Various - "Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867"

Theodor Storm - "Waldwinkel"

John Knox - "The First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous regiment"

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History of Louisisana by Le Page Du Pratz

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




From the sources of the river of the Paska-Ogoulas, quite to those of
the river of Quefoncte, which falls into the lake of St. Louis, the
lands are light and fertile, but something gravelly, on account of the
neighbourhood of the mountains that lie to the north. This country is
intermixt with extensive hills, fine meadows, numbers of thickets, and
sometimes with woods, thick set with cane, particularly on the banks
of rivers and brooks; and is extremely proper for agriculture.

The mountains which I said these countries have to the north, form
nearly the figure of a chaplet, with one end pretty near the
Missisippi, the other on the banks of the Mobile. The inner part of
this chaplet or chain is filled with hills; which {137} are pretty
fertile in grass, simples, fruits of the country, horse-chesnuts, and
wild-chesnuts, as large, and at least as good as those of Lyons.

To the north of this chain of mountains lies the country of the
Chicasaws, very fine and free of mountains: it has only very extensive
and gentle eminences, or rising grounds, fertile groves and meadows,
which in springtime are all over red, from the great plenty of wood
strawberries: in summer, the plains exhibit the most beautiful enamel,
by the quantity and variety of the flowers: in autumn, after the
setting fire to the grass, they are covered with mushrooms.

All the countries I have just mentioned are stored with game of every
kind. The buffalo is found on the most rising grounds; the partridge
in thick open woods, such as the groves in meadows; the elks delight
in large forests, as also the pheasant; the deer, which is a roving
animal, is every where to be met with, because in whatever place it
may happen to be, it always has something to browse on. The ring-dove
here flies in winter with such rapidity, as to pass over a great deal
of country in a few hours; ducks and other aquatick game are in such
numbers, that wherever there is water, we are sure to find many more
than it is possible for us to shoot, were we to do nothing else; and
thus we find game in every place, and fish in plenty in the rivers.

Let us resume the coast; which, though flat and dry, on account of its
sand, abounds with delicious fish, and excellent shell-fish. But the
crystal sand, which is pernicious to the sight by its whiteness, might
it not be adapted for making some beautiful composition or
manufacture? Here I leave the learned to find out what use this sand
may be of.

If this coast is flat, it has in this respect an advantage; as we
might say, Nature wanted to make it so, in order to be self-defended
against the descent of an enemy.

Coming out of the Bay of Paska-Ogoulas, if we still proceed west, we
meet in our way with the Bay of Old Biloxi, where a fort was built,
and a settlement begun; but a great fire, spread by a violent wind,
destroyed it in a few moments, which in prudence ought never to have
been built at all.

{138} Those who settled at Old Biloxi could not, doubtless, think of
quitting the sea-coast. They settled to the west, close to New-Biloxi,
on a sand equally dry and pernicious to the sight. In this place the
large grants happened to be laid off, which were extremely
inconvenient to have been made on so barren a soil; where it was
impossible to find the least plant or greens for any money, and where
the hired servants died with hunger in the most fertile colony in the
whole world.

In pursuing the same route and the same coast westward, the lands are
still the same, quite to the small Bay of St. Louis, and to the
Channels, which lead to the lake of that name. At a distance from the
sea the earth is of a good quality, fit for agriculture; as being a
light soil, but something gravelly. The coast to the north of the Bay
of St. Louis is of a different nature, and much more fertile. The
lands at a greater distance to the north of this last coast, are not
very distant from the Missisippi; they are also much more fruitful
than those to the cast of this bay in the same latitude.

In order to follow the sea-coast down to the mouth of the Missisippi,
we must proceed almost south, quitting the Channel. I have elsewhere
mentioned, that we have to pass between Cat-Island, which we leave to
the left, and Cockle-Island, which we leave to the right. In making
this ideal route, we pass over banks almost level with the water,
covered with a vast number of islets; we leave to the left the
Candlemas-Isles, which are only heaps of sand, having the form of a
gut cut in pieces; they rise but little above the sea, and scarcely
yield a dozen of plants, just as in the neighbouring islets I have now
mentioned. We leave to the right lake Borgne, which is another outlet
of the lake St. Louis, and continuing the same route by several
outlets for a considerable way, we find a little open clear sea, and
the coast to the right, which is but a quagmire, gradually formed by a
very soft ooze, on which some reeds grow. This coast leads soon to the
East Pass or channel, which is one of the mouths of the Missisippi,
and this we find bordered with a like soil, if indeed it deserves the
name of soil.

