+or four fingers in breadth, and between six and seven inches long; it
+is good and delicate. One year I salted about the quantity of forty
+pints of them, and all the French who eat of them acknowledged them to
+be Sardines from their flesh, their bones, and their taste. They
+appear only for a short season, and are caught by the natives, when
+swimming against the strongest current, with nets made for that
+purpose only.
+
+The Patassa, so called by the natives for its flatness, is the roach
+or fresh-water mullet of this country.
+
+The Armed-Fish has its name from its arms, and its scaly mail. Its
+arms are its very sharp teeth, about the tenth of an inch in diameter,
+and as much distant from each other, and near half an inch long. The
+interval of the larger teeth is filled with shorter teeth. These arms
+are a proof of its voracity. Its mail is nothing but its scales, which
+are white, as hard as ivory, and about the tenth of an inch in
+thickness. They are near an inch long, about half as much in breadth,
+end in a {277} point, and have two cutting sides. There are two ranges
+of them down the back, shaped exactly like the head of a spontoon, and
+opposite to the point of the scale has a little shank, about three
+tenths of an inch long, which the natives insert into the end of their
+arrows, making the scale serve for a head. The flesh of this fish is
+hard and not relishing.
+
+There are a great number of Eels in the river Missisippi, and very
+large ones are found in all the rivers and creeks.
+
+The whole lower part of the river abounds in Crayfish. Upon my first
+arrival in the colony the ground was covered with little hillocks,
+about six or seven inches high, which the crayfish had made for taking
+the air out of the water; but since dikes have been raised for keeping
+off the river from the low grounds, they no longer shew themselves.
+Whenever they are wanted, they fish for them with the leg of a frog,
+and in a few moments they will catch a large dish of them.
+
+The Shrimps are diminutive crayfish; they are usually about three
+inches long, and of the size of the little finger. Although in other
+countries they are generally found in the sea only, yet in Louisiana
+you will meet with great numbers of them more than an hundred leagues
+up the river. In the lake St. Louis, about two leagues from New
+Orleans, the waters of which, having a communication with the sea, are
+somewhat brackish, are found several sorts both of sea fish, and fresh
+water fish. As the bottom of the lake is very level, they fish in it
+with large nets lately brought from France.
+
+Near the lake, when we pass by the outlets to the sea, and continue
+along the coasts, we meet with small oysters in great abundance, that
+are very well tasted. On the other hand, when we quit the lake by
+another lake that communicates with one of the mouths of the river, we
+meet with oysters four or five inches broad, and six or seven long.
+These large oysters eat best fried, having hardly any saltness, but in
+other respects are large and delicate.
+
+Having spoken of the oysters of Louisiana, I shall take some notice of
+the oysters that are found on the trees at St. Domingo. When I arrived
+at the harbour of Cape François in {278} my way to Louisiana, I was
+much surprised to see oysters hanging to the branches of some shrubs;
+but M. Chaineau, who was our second captain, explained the phaenomenon
+to me. According to him, the twigs of the shrubs are bent down at high
+water, to the very bottom of the shore, whenever the sea is any ways
+agitated. The oysters in that place no sooner feel the twigs than they
+lay hold of them, and when the sea retires they appear suspended upon
+them.
+
+Towards the mouths of the river we meet with mussels no salter than
+the large oysters above mentioned; and this is owing to the water
+being only brackish in those parts, as the river there empties itself
+by three large mouths, and five other small ones, besides several
+short creeks, which all together throw at once an immense quantity of
+water into the sea; the whole marshy ground occupies an extent of ten
+or twelve leagues.
+
+
+There are likewise excellent mussels upon the northern shore of the
+lake St. Louis, especially in the river of Pearls; they may be about
+six or seven inches long, and sometimes contain pretty large pearls,
+but of no great value.
+
+The largest of the shell-fish on the coast is the Burgo, well known in
+France. There is another fish much smaller and of a different shape.
+Its hollow shell is strong and beautiful, and the flat one is
+generally black; some blue ones are found, and are much esteemed.
+These shells have long been in request for tobacco-boxes.
+
+{279}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_The Origin of the Americans._
+
+
+The remarkable difference I observed between the Natchez, including in
+that name the nations whom they treat as brethren, and the other
+people of Louisiana, made me extremely desirous to know whence both of
+them might originally come. We had not then that full information
+which we have since received from the voyages and discoveries of M. De
+Lisle in the eastern parts of the Russian empire. I therefore applied
+myself one day to put the keeper of the temple in good humour, and
+having succeeded in that without much difficulty, I then told him,
+that from the little resemblance I observed between the Natchez and
+the neighbouring nations, I was inclined to believe that they were not
+originally of the country which they then inhabited; and that if the
+ancient speech taught him any thing on that subject, he would do me a
+great pleasure to inform me of it. At these words he leaned his head
+on his two hands, with which he covered his eyes, and having remained
+in that posture about a quarter of an hour, as if to recollect
+himself, he answered to the following effect:
+
+"Before we came into this land we lived yonder under the sun,
+(pointing with his finger nearly south-west, by which I understood
+that he meant Mexico;) we lived in a fine country where the earth is
+always pleasant; there our Suns had their abode, and our nation
+maintained itself for a long time against the ancients of the country,
+who conquered some of our villages {280} in the plains, but never
+could force us from the mountains. Our nation extended itself along
+the great water where this large river loses itself; but as our
+enemies were become very numerous, and very wicked, our Suns sent some
+of their subjects who lived near this river, to examine whether we
+could retire into the country through which it flowed. The country on
+the east side of the river being found extremely pleasant, the Great
+Sun, upon the return of those who had examined it, ordered all his
+subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselves
+against the antients of this country, to remove into this land, here
+to build a temple, and to preserve the eternal fire.
+
+"A great part of our nation accordingly settled here, where they lived
+in peace and abundance for several generations. The Great Sun, and
+those who had remained with him, never thought of joining us, being
+tempted to continue where they were by the pleasantness of the
+country, which was very warm, and by the weakness of their enemies,
+who had fallen into civil dissentions, in consequence of the ambition
+of one of their chiefs, who wanted to raise himself from a state of
+equality with the other chiefs of the villages, and to treat all the
+people of his nation as slaves. During those discords among our
+enemies, some of them even entered into an alliance with the Great
+Sun, who still remained in our old country, that he might conveniently
+assist our other brethren who had settled on the banks of the Great
+Water to the east of the large river, and extended themselves so far
+on the coast and among the isles, that the Great Sun did not hear of
+them sometimes for five or six years together.
+
+"It was not till after many generations that the Great Suns came and
+joined us in this country, where, from the fine climate, and the peace
+we had enjoyed, we had multiplied like the leaves of the trees.
+Warriors of fire, who made the earth to tremble, had arrived in our
+old country, and having entered into an alliance with our brethren,
+conquered our ancient enemies; but attempting afterwards to make
+slaves of our Suns, they, rather than submit to them, left our
+brethren who refused to follow them, and came hither attended only
+with their slaves."
+
+{281} Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he replied,
+that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a brownish colour, who
+carried arms that darted out fire with a great noise, and killed at a
+great distance; that they had likewise heavy arms which killed a great
+many men at once, and like thunder made the earth tremble; and that
+they came from the sun-rising in floating villages.
+
+The ancients of the country he said were very numerous, and inhabited
+from the western coast of the great water to the northern countries on
+his side the sun, and very far upon the same coast beyond the sun.
+They had a great number of large and small villages, which were all
+built of stone, and in which there were houses large enough to lodge a
+whole village. Their temples were built with great labour and art, and
+they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials.
+
+But ye yourselves, said I, whence are ye come? The ancient speech, he
+replied, does not say from what land we came; all that we know is,
+that our fathers, to come hither, followed the sun, and came with him
+from the place where he rises; that they were a long time on their
+journey, were all on the point of perishing, and were brought into
+this country without seeking it.
+
+To this account of the keeper of the temple, which was afterwards
+confirmed to me by the Great Sun, I shall add the following passage of
+Diodorus Siculus, which seems to confirm the opinion of those who
+think the eastern Americans are descended from the Europeans, who may
+have been driven by the winds upon the coasts of Guiana or Brazil.
+
+"To the west of Africa, he says, lies a very large island, distant
+many days sail from that part of our continent. Its fertile soil is
+partly plain, and partly mountainous. The plain country is most sweet
+and pleasant, being watered every where with rivulets, and navigable
+rivers; it is beautified with many gardens, which are planted with all
+kinds of trees, and the orchards particularly are watered with
+pleasant streams. The villages are adorned with houses built in a
+magnificent taste, having parterres ornamented with arbours covered
+with flowers. Hither the inhabitants retire during the summer to enjoy
+the fruits which the country furnishes them with in the greatest {282}
+abundance. The mountainous part is covered with large woods, and all
+manner of fruit trees, and in the vallies, which are watered with
+rivulets, the inhabitants meet with every thing that can render life
+agreeable. In a word, the whole island, by its fertility and the
+abundance of its springs, furnishes the inhabitants not only with
+every thing that may flatter their wishes, but with what may also
+contribute to their health and strength of body. Hunting furnishes
+them with such an infinite number of animals, that in their feasts
+they have nothing to wish for in regard either to plenty or delicacy.
+Besides, the sea, which surrounds the island, supplies them
+plentifully with all kinds of fish, and indeed the sea in general is
+very abundant. The air of this island is so temperate that the trees
+bear leaves and fruit almost the whole year round. In a word, this
+island is so delicious, that it seems rather the abode of the gods
+than of men.
+
+"Anciently, on account of its remote situation, it was altogether
+unknown; but afterwards it was discovered by accident. It is well
+known, that from the earliest ages the Phenicians undertook long
+voyages in order to extend their commerce, and in consequence of those
+voyages established several colonies in Africa and the western parts
+of Europe. Every thing succeeding to their wish, and being become very
+powerful, they attempted to pass the pillars of Hercules and enter the
+ocean. They accordingly passed those pillars, and in their
+neighbourhood built a city upon a peninsula of Spain, which they named
+Gades. There, amongst the other buildings proper for the place, they
+built a temple to Hercules, to whom they instituted splendid
+sacrifices after the manner of their country. This temple is in great
+veneration at this day, and several Romans who have rendered
+themselves illustrious by their exploits, have performed their vows to
+Hercules for the success of their enterprizes.
+
+"The Phenicians accordingly having passed the Streights of Spain,
+sailed along Africa, when by the violence of the winds they were
+driven far out to sea, and the storm continuing several days, they
+were at length thrown on this island. Being the first who were
+acquainted with its beauty and fertility, they {283} published them to
+other nations. The Tuscans, when they were masters at sea, designed to
+send a colony thither, but the Carthaginians found means to prevent
+them on the two following accounts; first, they were afraid lest their
+citizens, tempted by the charms of that island, should pass over
+hither in too great numbers, and desert their own country; next they
+looked upon it as a secure asylum for themselves, if ever any terrible
+disaster should befal their republic."
+
+This description of Diodorus is very applicable in many circumstances
+to America, particularly in the agreeable temperature of the climate
+to Africans, the prodigious fertility of the earth, the vast forests,
+the large rivers, and the multitude of rivulets and springs. The
+Natchez may then justly be supposed to be descended from some
+Phenicians or Carthaginians, who had been wrecked on the shores of
+South America, in which case they might well be imagined to have but
+little acquaintance with the arts, as those who first landed would be
+obliged to apply all their thoughts to their immediate subsistence,
+and consequently would soon become rude and barbarous. Their worship
+of the eternal fire likewise implies their descent from the
+Phenicians; for every body knows that this superstition, which first
+took its rise in Egypt, was introduced by the Phenicians into all the
+countries that they visited. The figurative stile, and the bold and
+Syriac expressions in the language of the Natchez, is likewise another
+proof of their being descended from the Phenicians. [Footnote: The
+author might have mentioned a singular custom, in which both nations
+agree; for it appears from _Polybius_, 1 I. c. 6. that Carthaginians
+practised scalping.]
+
+As to those whom the Natchez, long after their first establishment,
+found inhabiting the western coasts of America, and whom we name
+Mexicans, the arts which they possessed and cultivated with success,
+obliged me to give them a different origin. Their temples, their
+sacrifices, their buildings, their form of government, and their
+manner of making war, all denote a people who have transmigrated in a
+body, and brought with them the arts, the sciences, and the customs of
+their country. Those people had the art of writing, and also of {284}
+painting. Their archives consisted of cloths of cotton, whereon they
+had painted or drawn all those transactions which they thought worthy
+of being transmitted to posterity. It were greatly to be wished that
+the first conquerors of this new world had preserved to us the figures
+of those drawings; for by comparing them with the characters used by
+other nations, we might perhaps have discovered the origin of the
+inhabitants. The knowledge which we have of the Chinese characters,
+which are rather irregular drawings than characters, would probably
+have facilitated such a discovery; and perhaps those of Japan would
+have been found greatly to have resembled the Mexican; for I am
+strongly of opinion that the Mexicans are descended from one of those
+two nations.
+
+In fact, where is the impossibility, that some prince in one of those
+countries, upon failing in an attempt to raise himself to the
+sovereign power, should leave his native country with all his
+partizans, and look for some new land, where, after he had established
+himself, he might drop all foreign correspondence? The easy navigation
+of the South Sea renders the thing probable; and the new map of the
+eastern bounds of Asia, and the western of North America, lately
+published by Mr. De Lisle, makes it still more likely. This map makes
+it plainly appear, that between the islands of Japan, or northern
+coasts of China, and those of America, there are other lands, which to
+this day have remained unknown; and who will take upon him to say
+there is no land, because it has never yet been discovered? I have
+therefore good grounds to believe, that the Mexicans came originally
+from China or Japan, especially when I consider their reserved and
+uncommunicative disposition, which to this day prevails among the
+people of the eastern parts of Asia. The great antiquity of the
+Chinese nation likewise makes it possible that a colony might have
+gone from thence to America early enough to be looked upon as _the
+Ancients of the country_, by the first of the Phenicians who could be
+supposed to arrive there. As a further corroboration of my
+conjectures, I was informed by a man of learning in 1752, that in the
+king's library there is a Chinese manuscript, which positively affirms
+that America was peopled by the inhabitants of Corea.
+
+{285} When the Natchez retired to this part of America, where I saw
+them, they there found several nations, or rather the remains of
+several nations, some on the east, others on the west of the
+Missisippi. These are the people who are distinguished among the
+natives by the name of Red Men; and their origin is so much the more
+obscure, as they have not so distinct a tradition, as the Natchez, nor
+arts and sciences like the Mexicans, from whence we might draw some
+satisfactory inferences. All that I could learn from them was, that
+they came from between the north and the sun-setting; and this account
+they uniformly adhered to whenever they gave any account of their
+origin. This lame tradition no ways satisfying the desire I had to be
+informed on this point, I made great inquiries to know if there was
+any wise old man among the neighbouring nations, who could give me
+further intelligence about the origin of the natives. I was happy
+enough to discover one, named Moncacht-apé among the Yazous, a nation
+about forty leagues north from the Natchez. This man was remarkable
+for his solid understanding and elevation of sentiments; and I may
+justly compare him to those first Greeks, who travelled chiefly into
+the east to examine the manners and customs of different nations, and
+to communicate to their fellow-citizens, upon their return, the
+knowledge which they had acquired. Moncacht-apé, indeed, never
+executed so noble a plan; but he had however conceived it, and had
+spared no labour and pains to effectuate it. He was by the French
+called the Interpreter, because he understood several of the North
+American languages; but the other name which I have mentioned was
+given him by his own nation, and signifies _the killer of pain and
+fatigue_. This name was indeed most justly applicable to him; for, to
+satisfy his curiosity, he had made light of the most dangerous and
+painful journeys, in which he had spent several years of his life. He
+stayed two or three days with me; and upon my desiring him to give me
+an account of his travels, he very readily complied with my request,
+and spoke to the following effect:
+
+"I had lost my wife, and all the children whom I had by her, when I
+undertook my journey towards the sun-rising. I set out from my village
+contrary to the inclinations of all my {286} relations, and went first
+to the Chicasaws, our friends and neighbours. I continued among them
+several days to inform myself whether they knew whence we all came, or
+at least whence they themselves came; they, who were our elders; since
+from them came the language of the country. As they could not inform
+me, I proceeded on my journey. I reached the country of the
+Chaouanous, and afterwards went up the Wabash or Ohio, almost to its
+source, which is in the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. I
+left them however towards the north; and during the winter, which in
+that country is very severe and very long, I lived in a village of the
+Abenaquis, where I contracted an acquaintance with a man somewhat
+older than myself, who promised to conduct me the following spring to
+the Great Water. Accordingly when the snows were melted, and the
+weather was settled, we proceeded eastward, and, after several days
+journey, I at length saw the Great Water, which filled me with such
+joy and admiration that I could not speak. Night drawing on, we took
+up our lodging on a high bank above the water, which was sorely vexed
+by the wind, and made so great a noise that I could not sleep. Next
+day the ebbing and flowing of the water filled me with great
+apprehension; but my companion quieted my fears, by assuring me that
+the water observed certain bounds both in advancing and retiring.
+Having satisfied our curiosity in viewing the Great Water, we returned
+to the village of the Abenaquis, where I continued the following
+winter; and after the snows were melted, my companion and I went and
+viewed the great fall of the river St. Laurence at Niagara, which was
+distant from the village several days journey. The view of this great
+fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out
+of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, I had the courage to
+walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio, and my
+companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we
+formed it into a pettiaugre, which served to conduct me down the Ohio
+and the Missisippi, after which, with much difficulty I went up our
+small river; and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were
+rejoiced to see me in good health.
+
+{287} "This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my
+curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the
+antient speech informed them that the Red Men of the north came
+originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river
+Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from
+whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey
+westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up
+along the eastern bank of the river Missisippi, till I came to the
+Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river about the fourth
+part of a day's journey, that I might be able to cross it without
+being carried into the Missisippi. There I formed a Cajeux or raft of
+canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next
+day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat
+one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon
+after I arrived among the Tamaroas, a village of the nation of the
+Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards
+to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river,
+runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with
+the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Missisippi, I went
+up the Missouri along its northern bank, and after several days
+journey I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long
+time to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along
+the Missouri I passed through meadows a whole day's journey in length,
+which were quite covered with buffaloes.
+
+"When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my
+journey up along the Missouri till I came to the nation of the West,
+or the Canzas. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I
+proceeded in the same course near thirty days, and at length I met
+with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that
+neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone. I continued with
+the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them and
+his wife, who was near her time of lying-in, to their village, which
+lay far off betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along
+the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched {288} directly
+northwards for five days more, when we came to the Fine River, which
+runs westwards in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We
+proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village
+of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been
+of their own nation. A few days after I joined a party of the Otters,
+who were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them,
+and we embarked in a pettiaugre, and went down the river for eighteen
+days, landing now and then to supply ourselves with provisions. When I
+arrived at the nation who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with
+them till the cold was passed, that I might learn their language,
+which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.
+
+"The cold was hardly gone, when I again embarked on the Fine River,
+and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally
+staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one
+day's journey from the Great Water on the west. This nation live in
+the woods about the distance of a league from the river, from their
+apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating
+villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These
+men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down
+to their breasts; they were thick and short, had large heads, which
+were covered with cloth; they were always dressed, even in the
+greatest heats; their cloaths fell down to the middle of their legs,
+which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their
+arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves
+outnumbered by Red Men, they retired on board their large pettiaugre,
+their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.
+
+"Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow
+stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this
+nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed
+all those kind of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood
+however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were
+still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them,
+had invited their allies to assist them in making an attack upon them
+the next {289} time they should return. The following summer I
+accordingly joined in this expedition, and after traveling five long
+days journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually
+landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red Men,
+by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprize the
+strangers, and accordingly when they landed to cut the wood, we were
+so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping
+on board two large pettiaugres, and flying westward upon the Great
+Water.
+
+"Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller
+than ourselves, and very white; they had a large head, and in the
+middle of the crown the hair was very long; their head was wrapt in a
+great many folds of stuff, and their cloaths seemed to be made neither
+of wool nor silk; they were very soft, and of different colours. Two
+only of the eleven who were slain had fire-arms with powder and ball.
+I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than
+yours, and did not kill at so great a distance.
+
+"After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my
+journey, and with that design I let the Red Men return home, and
+joined myself to those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with
+whom I travelled along the shore of the Great Water, which bends
+directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the
+villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long and
+the night very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all
+thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended
+still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting,
+after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great
+Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young,
+he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was
+eat away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low,
+many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it therefore
+impracticable to proceed much further, on account of the severity of
+the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by
+which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westward to days
+journeys, I compute that they would have employed {290} me thirty-six
+moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before
+I returned to my relations among the Yazous."
+
+Moncacht-apé, after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or
+five days visiting among the Natchez, and then returned to take leave
+of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value,
+among which was a concave mirror about two inches and a half diameter,
+which had cost me about three halfpence. As this magnified the face to
+four or five times its natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with
+it, and would not have exchanged it with the best mirror in France.
+After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly
+satisfied to his own nation.
+
+Moncacht-apé's account of the junction of America with the eastern
+parts of Asia seems confirmed from the following remarkable fact. Some
+years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were
+discovered in a marsh near the river Ohio; and as they were not much
+consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many
+years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the
+manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will
+appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the
+north-east parts of Asia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_An Account of the Several Nations of_ Indians _in_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+If to the history of the discoveries and conquests of the Spaniards we
+join the tradition of all the nations of America, we shall be fully
+persuaded, that this quarter of the world, before it was discovered by
+Christopher Columbus, was very populous, not only on the continent but
+also in the islands.
+
+However, by an incomprehensible fatality, the arrival of the Spaniards
+in this new world seems to have been the unhappy epoch of the
+destruction of all the nations of America, {291} not only by war, but
+by nature itself. As it is but too well known how many millions of
+natives were destroyed by the Spanish sword, I shall not therefore
+present my readers with that horrible detail; but perhaps many people
+do not know that an innumerable multitude of the natives of Mexico and
+Peru voluntarily put an end to their own lives, some by sacrificing
+themselves to the manes of their sovereigns who had been cut off, and
+whose born victims they, according to their detestable customs, looked
+upon themselves to be; and others, to avoid falling under the
+subjection of the Spaniards, thinking death a less evil by far than
+slavery.
