The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-02-11
LOUISIANA NAMES.
nov MUCH or OUR HISTORY rs CON.
TATNED IN THEM.
seme Of the strange Changes That Have
Taken Place in Them.

nature nor the passions OF man can de-
stroy or defaee; they are imperishable,
everlasting monuments that carry writ
ten on them, in their names, the
stories and records of nations, long
since lost In the darkest past.
In names, Louisiana ID the richer than
any State in the Union. Upon her
maps you can trace with certain
hand, by The names of rivers and
bayous. the stories Of the Indian, the
French, the Spanish, the American oc-
equations and In these you can read her
history best We have not single
condemnation among us, either human
or architectural, the moisture Of the
gulf forbids it; II, then, we wish to read
aught Of the past, we must do 1t, like
Jacques, in the stones and streams.
Bythese, we can follow with the utmost
certainty the wanderlngs Of Bienville
and his wild comrades. bold Adventures
whose deeds and wanderings laughed
TO seorn the boosted adventures OF
Raleigh and Capt. John Smith-men
who thought nothing OF padding down
In n progue from Quebec TO the Balize
like LaSalle, or walking barefoot, over
land, from Biloxi to Mexico like st.
Denys.
What. for instance, more graphic 90
count do we want OF Blenvile's ex.
petition in searCh of tho mouth Of
the Mississippi than that given in the
names bestowed on cape and strait, bay
and lake, by "Reminiscences still
living and well known Dog Island rep
regenlB the first days sail OF these explo-
rera from Biloxi. They landed there to
cook their dinner; while doing this. one
OF their dogs. swimming In q small
bayou Of The island, was devoured by q
crocodile (an alias for an alIigator).
"whence wo called 1t Dog Island"
the chronicler OF the expedition writes.
ward TO desolate, sandy little island.
Here they stopped and pitched their
tents for quiet nights rest ashore.
When they awoks the next morning the
wind was favorable for sail to the
Mississippi In their eagerness to catch
this favorable wind they forgot their
provisions, "a bag OF peas. 1t was only
when dinner time came on that they
remembered this but IL was then too
90 go.
This fact evidently preyed upon their
minds, for the island became Pea Island, |
and has remained 30 to this day, al |
though 1t has probably never seen q
pea.sinoe Benvilles visit to 1t, two CEN
turtles ago.
The next day, Mardi- Gras. the bayou
in which they stopped to fish assumed
that appellation. At Point a lAsiette
> valuable silver dish. which M. de
Bienville greatly valued, was lost, and
furnished them with another name.
SAT the next stopping place" says
the historigrapher," we killed q number
of cats, aud 80 called the island Cat
Island" Tradition, however, at1irms
that these sailors did not exactly un-
derstand natural history. and that the
animals killed by them were. in reality,
raecoons; so that Cat Island, after ali,
is q misnomer, like Bunker Hill.
Pearl River, whose ancient name,
Tallahatchie (signifying also the river
of Pearls,) has been stolen by an Ala
bama river. gets its name from another
incident that occurred on the same ex-
petition quarter Of century almost
before New Orleans was established. [
The Indians used peculiar kind of
shell (which they obtained from the {
river in soraping their canoes into |
upon which the savages placed no
value, but turned them over to the {
French, who presented them to their ,
commander, Bienvlle. They were ,
carried to Paris" writes one Of the /
men, "but we never learned whether !
they were true pearls or not"
Thus through his whole itinerary {
enc may trace every accident Of b. a
enville's voyage, and obtain from our I
tory OF that expedition that solved the
mystery OF the Mississippi and gave ]
birth to New Orleans. t
In hundreds of other Louisiana names d
are embalmed important historical rec /
objections aud episodes, preserved in no a
other book or history. {
Baton Rouge was 80 called, some say, a
from an immense cedar tree standing
on the site Of the town. Bienville him T.
that it was called Istrouma a
by the Indians, signifying Red Stick, or a
Baton Rouge, because there was q large b
red pole placed there to mark the boun-
dairy between the Houma and Bayou O
Goua Indians. {
When Bienville passed up the river d
In 1000, he encountered passage or il
portage. through which he found it D
would be very convenient to drag his i
boats, without carrying them around the
long bend. Across narrow isthmus, o
only a musket shot wide, as they ex- h
pressed 1t, the Mississippi had already q
begun to trickle, but the stream was z
so choked and clogged with logs, snags, n
sawyers, etc, that 1t was as effectually r,
damned as the great raft Of the Red o
River. Bienville had these logs removed
md dragged bis boats across. In the q
eourse Of time the river followed this r,
new outlet, the old bed filled up with v
logs and the new one became the true m
river-from which circumstance the w
place became known as the Cutoff r.
Point or Pointe Coupee. 81
Rapides derives its name from tho two q,
rapids situated in Red River, few miles y
from Alexandria. These rapids were l.
three. quarters Of mile from each
other and formed of hard clay or rock. te
They were scarcely perceptible in high f.
Tater even century ago, but in low %
water were dangerous to loaded boats,
rner,,lnr Ehnruhans and Sn,-llar Tho | -