USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 4
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The Tickfoa is the only river that falls into lake Maurepas. It rises in the state of Mississippi and runs a middle course between Amite and Pearl rivers, it has a sufficient depth for steam boat navigation to the mouth of bayou Chapeaupilier, a distance of about fifty miles.
The pass of Manshac connects lake Maurepas and lake Pontchartrain. It is seven miles in length, and about three hundred yards wide; divided by an island, which runs from the former to within a mile from the latter; the south channel is the deepest and shortest.
The greatest length of lake Pontchartrain is about forty miles, and its width about twenty-four, and the average depth ten fathoms.
It receives on the north side the rivers Tangipao, Tchefuncta and Bonfouca, with the bayous Castin and Lacemel, and on the side of the city, bayou St. John, and higher up bayou Tigouyou.
Tangipao has at its mouth a depth of water of four feet, Tchefuncta seven, and Bonfouca six.
Two passes connect lake Pontchartrain with an estuary called lake Borgne, the Rigolets and the pass of Chef Menteur, both of which are defended by a fort, surrounded by deep morasses.
The passes are about ten miles long, and from three to four hundred yards wide.
By bayous that fall into lake Borgne, a number of fishermen, who dwell on its banks, find their way to the' market of New Orleans, which they supply. Through one of these, bayou Bienvenu, the British ar- my under general Packenham, proceeded, with all its artillery to within a very few miles of the city.
There are from sixteen to eighteen feet of water on the sides of lake Borgne ; in the middle from ten to
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twelve fathoms ; but in its upper part, from eleven to twelve feet.
Opposite to the entrance into lake Borgne, and at the end of the Rigolets, on the north side near the gulf. is the mouth of Pearl river.
This stream rises in the northern part of the state of Mississippi, and after traversing it centrally, sends its waters into the gulf by two main branches. The eastern which. we have seen, divides the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, falls into lake Borgne. The western. which leaves the main branch in the la- titude of thirty degrees, runs entirely through the former state and falls into the Rigolets.
Above the fork, the navigation is good for steam boats, during six months of the year; some have alrea- . dy ascended to Monticello.
It is evident from an inspection of this river, that at no very distant period, its eastern branch was its only channel, meandering through an extent of above one hundred miles to lake Borgne. During some in- undation, the western branch broke from the main channel, through the swamps, and found a nearer course, of sixty miles only, to the Rigolets.
Above Manshac. the land gradually rises on the eastern side of the river, to Baton Rouge, a small town distant about one hundred and twenty miles from New Orleans. The plantations are not all, as be- low, ranged side by side on the immediate banks of the river ; but, many are scattered in the intermedi- ate space, between the Mississippi, the rivers Amite, Comite and others flowing into the lakes Maurepas . and Pontchartrain. On one of these the Spaniards made an abortive effort to establish a town, called Galveztown.
Sugar plantations are now much fewer; but those on which cotton is cultivated are more numerous and
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extensive. The part of the state to the east of the Mississippi and the lakes, having been occupied by the British for nearly twenty years, the descendants of its original French inhabitants are in very small number, indeed; and a great many of the people who have come to Louisiana from other states, since the cession, have settled there : during the possession of the British, several colonists from the Atlantic pro- vinces, principally Virginia, the Carolinas and Geor- gia, flocked thither. There was a considerable mi- gration in 1764 and 1765 from the banks of the Roa- noke, in North Carolina; so that the population dif- feis very little from that of the Atlantic states. The mixture of French and Spaniards being small indeed, except in the town of Baton Rouge.
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This town is built on a high bluff, on the eastern side of the river. The United States have exten- sive barracks near it. It contains the public build- ings of the parish, and has two weekly gazettes and a branch of the bank of Louisiana.
On the opposite side of the river from bayou Pla- quemines, the arable land is only a narrow slip between the bank and the cypress swamps, that emp- ty themselves in the Atchafalaya.
At a distance of about thirty miles from Baton Rouge and on the same side, on an elevated ridge parrallel to and near the river, is the town of St. Fran- cisville. The land around, as far north as the boun- dary line, which is only fifteen miles distant, and far to the east, is rolling, and tolerably well adapted to the culture of the cotton, which engages the atten- tion of the settlers. St. Francisville has a house of worship, a weekly paper and a branch of the bank of Louisiana, and the public buildings of its parish.