+
+The same effect has been produced among the people of North America by
+two or three warlike nations of the natives. The Chicasaws have not
+only cut off a great many nations who were adjoining to them, but have
+even carried their fury as far as New Mexico, near six hundred miles
+from the place of their residence, to root out a nation that had
+removed at that distance from them, in a firm expectation that their
+enemies would not come so far in search of them. They were however
+deceived and cut off. The Iroquois have done the same in the east
+parts of Louisiana; and the Padoucas and others have acted in the same
+manner to nations in the west of the colony. We may here observe, that
+those nations could not succeed against their enemies without
+considerable loss to themselves, and that they have therefore greatly
+lessened their own numbers by their many warlike expeditions.
+
+I mentioned that nature had contributed no less than war to the
+destruction of these people. Two distempers, that are not very fatal
+in other parts of the world, make dreadful ravages among them; I mean
+the small-pox and a cold, which baffle all the art of their
+physicians, who in other respects are very skilful. When a nation is
+attacked by the small-pox, it quickly makes great havock; for as a
+whole family is crowded into a small hut, which has no communications
+with the external air, but by a door about two feet wide and four feet
+high, the distemper, if it seizes one, is quickly communicated to all.
+The aged die in consequence of their advanced years and the bad
+quality of their food; and the young, if they are not {292} strictly
+watched, destroy themselves, from an abhorrence of the blotches in
+their skin. If they can but escape from their hut, they run out and
+bathe themselves in the river, which is certain death in that
+distemper. The Chatkas, being naturally not very handsome, are not so
+apt to regret the loss of their beauty; consequently suffer less, and
+are much more numerous than the other nations.
+
+Colds, which are very common in the winter, likewise destroy great
+numbers of the natives. In that season they keep fires in their huts
+day and night; and as there is no other opening but the door, the air
+within the hut is kept excessive warm without any free circulation; so
+that when they have occasion to go out, the cold seizes them, and the
+consequences of it are almost always fatal.
+
+The first nations that the French were acquainted with in this part of
+North America, were those on the east of the colony; for the first
+settlement we made there was at Fort Louis on the river Mobile. I
+shall therefore begin my account of the different nations of Indians
+on this side of the colony, and proceed westwards in the same order as
+they are situated.
+
+But however zealous I may be in displaying not only the beauties, but
+the riches and advantages of Louisiana, yet I am not at all inclined
+to attribute to it what it does not possess; therefore I warn my
+reader not to be surprised, if I make mention of a few nations in this
+colony, in comparison of the great number which he may perhaps have
+seen in the first maps of this country. Those maps were made from
+memoirs sent by different travellers, who noted down all the names
+they heard mentioned, and then fixed upon a spot for their residence;
+so that a map appeared stiled with the names of nations, many of whom
+were destroyed, and others were refugees among nations who had adopted
+them and taken them under their protection. Thus, though the nations
+on this continent were formerly both numerous and populous, they are
+now so thinned and diminished, that there does not exist at present a
+third part of the nations whose names are to be found in the maps.
+
+The most eastern nation of Louisiana is that called the Apalaches,
+which is a branch of the great nation of the Apalaches, {293} who
+inhabited near the mountains to which they have given their name. This
+great nation is divided into several branches, who take different
+names. The branch in the neighbourhood of the river Mobile is but
+inconsiderable, and part of it is Roman Catholic.
+
+On the north of the Apalaches are the Alibamous, a pretty considerable
+nation; they love the French, and receive the English rather out of
+necessity than friendship. On the first settling of the colony we had
+some commerce with them; but since the main part of the colony has
+fixed on the river, we have somewhat neglected them, on account of the
+great distance.
+
+East from the Alibamous are the Caouitas, whom M. de Biainville,
+governor of Louisiana, wanted to distinguish above the other nations,
+by giving the title of emperor to their sovereign, who then would have
+been chief of all the neighbouring nations; but those nations refused
+to acknowledge him as such, and said that it was enough if each nation
+obeyed its own chief; that it was improper for the chiefs themselves
+to be subject to other chiefs, and that such a custom had never
+prevailed among them, as they chose rather to be destroyed by a great
+nation than to be subject to them. This nation is one of the most
+considerable; the English trade with them, and they suffer the traders
+to come among them from policy.
+
+To, the north of the Alibamous are the Abeikas and Conchacs, who, as
+far as I can learn, are the same people; yet the name of Conchac seems
+appropriated to one part more than another. They are situated at a
+distance from the great rivers and consequently have no large canes in
+their territory. The canes that grow among them are not thicker than
+one's finger, and are at the same time so very hard, that when they
+are split, they cut like knives, which these people call _conchacs_. The
+language of this nation is almost the same with that of the Chicasaws,
+in which the word _conchac_ signifies a knife.
+
+The Abeikas, on the east of them, have the Cherokees, divided into
+several branches, and situated very near the Apalachean mountains. All
+the nations whom I have mentioned {294} have been united in a general
+alliance for a long time past, in order to defend themselves against the
+Iroquois, or Five Nations, who, before this alliance was formed, made
+continual war upon them; but have ceased to molest them since they have
+seen them united. All these nations, and some small ones intermixed
+among them, have always been looked upon as belonging to no colony,
+excepting the Apalaches; but since the breaking out of the war with the
+English in 1756, it is said they have voluntarily declared for us.
+
+The nations in the neighbourhood of the Mobile, are first the Chatots,
+a small nation consisting of about forty huts, adjoining to the river
+and the sea. They are Roman Catholics, or reputed such; and are
+friends to the French, whom they are always ready to serve upon being
+paid for it. North from the Chatots, and very near them, is the French
+settlement of Fort Louis on the Mobile.
+
+A little north from Fort Louis are situated the Thomez, which are not
+more numerous than the Chatots, and are said to be Roman Catholics.
+They are our friends to to such a degree as even to teaze us with
+their officiousness.
+
+Further north live the Taensas, who are a branch of the Natchez, of
+whom I shall have occasion to speak more at large. Both of these
+nations keep the eternal fire with the utmost care; but they trust the
+guard of it to men, from a persuasion that none of their daughters
+would sacrifice their liberty for that office. The whole nation of the
+Taensas consists only of about one hundred huts.
+
+Proceeding still northwards along the bay, we meet with the nation of
+the Mobiliens, near the mouth of the river Mobile, in the bay of that
+name. The true name of this nation is Mouvill, which the French have
+turned into Mobile, calling the river and the bay from the nation that
+inhabited near them. All these small nations were living in peace upon
+the arrival of the French, and still continue so; the nations on the
+east of the Mobile serving as a barrier to them against the incursions
+of the Iroquois. Besides, the Chicasaws look upon them as their
+brethren, as both they, and their neighbours on the east of the {295}
+Mobile, speak a language which is nearly the same with that of the
+Chicasaws.
+
+Returning towards the sea, on the west of the Mobile, we find the
+small nation of the Pacha-Ogoulas, that is, Nation of Bread, situated
+upon the bay of the same name. This nation consists only of one
+village of about thirty huts. Some French Canadians have settled in
+their neighbourhood, and they live together like brethren, as the
+Canadians, who are naturally of a peaceable disposition, know the
+character of the natives, and have the art of living with the nations
+of America. But what chiefly renders the harmony betwixt them durable,
+is the absence of soldiers, who never appear in this nation.
+
+Further northwards, near the river Pacha-Ogoulas, is situated the
+great nation of the Chatkas, or Flat-heads. I call them the great
+nation, for I have not known or heard of any other near so numerous.
+They reckon in this nation twenty-five thousand warriors. There may
+perhaps be such a number of men among them, who take that name; but I
+am far from thinking that all these have a title to the character of
+warriors.
+
+According to the tradition of the natives, this nation arrived so
+suddenly, and passed so rapidly through the territories of others,
+that when I asked them, whence came the Chatkas? they answered me,
+that they sprung out of the ground; by which they meant to express
+their great surprize at seeing them appear so suddenly. Their great
+numbers awed the natives near whom they passed; their character being
+but little inclined to war, did not inspire them with the fury of
+conquest; thus they at length arrived in an uninhabited country which
+nobody disputed with them. They have since lived without any disputes
+with their neighbours; who on the other hand have never dared to try
+whether they were brave or not. It is doubtless owing to this that
+they have increased to their present numbers.
+
+They are called Flat-heads; but I do not know why that name has been
+given to them more than to others, since all the nations of Louisiana
+have their heads as flat, or nearly so. They are situated about two
+hundred and fifty miles north {296} from the sea, and extend more from
+east to west than from south to north.
+
+[Illustration: _Indian Buffalo Hunt on foot_]
+
+Those who travel from the Chatkas to the Chicasaws, seldom go by the
+shortest road, which extends about one hundred and eighty miles, and
+is very woody and mountainous. They choose rather to go along the
+river Mobile, which is both the easiest and most pleasant route. The
+nation of the Chicasaws is very warlike. The men have very regular
+features, {297} are large, well-shaped, and neatly dressed; they are
+fierce, and have a high opinion of themselves. They seem to be the
+remains of a populous nation, whose warlike disposition had prompted
+them to invade several nations, whom they have indeed destroyed, but
+not without diminishing their own numbers by those expeditions. What
+induces me to believe that this nation has been formerly very
+considerable, is that the nations who border upon them, and whom I
+have just mentioned, speak the Chicasaw language, though somewhat
+corrupted, and those who speak it best value themselves upon it.
+
+I ought perhaps to except out of this number the Taensas, who being a
+branch of the Natchez, have still preserved their peculiar language;
+but even these speak, in general, the corrupted Chicasaw language,
+which our French settlers call the Mobilian language. As to the
+Chatkas, I suppose, that being very numerous, they have been able to
+preserve their own language in a great measure; and have only adopted
+some words of the Chicasaw language. They always spoke to me in the
+Chicasaw tongue.
+
+In returning towards the coast next the river Missisippi, we meet with
+a small nation of about twenty huts, named Aquelou-Pissas, that is,
+_Men who understand and see_. This nation formerly lived within three of
+four miles of the place where New Orleans is built; but they are
+further north at present, and not far from the lake St. Lewis, or
+Pontchartrain. They speak a language somewhat approaching to that of
+the Chicasaws. We have never had great dealings with them.
+
+Being now arrived at the river Missisippi, I shall proceed upwards
+along its banks as far as to the most distant nations that are known
+to us.
+
+The first nation that I meet with is the Oumas, which signifies the
+Red Nation. They are situated about twenty leagues from New Orleans,
+where I saw some of them upon my arrival in this province. Upon the
+first establishment of the colony, some French went and settled near
+them; and they have been very fatal neighbours, by furnishing them
+with brandy, which they drink to great excess.
+
+{298} Crossing the Red River, and proceeding still upwards, we find
+the remains of the nation of the Tonicas, who have always been very
+much attached to the French, and have even been our auxiliaries in
+war. The Chief of this nation was our very zealous friend; and as he
+was full of courage, and always ready to make war on the enemies of
+the French, the king sent him a brevet of brigadier of the red armies,
+and a blue ribbon, from whence hung a silver medal, which on one side
+represented the marriage of the king, and on the reverse had the city
+of Paris. He likewise sent him a gold-headed cane; and the Indian
+Chief was not a little proud of wearing those honourable distinctions,
+which were certainly well bestowed. This nation speaks a language so
+far different from that of their neighbours, in that they pronounce
+the letter R, which the others have not. They have likewise different
+customs.
+
+The Natchez in former times appear to have been one of the most
+respectable nations in the colony, not only from their own tradition,
+but from that of the other nations, in whom their greatness and
+civilized customs raised no less jealousy than admiration. I could
+fill a volume with what relates to this people alone; but as I am now
+giving a concise account of the people of Louisiana, I shall speak of
+them as of the rest, only enlarging a little upon some important
+transactions concerning them.
+
+When I arrived in 1720 among the Natchez, that nation was situated
+upon a small river of the same name; the chief village where the Great
+Sun resided was built along the banks of the river, and the other
+villages were planted round it. They were two leagues above the
+confluence of the river, which joins the Missisippi at the foot of the
+great precipices of the Natchez. From thence are four leagues to its
+source, and as many to Rosalie, and they were situated within a league
+of the fort.
+
+Two small nations lived as refugees among the Natchez. The most
+ancient of these adopted nations were the Grigras, who seem to have
+received that name from the French, because when talking with one
+another they often pronounce those two syllables, which makes them be
+remarked as strangers among the Natchez, who, as well as the
+Chicasaws, and all the nations {299} that speak the Chicasaw language,
+cannot pronounce the letter R.
+
+The other small nation adopted by the Natchez, are the Thioux, who
+have also the letter R in their language. These were the weak remains
+of the Thioux nation, formerly one of the strongest in the country.
+However, according to the account of the other nations, being of a
+turbulent disposition, they drew upon themselves the resentment of the
+Chicasaws, which was the occasion of their ruin; for by their many
+engagements they were at length so weakened that they durst not face
+their enemy, and consequently were obliged to take refuge among the
+Natchez.
+
+The Natchez, the Grigras, and the Thioux, may together raise about
+twelve hundred warriors; which is but a small force in comparison of
+what the Natchez could formerly have raised alone; for according to
+their traditions they were the most powerful nation of all North
+America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors,
+and on that account respected by them. To give an idea of their power,
+I shall only mention, that formerly they extended from the river
+Manchac, or Iberville, which is about fifty leagues from the sea, to
+the river Wabash, which is distant from the sea about four hundred and
+sixty leagues; and that they had about five hundred Suns or princes.
+From these facts we may judge how populous this nation formerly has
+been; but the pride of their Great Suns, or sovereigns, and likewise
+of their inferior Suns, joined to the prejudices of the people, has
+made greater havock among them, and contributed more to their
+destruction, than long and bloody wars would have done.
+
+As their sovereigns were despotic, they had for a long time past
+established the following inhuman and impolitic custom, that when any
+of them died, a great number of their subjects, both men and women,
+should likewise be put to death. A proportionable number of subjects
+were likewise killed upon the death of any of the inferior Suns; and
+the people on the other hand had imbibed a belief that all those who
+followed their princes into the other world, to serve them there,
+would be eternally happy. It is easy to conceive how ruinous such an
+{300} inhuman custom would be among a nation who had so many princes
+as the Natchez.
+
+It would seem that some of the Suns, more humane than the rest, had
+disapproved of this barbarous custom, and had therefore retired to
+places at a remote distance from the centre of their nation. For we
+have two branches of this great nation settled in other parts of the
+colony, who have preserved the greatest part of the customs of the
+Natchez. One of these branches is the nation of the Taensas on the
+banks of the Mobile, who preserve the eternal fire, and several other
+usages of the nation from whom they are descended. The other branch is
+the nation of the Chitimachas, whom the Natchez have always looked
+upon as their brethren.
+
+Forty leagues north from the Natchez is the river Yasous, which runs
+into the Missisippi, and is so called from a nation of the same name
+who had about a hundred huts on its banks.
+
+Near the Yazous, on the same river, lived the Coroas, a nation
+consisting of about forty huts. These two nations pronounce the letter
+R.
+
+Upon the same river likewise lived the Chacchi-Oumas, a name which
+signifies _red Cray-fish_. These people had not above fifty huts.
+
+Near the same river dwelt the Ouse-Ogoulas, or the Nation of the Dog,
+which might have about sixty huts.
+
+The Tapoussas likewise inhabited upon the banks of this river, and had
+not above twenty-five huts. These three last nations do not pronounce
+the letter R, and seem to be branches of the Chicasaws, especially as
+they speak their language. Since the massacre of the French settlers
+at the Natchez, these five small nations, who had joined in the
+conspiracy against us, have all retired among the Chicasaws, and make
+now but one nation with them.
+
+To the north of the Ohio, not far from the banks of the Missisippi,
+inhabit the Illinois, who have given their name to the river on the
+banks of which they have settled. They are divided into several
+villages, such as the Tamaroas, the Caskaquias, {301} the Caouquias,
+the Pimiteouis, and some others. Near the village of the Tamaroas is a
+French post, where several French Canadians have settled.
+
+This is one of the most considerable posts in all Louisiana, which
+will appear not at all surprising, when we consider that the Illinois
+were one of the first nations whom we discovered in the colony, and
+that they have always remained most faithful allies of the French; an
+advantage which is in a great measure owing to the proper manner of
+living with the natives of America, which the Canadians have always
+observed. It is not their want of courage that renders them so
+peaceable, for their valour is well known. The letter R is pronounced
+by the Illinois.
+
+Proceeding further northwards we meet with a pretty large nation,
+known by the name of the Foxes, with whom we have been at war near
+these forty years past, yet I have not heard that we have had any
+blows with them for a long time.
+
+From the Foxes to the fall of St. Anthony, we meet with no nation, nor
+any above the Fall for near an hundred leagues. About that distance
+north of the Fall, the Sioux are settled, and are said to inhabit
+several scattered villages both on the east and west of the
+Missisippi.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the_ Missisippi.
+
+
+Having described as exactly as possible all the nations on the east of
+the Missisippi, as well those who are included within the bounds of
+the colony, as those who are adjoining to it, and have some connection
+with the others; I shall now proceed to give an account of those who
+inhabit on the west of the river, from the sea northwards.
+
+Between the river Missisippi, and those lakes which are filled by its
+waters upon their overflowing, is a small nation named Chaouchas, or
+Ouachas, who inhabit some little villages, but are of so little
+consequences that they are no otherwise known to our colonists but by
+their name.
+
+{302} In the neighbourhood of the lakes abovementioned live the
+Chitimachas. These are the remains of a nation which was formerly
+pretty considerable; but we have destroyed part of them by exciting
+our allies to attack them. I have already observed that they were a
+branch of the Natchez, and upon my first settling among these, I found
+several Chitimachas, who had taken refuge among them to avoid the
+calamities of the war which had been made upon them near the lakes.
+
+Since the peace that was concluded with them in 1719, they have not
+only remained quiet, but kept themselves so prudently retired, that,
+rather than have any intercourse with the French, or traffic with them
+for what they look upon as superfluities, they choose to live in the
+manner they did an hundred years ago.
+
+Along the west coast, not far from the sea, inhabit the nation named
+Atacapas, that is, Man-eaters, being so called by the other nations on
+account of their detestable custom of eating their enemies, or such as
+they believe to be their enemies. In this vast country there are no
+other cannibals to be met with besides the Atacapas; and since the
+French have gone among them, they have raised in them so great an
+horror of that abominable practice of devouring creatures of their own
+species, that they have promised to leave it off; and accordingly for
+a long time past we have heard of no such barbarity among them.
+
+The Bayouc-Ogoulas were formerly situated in the country that still
+bears their name. This nation is now confounded with the others to
+whom it is joined.
+
+The Oque-Loussas are a small nation situated north-west from the Cut
+Point. They live on the banks of two small lakes, the waters of which
+appear black by reason of the great number of leaves which cover the
+bottom of them, and have given name to the nation, Oque-Loussas in
+their language signifying Black Water.
+
+From the Oque-Loussas to the Red River, we meet with no other nation;
+but upon the banks of this river, a little above the Rapid, is seated
+the small nation of the Avoyels. These are the people who bring to our
+settlers horses, oxen, and cows. {303} I know not in what fair they
+buy them, nor with what money they pay for them; but the truth is,
+they sell them to us for about seventeen shillings a-piece. The
+Spaniards of New-Spain have such numbers of them that they do not know
+what to do with them, and are obliged to those who will take them off
+their hands. At present the French have a greater number of them than
+they want, especially of horses.
+
+About fifty leagues higher up the Red River, live the Nachitoches,
+near a French post of the same name. They are a pretty considerable
+nation, having about two hundred huts. They have always been greatly
+attached to the French; but never were friends to the Spaniards. There
+are some branches of this nation situated further westward; but the
+huts are not numerous.
+
+Three hundred miles west from the Missisippi, upon the Red River, we
+find the great nation of the Cadodaquioux. It is divided into several
+branches which extend very widely. This people, as well as the
+Nachitoches, have a peculiar language; however, there is not a village
+in either of the nations, nor indeed in any nation of Louisiana, where
+there are not some who can speak the Chicasaw language, which is
+called the vulgar tongue, and is the same here as the Lingua Franca is
+in the Levant.
+
+Between the Red River and the Arkansas there is at present no nation.
+Formerly the Ouachites lived upon the Black River, and gave their name
+to it; but at this time there are no remains of that nation; the
+Chicasaws having destroyed great part of them, and the rest took
+refuge among the Cadodaquioux, where their enemies durst not molest
+them. The Taensas lived formerly in this neighbourhood upon a river of
+their name; but they took refuge on the banks of the Mobile near the
+allies of the Chicasaws, who leave them undisturbed.
+
+The nation of the Arkansas have given their name to the river on which
+they are situated, about four leagues from its confluence with the
+Missisippi. This nation is pretty considerable, and its men are no
+less distinguished for being good hunters than stout warriors. The
+Chicasaws, who are of a {304} restless disposition, have more than
+once wanted to make trial of the bravery of the Arkansas; but they
+were opposed with such firmness, that they have now laid aside all
+thoughts of attacking them, especially since they have been joined by
+the Kappas, the Michigamias, and a part of the Illinois, who have
+settled among them. Accordingly there is no longer any mention either
+of the Kappas or Michigamias, who are now all adopted by the Arkansas.
+
+The reader may have already observed in this account of the natives of
+Louisiana, that several nations of those people had joined themselves
+to others, either because they could no longer resist their enemies,
+or because they hoped to improve their condition by intermixing with
+another nation. I am glad to have this occasion of observing that
+those people respect the rights of hospitality, and that those rights
+always prevail, notwithstanding any superiority that one nation may
+have over another with whom they are at war, or even over those people
+among whom their enemies take refuge. For example, a nation of two
+thousand warriors makes war upon, and violently pursues another nation
+of five hundred warriors, who retire among a nation in alliance with
+their enemies. If this last nation adopt the five hundred, the first
+nation, though two thousand in number, immediately lay down their
+arms, and instead of continuing hostilities, reckon the adopted nation
+among the number of their allies.
