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[Transcriber's Note: The use of chapter, section, and page headers in
this book was inconsistent. There are two chapters titled "Public
Buildings" (starting P. 86 and P. 127). The chapters "Public Squares"
(P. 181) and "Excursions" (P. 199) switched from a titled paragraph
format used in the rest of the book to small cap beginnings for
paragraphs (retained).
In some cases, there were changes in topics with no corresponding change
in section headings. To mark these topic changes, the transcriber placed
additional thought breaks, not present in the original, at the following
locations: P. 137 (Hotels); P. 144 (Works, Armories, Fire Department);
P. 157 (Exchanges); and P. 169 (Galleries).
The abbreviation "do" (used primarily in the index and routing tables)
means "ditto."
The Table of Contents at the beginning has been added by the
transcriber; it was not present in the original.
Remaining transcriber's notes are at the end of the text.]
Page
Preface v
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE DISCOVERY AND TERRITORIAL
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA 7
THE STATE OF LOUISIANA 28
NEW ORLEANS 58
PUBLIC BUILDINGS 86
CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS 110
HOSPITALS 117
PUBLIC BUILDINGS 127
MANUFACTURES 150
AMUSEMENTS 176
PUBLIC SQUARES 181
THE OLDEN TIME 184
EXCURSIONS 191
TRAVELLING ROUTES 201
GENERAL INDEX 207
ADVERTISEMENTS 225
NORMAN'S
NEW ORLEANS AND ENVIRONS:
CONTAINING A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE
TERRITORY AND STATE OF LOUISIANA,
AND THE
CITY OF NEW ORLEANS,
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME:
PRESENTING
A COMPLETE GUIDE
TO ALL SUBJECTS OF GENERAL INTEREST IN THE SOUTHERN
METROPOLIS;
WITH A
CORRECT AND IMPROVED PLAN OF THE CITY, PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS
OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC.
NEW ORLEANS:
PUBLISHED BY B. M. NORMAN.
NEW YORK, D. APPLETON & CO.; PHILADELPHIA, GEO. S. APPLETON;
BOSTON, JAS. MUNROE & CO.; CINCINNATI, H. W. DERBY & CO.;
ST. LOUIS, HALSALL & COLLET; MOBILE, J. M. SUMWALT & CO.
1845.
* * * * *
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by
B. M. NORMAN,
in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern
District of New York.
Wm. Van Norden, Printer, 39 William street.
* * * * *
DEDICATED
TO THE
CITIZENS OF NEW ORLEANS,
WITH
True Sentiments of Respect,
BY THEIR
HUMBLE SERVANT.
The Publisher.
NEW ORLEANS, October, 1845.
* * * * *
PREFACE
To the stranger visiting New Orleans, and to those abroad who may feel
an interest in the metropolis of the great South-West, no apology may
be urged for the present work. Curiosity, in the one case, and
necessity, in the other, will prove a sufficient plea, and prepare the
way for that favorable reception, which it has been the aim of the
publisher it should deserve. And, judging from the interest he has
taken in compiling it, he flatters himself it will be found a
communicative and agreeable companion to both the above classes of
readers, and to the public in general.
The tables and index have been prepared with great care, and will be
found highly convenient to those who wish to consult the work with
reference to any particular subject of which it treats. All such
subjects are there so arranged and classified, that the reader may
see, at a glance, where they are to be found.
The engravings were executed by Messrs. Shields & Hammond, after
original drawings, made expressly for this work, by Mr. Cowell. The
plan of the city was engraved by the same artists, after an original
draught by Mr. Mullhausen.
To several gentlemen, who have kindly aided the publisher in gathering
materials for the work, he would here express his grateful
acknowledgements. For the historical facts embodied in the volume, he
is indebted to several works on the history of Louisiana, and the
discovery and early settlement of our country.
NORMAN'S
NEW ORLEANS AND ENVIRONS.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE DISCOVERY AND TERRITORIAL HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
[Illustration: TOMOWEN. PINXT.
De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi]
Louisiana is the name given by the French, to all that extensive tract
of land, lying West of the Mississippi River, which was ceded by them
to the United States in 1803. The line of its western boundary follows
the Sabine River to the 32d degree of north latitude; thence, due
north to the Red River; along that stream westerly to the meridian of
100 west longitude; thence due north to the Arkansas River, ascending
that to its source; thence due north to the 42d degree of latitude;
and along that, parallel to the Pacific Ocean. Its northern boundary
is a matter of dispute between the United States and Great Britain,
and the discussion, at the present moment is somewhat exciting and
ominous. It is the only question in relation to any part of our
border, which has not been amicably adjusted by treaty. _We_ claim the
boundary formed by a line drawn from the Lake of the Woods, in the
49th degree of latitude, due west to the Rocky Mountains, thence to
the parallel of 54, and on that to the Pacific. The British, on the
other hand, claim that part, lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and
north of the 46th parallel, or the latitude of the Columbia River. Our
claim to the whole of this Territory, the part in dispute being called
the Oregon, is based upon priority of discovery, and purchase. The
British claim the northern portion by right of possession. The
question has been held in suspense for several years, under a treaty
of joint occupancy, which is now about to terminate. The question of
ownership and jurisdiction, will probably be adjusted definitely in
the course of a few years. We trust it may be done without the
necessity of an appeal to arms.
