Part 17

The scenery now partakes of another character. The rich plantations, waving with green and golden crops of cane, are succeeded here and there by a cotton plantation, but more generally by untrodden forests, hanging over the banks, which are now for a hundred miles of one uniform character and height--being about twenty feet above the highest floods. Now and then a "squatter's" hut, instead of relieving, adds to the wild and dreary character of the scene. This class of men with their families, are usually in a most wretched and squalid condition. As they live exposed to the fatal, poisonous miasma of the swamp, their complexions are cadaverous, and their persons wasted by disease. They sell wood to the steamboats for a means of subsistence--seldom cultivating what little cleared land there may be around them. There are exceptions to this, however. Many become eventually purchasers of the tracts on which they are settled, and lay foundations for fine estates and future independence.

Loftus's height, a striking eminence crowned by Fort Adams, appears in the distance. It is a cluster of cliffs and hills nearly two hundred feet in height. The old fort can just be discerned with a glass, surmounting a natural platform, half way up the side of the most prominent hill. The works present the appearance of a few green mounds, and though defaced by time, still bear evidence of having been a military post. The position is highly commanding and romantic. The scenery around would be termed striking, even in Maine, that romantic land of rocks, and cliffs, and mountains. A small village is at the base of the hills, containing a few stores. Cotton is exported hence, and steamers are now at the landing taking it in.

As we were passing the place on our way up the river, a white signal was displayed from a pole held by some one standing on the shore. In a few moments we came abreast of the fort, and in obedience to the fluttering signal, our steamer rounded gracefully to, and put her jolly boat off for the expected passengers. The boat had scarcely touched the bank, before the boatmen at one leap gained the baggage which lay piled upon the Levee, and tumbling it helter-skelter into the bottom of the boat, as though for life and death, called out, so as to be heard far above the deafening noise of the rushing steam as it hissed from the pipe, "Come gentlemen, come, the boat's a-waiting." The new passengers had barely time to pass into the boat and balance themselves erect upon the thwarts, before, impelled by the nervous arms of the boatmen, she was cutting her way through the turbid waves to the steamer, which had been kept in her position against the strong current of the river, by an occasional revolution of her wheels. The instant she struck her side the boat was cleared immediately of "bag and baggage," at the "risk of the owners" truly--and the hurrying passengers had hardly gained a footing upon the guard, before the loud, brief command, "go ahead," was heard, followed by the tinkling of the engineer's bell, the dull groaning of the ponderous, labouring engine, and the heavy dash of the water, as strongly beaten by the vast fins of this huge "river monster."

APPENDIX

NOTE A--_Page 73._

The following STATISTICAL TABLES, exhibiting Louisiana in a variety of comparative views, have been compiled principally from the elaborate tables of that valuable periodical--the American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge--for the year 1835.

LOUISIANA.

Latitude of New-Orleans, 29 deg. 57' 45" North. Longitude in degrees, 90 60 49 West. _h. m. s._ " in time, 6 0 27.3 Distance from Washington, 1203 miles. -----------------------------------+---------------------------------- Relative size of Louisiana, 5. | Extent in square miles, 45,220. -----------------------------------+----------------------------------

NUMBER OF INHABITANTS TO A SQUARE MILE. -----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- In 1810. | In 1820. | In 1830. -----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- 1.6 | 3.2 | 4.4 -----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------

RELATIVE POPULATION. -----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- In 1810. | In 1820. | In 1830. -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+------- Free | Slave | Total | Free | Slave | Total | Free | Slave | Total -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+------- 18 | 8 | 17 | 19 | 8 | 17 | 21 | 8 | 19 -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+-------

RATE OF INCREASE OF FREE AND SLAVE POPULATION.

+-----------------------+---------------------- From 1800 to 1810. | From 1810 to 1820. | From 1820 to 1830. -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+------- Free | Slave | Total | Free | Slave | Total | Free | Slave | Total -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+------- | | | | |_p.ct._| | | | | | 373 | 2193.7| 636 | 25.8| 58.7 | 40.6 -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+-------

POPULATION OF LOUISIANA IN 1810.

+--------------+---------------------------+------------- Free | Slaves | No. of free to 1 slave | Total -------------+--------------+---------------------------+------------- 41,896 | 34,660 | 1.20 | 76,556 -------------+--------------+---------------------------+-------------

In 1820.

+--------------+---------------------------+------------- 84,343 | 69,064 | 1.22 | 153,407 -------------+--------------+---------------------------+-------------

In 1830.

+--------------+---------------------------+------------- 106,151 | 109,588 | .96 | 215,739 -------------+--------------+---------------------------+-------------

VALUE OF IMPORTS IN THE YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1833.

