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History of Louisisana by Le Page Du Pratz

L >> Le Page Du Pratz >> History of Louisisana




From this little river, we meet but with very small ones, till we come
to the Red River, called at first the Marne, because nearly as big as
that river, which falls into the Seine. The Nachitoches dwell on its
banks, and it was distinguished by the name of that nation; but its
common name, and which it still bears, is that of the Red River. It
takes its rise in New Mexico, {113} forms an elbow to the north, in
the same manner as the river of the Arkansas, falls down afterwards
towards the Missisippi, running south east. They generally allow it a
course of two hundred leagues. At about ten leagues from its
confluence it receives the Black River, or the river of the Wachitas,
which takes its rise pretty near that of the Arkansas. This rivulet,
or source, forms, as is said, a fork pretty near its rise, one arm of
which falls into the river of the Arkansas; the largest forms the
Black River. Twenty leagues below the Red River is the Little
Cut-point, and a league below that point are the little cliffs.

From the Red River to the sea we observe nothing but some small
brooks: but on the east side, twenty-five leagues above New Orleans,
we find a channel, which is dry at low water. The inundations of the
Missisippi formed this channel (which is called Manchac) below some
high lands, which terminate near that place. It discharges itself into
the lake Maurepas, and from thence into that of St. Louis, of which I
gave an account before.

The channel runs east south-east: formerly there was a passage through
it; but at present it is so choaked up with dead wood, that it begins
to have no water [Footnote: Manchac is almost dry for three quarters
of the year: but during the inundation, the waters of the river have a
vent through it into the lakes Ponchartrain and St. Louis. _Dumont_, II.
297.

This is the river Iberville, which is to be the boundary of the
British dominions.] but at the place where it receives the river
Amite, which is pretty large, and which runs seventy leagues in a very
fine country.

A very small river falls into the lake Maurepas, to the east of
Manchac. In proceeding eastward, we may pass from this lake into that
of St. Louis, by a river formed by the waters of the Amite. In going
to the north of this lake, we meet to the east the little river
Tandgipao. From thence proceeding always east, we come to the river
Quefoncte, which is long and beautiful, and comes from the Chactaws.
Proceeding in the same route, we meet the river Castin-Bayouc: we may
afterwards quit the lake by the channel, which borders the same
country, {114} and proceeding eastward we meet with Pearl River which
falls into this channel.

Farther up the coast, which lies from west to east, we meet St.
Louis's Bay, into which a little river of that name discharges itself:
farther on, we meet the river of the Paska-Ogoulas: and at length we
arrive at the Bay of Mobile, which runs upwards of thirty leagues into
the country, where it receives the river of the same name, which runs
for about a hundred and fifty leagues from north to south. All the
rivers I have just mentioned, and which fall not into the Missisippi,
do in like manner run from north to south.

_Description of the Lower_ Louisiana, _and the Mouths of the_
Missisippi.

I return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi. At a little
distance from Manchac we meet the river of the Plaqumines; it lies to
the west, and is rather a creek than a river. Three or four leagues
lower down is the Fork, which is channel running to the west of the
Missisippi, through which part of the inundations of that river run
off. These waters pass through several lakes, and from thence to the
sea, by Ascension Bay. As to the other rivers to the west of this bay,
their names are unknown.

The waters which fall into those lakes consist not only of such as
pass through this channel, but also of those that come out of the
Missisippi, when overflowing its banks on each side: for, of all the
water which comes out of the Missisippi over its banks, not a drop
ever returns into its bed; but this is only to be understood of the
low lands, that is, between fifty and sixty leagues from the sea
eastward, and upwards of a hundred leagues westward.

It will, doubtless, seem strange, that a river which overflows its
banks, should never after recover its waters again, either in whole or
in part; and this will appear so much the more singular, as every
where else it happens otherwise in the like circumstances.

It appeared no less strange to myself; and I have on all occasions
endeavoured to the utmost, to find out what could {115} produce an
effect, which really appeared to me very extraordinary, and, I
imagine, not without success.