The vast domain, included within the above named boundaries, contains
more than twelve hundred thousand square miles. It is about six times
the size of France, and nearly twice as large as the whole territory
embraced in the thirteen original States of the Union--an empire, in
itself sufficiently extensive to satisfy the ambition of any ordinary
people.
The discoveries of Columbus, and his immediate successors, were
confined to the islands in and about the Gulf of Mexico, and a part of
the adjacent coast of the two Continents. The immense tracts that lay
inland, stretching thousands of miles towards the setting sun, were
unknown and unexplored for nearly half a century after the landing of
the Europeans on this coast. Those of North America were first visited
in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish adventurer in quest of the
FOUNTAIN OF IMMORTAL YOUTH, which the Indians represented as gushing
up in one of the Elysian Valleys of the West;--but, unfortunately for
him and for posterity, death overtook him before he reached the
_Fountain_, and the directions for finding it perished with him.
Having made the first land on Pascha _Florida_, or Palm Sunday, he
gave the name of Florida to all the country lying to the North and
West.
In consequence of the premature death of Ponce de Leon, the expedition
was given up, and little more was known of these regions until 1538,
when Hernandez de Soto, having been made Governor of Cuba, and
Adelantado of Florida, undertook, with a company of six hundred men,
to explore these his western dominions. He penetrated Florida,
Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and struck the Mississippi not far
from the place now known as the Chickasaw Bluffs. Thence he passed
over to the Red River, and descending that, had nearly reached its
mouth, when he was seized with a sudden fever, and died. To prevent
his body from falling into the hands of the Indians, it was sunk in
the stream at the mouth of Red River, near its junction with "_the
father of waters_."
The expedition of de Soto consumed four years, during which, his
adventures, among the various tribes and nations then teeming in these
quiet regions, were diversified and full of the most romantic
interest. He was succeeded in 1542 by Lewis de Moscoso, or Mucoso,
who, with none of the address or enterprise of de Soto, found himself
and his small company, now reduced by disease and constant warfare
with the natives, to about three hundred men, encompassed with
difficulty, and in danger of being entirely cut off. They built seven
brigantines, probably the first specimens of scientific ship building
on the Mississippi, and then dropped down the river. Pursued by
thousands of exasperated Indians in their canoes, harrassed, wounded,
and some of them slain, the miserable remnant at length found their
way out of the river, about the middle of July.
No sooner had they put to sea, than a violent tempest arose; when
another calamity befell them, which will be feelingly understood by
many of the navigators of these waters, in our own day. I will give it
in the language of the historian, who was one of the party. "While
they were in this tempest, in great fear of being cast away, they
endured an intolerable torment of an infinite swarm of musketoes,
which fell upon them, which, as soon as they had stung the flesh, it
so infected it, as though they had been venomous. In the morning, the
sea was assuaged, and the wind slacked, but not the musketoes; for the
sails, which were white, seemed black with them in the morning. Those
which rowed, unless others kept them away, were not able to row.
Having passed the fear and danger of the storm, beholding the
deformities of their faces, and the blows which they gave themselves
to drive them away, one of them laughed at another."
It is manifest from the narrative of de Soto's expedition, that a
dense population once covered this whole territory. It is equally
manifest that they were a race infinitely superior to the almost
exterminated tribes which still remain. In the arts of what we term
civilization, in the comforts and conveniences of social life, in the
organization of society, in works of taste, in a knowledge of the
principles, and an appreciation of the beauties of architecture, and
in the application of the various mechanical powers requisite to the
construction of buildings on a grand and magnificent scale, they may
challenge comparison with some of the proudest nations of antiquity,
in the old world. What has become of those mysterious nations, we are
at a loss to conjecture; but their works remain, though in ruins,
eternal monuments of their genius and power. As far as they have been
explored, they afford ample evidence that the appellation "New World"
is an entire misnomer. As the eloquent Mr. Wirt once said--"_This is
the old World_," and the day may come, when the antiquarian will find
as much that is attractive and interesting in the time hallowed ruins
and the almost buried cities, of America, as those of Pompeii and
Herculaneum, of Thebes and Palmyra.
Changed as the whole country has been, in the lapse of three
centuries, in respect to most of those things which must have struck
the original discoverers with wonder, admiration, and awe--there is
one feature, as described by de Soto, that still remains, so distinct
and characteristic, that, if the brave old Adelantado should suddenly
rise from his watery grave, he would immediately recognize the place
of his burial.
The Mississippi is still the same as when those bold adventurers first
beheld it. The historian describes it as "a river so broad, that if a
man stood still on the other side, it could not be discerned whether
he was a man or no. The channel was very deep, the current strong, the
water muddy and filled with floating trees."
