The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-03-04
OUR PEOPLE.
WHERE TEEY CAME FROM ORIG
ENALLY.
The sonrce of the Population Of Loulsi-
ana,

Who were our forefathers Mot the
far distant apes and jelly fish to whom
Darwin traces us, but those more imme-
sdiate ancestors that converted Louisi-
ana from savagery and wildness to
Its present state, to whom we owe its
r,eculiar customs and habits. and, not
least OF eli, ourselves. Much of our
history of the past can be explained,
much of our future prophecied, II we
but know these ancestors; just as
one can map out the character and
disposition, the traits and habits, the
whole future Of child. IL we know
his parents and their dispositions.
The early origin of people Ia gen.
orally obscured, and with reason since
IL Id almost always obscure, base, often
dishonorable. The nobility Of England
are proud to trace their descent from a
gang OF robber chieftains: the ancestors
or the hill people Of Georgia were res
cued from the London debtors prisons,
while Australia owes Its first society and
earliest patriots to eK-convicts and
are several stories Of the first people OF
Louisiana particularly OF Its first
ladies--that the early colonists would
gladly have covered up and hidden IL
they could have done 80.
THE FRENCH.
The original masculine portion OF the
popuIation was well enough; 1t was, for
the most part, honest but adventurous
Canadian p0yageurs and COtrreurS des
bois-sturdy, bold, energetic men, who
fought and worked their way overland
and down the river, through an endless
desert wilderness, peopied with danger
GUS saveges. They came alone and
without families, since none but men
could endure the fatigues and hardships
of tAis arduous journey. Here, they
languished away In single blessedness
and melancholy bachelorhood as long
as they could stand 1t, save few
led astray by the dusky charms Of some
forest maiden. At last good King Louis
took mercy on their loneliness and
shipped, as an experiment. several car
goes Of females, and just here comes
In the bar sinister, for these females
were Magdalens, prisoners from the
royal prison OF La Salpetrieres Such
were the first women OF Louisiana, Of
whose morals the less said the better,
for, as Gov. Cadellae declared to the
parish priest when he proposed the pu-
rification of the colony by shipping
these home :"If send away all the loose
females, there will be no women left
here at all, and this would not suit the
views of the king or the inclinations of
the people,"
However, for want of better wives, the
colonists welcomed these with open
arms; but although these satisfied
them, they did not, by any means,
satisfy the directors OF the Louisiana
Company, as they proved a failure in
one OF the most important needs OF the
new country children.
To supply the deficiency cargo of
girls, known In Louisiana history as the
niles de la casette, or casket girls, were
sent over by way OF experimenting girls,
moor. ugly, but virtuous. The expert
commanded fancy prices and supplied
the needed want. In the infancy or the
colony q Louisianian felt proud in
deed il he could only trace his origin
hack to these "casket' instead Of to
the correction girls.
Such was the lowly origin OF the first
native born Louisianians-aq queer cross
between the staid, sober Canadian and
the gay. fickle Partisan.
1t was some half a century after this
that the first Acadian found his way to
Louisiana. he came TO us q peFSecuCeu
wanderer, without country or home he
was SO Hospitality received. fed, clothed
and lodged, that, well pleased with the
country and the people. he pitched his
tents upon the soil Of Louisiana and
peopled its western prairies.
The Acadians were sturdy, stalwart
built race, showing In their disposition
and In every feature their Northern or
Norman descent. They were honey,
sinewy, with high cheek bones, and
their complexion swarthy and bronzed,
all their features bearing so close re-
aemhlance to those OF our aborigines as
70 give rise to somewhat wild theory
that the climate of America bad an In
dianizing effect on Europeans, and that
q few centuries OF it would convert US,
ID complexion and disposition. into
Sioux and Modocs. The true explana-
ton Of this undoubted Indian pnysiog-