From Manchac down to the sea, it is probable, and even in some degree
certain, that all the lands thereabouts are brought down and
accumulated by means of the ooze which the Missisippi carries along
with it in its annual inundations; which begin in the month of March,
by the melting of the snow to the north, and last for about three
months. Those oozy or muddy lands easily produce herbs and reeds; and
when the Missisippi happens to overflow the following year, these
herbs and reeds intercept a part of this ooze, so that those at a
distance from the river cannot retain so large a quantity of it, since
those that grow next the river have stopt the greatest part; and by a
necessary consequence, the others farther off, and in proportion as
they are distant from the Missisippi, can retain a much less quantity
of the mud. In this manner the land rising higher along the river, in
process of time the banks of the Missisippi became higher than the
lands about it. In like manner also these neighbouring lakes on each
side of the river are remains of the sea, which are not yet filled up.
Other rivers have firm banks, formed by the lands of Nature, a land of
the same nature with the continent, and always adhering thereto: these
sorts of banks, instead of augmenting, do daily diminish, either by
sinking, or tumbling down into the bed of the river. The banks of the
Missisippi, on the contrary, increase, and cannot diminish in the low
and accumulated lands; because the ooze, alone deposited on its banks,
increase them; which, besides, is the reason that the Missisippi
becomes narrower, in place of washing away the earth, and enlarging
its bed, as all other known rivers do. If we consider these facts,
therefore, we ought no longer to be surprised that the waters of the
Missisippi, when once they have left their bed, can never return
thither again.

In order to prove this augmentation of lands, I shall relate what
happened near Orleans: one of the inhabitants caused a well to be sunk
at a little distance from the Missisippi, in order to procure a
clearer water. At twenty feet deep there was found a tree laid flat,
three feet in diameter: the height of the earth was therefore
augmented twenty feet since the fall or lodging of that tree, as well
by the accumulated mud, as by the {116} rotting of the leaves, which
fall every winter, and which the Missisippi carries down in vast
quantities. In effect, it sweeps down a great deal of mud, because it
runs for twelve hundred leagues at least across a country which is
nothing else but earth, which the depth of the river sufficiently
proves. It carries down vast quantities of leaves, canes and trees,
upon its waters, the breadth of which is always above half a league,
and sometimes a league and a quarter. Its banks are covered with much
wood, sometimes for the breadth of a league on each side, from its
source to its mouth. There is nothing therefore more easy to be
conceived, than that this river carries down with its waters a
prodigious quantity of ooze, leaves, canes and trees, which it
continually tears up by the roots, and that the sea throwing back
again all these things, they should necessarily produce the lands in
question, and which are sensibly increasing. At the entrance of the
pass or channel to the south-east, there was built a small fort, still
called Balise. This fort was built on a little island, without the
mouth of the river. In 1734 it stood on the same spot, and I have been
told that at present it is half a league within the river: the land
therefore hath in twenty years gained this space on the sea. Let us
now resume the sequel of the Geographical Description of Louisiana.

The coast is bounded to the west by St. Bernard's Bay, where M. de la
Salle landed; into this bay a small river falls, and there are some
others which discharge their waters between this bay and Ascension
bay; the planters seldom frequent that coast. On the east the coast is
bounded by Rio Perdido, which the French corruptedly call aux Perdrix;
Rio Perdido signifying Lost River, aptly so called by the Spaniards,
because it loses itself under ground, and afterwards appears again,
and discharges itself into the sea, a little to the East of Mobile, on
which the first French planters settled.

From the Fork down to the sea, there is no river; nor is it possible
there should be any, after what I have related: on the contrary, we
find at a small distance from the Fork, another channel to the east,
called the Bayoue of le Sueur: it is full of a soft ooze or mud, and
communicates with the lakes which lie to the east.

{117} On coming nearer to the sea, we meet, at about eight leagues
from the principal mouth of the Missisippi, the first Pass; and a
league lower down, the Otter Pass. These two passes or channels are
only for pettyaugres. From this place there is no land fit to tread
on, it being all a quagmire down to the sea. There also we find a
point, which parts the mouths of the Missisippi: that to the right is
called the South-Pass, or Channel; the west point of which runs two
leagues farther into the sea than the point of the South-east Pass,
which is to the left of that of the South Pass. At first vessels
entered by the South-east Pass, but before we go down to it, we find
to the left the East-Pass, which is that by which ships enter at
present.

At each of these three Passes or Channels there is a Bar, as in all
other rivers: these bars are three quarters of a league broad, with
only eight or nine feet water: but there is a channel through this
bar, which being often subject to shift, the coasting pilot is obliged
to be always sounding, in order to be sure of the pass: this channel
is, at low water, between seventeen and eighteen feet deep. [Footnote:
I shall make no mention of the islands, which are frequent in the
Missisippi, as being, properly speaking, nothing but little isles,
produced by some trees, though the soil be nothing but a sand
bottom.]