Of all the great rivers of this continent, it is a distinction which
is probably peculiar to the Mississippi, that it was discovered, not
by navigators entering it from the ocean, but by a band of adventurous
explorers, striking it in their march, at some thousand miles from its
mouth!
For more than a century after the expedition of de Soto, these mighty
regions were suffered to remain in the quiet possession of their
original owners, undisturbed by the visits of white men. In 1654, the
adventurous Col. Woods, from the infant colony of Virginia, wandered
into these then remote regions, and crossed "the great river," after
which it lay forgotten for twenty years longer.
In 1673, Marquette, a French monk, and Joliet, a trader, starting from
Quebec, traversed the great northern Lakes, ascended the Fox River to
its source, made a small portage west to the Wisconsin, and descended
that river to the Mississippi, where they arrived on the 7th of July.
Committing themselves to the current, the two solitary travellers
reached a village of the Illinois, near the mouth of the Missouri,
where they were kindly received and hospitably entertained. After a
brief stay, they proceeded down to a settlement of the Arkansas, near
the river of that name. They did not proceed farther at this time, but
returned to Quebec, by the same route, fully impressed with the belief
that they could reach the Gulf of Mexico, by continuing their course
on the great river. There was immense rejoicing in Quebec at the
result of this adventure. _Te deum_ was sung in the Churches, on the
occasion, and the great Western Valley set down as belonging to France
by right of discovery. They were little aware how brief their dominion
in that land would be, or how soon the fruits of all their toils would
fall into the hands of a nation then unborn, that in one little
century, should leap to independence and power, and claim an honorable
place among the hoary empires of the earth.
Six years after the return of Marquette and Joliet, Robert, Chevalier
de la Salle, commenced operations for a further exploration of the
Mississippi. With seventeen men, he proceeded to the Little Miami,
near the mouth of which he built a fort. From thence he traversed the
country, till he came to the Falls of St. Anthony. Descending the
Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, he returned by land to Quebec
during the year 1681. He then proceeded to France, procured a vessel,
and sailed in 1685, with the intention of entering the river through
the Gulf, but was unable to find its mouth.
In his next voyage, having met with the same disappointment, he
erected a fort in the Bay of St. Bernard, near the mouth of the
Colorado. Ascending that river, about sixteen miles, he established
another fort, which, however, he soon destroyed, and returned to the
first settlement. Here he built houses, erected another fort, which he
called St. Louis, and prepared the ground for cultivation. He made
many abortive attempts to find the entrance to the Mississippi. At
length, a conspiracy was formed among his own party, and he was
cruelly murdered by Dehault, on the 19th of March, 1687, near the
western branch of Trinity River. Thus fell, in the midst of his toils,
and in the prime of his years, by the hand of an assassin, one of the
most renowned adventurers of the 17th century--a man who may be justly
claimed as an honor to the country that gave him birth. He deserved a
better fate. In cool courage, in hardy enterprise, and in fertility of
resources, he was second only to Columbus. And in the power of
subduing the wild spirits of his men, and bending all their energies
to the one object before him, he displayed much of the sagacity and
tact of that great navigator. In vigor, decision and promptitude, he
much resembled the renowned Cortes, without any of the bigotry or
cruelty, that tarnished the reputation of the Conqueror of Mexico.
In 1699, eighteen years after La Salle had demonstrated the connection
of the Mississippi with the Gulf of Mexico, by passing out at its
mouth, Iberville succeeded in entering it from the Gulf. Ascending as
far as the junction of Red River, he returned, and proceeded, by way
of the Gulf, into Lake Pontchartrain. He formed a settlement and
erected a fort, at Biloxi, which he left under the command of his
brother Bienville, while he returned to France, to induce others to
join the colony. Soon after he left, the new commander ascended the
Mississippi as far as the present site of New Orleans. In returning,
he met a British vessel of sixteen guns, under the command of Capt.
Bard, who enquired the bearings of the great river, intimating that it
was his intention to establish a colony upon its banks. Bienville, in
reply, directed him to go farther west, and thus induced him to turn
about; from which circumstance, the place of their meeting was called
"The English Turn," a name which it retains to this day.
Iberville accompanied by a considerable accession of force, comprising
hardy settlers, and scientific men, soon returned to the colony.
Finding things in a promising condition, he proceeded up the river as
far as Natchez, and planted a settlement there. Leaving Bienville and
St. Denys in command, he again took leave, and sailed for France. He
was indefatigable in his exertions to establish and render permanent
his little colony. It was the first attempt in this section; and
Iberville may be well regarded as the father of Louisiana. But he did
not survive to enjoy its growth and prosperity. He died in one of the
West India Islands, a victim to the yellow fever, in 1708. About this
time, one Sauville was elected Governor. He survived the appointment,
however, but a short time. Bienville then succeeded him, and retained
the office till 1710, when he was superseded by De Muys and Diron
d'Artaquette.
Finding that they derived no immediate advantage from this new
accession of territory, the French Government, in 1712, granted to
Antonio Crozat, a rich merchant of Paris, the monopoly of the trade of
Louisiana, which he surrendered back in 1717. What a fortune a man
might make now, out of a five years monopoly of the trade of that
luxuriant region!
