USA > Louisiana > Historical collections of Louisiana : embracing translations of many rare and valuable documents relating to the natural, civil and political history of that state > Part 25
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And even our own nation hath not totally escaped this misfortune ; for how many have I known that carried competent estates to North America, neglecting tillage and breeding cattle; in a few years their servants have been their equals, and sometimes superiors : such is the force of prudence and industry. But as for our country of Carolana, if persons who carry over effects and servants be not sottishly foolish, or supinely negligent, they cannot fail of improving their own for- tunes, and, without injury to themselves, contribute to make others easy and comparatively happy.
I will not say that masters and superintendents of any sort or kind need take nothing with them, but that they will find all things neces- sary and convenient to their hands. Doubtless common sense will teach them, they ought to have at least half a year's provisions of
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things necessary, until they are acquainted with the natives, and have established a friendship and correspondence with them. But abund- ance of trouble and expense will be saved in planting this country, which could not be well avoided in those the English have hitherto settled on the continent or in their islands. For bread in this country, we have a great mivantage at first coming. They may have Indian corn of the inhabitants, who have almost everywhere two, and in some places three, crops in a year ; and I have been very credibly informed that, when the new comes in, they cast away a great part of the old to make room in their little granaries. Besides, all along the coast, and two or three hundred miles up the country from the sea, they have the root Mandihoca -- whereof Cassavi bread and flour is made- whereupon alnost all America between the tropics doth subsist (ex- cepting what is brought them at great expense from Europe, or our northern plantations), and which many esteem as good a nourishment as our manchet, and six times cheaper.
Besides, this country naturally affords another sort of excellent corn, which is the most like oats of any European grain, but longer and larger ; and I have been assured by many very credible persons, who often, out of curiosity, had divers ways prepared it, that it far exceeds our best oatmeal. This is not sown and cultivated by the In- dians, but grows spontaneously in marshy places, in and by the sides of rivers, like reeds or rushes. The Indians, when it is ripe, take handfulls, and shake them into their canoes ; what escapes them falling into the water, without any further trouble, produces the next year's crop. Rice may be there raised in as great plenty as in Carolina. For fruits, they have not divers growing in Europe, which were once strangers to us, and by art and industry in some measure naturalized; but they have others little if at all inferior ; such as most excellent limes or wild lemons, and prunes, growing in the open fields, without culture, which they eat plentifully, immediately from the trees, and keep dry for winter provision. Many who have tasted both, unani- mously affirm, they never did meet with either sort in Europe com- parable thereumto: and those dried will not prove a contemptible commodity, when we contract friendship with the natives, who being directed by us how to gather and order them, would supply us with great quantities, not only for own subsistence and delight, but even for exportation. Besides, the tunas a most delicious fruit, especially in hot weather, and also not only agreeable to the palate, but salu- brious, and as our Europeans call it, when in maturity, their cordial julep.
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I now come to that tree, I mean the vine, which a great part of the world almost idolizes. I know there have been great disputes amongst the learned (and positively determined by Mahomet and the Mahometans all over the world), whether it had not been better for mankind it had never existed, considering how much that noble juice hath been abused, and how often it has been the cause of numberless calamities. For my own particular, I must own it is my opinion, that, next to bread, which is the staff of life, it is one of the greatest, merely material comforts we in these northern climates enjoy; and having been long thereunto accustomed, when transplanted into a more southern country, we shall hanker after it. And if we cannot have good of our own produce, we shall certainly have recourse to foreigners, and purchase it at any rate, and thereby impoverish our infant colony. But thanks to Almighty God, who hath not only so long, so wonder- fully favored the English nation in their own island, but takes care even of them, who some account their outcasts, though they have the true English courage, love to their country, and contribute, per- haps as much to its wealth and welfare by their industry, as any equal number of their rank and quality they have left behind. But to put a period to this digression, vines of divers sorts and kinds, grow natu- rally in this country. We have already discovered and distinguished five or six sorts very different from each other; but in such great plenty, that in a thousand places, either upon the continent or in the islands, especially in or near the great river, they make your journeys shorter by entangling your legs, it being natural for them to run upon the ground, unless they meet with trees, up which they creep, loaded with clusters of grape, of some sorts, commonly half a yard, sometimes two foot long. It is true some of these grapes, for want of culture, though large as damsons, have great stones and a tough skin; yet they might be easily meliorated by European skill; though as they are, especially two or three sorts of the smaller kind, are as grateful to the palate as most we have in England ; but the very worst duly managed, produces brandy hardly inferior to any in Europe ; so that had we vessels to distil, and skillful operators, we might soon abate the price of that liquor in England, and our plantations, and keep a sufficient reserve for ourselves.