This description may suffice to shew that the falling in with the land
from sea is bad; the land scarce appears two leagues off; which
doubtless made the Spaniards call the Missisippi Rio Escondido, the
Hid River. This river is generally muddy, owing to the waters of the
Missouri; for before this junction the water of the Missisippi is very
clear. I must not omit mentioning that no ship can either enter or
continue in the river when the waters are high, on account of the
prodigious numbers of trees, and vast quantities of dead wood, which
it carries down, and which, together with the canes, leaves, mud, and
sand, which the sea throws back upon the coast, are continually
augmenting the land, and make it project into the Gulf of Mexico, like
the bill of a bird.

I should be naturally led to divide Louisiana into the Higher and
Lower, on account of the great difference between {118} the two
principal parts of this vast country. The Higher I would call that
part in which we find stone, which we first meet with between the
river of the Natchez and that of the Yasous, between which is a cliff
of a fine free stone; and I would terminate that part at Manchac,
where the high lands end. I would extend the Lower Louisiana from
thence down to the sea. The bottom of the lands on the hills is a red
clay, and so compact, as might afford a solid foundation for any
building whatever. This clay is covered by a light earth, which is
almost black, and very fertile. The grass grows there knee deep; and
in the bottoms, which separate these small eminences, it is higher
than the tallest man. Towards the end of September both are
successively set on fire; and in eight or ten days young grass shoots
up half a foot high. One will easily judge, that in such pastures
herds of all creatures fatten extraordinarily. The flat country is
watery, and appears to have been formed by every thing that comes down
to the sea. I shall add, that pretty near the Nachitoches, we find
banks of muscle-shells, such as those of which Cockle-Island is
formed. The neighbouring nation affirms, that according to their old
tradition, the sea formerly came up to this place. The women of this
nation go and gather these shells, and make a powder of them, which
they mix with the earth, of which they make their pottery, or earthen
ware. However, I would not advise the use of these shells
indifferently for this purpose, because they are naturally apt to
crack in the fire: I have therefore reason to think, that those found
at the Nachitoches have acquired their good quality only by the
discharge of their salts, from continuing for so many ages out of the
sea.

If we may give credit to the tradition of these people, and if we
would reason on the facts I have advanced, we shall be naturally led
to believe, and indeed every thing in this country shews it, that the
Lower Louisiana is a country gained on the sea, whose bottom is a
crystal sand, white as snow, fine as flour, and such as is found both
to the east and west of the Missisippi; and we may expect, that in
future ages the sea and river may form another land like that of the
Lower Louisiana. The Fort Balise shews that a century is sufficient to
extend Louisiana two leagues towards the sea.

{119}




CHAPTER II.

_The Author's Journey in_ Louisiana, _from the Natchez to the River St.
Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws._


Ever since my arrival in Louisiana, I made it my business to get
information in whatever was new therein, and to make discoveries of
such things as might be serviceable to society. I therefore resolved
to take a journey through the country. And after leaving my plantation
to the care of my friends and neighbours, I prepared for a journey
into the interior parts of the province, in order to learn the nature
of the soil, its various productions, and to make discoveries not
mentioned by others.

I wanted to travel both for my own instruction, and for the benefit of
the publick: but at the same time I desired to be alone, without any
of my own countrymen with me; who, as they neither have patience, nor
are made for fatigue, would be ever teazing me to return again, and
not readily take up either with the fare or accommodations, to be met
with on such a journey. I therefore pitched upon ten Indians, who were
indefatigable, robust, and tractable, and sufficiently skilled in
hunting, a qualification necessary on such journeys. I explained to
them my whole design; told them, we should avoid passing through any
inhabited countries, and would take our journeys through such as were
unknown and uninhabited; because I travelled in order to discover what
no one before could inform me about. This explication pleased them;
and on their part they promised, I should have no reason to be
dissatisfied with them. But they objected, they were under
apprehensions of losing themselves in countries they did not know. To
remove these apprehensions, I shewed them a mariner's compass, which
removed all their difficulties, after I had explained to them the
manner of using it, in order to avoid losing our way.

We set out in the month of September, which is the best season of the
year for beginning a journey in this country: in the first place,
because, during the summer, the grass is too high for travelling;
whereas in the month of September, the meadows, the grass of which is
then dry, are set on fire, and {120} the ground becomes smooth, and
easy to walk on: and hence it is, that at this time, clouds of smoke
are seen for several days together to extend over a long track of
country; sometimes to the extent of between twenty and thirty leagues
in length, by two or three leagues in breadth, more or less, according
as the wind sets, and is higher or lower. In the second place, this
season is the most commodious for travelling over those countries;
because, by means of the rain, which ordinarily falls after the grass
is burnt, the game spread themselves all over the meadows, and delight
to feed on the new grass; which is the reason why travellers more
easily find provisions at this time than at any other. What besides
facilitates these excursions in Autumn, or in the beginning of Winter,
is, that all works in the fields are then at an end, or at least the
hurry of them is over.