There is, moreover, the South-east Pass, where stands Balise, and the
South Pass, which projects farther into the sea. {139} Balise is a
fort built on an island of sand, secured by a great number of piles
bound with good timber-work. There are lodgings in it for the officers
and the garrison; and a sufficient number of guns for defending the
entrance of the Missisippi. It is there they take the bar-pilot on
board, in order to bring the ships into the river. All the passes and
entrances of the Missisippi are as frightful to the eye, as the
interior part of the colony is delightful to it.

The quagmires continue still for about seven leagues going up the
Missisippi, at the entrance of which we meet a bar, three fourths of a
league broad; which we cannot pass without the bar-pilot, who alone is
acquainted with the channel.

All the west coast resembles that which I mentioned, from Mobile to
the bay of St. Louis; it is equally flat, formed of a like sand, and a
bar of isles, which lengthen out the coast, and hinder a descent; the
coast continues thus, going westward, quite to Ascension Bay, and even
a little farther. Its soil also is also barren, and in every respect
like to that I have just mentioned.


I again enter the Missisippi, and pass with speed over these
quagmires, incapable to bear up the traveller, and which only afford a
retreat to gnats and moskittos, and to some water-fowl, which,
doubtless, find food to live on, and that in security.

On coming out of these marshes, we find a neck of land on each side of
the Missisippi; this indeed is firm land, but lined with marshes,
resembling those at the entrance of the river. For the space of three
or four leagues, this neck of land is at first bare of trees, but
comes after to be covered with them, so as to intercept the winds,
which the ships require, in order to go up the river to the capital.
This land, though very narrow, is continued, together with the trees
it bears, quite to the English Reach, which is defended by two forts;
one to the right, the other to the left of the Missisippi.

The origin of the name, English Reach, (Detour aux Anglois) is
differently assigned. I made enquiry of the oldest of the country, to
what circumstance this Reach might owe its {140} name. And they told
me, that before the first settlement of the French in this colony, the
English, having heard of the beauty of the country, which they had,
doubtless, visited before, in going thither from Carolina by land,
attempted to make themselves masters of the entrance of the
Missisippi, and to go up the river, in order to fortify themselves on
the first firm ground they could meet. Excited by that jealousy which
is natural to them, they took such precautions as they imagined to be
proper, in order to succeed.

The Indians on their part, who had already seen or heard of several
people (French) having gone up and down the Missisippi at different
times; the Indians, I say, who, perhaps, were not so well pleased with
such neighbours, were still more frightened at seeing a ship enter the
river, which determined them to stop its passage; but this was
impossible, as long as the English had any wind, of which they availed
themselves quite to this Reach. These Indians were the Ouachas and
Chaouachas, who dwelt to the west of the Missisippi, and below this
Reach. There were of them on each side of the river, and they lying in
the canes, observed the English, and followed them as they went up,
without daring to attack them.

When the English were come to the entrance of this Reach, the little
wind they had failed them; observing besides, that the Missisippi made
a great turn or winding, they despaired of succeeding; and wanted to
moor in this spot, for which purpose they must bring a rope to land:
but the Indians shot a great number of arrows at them, till the report
of a cannon, fired at random, scattered them, and gave the signal to
the English to go on board, for fear the Indians should come in
greater numbers, and cut them to pieces.

Such is the origin of the name of this Reach. The Missisippi in this
place forms the figure of a crescent, almost closed; so that the same
wind which brings up a ship, proves often contrary, when come to the
Reach; and this is the reason that ships moor, and go up towed, or
tacking. This Reach is six or seven leagues; some assign it eight,
more or less, according as they happen to make way.

{141} The lands on both sides of this Reach are inhabited, though the
depth of soil is inconsiderable. Immediately above this Reach stands
New Orleans, the capital of this colony, on the east of the
Missisippi. A league behind the town, directly back from the river, we
meet with a Bayouc or creek, which can bear large boats with oars. In
following this Bayouc for the space of a league, we go to the lake St.
Louis, and after traversing obliquely this last, we meet the Channels,
which lead to Mobile, where I began my description of the nature of
the soil of Louisiana.