In 1717, a new charter was issued, under the style of "The Western
Company," with the exclusive privilege of the trade of Louisiana for
twenty-five years. Bienville was again chosen Governor, and in the
following year, 1718, he laid the foundation of New Orleans. Hitherto
the pursuits of agriculture had been entirely neglected. Whether this
neglect was attributable to the hostility of the Indians, compelling
them to concentrate their little force in one spot, or to the
flattering promises of trade, or to the illusive hope of discovering
mines of gold, which occupied all their time, or to all these causes
combined, we cannot now determine. We only know, that, up to this
period, they had depended almost entirely upon supplies sent from
France, for the common necessaries of life. But now, the cultivation
of the soil began to be an object of considerable attention, tobacco
and rice being the principal articles from which a profit was
expected.
The chief personage in this "Western Company," was the notorious John
Law, a Scotch financier, one of those universal speculators, who
experiment upon every thing, human and divine, who revel only in
change, and to whom mere innovation becomes the professional business
of a life. As is usual in such cases, he managed so as to draw down
ruin upon himself and his duped associates in France, while at the
same time, he had the singular tact to place the colony in a condition
for the time. The result of his schemes, however, was ultimately
disastrous. The finances of the colony were thrown into inextricable
confusion. The French Ministry, instead of applying an efficient
remedy, or leaving the evil to cure itself, only tampered with it, by
changing the values of the coins, and thus deranging all the money
transactions of the colony. The effect was ruinous to some, and
embarrassing to all. And when was it otherwise? Never. History and
experience utter but one voice on the subject of governmental
experiments, and arbitrary legislative innovations, upon ordinary
fiscal operations, and the course of trade. And that voice is--"_hands
off_."
In the mean time war was declared between France and Spain. The
colonists, sympathizing with the mother country, commenced offensive
operations against their neighbors in Florida, and took possession of
Pensacola; which, however, the Spaniards soon recovered. The trade of
war was never very profitable, even to conquerors. No sooner were the
different colonies of pale faces at loggerheads among themselves, than
their natural enemies, the Indians, began to take advantage of their
divisions, and to endeavor to exterminate them both. A horrible
massacre took place at Natchez, in 1729. This was but part of a plan
which had been formed among the Mississippi tribes, for a general
butchery throughout the colony. The Natchez tribe, mistaking the day
appointed for the sacrifice, commenced their work of blood too soon,
and thus gave timely warning of the plot to all the other settlements.
The war which followed was a destructive one, but the Indians were
ultimately defeated.
Bienville, having returned to France in 1727, was succeeded by
Perrier. Under his administration, the agricultural enterprise of the
colony was considerably advanced. The cultivation of indigo was
commenced in 1728. The fig tree and the orange were introduced at the
same time.
In 1732, ten years before the legal expiration of their monopoly, the
"Western Company" returned their charter to the King. The colony was
then scarcely more than thirty years old, yet, notwithstanding their
many and severe trials, by war and by disease, the population numbered
five thousand whites, and two thousand blacks. Bienville was, the
third time, appointed Governor, having the entire confidence both of
the government and of the people. He continued to exercise this office
till 1741, when he again resigned, carrying with him into private life
the regrets and affectionate regards of the inhabitants. He was
succeeded by the Marquis de Vaudreuil.
In the winter of 1747-8, the orange plantations were visited by a
severe frost, such as had never been known before, which not only cut
off the crop for the season, but almost destroyed the prospects of
that branch of business in the colony.
The cultivation of the sugar cane, now so extensive and lucrative a
branch of business, did not begin to attract the attention of
agriculturalists till 1751. It was then introduced by the Jesuits of
St. Domingo, who sent some of the plants, as a present to their
brethren in Louisiana, accompanied by negroes, well acquainted with
its cultivation, and with the process then in use for manufacturing it
into sugar. The lower part of the Fauxbourg of St. Mary was devoted to
this experiment. That it was a happy experiment for the colony, and
the country, the waving fields and princely estates on every side, and
the annually increasing supply of this great staple, bear ample
witness.
A large accession was made to the population of the colony in 1754, by
the arrival of emigrants from Acadia, (Nova Scotia) which they were
compelled to leave, owing to the oppressive measures of the British
Government, by which that province had just been conquered. A few
years afterwards, great numbers of Canadians, fleeing from the same
oppressions, found refuge in the sunny valleys of the south, and
brought a very considerable acquisition of strength and wealth to the
colony.
"The seven years' war" between France and England, ended in the
cession, to the latter power, of all the French possessions in North
America, except Louisiana. It was stipulated, between the two crowns,
that the boundary line of their respective dominions, in the New
World, should run along the middle of the Mississippi, from its source
as far as the Iberville, and along the middle of that river, and of
Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. This was in 1763. In the course of
the same year, Louisiana was transferred by treaty to the crown of
Spain. The tidings of this unexpected cession, which were not
promulgated until two years after the execution of the treaty, spread
dismay through the colony. The idea of being passed over, _nolens
volens_, to the domination of Spaniards, was revolting to the
thousands of true hearted and loyal Frenchmen, who had acquired and
defended the territory, and claimed it as their own. They resolved, as
one man, to resist this unceremonious change of masters, apparently
determined, if their old mother, France, persisted in casting them
off, to set up for themselves.
