The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-04

WnlCn ne selected a Sue where tne MtH8iBslpp
River and the lakes came most closely to-
gether. The town was even more aquatic
than Venice; every block was an island, and
within each block every lot was similarly
ditched. The low houses, built at first
of wood and afterward of brick, separated
by narrow, ill-paved streets. ill-hghted,
reproduced in America the typical French
town Of the eighteenth century. The
population was mixed one, consisting OF
bourgeois as well as of the refuse OF Franc >;
there were few representatives of good
families, 1t was gay place; laughter
and song were often heard; and, apart
from the deaths caused before acclmati-
cation was attained. the mortality was
small The habits of the people were sim
pie and healthful. They did not take life
too strenuously in the long summer months
and the second generation learned to think
OF Louisiana as home. According to la
Harpe, the white inhabitants Of Louisiana
had dwindled by 1921 to LOO. but Mr. Ham,
ilton believes the reckoning to be incorrect
because, although immigration almost
ceased for awhile after l72l, yet ten years
later when the Compagnie d Occident
surrendered its charter and property, the
white population amounted to s, 900 people.
1t is well known that for a great many years
the home Government had proceeded on the
assumption that prostitutes and abandoned
women would make exemplary mothers
for a growing colony. Even when, at last,
a decree forbade the further importation
of such women, eighty girls from La Sal
, petriere, Paris home of correction, were
sent over as wives for the colonists. Sub
sequently, however, the home authorities
despatched consignment of twenty
three girls who had been well brought up,
and were of irreproachable character.
Each was provided with trousseau in
trunk. or cdssette. They, naturally, were
in great demand, and were married quickly.
They were called "cassette girls" and are
often heard of in local history, although,
according to our author, il is not found to
be invariably true that their descendants
were the aristocrats of the colonies. We
may mention tn It the last cargo OF pros
pective wives arrived from France in 1851.
Through the influence of Gov. Vaud
reuil, who succeeded Bienville in l743, 1t
was arranged that 81 companies OF fifty
men each, belonging to the French standing
army. should be maintained regularly in
Louisiana, and permission was given to
discharge soldiers from time to time on
condition Of their settling in the colony
Owing partly to this regulation and to the
inducements offered immigrants, a census
taken in 1745 showed that the adult white
males in Louisiana, exclusive Of the troops,
numbered between 5000 and $500. New
Orleans is reported as having eight hundred
male whites, and hundred and fifty are
credited to Mobile There were hundred
at the so-called German Coast" and twice
as many at Pointe Coupee. Passing over
smaller settlements, we may note that at
Natchitoches there were sixty male whites;
at the Illinois, 300; and even up the Missouri
as many as 200 On the frontiers one would
expect proportionatey fewer slaves on
account of the unsettled conditions there
prevailing, and this the census shows to
have been the case.
The chief agricultural taples available
for export from louisiana under the French
regime were at first indigo and the wax
from the candleberry tree, After 174O
some cotton was raised, and eleven years
later the sugar cane was introduced from
Hispaniola, but did not flourish; almost
half century elapsed before Louisiana
sugar crops were Of much importance.
In 1882, shortly after the surrender Of its
ny tIt NS"pd6ilic VI oSSiNie'it' INC
home government offered that for ten
years goods imported into the colony or ex-
ported thence to France should be exempt
from duty In l741 the ordinance was
officially reported to have worked well and
accordingly the provision was renewed
for another decade. In 1851 a similar
extension was conceded, 80 that for some
thirty years preceding the oession Of
IxvE tD Gratn fraa Ia
between the mother country and the colony !
had become an established policy.
1t is we'll known that in 1893 France trans
ferred to Spain the whole OF the Louisiana
territory, together with the district de- ,
scribed sometimes as East Louisiana, and j.
afterward included in West Florida. In
other words, France conveyed to Spain
everything that she possessed on the North ,
American mainland except what she coded ,
to Great Britain. What had been the ante ,
cedent relations OF French and Spanish /
settlers in the New World? We know, OF ,
course, that the attempts Of the Huguenots
in the sixteenth century to found a colony :
on the Atlantic coast OF Florida were
drowned by the Spaniards in blood. But
what were the relations OF the French
planted in Louisiana and their Spanish
neighbors in western Florida and eastern
Texas? At first Spain refused to recognize ,
the French claim OF right to settle any
where on the lower Mississippi or Gulf Of
Mexico, and long after she was forced to
that France owned the Missis-
sippi Valley the uncertain boundaries be-
tween the colonies of the two countries
gave rise TO quarrels Eventually the
western border Of Louisiana was fixed at
49, A. IL