Opposite to it, is the settlement of Pointe Coupée, the principal part of which is on a peninsula, formed
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by the old bed of the Mississippi, called False river, the upper part of which is stopped up at present. The French had a fort there, the vestiges of which are still discernible. This parish is populous and wealthy : cotton is its principal staple. but it has few sugar plantations. It has no town; but the planta- tions throughout, principally on both banks of False river, are much closer to each other than in any other parish in the state. It is at high water insulated, by the Atchafalaya and the Mississippi on the northeast and west, and by a dismal swamp which separates it from the parish of West Baton Rouge, and which is then inundated.
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To the west, and at the distance of forty miles from St. Francisville, is the small town of Jackson, and about sixty miles to the south of the latter, that of Springfield, near the mouth of Tangipao river, which falls into lake Maurepas. ..
On the eastern side of lake Pontchartrain, near the mouth of the 'Tchefuncta is the town of Madisonville, and seven miles higher up, that of Covington. The land in this neighbourhood along the water courses is a rich alluvial bottom, and terminates in pine barrens.
The country near Springfield, Covington and Madisonville, especially the two last, is sandy and sterile in general, and covered with pine trees ; although there are, along most of the water courses, several spots well adapted to the culture of cotton. The inhabitants apply their industry to making tar and pitch, gathering turpentine, cutting timber, burn- ing bricks and lime; the immense ridges of shell, on the margin of the gulf facilitating greatly, the last operation.
A little above the northern extremity of the settle- ment of Pointe Coupee, Red river pours its waters
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into the Mississippi. This stream has its source in the vicinity of Santa Fe .. The Mississippi, a little below, sends part ofits accumulated flood to the sea through a western branch, its first outlet fromits source called the Atchafalaya; a word, which inthe Indian lan- guage means a long river. The form of the country and this name, not at all applicable to the stream at present, have given rise to the opinion, that, in former time, the northern extremity of the settlement of Pointe Coupee prolonged itself to, and joined the bank of the Mississippi, above the mouth of Red river, leaving a piece of ground between the two streams; so that Red river did not pay the tribute of its waters to the Mississippi, but carried them, and the name of Atchafalaya, which it then bore, and was particular- ly applicable to it, to the sea; the present stream, which has retained its name, being only a continua- tion of it and that in course of time thewaves of the long and great rivers destroyed the ground that sepa- rated them, and divided the former into two; the upper one of which has received the name of Red river from the Europeans, on account of the colour of its water, which is occasioned by the copper mines near it. the impregnations of which prevent them from being potable ..
The confluence of Red river and the Mississippi is remarkable as the spot, on which the army of Charles I. of Spain, under Soto, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, committed the body of their chief to the deep, in order to prevent its falling into the hands of the Indians.
On entering Red river, the water appears turbid, brackish and of a red colour. For the first sixty or seventy miles, its bed is so crooked, that the distance through its meanderings is two thirds greater than in
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a straight line. The general course is nearly east to west ; the land for upwards of thirty miles from its mouth is overflowed at high water, from ten to fifteen feet. Below Black river, the northern bank is the highest. The growth in the lower or southern part is willow and cotton wood ; in the higher, oak,hicko ry and ash.
Six miles from the mouth of the river, on the south side, is bayou Natchitoches, which communicates with lake Long, from whence another bayou affords a pas- sage to the river. At high water, boats pass through these bayous and lake, and go to the river after a route of fifteen miles, while the distance from one bayou to the other is forty-five.
Black river comes up from the north. about twenty- four miles from bayou Natchitoches; its water is clear and limpid, when contrasted with that of Red river, and appears black.
Above the junction, Red river makes a regular turn to the south, for about eighteen miles, forming a segment of about three fourths of a circle. Twenty miles above, the bayou from lake Long comes in, and thirty-three miles still farther is the first landing of the Avoyelles : the river all the while being so crooked that, at this place, the guns of Fort Adams are distinctly heard ; although the distance by the river is upwards of one hundred and fifty miles. The sound appears a little south from east.
