USA > Louisiana > Sketches, historical and descriptive, of Louisiana > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
Hence a stranger might be apt to conclude, that the cli- mate among the upper settlements on the Mississippi is unfavourable to health. Experience, however, enables us to draw a different conclusion. For reasons mentioned in another place, the country between the Arkansas and the neighborhood of cape Gerardeau is deemed less sa- lubrious than the more northern districts. But even here the native inhabitants, particularly the French, enjoy as much health as the people of any other country, and many instances of longevity occur among them. The endemics in Upper Louisiana are almost exclusively confined to English Americans, who were born and educated in more northern climates ; and even these after a residence of one "or two years in the country, generally enjoy a good de- gree of health. 'The heats produce lassitude and languor, and exercise becomes irksome. In this state of the bo- dily system, people who live on the borders of great wa- ter courses are seized with diseases, generally of the in- termittent kind. 'Those from the eastern and middle states are subject to these diseases, especially the first summer after their arrival. Those from the southern states generally enjoy good health. 'The settlers of all descriptions, who plant themselves in the interior at a dis- tance from any large body of fresh water, are seldom at- tacked by endemics. It is evident, therefore, that the diseases already mentioned are usually superinduced by the pestilential vapors, which arise from the rivers, and from the decayed vegetable substances, produced in great abundance on the bottoms along the borders of them. These diseases, however, are easily conquered by a few simples, and the patients soon restored to health. The
1
4.
238
SKETCHES OF LOUISIANA.
general salubrity of the climate is ascertained from this circumstance, that fewer people die in it according to their number than in most other countries. Pleuritic dis- orders are prevalent in the spring in all parts of Louisia- na, and these sometimes prove fatal, especially among the old people. Fiannel worn next the skin, both summer and winter, has been found to be an almost certain antidote to the endemics of the climate.
When we consider the intense heats in Upper Louisia- na, the vast bodies of fresh water in it, the flat and inun- dated grounds in some parts of it, and the extensive dif- fusion of vegetable putrefaction, so fruitful of fatal dis- , eases in other parts of the world, we are naturally led to enquire, what is the cause of the uncommon salubrity of the climate ? A number of causes may probably unite to produce the prevalent health ; but perhaps the most pro- minent one may be traced to the vast ledges and preci- pices of calcareous rock found in various places on both sides of the Mississippi above the lower line of cape Ge- rardeau. St. Louis and several other villages are either built on, or contiguous to, vast strata of this rock, which fortunately appear in those places where vegetable putre- faction and the noxious vapors are the most common. No other rock, indeed, abounds in the country. Where this appears in plenty the people are not often troubled with dangerous diseases ; and it is well known to physicians and chemists, that the properties it contains are either calculated to neutralize and to destroy the deleterious qua- lities of putrid exhalations, or to prevent the existence of them. The city of Lisbon, situated in about thirty-eight , degrees, north latitude, nearly in the same parallel with St. Genevieve, is deemed one of the most healthy spots on the globe, and it is resorted to in summer by valetudi- narians from almost all the nations of Europe. What can be the cause of such a great degree of health in the city of Lisbon? It is the calcareous rock on which it
1.
239
*UPPER LOUISIANA.
stands, and of which its houses are built. The very streets of that city are excavated from this rock, and the clouds of dust raised in them by the winds are of a calca- reous nature. The villages at a small distance from this : city, are furnished with silicious stones; and though more elevated, and more' fully ventilated by the air, are sometimes almost desolated by endemics ; while the capi- tal, populated by at least one hundred and twenty thou- sand souls, has invariably escaped them. The country in most places about the gulf of Mexico is extremely low, and the air is so much impregnated by a deadly effluvia as either to obstruct settlements, or to thin them of their inhabitants ; yet there are some very populous villages, even in the latitude of La vera Cruz, founded on beds of lime stone, and are surrounded by lofty mountains of calcareous rock, in which very little sickness is known, and the physicians cannot live by their professions. Cal- careous earths not only act on the air, but they neutralize the water, and render it wholesome.