The ground on which New Orleans is situated, being an earth accumulated
by the ooze, in the same manner as is that both below and above, a good
way from the capital, is of a good quality for agriculture, only that it
is strong, and rather too fat. This land being flat, and drowned by the
inundations for several ages, cannot fail to be kept in moisture, there
being, moreover, only a mole or bank to prevent the river from
over-flowing it; and would be even too moist, and incapable of
cultivation, had not this mole been made, and ditches, close to each
other, to facilitate the draining off the waters: by this means it has
been put in a condition to be cultivated with success.

From New Orleans to Manchac on the east of the Missisippi, twenty-five
leagues above the capital, and quite to the Fork to the west, almost
over-against Manchac, and a little way off, the lands are of the same
kind and quality with those of New Orleans.




CHAPTER IV.

_Quality of the Lands above the_ Fork. _A Quarry of Stone for building_.
_High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility. West Coast: West Lands:
Saltpetre_.


To the west, the Fork, the lands are pretty flat, but exempt from
inundations. The part best known of these lands is called Baya-Ogoula,
a name framed Bayouc and Ogoula, which signifies the nation dwelling
near the Bayouc; there having been a nation of that name in that
place, when the first Frenchmen {142} came down the Missisippi; it
lies twenty-five leagues from the capital.

[Illustration: _Indians of the North leaving in the winter with their
families for a hunt_]

But to the east, the lands are a good deal higher, seeing from Manchac
to the river Wabache they are between an hundred and two hundred feet
higher than the Missisippi in its greatest floods. The slope of these
lands goes off perpendicularly from the Missisippi, which on that side
receives but few rivers, and those very small, if we except the river
of the Yasous, whose course is not above fifty leagues.

All these high lands are, besides, surmounted, in a good many places,
by little eminences, or small hills, and rising grounds running off
lengthwise, with gentle slopes. It is only when we go a little way
from the Missisippi, that we find these high lands are over-topped by
little mountains, which appear to be all of earth, though steep,
without the least gravel or pebble being perceived on them.

The soil on these high lands is very good; it is a black light mold,
about three feet deep on the hills or rising grounds. This upper earth
lies upon a reddish clay, very strong and stiff; the lowest places
between these hills are of the same nature, {143} but there the black
earth is between five and six feet deep. The grass growing in the
hollows is of the height of a man, and very slender and fine; whereas
the grass of the same meadow on the high lands rises scarce knee deep;
as it does on the highest eminences, unless there is found something
underneath, which not only renders the grass shorter, but even
prevents its growth by the efficacy of some exhalations; which is not
ordinarily the case on hills, though rising high, but only on the
mountains properly so called.

My experience in architecture having taught me, that several quarries
have been found under a clay like this, I was always of opinion there
must be some in those hills.

Since I made these reflections, I have had occasion, in my journey to
the country, to confirm these conjectures. We had set up our hut at
the foot of an eminence, which was steep towards us, and near a
fountain, whose water was lukewarm and pure.

This fountain appeared to me to issue out of a hole, which was formed
by the sinking of the earth. I stooped in order to take a better view
of it, and I observed stone, which to the eye appeared proper for
building, and the upper part which was this clay, which is peculiar to
the country. I was highly pleased to be thus ascertained, that there
was stone fit for building in this colony, where it is imagined there
is none, because it does not come out of the earth to shew-itself.

It is not to be wondered, that there is none to be found in the Lower
Louisiana, which is only an earth accumulated by ooze; but it is far
more extraordinary, not to see a flint, nor even a pebble on the
hills, for upwards of an hundred leagues sometimes; however, this is a
thing common in this province.

I imagine I ought to assign a reason for it, which seems pretty
probable to me. This land has never been turned, or dug, and is very
close above the clay, which is extremely hard, and covers the stone,
which cannot shew itself through such a covering: it is therefore no
such surprise, that we observe no stone out of the earth in these
plains and on these eminences.

{144} All these high lands are generally meadows and forests of tall
trees, with grass up to the knee. Along gullies they prove to be
thickets, in which wood of every kind is found, and also the fruits of
the country.