For the first days of our journey the game was pretty rare, because
they shun the neighbourhood of men; if you except the deer, which are
spread all over the country, their nature being to roam indifferently
up and down; so that at first we were obliged to put up with this
fare. We often met with flights of partridges, which the natives
cannot kill, because they cannot shoot flying; I killed some for a
change. The second day I had a turkey-hen brought to regale me. The
discoverer, who killed it, told me, there were a great many in the
same place, but that he could do nothing without a dog. I have often
heard of a turkey-chace, but never had an opportunity of being at one:
I went with him and took my dog along with me. On coming to the spot,
we soon descried the hens, which ran off with such speed, that the
swiftest Indian would lose his labour in attempting to outrun them. My
dog soon came up with them, which made them take to their wings, and
perch on the next trees; as long as they are not pursued in this
manner, they only run, and are soon out of sight. I came near their
place of retreat, killed the largest, a second, and my discoverer a
third. We might have killed the whole flock; for, while they see any
men, they never quit the tree they have once perched on. Shooting
scares them not, as they only look at the bird that drops, and set up
a timorous cry, as he falls.

{121} Before I proceed, it is proper to say a word concerning my
discoverers, or scouts. I had always three of them out, one a-head, and
one on each hand of me; commonly distant a league from me, and as much
from each other. Their condition of scouts prevented not their carrying
each his bed, and provisions for thirty-six hours upon occasion. Though
those near my own person were more loaded, I however sent them out,
sometimes one, sometimes another, either to a neighbouring mountain or
valley: so that I had three or four at least, both on my right and left,
who went out to make discoveries a small distance off. I did thus, in
order to have nothing to reproach myself with, in point of vigilance,
since I had begun to take the trouble of making discoveries.

The next business was, to make ourselves mutually understood,
notwithstanding our distance: we agreed, therefore, on certain
signals, which are absolutely necessary on such occasions. Every day,
at nine in the morning, at noon, and at three in the afternoon, we
made a smoke. This signal was the hour marked for making a short halt,
in order to know, whether the scouts followed each other, and whether
they were nearly at the distance agreed on. These smokes were made at
the hours I mentioned, which are the divisions of the day according to
the Indians. They divide their day into four equal parts; the first
contains the half of the morning; the second is at noon; the third
comprizes the half of the afternoon; and the fourth, the other half of
the afternoon to the evening. It was according to this usage our
signals were mutually made, by which we regulated our course, and
places of rendezvous.

We marched for some days without finding any thing which could either
engage my attention, or satisfy my curiosity. True it is, this was
sufficiently made up in another respect; as we travelled over a
charming country, which might justly furnish our painters of the
finest imagination with genuine notions of landskips. Mine, I own, was
highly delighted with the sight of fine plains, diversified with very
extensive and highly delightful meadows. The plains were intermixed
with thickets, planted by the hand of Nature herself; and interspersed
with hills, running off in gentle declivities, and with {122} valleys,
thick set, and adorned with woods, which serve for a retreat to the
most timorous animals, as the thickets screen the buffaloes from the
abundant dews of the country.

I longed much to kill a buffalo with my own hand; I therefore told my
people my intention to kill one of the first herd we should meet; nor
did a day pass, in which we did not see several herds; the least of
which exceeded a hundred and thirty or a hundred and fifty in number.

Next morning we espied a herd of upwards of two hundred. The wind
stood as I could have wished, being in our faces, and blowing from the
herd; which is a great advantage in this chace; because when the wind
blows from you towards the buffaloes, they come to scent you, and run
away, before you can come within gun-shot of them; whereas, when the
wind blows from them on the hunters, they do not fly till they can
distinguish you by sight; and then, what greatly favours your coming
very near to them is, that the curled hair, which falls down between
their horns upon their eyes, is so bushy, as greatly to confuse their
sight. In this manner I came within full gun-shot of them, pitched
upon one of the fattest, shot him at the extremity of the shoulder,
and brought him down stone-dead. The natives, who stood looking on,
were ready to fire, had I happened to wound him but slightly; for in
that case, these animals are apt to turn upon the hunter, who thus
wounds them.

Upon seeing the buffalo drop down dead, and the rest taking to flight,
the natives told me, with a smile: "You kill the males, do you intend
to make tallow?" I answered, I did it on purpose, to shew them the
manner of making him good meat, though a male. I caused his belly to
be opened quite warm, the entrails to be taken out directly, the
bunch, tongue, and chines to be cut out; one of the chines to be laid
on the coals, of which I made them all taste; and they all agreed the
meat was juicy, and of an exquisite flavour.

