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 26
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procured." We know divers places, on both sides of the river, where there are many springs and lakes, producing plentifully excellent salt ; and also one mine of rock-salt, almost clear as crystal, and probably there may be many more of the same. By these, we may not only supply ourselves with what is necessary for our ordinary daily food, during the winter or other seasons, but also furnish our (I may call then neighbor) plantations in the islands (we not being very remote from them) with fish, flesh, and salt; when by reason of war, or other sinister accidents, they cannot receive due and ex- pected recruits from England or elsewhere.
Silk is a commodity of great use in England for many manufactures, it being imported to us from France, Italy, Sicily, Turkey, and the East Indies : and there is no foreign commodity which exhausts more of our treasure. I am not so vain as to promise this country can furnish Great Britain with so much silk as is therein manufactured, which "would amount to above half a million or a million sterling annually; but if this province is ever settled (it abounding in most parts with forests of mulberry trees, both white and red), and we keep a good correspondence with the natives, which is both our duty and interest, certainly a considerable quantity of silk may be here pro- duced .; It hath been already experimented, in South Carolina, by Sir Nathaniel Johnston and others, which would have returned to . great account, but that they wanted hands, laborers being not to be hired but at a vast charge. Yet if the natives or negroes were em- ployed, who delight in such casy light labors, we could have that done for less than one shilling, which costs them more than six. Now I appeal to all good Englishmen, if we can raise only a tenth part of the silk expended in Great Britain, &c., and perhaps half an age hence the fifth, whether it would not be very beneficial to our native country, and a little check upon others, with whom we deal in that commodity, by letting them know, if they are unreasonable and exor- bitant in their demands, that we may in a short time supply ourselves, in a great measure, from our own plantations? I am not ignorant there are several sorts of silks, proper for divers distinct uses, as of China, Bengal, and other parts of the East Indies, Persia, Turkey, Naples, and Sicily ; for what manufactures ours is most proper, I
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* On the head waters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers.
¡ There is no climate in the world more favorable for the cultivation of silk than Louisiana. And the time is fast approaching when it will be one of the staples of the country.
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know not ; but it hath given a good price, and experience may teach us to raise for more uses than one. I would advise my countrymen when they set up this manufacture to imitate the Chinese, who sow the mulberry seeds as we do pot-herbs, and to mow those of one year's growth for the young silkworms, the leaves being short and tender, fit food for them when fresh hatched ; and the second for them when in their infancy, as I may deservedly style it. When grown strong, they may be supplied with leaves from the trees ; which method secures them from the diseases, whereunto they are obnoxious, when fed from the beginning with great rank leaves, saves much trouble, and lessens the munber of hands to attend them, which is the greatest expense.
Hemp and flax are not only materials for divers manufactures in England, but exceedingly useful, and indeed almost necessary in a new colony, to supply them with coarse linens of divers kinds, whereof, if we made much and finer, it would be no injury to our mother England, who hath most from foreign parts ; as also cordage, thread, twine for nets, and other uses. The plants which produce hemp and flax are very common in this country, and abundantly suf- ficient to supply not only the necessities thereof, but likewise of the whole British nation. Besides, we have a grass, as they call it, silk grass, which makes very pretty stuff's, such as come from the East In- dies, which they call Herba stuffs, whereof a garment was made for Queen Elizabeth, whose ingredient came from Sir Walter Raleigh's colony, by Jam called Virginia, now North Carolina, a part of this. , province, which, to encourage colonies and plantations, she was pleased to wear for divers weeks.
This country affords excellent timber for building ships, as oak, fir, cedar, spruce, and divers other sorts ; and, as I said before, flax and hemp for cordage and sails, as likewise iron for nails and anchors. But without tar, pitch, and rosin, a ship can never be well equipped; wherefore there are divers places in this country* near the sea and great rivers, which were otherwise useless, being the most sandy bar- ren parts of the country, wherein that tree grows which produces all those materials for naval architecture; the same tree likewise pro- duces turpentine, which is no contemptible commodity. This tree being pierced, and a vessel conveniently fastened unto or placed under the aperture, the turpentine distils plentifully into it. If cut, and a hole made under the tree in the sand (for in that soil it generally
* Lower Louisiana is celebrated for its forests of live oak and pine trees.