All circumstances considered, the climate in Upper Louisiana is favorable to health. If the heats debilitate the system, the extreme luxuriancy of the soil admits of a partial exemption from labor; and during the heat of the day the laborers usually retire to the shade, and in- dulge a temporary indolence.
Perhaps it may be proper in this place to notice a re- mark found in the American travels of Mr. Volney. He .is of opinion, that the country to the eastward of the mountains arose in former times from the bed of the ocean, because all the vast masses of rock, with which it abounds, are jumbled together, and bear evident marks of disruption. IIe is also of opinion, that the country to the westward of the mountains has never been shaken by earthquakes, because all the masses of rock are deposited in horizontal strata,
240
SKETCHES OF LOUISIANA.
· The confused disposition of the rocks in the low coun- try in the neighborhood of the sea coast, particularly those in New England, may perhaps with more propriety be imputed to earthquakes than to a recession of the ocean ; for in the history of that part of the union is enumerated forty five earthquakes between 1628 and 1782, a period of one hundred and fifty four years; and some of them not only created alarm, but their progress was marked with considerable ruin and disruption. These dreadful visitations of nature might have occasionally shaken the. borders of the Atlantic for ages before they were discover- ed by civilized man, and no doubt some of them disfigur- ed the face of the country. If the shells and other ma- rine substances, found in various places be sufficient to prove, that the low country contiguous to the sea arose from the bed of the ocean, they will also prove, that the Andes and other high mountains on our continent emerg- ed from the same abyss, and perhaps too the whole of this quarter of the globe. Mr. Volney is correct with respect to the horizontal strata of rocks in the western country. The first appearance of them is near the top of the Alleg- heny mountains, and they uniformly abound on the Ohio and Mississippi.
But how shall we account for Mr. Volney's ignorance of the earthquakes, which have been so frequently expe- rienced in Upper Louisiana? He spent some time at Vin- cennes, where he might have obtained correct information on the subject. The fact is, that earthquakes are common in that country, and may be traced to the first settlement of it. A severe shock was experienced in 1795 ; and the author of these sketches witnessed two others at Kas- kaskia in the nights of the twentieth and twenty first of February 1804. Their oscillations were nearly from west to east ; they produced an undulating motion in the earth like the swell of a sea ; the buildings were considerably
UPPER LOUISIANA.
241 - 242
raised, ard much shaken and disjointed; the soldiery were awakened from their sleep, and so much larmed as hastily to abandon their quarters. Not a breath of air seemed to move ; the sky was serene and clear, and the moon shone with unclouded lustre. Another shock was experienced on the nineteenth of the succeeding April ; but it was not very perceptible.
Pumice stone of considerable size have repeatedly been found floating down the Missouri; and the existence of a volcano on some of its waters is now fully ascertained by some late discoveries.
-
1
-
SKETCHES OF LOUISIANA.
CHAPTER VII.
OF LAND TITLES.
THIE settlers in Louisiana held their lands, both un- der the French and Spanish governments, by allodial tenu- res. This country was originally discovered and settled from Canada, where feudal tenures and a noblesse existed ; and the liberality of Louis XIV., in whose reign Louisia- na was first settled, must be ascribed to the peculiar situa- tion of his affairs ; the wars in which he was engaged left him no resources to assist the colonists, and he therefore resorted to favorable conditions as the best means of pre- serving his acquisitions in the new world. In the two successive grants he made of the colony, first to Crozat
2 1
-
244
SKETCHES OF LOUISIANA.
in 1712, and then to the west India company in 1717, the principles of allodium are plainly recognized, reserving no- thing to himself but liege homage and fidelity, which every subject owes to his sovereign. The same principles were recognized by the Spanish government in all its conces- sions, though in many other respects it invaded the privi- leges of the people as derived from their former sove- reigns.
- The first settlements formed by the French on the Mis- sissippi were at Kahokia and Kaskaskia in 1683. These villages are on the east side of that river. During the early part of the last century they conceded some scatter- ing tracts of land in the neighborhood of St. Genevieve, which were supposed to be impregnated with valuable mi- nerals; but the most ancient archieves of the French au- thorities in this quarter are either lost or were removed to New Orleans, and therefore no satisfactory information can be obtained of these old concessions.
