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.

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