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grows), the turpentine, by the influence of the air and sun, without any further trouble, becomes good rosin. Pitch and tar are made by cutting the dry trees into scantlings, and taking the knots of old trees fallen, and the rest of the wood rotted, burning, as you here make charcoal, covering with turf, and leaving orifices for as much air as will keep the fire from extinguishing. The moisture, partly aqueous, partly bituminous, runs by a gentle descent into a pit ; what swims is tar, which, inflamed to a certain degree and extinguished, is pitch.
I suppose it will not seem a grievance for us to build ships in this country to bring home our native commodities, when it is allowed in other plantations, and supposed to save us a vast expense of boards, masts, yards, &c., which were formerly brought us from Norway and Sweden, where it is well known that three parts in four are payed for in ready money, and not a fourth in our own native commodities or manufactures. Besides the pitch, tar, rosin, and turpentine, the pro- duce of the trees before mentioned, the ashes which remain, with a very small accession, and little trouble, will make potash, no con- temptible commodity, and which costs England every year to foreign parts (as I have been informed by competent judges) above fifty thou- sand pounds. But I will not insist further hereon, or manifest what great quantities hereof may easily be made, and how much stronger than most of that we import from Russia, Livonia, Courland, Prussia, Sweden, Norway, and other countries, we having so many other valua- . ble commodities to employ our time and labor about.
The mention of potash, so much used by soap-boilers and dyers, brings to mind several materials for dycing. This country affords log- wood, otherwise called Campeachy wood, and many other dyeing woods, fustic, &e., which, divers who tried them, affirm are not inferior to those growing on the opposite side of the gulf, in the Spanish domin- ions, whence we have hitherto received them, with much charge, hazard, and trouble. There are besides the woods in this country, divers shrubs and plants, whose roots, even as used by the Indians, dye the finest and most durable colors, black, yellow, blue, and espe- cially red; which if planted and cultivated, as mather wood and saf- fron amongst us, might probably be beneficial unto the undertakers.
Some persons are very inquisitive whether this country produces gems. I pretend not to the knowledge of diamonds, rubies and ba- lasses, sapphires, emeralds or chrysolites; all that have come to my knowledge are amethysts, of which there are very fine and large, and to the west, turkoises, thought to be as large and good as any in the
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known world ; and possibly upon inquiry and diligent search, others may be found.
We have an account of lapis lazuli, which is an indication, as my masters generally affirm, that gold is not far off. I never did sec or hear of any lapis lazuli extraordinarily good, but had visible streaks or veins of pure gold. But though it is not ordinarily reckoned amongst precious stones, yet, if good in its kind, it is sold for its weight in gold, to make that glorious azure called ultramarine, with- out which no marvelous and durable painting can be made. And Monsieur Turnefort, in his voyage to the Levant, observes that be- sides that lazuli is found in gold mines, there seems to be in this stone some threads of gold as it were still uncorrupted.
I had almost forgotten to communicate two commodities, one for the health, the other for the defence of our bodies. The former is a shrub called Cassine, much used and celebrated by the natives, the leaves whereof dried will keep very long, of which several people have had many years' experience. The Indians drink plentifully thereof (as we do tea in Europe, and the Chinese, from whom it is exported), more especially when they undertake long and dangerous expeditions against their enemies, affirming it takes away hunger, thirst, weariness, and that tormenting passion, fear, for twenty-four hours. And none amongst them are allowed to drink it but those who have well deserved by their military achievements, or otherwise obtained the favor of their petty roytelets.
The latter is saltpetre, which may probably be here procured cheap . and plentifully, there being at certain seasons of the year most pro- , digious flights of pigeons, I have been assured by some who have seen them, above a leagne long, and half as broad. These come, many flocks successively, much the same course, roost upon trees in such number that they often break the boughs and leave prodigious heaps of dung behind them; from which, with good management and very little expense, great quantities of the best saltpetre may be ex- tracted.