In pursuance of this resolution, they refused to receive Don Ulloa,
whom the King of Spain despatched in 1766, to take possession of the
Province, and to assume the Government, as his representative. The
point was disputed at the cannon's mouth, but the colony prevailed,
and Don Ulloa returned with his dishonored commission, to his master.
Charles was as indignant as his crest-fallen servant, at this
unexpected repulse. But he was too busy with his own troubles at
home, to pursue the matter at that moment.
A fit instrument of Royal vengeance was at length found, in the person
of Don O'Reilly, a renegade Irishman, who, in 1769, was appointed to
subdue and rule over the refractory province. A more perfect
exemplification of the remark, that the most depraved unprincipled man
may gain the confidence and regard of Kings, can scarcely be found. In
the execution of his trust, he showed himself a very fiend incarnate.
First, by fair promises, cautiously mingled with just as much of
intimidation, as would give an air of candor and courtly conciliation
to his promises, he induced the too credulous Louisianians to abandon
their purpose of resistance, and surrender without striking a blow.
This artful guise he continued to wear, till he had obtained
possession of all the insignia of government, and the sinews of power,
and placed his own chosen tools in all the chief places of trust. Then
the mask of hypocrisy was boldly thrown off, and the cloven foot
uncovered. His fair promises were immediately shown to be only a
master stroke of policy, to gain an end. In the face of his solemn
stipulations, he caused those who had been foremost in refusing
submission to his authority, to be seized and put to death. Five of
them, principal citizens of New Orleans, he caused to be publicly
shot. Five more he consigned to the dungeons of the Moro, at Havana,
and one he procured to be assassinated. Other acts of cold-blooded
cruelty, and false-hearted tyranny followed, till he became the
execration and abhorrence of the whole colony. He introduced the
Spanish colonial system, and subjected the inhabitants to every
species of indignity and abuse. At length, the extravagance of his
measures, and his unprincipled abuse of power, wrought its own ruin.
He was recalled by his King, and disgraced--if one already so infamous
could by any means be rendered more so. His successor was Unzoga, who
was shortly after superseded by Galvez.
The colony now enjoyed a brief season of comparative quiet. But the
war between England and Spain, which broke out in 1779, afforded an
opportunity for Governor Galvez to show his loyal zeal, and exercise
his military talents. With the troops under his command, he invaded
Florida, took possession of Baton Rouge, and Fort Charlotte, near
Mobile, and proceeded to Pensacola, which, after an obstinate
resistance, also submitted to his authority. Thus was the Spanish
dominion completely established in Florida.
Governor Miro, who succeeded Galvez, carried into full effect the
colonial system of Spain, which was by no means relished by the French
inhabitants of the colony.
In 1785, a new firebrand was thrown into the midst of these
combustible elements. An attempt was made to establish an office of
the Inquisition in Louisiana. It was fearlessly opposed, and
fortunately crushed without bloodshed. The agent, to whom the
obnoxious business was entrusted, was seized in his bed, conveyed
forcibly on board a vessel, and sent home to Spain.
A census of the province, taken in 1788, just ninety years from the
date of the first settlement, showed a population of 42,611. Of these,
19,445 were whites, 21,465 slaves, and 1701 colored freemen. New
Orleans, then 70 years old, contained 5,338 inhabitants.
The Baron de Carondelet was appointed Governor in 1792. During his
administration, in the year 1794, the first newspaper, called "Le
Moniteur," was published in Louisiana. At the same period the Canal
Carondelet was commenced; and the cultivation of indigo and the sugar
cane, which had hitherto been the great staples of the colony, was
suspended.
In 1795, by the treaty of St. Lorenzo, the navigation of the
Mississippi was opened to the western States of the Union, and the
great impulse given to the commercial prosperity of New Orleans, which
secured forever the pre-eminence of the Crescent City. The same treaty
defined the boundaries, as they now exist, between Florida and
Mississippi. But Carondelet, being rather more tardy in yielding
possession, than suited the active, enterprising spirit of the
Americans, the territory was seized by an armed force, under Andrew
Elliott.
Two years after this, a plan set on foot by Carondelet, to dismember
the American Union, by drawing the Western States into a separate
compact, was detected and defeated by the address of General
Wilkinson. Whether Aaron Burr was in the plot, or only took a hint
from it a few years later, does not appear of record. Carondelet was
succeeded by Gayosa de Lamor, Casa Calvo, and Salvado, who,
successively, but for a very brief period, wielded the chief
magistracy of the colony.