At this landing is the first arable soil immediate- ly on the banks of the river, which, in the whole space, are higher than the land behind. At a short distance from this landing, to the south is the prairie des Avoy. elles, of an oval form and about forty miles in circum- ference. It is very level, covered with high grass and has but very few clumps of trees : its soil is not
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very fertile ; that of the timber land around it, when cleared. is far preferable. The lower end of the prairie has the richest land. The timber around it is chiefly oak, which produces good mast. The in- habitants raise cotton : but the settlement is better for cattle and hogs: in high water it is insulated, and at others communicates with those of Rapides, Ope- lousas and Pointe Coupee.
The upper landing is fifteen miles higher, and sixteen miles above, a few years ago, was laid the founda- tion of the town of Cassandra, on the north side, op- posite to bayou L'amoureux, which connects Red river and bayou Bœuf. The intermediate land on the northern bank is tolerably good, moderately hil- ly, covered chiefly with oak, hickory and short leav- ed pine. But, at the distance of a few miles from the water, begins a pine barren tract, that extends for up- wards of thirty milesto the settlements of Catahoula On the south side, is a large body of rich low ground, extending to the borders of the settlements of Ope- lousas, watered and drained by bayou Robert and bayou Bœuf, two handsome streams of clear water that rise in the high land between Red river and the Sabine.
Bayou Bœuf falls into bayou Crocodile, which empties itself into the Atchafalaya to the south of the settlement of Avoyelles, at a short distance from the large raft in the latter stream. In point of fertile soil, growth of timber. and goodness of water, there is not perhaps an equal quantity of good land, in the state, than on the banks of bayou Bœuf.
The town of Alexandria stands on the south side of Red river, fifteen miles above that of Cassandra, and immediately below the rapids or falls, which are oc- casioned by a sudden rise of the bed of the river,
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which is here a soft rock, extending quite across. From July to November, there is a sufficiency of water, over the falls, for the passage of boats. The rock is extremly soft aad does not extend up and down the river more than a few yards, and a passage could easily be cut across.
The town is regularly built. It has an elegant court house and a college, built of bricks, a strong jail and a neat market house. The bank of Louisi- ana has here an office of discount, and there is a printing office, from which a weekly paper is issued.
The settlement of Rapides is a valley of rich allu- vial soil, surrounded by pine hills, extending to the east towards the Washita, and in the opposite direc- tion to the Sabine. The pine hills come to the river, opposite to the town.
Immediately above the town, the river receives from the same side bayou Rapides, a semi circular stream, about thirty miles in length, the upper part · of which receives a portion of the water of Red river.
Bayou Robert, which is now almost stagnant. for- merly ran out of bayou Rapides, about a mile above its mouth and winding through a rich valley united with bayou Bœuf. But. a dyke has been thrown up, at its former mouth and the current confined to bayou Rapides.
Both these bayons pass through bodies of extremely fine land, of great depth.
Twenty miles above Alexandria are two deserted villages of the Biloxi Indians.
Near these, bayou Jean de Dieu or Coteille, falls into Red river, from the right side. The stream of bayou Rapides, of which the channel is continuous, was formerly a navigable branch of Red river, which returned to the parent stream, below and at the foot
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of the rapids but the gradual deepening of the bed and the widening of the stream have left it a small bayou, which is fed by springs and branches from the pinc hills; one half emptying at the former outlet above; the other at the foot of the rapids, below. The lower half is called bayou Rapides. The whole length is about thirty miles. The land throughout is of the finest quality and great depth, and now in the highest state of culture. These bayous are not used for the purpose of navigation, but are capable of forming with little expense, a fine natural canal.
Thirteen miles above bayou Jean de Dieu, is an is- land of seventy miles in length and three in width, the northern channel of which is called the Rigolet du bon Dieu and the other the river aux Cannes.
There is not much good land on the west side of the river; the high lands generally confine it on one side and the island thus formed is, on the side of it bordering on the rigolet, subject to inundation.
On the east side of the river the valley is narrow but of inexhaustible fertility ; the rest of the land between the river and the Washita, is oak and pine land, of little value, except in spots on the water courses.