Having given an account of the most valuable animals and vege- tables this country produces, for food and other uses, as well as ma- terials for trade and manufacture, some who have heard or read of the immense riches in gold and silver that are annually exported from Peru, Mexico, and other territories of the Spaniards in America to Spain, ant of the incredible quantities of gold that have been im- ported from Brazil into Portugal for above thirty years past (the
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benefit of which all the world knows we have shared in), will be ready to inquire whether the like mines exist in this country ? Whereunto it may be answered, were there no such mines, yet where there is so good, rich, fertile Jand, so pure and healthful an air and climate, such an abundance of all things for food and raiment, valu- able materials for domestic and foreign trade, these advantages alone, if industriously improved, and prudently managed, will in the event bring in gold and silver, by the balance of trade, as in the case of England and Holland; who, without mines of gold or silver, are perhaps the richest nations, for the quantity of land they possess, and number of inhabitants, in the whole commercial world. And it is well known, that we, and some other industrious Europeans receive, in exchange for our commodities, the greatest part of the wealth which comes in bullion from the West Indies, either to Spain or Portugal. But not to discourage any whose genius inclines them to the discovery and working of mines, I will add, who knows but we may have here as rich as any in the known world? Who hath searched? as Tacitus said of Germany in the height of the Roman empire. I mean the reign of the great Trajan, sixteen hundred years since. Yet after- wards there were found gold, silver,. lead, tin, copper, quicksilver, spelter, antimony, vitriol, the best in the world, blue, green, and white; besides many other mineral productions, which are now wrought to the great advantage of divers sovereign princes and their subjects.
But to make a more particular reply to such suggestions, they may be assured that copper is in abundance, and so fine that it is found in plates, bits, and pieces very pure without melting, of which considerable quantities have been gathered on the surface of the earth. And they who have tried some of the ore, affirm by common methods it gives above forty per cent. The famous Alonzo Barba, who hath given an admirable account of the mines* the Spaniards have disco- vered in America, and the ways of working them, assures us that be- sides the mines abounding in that metal near the surface of the earth, they found, digging deeper, that they proved the richest silver mines they have hitherto discovered. And all agree, the gold extracted out of copper is finer, of a higher tincture, or more carats, than that cx- tracted from silver or any other metal, and that without the tedious process of burning several times before melting, employed constantly,
* Silver, copper, and lead mines abound in Texas, Louisiana, and Missouri; gold and quicksilver in California.
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in order to the extracting ecopper, by Swedes and other European nations.
Lead is there in great quantities. What has already been disco- vered is more than sufficient for common use, and the ore affords sixty per cent.
I need not perhaps mention coal, the country so much abounding in wood. But because in some cases that may be more useful and proper than wood, I will add that in many places there are known to be mines of pit coal, like that we have from Scotland, Wales, and some of our inland countries in England.
Iron ore is in abundance of places near the surface of the earth ; and some parts produce iron little inferior to steel in goodness, and useful in many cases wherein steel is commonly employed, as divers attest who have made trials thereof.
This country affords another profitable commodity or mineral, which is quicksilver. We have knowledge of two mines, one on the west, the other on the cast of the Great River, and doubtless many more might be found if inquired after. The natives make no other use thereof than to paint their faces and bodies therewith in time of war, and great festivals. This we call quicksilver is the mother of quick- silver, or the mineral out of which it is extracted, and is a rock of a scarlet or purple color; which being broke and distilled into carthen pots, the necks whereof are put into others almost full of water, the latter for the greater part of each of them in the ground, then are placed in rows, almost contiguous, covered with spray wood, which burning drives the quick-ilver by descent out of the mineral into the water. Three or four men will tend some thousands of these pots. The great trouble is in digging; all the expense not amounting unto a tenth part of the value of the produce.