+
+Besides the Arkansas, some authors place other nations upon their
+river. I cannot take upon me to say that there never were any; but I
+can positively affirm, from my own observation upon the spot, that no
+other nation is to be met with at present on this river, or even as
+far as the Missouri.
+
+Not far from the river Missouri is situated the nation of the Osages,
+upon a small river of the same name. This nation is said to have been
+pretty considerable formerly, but at present they can neither be said
+to be great nor small.
+
+The nation of the Missouris is very considerable, and has given its
+name to the large river that empties itself into the Missisippi. It is
+the first nation we meet with from the confluence {305} of the two
+rivers, and yet it is situated above forty leagues up the Missouri.
+The French had a settlement pretty near this nation, at the time when
+M. de Bourgmont was commandant in those parts; but soon after he left
+them, the inhabitants massacred the French garrison.
+
+The Spaniards, as well as our other neighbours, being continually
+jealous of our superiority over them, formed a design of establishing
+themselves among the Missouris, about forty leagues from the Illinois,
+in order to limit our boundaries westward. They judged it necessary,
+for the security of their colony, entirely to cut off the Missouris,
+and for that purpose they courted the friendship of the Osages, whose
+assistance they thought would be of service to them in their
+enterprize, and who were generally at enmity with the Missouris. A
+company of Spaniards, men, women, and soldiers, accordingly set out
+from Santa Fe, having a Dominican for their chaplain, and an engineer
+for their guide and commander. The caravan was furnished with horses,
+and all other kinds of beasts necessary; for it is one of their
+prudent maxims, to send off all those things together. By a fatal
+mistake the Spaniards arrived first among the Missouris, whom they
+mistook for the Osages, and imprudently discovering their hostile
+intentions, they were themselves surprised and cut off by those whom
+they intended for destruction. The Missouris some time afterwards
+dressed themselves with the ornaments of the chapel; and carried them
+in a kind of triumphant procession to the French commandant among the
+Illinois. Along with the ornaments they brought a Spanish map, which
+seemed to me to be a better draught of the west part of our colony,
+towards them, than of the countries we are most concerned with. From
+this map it appears, that we ought to bend the Red River, and that of
+the Arkansas, somewhat more, and place the source of the Missisippi
+more westerly than our geographers do.
+
+The principal nations who inhabit upon the banks, or in the
+neighbourhood of the Missouri, are, besides those already mentioned,
+the Canzas, the Othoues, the White Panis, the Black Panis, the
+Panimachas, the Aiouez, and the Padoucas. The most numerous of all
+those nations are the Padoucas, the smallest {306} are the Aiouez, the
+Othoues, and the Osages; the others are pretty considerable.
+
+To the north of all those nations, and near the river Missisippi, it
+is pretended that a part of the nation of the Sioux have their
+residence. Some affirm that they inhabit now on one side of the river,
+now on another. From what I could learn from travellers, I am inclined
+to think, that they occupy at the same time both sides of the
+Missisippi, and their settlements, as I have elsewhere observed, are
+more than an hundred leagues above the Fall of St. Anthony. But we
+need not yet disquiet ourselves about the advantages which might
+result to us from those very remote countries. Many ages must pass
+before we can penetrate into the northern parts of Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_A Description of the natives of_ Louisiana; _of their manners and
+customs, particularly those of the_ Natchez: _of their language, their
+religion, ceremonies_, Rulers _or_ Suns, _feasts, marriages, &c._
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_A description of the natives; the different employments of the two
+sexes; and their manner of bringing up their children._
+
+
+In the concise history which I have given of the people of Louisiana,
+and in several other places where I have happened to mention them, the
+reader may have observed that these nations have not all the same
+character, altho' they live adjoining to each other. He therefore
+ought not to expect a perfect uniformity in their manners, or that I
+should describe all the different usages that prevail in different
+parts, which would create a disagreeable medley, and tend only to
+confound his ideas which cannot be too clear. My design is only to
+shew in general, from the character of those people, what course we
+ought to observe, in order to draw advantage from our intercourse with
+them. I shall however be more full in speaking of the Natchez, a
+populous nation, among whom I lived the space of eight years, and
+whose sovereign, the chief of war, and the chief of the keepers of the
+temple, were among my most intimate {307} friends. Besides, their
+manners were more civilized, their manner of thinking more just and
+fuller of sentiment, their customs more reasonable, and their
+ceremonies more natural and serious; on all which accounts they were
+eminently distinguished above the other nations.
+
+All the natives of America in general are extremely well made; very
+few of them are to be seen under five feet and a half, and very many
+of them above that; their leg seems as if it was fashioned in a mould;
+it is nervous, and the calf is firm; they are long waisted; their head
+is upright and somewhat flat in the upper part, and their features are
+regular; they have black eyes, and thick black hair without curls. If
+we see none that are extremely fat and pursy, neither do we meet with
+any that are so lean as if they were in a consumption. The men in
+general are better made than the women; they are more nervous, and the
+women more plump and fleshy; the men are almost all large, and the
+women of a middle size. I have always been inclined to think, that the
+care they take of their children in their infancy contributes greatly
+to their fine shapes, tho' the climate has also its share in that, for
+the French born in Louisiana are all large, well shaped, and of good
+flesh and blood.
+
+When any of the women of the natives is delivered, she goes
+immediately to the water and washes herself and the infant; she then
+comes home and lies down, after having disposed her infant in the
+cradle, which is about two feet and a half long, nine inches broad,
+and half a foot deep, being formed of straight pieces of cane bent up
+at one end, to serve for a foot or stay. Betwixt the canes and the
+infant is a kind of matrass of the tufted herb called Spanish Beard,
+and under its head is a little skin cushion, stuffed with the same
+herb. The infant is laid on its back in the cradle, and fastened to it
+by the shoulders, the arms, the legs, the thighs, and the hips; and
+over its forehead are laid two bands of deer-skin which keeps its head
+to the cushion, and renders that part flat. As the cradle does not
+weigh much above two pounds, it generally lies on the mother's bed,
+who suckles the infant occasionally. The infant is rocked not
+side-ways but end-ways, and when it is a {308} month old they put
+under its knees garters made of buffalo's wool which is very soft, and
+above the ankle bones they bind the legs with threads of the same wool
+for the breadth of three or four inches. And these ligatures the child
+wears till it be four or five years old.
+
+The infants of the natives are white when they are born, but they soon
+turn brown, as they are rubbed with bear's oil and exposed to the sun.
+They rub them with oil, both to render their nerves more flexible, and
+also to prevent the flies from stinging them, as they suffer them to
+roll about naked upon all fours, before they are able to walk upright.
+They never put them upon their legs till they are a year old, and they
+suffer them to suck as long as they please, unless the mother prove
+with child, in which case she ceases to suckle.
+
+When the boys are about twelve years of age, they give them a bow and
+arrows proportioned to their strength, and in order to exercise them
+they tie some hay, about twice as large as the fist, to the end of a
+pole about ten feet high. He who brings down the hay receives the
+prize from an old man who is always present: the best shooter is
+called the young warrior, the next best is called the apprentice
+warrior, and so on of the others, who are prompted to excel more by
+sentiments of honour than by blows.
+
+As they are threatened from their most tender infancy with the
+resentment of the old man, if they are any ways refractory or do any
+mischievous tricks, which is very rare, they fear and respect him above
+every one else. This old man is frequently the great-grandfather, or
+the great-great-grand-father of the family, for those natives live to a
+very great age. I have seen some of them not able to walk, without
+having any other distemper or infirmity than old age, so that when the
+necessities of nature required it, or they wanted to take the air, they
+were obliged to be carried out of their hut, an assistance which is
+always readily offered to the old men. The respect paid to them by
+their family is so great, that they are looked upon as the judges of
+all differences, and their counsels are decrees. An old man who is the
+head of a family is called father, even by his grand-children, and
+great-grand-children, {309} who to distinguish their immediate father
+call him their true father.
+
+If any of their young people happen to fight, which I never saw nor
+heard of during the whole time I resided in their neighbourhood, they
+threaten to put them in a hut at a great distance from their nation,
+as persons unworthy to live among others; and this is repeated to them
+so often, that if they happen to have had a battle, they take care
+never to have another. I have already observed that I studied them a
+considerable number of years; and I never could learn that there ever
+were any disputes or boxing matches among either their boys or men.
+
+As the children grow up, the fathers and mothers take care each to
+accustom those of their own sex to the labours and exercises suited to
+them, and they have no great trouble to keep them employed; but it
+must be confessed that the girls and the women work more than the men
+and the boys. These last go a hunting and fishing, cut the wood, the
+smallest bits of which are carried home by the women; they clear the
+fields for corn, and hoe it; and on days when they cannot go abroad
+they amuse themselves with making, after their fashion, pickaxes,
+oars, paddles, and other instruments, which once made last a long
+while. The women on the other hand have their children to bring up,
+have to pound the maiz for the subsistence of the family, have to keep
+up the fire, and to make a great many utensils, which require a good
+deal of work, and last but a short time, such as their earthen ware,
+their matts, their clothes, and a thousand other things of that kind.
+
+When the children are about ten or twelve years of age they accustom
+them by degrees to carry small loads, which they increase with their
+years. The boys are from time to time exercised in running; but they
+never suffer them to exhaust themselves by the length of the race,
+lest they should overheat themselves. The more nimble at that exercise
+sometimes sportfully challenges those who are more slow and heavy; but
+the old man who presides hinders the raillery from being carried to
+any excess, carefully avoiding all subjects of quarrel and dispute, on
+which account doubtless it is that they will never suffer them to
+wrestle.
+
+{310} Both boys and girls are early accustomed to bathe every morning,
+in order to strengthen the nerves, and harden them against cold and
+fatigue, and likewise to teach them to swim, that they may avoid or
+pursue an enemy, even across a river. The boys and girls, from the
+time they are three years of age, are called out every morning by an
+old man, to go to the river; and here is some more employment for the
+mothers who accompany them thither to teach them to swim. Those who
+can swim tolerably well, make a great noise in winter by beating the
+water in order to frighten away the crocodiles, and keep themselves
+warm.
+
+The reader will have observed that most of the labour and fatigue
+falls to the share of the women; but I can declare that I never heard
+them complain of their fatigues, unless of the trouble their children
+gave them, which complaint arose as much from maternal affection, as
+from any attention that the children required. The girls from their
+infancy have it instilled into them, that if they are sluttish or
+unhandy they will have none but a dull aukward fellow for their
+husband; I observed in all the nations I visited, that this
+threatening was never lost upon the young girls.
+
+I would not have it thought however, that the young men are altogether
+idle. Their occupations indeed are not of such a long continuance; but
+they are much more laborious. As the men have occasion for more
+strength, reason requires that they should not exhaust themselves in
+their youth; but at the same time they are not exempted from those
+exercises that fit them for war and hunting. The children are educated
+without blows; and the body is left at full liberty to grow, and to
+form and strengthen itself with their years. The youths accompany the
+men in hunting, in order to learn the wiles and tricks necessary to be
+practised in the field, and accustom themselves to suffering and
+patience. When they are full grown men, they dress the field or waste
+land, and prepare it to receive the seed; they go to war or hunting,
+dress the skins, cut the wood, make their bows and arrows, and assist
+each other in building their huts.
+
+They have still I allow a great deal of more spare time than the
+women; but this is not all thrown away. As these {311} people have not
+the assistance of writing, they are obliged to have recourse to
+tradition, in order to preserve the remembrance of any remarkable
+transactions; and this tradition cannot be learned but by frequent
+repetitions, consequently many of the youths are often employed in
+hearing the old men narrate the history of their ancestors, which is
+thus transmitted from generation to generation. In order to preserve
+their traditions pure and uncorrupt, they are careful not to deliver
+them indifferently to all their young people, but teach them only to
+those young men of whom they have the best opinion.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the language, government, religion, ceremonies, and feasts of the
+natives._
+
+
+During my residence among the Natchez I contracted an intimate
+friendship, not only with the chiefs or guardians of the temple, but
+with the Great Sun, or the sovereign of the nation, and his brother
+the Stung Serpent, the chief of the warriors; and by my great intimacy
+with them, and the respect I acquired among the people, I easily
+learned the peculiar language of the nation.
+
+This language is easy in the pronunciation, and expressive in the
+terms. The natives, like the Orientals, speak much in a figurative
+stile, the Natchez in particular more than any other people of
+Louisiana. They have two languages, that of the nobles and that of the
+people, and both are very copious. I will give two or three examples
+to shew the difference of these two languages. When I call one of the
+common people, I say to him _aquenan_, that is, hark ye: if, on the
+other hand, I want to speak to a Sun, or one of their nobles, I say to
+him, _magani_, which signifies, hark ye. If one of the common people
+call at my house, I say to him, _tachte-cabanacte, are you there_, or I
+am glad to see you, which is equivalent to our goodmorrow. I express
+the same thing to a Sun by the word _apapegouaiché_. Again, according to
+their custom, I say to one of the common people, _petchi, sit you down_;
+but to a Sun, when I desire him to sit down, I say, _caham_. The two
+languages are {312} nearly the same in all other respects; for the
+difference of expression seems only to take place in matters relating
+to the persons of the Suns and nobles, in distinction from those of
+the people.
+
+Tho' the women speak the same language with the men, yet, in their
+manner of pronunciation, they soften and smooth the words, whereas the
+speech of the men is more grave and serious. The French, by chiefly
+frequenting the women, contracted their manner of speaking, which was
+ridiculed as an effeminacy by the women, as well as the men, among the
+natives.
+
+
+From my conversations with the chief of the guardians of the temple, I
+discovered that they acknowledged a supreme being, whom they called
+_Coyococop-Chill_, or _Great Spirit_. The _Spirit infinitely great_, or
+the _Spirit_ by way of excellence. The word _chill_, in their language,
+signifies the most superlative degree of perfection, and is added by
+them to the word which signifies _fire_, when they want to mention the
+Sun; thus _Oua_ is _fire_, and _Oua-chill_ is the _supreme fire_, or the
+_Sun_; therefore, by the word _Coyocop-Chill_ they mean a spirit that
+surpasses other spirits as much as the sun does common fire.
+
+"God," according to the definition of the guardian of the temple, "was
+so great and powerful, that, in comparison with him, all other things
+were as nothing; he had made all that we see, all that we can see, and
+all that we cannot see; he was so good, that he could not do ill to
+any one, even if he had a mind to it. They believe that God had made
+all things by his will; that nevertheless the little spirits, who are
+his servants, might, by his orders, have made many excellent works in
+the universe, which we admire; but that God himself had formed man
+with his own hands."
+
+The guardian added, that they named those little spirits,
+_Coyocop-techou_, that is, a _free servant_, but as submissive and as
+respectful as a slave; that those spirits were always present before
+God, ready to execute his pleasure with an extreme diligence; that the
+air was filled with other spirits, some good some wicked; and that the
+latter had a chief, who was more {313} wicked than them all; that God
+had found him so wicked, that he had bound him for ever, so that the
+other spirits of the air no longer did so much harm, especially when
+they were by prayers entreated not to do it; for it is one of the
+religious customs of those people to invoke the spirits of the air for
+rain or fine weather, according as each is needed. I have seen the
+Great Sun fast for nine days together, eating nothing but maiz-corn,
+without meat or fish, drinking nothing but water, and abstaining from
+the company of his wives during the whole time. He underwent this
+rigorous fast out of complaisance to some Frenchmen, who had been
+complaining that it had not rained for a long time. Those
+inconsiderate people had not remarked, that notwithstanding the want
+of rain, the fruits of the earth had not suffered, as the dew is so
+plentiful in summer as fully to supply that deficiency.
+
+The guardian of the temple having told me that God had made man with
+his own hands, I asked him if he knew how that was done. He answered,
+"that God had kneaded some clay, such as that which potters use, and
+had made it into a little man; and that after examining it, and
+finding it well formed, he blew up his work, and forthwith that little
+man had life, grew, acted, walked, and found himself a man perfectly
+well shaped." As he made no mention of the woman, I asked him how he
+believed she was made; he told me, "that probably in the same manner
+as the man; that their _antient speech_ made no mention of any
+difference, only told them that the man was made first, and was the
+strongest and most courageous, because he was to be the head and
+support of the woman, who was made to be his companion."
+
+Here I did not omit to rectify his notions on the subjects we had been
+talking about, and to give him those just ideas which religion teaches
+us, and the sacred writings have transmitted to us. He hearkened to me
+with great attention, and promised to repeat all that I had told him
+to the old men of his nation, who certainly would not forget it;
+adding, that we were very happy in being able to retain the knowledge
+of such fine things by means of the speaking cloth, so they name books
+and manuscripts.
+
+{314} I next proceeded to ask him, who had taught them to build a
+temple; whence had they their eternal fire, which they preserved with
+so much care; and who was the person that first instituted their
+feasts? He replied, "The charge I am entrusted with obliges me to know
+all these things you ask of me; I will therefore satisfy you: hearken
+to me. A great number of years ago there appeared among us a man and
+his wife, who came down from the sun. Not that we believe that the sun
+had a wife who bore him children, or that these were the descendants
+of the sun; but when they first appeared among us they were so bright
+and luminous that we had no difficulty to believe that they came down
+from the sun. This man told us, that having seen from on high that we
+did not govern ourselves well; that we had no master; that each of us
+had presumption enough to think himself capable of governing others,
+while he could not even conduct himself; he had thought fit to come
+down among us to teach us to live better.
+
+"He moreover told us, that in order to live in peace among ourselves,
+and to please the supreme Spirit, we must indispensably observe the
+following points; we must never kill any one but in defence of our own
+lives; we must never know any other woman besides our own; we must
+never take any thing that belongs to another; we must never lye nor
+get drunk; we must not be avaricious, but must give liberally, and
+with joy, part of what we have to others who are in want, and
+generously share our subsistence with those who are in need of it."
+
+"The words of this man deeply affected us, for he spoke them with
+authority, and he procured the respect even of the old men themselves,
+tho' he reprehended them as freely as the rest. Next day we offered to
+acknowledge him as our sovereign. He at first refused, saying that he
+should not be obeyed, and that the disobedient would infallibly die;
+but at length he accepted the offer that was made him on the following
+condition:
+
+"That we would go and inhabit another country, better than that in
+which we were, which he would shew us; that we would afterwards live
+conformable to the instructions he had given us; that we would promise
+never to acknowledge any {315} other sovereigns but him and his
+descendants; that the nobility should be perpetuated by the women
+after this manner; if I, said he, have male and female children, they
+being brothers and sisters cannot marry together; the eldest boy may
+chuse a wife from among the people, but his sons shall be only nobles;
+the children of the eldest girl, on the other hand, shall be princes
+and princesses, and her eldest son be sovereign; but her eldest
+daughter be the mother of the next sovereign, even tho' she should
+marry one of the common people; and, in defect of the eldest daughter,
+the next female relation to the person reigning shall be the mother of
+the future sovereign; the sons of the sovereign and princes shall lose
+their rank, but the daughters shall preserve theirs."
+
+"He then told us, that in order to preserve the excellent precepts he
+had given us, it was necessary to build a temple, into which it should
+be lawful for none but the princes and princesses to enter, to speak
+to the Spirit. That in the temple they should eternally preserve a
+fire, which he would bring down from the sun, from whence he himself
+had descended, that the wood with which the fire was supplied should
+be pure wood without bark; that eight wise men of the nation should be
+chosen for guarding the fire night and day; that those eight men
+should have a chief, who should see them do their duty, and that if
+any of them failed in it he should be put to death. He likewise
+ordered another temple to be built in a distant part of our nation,
+which was then very populous, and the eternal fire to be kept there
+also, that in case it should be extinguished in the one it might be
+brought from the other; in which case, till it was again lighted, the
+nation would be afflicted with a great mortality."
+
+"Our nation having consented to these conditions, he agreed to be our
+sovereign; and in presence of all the people he brought down the fire
+from the sun, upon some wood of the walnut-tree which he had prepared,
+which fire was deposited in both the temples. He lived a long time,
+and saw his children's children. To conclude, he instituted our feasts
+such as you see them."
+
+The Natchez have neither sacrifices, libations, nor offerings: their
+whole worship consists in preserving the eternal {316} fire, and this
+the Great Sun watches over with a peculiar attention. The Sun, who
+reigned when I was in the country, was extremely solicitous about it,
+and visited the temple every day. His vigilance had been awakened by a
+terrible hurricane which some years before had happened in the
+country, and was looked upon as an extraordinary event, the air being
+generally clear and serene in that climate. If to that calamity should
+be joined the extinction of the eternal fire, he was apprehensive
+their whole nation would be destroyed.
+
+One day, when the Great Sun called upon me, he gave me an account of a
+dreadful calamity that had formerly befallen the nation of the
+Natchez, in consequence, as he believed, of the extinction of the
+eternal fire. He introduced his account in the following manner: "Our
+nation was formerly very numerous and very powerful; it extended more
+than twelve days journey from east to west, and more than fifteen from
+south to north. We reckoned then 500 Suns, and you may judge by that
+what was the number of the nobles, of the people of rank, and the
+common people. Now in times past it happened, that one of the two
+guardians, who were upon duty in the temple, left it on some business,
+and the other fell asleep, and suffered the fire to go out. When he
+awaked and saw that he had incurred the penalty of death, he went and
+got some profane fire, as tho' he had been going to light his pipe,
+and with that he renewed the eternal fire. His transgression was by
+that means concealed; but a dreadful mortality immediately ensued, and
+raged for four years, during which many Suns and an infinite number of
+the people died.
+
+"The guardian at length sickened, and found himself dying, upon which
+he sent for the Great Sun, and confessed the heinous crime he had been
+guilty of. The old men were immediately assembled, and, by their
+advice, fire being snatched from the other temple, and brought into
+this, the mortality quickly ceased." Upon my asking him what he meant
+by "snatching the fire," he replied, "that it must always be brought
+away by violence, and that some blood must be shed, unless some tree
+on the road was set on fire by lightning, and {317} then the fire
+might be brought from thence; but that the fire of the sun was always
+preferable."