+-----------------------+---------------------- In American vessels | In foreign vessels | Total -----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- $ 6,658,916 | $ 2,931,589 | $ 9,590,505 -----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------

VALUE OF EXPORTS IN THE SAME YEAR.

+-----------------------+---------------------- | | Total of Domestic Domestic Produce | Foreign Produce | and Foreign Produce -----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- $16,133,457 | $2,807,916 | $18,941,373 -----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- Tonnage, 1st January, 1834--61,171 Tons. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

GOVERNMENT.

_Salary._ EDWARD D. WHITE, Governor (elect); Jan. 1835 to Jan. 1839 $ 7,500 GEORGE EUSTIS, Secretary of State 2,500 F. GARDERE, Treasurer; 4 per cent. on all moneys received. LOUIS BRINGIER, Surveyor General 800 CLAUDIUS CROZET, Civil Engineer 5,000 F. GAIENNIE, Adjutant and Inspector General 2,000 E. MAZUREAU, Attorney General 2,000

Senate, 17 members, elected for two years. C. DERBIGNY, President.

House of Representatives, 50 members, elected for two years. A. Labranche, Speaker.

JUDICIARY.

Judges of the Supreme Court.--GEORGE MATTHEWS, FRANCIS X. MARTIN, and HENRY A. BULLARD. Salary of each, $5,000.

Judge of the Criminal Court of the City of New-Orleans.--JOHN F. CANONGE.

Judges of the District Courts.--Salary of each $2,000.

CHARLES WATTS, 1st district. BENJAMIN WINCHESTER, 2d do. CHARLES BUSHNELL, 3d do. R. N. OGDEN, 4th do. SETH LEWIS, 5th do. J. H. JOHNSON, 6th do. J. H. OVERTON, 7th do. CLARK WOODRUFF, 8th do.

The Supreme Court sits in the city of New-Orleans, for the Eastern district of the state during the months of November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, and July; and for the Northern district, at Opelousas and Attakapas, during the months of August, September, and October; and at Baton Rouge, commencing the 1st Monday in August. The district courts, with the exception of the courts in the first district, hold, in each parish, two sessions during the year, to try causes originally instituted before them, and appeals from the parish courts. The parish courts hold their regular sessions in each parish on the first Monday in each month. The courts in the first district, composed of the district, parish, and criminal courts, and courts of probate, are in session during the whole year, excepting the months of July, August, September, and October, in which they hold special courts when necessary.

BANKS.

State of the banks, January 7, 1834, as given in a document laid before Congress, June 21, 1834.

+---------------+------------+------------- NAME. | Capital | Bills in | Specie | stock paid |circulation.| and specie | in. | | funds. -----------------------------+---------------+------------+------------- Canal and Banking Company | 3,998,200 | 951,780 | 297,451 21 City Bank | 2,000,000 | 380,670 | 335,288 88 Commercial Bank | 817,835 | 145,000 | 135,903 73 Union bank of Louisiana | 5,500,000 | 1,281,000 | 291,587 87 Louisiana State Bank | 1,248,720 | 428,470 | 546,125 34 Consolidated Association Bank| 2,500,000 | 84,300 | 61,936 43 | ----------- | --------- |------------ | $16,064,755 | 3,271,230 |1,568,293 46 Estimated situation of the | | | following banks.--no returns.| | | Bank of Louisiana | 4,000,000 } | | Bank of Orleans | 600,000 } | | Citizens' Bank of Louisiana | 1,000,000 } | 1,522,500 | 650,000 00 Mechanics' and Traders' Bank | 2,000,000 } | | | ---------- | ---------- |------------ Total | $23,664,755 | 4,793,730 |2,218,293 46 -----------------------------+---------------+------------+-------------

The Union Bank of Louisiana has branches at the following places, viz. Thiboudeauville, Covington, Marshville, Vermillionville, St. Martinsville, Plaquemine, Natchitoches, and Clinton.

Interest. "Legal interest is 5 per cent. Conventional interest, as high as 10 per cent., is legal. Of our banks, none can charge higher than 9 per cent., and some of them not higher than 8. But if I lend $100, and the borrower gives me his note for $110, $120, $130, $140, or even $150, or more, with 10 per cent. interest from date, the law legalizes the transaction, and will not set aside any part of the claim on the plea of usury. In fact, money is considered here like any other article in the market, and the holder may ask what price he pleases for it."

INSURANCE COMPANIES.