And further, when we have once obtained the skill of meliorating the grapes, we shall also produce not only as good wine, but also as good raisins, as in most countries of Europe ; the climate being admirably adapted thereunto ; and thereby not only supply ourselves and
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neighboring colonies, but somewhat abate the expense of our mother, good Old England, from whom we proceed, and upon whom we and (I hope and believe) all our other colonies, will not only acknowledge their sole dependence, but ever desire, with the uttermost of their power, to manifest, upon all occasions, their love and gratitude.
But corn and drink are not sufficient for Englishmen, who are used to feed upon good beef, mutton, bacon, veal, and pork; therefore for the encouragement of such as shall hereafter inhabit this province, they will find good beef, and consequently veal, there being a sort of kine natural to this country, which, though they differ a little in shape from ours (having a bunch upon their shoulders, which is delicious food) yet otherways are not in the least inferior to our bulls and cows, and they may make them oxen when they please; and by dry fodder stall oxen like those in England ; but as they are without art and care, they almost equal our grass cattle. There are also sheep of the Spa- Dish breed in good numbers, whose flesh is as good as ours, and their wool better; as also hogs very plentiful, on the sea-coast especially, and some within land, though not so numerous, acorns, chestnuts, and other masts abounding in this country, render them more grateful food (as all who have fed upon them affirm) than ours in England ; and fit for exportation for the islands.
Next to food we are to consider a very material circumstance, and that is, cattle for draught, and horses for riding, which are carried into the plantations, whether on the continent, or in the islands. These are already prepared into your hands, with no great trouble . and expense. For horses, they are commonly used among the In- dians on the west side of the Great River for riding and burdens, as amongst us, though they have not improved them for draughts, being totally ignorant of coaches, wains, carts, or ploughs, unto all which they may soon by care and skill be adapted. And the price of a good horse will not amount unto above five shillings of our European con- modities at first cost, as I am well assured by traders, who have been offered a very good one for a very ordinary hatchet. And as for oxen for plough and cart when their young males are castrated, they will be as tame and as serviccable as our oxen; though amongst the Tar- tars, from whom these kine originally came, the great balls of almost twice the strength and bigness of ours, are by them so far tamed that they employ them to draw their houses or huts pat upon carts many hundred miles, as they have occasion to remove their habitations, which is only for convenient pasture, marching in the winter to the cuth, in the summer to the north. This sort of cattle are not only
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useful for food and labor, but also for their hair, or rather wool, which is very long, very thick, and very fine ; and I think, as do many others who understand the use of it, for hats, clothing, and divers other ne- cessaries, with some small suitable addition or mixtures, is preferable to common wool. Their skins may be partly imported to England, and partly employed in our own colony for harness, boots, shoes, and many other uses.
Besides, we are near New Mexico, all which country generally employ for carriage mighty great and strong mules, produced by As- sinegos, or male asses, many of which there are of abundantly greater bigness, strength and mettle than in Europe, which, with the mares of that country would produce an excellent breed, if it be thought ad- vantageous to raise them.
There are several tracts of land in this country that would suit very well with camels,* many of which are employed by the Spaniards, es- pecially in Peru and Terra Firma, or the south part of the Gulf of Mexico. They have them mostly from the Canary Islands, and some from Africa. They stand well in America, are very useful, and a very little trouble and charge will subsist them.