+
+It is impossible to express his astonishment when I told him, that it
+was a trifling matter to bring down fire from the sun, and that I had it
+in my power to do it whenever I pleased. As he was extremely desirous to
+see me perform that seeming miracle, I took the smallest of two burning
+glasses which I had brought from France, and placing some dry punk (or
+agaric) upon a chip of wood, I drew the focus of the glass upon it, and
+with a tone of authority pronounced the word _Caheuch_, that is, _come_,
+as tho' I had been commanding the fire to come down. The punk
+immediately smoking, I blew a little and made it flame to the utter
+astonishment of the Great Sun and his whole retinue, some of whom stood
+trembling with amazement and religious awe. The prince himself could not
+help exclaiming, "Ah, what an extraordinary thing is here!" I confirmed
+him in his idea, by telling him, that I greatly loved and esteemed that
+useful instrument, as it was most valuable, and was given to me by my
+grandfather, who was a very learned man.
+
+Upon his asking me, if another man could do the same thing with that
+instrument that he had seen me do, I told him that every man might do
+it, and I encouraged him to make the experiment himself. I accordingly
+put the glass in his hand, and leading it with mine over another piece
+of agaric, I desired him to pronounce the word _Caheuch_, which he did,
+but with a very faint and diffident tone; nevertheless, to his great
+amazement, he saw the agaric begin to smoke, which so confounded him
+that he dropt both the chip on which it was laid and the glass out of
+his hands, crying out, "Ah, what a miracle!"
+
+Their curiosity being now fully raised, they held a consultation in my
+yard, and resolved to purchase at any rate my wonderful glass, which
+would prevent any future mortality in their nation, in consequence of
+the extinction of the eternal fire. I, in the mean time, had gone out
+to my field, as if about some business; but in reality to have a
+hearty laugh at the comical scene which I had just occasioned. Upon my
+return the Great Sun entered my apartment with me, and laying his hand
+upon mine, told me, that tho' he loved all the French, he {318} was
+more my friend than of any of the rest, because most of the French
+carried all their understanding upon their tongue, but that I carried
+mine in my whole head and my whole body. After this preamble he
+offered to bargain for my glass, and desired me to set what value I
+pleased upon it, adding that he would not only cause the price to be
+paid by all the families of the nation, but would declare to them that
+they lay under an obligation to me for giving up to them a thing which
+saved them from a general mortality. I replied, that tho' I bore his
+whole nation in my heart, yet nothing made me part with my glass, but
+my affection for him and his brother; that, besides, I asked nothing
+in return but things necessary for my subsistence, such as corn,
+fowls, game, and fish, when they brought him any of these. He offered
+me twenty barrels of maiz, of 150 pounds each, twenty fowls, twenty
+turkies, and told me that he would send me game and fish every time
+his warriors brought him any, and his promise was punctually
+fulfilled. He engaged likewise not to speak any thing about it to the
+Frenchmen, lest they should be angry with me for parting with an
+instrument of so great a value. Next day the glass was tried before a
+general assembly of all the Suns, both men and women, the nobles, and
+the men of rank, who all met together at the temple; and the same
+effect being produced as the day before, the bargain was ratified; but
+it was resolved not to mention the affair to the common people, who,
+from their curiosity to know the secrets of their court, were
+assembled in great numbers not far from the temple, but only to tell
+them, that the whole nation of the Natchez were under great
+obligations to me.
+
+The Natchez are brought up in a most perfect submission to their
+sovereign; the authority which their princes exercise over them is
+absolutely despotic, and can be compared to nothing but that of the
+first Ottoman emperors. Like these, the Great Sun is absolute master
+of the lives and estates of his subjects, which he disposes of at his
+pleasure, his will being the only law; but he has this singular
+advantage over the Ottoman princes, that he has no occasion to fear
+any seditious tumults, or any conspiracy against his person. If he
+orders a man guilty of a capital crime to be put to death, the
+criminal {319} neither supplicates, nor procures intercession to be
+made for his life, nor attempts to run away. The order of the
+sovereign is executed on the spot, and nobody murmurs. But however
+absolute the authority of the Great Sun may be, and although a number
+of warriors and others attach themselves to him, to serve him, to
+follow him wherever he goes, and to hunt for him, yet he raises no
+stated impositions; and what he receives from those people appears
+given, not so much as a right due, as a voluntary homage, and a
+testimony of their love and gratitude.
+
+The Natchez begin their year in the month of March, as was the
+practice a long time in Europe, and divide it into thirteen moons. At
+every new moon they celebrate a feast, which takes its name from the
+principal fruits reaped in the preceding moon, or from animals that
+are then usually hunted. I shall give an account of one or two of
+these feasts as concisely as I can.
+
+The first moon is called that of the Deer, and begins their new year,
+which is celebrated by them with universal joy, and is at the same
+time an anniversary memorial of one of the most interesting events in
+their history. In former times a Great Sun, upon hearing a sudden
+tumult in his village, had left his hut in a great hurry, in order to
+appease it, and fell into the hands of his enemies; but was quickly
+after rescued by his warriors, who repulsed the invaders, and put them
+to flight.
+
+In order to preserve the remembrance of this honourable exploit, the
+warriors divide themselves into two bodies, distinguished from each
+other by the colour of their feathers. One of these bodies represents
+the invaders, and after raising loud shouts and cries, seize the Great
+Sun, who comes out of his hut undressed, and rubbing his eyes, as
+though he were just awake. The Great Sun defends himself intrepidly
+with a wooden tomahawk, and lays a great many of his enemies upon the
+ground, without however giving them a single blow, for he only seems
+to touch them with his weapon. In the mean time the other party come
+out of their ambuscade, attack the invaders, and, after fighting with
+them for some time, rescue their prince, and drive them into a wood,
+which is represented by an arbour {320} made of canes. During the
+whole time of the skirmish, the parties keep up the war-cry, or the
+cry of terror, as each of them seem to be victors or vanquished. The
+Great Sun is brought back to his hut in a triumphant manner; and the
+old men, women, and children, who were spectators of the engagement,
+rend the sky with their joyful acclamations. The Great Sun continues
+in his hut about half an hour, to repose himself after his great
+fatigues, which are such that an actor of thirty years of age would
+with difficulty have supported them, and he however, when I saw this
+feast, was above ninety. He then makes his appearance again to the
+people, who salute him with loud acclamations, which cease upon his
+proceeding towards the temple. When he is arrived in the middle of the
+court before the temple, he makes several gesticulations, then
+stretches out his arms horizontally, and remains in that posture
+motionless as a statute for half an hour. He is then relieved by the
+master of the ceremonies, who places himself in the same attitude, and
+half an hour after is relieved by the great chief of war, who remains
+as long in the same posture. When this ceremony is over, the Great
+Sun, who, when he was relieved, had returned to his hut, appears again
+before the people in the ornaments of his dignity, is placed upon his
+throne, which is a large stool with four feet cut out of one piece of
+wood, has a fine buffalo's skin thrown over his shoulders, and several
+furs laid upon his feet, and receives various presents from the women,
+who all the while continue to express their joy by their shouts and
+acclamations. Strangers are then invited to dine with the Great Sun,
+and in the evening there is a dance in his hut, which is about thirty
+feet square, and twenty feet high, and like the temple is built upon a
+mount of earth, about eight feet high, and sixty feet over on the
+surface.
+
+The second moon, which answers to our April, is called the Strawberry
+moon, as that fruit abounds then in great quantities.
+
+The third moon is that of the Small Corn. This moon is often
+impatiently looked for, their crop of large corn never sufficing to
+nourish them from one harvest to another.
+
+{321} The fourth is that of Water-melons, and answers to our June.
+
+The fifth moon is that of the Fishes: in this month also they gather
+grapes, if the birds have suffered them to ripen.
+
+The sixth, which answers to our August, is that of the Mulberries. At
+this feast they likewise carry fowls to the Great Sun.
+
+The seventh, which is that of Maiz, or Great Corn. This feast is
+beyond dispute the most solemn of all. It principally consists in
+eating in common, and in a religious manner, of new corn, which had
+been sown expressly with that design, with suitable ceremonies. This
+corn is sown upon a spot of ground never before cultivated; which
+ground is dressed and prepared by the warriors alone, who also are the
+only persons that sow the corn, weed it, reap it, and gather it. When
+this corn is near ripe, the warriors fix on a place proper for the
+general feast, and close adjoining to that they form a round granary,
+the bottom and sides of which are of cane; this they fill, with the
+corn, and when they have finished the harvest, and covered the
+granary, they acquaint the Great Sun, who appoints the day for the
+general feast. Some days before the feast, they build huts for the
+Great Sun, and for all the other families, round the granary, that of
+the Great Sun being raised upon a mount of earth about two feet high.
+On the feast-day the whole nation set out from their village at
+sun-rising, leaving behind only the aged and infirm that are not able
+to travel, and a few warriors, who are to carry the Great Sun on a
+litter upon their shoulders. The seat of this litter is covered with
+several deer skins, and to its four sides are fastened four bars which
+cross each other, and are supported by eight men, who at every hundred
+paces transfer their burden to eight other men, and thus successively
+transport it to the place where the feast is celebrated, which may be
+near two miles from the village. About nine o'clock the Great Sun
+comes out of his hut dressed in the ornaments of his dignity, and
+being placed in his litter, which has a canopy at the head formed of
+flowers, he is carried in a few minutes to the sacred granary, shouts
+of {322} joy re-echoing on all sides. Before he alights he makes the
+tour of the whole place deliberately, and when he comes before the
+corn, he salutes it thrice with the words, _hoo, hoo, hoo_, lengthened
+and pronounced respectfully. The salutation is repeated by the whole
+nation, who pronounce the word _hoo_ nine times distinctly, and at the
+ninth time he alights and places himself on his throne.
+
+Immediately after they light a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood
+violently against each other, and when every thing is prepared for
+dressing the corn, the chief of war, accompanied by the warriors
+belonging to each family, presents himself before the throne, and
+addresses the Sun in these words, "speak, for I hear thee." The
+sovereign then rises up, bows towards the four quarters of the world,
+and advancing to the granary, lifts his eyes and hands to heaven, and
+says, "Give us corn:" upon which the great chief of war, the princes
+and princesses, and all the men, thank him separately, by pronouncing
+the word _hoo_. The corn is then distributed, first to the female Suns,
+and then to all the women, who run with it to their huts, and dress it
+with the utmost dispatch. When the corn is dressed in all the huts, a
+plate of it is put into the hands of the Great Sun, who presents it to
+the four quarters of the world, and then says to the chief of war,
+_eat_; upon this signal the warriors begin to eat in all the huts; after
+them the boys of whatever age, excepting those who are on the breast;
+and last of all the women. When the warriors have finished their
+repast, they form themselves into two choirs before the huts, and sing
+war songs for half an hour; after which the chief of war, and all the
+warriors in succession, recount their brave exploits, and mention, in
+a boasting manner, the number of enemies they have slain. The youths
+are next allowed to harangue, and each tells in the best manner he
+can, not what he has done, but what he intends to do; and if his
+discourse merits approbation, he is answered by a general _hoo_; if not,
+the warriors hang down their heads and are silent.
+
+This great solemnity is concluded with a general dance by torch-light.
+Upwards of two hundred torches of dried canes, each of the thickness
+of a child, are lighted round the place, {323} where the men and women
+often continue dancing till day-light; and the following is the
+disposition of their dance. A man places himself on the ground with a
+pot covered with a deer-skin, in the manner of a drum, to beat time to
+the dances; round him the women form themselves into a circle, not
+joining hands, but at some distance from each other; and they are
+inclosed by the men in another circle, who have in each hand a
+chichicois, or calabash, with a stick thrust through it to serve for a
+handle. When the dance begins, the women move round {324} the men in
+the centre, from left to right, and the men contrariwise from right to
+left, and they sometimes narrow and sometimes widen their circles. In
+this manner the dance continues without intermission the whole night,
+new performers successively taking the place of those who are wearied
+and fatigued.
+
+[Illustration: _Dance of the Natchez indians_ (on p. 323)]
+
+Next morning no person is seen abroad before the Great Sun comes out
+of his hut, which is generally about nine o'clock, and then upon
+signal made by the drum, the warriors make their appearance
+distinguished into two troops, by the feathers which they wear on
+their heads. One of these troops is headed by the Great Sun, and the
+other by the chief of war, who begin a new diversion by tossing a ball
+of deer-skin stuffed with Spanish beard from the one to the other. The
+warriors quickly take part in the sport, and a violent contest ensues
+which of the two parties shall drive the ball to the hut of the
+opposite chief. The diversion generally lasts two hours, and the
+victors are allowed to wear the feathers of superiority till the
+following year, or till the next time they play at the ball. After
+this the warriors perform the war dance; and last of all they go and
+bathe; an exercise which they are very fond of when they are heated or
+fatigued.
+
+The rest of that day is employed as the preceding; for the feasts
+holds as long as any of the corn remains. When it is all eat up, the
+Great Sun is carried back in his litter, and they all return to the
+village, after which he sends the warriors to hunt both for themselves
+and him.
+
+The eighth moon is that of Turkies, and answers to our October.
+
+The ninth moon is that of the Buffalo; and it is then they go to hunt
+that animal. Having discovered whereabouts the herd feeds, they go out
+in a body to hunt them. Young and old, girls and married women, except
+those who are with child, are all of the party, for there is generally
+work for them all. Some nations are a little later in going out to
+this hunting, that they may find the cows fatter, and the herds more
+numerous.
+
+The tenth moon is that of Bears; at this time of hunting the feasts
+are not so grand and solemn, because great part of the nations are
+accompanying the hunters in their expeditions.
+
+{325} The eleventh answers to our January, and is named as Cold-meal
+Moon. The twelfth is that of Chesnuts. That fruit has been gathered
+long before, nevertheless it gives its name to this moon.
+
+Lastly, the thirteenth is that of Walnuts, and it is added to compleat
+the year. It is then they break the nuts to make bread of them by
+mixing with them the flour of Maiz.
+
+The feasts which I saw celebrated in the chief village of the Natchez,
+which is the residence of the Great Sun, are celebrated in the same
+manner in all the villages of the nation, which are each governed by a
+Sun, who is subordinate to the Great Sun, and acknowledge his absolute
+authority.
+
+It is not to be conceived how exact these people are in assigning the
+pre-eminence to the men. In every assembly, whether of the whole
+nation in general, or of several families together, or of one family,
+the youngest boys have the preference to the women of the most
+advanced age; and at their meals, when their food is distributed, none
+is presented to the women, till all the males have received their
+share, so that a boy of two years old is served before his mother.
+
+The women being always employed, without ever being diverted from
+their duty, or seduced by the gallantries of lovers, never think of
+objecting to the propriety of a custom, in which they have been
+constantly brought up. Never having seen any example that contradicted
+it, they have not the least idea of varying from it. Thus being
+submissive from the habit, as well as from reason, they, by their
+docility, maintain that peace in their families, which they find
+established upon entering them.
+
+{326}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+_Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks._
+
+
+Paternal authority, as I have elsewhere observed, is not less sacred
+and inviolable than the pre-eminence of the men. It still subsists
+among the Natchez, such as it was in the first ages of the world. The
+children belong to the father, and while he lives they are under his
+power. They live with him, they, their wives, and their children; the
+same hut contains the whole family. The old man alone commands there,
+and nothing but death puts an end to his empire. As these people have
+seldom or rather never any differences among them, the paternal
+authority appears in nothing more conspicuous than in the marriages.
+
+When the boys and girls arrive at the perfect age of puberty, they
+visit each other familiarly, and are suffered so to do. The girls,
+sensible that they will be no longer mistresses of their heart, when
+once they are married, know how to dispose of it to advantage, and
+form their wardrobe by the sale of their favours; for there, as well
+as in other countries, nothing for nothing. The lover, far from having
+any thing to object to this, on the contrary, rates the merit of his
+future spouse, in proportion to the fruits she has produced. But when
+they are married they have no longer any intrigues, neither the
+husband nor the wife, because their heart is no longer their own. They
+may divorce their wives; it is, however, so rare to see the man and
+wife part, that during the eight years I lived in their neighbourhood,
+I knew but one example of it, and then each took with them the
+children of their own sex.
+
+If a young man has obtained a girl's consent, and they desire to marry,
+it is not their fathers, and much less their mothers, or male or female
+relations who take upon them to, conclude the match; it is the heads of
+the two families alone, who are usually great-grandfathers, and
+sometimes more. These two old men have an interview, in which, after the
+young man has formally made a demand of the girl, they examine if there
+be any relation between the two parties, and if any, what degree {327}
+it is; for they do not marry within the third degree. Notwithstanding
+this interview, and the two parties be found not within the prohibited
+degrees, yet if the proposed wife be disagreeable to the father,
+grandfather, &c. of the husband, the match is never concluded. On the
+other hand, ambition, avarice, and the other passions, so common with
+us, never stifle in the breasts of the fathers those dictates of nature,
+which make us desire to see ourselves perpetuated in our offspring, nor
+influence them to thwart their children, improperly, and much less to
+force their inclinations. By an admirable harmony, very worthy of our
+imitation, they only marry those who love one another, and those who
+love one another, are only married when their parents agree to it. It is
+rare for young men to marry before they be five-and-twenty. Till they
+arrive at that age they are looked upon as too weak, without
+understanding and experience.
+
+When the marriage-day is once fixed, preparations are made for it both
+by the men and women; the men go a hunting, and the women prepare the
+maiz, and deck out the young man's cabin to the best of their power.
+On the wedding-day the old man on the part of the girl leaves his hut,
+and conducts the bride to the hut of the bridegroom; his whole family
+follow him in order and silence; those who are inclined to laugh or be
+merry, indulging themselves only in a smile.
+
+He finds before the other hut all the relations of the bridegroom, who
+receive and salute him with their usual expression of congratulation,
+namely, _hoo, hoo_, repeated several times. When he enters the hut, the
+old man on the part of the bridegroom says to him in their language,
+_are you there?_ to which he answers, _yes_. He is next desired to sit
+down, and then not a word passes for near ten minutes, it being one of
+their prudent customs to suffer a guest to rest himself a little after
+his arrival, before they begin a conversation; and besides, they look
+upon the time spent in compliments as thrown away.
+
+After both the old men are fully rested, they rise, and the bridegroom
+and bride appearing before them, they ask them, if they love each
+other? and if they are willing to take one another for man and wife?
+observing to them at the same time, {328} that they ought not to marry
+unless they propose to live amicably together; that nobody forces
+them, and that as they are each other's free choice, they will be
+thrust out of the family if they do not live in peace. After this
+remonstrance the father of the bridegroom delivers the present which
+his son is to make into his hands, the bride's father at the same time
+placing himself by her side. The bridegroom then addresses the bride;
+"Will you have me for your husband?" she answers, "Most willingly, and
+it gives me joy; love me, as well as I love you; for I love, and ever
+will love none but you." At these words the bridegroom covers the head
+of the bride with the present which he received from his father, and
+says to her, "I love you, and have therefore taken you for my wife,
+and this I give to your parents, to purchase you." He then gives the
+present to the bride's father.
+
+The husband wears a tuft of feathers fastened to his hair, which is in
+the form of a cue, and hangs over his left ear, to which is fastened a
+sprig of oak with the leaves on, and in his left hand he bears a bow
+and arrows. The young wife bears in her left hand a small branch of
+laurel, and in her right a stalk of maiz, which was delivered to her
+by her mother at the time she received the present from her husband.
+This stalk she presents to her husband, who takes it from her with his
+right hand, and says, "I am your husband;" she answers, and "I am your
+wife." They then shake hands reciprocally with each other's relations;
+after which he leads her towards the bed, and says, "There is our bed,
+keep it tight;" which is as much as to say, do not defile the nuptial
+bed.
+
+The marriage ceremony being thus concluded, the bridegroom and the
+bride, with their friends, sit down to a repast, and in the evening
+they begin their dances, which continue often till day-light.
+
+The nation of the Natchez is composed of nobility and common people.
+The common people are named in their language _Miche-Miche-Quipy_, that
+is, _Stinkards_; a name however which gives them great offense, and
+which it is proper to avoid pronouncing before them, as it would not
+fail to put them into a very bad humour. The common people are to the
+{329} last degree submissive to the nobility, who are divided into
+Suns, nobles, and men of rank.
+
+The Suns are the descendants of the man and woman who pretended to
+have come down from the sun. Among the other laws they gave to the
+Natchez, they ordained that their race should always be distinguished
+from the bulk of the nation, and that none of them should ever be put
+to death upon any account. They established likewise another usage
+which is found among no other people, except a nation of Scythians
+mentioned by Herodotus. They ordained that nobility should only be
+transmitted by the women. Their male and female children were equally
+named Suns, and regarded as such, but with this difference, that the
+males enjoyed this privilege only in their own person, and during
+their own lives. Their children had only the title of nobles, and the
+male children of those nobles were only men of rank. Those men of
+rank, however, if they distinguished themselves by their war-like
+exploits, might raise themselves again to the rank of nobles; but
+their children became only men of rank, and the children of those men
+of rank, as well as of the others, were confounded with the common
+people, and classed among the Stinkards. Thus as these people are very
+long-lived, and frequently see the fourth generation, it often happens
+that a Sun sees some of his posterity among the Stinkards; but they
+are at great pains to conceal this degradation of their race,
+especially from strangers, and almost totally disown those great-grand
+children; for when they speak of them they only say, they are dear to
+them. It is otherwise with the female posterity of the Suns, for they
+continue through all generations to enjoy their rank. The descendants
+of the Suns being pretty numerous, it might be expected that those who
+are out of the prohibited degrees might intermarry, rather than ally
+with the Stinkards; but a most barbarous custom obliges them to their
+mis-alliances. When any of the Suns, either male or female, die, their
+law ordains that the husband or wife of the Sun shall be put to death
+on the day of the interment of the deceased: now as another law
+prohibits the issue of the Suns from being put to death, it is
+therefore impossible for the descendants of the Suns to match with
+each other.
+
+{330} Whether it be that they are tired of this law, or that they with
+their Suns descended of French blood, I shall not determine; but the
+wife of the Great Sun came one day to visit me so early in the morning
+that I was not got out of bed. She was accompanied with her only
+daughter, a girl between fourteen and fifteen years of age, handsome
+and well shaped; but she only sent in her own name by my slave; so
+that without getting up, I made no scruple of desiring her to come in.