The principal settlements of Natchitoches are on the immediate banks of the river, on each side. The land is red alluvion, of singular fertility, but not culti- vable to a great extent from the rivers. The swamps commencing within a very few acres.
The town of Natchitoches is at the distance of one hundred and nine miles from Alexandria and on the same side of Red river. It is the westernmost town of the state, being two hundred and sixty-six miles from the Mississippi, about four hundred from New Orleans and five hundred from the gulf by water.
The old town stood on a hill. about half a mile be- bind the present, which is immediately on the bank
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of the river. On the second street, is a hill the area of which covers about two hundred acres of ground; on it a fort and barracks have been built, the site of which is thirty feet above the bank of the river. The old town is an extensive common of several hundred acres entirely tufted with clover and covered with sheep and cattle. Nothing of it is discoverable, ex- cept the forms of the gardens and some ornamental trees. It began to be abandoned soon after the ces- sion of the province to Spain. Before, most of the settlers dwelt in town : the hill is of stiff clay and the streets were miry: the people found the place in- convenient. on account of their stock and farms. and filed off. one after the other, and settled on the river. The merchants found its banks convenient for lading and unlading: the mechanics followed and the church and jail were removed. The soil on the river, though. much richer, is of a loose sandy texture and the streets are not miry. nor much dusty. The town is nearly twice as large as Alexandria. The well water is hardly potable, that of the river brackish, and the in- habitants. as in Alexandria. have large cisterns for col- lecting rain water. The public buildings of the par- rish are in this town and a weekly gazette is publish- ed.
. There are two lakes near. within one and six miles. The larger has a circumference of six miles, the other of thirty. They rise and fall with the river: the stream, that connects them with it, during high water, runs into them with great velocity, and in like manner to the river. during the rest of the year. The quantity of fish and fowls which are obtained on these - lakes appears incredible. It is not uncommon. in win- ter, for a man to kill from two to four hundred fowls in an evening. They fly between sun down and dusk:
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the air is filled with them. A man loads and fires, as quickly as he can, without taking aim, and con- tinues on the same spot, till he thinks he has killed enough. Ducks and geese, brant and swan are thus killed: In summer. fish abound equally. An Indian, with a bow and arrow, kills more than two horses can carry away, while he is thus engaged. Some of the fish weigh from thirty to forty pounds. The lakes afford also a plenty of shell for lime. At low water, their bottoms are most luxuriant meadows, where the inhabitants fatten their horses.
Stone coal is found in abundance, in the neigh- bourhood. with a quarry of good building stone.
Similar lakes are found all along Red river for five or six hundred miles. They are natural reservoirs, for the surplus quantity of water, beyond what the banks of the river may contain; otherwise, no part of the ground could be inhabited, the low land, from hill to hill, would be inundated.
Twelve miles north of Natchitoches, on the oppo- site side of the river is lake Noir, a large one ; the bayou of which comes into the Rigolet du bon Dieu, opposite to the town; near it are salt works, from which the town is supplied.
Three miles up the stream, is the upper mouth of the Rigolet du bon Dieu, where the settlement of the grand ecor. or great bluff begins. This eminence stands on the south side, and is about one hundred feet high. Towards the river, it is almost perpendicu- lar. and of a soft white rock : the top is a gravel loam of considerable extent, on which grow large oaks. hickory. black cherry and grape vines. There is a small bluff'near, at the foot of which is a large quan- tity of'stone coal, and several springs of the best wa- ter in this part of the country. Near them, is a lake of clear water, with a gravelly margin.
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The river makes a large bend above the bluffs. to the north, and a long reach, nearly due east by it. About a mile above, from the south shore. a large bay- ou comes in from the Spanish lake. which is about fifty miles in circumference, and rises and falls with the river, from which the largest boats may ascend to the lake, and through it up several bayous. parti- cularly bayou Dupin, up which. boats may go within . one mile and a half from the old French fort, at the Adayes.
Two miles above this place, the river forks ; the southwestern branch running westerly for sixty miles, then forming and meeting the other.
