New Orleans daily crescent., 1858-02-25
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

MONROE, La, Feb. 6, 1855
Editors Crescent purpose to give you a brief
history of the ouachita country. Its earliest settle
ment dates back to the year 1923, and from the
taken by order of Gov. Miro in l7ss the popu
lation was two hundred and thirty-two About the
latter year fort was erected at the post of Qua
chita, and was named Fort Miro, iu honor of the
Governor General Juan Fihial was appointed
Commandant at this station and exercised his fnnc-
tions to the year $500. He was succeeded by Don
Vicente Fernandez Fejeiro. Ia the year 1904, Fe-
eiros authority ceased and the fort passed into the
possession of the United States. With the strong
arm of Government extended over the country
feeling of security pervaded the inhabitants and pop
ulation began to flow in freely. All eyes were
turned to a region the solitude of whose forests had
not until few years before, been broken. In the
year l795 party of French royasts arrived in New
Orleans, and desired a home for friends whom they
had left behind. The resources of the 0uaehita
country attracted their attention, and two of the
reyalists, the Marquis de Maison Rouge and the
Baron de Bastrop, conceived the idea of planting
colony the 0uachita river for the cultivation of
wheat and the manufacture of -four Under the aus
pices OF Carondelet then Governor of the province
Of Louisiana, and by the favor and the approval of
the French King, these two nobemen selected large
tracts of fertile land. The Marquis selected league
Of thirty miles square, about thirty miles below the
fort and on each side of the river, being mostly in
the parish of Caldwell, and the Baron selected an
extensive scope of country, embracing all of what is
the parish of Morehouse, part of the parishes
Of 0uaehita and Carroll, and large scope in South
ern Arkansas. These selections were made in 1903
and were thought to have been royal grants and in
vested with all the formula requisite to give them full
force.
have seen the tree that marks the southeastern
corner of the claim of the Marquis. 1t is large
Spanish oak, about -four feet in thickness and hoary
with. age. The grey moss which o'erspreads its
branches gives it ancient appearance and glance
at its noble proportions will leave the thought that
the storms and tempests of full five centuries have
swept over it-yes, while Kings have been deposed,
and empires overthrown and rebuilt, this tree stood
aud yet stands the monarch of the forest, and its
front bears the charter from the French King to a
fertile and productive league OF land. On this tree
are engraven large letter "M, and the figures
"lS0S = probably engraved there by Don Trudeau
Surveyor General of Louisiana before his constrained
departure in 1906 Being in INDECENT circumstances,
and witha devoid of that energy which usually char
acterized the western pioneer the Marquis failed in
his brilliant enterprise, 1t Is true that colony was
planted, Out TINS was the natural eHect OF the laws OF
climate and emigration; for no act of the Marquis,
no persuasons of the King, could Withstand the tide
of emigration that poured in from the East. Bowed
down with the shackes of poverty, and fretted and
soured by disappointment the Marquis died, about
fifteen miles above the fort in 1893. After the lapse
of nearly half century, the Supreme Court of the
United States decided that his claim should revert
to the Government, and it thus became part of our
eminent domain. The claim of the Baron was also
declared void Congress has been very liberal and
Just towards those settlers who purchased from the
Marquis and the Baron. Having settled many years
before the survey extended the country they
had upon every principle of right aud colonization
acquired a preference or pre-empton right over
Others. Long before the adjudication Of the claims
to the General Government by the Court smiling
farms dotted the landscape here and there and mills
and shops rose up from every sequestered glade.
In justice to the memory of the two royalists, il
must be said, that their motives were phianthropiC
and unmixed with the saera fanies auri, which now i
the predominant trait Of the Ango-saxon character
To plant a colony in the Western wilds, where the
lily OF France could still bloom an emblem o
sovereignty, and where the Frenchman could toll Ii
AL