The oldest. French grant on the records 'at St. Louis bears date April the twenty seventh, 1766; and the French authorities continued to concede lands till May 1770, when Spain took possession of Upper Louisiana under the trea- . ty of 1762. These concessions were made by St. Ange, the commandant, and by Lafebvre, succeeded by La Bus- siere, both of whom are styled judges. It is probable that some of their concessions were never registered ; and it is also as probable, that others were forfeited or disannull- ed, and the lands comprehended in them reconceded. In the years 1770, 1771, and 1772, sixty four concessions, mostly French, comprising four thousand eight hundred arpents, were surveyed by order of the first Spanish com- mandant. Even so late as 1788 no more than six thou- sand four hundred arpents had been surveyed in the dis- trict of St. Louis.
Particular care was taken in 1804, soon after the Unit- ed States took possession of Upper Louisiana, to have all
1
245
OF LAND TITLES.
the land titles properly registered. Probably some few -
were omitted ; but it is presumed, that these omissions will have no sensible effect on the general result. The quantity of land actually surveyed was accurately ascer-" tained from the office of the surveyor general, where all surveys are recorded, and it amounted to eight hundred and sixty eight thousand seven hundred and seventy one arpents. The conceded lands not surveyed, though duly registered, amounted to eight hundred and fifty two thou- sand seven hundred and twenty two arpents; so that the quantity of land claimed in Upper Louisiana under French and Spanish titles was one million seven hundred and twenty one thousand four hundred and ninety three ar- pents ; a quantity by no means exorbitant when compar- ed with the population of that country.
The lands claimed at the Arkansas are not included in this estimate, as an accurate account of them could not be obtained.
.Titles derived immediately from the crown, or those sanctioned by the superior authority at. New Orleans, were deemed complete. But these formed a very small proportion of the whole. Incomplete titles were those de- rived from the naked concessions of the lieutenant gover- nor, or of. the commandants, and unsanctioned by the highest representative of the crown at the capital of the province. These formed more than nineteen twentieths of the whole ; the people felt secure under their conces- sions, and most of them were too poor to defray the ex- penses of their ratification.
No lands were conceded, except on applications by way of petition, in which the quantity solicited was designat- ed ; and these concessions were either general or special. 'They were general when they authorised concessionaries to levy them where they pleased on the vacant lands of the public domain ; and hence the name of floating or running titles. They were special when they designated
-
:
246
SKETCHES OF LOUISIANA.
certain metes and bounds. The former mode was the most common, as it put it in the power of the propri- etors to select such tracts as suited their convenience, and in many instances to secure valuable mines. A proviso was usually inserted in the concessions, prohibiting their extent on lawful and anterior claims. If this was done through mistake, as sometimes happened, they were ex- tended on other lands. In many instances after the con- cessions were extended, and the surveys made and record- ed, the lands included in them were annexed to the do- main, and others conceded more beneficial to the settlers on their application ;- and this exchange became a matter of record.
The terms of petitions and concessions were drawn with great exactness ; and those of the latter corresponded with those of the former ; if the first were general, so were the second, and so on. The same exactness was observed in the transfers of lands from one individual to another. . In both cases they were drawn by notaries or other public officers, and attested by them; and they were bound to insert no conditions in them contrary to law, to religion, to morality, or to the interest of the crown.
All grants and concessions of lands included a number of conditions, either expressed or implied. In Upper Lou- isiana the proprietor was obliged to clear some land, and to build a house within a year and a day, or his claim was forfeited, and liable to revert to the domain ; or if he at any time abandoned the country without permission to dis- pose of his property, the same consequence ensued. In addition to these conditions, the grants and concessions in Lower Louisiana made it necessary for each proprietor, whose land bounded on water courses, to construct dykes or levees to secure the country along his own possessions from inundation, to open a public road on the top of them, . to build the necessary bridges, and to keep the whole in · suitable repair at his own expense. Lands, however,
1
1
247,
OF LAND TITLES.
were seldom annexed to the domain for the non-fulfilment of the latter conditions. The roads, levees, and bridges, were usually made and repaired by the public when the proprietors proved delinquent; and they were compelled to defray the expense.