The country, bounded to the east and north by this branch of the river, is called the bayou Pierre settle- ment, from a stream that traverses it. Part of the land was granted by the French government. The inha- bitants raised large herds of cattle and made some cheese. The settlement is interspersed with prair- ies, and the land is equally rich, as the river bottoms. The hills are of a good grey soil. The creek, called by the new settlers, Stony creek. affords several good mill seats. Its bed and banks furnish a good kind of building stone. The upland is high, gently rolling, and produces good corn. cotton and tobacco. A few miles to the west is an abundant saline.
Higher up on the river, on a hill, to the north east is the Campti settlement. The river land is here much broken by bayous and lagoons.
Between lake Bistineau and the tributary streams of the Washita is a new and extensive settlement, which has grown up within a few years, called Al- len's settlement. The land is second rate upland, finelly watered and well adapted to raising stock.
The country to the west of Red river, extending to the Sabine, furnishes but a small proportion of even
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second rate land. It is generally covered with oak and pine. There are some choice spots of land ; but of small extent
Cantonement Jessup is situated half way between Red river and the Sabine and on the highest ridge, which separates the streams flowing into these rivers.
The land on the Sabine is unfit for cultivation to any extent. The part of it, which is not subject to sudden overflow, is high land of no value but for raising stock.
Above is the obstruction, commonly called the great raft, choking up the channel for upwards of one hundred miles, by the course of the river. It was exa- mined, during the winter of 1826, by capt. Birch and lieutenant Lee, with a detachment from cantonment Jessup, by order of the secretary of war of the Uni- ted States, with the view of ascertaining the practica- :
bility of opening a passage for steam boats.
They found, within one hundred miles of the bed of the river. above one hundred and eighty rafts or jams of timber, from a few to four hundred yards in length. They thought that to break through, or remove them, so as to admit the passage of a steam boat, would be a work of immense labour and expense, and that, if done. the loose timber would probably form other rafts below.
The bank of the river appeared to them very rich ; but so covered with canes, briars and vines. as to ren- der it impossible to advance, without cutting a pas- sage all the way, and they judged a man could cut but a few yards in a day.
They crossed over an island hauling a light skiff to bayou Pierre, from which a canal of less than halt a mile, through an alluvial soil, would open a com- munication with lake Scioto. This lake is about one hundred miles long and five or six wide : a channel
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ten feet deep runs through it. The high water mark is at least fifteen feet above the surface of the lake in winter. The lake has an indented shore, parallel to the river, and a communication with it about twenty- five miles above the raft, and another might be easily opened many miles higher up.
In ascending bayou Pierre, which falls into the river six miles above the town of Natchitoches, the principal obstruction consists of a number of cypress stumps. that might be easily removed at low water. This once effected and a canal cut into lake Scioto, there would be nothing, at high water, to prevent steam boats ascending Red river one thousand miles above the town of Natchitoches, even into New Mexi- co, through a fertile and salubrious country. It is be- lieved, that the passage through bayou Pierre is one hundred miles shorter than through the main branch of the river.
Cotton is exclusively cultivated for sale in the set- tlement of Rapides, and almost so in that of Natchi- toches, in which tobacco is also raised : it is of a supe- rior quality ; the planters do not put it up as else- where in hogsheads, but bring it to market in carrots.
Black river, at its mouth. is about one hundred yards in width, and is twenty feet deep. Its banks are covered with pra vinc. and several kinds of gras- ses, bearing a seed which geese and ducks eat gree- dily. Willows are generally seen on one side or the other, with a small growth of black oak. pecan, hick- ory. elm, &c. It takes its name at the distance of six- ty-six miles from Red river. where it branches out in- to the Catahoula. Washita and Tensa. Its. width here does not exceed eighty yards. The soil is a · black mould mixed with a moderate proportion of sand, resembling much the soil of the Mississippi. Yet the forest trees are not like those on that stream,
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but resemble those on Red river .. The cane grows on several parts of its right bank, and a few small wil- lows are seen on either. In advancing up the river, the timber becomes large, rising in some places to the height of forty feet. The land is at times inundated, not by the waters of the river, but from the intrusion of its powerful neighbour, the Mississippi. The land declines rapidly from the banks, as in all alluvial countries, to the cypress swamps, where more or less water stagnates, during the whole year. Towards the upper end of Black river, the shore abounds with mus- cles and perrywincles, the first of the kind called pearl muscles.
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