+When her daughter appeared I was not a little surprized; but I shook
+hands with them both, and desired them to sit down. The daughter sat
+down on the foot of my bed, and kept her eyes continually fixed on me,
+while the mother addressed herself to me in the most serious and
+pathetic tone. After some compliments to me, and commendations of our
+customs and manners, she condemned the barbarous usages that prevailed
+among themselves, and ended with proposing me as a husband for her
+daughter, that I might have it in my power to civilize their nation by
+abolishing their inhuman customs, and introducing those of the French.
+As I foresaw the danger of such an alliance, which would be opposed by
+the whole nation of the Natchez, and at the same time was sensible
+that the resentment of a slighted woman is very formidable, I returned
+her such an answer as might shew my great respect for her daughter,
+and prevent her from making the same application to some brainless
+Frenchman, who, by accepting the offer, might expose the French
+settlement to some disastrous event. I told her that her daughter was
+handsome, and pleased me much, as she had a good heart, and a well
+turned mind; but the laws we received from the Great Spirit, forbad us
+to marry women who did not pray; and that those Frenchmen who lived
+with their daughters took them only for a time; but it was not proper
+that the daughter of the Great Sun should be disposed of in that
+manner. The mother acquiesced in my reasons; but when they took their
+leave I perceived plainly that the daughter was far from being
+satisfied. I never saw her from that day forwards; and I heard she was
+soon after married to another.
+
+From this relation the reader may perceive that there needs nothing
+but prudence and good sense to persuade those people {331} to what is
+reasonable, and to preserve their friendship without interruption. We
+may safely affirm that the differences we have had with them have been
+more owing to the French than to them. When they are treated
+insolently or oppressively, they have no less sensibility of injuries
+than others. If those who have occasion to live among them, will but
+have sentiments of humanity, they will in them meet with men.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+_Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious Ceremonies of the
+People of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+I shall now proceed to give some account of the customs that prevail
+in general among all the nations of North America; and these have a
+great resemblance to each other, as there is hardly any difference in
+the manner of thinking and acting among the several nations. These
+people have no religion expressed by any external worship. The
+strongest evidences that we discover of their having any religion at
+all, are their temples, and the eternal fire therein kept up by some
+of them. Some of them indeed do not keep up the eternal fire, and have
+turned their temples into charnel-houses.
+
+However, all those people, without exception, acknowledge a supreme
+Being, but they never on any account address their prayers to him,
+from their fixt belief that God, whom they call the Great Spirit, is
+so good, that he cannot do evil, whatever provocation he may have.
+They believe the existence of two Great Spirits, a good and a bad.
+They do not, as I have said, invoke the Good Spirit; but they pray to
+the bad, in order to avert from their persons and possessions the
+evils which he might inflict upon them. They pray to the evil spirit,
+not because they think him almighty; for it is the Good Spirit whom
+they believe so; but because, according to them, he governs the air,
+the seasons, the rain, the fine weather, and all that may benefit or
+hurt the productions of the earth.
+
+They are very superstitious in respect to the flight of birds, and the
+passage of some animals that are seldom seen in their country. They
+are much inclined to hear and believe {332} diviners, especially in
+regard to discovering things to come; and they are kept in their
+errors by the Jongleurs, who find their account in them.
+
+The natives have all the same manner of bringing up their children,
+and are in general well shaped, and their limbs are justly
+proportioned. The Chicasaws are the most fierce and arrogant, which
+they undoubtedly owe to their frequent intercourse with the English of
+Carolina. They are brave; a disposition they may have inherited as the
+remains of that martial spirit that prompted them to invade their
+neighbouring nations, by which they themselves were at length greatly
+weakened. All the nations on the north of the colony are likewise
+brave, but they are more humane than the Chicasaws, and have not their
+high-spirited pride. All these nations of the north, and all those of
+Louisiana, have been inviolably attached to us ever since our
+establishment in this colony. The misfortune of the Natchez, who,
+without dispute, were the finest of all those nations, and who loved
+us, ought not in the least to lessen our sentiments of those people,
+who are in general distinguished for their natural goodness of
+character. All those nations are prudent, and speak little; they are
+sober in their diet, but they are passionately fond of brandy, though
+they are singular in never tasting any wine, and neither know nor care
+to learn any composition of liquors. In their meals they content
+themselves with maiz prepared various ways, and sometimes they use
+fish and flesh. The meat that they eat is chiefly recommended to them
+for being wholesome; and therefore I have conjectured that dog's
+flesh, for which we have such an aversion, must however be as good as
+it is beautiful, since they rate it so highly as to use it by way of
+preference in their feasts of ceremony. They eat no young game, as
+they find plenty of the largest size, and do not think delicacy of
+taste alone any recommendation; and therefore, in general, they would
+not taste our ragouts, but, condemning them as unwholesome, prefer to
+them gruel made of maiz, called in the colony Sagamity.
+
+The Chactaws are the only ugly people among all the nations in
+Louisiana; which is chiefly owing to the fat with which {333} they rub
+their skin and their hair, and to their manner of defending themselves
+against the moskitos, which they keep off by lighting fires of
+fir-wood, and standing in the smoke.
+
+Although all the people of Louisiana have nearly the same usages and
+customs, yet as any nation is more or less populous, it has
+proportionally more or fewer ceremonies. Thus when the French first
+arrived in the colony, several nations kept up the eternal fire, and
+observed other religious ceremonies, which they have now disused,
+since their numbers have been greatly diminished. Many of them still
+continue to have temples, but the common people never enter these, nor
+strangers, unless peculiarly favoured by the nation. As I was an
+intimate friend of the sovereign of the Natchez, he shewed me their
+temple, which is about thirty feet square, and stands upon an
+artificial mount about eight feet high, by the side of a small river.
+The mount slopes insensibly from the main front, which is northwards,
+but on the other sides it is somewhat steeper. The four corners of the
+temple consist of four posts, about a foot and an half diameter, and
+ten feet high, each made of the heart of the cypress tree, which is
+incorruptible. The side-posts are of the same wood, but only about a
+foot square; and the walls are of mud, about nine inches thick; so
+that in the inside there is a hollow between every post. The inner
+space is divided from east to west into two apartments one of which is
+twice as large as the other. In the largest apartment the eternal fire
+is kept, and there is likewise a table or altar in it, about four feet
+high, six long, and two broad. Upon this table lie the bones of the
+late Great Sun in a coffin of canes very neatly made. In the inner
+apartment, which is very dark, as it receives no light but from the
+door of communication, I could meet with nothing but two boards, on
+which were placed some things like small toys, which I had not light
+to peruse. The roof is in the form of a pavilion, and very neat both
+within and without, and on the top of it are placed three wooden
+birds, twice as large as a goose, with their heads turned towards the
+east. The corner and side-posts, as has been mentioned, rise above the
+earth ten feet high, and it is said they are as much sunk under
+ground; it cannot therefore but appear surprising how the natives
+could transport such large beams, fashion them, and raise them {334}
+upright, when we know of no machines they had for that purpose.
+Besides the eight guardians of the temple, two of whom are always on
+watch, and the chief of those guardians, there also belongs to the
+service of the temple a master of the ceremonies, who is also master
+of the mysteries; since, according to them, he converses very
+familiarly with the Spirit. Above all these persons is the Great Sun,
+who is at the same time chief priest and sovereign of the nation. The
+temples of some of the nations of Louisiana are very mean, and one
+would often be apt to mistake them for the huts of private persons,
+but to those who are acquainted with their manners, they are easily
+distinguishable, as they have always before the door two posts formed
+like the ancient Termini, that is, having the upper part cut into the
+shape of a man's head. The door of the temple, which is pretty
+weighty, is placed between the wall and those two posts, so that
+children may not be able to remove it, to go and play in the temple.
+The private huts have also posts before their doors, but these are
+never formed like Termini.
+
+None of the nations of Louisiana are acquainted with the custom of
+burning their dead, which was practised by the Greeks and Romans; nor
+with that of the Egyptians, who studied to preserve them to
+perpetuity. The different American nations have a most religious
+attention for their dead, and each have some peculiar customs in
+respect to them; but all of them either inter them, or place them in
+tombs, and carefully carry victuals to them for some time. These tombs
+are either within their temples, or close adjoining to them, or in
+their neighbourhood. They are raised about three feet above the earth,
+and rest upon four pillars, which are forked stakes fixed fast in the
+ground. The tomb, or rather bier, is about eight feet long, and a foot
+and a half broad; and after the body is placed upon it, a kind of
+basket-work of twigs is wove round it, and covered with mud, an
+opening being left at the head for placing the victuals that are
+presented to the dead person. When the body is all rotted but the
+bones, these are taken out of the tomb, and placed in a box of canes,
+which is deposited in the temple. They usually weep and lament for
+their dead three days; but for those who are killed in war, they make
+a much longer and more grievous lamentation.
+
+{335} Among the Natchez the death of any of their Suns, as I have
+before observed, is a most fatal event; for it is sure to be attended
+with the destruction of a great number of people of both sexes. Early
+in the spring 1725, the Stung Serpent, who was the brother of the
+Great Sun, and my intimate friend, was seized with a mortal distemper,
+which filled the whole nation of the Natchez with the greatest
+consternation and terror; for the two brothers had mutually engaged to
+follow each other to the land of spirits; and if the Great Sun should
+kill himself for the sake of his brother, very many people would
+likewise be put to death. When the Stung Serpent was despaired of, the
+chief of the guardians of the temple came to me in the greatest
+confusion, and acquainting me with the mutual engagements of the two
+brothers, begged of me to interest myself in preserving the Great Sun,
+and consequently a great part of the nation. He made the same request
+to the commander of the fort. Accordingly we were no sooner informed
+of the death of the Stung Serpent, than the commander, some of the
+principal Frenchmen, and I, went in a body to the hut of the Great
+Sun. We found him in despair; but, after some time, he seemed to be
+influenced by the arguments I used to dissuade him from putting
+himself to death. The death of the Stung Serpent was published by the
+firing of two muskets, which were answered by the other villages, and
+immediately cries and lamentations were heard on all sides. The Great
+Sun, in the mean time, remained inconsolable, and sat bent forwards,
+with his eyes towards the ground. In the evening, while we were still
+in his hut, he made a sign to his favourite wife; who in consequence
+of that threw a pailful of water on the fire, and extinguished it.
+This was a signal for extinguishing all the fires of the nation, and
+filled every one with terrible alarms, as it denoted that the Great
+Sun was still resolved to put himself to death. I gently chided him
+for altering his former resolution, but he assured me he had not, and
+desired us to go and sleep securely. We accordingly left him,
+pretending to rely on the assurance he had given us; but we took up
+our lodging in the hut of his chief servants, and stationed a soldier
+at the door of his hut, whom we ordered to give us notice of whatever
+happened. There was no need to fear our being betrayed by the wife of
+{336} the Great Sun, or any others about him; for none of them had the
+least inclination to die, if they could help it. On the contrary, they
+all expressed the greatest thankfulness and gratitude to us for our
+endeavors to avert the threatened calamity from their nation.
+
+Before we went to our lodgings we entered the hut of the deceased, and
+found him on his bed of state, dressed in his finest cloaths, his face
+painted with vermilion, shod as if for a journey, with his
+feather-crown on his head. To his bed were fastened his arms, which
+consisted of a double-barreled gun, a pistol, a bow, a quiver full of
+arrows, and a tomahawk. Round his bed were placed all the calumets of
+peace he had received during his life, and on a pole, planted in the
+ground near it, hung a chain of forty-six rings of cane painted red,
+to express the number of enemies he had slain. All his domesticks were
+round him, and they presented victuals to him at the usual hours, as
+if he were alive. The company in his hut were composed of his
+favourite wife, of a second wife, which he kept in another village,
+and visited when his favourite was with child; of his chancellor, his
+physician, his chief domestic, his pipe-bearer, and some old women,
+who were all to be strangled at his interment. To these victims a
+noble woman voluntarily joined herself, resolving, from her friendship
+to the Stung Serpent, to go and live with him in the country of
+spirits. I regretted her on many accounts, but particularly as she was
+intimately acquainted with the virtues of simples, had by her skill
+saved many of our people's lives, and given me many useful
+instructions. After we had satisfied our curiosity in the hut of the
+deceased, we retired to our hut, where we spent the night. But at
+day-break we were suddenly awaked, and told that it was with
+difficulty the Great Sun was kept from killing himself. We hastened to
+his hut, and upon entering it I remarked dismay and terror painted
+upon the countenances of all who were present. The Great Sun held his
+gun by the butt-end, and seemed enraged that the other Suns had seized
+upon it, to prevent him from executing his purpose. I addressed myself
+to him, and after opening the pan of the lock, to let the priming fall
+out, I chided him gently for his not acting according to his former
+resolution. He pretended at first {337} not to see me; but, after some
+time, he let go his hold of the musket, and shook hands with me
+without speaking a word. I then went towards his wife, who all this
+while had appeared in the utmost agony and terror, and I asked her if
+she was ill. She answered me, "Yes, very ill," and added, "if you
+leave us, my husband is a dead man, and all the Natchez will die; stay
+then, for he opens his ears only to your words, which have the
+sharpness and strength of arrows. You are his true friend, and do not
+laugh when you speak, like most of the Frenchmen." The Great Sun at
+length consented to order his fire to be again lighted, which was the
+signal for lighting the other fires of the nation, and dispelled all
+their apprehensions.
+
+Soon after the natives begun the dance of death, and prepared for the
+funeral of the Stung Serpent. Orders were given to put none to death
+on that occasion, but those who were in the hut of the deceased. A
+child however had been strangled already by its father and mother,
+which ransomed their lives upon the death of the Great Sun, and raised
+them from the rank of Stinkards to that of Nobles. Those who were
+appointed to die were conducted twice a day, and placed in two rows
+before the temple, where they acted over the scene of their death,
+each accompanied by eight of their own relations who were to be their
+executioners, and by that office exempted themselves from dying upon
+the death of any of the Suns, and likewise raised themselves to the
+dignity of men of rank.
+
+Mean while thirty warriors brought in a prisoner, who had formerly
+been married to a female Sun; but, upon her death, instead of
+submitting to die with her, had fled to New Orleans, and offered to
+become the hunter and slave of our commander in chief. The commander
+accepting his offer, and granting him his protection, he often visited
+his countrymen, who, out of complaisance to the commander, never
+offered to apprehend him: but that officer being now returned to
+France, and the runaway appearing in the neighbourhood, he was now
+apprehended, and numbered among the other victims. Finding himself
+thus unexpectedly trapped, he began to cry bitterly; but three old
+women, who were his relations, offering to die in his stead, he was
+not only again exempted from death, but {338} raised to the dignity of
+a man of rank. Upon this he afterwards became insolent, and profiting
+by what he had seen and learned at New Orleans, he easily, on many
+occasions, made his fellow-countrymen his dupes.
+
+[Illustration: _Burial of the Stung Serpent_]
+
+On the day of the interment, the wife of the deceased made a very
+moving speech to the French who were present, recommending her
+children, to whom she also addressed herself, to their friendship, and
+advising perpetual union between {339} the two nations. Soon after the
+master of the ceremonies appeared in a red-feathered crown, which half
+encircled his head, having a red staff in his hand in the form of a
+cross, at the end of which hung a garland of black feathers. All the
+upper part of his body was painted red, excepting his arms, and from
+his girdle to his knees hung a fringe of feathers, the rows of which
+were alternately white and red. When he came before the hut of the
+deceased, he saluted him with a great _hoo_, and then began the cry of
+death, in which he was followed by the whole people. Immediately after
+the Stung Serpent was brought out on his bed of state, and was placed
+on a litter, which six of the guardians of the temple bore on their
+shoulders. The procession then began, the master of the ceremonies
+walking first, and after him the oldest warrior, holding in one hand
+the pole with the rings of canes, and in the other the pipe of war, a
+mark of the dignity of the deceased. Next followed the corpse, after
+which came those who were to die at the interment. The whole
+procession went three times round the hut of the deceased, and then
+those who carried the corpse proceeded in a circular kind of march,
+every turn intersecting the former, until they came to the temple. At
+every turn the dead child was thrown by its parents before the bearers
+of the corpse, that they might walk over it; and when the corpse was
+placed in the temple the victims were immediately strangled. The Stung
+Serpent and his two wives were buried in the same grave within the
+temple; the other victims were interred in different parts, and after
+the ceremony they burnt, according to custom, the hut of the deceased.
+
+{340}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION V.
+
+_Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives._
+
+
+The arts and manufactures of the natives are so insignificant, when
+compared with ours, that I should not have thought of treating of
+them, if some persons of distinction had not desired me to say
+something of them, in order to shew the industry of those people, and
+how far invention could carry them, in supplying those wants which
+human nature is continually exposed to.
+
+As they would have frequent occasion for fire, the manner of lighting
+it at pleasure must have been one of the first things that they
+invented. Not having those means which we use, they bethought
+themselves of another ingenious method which they generally practise.
+They take a dry dead stick from a tree, about the thickness of their
+finger, and pressing one end against another dry piece of wood, they
+turn it round as swiftly as they can till they see the smoke appear,
+then blowing gently soon make the wood flame.
+
+Cutting instruments are almost continually wanted; but as they had no
+iron, which, of all metals, is the most useful in human society, they
+were obliged, with infinite pains, to form hatchets out of large
+flints, by sharpening their thin edge, and making a hole through them
+for receiving the handle. To cut down trees with these axes would have
+been almost an impracticable work; they were therefore obliged to
+light fires round the roots of them, and to cut away the charcoal as
+the fire eat into the tree. They supplied the want of knives for
+cutting their victuals with thin splits of a hard cane, which they
+could easily renew as they wore out.
+
+
+They made their bows of acacia wood, which is hard and easily cleft;
+and at first their bowstrings were made of the bark of the wood, but
+now they make them of the thongs of hides. Their arrows are made of a
+shrub that sends out long straight shoots; but they make some of small
+hard reeds: those that are intended for war, or against the buffalo,
+the deer, or large carp, are pointed with the sharp scale of the armed
+fish, which is neatly fastened to the head of the arrow with splits of
+cane and fish-glue.
+
+{341} The skins of the beasts which they killed in hunting naturally
+presented themselves for their covering; but they must be dressed
+however before they could be properly used. After much practice they
+at length discovered that the brain of any animal suffices to dress
+its skin. To sew those skins they use the tendons of animals beat and
+split into threads, and to pierce the skins they apply the bone of a
+heron's leg, sharpened like an awl.
+
+To defend themselves against the inclemencies of the weather, they
+built huts of wood, which were close and strong enough to resist the
+impetuosity of the wind. These huts are each a perfect square; none of
+them are less than fifteen feet square, and some of them are more than
+thirty feet in each of their fronts. They erect these huts in the
+following manner: they bring from the woods several young
+walnut-trees, about four inches in diameter, and thirteen or twenty
+feet high; they plant the strongest of these in the four corners, and
+the others fifteen inches from each other in straight lines, for the
+sides of the building; a pole is then laid horizontally along the
+sides in the inside, and all the poles are strongly fastened to it by
+split canes. Then the four corner poles are bent inwards till they all
+meet in the centre, where they are strongly fastened together; the
+side-poles are then bent in the same direction, and bound down to the
+others; after which they make a mortar of mud mixed with Spanish
+beard, with which they fill up all the chinks, leaving no opening but
+the door, and the mud they cover both outside and inside with mats
+made of the splits of cane. The roof is thatched with turf and straw
+intermixed, and over all is laid a mat of canes, which is fastened to
+the tops of the walls by the creeping plant. These huts will last
+twenty years without any repairs.
+
+The natives having once built for themselves fixed habitations, would
+next apply themselves to the cultivation of the ground. Accordingly,
+near all their habitations, they have fields of maiz, and of another
+nourishing grain called Choupichoul, which grows without culture. For
+dressing their fields they invented hoes, which are formed in the
+shape of an L, having the lower part flat and sharp; and to take the
+husk {342} from their corn they made large wooden mortars, by
+hollowing the trunks of trees with fire.
+
+To prepare their maiz for food, and likewise their venison and game,
+there was a necessity for dressing them over the fire, and for this
+purpose they bethought themselves of earthen ware, which is made by
+the women, who not only form the vessel, but dig up and mix the clay.
+In this they are tolerable artists; they make kettles of an
+extraordinary size, pitchers with a small opening, gallon bottles with
+long necks, pots or pitchers for their bear oil, which will hold forty
+pints; lastly, large and small plates in the French fashion: I had
+some made out of curiosity upon the model of my delf-ware, which were
+a very pretty red. For sifting the flour of their maiz, and for other
+uses, the natives make sieves of various finenesses of the splits of
+cane. To supply themselves with fish they make nets of the bark of the
+limetree; but the large fish they shoot with arrows.
+
+The beds of the natives are placed round the sides of their huts,
+about a foot and a half from the ground, and are formed in this
+manner. Six forked stakes support two poles, which are crossed by
+three others, over which canes are laid so close as to form an even
+surface, and upon these are laid several bear skins, which serve for
+the bed furniture; a buffalo's skin is the coverlet, and a sack stuft
+with Spanish beard is the bolster. The women sometimes add to this
+furniture of the bed mats wove of canes, dyed of three colours, which
+colours in the weaving are formed into various figures. These mats
+render the bottom of the bed still smoother, and in hot weather they
+remove the bear skins and lie upon them. Their seats or stools, which
+they seldom use, are about six or seven inches high, and the seat and
+feet are made of the same piece.
+
+The women likewise make a kind of hampers to carry corn, flesh, fish,
+or any other thing which they want to transport from one place to
+another; they are round, deeper than broad, and of all sizes. Here, as
+well as in other countries, the women take special care to lay up
+securely all their trinkets and finery. They make baskets with long
+lids that roll doubly over them, and in these they place their
+ear-rings and pendants, their {343} bracelets, garters, their ribbands
+for their hair, and their vermilion for painting themselves, if they
+have any, but when they have no vermilion they boil ochre, and paint
+themselves with that.
+
+The women also make the men's girdles and garters, and the collars for
+carrying their burdens. These collars are formed of two belts of the
+breadth of the hand of bear's skin, dressed so as to soften it, and
+these belts are joined together by long cross straps of the same
+leather, that serve to tie the bundles, which are oftener carried by
+the women than the men. One of the broad belts goes over their
+shoulders, and the other across their forehead, so that those two
+parts mutually ease each other.