The same formality and solemnity were observed in the annexation of lands to the domain as when they were granted or conceded. All annexations were declared by an ordinance of Louis XV. in 1743 to be null and void, and of no effect, unless they were judicially decreed. The same principle obtained under the Spanish authorities, and they deemed it obligatory.
It will be perceived by the preceding statement, that nearly one half of the lands claimed in Upper Louisiana, were unsurveyed at the time the United States took pos- session of that country. Many of the inhabitants, howev- er, had made a selection of their lands agreeably to the terms of their concessions, and were cultivating them, and their negligence in securing titles arose in most instances from their poverty. Others again had designated their lands in an informal manner, but had not taken actual pos- session of them. The holders of naked concessions, who had taken no subsequent steps to secure their titles, form- ed the most numerous class ; and they were able to as- sign reasons for the non-extention of their claims. Some wished to secure valuable mineral lands; but could find none to please them. Others were solicitous to extend them about the heads of some of the rivers ; but these were ei- ther too distant from the settlements, or danger was appre- hended from the Indians. Others again resolved to fix themselves among the settlements ; it required some time to explore the country, and to become acquainted with the various tracts of vacant lands dispersed over it. Ma- ny of these floating concessions were of an old date, and had regularly passed from one to another by permission of the Spanish authorities.
-
248
SKETCHES OF LOUISIANA.
Before the year 1795 very few surveys. were made. Those made under the French government were not ac- companied with plots, and it does not appear, that they were sanctioned by public authority. Indeed, this busi- ness for more than twenty years was not sufficiently at- tended to by the Spaniards. Surveys were only occa- sionally ordered, and frequently not till many years after the concessions were made, and the claimants in posses- sion of their lands. Hence it was that the surveys order- ed by the lieutenant governors were generally of those lands conceded by their predecessors. But in 1795,. a surveyor general for Upper Louisiana was appointed. This was the first appointment of the kind in that coun- try. Under him the business soon assumed a systema- tic form. He appointed one or more deputies in each of the districts ; the fees of survey were established ; an of- fice was opened for the registration of land titles ; and as the country then begun to be populated, their attention was gradually drawn to the duties of their profession.
The right to concede lands in Upper Louisiana was vested in the lieutenant governor. It was usual for the .. commandants and syndecs to recommend settlers, and to certify, that the lands solicited by them were vacant. Concessionary titles were incomplete till confirmed by the supreme authority at New Orleans. The right of con- firmation was formerly vested in the governor general : But on the seventeenth of July 1799, it was transferred to the tribunal of finance, as appears by a letter of office of that date, and received in St. Louis sometime in Oc- tober of that year. Soon after this period, however, the assessor of this tribunal died, and confirmations were sus- pended. The crown neglected to fill the vacancy, pro- bably in consequence of the retrocession of the colony ; and to relieve the settlers from the embarrassmentand ex- pense of sending their claims to New Orleans, the intend- ant general wrote to the lieutenant governor under date of
3
T
249
OF LAND TITLES ..
D. cember first 1802, not to permit any more concessions to be forwarded till his majesty was pleased to organize the tribunal of finance by the appointment of a new as- sessor. The settlers, indeed, were too poor at first to pay the fees of confirmation, and the subsequent derangement of the tribunal of finance put it out of their power to com- plete their titles.
About the year 1796, Spain found it necessary to popu- late Upper Louisiana as a barrier to the English in Cana- da, and she gave great encouragment to settlers ; she pre- ferred those from the United States, as their prejudices against the English were a sure guarantee of their attach- ment to the Spanish interest. Lands were gratuitously given them, and they were exempted from taxes. The fees of office, and the survey of eight hundred acres, cost forty one dollars only exclusive of the hire of chainmen. To these expenses must be added the fees of confirma- tion at New Orleans. These liberal encouragements, the. fertility of the lands, and the prospect of mineral riches, in Upper Louisiana, extended the stream of population (hitherto limited to regions on the Ohio) to that country.