Merchants' Insurance Company of New-Orleans $1,000,000 Phoenix Fire Insurance Co. of London--agent at New Orleans 1,000,000 Louisiana Slate Marine and File Insurance Co. 400,000 Western Marine and Fire Insurance Company 300,000 Louisiana Insurance Company 300,000 Mississippi Marine and Fire Insurance Company 300,000 New-Orleans Insurance Company 200,000 Pontchartrain Rail-road Company 250,000 Orleans Navigation Company 200,000 Barataria and Lafourche Canal Company 150,000

NEWSPAPERS.

Louisiana was originally settled by the French; in 1762, it was ceded by France to Spain; near the end of the 18th century it was restored to France; in 1803, it was purchased by the United States; in 1804, the country now forming the state of Louisiana was formed into a territorial government under the name of the Territory of Orleans; and in 1812, it was admitted into the Union as a state.

Mr. Thomas, in his "History of Printing," remarks "that several printing-houses were opened at New-Orleans, and several newspapers were immediately published there, after the country came under the government of the United States."

The first paper published in New-Orleans was the "Moniteur de la Louisiana," a French paper, and edited by M. Fontaine. This was a government paper, issued at irregular intervals and at the discretion of the Spanish government. It was rather a vehicle of ordinances and public documents than a newspaper.

In the year 1803 an enterprising New-Englander named Lyons--a son of the celebrated Mathew Lyons--who had been sent to New-Orleans with despatches from government, on arriving there, and ascertaining that there was no regular press in the city, applied to General Wilkinson for patronage to establish a weekly paper. Herein he was successful; but, except himself, there was not another printer in New-Orleans, journeyman or "devil."

By some means, however, he learned that there were three young men[11] from the only printing office in Natchez, then belonging to the army, quartered in the city. He obtained their furlough from General Wilkinson--and obtaining the office of the "Moniteur," in a few weeks issued the first number of a paper entitled the "Union." To this in a few weeks succeeded the "Louisiana Courier," which, established in 1806, now holds a high rank in the army of periodicals, and is the oldest paper in the state.

The number of newspapers in the Territory of Orleans in 1810, was 10, (two of them daily;) all in the city of New-Orleans.

The number in Louisiana in 1828, was only nine. New-Orleans is the great centre of business and of publishing in this state. There are now published in New-Orleans seven daily papers, and 31 altogether in Louisiana.

SUMMARY.

The Governor of Louisiana is elected by the people. Term begins January, 1835, and expires January 1839. Duration of the term, four years. Salary $7,500.

Senators, 17. Term of years, four. Representatives, 50. Term of years, two. Total--Senators and Representatives, 67. Pay per day, $4. Electors of president and vice president are chosen by general ticket.

Seat of government--New-Orleans. Time of holding elections--first Monday in July. Time of meeting of the legislature--first Monday in January.

Louisiana admitted into the Union in 1812.

NOTE B--_Page 178._

"The State senators of Louisiana are elected for four years, one fourth vacating their seats annually. They must possess an estate of a thousand dollars in the parish, for which they are chosen. The representatives have a biennial term, and must possess 500 dollars' worth of property in the parish to be eligible. The governor is chosen for four years; and is ineligible for the succeeding term. His duties are the same, as in the other states, and his salary is 7,000 dollars a year. The judiciary powers are vested in a supreme and circuit court, together with a municipal court called the parish court.--The salaries are ample. The elective franchise belongs to every free white man of twenty-one years, and upward, who has had a residence of six months in the parish, and who has paid taxes.

The code of laws, adopted by this state, is not what is called the "common law," which is the rule of judicial proceedings in all the other states, but the _civil law_, adopted, with some modifications, from the judicial canons of France and Spain. So much of the common law is interwoven with it, as has been adopted by express deep stain upon the moral character to be generally reputed a cruel master. In many plantations no punishment is inflicted except after a trial by a jury, composed of the fellow-servants of the party accused. Festivals, prizes, and rewards are instituted, as stimulants to exertion, and compensations for superior accomplishment of labour. They are generally well fed and clothed, and that not by an arbitrary award, which might vary with the feelings of the master; but by periodical apportionment, like the distributed rations of soldiers, of what has been ascertained to be amply sufficient to render them comfortable.

Nor are they destitute, as has been supposed, of any legal protection, coming between them and the possible cupidity and cruelty of the masters. The '_code noir_' of Louisiana is a curious collection of statutes, drawn partly from French and Spanish law and usage, and partly from the customs of the islands, and usages, which have grown out of the peculiar circumstances of Louisiana while a colony. It has the aspect, it must be admitted, of being formed rather for the advantage of the master, than for the servant, for it prescribes an unlimited homage and obedience to the latter. But at the same time, it defines crimes, which the master can commit in relation to the slave, and prescribes the mode of trial, and the kind and degree of punishment. It constitutes unnecessary correction, maiming, and murder, punishable offences in a master. It is very minute in prescribing the number of hours, which the master may lawfully exact to be employed in labour, and the number of hours, which he must allow his slave for meal-time and for rest. It prescribes the time and extent of his holidays. In short, it settles with minuteness and detail the whole circle of relations between master and slave, defining, and prescribing what the former may, and may not exact from the latter.

