History of Louisisana by Le Page Du Pratz

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"I cannot help remarking here, that among several projects presented
of late years for giving new force to this colony, a company of
creditable merchants proposed to furnish negroes to the inhabitants,
and to be paid for them in Tobacco alone at a fixed valuation.

"The following advantages, they demonstrated, would attend their
scheme. I. It would increase a branch of commerce in France, which
affords subsistence to two of the English colonies in America, namely
Virginia and Maryland, the inhabitants of which consume annually a
very considerable quantity of English stuffs, and employ a great
number of ships in the transportation of their Tobacco. The
inhabitants of those two provinces are so greatly multiplied, in
consequence of the riches they have acquired by their commerce with
us, that they begin to spread themselves upon territories that belong
to us. II. The second advantage arising from the scheme would be, to
carry the cultivation of Tobacco to its greatest extent and
perfection. III. To diminish in proportion the cultivation of the
English plantations, as well as lessen their navigation in that part.
IV. To put an end entirely to the {198} importation of any Tobacco
from Great-Britain into France, in the space of twelve years. V. To
diminish annually, and in the same space of time finally put an end
to, the exportation of specie from France to Great-Britain, which
amounts annually to five millions of our money for the purchase of
Tobacco, and the freightage of English ships, which bring it into our
ports. VI. By diminishing the cause of the outgoing specie, to augment
the balance of commerce in favour of the nation. These are the
principal advantages which France would have reason to have expected
from the establishment of this company, if it had been effected."
_Essai sur les Interets du Commerce Maritime, par_ M. du Haye. 1754.

The probability of succeeding in such a scheme will appear from the
foregoing accounts of Tobacco in Louisiana, pag. 172, 173, 181, 188,
&c. They only want hands to make any quantities of Tobacco in
Louisiana. The consequences of that will appear from the following
account.

{199} _An Account of the Quantity of Tobacco imported into_ Britain,
_and exported from it, in the four Years of Peace, after the late
Tobacco-Law took place, according to the Custom-House Accounts._

Imported Exported
Hhds. Hhds.
1752 - - - 55,997 - - 48,922
England, 1753 - - - 70,925 - - 57,353
1754 - - - 59,744 - - 50,476
1755 - - - 71,881 - - 54,384
--------- ---------
258,547 - - 211,135
--------- ---------
1752 - - - 22,322 - - 21,642
Scotland, 1753 - - - 26,210 - - 24,728
1754 - - - 22,334 - - 21,764
1755 - - - 20,698 - - 19,711
--------- ---------
91,564 - - 87,845
--------- ---------
Total - - - 350,111 - - 298,980
Average - - 87,528 - - 74,745
Imported yearly - - - hhds 87,528
Exported - - - - - - - - - 74,745
---------
Home consumption - - - - - 12,783
To 87,528 hogsheads, at 10L per hogshead, L875,280
To duty on 12,783 hogsheads at 20L - - - 255,660
---------
Annual income from Tobacco - - - - - 1,130,940

The number of seamen employed in the Tobacco trade is computed at
4500;--in the Sugar trade 3600;--and in the Fishery of Newfoundland
4000, from Britain.

{201}

THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

BOOK III.

_The Natural History of_ Louisiana.

CHAPTER I.

_Of Corn and Pulse_.

Having, in the former part of this work, given an account of the
nature of the soil of Louisiana, and observed that some places were
proper for one kind of plants, and some for another; and that almost
the whole country was capable of producing, and bringing to the utmost
maturity, all kinds of grain, I shall now present the industrious
planter with an account of the trees and plants which may be
cultivated to advantage in those lands with which he is now made
acquainted.

During my abode in that country, where I myself have a grant of lands,
and where I lived sixteen years, I have had leisure to study this
subject, and have made such progress in it, that I have sent to the
West-India Company in France no less than three hundred medicinal
plants, found in their possessions, and worthy of the attention of the
public. The reader may depend upon my being faithful and exact; he
must not however here expect a description of every thing that
Louisiana produces of the vegetable kind. Its prodigious fertility
makes it impracticable for me to undertake so extensive a work. I
shall chiefly describe those plants and fruits that are most useful to
the inhabitants, either in regard to their own subsistence or
preservation, or in regard to their foreign commerce; {202} and I
shall add the manner of cultivating and managing the plants that are
of greatest advantage to the colony.

Louisiana produces several kinds of Maiz, namely Flour-maiz, which is
white, with a flat and shrivelled surface, and is the softest of all
the kinds; Homony corn, which is round, hard, and shining; of this
there are four sorts, the white, the yellow, the red, and the blue;
the Maiz of these two last colours is more common in the high lands
than in the Lower Louisiana. We have besides small corn, or small
Maiz, so called because it is smaller than the other kinds. New
settlers sow this corn upon their first arrival, in order to have
whereon to subsist as soon as possible; for it rises very fast, and
ripens in so short a time, that from the same field they may have two
crops of it in one year. Besides this, it has the advantage of being
more agreeable to the taste than the large kind.