And it is generally observed by all who write well on mines, metals, and minerals, that though silver be often found where there is no cinnabar of quicksilver in its neighborhood, yet cinnabar is rarely found but silver mines are near. This cinnabar or vermilion, though a good commodity in itself in Europe and among the savages, for some picked chosen pieces, is chiefly valable for the quicksilver it produces, especially if we ever obtain a free trade with the Spaniards, and will be beyond all exception for our and their mutual benefit; for most of the silver ore in America, mixed with quicksilver, produces almost double the quantity of metal it would do only by melting; so that the Spaniards have annually six or eight thousand quintals or hun-
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dred weight, brought unto them from the bottom of the Adriatic Gulf out of the territories of the Emperor, and the Venetians, viz: from Istria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Friuli, and Dalmatia. We can sell it them, and deliver it for half what that costs which comes from Eu- rope, they being within six or eight days' sail of the place where it is produced. And for Mexico we can deliver it for the mines in New, Biscay, &c., in the River of Palms or Rio Bravo, otherwise called the River of Escondido: as also by the River of the Houmas (Red River). which enters the Meschacebe, one hundred leagues from its mouth, on the west side, after a course of above five hundred miles It is a very large deep river, navigable at least three hundred miles by ships ; afterwards unto its heads by barques and flat bottomed boats, having no falls. It proceeds from that narrow ridge of low mountains which divides this country and the Province of Mexico. The hills may be passed not only by men and horses but also by wagons, in less than half a day. On the other side are small navigable rivers, which after a short course of thirty or forty miles, empty themselves into the abovesaid Rio Bravo, which comes from the most northerly part of New Mexico, in thirty-eight degrees of latitude, and enters the sea at the N. W. end of the Gulf of Mexico, in twenty-seven degrees of latitude.
There is also another easy passage, to the northern part of New Mexico, by the Yellow River, which about sixty miles above its mouth, is divided into two great branches; or rather those two branches form that great river, which is no less than the Meschacebe, where they are united. The north branch proceeds from the north-west, and is called the River of the Massorites (Missouri), from a great nation who live thereon. The other, which comes from the west and by south, is named the River of the Ozages, a populous nation of that name inhabiting on its banks; and their heads proceed from the aforesaid hills, which part the Province of New Mexico from Carolana, and are easily passable; as are those forementioned of the River of the Houmas, which may be plainly discerned by the map or chart here- unto annexed.
But all this is insignificant to our Plutonists, whom nothing will satisfy besides gold and silver; I will therefore here declare all 1 know, or have received from credible persons, and will not add a tittle .* I. am well informed of a place, from whence the Indians have
* The early French explorers sent to Louisiana were among the first to write on the mineral regions of this province and Lake Superior.
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brought a metal (not well indeed refined), and that divers times, which, purified, produced two parts silver. And I have an account from another, who was with the Indians, and had from them inform masses of such like silver, and very fine pale copper, though above two hundred miles from the country where the forementioned was found. I have by me letters from New Jersey, written many years since by a person very well skilled in the refining of metals, signify- ing, that divers years successively, a fellow who was there of little esteem, took a fancy to ramble with the Indians beyond the hills which separate that colony and New York from this country; he always brought home with him a bag, as heavy as he could well carry, of dust, or rather small particles of divers sorts of metals, very ponderous. When melted, it appeared a mixture of metals, unto which they could assign no certain denomination; but perceived by many trials that it contained lead, copper, and when refined, above a third part silver and gold ; for though the gold was the least in quantity, yet it was con- siderable in value; which is casy discovered by any tolerable artist of a refiner, who knows how to separate gold and silver, and what proportion the mass contains of cach. There were great pains taken to bring this fellow to discover where he had this, I may call, treasure, it serving him to drink and sot till he went on another expedition; but neither promises nor importunities would prevail. Some made him drunk, yet he still kept his secret. All they could ever fish out of him was, that about three hundred leagues south-west of Jersey, at a certain season of the year, there fell great torrents of water from some mountains --- I suppose from rains-which being passed over, the Indians washed the sand or carth some distance below the falls, and in the bottom remained this medley of metals .. Which brings to mind what happened lately in Brazil. Several Portuguese being guilty of heinous crimes, or afraid of the resentment of powerful enemies, retreated from their habitations to the mountains of St. Paul, as they called them, lying in between twenty and thirty degrees of sontl, latitude, above two hundred miles from their nearest planta- tions, and yearly increasing, at length formed a government amongst themselves. Some inquisitive person perceiving, in divers places, somewhat glister, after the canals of the torrents produced by great rains, at a certain time of the year, were dry, upon trial found it (the sen l and filth being washed away) very fine gold. They having, upon consultation, amassed a good quantity thereof, made their peace with the King of Portugal, and are a peculiar jurisdiction, paying
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the King his quint or fifth, which is reserved in all grants of the Crown of Spain and Portugal; and are constantly supplied by the merchants for ready money with whatsoever commodities they want. And I am informed by divers credible persons, who have long lived in Portugal, that from this otherwise contemptible useless country, is brought by every Brazil fleet above twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, only in gold. Who knows but what happened to them, may one time or other, in like manner, happen to the future inhabitants of this country, not yet cultivated, fully discovered or ran- sacked by Europeans?