The wild animals of this country, besides the elk or buffalo above mentioned, are panthers, bears, wolves, and wild cats, none of which are hurtful to mankind; deer of divers sorts, beaver, otter, fox, raccoons squirrels, martens, and conies between ours and hares in great abund- ance ; as likewise a rat with a bag under its throat, wherein it con- veys its young when forced to fly. All these are useful for their furs or skins, and some for food; but I think it not material nor consist- ent with my designed brevity to enter into a particular description of them : No more than of the following bird or wild fowl found all over the country, sea shore and rivers, such as cagles, goshawks, falcons, gerfalcons, and most other birds of prey that are in Europe; great com- panies of turkeys, bustards, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, thrushes, blackbirds, snipes, cranes, swans, geese, ducks, teal, pelicans, parrots, and many other sorts of curious birds differing from ours.
For clothing, though we may reasonably suppose that by our cor- respondence with our native country we may be supplied therewith, as also with beds, carpets, coverlets, &c., yet it would not be amiss, if in the infaney of this colony, the poorer sort were encouraged to
" A caravan of these animals has been lately imported (1850) to establish a communication (across the deserts) between the city of St. Louis and St. Fian- cisco, California.
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manufacture the wool of sheep and kinc, as also cotton, to supply their urgent necessities. Hats may be made of the long soft hair of the kine mixed, if need be, with a little of the hair or wool of beaver, both which are in great plenty, and casily procured, and nothing wanting but a few artists to manufacture them as in England.
I have received information from divers persons who unanimously affirm, that some of the most civilized nations in this country, espe- - cially of the better sort, are clothed with a substance like good coarse serviceable linen, very white. Upon inquiry, they found it was made with the inward bark of trees, which grow plentifully there, and is as becoming as most of the ordinary linen of Europe; and by the rela- tion of the natives no less durable. Of the same and other barks they make thread, corls and ropes, of divers lengths and magnitudes, which might be greatly improved by our English planters.
Olives would certainly grow here as well as in New Spain, where they thrive, especially in those parts contiguous to our country, and are not inferior, either for eating or making oil, to those of Spain and Portugal ; as also almonds, several affirming, particularly, I remember, the famous Acosta writes concerning the productions of the West Indies, where be long resided, that they far exceed those of Spain or any other part of Europe. But, for political reasons, both they and vines are forbidden to be used for the production of oil or wine.
. Currants also would probably prosper in this country, the climate being much of the same nature and latitude with the islands of Zante and Cephalonia, frem whence we now do generally bring them; and the famous city of Corinth, from which they derive their name, and from whence they were transplanted to the fore-mentioned islands; the Latin name being Ura Corinthiacre, or grapes of Corinth, which we corruptly call currants, instead of Corinths. These three commo- dities were thought so mediul that King Charles IL, with the advice of his council, gave great vucouragement, in his patent for Carolina, to the proprietors, planters, or any others who should produce and import them to England ; as also capers and some other commodities there mentioned.
Cotton grows wild in the pod and in great plenty; may be ma- naged and improved as in our islands, and turn to as great account; and in time perhaps mantienred either in the country or in Great Britain, which will regler it a commodity still more valuable .*
. The gather har de plays a wonderful sagacity as to the importance of this country for the cultivation of a plant which now makes Europe our debtor, and is the great regulator of our exchanges.
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Pearls are to be found in great abundance in this country; the Indians put some value upon them, but not so much as on the colored beads we bring them. On the whole coast of this province, for two hundred leagues, there are many vast beds of oysters which breed pearls, as has been found in divers places. But, which is very re- markable, far from the sea, in fresh water rivers and lakes, there is a sort of a shell fish, between a muscle and a pearl oyster, wherein are found abundance of pearls, and many of an unusual magnitude. The Indians, when they take the oysters, broil them over the fire till they are fit to cat, keeping the large pearls they find in them, which, by the heat, are tarnished and lose their native lustre; but, when we have taught them the right method, doubtless it would be a very profitable trade. There are two places we already know within land, in each of which there is a great pearl fishery. One about one hundred and twenty leagues up the River Meschacebe, on the west side, in a lake made by the river of the Naches, about forty miles from its mouth, where they are found in great plenty and many very large. The other on the River Chiaha, which runs into the Coza or Cussaw River (as our English calls it), and which comes from the north-east, and, after a course of some hundred miles, disembogues into the Gulf of Mexico, about one hundred miles to the cast of the Maschacebe.