In 1803, Louisiana was re-transferred to France, and immediately sold
to the United States for 15,000,000 of dollars. The treaty which
accomplished this important object was entered into on the 30th of
April. Possession was taken, in behalf of the United States, by
General Wilkinson and William C. Claiborne, amid the rejoicings of a
people attached to liberty, and eager to grasp at any opportunity to
shake off the yoke of Spain.
The population of Louisiana, at the time of the purchase, did not
exceed fifty thousand, exclusive of the Indians, and these were
scattered over every part of its immense territory. Seven years after,
the population had nearly trebled, and her prosperity had advanced in
equal proportion.
The year 1812 was a memorable era in the history of Louisiana, and
marked with incidents never to be forgotten by her citizens. It was in
this year, that the first Steam Boat was seen on the bosom of "the
great river," now alive with hundreds of these winged messengers,
plying to and fro. In the same year war was declared with Great
Britain, and Louisiana, as now constituted, was admitted, as an
independent State, into the great American Confederacy.
[Illustration: The Cotton Plant]
THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
[Illustration: Plantation House and Works]
The State of Louisiana is bounded on the north by the states of
Arkansas, and Mississippi; on the east by the latter and the Gulf of
Mexico; on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by Mexico
and Texas. It is a well watered garden, the soil being rich, and
intersected by the Mississippi, Red, and Wachita Rivers, and many
inferior streams, and washed, on its western limit, by the Sabine.
The face of the country is exceedingly level, so much so, that in a
portion equal to three fourths of the State, there is scarcely a hill
to be found. Those parts that are covered with pine woods are usually
uneven, sometimes rising into fine swells, with broad table summits,
intersected with valleys from thirty to forty feet deep. They do not
lie in any particular range, but, like the ocean in a high and regular
swell, present a uniform undulated surface. The alluvial soil is, of
course level, and the swamps, which are only inundated alluvions, are
dead flats.
A range of gentle elevations commences in Opelousas, and gradually
increasing in height as it advances, diverges toward the Sabine. In the
vicinity of Natchitoches, this range holds its way northwestwardly;
about half way between the Red and the Sabine Rivers, and continues to
increase in altitude, till it reaches the western border of the State.
Seen from the pine hills above Natchitoches, it has the blue outline
and general aspect of a range of mountains.
Another line of hills, commencing not far from Alexandria, on the
northern side of the Red River, and separating the waters of that
stream from those of the Dudgemony, extends northwardly, till it
approaches, and runs into, the mammillae, or bluffs, that bound the
alluvions of the Wachita, diverging gradually from the line of that
stream, as it passes beyond the western limits of the State.
That remote part of Natchitoches called Allen's settlement, is a high
rolling country. There are also hills of considerable magnitude on the
east side of the Mississippi, beyond the alluvions. But generally
speaking, Louisiana may be considered as one immense plain, divided
into pine woods, prairies, alluvions, swamps, and hickory and oak
lands.
The pine-wood lands, as I have already said, are usually rolling.
There are some exceptions, but they are very few. They have almost
invariably a poor soil. Some of those west of Opelousas, and those
between the Wachita and Red Rivers, are even sterile, answering well
to the name by which they are called in some other parts of the
country, Pine Barrens.
Some parts of the prairies of Opelousas are of great fertility, and
those of Attakapas are still more so. As a general feature, they are
more level than those of the upper country. An extensive belt of these
prairies, bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, is low and marshy, and
subject to be wholly inundated in any extraordinary swell of the
river. A considerable portion of them have a cold clayey soil, the
surface of which, under the influence of a warm sun, hardens into a
stiff crust. In other portions, the soil is of an inky blackness, and
often, in the hot and dry season, cracks in long fissures some inches
in width.
The bottoms are generally rich, but in very different degrees. Those
of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, and the bayous connected with these
streams, are more fertile than those on the western border of the
State. The quality of the richer bottoms of the Mississippi, as well
as those of the Red River, is sufficiently attested by the prodigious
growth of timber in those parts, the luxuriance of the cane and the
cotton, the tangles of vines and creepers, the astonishing size of the
weeds--which, however, find it difficult to over-top the better
products of the soil--and the universal strength of the vegetation.
The most productive district of this State, is a belt of land, called
"_the Coast_," lying along the Mississippi, in the neighborhood of New
Orleans. It consists of that part of the bottom, or alluvion, of the
Great River, which commences with the first cultivation above the
Balize, about forty miles below the capital, and extends about one
hundred and fifty miles above it. This belt on each side of the river,
is secured from an overflow by an embankment, called "_the levee_,"
from six to eight feet in height, and sufficiently broad, for the most
part, to furnish an excellent highway. The river, in an ordinary rise,
would cover the greater part of these beautiful bottoms, to a depth of
from two to six feet, if they were not thus protected. This belt is
from one to two miles in width; a richer tract of land, of the same
extent, cannot probably be found on the face of the globe.