Almost all these lands on the east of the river are such as I have
described; that is, the meadows are on those high grounds, whose slope
is very gentle; we also find there tall forests, and thickets in the
low bottoms. In the meadows we observe here and there groves of very
tall and straight oaks, to the number of fourscore or an hundred at
most: there are others of about forty or fifty, which seem to have
been planted by men's hands in these meadows, for a retreat to the
buffaloes, deer, and other animals, and a screen against storms, and
the sting of the flies.

The tall forests are all hiccory, or all oak: in these last we find a
great many morels; but then there grows a species of mushrooms at the
feet of felled walnut-trees, which the Indians carefully gather; I
tasted of them, and found them good.

The meadows are not only covered with grass fit for pasture, but
produce quantities of wood-strawberries in the month of April; for the
following months the prospect is charming; we scarce observe a pile of
grass, unless what we tread under foot; the flowers, which are then in
all their beauty, exhibit to the view the most ravishing sight, being
diversified without end; one in particular I have remarked, which
would adorn the most beautiful parterre; I mean the Lion's Mouth (_la
gueule de Lion_).

These meadows afford not only a charming prospect to the eye; they,
moreover, plentifully produce excellent simples, (equally with tall
woods) as well for the purposes of medicine as of dying. When all
these plants are burnt, and a small rain comes on, mushrooms of an
excellent flavour succeed to them, and whiten the surface of the
meadows all over.

Those rising meadows and tall forests abound with buffaloes, elk, and
deer, with turkeys, partridges, and all kinds of game; consequently
wolves, catamounts, and other carnivorous animals are found there;
which, in following the other animals, destroy and devour such as are
too old or too fat; and when the {145} Indians go a hunting, these
animals are sure to have the offal, or hound's fee, which makes them
follow the hunters.

These high lands naturally produce mulberry-trees, the leaves of which
are very grateful to the silk-worm. Indigo, in like manner, grows
there along the thickets, without culture. There also a native tobacco
is found growing wild, for the culture of which, as well as for other
species of tobacco, these lands are extremely well adapted. Cotton is
also cultivated to advantage: wheat and flax thrive better and more
easily there, than lower down towards the capital, the land there
being too fat; which is the reason that, indeed, oats come there to a
greater height than in the lands I am speaking of; but the cotton and
the other productions are neither so strong nor so fine there, and the
crops of them are often less profitable, though the soil be of an
excellent nature.

In fine, those high lands to the east of the Missisippi, from Manchae
to the river Wabache, may and ought to contain mines: we find in them,
just at the surface, iron and pit-coal, but no appearance of silver
mines; gold there may be, copper also, and lead.

Let us return to Manchac, where I quitted the Missisippi; which I
shall cross, in order to visit the west side, as I have already done
the east. I shall begin with the west coast, which resembles that to
the east; but is still more dry and barren on the shore. On quitting
that coast of white and crystal sand, in order to go northward, we
meet five or six lakes, which communicate with one another, and which
are, doubtless, remains of the sea. Between these lakes and the
Missisippi, is an earth accumulated on the sand, and formed by the
ooze of that river, as I said; between these lakes there is nothing
but sand, on which there is so little earth, that the sand-bottom
appears to view; so that we find there but little pasture, which some
strayed buffaloes come to eat; and no trees, if we except a hill on
the banks of one of these lakes, which is all covered with ever-green
oaks, fit for ship-building. This spot may be a league in length by
half a league in breadth; and was called Barataria, because enclosed
by these lakes and their outlets, to form almost an island on dry
land.

{146} These lakes are stored with monstrous carp, as well for size as
for length; which slip out of the Missisippi and its muddy stream,
when overflowed, in search of clearer water. The quantity of fish in
these lakes is very surprising, especially as they abound with vast
numbers of alligators. In the neighbourhood of these lakes there are
some petty nations of Indians, who partly live on this amphibious
animal.

Between these lakes and the banks of the Missisippi, there is some
thin herbage, and among others, natural hemp, which grows like trees,
and very branched. This need not surprise us, as each plant stands
very distant from the other: hereabouts we find little wood, unless
when we approach the Missisippi.