+
+The women also make several works in embroidery with the skin of the
+porcupine, which is black and white, and is cut by them into thin
+threads, which they dye of different colours. Their designs greatly
+resemble those which we meet with on gothic architecture; they are
+formed of straight lines, which when they meet always cross each
+other, or turn off at square angles.
+
+The conveniences for passing rivers would soon be suggested to them by
+the floating of wood upon the water. Accordingly one of their methods
+of crossing rivers is upon floats of canes, which are called by them
+Cajeu, and are formed in this manner: They cut a great number of
+canes, which they tie up into faggots, part of which they fasten
+together side-ways, and over these they lay a row crossways, binding
+all close together, and then launching it into the water. For carrying
+a great number of men with their necessary baggage, they soon found it
+necessary to have other conveniences; and nothing appeared so proper
+for this as some of their large trees hollowed; of these they
+accordingly made their pettyaugres, which as I mentioned above are
+sometimes so large as to carry ten or twelve ton weight. These
+pettyaugres are conducted by short oars, called Pagaies, about six
+feet long, with broad points, which are not fastened to the vessel,
+but managed by the rowers like shovels.
+
+{344}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VI.
+
+_Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their Meals and
+Fastings._
+
+
+The natives of Louisiana, both men and women, wear a very thin dress
+in the summer. During the heat the men wear only a little apron of
+deer skin, dressed white or dyed black; but hardly any but chiefs wear
+black aprons. Those who live in the neighbourhood of the French
+settlements wear aprons of coarse limbourgs, a quarter of a yard
+broad, and the whole breadth of the cloth, or five quarters long;
+these aprons are fastened by a girdle about their waists, and tucked
+up between the thighs.
+ I
+During the heats the women wear only half a yard of limbourg stuff
+about their middle, which covers them down to the knees; or in place
+of that they use deer skin; and the rest of the body both in men and
+women is naked.
+
+Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the mulberry-tree, or of
+the feathers of swans, turkies, or India ducks. The bark they take
+from young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have
+been cut down; after it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all
+the woody part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a
+second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the
+dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the coarseness
+of pack-thread, and weave them in the following manner: they plant
+two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, and having
+stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads
+of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious
+manner into a cloak of about a yard square with a wrought border round
+the edges.
+
+The young boys and girls go quite naked; but the girls at the age of
+eight or ten put on a little petticoat, which is a kind of fringe made
+of threads of mulberry bark. The boys do not wear any covering till
+they are twelve or thirteen years of age.
+
+Some women even in hot weather have a small cloak wrapt round like a
+waistcoat; but when the cold sets in, they wear a {345} second, the
+middle of which passes under the right arm, and the two ends are
+fastened over the left shoulder, so that the two arms are at liberty,
+and one of the breasts is covered. They wear nothing on their heads;
+their hair is suffered to grow to its full length, except in the
+fore-part, and it is tied in a cue behind in a kind of net made of
+mulberry threads. They carefully pick out all the hairs that grow upon
+any part of the body.
+
+The shoes of the men and women are of the same fashion, but they
+rarely wear any but when they travel. They are made of deer-skin, the
+sole and upper-leather of the same piece, which is sewed together on
+the upper part of the foot; they are cut about three inches longer
+than the foot, and are folded over the toes; the quarters are about
+nine inches high, and fasten round the leg like a buskin. The womens'
+ear-rings are made of the center part of a large shell, called burgo,
+which is about the thickness of one's little finger, and there is a
+hole in the ear about that size for holding it. Their necklaces are
+composed of several strings of longish or roundish kernel-stones,
+somewhat resembling porcelaine; and with the smallest of these
+kernel-stones they ornament their furs, garters, &c.
+
+From their early youth the women get a streak pricked cross their
+nose; some of them have a streak pricked down the middle of their
+chin; others in different parts, especially the women of the nations
+who have the R in their language. I have seen some who were pricked
+all over the upper part of the body, not even excepting the breasts
+which are extremely sensible.
+
+In the cold weather the men cover themselves with a shirt made of two
+dressed deer-skins, which is more like a fur night-gown than a shirt:
+they likewise, at the same time, wear a kind of breeches, which cover
+both the thighs and the legs. If the weather be very severe, they
+throw over all a buffalo's skin, which is dressed with the wool on,
+and this they keep next to their body to increase the warmth. In the
+countries where they hunt beavers, they make robes of six skins of
+those animals sewed together.
+
+{346} The youths here are as much taken up about dress, and as fond of
+vying with each other in finery as in other countries; they paint
+themselves with vermilion very often; they deck themselves with
+bracelets made of the ribs of deer, which are bent by the means of
+boiling water, and when polished, look as fine as ivory; they wear
+necklaces like the women, and sometimes have a fan in their hand; they
+clip off the hair from the crown of the head, and there place a piece
+of swan's skin with the down on; to a few hairs that they leave on
+that part they fasten the finest white feathers that they can meet
+with; a part of their hair which is suffered to grow long, they weave
+into a cue, which hangs over their left ear.
+
+They likewise have their nose pricked, but no other part till they are
+warriors, and have performed some brave action, such as killing an
+enemy, and bringing off his scalp. Those who have signalized
+themselves by some gallant exploit, cause a tomahawk to be pricked on
+their left shoulder, underneath which is also pricked the hieroglyphic
+sign of the conquered nation. Whatever figure they intend to prick, is
+first traced on the skin with a bit of charcoal, and having fixed six
+needles in a piece of wood in two rows, in such a manner that they
+only stick out about the tenth part of an inch, they prick the skin
+all over the mark, and then rub charcoal dust over the part, which
+enters the punctures, and leaves a mark that can never be effaced.
+This pricking generally gives a fit of sickness to the patient, who is
+obliged for some time to live only on boiled maiz. The warriors also
+pierce the lower part of their ears, and make a hole an inch diameter,
+which they fill with iron wire. Besides these ear-rings they have a
+belt hung round with little bells, if they can purchase any from the
+French, so that they march more like mules than men. When they can get
+no bells, they fasten to their belts wild gourds with two or three
+pebbles in each. The chief ornament of the sovereigns, is their crown
+of feathers; this crown is composed of a black bonnet of net work,
+which is fastened to a red diadem about two inches broad. The diadem
+is embroidered with white kernel-stones, and surmounted with white
+feathers, which in the fore-part are about eight inches long, and half
+as much behind. This crown or feather hat makes a very pleasing
+appearance.
+
+{347} All nations are not equally ingenious at inventing feasts,
+shews, and diversions, for employing the people agreeably, and filling
+up the void of their usual employments. The natives of Louisiana have
+invented but a very few diversions, and these perhaps serve their turn
+as well as a greater variety would do. The warriors practise a
+diversion which is called the game of _the pole_, at which only two play
+together at a time. Each has a pole about eight feet long, resembling
+a Roman f, and the game consists in rolling a flat round stone, about
+three inches diameter and an inch thick, with the edge somewhat
+sloping, and throwing the pole at the same time in such a manner, that
+when the stone rests, the pole may touch it or be near it. Both
+antagonists throw their poles at the same time, and he whose pole is
+nearest the stone counts one, and has the right of rolling the stone.
+The men fatigue themselves much at this game, as they run after their
+poles at every throw; and some of them are so bewitched by it, that
+they game away one piece of furniture after another. These gamesters
+however are very rare, and are greatly discountenanced by the rest of
+the people.
+
+The women play with small bits of cane, about eight or nine inches
+long. Three of these they hold loosely in one hand, and knock them to
+the ground with another; if two of them fall with the round side
+undermost, she that played counts one; but if only one, she counts
+nothing. They are ashamed to be seen or found playing; and as far as I
+could discover, they never played for any stake.
+
+The young people, especially the girls, have hardly any kind of
+diversion but that of the ball: this consists in tossing a ball from
+one to the other with the palm of the hand, which they perform with a
+tolerable address.
+
+When the natives meet with a Frenchman whom they know, they shake
+hands with him, incline their head a little, and say in their own
+language, "Are you there, my friend?" If he has no serious affair to
+propose to them, or if they themselves have nothing of consequence to
+say, they pursue their journey.
+
+If they happen to be going the same way with a French man, they never
+go before him, unless something of consequence {348} oblige them. When
+you enter into their hut, they welcome you with the word of
+salutation, which signifies "Are you there, my friend?" then shake
+hands with you, and pointing to a bed, desire you to sit down. A
+silence of a few minutes then ensues till the stranger begins to
+speak, when he is offered some victuals, and desired to eat. You must
+taste of what they offer you, otherwise they will imagine that you
+despise them.
+
+When the natives converse together, however numerous the assembly be,
+never more than one person speaks at once. If one of the company has
+any thing to say to another, he speaks so low that none of the rest
+hear him. Nobody is interrupted, even with the chiding of a child; and
+if the child be stubborn, it is removed elsewhere. In the council,
+when a point is deliberated upon and debated, they keep silence for a
+short time, and then they speak in their turns, no one offering to
+interrupt another.
+
+The natives being habituated to their own prudent custom, it is with
+the utmost difficulty they can keep from laughing, when they see
+several French men or French women together, and always several of
+them speaking at the same time. I had observed them for two years
+stifling a laugh on those occasions, and had often asked the reason of
+it, without receiving any satisfactory answer. At length I pressed one
+of them so earnestly to satisfy me, that after some excuses, he told
+me in their language, "Our people say, that when several Frenchmen are
+together, they speak all at once, like a flock of geese."
+
+All the nations whom I have known, and who inhabit from the sea as far
+as the Illinois, and even farther, which is a space of about fifteen
+hundred miles, carefully cultivate the maiz corn, which they make
+their principal subsistence. They make bread of it baked in cakes,
+another kind baked among the ashes, and another kind in water; they
+make of it also cold meal, roasted meal, gruel, which in this country
+is called Sagamity. This and the cold meal in my opinion are the two
+best dishes that are made of it; the others are only for a change.
+They eat the Sagamity as we eat soup, with a spoon made of a buffalo's
+horn. When they eat flesh or fish they use bread. They likewise use
+two kinds of millet, which they shell in the manner {349} of rice; one
+of these is called Choupichoul, and the other Widlogouil, and they
+both grow almost without any cultivation.
+
+In a scarcity of these kinds of corn, they have recourse to
+earth-nuts, which they find in the woods; but they never use these or
+chestnuts but when necessity obliges them.
+
+The flesh-meats they usually eat are the buffalo, the deer, the bear,
+and the dog: they eat of all kind of water-fowl and fish; but they
+have no other way of dressing their meat but by roasting or boiling.
+The following is their manner of roasting their meat when they are in
+the fields hunting: they plant a stake in the ground sloping towards
+the fire, and on the point of this stake they spit their meat, which
+they turn from time to time. To preserve what they do not use, they
+cut it into thin pieces, which they dry, or rather half-roast, upon a
+grate made of canes placed cross-ways. They never eat raw flesh, as so
+many people have falsely imagined, and they limit themselves to no set
+hours for their meals, but eat whenever they are hungry; so that we
+seldom see several of them eating at once, unless at their feasts,
+when they all eat off the same plate, except the women, the boys, and
+the young girls, who have each a plate to themselves.
+
+When the natives are sick, they neither eat flesh nor fish, but take
+Sagamity boiled in the broth of meat. When a man falls sick, his wife
+sleeps with the woman in the next bed to him, and the husband of that
+woman goes elsewhere. The natives, when they eat with Frenchmen, taste
+of nothing but of pure roast and boiled: they eat no sallad, and
+nothing raw but fruit. Their drink is pure water or pure brandy, but
+they dislike wine and all made liquors.
+
+Having mentioned their manner of feeding, I shall say a word or two of
+their manner of fasting. When they want rain, or when they desire hot
+weather for ripening their corn, they address themselves to the old
+man who has the greatest character for living wisely, and they intreat
+him to invoke the aerial spirits, in order to obtain what they demand.
+This old man, who never refuses his countrymen's request, prepares to
+fast for nine days together. He orders his wife to withdraw, and {350}
+during the whole time he eats nothing but a dish of gruel boiled in
+water, without salt, which is brought him once a day by his wife after
+sun-set. They never will accept of any reward for this service, that
+the spirits may not be angry with them.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII.
+
+_Of the_ Indian _Art of War._
+
+
+I will now present the reader with their manner of making war, which
+is uniformly the same among all the nations. When one nation intends
+to make war upon another in all the forms, they hold a council of war,
+which is composed of the oldest and bravest warriors. It is to be
+supposed that this nation has been insulted, that the other has
+committed some hostilities against it, or that they have disturbed
+them in their hunting country, coming thither to steal their game, as
+they call it. There is always some pretence for declaring war; and
+this pretence, whether true or false, is explained by the war-chief,
+who omits no circumstance that may excite his nation to take up arms.
+
+After he has explained the reasons for the war, the old men debate the
+question in presence of the great chief or sovereign of the nation.
+This sovereign and the great chief of war are only witnesses of the
+debate; for the opinion of the old men always prevails, and the two
+chiefs voluntarily agree to it, from their respect and their great
+regard for the experience and wisdom of those venerable counsellors.
+
+If it is resolved to demand from the other nation the reason of the
+hostilities committed by them, they name one of their bravest and most
+eloquent warriors, as a second to their speech-maker or chancellor,
+who is to carry the pipe of peace, and address that nation. These two
+are accompanied by a troop of the bravest warriors, so that the
+embassy has the appearance of a warlike expedition; and, if
+satisfaction is not given, sometimes ends in one. The ambassadors
+carry no presents with them, to shew that they do not intend to
+supplicate or beg a peace: they take with them only the pipe of peace,
+{351} as a proof that they come as friends. The embassy is always well
+received, entertained in the best manner, and kept as long as
+possible; and if the other nation is not inclined to begin a war, they
+make very large presents to the ambassadors, and all their retinue, to
+make up for the losses which their nation complains of.
+
+[Illustration: _Bringing the Pipe of Peace_]
+
+If a nation begins actual hostilities without any formalities, the
+nation invaded is generally assisted by several allies, {352} keeps
+itself on the defensive, gives orders to those who live at a great
+distance to join the main body of the nation, prepares logs for
+building a fort, and every morning sends some warriors out upon the
+scout, choosing for that purpose those who trust more to their heels
+than their heart.
+
+The assistance of the allies is generally solicited by the pipe of
+peace, the stalk of which is about four feet and a half long, and is
+covered all over with the skin of a duck's neck, the feathers of which
+are glossy and of various colours. To this pipe is fastened a fan made
+of the feathers of white eagles, the ends of which are black, and are
+ornamented with a tuft dyed a beautiful red.
+
+When the allies are assembled a general council is held in presence of
+the sovereign, and is composed of the great war-chief, the war-chiefs
+of the allies, and all the old warriors. The great war-chief opens the
+assembly with a speech, in which he exhorts them to take vengeance of
+the insults they have received; and after the point is debated, and
+the war agreed upon, all the warriors go a hunting to procure game for
+the war-feast, which, as well as the war-dance, lasts three days.
+
+The natives distinguish the warriors into three classes, namely, true
+warriors, who have always given proofs of their courage; common
+warriors, and apprentice-warriors. They likewise divide our military
+men into the two classes of true warriors and young warriors. By the
+former they mean the settlers, of whom the greatest part, upon their
+arrival, were soldiers, who being now perfectly acquainted with the
+tricks and wiles of the natives, practice them upon their enemy, whom
+they do not greatly fear. The young warriors are the soldiers of the
+regular troops, as the companies are generally composed of young men,
+who are ignorant of the stratagems used by the natives in time of war.
+
+When the war-feast is ready the warriors repair to it, painted from
+head to foot with stripes of different colours. They have nothing on
+but their belt, from whence hangs their apron, their bells, or their
+rattling gourds, and their tomahawk. In their right hand they have a
+bow, and those of the {353} north in their left carry a buckler formed
+of two round pieces of buffalo's hide sewed together.
+
+The feast is kept in a meadow, the grass of which is mowed to a great
+extent; there the dishes, which are of hollow wood, are placed round
+in circles of about twelve or fifteen feet diameter, and the number of
+those circular tables is proportioned to the largeness of the
+assembly, in the midst of whom is placed the pipe of war upon the end
+of a pole seven or eight feet high. At the foot of this pole, in the
+middle of a circle is placed the chief dish of all, which is a large
+dog roasted whole; the other plates are ranged circularly by threes;
+one of these contains maiz boiled in broth like gruel, another roasted
+deer's flesh, and the other boiled. They all begin with eating of the
+dog, to denote their fidelity and attachment to their chief; but
+before they taste of any thing, an old warrior, who, on account of his
+great age, is not able to accompany the rest to the war, makes an
+harangue to the warriors, and by recounting his own exploits, excites
+them to act with bravery against the enemy. All the warriors then,
+according to their rank, smoke in the pipe of war, after which they
+begin their repast; but while they eat, they keep walking continually,
+to signify that a warrior ought to be always in action and upon his
+guard.
+
+While they are thus employed, one of the young men goes behind a bush
+about two hundred paces off, and raises the cry of death. Instantly
+all the warriors seize their arms, and run to the place whence the cry
+comes; and when they are near it the young warrior shews himself
+again, raises the cry of death, and is answered by all the rest, who
+then return to the feast, and take up the victuals which in their
+hurry they had thrown upon the ground. The same alarm is given two
+other times, and the warriors each time act as at first. The war drink
+then goes round, which is a heady liquor drawn from the leaves of the
+Cassine after they have been a long while boiled. The feast being
+finished, they all assemble about fifty paces from a large post, which
+represents the enemy; and this each of them in his turn runs up to,
+and strikes with his tomahawk, recounting at the same time all his
+former brave exploits, and sometimes boasting of valorous deeds that
+he never performed. But {354} they have the complaisance to each other
+to pardon this gasconading.
+
+All of them having successively struck the post, they begin the dance
+of war with their arms in their hands; and this dance and the
+war-feast are celebrated for three days together, after which they set
+out for the war. The women some time before are employed in preparing
+victuals for their husbands, and the old men in engraving upon bark
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that attacks, and of their number
+of warriors.
+
+Their manner of making war is to attack by surprize; accordingly, when
+they draw near to any of the enemy's villages, they march only in the
+night; and that they may not be discovered, raise up the grass over
+which they trod. One half of the warriors watch, while the other half
+sleep in the thickest and most unfrequented part of the wood.
+
+If any of their scouts can discover a hut of the enemy detached from
+the rest, they all surround it about day-break, and some of the
+warriors entering, endeavor to knock the people on the head as they
+awake, or take some man prisoner. Having scalped the dead, they carry
+off the women and children prisoners, and place against a tree near
+the hut the hieroglyphic picture, before which they plant two arrows
+with their points crossing each other. Instantly they retreat into the
+woods, and make great turnings to conceal their route.
+
+The women and children whom they take prisoners are made slaves. But
+if they take a man prisoner the joy is universal, and the glory of
+their nation is at its height. The warriors, when they draw near to
+their own villages after an expedition, raise the cry of war three
+times successively; and if they have a man prisoner with them,
+immediately go and look for three poles to torture him upon; which,
+however weary or hungry they be, must be provided before they take any
+refreshment. When they have provided those poles, and tied the
+prisoner to them, they may then go and take some victuals. The poles
+are about ten feet long; two of them are planted upright in the ground
+at a proper distance, and the other is cut through in the middle, and
+the two pieces are fastened crossways {355} to the other two, so that
+they form a square about five feet every way. The prisoner being first
+scalped by the person who took him, is tied to this square, his hands
+to the upper part, and his feet to the lower, in such a manner that he
+forms the figure of a St. Andrew's cross. The young men in the mean
+time having prepared several bundles of canes, set fire to them; and
+several of the warriors taking those flaming canes, burn the prisoner
+in different parts of his body, while others burn him in other parts
+with their tobacco-pipes. The patience of prisoners in those miserable
+circumstances is altogether astonishing. No cries or lamentations
+proceed from them; and some have been known to suffer tortures, and
+sing for three days and nights without intermission. Sometimes it
+happens that a young woman who has lost her husband in the war, asks
+the prisoner to supply the room of the deceased, and her request is
+immediately granted.
+
+[Illustration: _Torture of Prisoners_--INSET: _Plan of Fort_]
+
+I mentioned above that when one nation declares war against another,
+they leave a picture near one of their villages. That picture is
+designed in the following manner. On the top towards the right hand is
+the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that declares war; next is a naked
+man with a tomahawk in his hand; and then an arrow pointed against a
+woman, who is flying away, her hair floating behind her in the air;
+immediately {356} before this woman is the proper emblem of the nation
+against whom the war is declared. All this is on one line; and below
+is drawn the figure of the moon, which is followed by one I, or more;
+and a man is here represented, before whom is a number of arrows which
+seem to pierce a woman who is running away. By this is denoted, when
+such a moon is so many days old, they will come in great numbers and
+attack such a nation; but this lower part of the picture does not
+always carry true intelligence. The nation that has offered the
+insult, or commenced hostilities wrongfully, rarely finds any allies
+even among those nations who call them brothers.
+
+In carrying on a war they have no such thing as pitched battles, or
+carrying on of sieges; all the mischief they do each other, is by
+surprise and skirmishing, and in this their courage and address
+consists. Among them flight is no ways shameful; their bravery lies
+often in their legs; and to kill a man asleep or at unawares, is quite
+as honourable among them, as to gain a signal victory after a stout
+battle.
+
+When a nation is too weak to defend itself in the field, they
+endeavour to protect themselves by a fort. This fort is built
+circularly of two rows of large logs of wood, the logs of the inner
+row being opposite to the joining of the logs of the outer row. These
+logs are about fifteen feet long, five feet of which are sunk in the
+ground. The outer logs are about two feet thick, and the inner about
+half as much. At every forty paces along the wall a circular tower
+jets out; and at the entrance of the fort, which is always next to the
+river, the two ends of the wall pass beyond each other, and leave a
+side opening. In the middle of the fort stands a tree with its
+branches lopt off within six or eight inches of the trunk, and this
+serves for a watch-tower. Round this tree are some huts, for the
+protection of the women and children from random arrows; but
+notwithstanding all these precautions for defense, if the besieged are
+but hindered from coming out to water, they are soon obliged to
+retire.