The judicious and faithful writer of the famous expedition of Fer- dinando Soto, who was therein from the beginning unto the end, acquaints us that, when they came to Cutifachia, the chief of that country, finding they valued pearl, offered to load all their horses . therewith, which were at least two hundred. And, to confirm them in the belief of what they advanced, carried them unto two of their chief temples, where they found vast quantities, but took only fourteen bushels for a show to the Hlavana, and other of the Spanish dominions, to encourage the peopling of this colony, not being willing to encum- ber their horses with more, their welfare and success depending much upon their horsemen-the Indians being abundantly more afraid of them than the foot, whose guns being useless after a short time, for want of powder, they only made use of cross-bows. And Garcilasso, who was not with Soto, but writ only upon memoirs he received from divers who were present, gives a more full account of the prodigious quantity of pearls in that country, affirming the Spaniards calculated them to amount unto a thousand bushels. And afterwards, when the Spaniards at Chiaha were gathering oysters for their food, they found many large pearls, and one particularly that was prized at four
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hundred ducats, not having lost the least of its lustre, being taken out of a raw oyster. And that one Terron, a Spaniard, had above six pounds weight of pearl, very large, and mostly of a beautiful lustre, and were valued at six thousand ducats.
It need not seem incredible that pearl should be taken in fresh water lakes and rivers, there being many relations of unquestionable reputation, which declare, very good and large pearls are found in divers parts of China, and the countries to the west and south-west of their great wall (with which quotations I will not enlarge this dis- course), as will appear by reading the China Atlas of Martinius, Mar- cus Paulus Venetus, and other credible writers on lakes and fresh water rivers.
Cochineal is a commodity of great value, very necessary as the world goes, and costs this nation annually great sums of money, which may be all saved, there being in this province sufficient to furnish both us and our neighbors, who are no less fond of it than ourselves. There have been great inquiries, and many disputes, about the original of this commodity, which is the famous ingredient for dyeing in grain, the purple and scarlet colors, generally esteemed by opulent and civil- ized nations.
This noble ingredient for dyeing, is produced by a tree or shrub called the Tunal or Tuna, of which there are divers sorts; some bear- ing an excellent fruit, very pleasant and wholesome. It is made of certain insects breeding in the fruit of this plant, when it is well hus- banded, and are thereunto fastened, covered with a dainty fine web, which doth compass them about, and when come to maturity they cat through it, fall off the tree, and being carefully gathered, dried, and curiously put up, are sent to Spain, and thence distributed to most civilized parts of Europe and Asia. Acosta tells us, that in the fleet wherein he returned from Mexico, that province only, shipped 5677 arobes, each whereof is 25 !. weight, and valued at 283,750 pieces of eight. The cochinval is of two sorts, one growing wild, which they call silvester. This, though it gives a good price, is far short of that which is duly cultivated in gardens and fields, much after the manner the English do tobacco in their plantations. This province, both on the east and west side of the Mesehacebe, from the Gulf of Mexico, some hundred miles up the country, abounds with all sorts of Tunals, or 'Funas (as some style them), usually found in the province of Mexico, which bad rs upon it, and is only divided by an imaginary line, from the degrees of thirty to thirty-six. When this country is
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settled, and we set upon this manufacture, the Indians may be very helpful unto us, it being casy labor, and wherein we need only employ their women and young people, if their men, who are generally very Jazy, decline it.