I then took occasion to remonstrate to them, that if, instead of
killing the cows, as was always their custom, they killed the bulls,
the difference in point of profit would be very considerable: {123}
as, for instance, a good commerce with the French in tallow, with
which the bulls abound; bull's flesh is far more delicate and tender
than cow's; a third advantage is, the selling of the skins at a higher
rate, as being much better; in fine, this kind of game, so
advantageous to the country, would thereby escape being quite
destroyed; whereas, by killing the cows, the breed of these animals is
greatly impaired.

I made a soup, that was of an exquisite flavour, but somewhat fat, of
the broth boiled from the marrow-bones of this buffalo, the rest of
the broth serving to make maiz-gruel, called Sagamity, which to my
taste surpassed the best dish in France: the bunch on the back would
have graced the table of a prince.

In the route I held, I kept more on the sides of the hills than on the
plains. Above some of these sides, or declivities, I found, in some
places, little eminences, which lay peeled, or bare, and disclosed a
firm and compact clay, or pure matrix, and of the species of that of
Lapis Calaminaris. The intelligent in Mineralogy understand what I
would be at. The little grass, which grows there, was observed to
droop, as also three or four misshapen trees, no bigger than one's
leg; one of which I caused to be cut down; when, to my astonishment, I
saw it was upwards of sixty years standing. The neighbouring country
was fertile, in proportion to its distance from this spot. Near that
place we saw game of every kind, and in plenty, and never towards the
summit.

We crossed the Missisippi several times upon Cajeux (rafts, or floats,
made of several bundles of canes, laid across each other; a kind of
extemporaneous pontoon,) in order to take a view of mountains which
had raised my curiosity. I observed, that both sides of the river had
their several advantages; but that the West side is better watered;
appeared also to be more fruitful both in minerals, and in what
relates to agriculture; for which last it seems much more adapted than
the East side.

Notwithstanding our precaution to make signals, one of my scouts
happened one day to stray, because the weather was {124} foggy; so
that he did not return at night to our hut; at which I was very
uneasy, and could not sleep; as he was not returned, though the
signals of call had been repeated till night closed. About nine the
next morning he cast up, telling us he had been in pursuit of a drove
of deer, which were led by one that was altogether white: but that not
being able to come up with them, he picked up, on the side of a hill,
some small sharp stones, of which he brought a sample.

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Turkey is restoring the citizenship of its most famous 20th century poet Nazim Hikmet over 50 years after it branded him a traitor.

Hikmet, a communist who died in exile in Moscow in 1963, was imprisoned in Turkey for more than a decade. He was stripped of his Turkish nationality in 1951 because of his communist views, but despite a ban on his poetry which remained in place until 1965, has remained one of Turkey's best-loved poets. His work, much of which was written in prison, including his masterpiece Human Landscapes, has been translated into more than 50 languages.

"This is very good news," said Richard McKane, Hikmet's English translator. "The restoration of his Turkish citizenship is long overdue: the people of Turkey and his readers are owed that."

Immortalised by Pablo Neruda, with whom he shared the Soviet Union's International Peace Prize in 1950, with the lines "Thanks for what you were and for the fire / which your song left forever burning", Hikmet was also supported by Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, when given the editorship for a day of Turkish newspaper Radikal two years ago, used the example of Hikmet in his cover story to criticise the lack of freedom of expression in Turkey. In 2000, 500,000 Turks petitioned the government to restore Hikmet's citizenship rights and repatriate his remains.

Deputy prime minister Cemil Cicek told the Associated Press that it was time for the government to change its mind about Hikmet. "The crimes which forced the government to strip him of his citizenship at that time are no longer considered a crime," the BBC quoted him as saying.

Hikmet, whose remains are currently in Russia, had said that he wished to be buried in Turkey in his 1953 poem Testament, translated by Ruth Christie. "Friends if it's not my lot to see the day / of independence... / if I die before that day / - and it seems I will - / bury me in a village graveyard in Anatolia / and if it's fitting / and a plane tree grows at my head, / then there's no need for a gravestone or anything else."

Cicek said that Hikmet's family would now decide whether to ship his remains back to his homeland.

Hikmet introduced free verse to Turkey in the 1930s, with his themes ranging from war to love. Despite his imprisonment he retained a deep passion for Turkey. "I love my country", he wrote in one of his poems. "I swung in its lofty trees, I lay in its prisons. Nothing relieves my depression like the songs and tobacco of my country."

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