+
+When a nation finds itself no longer able to oppose its enemy, the
+chiefs send a pipe of peace to a neutral nation, and solicit their
+mediation, which is generally successful, the vanquished {357} nation
+sheltering themselves under the name of the mediators, and for the
+future making but one nation with them.
+
+Here it may be observed that when they go to attack others, it
+sometimes happens that they lose some of their own warriors. In that
+case, they immediately, if possible, scalp their dead friends, to
+hinder the enemy from having that subject of triumph. Moreover, when
+they return home, whether as victors or otherwise, the great warchief
+pays to the respective families for those whom he does, not bring back
+with him; which renders the chiefs very careful of the lives of their
+warriors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_Of the Negroes of_ Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distemper, and the Manner of curing
+them._
+
+
+Having finished my account of the natives of Louisiana, I shall
+conclude this treatise with some observations relating to the negroes;
+who, in the lower part of the province especially, perform all the
+labours of agriculture. On that account I have thought proper to give
+some instructions concerning them, for the benefit of those who are
+inclined to settle in that province.
+
+The negroes must be governed differently from the Europeans; not
+because they are black, nor because they are slaves; but because they
+think differently from the white men.
+
+First, they imbibe a prejudice from their infancy, that the white men
+buy them for no other purpose but to drink their blood; which is owing
+to this, that when the first negroes saw the Europeans drink claret,
+they imagined it was blood, as that wine is of a deep red colour; so
+that nothing but the actual experience of the contrary can eradicate
+the false opinion. But as none of those slaves who have had that
+experience ever return to their own country, the same prejudice
+continues to subsist on the coast of Guinea where we purchase them.
+Some {358} who are strangers to the manner of thinking that prevails
+among the negroes, may perhaps think that the above remark is of no
+consequence, in respect to those slaves who are already sold to the
+French. There have been instances however of bad consequences flowing
+from this prejudice; especially if the negroes found no old slave of
+their own country upon their first arrival in our colonies. Some of
+them have killed or drowned themselves, several of them have deserted
+(which they call making themselves Marons) and all this from an
+apprehension that the white men were going to drink their blood. When
+they desert they believe they can get back to their own country by
+going round the sea, and may live in the woods upon the fruits, which
+they imagine are as common every where as with them.
+
+They are very superstitious, and are much attached to their
+prejudices, and little toys which they call _gris, gris_. It would be
+improper therefore to take them from them, or even speak of them to
+them; for they would believe themselves undone, if they were stripped
+of those trinkets. The old negroes soon make them lose conceit of
+them.
+
+The first thing you ought to do when you purchase negroes, is to cause
+them to be examined by a skilful surgeon and an honest man, to
+discover if they have the venereal or any other distemper. When they
+are viewed, both men and women are stripped naked as the hand, and are
+carefully examined from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet,
+then between the toes and between the fingers, in the mouth, in the
+ears, not excepting even the parts naturally concealed, though then
+exposed to view. You must ask your examining surgeon if he is
+acquainted with the distemper of the yaws, which is the virus of
+Guinea, and incurable by a great many French surgeons, though very
+skilful in the management of European distempers. Be careful not to be
+deceived in this point; for your surgeon may be deceived himself;
+therefore attend at the examination yourself, and observe carefully
+over all the body of the negro, whether you can discover any parts of
+the skin, which though black like the rest, are however as smooth as a
+looking-glass, without any tumor or rising. Such spots may be easily
+discovered; {359} for the skin of a person who goes naked is usually
+all over wrinkles. Wherefore if you see such marks you must reject the
+negro, whether man or woman. There are always experienced surgeons at
+the sale of new negroes, who purchase them; and many of those surgeons
+have made fortunes by that means; but they generally keep their secret
+to themselves.
+
+Another mortal distemper with which many negroes from Guinea are
+attacked, is the scurvy. It discovers itself by the gums, but
+sometimes it is so inveterate as to appear outwardly, in which case it
+is generally fatal. If any of my readers shall have the misfortune to
+have a negro attacked with one of those distempers, I will now teach
+him how to save him, by putting him in a way of being radically cured
+by the surgeons; for I have no inclination to fall out with those
+gentlemen. I learned this secret from a negro physician, who was upon
+the king's plantation, when I took the superintendence of it.
+
+You must never put an iron instrument into the yaw; such an
+application would be certain death. In order to open the yaw, you take
+iron rust reduced to an impalpable powder, and passed through a fine
+search; you afterwards mix that powder with citron juice till it be of
+the consistence of an ointment, which you spread upon a linen cloth
+greased with hog's grease, or fresh lard without salt, for want of a
+better. You lay the plastier upon the yaw, and renew it evening and
+morning, which will open the yaw in a very short time without any
+incision.
+
+The opening being once made, you take about the bulk of a goose's egg
+of hog's lard without salt, in which you incorporate about an ounce of
+good terebinthine; after which take a quantity of powdered verdigris,
+and soak it half a day in good vinegar, which you must then pour off
+gently with all the scum that floats at top. Drop a cloth all over
+with the verdigris that remains, and upon that apply your last
+ointment. All these operations are performed without the assistance of
+fire. The whole ointment being well mixed with a spatula, you dress
+the yaw with it; after that put your negro into a copious sweat, and
+he will be cured. Take special care that your surgeon uses no
+mercurial medicine, as I have seen; for that will occasion the death
+of the patient.
+
+{360} The scurvy is no less to be dreaded than the yaws; nevertheless
+you may get the better of it, by adhering exactly to the following
+prescription: take some scurvy-grass, if you have any plants of it,
+some ground-ivy, called by some St. John's wort, water-cresses from a
+spring or brook, and for want of that, wild cresses; take these three
+herbs, or the two last, if you have no scurvy-grass; pound them, and
+mix them with citron-juice, to make of them a soft paste, which the
+patient must keep upon both his gums till they be clean, at all times
+but when he is eating. In the mean while he must be suffered to drink
+nothing but an infusion of the herbs above named. You pound two
+handfuls of them, roots and all, after washing off any earth that may
+be upon the roots or leaves; to these you join a fresh citron, cut
+into slices. Having pounded all together, you then steep them in an
+earthen pan in a pint of pure water of the measure of Paris; after
+that you add about the size of a walnut of powdered and purified
+saltpetre, and to make it a little relishing to the negro, you add
+some powder sugar. After the water has stood one night, you squeeze
+out the herbs pretty strongly. The whole is performed cold, or without
+fire. Such is the dose for a bottle of water Paris measure; but as the
+patient ought to drink two pints a day, you may make several pints at
+a time in the above proportion.
+
+In these two distempers the patients must be supported with good
+nourishment, and made to sweat copiously. It would be a mistake to
+think that they ought to be kept to a spare diet; you must give them
+nourishing food, but a little at a time. A negro can no more than any
+other person support remedies upon bad food, and still less upon a
+spare diet; but the quantity must be proportioned to the state of the
+patient, and the nature of the distemper. Besides, good food makes the
+best part of the remedy to those who in common are but poorly fed. The
+negro who taught me these two remedies, observing the great care I
+took of both the negro men and negro women, taught me likewise the
+cure of all the distempers to which the women are subject; for the
+negro women are as liable to diseases as the white women.
+
+{361}
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+_Of the Manner of governing the Negroes._
+
+
+When a negro man or woman comes home to you, it is proper to caress
+them, to give them something good to eat, with a glass of brandy; it
+is best to dress them the same day, to give them something to sleep
+on, and a covering. I suppose the others have been treated in the same
+manner; for those marks of humanity flatter them, and attach them to
+their masters. If they are fatigued or weakened by a journey, or by
+any distempers, make them work little; but keep them always busy as
+long as they are able to do any thing, never suffering them to be
+idle, but when they are at their meals. Take care of them when they
+are sick, and give attention both to their remedies and their food,
+which last ought then to be more nourishing than what they usually
+subsist upon. It is your interest so to do, both for their
+preservation, and to attach them more closely to you; for though many
+Frenchmen say that negroes are ungrateful, I have experienced that it
+is very easy to render them much attached to you by good treatment,
+and by doing them justice, as I shall mention afterwards.
+
+If a negro woman lies-in, cause her to be taken care of in every thing
+that her condition makes necessary, and let your wife, if you have
+one, not disdain to take the immediate care of her herself, or at
+least have an eye over her.
+
+A Christian ought to take care that the children be baptised and
+instructed, since they have an immortal soul. The mother ought then to
+receive half a ration more than usual, and a quart of milk a day, to
+assist her to nurse her child.
+
+Prudence requires that your negroes be lodged at a proper distance, to
+prevent them from being troublesome or offensive; but at the same time
+near enough for your conveniently observing what passes among them.
+When I say that they ought not to be placed so near your habitation as
+to be offensive, I mean by that the smell which is natural to some
+nations of negroes, such as the Congos, the Angolas, the Aradas, and
+others. On this account it is proper to have in their camp a bathing
+place formed by thick planks, buried in the earth about a foot or a
+{362} foot and a half at most, and never more water in it than about
+that depth, for fear lest the children should drown themselves in it;
+it ought likewise to have an edge, that the little children may not
+have access to it, and there ought to be a pond without the camp to
+supply it with water and keep fish. The negro camp ought to be
+inclosed all round with palisades, and to have a door to shut with a
+lock and key. The huts ought to be detached from each other, for fear
+of fire, and to be built in direct lines, both for the sake of
+neatness, and in order to know easily the hut of each negro. But that
+you may be as little incommoded as possible with their natural smell,
+you must have the precaution to place the negro camp to the north or
+north-east of your house, as the winds that blow from these quarters
+are not so warm as the others, and it is only when the negroes are
+warm that they send forth a disagreeable smell.
+
+The negroes that have the worst smell are those that are the least
+black; and what I have said of their bad smell, ought to warn you to
+keep always on the windward side of them when you visit them at their
+work; never to suffer them to come near your children, who, exclusive
+of the bad smell, can learn nothing good from them, either as to
+morals, education, or language.
+
+From what I have said, I conclude that a French father and his wife
+are great enemies to their posterity when they give their children
+such nurses. For the milk being the purest blood of the woman, one
+must be a step-mother indeed to give her child to a negro nurse in
+such a country as Louisiana, where the mother has all conveniences of
+being served, of accommodating and carrying their children, who by
+that means may be always under their eyes. The mother then has nothing
+else to do but to give the breast to her child.
+
+I have no inclination to employ my pen in censuring the over-delicacy
+and selfishness of the women, who thus sacrifice their children; it
+may, without further illustration, be easily perceived how much
+society is interested in this affair. I shall only say, that for any
+kind of service whatever about the house, I would advise no other kind
+of negroes, either young or old, but Senegals, called among themselves
+Diolaufs, because of all {363} the negroes I have known, these have
+the purest blood; they have more fidelity and a better understanding
+than the rest, and are consequently fitter for learning a trade, or
+for menial services. It is true they are not so strong as the others
+for the labours of the field, and for bearing the great heats.
+
+The Senegals however are the blackest, and I never saw any who had a
+bad smell. They are very grateful; and when one knows how to attach
+them to him, they have been found to sacrifice their own life to save
+that of their master. They are good commanders over other negroes,
+both on account of their fidelity and gratitude, and because they seem
+to be born for commanding. As they are high-minded, they may be easily
+encouraged to learn a trade, or to serve in the house, by the
+distinction they will thereby acquire over the other negroes, and the
+neatness of dress which that condition will entitle them to.
+
+When a settler wants to make a fortune, and manage his plantation with
+oeconomy, he ought to prefer his interest to his pleasure, and only
+take the last by snatches. He ought to be the first up and the last
+a-bed, that he may have an eye over every thing that passes in his
+plantation. It is certainly his interest that his negroes labour a
+good deal: but it ought to be an equal and moderate labour, for
+violent and continual labours would soon exhaust and ruin them;
+whereas by keeping them always moderately employed, they neither
+exhaust their strength nor ruin their constitution. By this they are
+kept in good health, and labour longer, and with more good will:
+besides it must be allowed that the day is long enough for an
+assiduous labourer to deserve the repose of the evening.
+
+To accustom them to labour in this manner I observed the following
+method: I took care to provide one piece of work for them before
+another was done, and I informed their commander or driver in their
+presence, that they might not lose time, some in coming to ask what
+they were to do, and others in waiting for an answer. Besides I went
+several times a day to view them, by roads which they did not expect,
+pretending to be going a hunting or coming from it. If I observed them
+idle, I reprimanded them, and if when they saw me coming, they wrought
+too hard, I told them that they fatigued themselves, {364} and that
+they could not continue at such hard labour during the whole day,
+without being harassed, which I did not want.
+
+When I surprised them singing at their work, and perceived that they
+had discovered me, I said to them chearfully, Courage, my boys, I love
+to see you merry at your work; but do not sing so loud, that you may
+not fatigue yourselves, and at night you shall have a cup of Tafia (or
+rum) to give you strength and spirits. One cannot believe the effect
+such a discourse would have upon their spirits, which was easily
+discernible from the chearfulness upon their countenances, and their
+ardour at work.
+
+If it be necessary not to pass over any essential fault in the
+negroes, it is no less necessary never to punish them but when they
+have deserved it, after a serious enquiry and examination supported by
+an absolute certainty, unless you happen to catch them in the fact.
+But when you are fully convinced of the crime, by no means pardon them
+upon any assurances or protestations of theirs, or upon the
+solicitations of others; but punish them in proportion to the fault
+they have done, yet always with humanity, that they may themselves be
+brought to confess that they have deserved the punishment they have
+received. A Christian is unworthy of that name when he punishes with
+cruelty, as is done to my knowledge in a certain colony, to such a
+degree that they entertain their guests with such spectacles, which
+have more of barbarity than humanity in them. When a negro comes from
+being whipped, cause the sore parts to be washed with vinegar mixed
+with salt, Jamaica pepper, which grows in the garden, and even a
+little gun-powder.
+
+As we know from experience that most men of a low extraction, and
+without education, are subject to thieving in their necessities, it is
+not at all surprising to see negroes thieves, when they are in want of
+every thing, as I have seen many badly fed, badly cloathed, and having
+nothing to lie upon but the ground. I shall make but one reflection.
+If they are slaves, it is also true that they are men, and capable of
+becoming Christians: besides, it is your intention to draw advantage
+from them, is it not therefore reasonable to take all the care of
+{365} them that you can? We see all those who understand the
+government of horses give an extraordinary attention to them, whether
+they be intended for the saddle or the draught. In the cold season
+they are well covered and kept in warm stables. In the summer they
+have a cloth thrown over them, to keep them from the dust, and at all
+times good litter to lie upon. Every morning their dung is carried
+away, and they are well curried and combed. If you ask those masters,
+why they bestow so much pains upon beasts? they will tell you, that,
+to make a horse serviceable to you, you must take a good deal of care
+of him, and that it is for the interest of the person to whom a horse
+belongs, so to do. After this example, can one hope for labour from
+negroes, who very often are in want of necessaries? Can one expect
+fidelity from a man, who is denied what he stands most in need of?
+When one sees a negro, who labours hard and with much assiduity, it is
+common to say to him, by way of encouragement, that they are well
+pleased with him, and that he is a good negro. But when any of them,
+who understand our language, are so complimented, they very properly
+reply, _Masser, when negre be much fed, negre work much; when negre has
+good masser, negre be good._
+
+If I advise the planters to take great care of their negroes, I at the
+same time shew them that their interest is connected in that with
+their humanity. But I do no less advise them always to distrust them,
+without seeming to fear them, because it is as dangerous to shew a
+concealed enemy that you fear him, as to do him an injury.
+
+Therefore make it your constant custom to shut your doors securely,
+and not to suffer any negro to sleep in the house with you, and have
+it in their power to open your door. Visit your negroes from time to
+time, at night and on days and hours when they least expect you, in
+order to keep them always in fear of being found absent from their
+huts. Endeavour to assign each of them a wife, to keep clear of
+debauchery and its bad consequences. It is necessary that the negroes
+have wives, and you ought to know that nothing attaches them so much
+to a plantation as children. But above all do not suffer any of them
+to abandon his wife, when he has once made choice of one {366} in your
+presence. Prohibit all fighting under pain of the lash, otherwise the
+women will often raise squabbles among the men.
+
+Do not suffer your negroes to carry their children to the field with
+them, when they begin to walk, as they only spoil the plants and take
+off the mothers from their work. If you have a few negro children, it
+is better to employ an old negro woman to keep them in the camp, with
+whom the mothers may leave something for their children to eat. This
+you will find to be the most profitable way. Above all do not suffer
+the mothers ever to carry them to the edge of the water, where there
+is too much to be feared.
+
+For the better subsistence of your negroes, you ought every week to
+give them a small quantity of salt and of herbs of your garden, to
+give a better relish to their Couscou, which is a dish made of the
+meal of rice or maiz soaked in broth.
+
+If you have any old negro, or one in weak health, employ him in
+fishing both for yourself and your negroes. His labour will be well
+worth his subsistence.
+
+It is moreover for your own interest to give your negroes a small
+piece of waste ground to improve at the end of your own, and to engage
+them to cultivate it for their own profit, that they may be able to
+dress a little better, by selling the produce of it, which you ought
+to buy from them upon fair and just terms. It were better that they
+should employ themselves in cultivating that field on Sundays, when
+they are not Christians, than do worse. In a word, nothing is more to
+be dreaded than to see the negroes assemble together on Sundays,
+since, under pretence of Calinda or the dance, they sometimes get
+together to the number of three or four hundred, and make a kind of
+Sabbath, which it is always prudent to avoid; for it is in those
+tumultuous meetings that they sell what they have stolen to one
+another, and commit many crimes. In these likewise they plot their
+rebellions.
+
+To conclude, one may, by attention and humanity, easily manage
+negroes; and, as an inducement, one has the satisfaction to draw great
+advantage from their labours.
+
+[THE END]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Index
+
+
+Abeikas Indians--293
+Acacia Tree--222
+Achechy--237
+Adaies Indians--9;
+    Post of, 54
+Agriculture, Indian--341
+Aiaouez Indians--59, 62; 63; 66; 305
+Alaron, Martin de--9, 10
+Algonquins--93
+Alder--226
+Alibamous Indians--293
+Alibamous River--135
+Alligator--
+    slave girl kills, 19;
+    author kills large one, 22;
+    description of, 253-255
+Amite River--113
+Ants--272; 273
+Aplaches Indians--293
+Apples, wild--212
+Aquelou-Pissas Indians--18; 297
+Arkansas--
+    German colonists there, 29; 88
+Arkansas Indians--
+    mate with Canadians, 4; 57; 303
+Arkansas River--
+    reached by Tonti, 4; 112; 113; 153-154
+Armed-fish--276-277
+Ascension Bay--114; 139
+Ash--226
+Aspen--226
+Assinais Indians--5-9
+Attakapas Indians--
+    cannibals, 302
+Avoyelles Indians--149;
+    home of, 302-303
+Ayac Shrub--226
+
+Balers, Marquis of--9
+Barataria--145
+Barbel, description of--274
+Barley--203
+Baton Rouge--52;
+    named after a cypress tree, 217
+Bay of St. Bernard--3
+Bay of St. Esprit--2
+Bay of St. Louis--16; 17; 114;
+    lands around, 138
+Bayou Choupic--17; 18
+Bayou Goula--141
+Bayou-Ogoulas Indians--52; 302
+Bayou St. John--17; 18; 49; 52
+Beans--
+    cultivation in La., 204
+Bears--132; 133;
+    description of, 245-249;
+    feast of, 324
+Beavers--
+    description of, 127-131
+Bec-croche--261
+Bees--271
+Bienville--
+    becomes Gov. Gen. of La., 10-11;
+    founds New Orleans, 15;
+    breeds hogs, 16; 28; 38;
+    defeats Natchez Indians, 39; 42; 49; 71; 87; 88; 92; 93;
+    war against Chicasaws, 94-95; 109;
+    returns to La., 186
+Biloxi--11; 16;
+    not suitable for settlement, 28;
+    distress of German colonists, 29;
+    country back of, 30; 47;
+    settlement destroyed, 137.
+Birch Tree--231
+Bishop (Bird)--270
+Blackbirds--268
+Black River--113;
+    land around it, 148;
+    lands along, 151-154
+Bon Homme--195
+Bois-Briant--58
+Bonita Fish--12
+Bourgrnont, Commander de--
+    voyage to Missouri and Kansas, 59-68;
+    his journal, 69; 160; 305
+Bows--
+    how made, 340
+Buffalo--64;
+    hunt by author, 122; 132; 134; 146; 147; 152;
+    hunt in New Mexico, 155;
+    hides and tallow, 155-156; 162, 178;
+    description of, 240;
+    Indian hunt, 240;
+    feast of, 324
+Burgo-Breaker (fish)--275
+Burial customs--333-337
+Butterflies--271
+Buzzard--
+    deseciption of, 258
+
+Caouquias Indians--301
+Caouitas Indians--293
+Caddo Indians--151; 303
+Cadillac, de la Motte--
+    arrives in La., 5; 6; 8; 9;
+    death of, 10;
+    his mine, 163
+Calendar of Natchez--319
+Calumet (Pipe of Peace)--35;
+    feathers for, 258
+Campeachy wood--183
+Canadians--
+    early voyagers to La., 4;
+    at Dauphin Island, 16;
+    at Mobile, 46; 58; 59;
+    get salt, 157;
+    Route to La., 161-163
+Candlemas Islands--138
+Cannes Brulee's--52
+Canoe--
+    how made, 69
+Cantharadies--272
+Canzas (see Kansas)
+Cape Anthony--13
+Cape Francois--11-13; 182
+Capuchins--51
+Caranco--22
+Cardinal--269
+Carolina--
+    population, IX; 47
+Carp--17; 146; 274
+Carrion-Crow--258
+Carthaginians--
+    practised scalping, 283
+Caskaquias (see Kaskasia)
+Cassine Shrub--228
+Castin Bayou--113
+Castine Mine--133
+Catamounts--134; 144
+Caterpillars--271
+Catfish--
+    description of, 274
+Cat Island--16; 138
+Cedar Trees--215; 225
+Celoron, Capt. de--93; 94
+Chacchi-Oumas Indians--300
+Chactaw Indians (see Choctaws)
+Chaineau, M.--278
+Chameleons--257
+Champmelin, Commander--
+    captures Pensacola XXIV; 104; 105
+Chandeleur Islands--13
+Chaouachas Indians--140; 301
+Chaouanous River--162
+Charleville, M. de--109; 110
+Charlevoix--I; III; IV; XXV; XXVI; 24; 30
+Chateauguier--101
+Chatkas Indians--295;
+    language, 297
+Chatots Indians--294
+Cherokees--293
+Cherokee River--162
+Chestnut Trees--214
+Chicasaw Cliffs--133
+Chicasaw Indians--46;
+    murder French, 56-57;
+    war with, 87-90;
+    make peace, 94;
+    country of, 137;
+    destructive wars, 291;
+    language, 297;
+    destroy other tribes, 303-304;
+    fierce and arrogant, 332.