There are in divers parts of this province, orpiment, and sandaracha in great quantity; and all the writers on metals and minerals affirm, they not only contain gold, but where they are found they are generally the covering of mines of gold or silver.
But suppose all that preceded is conjecture, imposture, or visionary, what I now suggest deserves great attention, and when the country is settled, may invite the best heads and longest purses to combine, at least, to make a fair trial of what the Spaniards attempted upon naked conjectures.
The mines of New Biscay,* Gallicia and New Mexico, out of which such vast quantities of silver is yearly sent to Spain, besides what is detained for their domestic utensils, wherein they are very magnificent, lie contiguous to this country-to say nothing of gold, whereof they have considerable quantities, though not proportionable in bulk or value to the silver. But there is a ridge of hills which run almost due north and south between their country and ours, not thirty miles broad, and in divers places, for many miles, abounding with silver mines, more than they can work, for want of native Spaniards, and Negroes. And, which is very remarkable, they unanimously affirm, the further north, the richer the mines of silver are. Which brings to mind what Polybius, Livy, Pliny, and many other of the Greck and Roman historians, and writers of natural history unanimously report ; that the rich mines in Spain, upon which the Cathagivians so much depended, and which greatly enriched them, were in the Asturias and Pyrenean mountains, the most northerly part of Spain, and in a much greater northern latitude than the farthest mines of New Mexico, near their capital city Santa Fee, situate in about thirty- six degrees. Not but that there are more and richer mines more
* The silver mines of St. Barbe, in the Guadaloupe mountains, are said by travelers to be among the richest in the world.
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northerly than Santa F'ee, but they are hindered from working them by three or four populous and well policed nations, who have beat the Spaniards in many rencounters, not to say battles; and for a hundred years they have not been able, by their own confession, to gain from them one inch of ground.
Pliny in particular affirms, that every year twenty thousand pounds of gold were brought from their mines in Spain: and that one mine called Bebello, from the first discoverer, yielded to Hannibal every day three hundred pounds weight of silver, besides a very rich copi- ous mine of minium, cinnabaris, or vermilion, the mother of quick- silver, out of which only it is extracted. He adds, that the Romans continued to work these mines unto his time, which was about three hundred years; but they were not then so profitable, by reason of sub- terraneal waters, which gave them much trouble, they having then digged fifteen hundred paces into the mountain. But what is very remarkable and to our present purpose, these mines were not in the most southerly or middle parts of Spain, but as above to the north- ward. Now I desire any intelligent person, skillful in mineral affairs, to assign a probable reason why we, who are on that side of the ridge of hills obverted to the rising sun, which was always (how justly I know not) reckoned to abound in metals and minerals, more than those exposed to the setting sun, may not hope for and expect as many and as rich mines, as any the Spaniards are masters of, on the other or west side of these mountains ? Especially since several of the Spanish historians and naturalists observe, that the mines on the castern side of the mountain of Potosi in Peru, are much more nu- merous and rich than those on the western.
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