It is by no means difficult to ascertain the precise ex- tent of the powers of the lieutenant governor in the con- cession of lands. True it is, that the land laws of the first Spanish governor, general O'Reilly, bearing date Febru- ary the seventeenth 1770, and those subsequently made by Morales, the intendant general, dated July the seventeenth 1799, impose restrictions on the subordinate authorities, and allow only eight hundred arpents to be conceded to each head of a family. But these laws were never consi- dered in any other light than as general rules, liable to ex- ceptions when cases occurred to justify them. The set- tlers were usually poor, and eight hundred arpents to each were deemed sufficient. Some of the commandants were stationed from three hundred to one thousand miles from the capital, and could not speedily communicate with the
250
SKETCHES OF LOUISIANA.
great officers of the crown; nor could all of them be in- trusted with discretionary powers. These land laws were partly intended to prevent improper speculations a- mong the subordinate authorities, and partly to allure set- tlers to the country.
Besides, O'Reilly frequently departed from the tenor of his own laws, and his successors followed the example : Nor will it be pretended, that they were absolutely bound by them. The governor general was authorised by the crown to regulate the grants and concessions of lands, and he had an unquestionable right to abrogate them wholly, or to alter or modify them as he pleased. The laws of O'Reilly did not bind his successors any more than the laws of one legislature bind a succeeding one : Each ne- cessarily possessed a discretionary power over the general regulations of his predecessors, and was at liberty to in- crease or to diminish the privileges bestowed on settlers, provided no infringement was made of the rights secured by anterior grants and concessions. This discretionary power was exercised by several successive governors gene- ral. ' Between the years 1790 and 1798 they confirmed a variety of concessions, each of which embraced a square league, and some of them a still greater quantity. ' One of them comprehended the most productive lead mine in the country. Another called for eight thousand two hundred and fifty arpents of valuable land in the neighborhood of St. Louis. All these confimations or ratifications were in consequence of the concessions previously made by the lieutenant governors of Upper Louisiana.
This is sufficient to prove the existence of a discretiona- ry power in the governors general ; and it also authorizes the inferrence, that the same power was vested in the res- pective lieutenant governors of Upper Louisiana. In the first place it may be observed, that they always exercised it, and it is difficult to presume, that they would contra- vene the known laws of their superiors without instruc-
1871
1
251
OF LAND TITLES.
tions to that effect. In all their concessions they were re- gulated by the wealth and importance of the settlers. To the ordinary poor they seldom conceded more in the first instance than three or four hundred arpents, though they were always ready to make additions as the ability to cultivate increased. To those of wealth and influence they conceded several thousand arpents ; for, as their great object was to populate the country, they adopted such measures as were the most likely to produce the ef- fect. As an instance of this we need only refer to the set- tlement of New Madrid in 1787. The governor general at first imposed considerable restrictions on the comman- dant relative to the concession of lands ; but he afterwards found it necessary to be more liberal than even the land laws of O'Reilly. In July 1789 he wrote to the comman- dant as follows : " Notwithstanding the instructions here- " tofore sent you, more or less front or depth may be giv- " en according to the exigency of the ground, as likewise " a greater or less quantity of land, agreeably to the wealth . " of the grantee.". This post was at that time immediate- ly dependant on the superior authority at New-Orleans. It was annexed to the government of Upper Louisiana in August 1799.
Besides, it may be doubted whether the land laws of O'Reilly ever operated in Upper Louisiana. 'They bear date nearly three months before the Spaniards took pos- session of that part of the country, at which time there existed only a few miserable huts in it: The first settle- ment commenced only four years before. These land laws contain twelve articles. The operation of the first seven was evidently restricted to the island of Orleans, and that of the other five extended in part to the same place, but more particularly to the Apalousas, Atakapas, and Nachitoches. They regulated the grants and con- cessions of lands at these several posts, and in no particu- lar did they refer to Upper Louisiana. Indeed, the regu-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.