+Chitimachas Indians--18;
+    war with, 71; 300;
+    home of, 302
+Choctaws--46; 80; 84; 85; 113
+Chopart, de--73; his death, 82
+Choupic--276
+Choupichoul (buck wheat)-156-157
+Clerac (Gascony)-27
+Climate--
+    of Gulf Coast, III; VIII;
+    severe weather, 36;
+    at Mobile, 46;
+    of the Miss. Valley, 57;
+    of La., 107-108
+Clothing of Indians--344-346
+Cochineal--183
+Cockle-Island--17, 138
+Codfish--14
+Cola-Pissas--18
+Colbert--3
+Coligni, Admiral de--2
+Conchac Indians--293
+Copper Mines--30, 145
+Corbijeau--266
+Cormorant, 259
+Coroas Indians--300
+Cooking, Indian--342
+Corn--
+    description of, 164-165;
+    importance of.185;
+    its cultivation in La., 202;
+    feast of, 321-322; 347
+Cotton--145; 158;
+    how cultivated, 174-175;
+    for export, 181
+Cotton Tree--222
+Coxe--
+    account of Carolina, VI; XIII; 47
+Cranes--22; 126;
+    description of, 261
+Crayfish--277
+Creeper, bearded--232
+Crocodile--253-255
+Crows--268
+Crozat--
+    La. ceded to, 5;
+    full store-houses, 8;
+    transfers to West India Co., 10; 107
+Cuba--13
+Cushaws--
+    cultivation in La., 206
+Cypress Tree--IV;
+    at Baton Rouge, 52; 216; 217
+
+
+d'Artaguette--28; 52; 88; 92
+Dauphin Isle--13; 15; 45; 46; 49; 101; 103
+d'Avion--23
+Deer--64;
+    white, 124; 132; 134; 144; 152;
+    hunt, 242-244; feast of, 319
+Deer Oil--249
+DeLaet--2
+De Lisle--279
+de Meuse--
+    grant, 54
+de Soto--2
+de Ville, Father--26
+Diodorus Siculus--
+    his description of lands west of Africa, 281-282
+Diseases--
+    fatal to Indians--291;
+    of Negroes, 359-360
+Dove--266
+Dragon flies--272
+Draught (Bird)--263
+Ducks--126;
+    description of, 259-261
+du Crenet--84
+du Haye--198
+Dumont (Historian)--I; V; VII; XXV; 46; 56; 66; 113; 135;
+    historical memoirs, 187; 225
+Du Pratz--1eaves La., 187
+du Tiffenet--88; 89
+du Vernai, Paris--52
+
+Eagles--257
+Eels--277
+Egret--261
+Elder Tree--231
+
+Elephant--
+    skeletons found in Ohio--290
+Elk--64, 132, 134, 144
+Elm--226
+English--
+    extent of American possessions, XIV;
+    shipping, XVII;
+    at English Turn, 47-51;
+    on the Yazoo, 56; 57;
+    on the Miss. River, 140;
+    tobacco trade, 199
+English Turn (Reach)--47; 51;
+    why its name, 139-140
+Epidemic--13
+Episingles Indians--93
+Esquine--181, 233
+Eye Inflammation--
+    treatment for, 43
+Exports--
+    from La. to Islands, 182
+
+Falcon--258
+Feast of War--352-353
+Feasts of Indians--320-322
+Ferns--
+    Maiden hair, 234-235
+Fig Trees--210-211
+Filberts--213
+Fire, how made--340
+Fireflies--272
+Fish--
+    plentiful in La., 274
+Five Nations--294
+Flamingo--22; 126;
+    description of, 261
+Flat root--235
+Flaucourt, Loire de, 24
+Flax--145
+Fleury, Cardinal--187
+Flies--271
+Florida--
+    French settle there, 2;
+    Spanish attack them, 2;
+    French later attack Spanish, 2
+Flowers--239
+Flying Fish--12
+Food of Indians--348-350
+Fool--
+    description of, 263
+Forant, M. de--85
+Fort Assumption--57; 93; 95
+Fort Balise--47; 48; 116; 118;
+    where built, 139
+Fort Carolin (Fla.)--2
+Fort Chartres--58
+Fort Crevecoeur--3
+Fort Louis--46; 294
+Fort Mobile--88; 92
+Fort Orleans--59; 61; 62; 69; 160
+Fort Rosalie--23-24; 33; 34; 35
+Fort St. Francis--92; 95
+Fort St. John Baptist--6; 7; 9; 10
+Fort St. Louis--136
+Fox Indians--
+    home of, 301
+Foxes--251
+French--
+    shipping, XVII;
+    in Fla., 2, 18;
+    at Natchez, 32-33;
+    bad influence, 41;
+    massacre at Natchez, 82-83;
+    commerce with La., 177-182
+Frigate (Bird)--263
+Frogs--253
+Fur trade--178
+
+Gar fish--
+    description of, 276-277
+Gaillard--61-63; 65
+Games--
+    Indian, 347
+Geese--
+    wild, 127; 259
+Gentilly--52
+Germans--
+    in La., 29
+Gold--145; plentiful in Mexico, 150
+Gourges, Dominque de--2; 8
+Grapes--208-209
+Grass Point--17
+Great Sun--40; 42-43
+    burial, 333-336
+Green flies--272
+Grigas Indians--298
+Guenot--34
+Gulf of Mexico Coast--1;
+  northern boundary, 13;
+  description of land bordering, 135-137
+Gypsum--124
+
+Habitations of Indians--341
+Hakluyt (Fla.)--2
+Halcyon--
+    description of, 263-264
+Hatchet-bill--262
+Havana--102
+Hawks--258
+Hedge-hog--253
+Hennepin, Father--3
+Herons--126; 261
+Hemp--
+    cultivation, 180; 238
+Hickory Trees--213
+Horn Island--16
+Hornbean Trees--226
+Hops--177; 234
+Howard, John--58
+Hubert--
+    planter, 20; 22; 24; 25
+Hubert, Mme.--136; 167
+Humming Bird--270
+Hurons--93
+Hurricane--30; 31; 32
+Huts--
+    how made, 341
+
+Iapy, Commander--104
+Iberville--
+    made Gov. Gen. of La., 4;
+    his death, 5; 8; 10
+Iberville River--113
+Illinois--
+    visited by Hennepin and LaSalle, 3;
+    hurricane, 30; 57; 58; 88; 162; 163
+Illinois Indians--66;
+    home of, 300-301
+Illinois River--110
+Indians--
+    travel, 60-61;
+    how to fight, 99-100;
+    origin of, 279;
+    descended from Europeans, 281
+Indigo--
+    cultivation and processing, 168-171;
+    for export, 181;
+    Dumont's method of making, 191-193
+Iron--145
+Iroquois--93;
+    destructive wars of, 291
+Ivy--
+    ground, 237
+
+Jamaica--13
+Jesuits--51; 58
+
+Kappas Indians--304
+Kansas Indians--59; 60; 61; 62; 66; 68; 69; 305
+Kansas River--63; 64; 110;
+    description of, 159
+Kayemans--13
+Kaskasia--58
+Kaskasia Indians--301
+King-fisher--
+    description of, 263
+
+la Chaise, Director Gen.--44; 45
+Lake Borgne--17; 138
+Lake Erie--111; 161
+Lake Maurepas--17; 113
+
+Lake Pontchartrain--17
+Lake St. Louis--17; 46; 49; 52; 113; 135
+Lafourche (the Fork)--141
+Language of Natchez--311
+LaSalle--
+    travels from Canada to the Gulf, 3;
+    is killed on second trip, 4; 116
+Lavert--273
+Laudonviere, René de--2
+Laurel Trees--217
+Laval, Father--XXIII; XXV
+Lavigne, Sieur--18
+Law, John--29
+Lead--132; 145; 158; 163
+LeBlanc--
+    grant, 56; 88
+LeSueur--83
+LeSueur, Bayou--116
+Levans--29
+Liart Trees--226
+Lime Trees--226
+Linarez, Duke of--7-9
+Lion's Mouth (flower) 239
+Lizards--257
+Locust Tree--222
+Longevity of Indians--329
+L'Orient--29
+Loubois, Lieut. de--83; 84
+Louis XIV--3; 5; 107
+Louisiana--
+    poor colonization, XXVI;
+    named after Louis XIV, 3;
+    names, 15;
+    boundary of, 107;
+    description of soil, 117-118;
+    a fine country, 185;
+    fertility of, 197
+Luchereau, M. de--4
+
+Magnolia Trees--218-219
+Magpie--268
+Maize--163-165; 202-203
+Manchac River--111; 114
+Mangrove--223
+Maple Trees--220
+Marameg Mine--158
+Marameg River--58
+Margat River--57; 93
+Marriage customs--326-328
+Massacre Island--
+    Now Dauphin Isle, 13;
+    how it was named, 14
+Massacre of French at Natchez--73; 82
+Medicines--44; 45; 181; 215
+Medicine, Indian--26; 27; 43; 44
+Mehane--22
+Mexicans--
+    descent from Chinese or Japanese, 284
+Mexico--6; 7; 10;
+    home of ancient Natchez tribe, 279;
+    natives kill themselves, 291
+Mezieres, Marquis de--52
+Miami River--111; 161; 162; 163
+Michigamias Indians--304
+Mines in Illinois--163;
+    in La., 195-196
+Miragouine, Sieur--103
+Mississippi River--
+    lands of lower basin, VI; VII;
+    commands continent, IX;
+    navigation of, XI-XII;
+    mouths of, XIII;
+    reached by Hennepin, 3; 15; 18; 24;
+    hurricane, 30; 47; 48; 49; 51;
+    inhabitants along, 52; 53; 55; 58; 59; 63; 107;
+    As names, 109;
+    attempts to find source, 109;
+    mouths of, 114-115;
+    the passes, 117; 133;
+    soil at mouth, 138-139;
+    on east bank, 141-142;
+    lands west of, 145; 161; 162; 163;
+    voyage to source by Indian, 289-290
+Mississippi Scheme--II; 58
+Missionary--23
+Missouri Indians--59; 60; 66;
+    home of, 304-305
+Missouri River--
+    navigation of, XII; 60; 63; 69; 110;
+    description of, 159
+
+Mobile--
+    barren lands, XX; 9; 11;
+    birth place of La., 15; 45; 49; 89;
+    native of land, 135-136;
+    fertility of animals and women, 136
+Mobile Bay--114
+Mobile Indians--294
+Mobile River--
+    Canadians settle on, 4-5; 46; 135
+Moingona River--110
+Moncacht-apé, old wise man of Yazoo tribe--
+    his voyages, 285-290
+Montplaisir, M. de--27
+Montreal--59
+Mosquitoes--
+    description of, 272-273;
+    how Indians fight, 333
+Mulberry Trees--145; 158;
+    for silk growing, 167-168; 212;
+    feast of, 321
+Muscadine Grapes--209
+Mushroom--231
+Myrtle Wax-tree--220
+
+Narvaez--1
+Natchez--
+    goodness of the country, 20-21;
+    commandment, 27-28;
+    terrible storm, 30-32;
+    settlement at, 38-39; 55-56
+Natchez Indians--
+    DuPratz arrives among, 23-27;
+    first war with French, 32-36;
+    second war, 38-39; 55; 69;
+    council of war, 76-77; 84;
+    destroyed by French, 86-87; 153;
+    grow grain, 156;
+    origin of, 279-280; 297;
+    home of, 298;
+    power of, 299;
+    description of social habits--
+        birth and rearing children, 306-311;
+        language, government, religion, 311-320
+Natchitoches--
+    French settle, 5;
+    St. Denis at, 6;
+    Spanish settle near, 8; 54;
+    quality of land, 148;
+    silver there, 195
+Natchitoches Indians--112;
+    home of, 303
+Negroes--
+    revolt, 71;
+    choice of for slaves, 357;
+    how to handle, 361;
+    odors of, 362
+Nesunez, Pamphilo--1
+New Orleans--V;
+    health good, IX;
+    settlement of, 11;
+    founded, 15; 17; 18; 22;
+    physicians and surgeons of, 26; 30; 45; 46;
+    forts below, 48;
+    description of, 49-52;
+    harbor of, 52; 58; 71;
+    climate, 108; 136;
+    nature of soil, 141;
+    distance from Canada, 162
+New Mexico--6; 54; 55; 112;
+    nature of land, 147;
+    hunting there, 155
+Niagara Falls--286
+Nightingale--269
+Nobility--
+    Natchez, 328
+North America--
+    extent of, XV;
+    its products, XVI
+
+Oak Trees--IV; V; 223-225
+Oats--203
+Ohio River--
+    navigation of, XII; 58; 111; 161; 162; 163;
+    skeleton of elephants found, 290
+Ochre--23
+Olivarez, Friar--9
+Olive Trees--213
+Orange Trees--212
+Opelousas Indians--302
+Opossum (wood-rat)--251
+Orignaux--162
+Osage Indians--59-60; 66; 304; 305
+Osage River--159
+Othouez Indians--59; 60; 61; 62; 66; 305
+Otters--253
+Otter Indians--287-288
+Ouachas Indians--140
+Ouchitas Indains--
+    former home of, 303
+Ouachita River--113
+Oumas Indians--52; 80; home of, 297
+Ouse-Ogoulas Indians--300
+Owls--268
+Oysters--
+    in La., 277;
+    on trees in St. Domingo, 278
+
+Paducah Indians--59; 61; 62; 63; 65;
+    Customs and manners, 66-68
+    destructive wars of, 291; 305
+Paillou, Major General--
+    at N. O., 15; 18; 39
+Parroquets--266
+Palmetto--231
+Panimahas Indians--59; 63; 66; 305
+Panis Indians--305
+Partridges--144; 265
+Paseagoulas River--114; 136
+Pasca-Ogoulas Indians--15; 46; 295
+Patassa (fish)--276
+Pawpaws--158; 210
+Peach Trees--210-211
+Pearl River--114
+Pelican--
+    description of, 259
+Pensacola--
+    description of, XXIII; 2;
+    Spanish settle, 8;
+    captured by French, 100-105
+Perdido River--104; 116; 135
+Perrier--
+    Gov. of La., 71; 73; 83; 85;
+    defeats Natchez Indians, 86-87; 153;
+    leaves La., 186
+Perrier de Salvert--72; 86
+Persimmons--209
+Peru--
+    natives killed themselves, 291
+Petits Ecores--52; 53
+Pheasant--264
+Phoenicians--
+    ancestors of Natchez Indians, 283
+Phenomenon--
+    alarming, 30;
+    at Natchez, 36-38;
+    extraordinary, 70
+Pigeons--
+    description of, 266-267
+Pike--276
+Pilchard--14; description of, 276
+Pimiteouis Indians--301
+Pin--IV;
+    for tar, 193-194; 217
+Pipe of Peace--59; 60; 63; 65; 258
+Pitch--
+    how to make, 194
+Plaquemine Bayou--114
+Plums--210
+Pointe Coupeé--52; 53; 54
+Pole Cat--252
+Pope (Bird)--269
+Poplar--222
+Porcupine--253
+Port de Paix--13
+Puerto Rico--11
+Potatoes (sweet)--
+    cultivation in La., 204-205
+Pottery--
+    how made, 342
+Provencals--
+    in La., 29
+Prud'homme Cliffs--93
+Prud'homme River--57
+Pumpkins--206
+
+Quail--266
+Quebec--3; 111
+
+Rabbits--251
+Raimond, Diego--6; 10
+Rattle snake--
+    cure for bite, 237;
+    description of, 255
+Rattle-snake herb--235-237
+Red fish--14
+Red River--54; 55; 112;
+    nature of land, 148; 151
+Red Shoe, Prince of Chactaws--95
+Religion of Natchez--312
+Rice--
+    how grown, 165;
+    how eaten, 166;
+    in La., 204-205
+Richebourg, Captain--101; 102
+Ring-skate (fish)--276
+Rio del Norte--6
+Rochelle--
+    author leaves, 11;
+    returns to, 187
+Rye--
+    in Illinois, 162; 203
+
+Saffron--180
+Sagamity--348; 349
+St. Anthony's Falls--109; 110
+St. Augustin, Fla.--2
+St. Bernard's Bay--116
+St. Catherine's Creek--33; 34; 35; 38
+St. Come--
+    Missionary, 71
+St. Croix River--110
+St. Denis--
+    journey to Mexico, 6-11; 54; 104;
+    popular with natives, 150
+St. Domingo--4; 11; 13;
+    oysters on trees, 277
+St. Francis River--57;
+
+    lands around, 157-158; 112
+St. Hilaire, Surgeon--42
+St. Laurent--93; 94
+St. Lawrence River--111; 161; 286
+St. Louis Church--51
+St. Louis River--3; 4; 8
+St. Rose Isle--101; 102
+St. Peter River--110
+Sallee--58
+Salmont, Com. Gen.--85
+Salt--
+    in lower La., 147;
+    spring near Natchitoches, 149;
+    mines, 153
+Salt petre--147; 180
+Samba--72
+Santa Fé--112
+Sarde (fish)--14
+Sardine--276
+Sarsaparilla--233
+Sassafras--181; 220
+Saw Bill--261
+Scalping--283
+Scotland--
+    tobacco trade, 199
+Scurvy--
+    how to cure--360
+Sea-Lark--263
+Sea Snipe--263
+Ship Island--16; 28
+Shrimp--277
+Siam distemper--13
+Silk--
+    growing experiments, 167-168
+    cultivation possible, 176;
+    worms, 271
+Silver--145; 151; 158; 163; 195
+Sioux Indians--109;
+    home of, 301-306
+Skunk--252
+Smallpox--
+    fatal to Indians, 291
+Snipe--266
+Spanish--
+    claim La., 5; 54; 55;
+    on west of La., colony, 146;
+    near Natchitoches, 150;
+    how they hunt in Mexico, 155;
+    commerce with La., 183-184;
+    attempt to settle Missouri, 305
+Starlings--268
+Stag--242
+Spatula--
+    description of, 261; 276
+Spiders--
+    description of, 257
+Squirrels--252
+Stink Wood Tree--226
+Strawberries--238;
+    feast of, 320
+Stung Arm--79; 80; 81
+Stung Serpent--35; 40;
+    death of, 335-336
+Sturgeon--14
+Sun of the Apple Village--
+    negotiates with the French, 73-78
+Swallows--269
+Swans--127; 162; 259
+Sweet gum--181; 215
+
+Tamarouas Indians--58; 162; 300; 301
+Tangipahoa River--113
+Tar--
+    how to make--193-194
+Tassel--258
+Tattooing--346
+Tchefuncte River--113; 136
+Teal--261
+Temple, Indian--
+    description of, 333
+Tensas Indians--
+    near Mobile, 294;
+    language, 297; 300;
+    former home of, 303
+Tensas River--
+    lands along, 152
+Termites--273
+Thioux Indians--299
+Thomez Indians--294
+Thorn, Passion--229-230
+Thornback (fish)--14
+Tigers--134;
+    description of, 249-250
+Timber--
+    for shipbuilding, 179
+Tobacco--
+    trade, XVII;
+    plantation, 25; 145; 158;
+    in Illinois, 163;
+    how cultivated, 171-174;
+    for export, 181;
+    DuMont's description of cultivation, 187-191;
+    advantages of La. cultivation, 197-198;
+    British imports and exports, 199;
+    worm, 271
+Tombigbee--46; 89
+Tonicas Indians--23; 27; 44; 80; 84; 85;
+    language of, 298
+Tonti, Chevalier de--3; 4
+Topoussas Indians--300
+Torture, Indian--354-355
+Tortuga--13
+Tooth-ache Tree--228
+Tradewinds--12
+Troniou--270
+Turkeys, wild--120; 144;
+    description of, 264;
+    feast of, 324
+Turkey Buzzard--258
+Turtles--253
+
+Ursuline Nuns--51
+
+Vanilla--184
+Vasquez de Aillon, Lucas--1
+Vauban--46
+Vaudreuil, Gov.--95; 96
+Vinegar Tree--227
+Virginia--58
+
+Wabash River--110; 111; 161; 162; 163
+Walnut Tree--158; 213
+War--
+    with Natchez Indians, 32-36; 38-39;
+    causes of Indian wars, 96-97;
+    how they fight, 350;
+    war feast, 352-353
+Wasps--271
+Water-hen--262
+Water Melons--
+    how grown, 166;
+    cultivation of in La., 206-207;
+    feast of, 321
+Wax--
+    from Wax Tree, 220-222
+Wax Tree--176; 220-222
+West India Company--
+    Takes over La., 10;
+    sends colonists, 11; 18; 32; 44;
+    gives up colony, 85
+Wheat--145;
+    in Illinois, 162;
+    in La., 203
+White Apple Village--33; 39;
+    demanded by French, 73
+Whortle-berries--212
+Wild Cat--251
+Wild Geese--22; 259
+Wild Turkey--
+    description of, 264
+    (see turkey)
+Willow Tree--226
+Wolves--134; 144;
+    kill buffaloes, 156;
+    description of, 244-245
+Women--
+    "fruitful" in La., 185
+Woodcock--266
+Wood-pecker--
+    description of, 268-269
+Wood-Rat--251
+Wren--258
+
+Yapon Shrub--228
+Yaws--359
+Yazoo Indians--56;
+    kill the garrison at their Post, 83; 300
+Yazoo River--56; 112
+Ydalgo, Friar--5; 7; 9
+
+[Illustration: A Map of Louisiana]
+
+[Illustration: THE GULPH OF MEXICO]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's History of Louisisana, by Le Page Du Pratz
+
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