On the east side of the river the levee extends to Baton Rouge, where
it meets the highlands; on the west side, it continues, with little
interruption, to the Arkansas line. On the east, above the levee, are
the parishes of Baton Rogue and West Feliciana. This latter received
its appropriate and expressive name from its beautifully variegated
surface of fertile hills and valleys, and its rare combination of all
the qualities that are most to be desired in a planting country. It is
a region of almost fairy beauty and wealth. The soil literally teems
with the most luxuriant productions of this favored clime. The hills
are covered with laurel, and forest trees of magnificent growth and
foliage, indicating a soil of the richest and most productive
character. Here are some of the wealthiest and most intelligent
planters, and the finest plantations in the state, the region of
princely taste and luxury, and more than patriarchal hospitality. The
mouth of Bayou Sara, which is the point of shipment for this
productive region, transmits immense quantities of cotton to New
Orleans. Some of the plantations on this bayou have from five to eight
hundred acres under cultivation.
On the western side of the Mississippi, are the Bayous Lafourche and
Plaquemine, outlets, or arms of the Great River, and subject, of
course, to all its fluctuations. The bottoms bordering on these bayous
are of the same luxuriant soil, as those on the parent stream, and are
guarded from inundation in the same manner, by levees. In this region,
the sugar cane is exceedingly productive. It is estimated that, within
a compass of seven miles from Thibadeauxville, in the vicinity of the
Bayous Black and Terre Bonne, about one tenth of the sugar crop of
Louisiana is produced.
A considerable part of Attakapas is also very productive, as well as
portions of Opelousas. The latter, however, is better adapted to
grazing. The Teche, which meanders through the former, and the eastern
part of the latter, of these two parishes, never overflows its banks.
The land rises from the river, in a regularly inclined plane towards
the woods, affording free courses for the streams, which discharge
themselves into the bayou. The soil, therefore, cannot be called
alluvial, though in the most essential quality of productiveness, it
is scarcely inferior to the best of them. It is a lovely region, the
most beautiful, perhaps, in the whole Union, for agricultural
purposes. But it has one great drawback, especially for the
cultivation of sugar; there is a deficiency of ordinary fire-wood;
though the live-oak abounds there to such an extent, that Judge Porter
once remarked in Congress, that "there was enough of it in Attakapas,
to supply the navies of the whole world with ship timber."
The lands on the Atchafalaya are of an excellent quality, and would
afford a desirable opening for enterprising cultivators, if they were
not liable to frequent inundations, an evil which will doubtless be
remedied, as the population and wealth of that section advances. Those
on the Courtableau, which runs through Opelousas, are equal in point
of fertility, to any in that parish. From thence, proceeding
northward, by Bayou Boeuf, we find, on that bayou, a soil which is
regarded by many as the best in the State for the cultivation of
cotton. There is also land of an excellent quality on Bayou Rouge,
though it is, as yet, for the most part, in the state of nature. The
banks of the Bayou Robert, still further north, are of extraordinary
fertility, the cane brake, a sure evidence of a very rich soil,
flourishing with astonishing luxuriance. Bayou Rapid, which gives its
name to the parish through which it runs, intersects one of the most
beautiful tracts in the state, which is laid out, on both sides of the
bayou, through the whole length of its course, into the finest cotton
plantations.
The bottoms of the Red River are well known for their fertility. Those
which lie about its lower courses are justly esteemed the paradise of
cotton planters. The soil is of a darkish red color, occasioned by
the presence of the red oxide of iron. It is thought to derive its
character of luxuriant productiveness from a portion of salt
intimately blended with its constituents, which, from its tendency to
effloresce in a warm sun, renders the compound peculiarly friable.
This soil is deep, and has been accumulating for unknown ages, from
the spoils of the Mexican mountains, (a species of natural annexation
which the laws of nations have no power to regulate,) and the vast
prairies which are washed by its upper courses.
The rich valley of the Red River is of a magnificent breadth, and for
the most part, where it has not been cleared for cultivation, covered
with a dense growth of forest trees. All the bayous of this river,
which are very numerous, branching off in every direction, and
intersecting every part of this luxuriant valley, partake of the
fertilizing character of the main stream.[1]
There are few things among the works of nature, more remarkable than
the _floating prairies_, which are found upon the lakes bordering upon
the coast of the Gulf. They seem to have been formed by the natural
aggregation of such vegetable matter as lay suspended upon the
surface of the water, supplied with a light substratum of soil, partly
by its own decay and disintegration, and partly by attracting around
its roots and fibres the alluvial treasures with which all these
waters abound. From this, various kinds of grass and weeds have sprung
up, the roots of which have become firmly interwoven with the
subjacent mass, matting it completely together, and giving it all the
appearance of a substantial island. It is often several inches in
thickness, and so nearly resembles terra firma, that not only the
sagacity of man, but even animal instinct has been deceived by it.
These floating prairies are sometimes of great extent, and are by no
means confined to waters comparatively shoal. They literally cover the
deeps in some cases, and a great deal of precaution is necessary to
avoid them, for, stable as they look at a distance, they are as
unsubstantial as shadows, so that boats may oftentimes be forced
through them. They are less trustworthy than quicksands, for the
unlucky wight who should adventure himself upon their deceitful
appearances, would find himself entangled in a net of interminable
extent, from which it would be impossible to extricate himself.
