Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1842-04-30
from a Communication in the Nev
Orleans BuHetin)
TEXAS.

TEXAS.
There are four great land routes to Texas,
any of which taken by a traveller would in
doce him to give q totally different account
o the country from what he would if passing
into it by either Of The others. The lower, or
OpeIousas route-ihat by Alexandria-the
middle route by Natchitoches, or the old San
Antonio road, which is the great national road
50 we'll known and long travelled to Bexar
and lastly. the upper route by Shreveport
across the Sabine. The distance from Ope-
Iolsas to the Ssone is about eighty miles.
From Alexandra to the Sabine by Burr's Fer
ry (fern,erly Clunker's,) one hundred, from
Natehitoehas to the Sabine so. and from,
Shreveport about the same distance. There
is also stream navigation to Port CadIo, some
fifty or sixty miles above Shreveport by water,
which will bring emigrants within % miles
of the Sabine. The country west of Shreve-
port is highly picturesque and beautiful. The
sixteenth and seventeenth range, which by
the newly surveyed boundary line is thrown
into Texas, was by far ne most beautiful
portion # iouisiaHa. Il is elevated and gem
tlv roI!i1g-a rici grazing, cotton and grain
country-well tifnb9red, ami Watered and
healthy-an3 reminds one Of the country in
some PARTON Of Virginia or that about Lexing-
ton, Kentucky. 1t is rapidly settling and will
shortly form one of the richest and rnost desi-
rahio neigbborhoods in the South.
Some large plantations are now opened
and the whole route to the new and flourish
ing, and | may add very pretty village Of
Greenwood. sixteen miles west of Shrevf port,
reminds one who has travelled it, of the road
from Clinton to jackson, Mississippi. The
face of the country is much like it, though
less broken perhaps, and more fertile.
: West of Greenwood, about three miles, at
Major Eubank's plantation, the new division
line of Texas and Louisiana passes, and from
this onward some ten or fifteen miles the coun-
try is perfectly picturesque and enchanting.
Texas has gained by the new survey about
seven hundred square milcg of what was con-
sidered a portion of Louisiana, and a district
of country seven times larger than the Dis
trict of Columbia, and nearly half as large az
the State of Rhode Island.
1t takes from Arkansastf the whole OF Miller
county, and a portion of Lafayette, and places
some OF the wealthiest planters and most pro-
ductive plantations of that State within the
borders OF the new republic. 1t would be
we'll to make negotiation for Texas, merely
to recover what We have otherwise irretrlega-
bIv lost.
Fifteen miles west Of Greenwood is the site
of the old Caddo Village, and on the very spot
where but recently was seen the Indian wig
wan, and heard the nightly yell of the red
man, is now a comfortable farm house, sur
| rounded by large cotton fields-and the hor-
| est watch dogs bark is heard nainglIng with
| the JOYOUS song of another and a darker race.
| About half way to the Sabine We stopt to re-
fresh ourselves at a cold and limpid spring
by the road side, which many q weary travel
| Ter like ourselves will have cause to bless as
| he JOURNEYS onward to the promised land.
| Near by, we passed through what is called the
| Murder or Bloody Prairie, an open, rich and
| beautiful field OF about 100 acres. SO called
from the many deeds of darkness which have
been perpetrated there in times past. Here
Turner and his companion were murdered by
| Carson and another, while journeying FROM
| Arkansas to Texas in the fall of 1888. Car.
sons confederate was ~apprehended in Texas
and hanged at Augustine, while Carson
escaped to the United States, and is still un
whipped of Justice. Here too some runaway
negroes were shot and left to bleach upon tle
soil. A family, by the name Of Pearson, con
sistinp of FIVE persons, were here murdered
and sealped by the Indians, just beforetE,
were driven away in 1888. My ceAnPaliSi
and self passed through it a~n II haa Deel
tbs cate of Paradise, aad as if the spirit Q
ariI had never entered there to mar lis beauty
The pra;rie foyer now blooms thsre--but
wiH soon give say faz the cottaa 'hossol'i al
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