The plant of which indigo is made, is very frequent in most of the southern parts of this country, and may possibly produce better than that made in our Islands of Jamaica, &c., this province being in the - same latitude with Agra and Byana, territories in the great Mogul's country, whose indigo is accounted the best of its kind in the world, and is double the price of ours. It is easily made, and the Indians may be assisting to us herein, if we think fit to undertake it. Besides, if we believe that judicious natural historian Hernando, there is in Mexico, and consequently here (being much the same climate) a plant or little shrub, which produces an indigo abundantly more noble, and the color more lively, than that which is the common indigo. This the Spaniards call azul, as being like ultramarine .*
Ambergris or gray amber, is often found upon this coast, from the Cape of Florida to Mexico, which is of great value. The best (for there are divers sorts) is of equal worth to its weight in gold. This is agreed upon by the learned, to be a bitumen or naphtha, which comes from certain springs or fountains, that empty themselves into the sea, and is coagulated by the salt water, as succinum, commonly called amber, from another sort of bitumen or naphtha, and in storms cast upon the coast. The same ambergris is also found upon the east side of the Cape or Peninsula of Florida, the Bahama Islands, in the East Indies, and Brazil, and sometimes great lumps, even upon the coast of Cornwall and Ireland. And among others, I have read of a piece weighing eighty pounds, cast upon the coast of Cornwall, in the reign of King Charles I., which was bigger, till diminished by the countryman who found it, by greasing his cart-wheels, and boots, but discovered accidentally by an intelligent gentleman, who riding by one of his carts, and perceiving a very grateful smell, inquired of the man whence it proceeded; he told him he had found a nasty grease on the shore, which he hoped would have saved him the expense of kitchen stuff and tar for carts, harness, and boots, but it was of so poisonous a smell, that they were not able to endure it. The gentle- man desiring to see the remainder, found it what he expected, pur-
# The cultivation of indigo was commenced in Louisiana in 1726. As a crop it was uncertain, but it was not abandoned until 1791, when it was succeeded by the more general cultivation of sugar, cotton, and tobacco.
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chaseden at. very easy rate, presented it unto the queen, and was required in plans for employments far beyond the value of it.
There is. paul in great quantities upon the same coast, on the shore to the east and west of the Meschacobe, especially after high south wds, s sort of stone pitch, by the Spaniards called copec, which Pay likewise find in the South Sea, upon the coast of Peru. They mix it with grease to make it more liquid, and use it as pitch for their was ok, and alliam it to be better in hot countries, not being apt to pink with the heat of the sun or weather. And at Trinidad, a large island ever against the great river of Oronoque, there is a moun- tain of the void substance, of which Sir Walter Raleigh gives an account is 1 ;: expedition, so fatal unto him, of the discovery of the said vivre; and several navigators since have done the same. Acosta, the far sas portbor of the natural history of the West Indies, affirms it to be gur end of an ol, which empties itself, he knows not how, into sex . . . s of the orcan, in so great quantities, that the sailors, when it's hes, buow where they are by its floating on the sea, or the smell thatord. altich, he says, they scented at a considerable distance. The Huntela what to discover the River Meschacche, afirm the same, and that they found it in two places, which I have well marked. Moreover Bout the sea was covered with an oil or slime, as they style it, which hol . very strong smell for many leagues together. I suppose they leal much the same conceptions with the countryman before medionel, and therefore their curiosity did not prompt them to take it in atol examine its qualities; though probably it might be of the :.: nature and use with that of divers wells in the province ยท of Aller sin in Persia, war the Caspian Sea, whence they fetch it many hadde miles on candle, being used to burn it in lamps instead of oil, it taitting a most grateful and wholesome odor. I might add spernow si whales, out of which that substance is extracted, are sometime- Vilket by the natives, and sometimes by storms, as it were, shipwreckeden thesh ce; hat either of these seldom happening, there can be no garet dependence or expectation from them.
Salt is of great use, especially unto Europeans, without which they cannot w. h abis, being accustomed thereunto from their infancy, anel with pi Which food Las no relish. Besides, it is supposed that it prevent coup Cation send innumerable diseases; and in foreign coun- tries where is lath been wanting they have greatly suffered. It is morcov .. .... gy to preserve fish and flesh, which without it canmot. be long hogy wert. In this country it may be easily and abundantly
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