It may not be deemed presumption, perhaps, to suggest, that the great
Raft on the Red River may be a formation upon the same principle,
though upon a more enlarged scale. The stream being sluggish, and the
alluvial deposit exceedingly heavy and rich, the accumulation of a
productive soil, and the consequent growth and entanglement of roots
would be very rapid; and a foundation would ultimately be formed
sufficiently stable and permanent, to be travelled with safety.
Floating trees from the upper courses, arrested by this obstruction,
would imbed themselves in the mass, until, by continual accretions, it
should become what it now is, an impassable and almost irremovable
barrier to navigation.
The Delta of the Mississippi is a region of extensive marshes. For
many leagues, the lakes, inlets and sounds, which dissect and
diversify that amphibious wilderness, are connected by an inextricable
tissue of communications and passes, accessible only by small vessels
and bay craft, and impossible to be navigated except by the most
experienced pilots. It is a perfect labyrinth of waters, more
difficult to unravel than those of Crete and Lemnos. The shore is
indented by numberless small bays, or coves, few of which have
sufficient depth of water, to afford a shelter for vessels. Berwick
and Barritaria Bays are the only ones of any considerable magnitude.
The prairies which cover so large a portion of this State, are, for
the most part, connected together, as if the waters from which they
were originally deposited had been an immense chain of lakes, all fed
from the same great source. And this was undoubtedly the fact. They
were all supplied from the Mississippi, and their wonderful fertility
is derived from the alluvial riches of those interminable regions,
which are washed by the father of rivers and his countless
tributaries. Those included under the general name of Attakapas, are
the first which occur on the west of the Mississippi. It is an almost
immeasurable plain of grass, extending from the Atchafalaya on the
north, to the Gulf of Mexico, on the south. Its contents are stated to
be about five thousand square miles. Being open to the Gulf, it is
generally fanned by its refreshing breezes. To the traveller in those
regions, who may have been toiling on his weary way through tangle,
and swamp, and forest, there is something indescribably agreeable in
this smooth and boundless sea of unrivalled fertility, whose dim
outline mingles with the blue of the far off Gulf--the whole vast
plain covered with tall grass, waving and rippling in the breeze,
sprinkled with neat white houses, the abodes of wealth, comfort and
hospitality, and dotted with innumerable cattle and horses grazing in
the fields, or reposing here and there under the shade of the wooded
points. The sudden transition from the rank cane, the annoying
nettles, the stifling air, and the pestilent mosquitoes, to this open
expanse, and the cool salubrious breath of the ocean, is as delightful
and reviving as an oasis in the desert.
In the midst of this immense prairie, is situated the parish of
Attakapas. This word, in the language of the Aborigines, from whom it
is derived, signified "man-eater," the region having been occupied by
Cannibals. Strange indeed, that the inhabitants of a climate so bland,
and a soil so fertile, should possess the taste, or feel the necessity
for so revolting and unnatural a species of barbarism.
Opelousas prairie is still more extensive than Attakapas, being
computed to contain nearly eight thousand square miles. It is divided
by bayous, wooded grounds, points, and bends, and other natural
boundaries, into a number of smaller prairies, which have separate
names, and characteristics more or less distinctive. Taken in its
whole extent, it is bounded by the Attakapas prairie on the east, pine
woods and hill on the north, the Sabine on the west, and the Gulf of
Mexico on the south. The soil though in many places extremely fertile,
is generally less so than that of Attakapas. It has, however, a
compensating advantage, being deemed the healthiest region in the
State. It embraces several large cotton plantations, and a
considerable region devoted to the cultivation of the sugar cane. The
parish which bears its name is one of the most populous in Louisiana.
It is the centre of the land of shepherds, the very Arcadia of those
who deal in domestic animals. To that employment, the greater part of
the inhabitants are devoted, and they number their flocks and herds by
thousands. On one estate five thousand calves were branded in the
spring of 1845.
The people of this district are distinguished for that quiet, easy,
unostentatious hospitality, which assures the visitor of his welcome,
and makes him so much at home, that he finds it difficult to realize
that he is only a guest.
Bellevue prairie lies partly in Opelousas, and partly in Attakapas.
Calcasieu and Sabine prairies are only parts of the great plain, those
names being given to designate some of the varied forms and openings
it assumes in its ample sweep from the Plaquemine to the Sabine. They
are, however, though but parts of a larger prairie, of immense extent.
The Sabine, seen from any point near its centre, seems, like the
mid-ocean, boundless to the view. The Calcasieu is seventy miles long,
by twenty wide. Though, for the most part, so level as to have the
aspect of a perfect plain, the surface is slightly undulated, with
such a general, though imperceptible declination towards the streams
and bayous by which it is intersected, as easily to carry off the
water, and prevent those unhealthy stagnations which are so fatal in
this climate. There is also a gentle slope towards the Gulf, along the
shore of which the vast plain terminates in low marshes often
entirely covered with the sea. These marshes are overspread with a
luxuriant growth of tall reedy cane grass.