To the west of these lakes we find excellent lands, covered in many
places with open woods of tall trees, through which one may easily
ride on horseback; and here we find some buffaloes, which only pass
through these woods because the pasture under the trees is bitter; and
therefore they prefer the grass of the meadows, which lying exposed to
the rays of the sun, becomes thereby more savoury.

In going still farther west, we meet much thicker woods, because this
country is extremely well watered; we here find numbers of rivers,
which fall into the sea; and what contributes to the fertility of this
land, is the number of brooks, that fall into these rivers.

This country abounds with deer and other game; buffaloes are rare; but
it promises great riches to such as shall inhabit it, from the
excellent quality of its lands. The Spaniards, who bound us on that
side, are jealous enough: but the great quantities of land they
possess in America, have made them lose sight of settling there,
though acquainted therewith before us: however, they took some steps
to traverse our designs, when they saw we had some thoughts that way.
But they are not settled there as yet; and who could hinder us from
making advantageous settlements in that country?

I resume the banks of the Missisippi, above the lakes, and the lands
above the Fork, which, as I have sufficiently acquainted {147} the
reader, are none of the best; and I go up to the north, in order to
follow the same method I observed in describing the nature of the
lands to the east.

The banks of the Missisippi are of a fat and strong soil; but far less
subject to inundations than the lands of the east. If we proceed a
little way westward, we meet land gradually rising, and of an
excellent quality; and even meadows, which we might well affirm to be
boundless, if they were not intersected by little groves. These
meadows are covered with buffaloes and other game, which live there so
much the more peaceably, as they are neither hunted by men, who never
frequent those countries; nor disquieted by wolves or tigers, which
keep more to the north.

The country I have just described is such as I have represented it,
till we come to New Mexico: it rises gently enough, near the Red
River, which bounds it to the north, till we reach a high land, which
was no more than five or six leagues in breadth, and in certain places
only a league; it is almost flat, having but some eminences at some
considerable distance from each other: we also meet some mountains of
a middling height, which appear to contain something more than bare
stone.

This high land begins at some leagues from the Missisippi, and
continues so quite to New Mexico; it lowers towards the Red River, by
windings, where it is diversified alternately with meadows and woods.
The top of this height, on the contrary, has scarce any wood. A fine
grass grows between the stones, which are common there. The buffaloes
come to feed on this grass, when the rains drive them out of the
plains; otherwise they go but little thither, because they find there
neither water, nor saltpetre.

We are to remark, by the bye, that all cloven-footed animals are
extremely fond of salt, and that Louisiana in general contains a great
deal of saltpetre. And thus we are not to wonder, if the buffalo, the
elk, and the deer, have a greater inclination to some certain places
than to others, though they are there often hunted. We ought therefore
to conclude, that there is more saltpetre in those places, than in such
as they {148} haunt but rarely. This is what made me remark, that these
animals, after their ordinary repass, fail but rarely to go to the
torrents, where the earth is cut, and even to the clay; which they lick,
especially after rain, because they there find a taste of salt, which
allures them thither. Most of those who have made this remark imagine
that these animals eat the earth; whereas in such places they only go in
quest of the salt, which to them is so strong an allurement as to make
them bid defiance to dangers in order to get at it.




CHAPTER V.

_Quality of the Lands of the_ Red River. _Posts of the_ Nachitoches. _A
Silver Mine. Lands of the_ Black River.


The Banks of the Red River, towards its confluence, are pretty low,
And sometimes drowned by the inundations of the Missisippi; but above
all, the north side, which is but a marshy land for upwards of ten
leagues in going up to the Nachitoches, till we come to the Black
River, which falls into the Red. This last takes its name from the
colour of its sand, which is red in several places: it is also called
the Marne, a name given it by some geographers, but unknown in the
country. Some call it the River of the Nachitoches, because they dwell
on its banks: but the appellation, Red River, has remained to it.


Between the Black River and the Red River the soil is but very light,
and even sandy, where we find more firs than other trees; we also
observe therein some marshes. But these lands, though not altogether
barren, if cultivated, would be none of the best. They continue such
along the banks of the river, only to the rapid part of it, thirty
leagues from the Missisippi. This rapid part cannot justly be called a
fall; however, we can scarce go up with oars, when laden, but must
land and tow. I imagine, if the waterman's pole was used, as on the
Loire and other rivers in France, this obstacle would be easily
surmounted.

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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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