That the slave is, also, in the general circumstances of his condition, as happy as this relation will admit of his being, is an unquestionable fact. That he seldom performs as much labour, or performs it as well as a free man, says all upon the subject of the motives which freedom only can supply, that can be alleged. In all the better managed plantations, the mode of building the quarters is fixed. The arrangement of the little village has a fashion by which it is settled. Interest, if not humanity, has defined the amount of food and rest, necessary for their health; and there is, in a large and respectable plantation, as much precision in the rules, as much exactness in the times of going to sleep, awaking, going to labour, and resting before and after meals, as in a garrison under military discipline, or in a ship of war. A bell gives all the signals; every slave, at the assigned hour in the morning, is forthcoming to his labour, or his case is reported, either as one of idleness, obstinacy, or sickness, in which case he is sent to the hospital, and there is attended by a physician, who, for the most part, has a yearly salary for attending to all the sick of the plantation. The union of physical force, directed by one will, is now well understood to have a much greater effect upon the amount of labour, which a number of hands, so managed, can bring about, than the same force directed by as many wills as there are hands. Hence it happens that while one free man, circumstances being the same, will perform more labour than one slave, a hundred slaves will accomplish more on one plantation, than so many hired free men, acting at their own discretion. Hence, too, it is, that such a prodigious quantity of cotton and sugar is made here, in proportion to the number of labouring hands. All the processes of agriculture are managed by system. Everything goes straight forward. There is no pulling down to-day the scheme of yesterday, and the whole amount of force is directed by the teaching of experience to the best result. _Flint's Miss. Val. Art. Louisiana_, vol. i. p. 527.

NOTE D.--_Page 196._

"The borderers universally took an active part in the war, and were eminently useful in repelling the incursions of the Indians. Not even the most lawless but was found ready to pour out his life-blood for the republic.

A curious instance of the strange mixture of magnanimity and ferocity often found among the demi-savages of the borders was afforded by the Louisianian Lafitte. This desperado had placed himself at the head of a band of outlaws from all nations under heaven, and fixed his abode upon the top of an impregnable rock, to the south-west of the mouth of the Mississippi. Under the colours of the South American patriots, they pirated at pleasure every vessel that came in their way, and smuggled their booty up the secret creeks of the Mississippi, with a dexterity that baffled all the efforts of justice. The depredations of these outlaws, or, as they styled themselves, _Barritarians_, (from Barrita, their island,) becoming at length intolerable, the United States' government despatched an armed force against their little Tripoli. The establishment was broken up, and the pirates dispersed. But Lafitte again collected his outlaws, and took possession of his rock. The attention of the congress being now diverted by the war, he scoured the gulf at his pleasure, and so tormented the coasting traders, that Governor Claiborne of Louisiana set a price on his head.

This daring outlaw, thus confronted with the American government, appeared likely to promote the designs of its enemies. He was known to possess the clue to all the secret windings and entrances of the many-mouthed Mississippi; and in the projected attack upon New-Orleans it was deemed expedient to secure his assistance.

The British officer then heading the forces landed at Pensacola for the invasion of Louisiana, opened a treaty with the Barritarian, to whom he offered such rewards as were best calculated to tempt his cupidity and flatter his ambition. The outlaw affected to relish the proposal; but having artfully drawn from Colonel N---- the plan of his intended attack, he spurned his offers with the most contemptuous disdain, and instantly despatched one of his most trusty corsairs to the governor who had set a price for his life, advising him of the intentions of the enemy, and volunteering the aid of his little band, on the single condition that an amnesty should be granted for their past offences. Governor Claiborne, though touched by this proof of magnanimity, hesitated to close with the offer. The corsair kept himself in readiness for the expected summons, and continued to spy and report the motions of the enemy. As danger became more urgent, and the steady generosity of the outlaw more assured, Governor Claiborne granted to him and his followers life and pardon, and called them to the defence of the city. They obeyed with alacrity, and served with a valour, fidelity, and good conduct, not surpassed by the best volunteers of the republic." --_Flint's Miss. Valley._

NOTE E.--_Page 204._

The following extract from a narrative of the British attack on New-Orleans by Capt. Cooke, late of the British army, will, perhaps, not be without interest to many of my readers.

CAMP BEFORE NEW-ORLEANS.