Maiz, which in France is called Turkey Corn, (and in England Indian
Corn) is the natural product of this country; for upon our arrival we
found it cultivated by the natives. It grows upon a stalk six, seven,
and eight feet high; the ear is large, and about two inches diameter,
containing sometimes seven hundred grains and upwards; and each stalk
bears sometimes six or seven ears, according to the goodness of the
ground. The black and light soil is that which agrees best with it;
but strong ground is not so favourable to it.

This corn, it is well known, is very wholesome both for man and other
animals, especially for poultry. The natives, that they may have
change of dishes, dress it in various ways. The best is to make it
into what is called Parched Meal, (Farine Froide.) As there is nobody
who does not eat of this with pleasure, even though not very hungry, I
will give the manner of preparing it, that our provinces of France,
which reap this grain, may draw the same advantage from it.

The corn is first parboiled in water; then drained and well dried.
When it is perfectly dry, it is then roasted in a plate made for that
purpose, ashes being mixed with it to hinder it from burning; and they
keep continually stirring it, that it may take only the red colour
which they want. When it has taken that colour, they remove the ashes,
rub it well, and then {203} put it in a mortar with the ashes of dried
stalks of kidney beans, and a little water; they then beat it gently,
which quickly breaks the husk, and turns the whole into meal. This
meal, after being pounded, is dried in the sun, and after this last
operation it may be carried any where, and will keep six months, if
care be taken from time to time to expose it to the sun. When they
want to eat of it, they mix in a vessel two thirds water with one
third meal, and in a few minutes the mixture swells greatly in bulk,
and is fit to eat. It is a very nourishing food, and is an excellent
provision for travellers, and those who go to any distance to trade.

This parched meal, mixed with milk and a little sugar, may be served
up at the best tables. When mixed with milk-chocolate it makes a very
lasting nourishment. From Maiz they make a strong and agreeable beer;
and they likewise distil brandy from it.

Wheat, rye, barley, and oats grow extremely well in Louisiana; but I
must add one precaution in regard to wheat; when it is sown by itself,
as in France, it grows at first wonderfully; but when it is in flower,
a great number of drops of red water may be observed at the bottom of
the stalk within six inches of the ground, which are collected there
during the night, and disappear at sun-rising. This water is of such
an acrid nature, that in a short time it consumes the stalk, and the
ear falls before the grain is formed. To prevent this misfortune,
which is owing to the too great richness of the soil, the method I
have taken, and which has succeeded extremely well, is to mix with the
wheat you intend to sow, some rye and dry mould, in such a proportion
that the mould shall be equal to the rye and wheat together. This
method I remember to have seen practised in France; and when I asked
the reason of it, the farmer told me that as the land was new, and had
lately been a wood, it contained an acid that was prejudicial to the
wheat; and that as the rye absorbed that acid without being hurt, it
thereby preserved the other grain. I have seen barley and oats in that
country three feet high.

The rice which is cultivated in that country was brought from
Carolina. It succeeds surprizingly well, and experience {204} has
there proved, contrary to the common notion, that it does not want to
have its foot always in the water. It has been sown in the flat
country without being flooded, and the grain that was reaped was full
grown, and of a very delicate taste. The fine relish need not surprise
us; for it is so with all plants and fruits that grow without being
watered, and at a distance from watery places. Two crops may be reaped
from the same plant; but the second is poor if it be not flooded. I
know not whether they have attempted, since I left Louisiana, to sow
it upon the sides of hills.

The first settlers found in the country French-beans of various
colours, particularly red and black, and they have been called beans
of forty days, because they require no longer time to grow and to be
fit to eat green. The Apalachean beans are so called because we
received them from a nation of the natives of that name. They probably
had them from the English of Carolina, whither they had been brought
from Guinea. Their stalks spread upon the ground to the length of four
or five feet. They are like the other beans, but much smaller, and of
a brown colour, having a black ring round the eye, by which they are
joined to the shell. These beans boil tender, and have a tolerable
relish, but they are sweetish, and somewhat insipid.

The potatoes are roots more commonly long than thick; their form is
various, and their fine skin is like that of the Topinambous (Irish
potatoes.) In their substance and taste they very much resemble sweet
chesnuts. They are cultivated in the following manner; the earth is
raised in little hills or high furrows about a foot and a half broad,
that by draining the moisture, the roots may have a better relish. The
small potatoes being cut in little pieces with an eye in each, four or
five of those pieces are planted on the head of the hills. In a short
time they push out shoots, and these shoots being cut off about the
middle of August within seven or eight inches of the ground, are
planted double, cross-ways, in the crown of other hills. The roots of
these last are the most esteemed, not only on account of their fine
relish, but because they are easier kept during the winter. In order to
preserve them during {205} that season, they dry them in the sun as
soon as they are dug up, and then lay them up in a close and dry place,
covering them first with ashes, over which they lay dry mould. They
boil them, or bake them, or roast them on hot coals like chesnuts; but
they have the finest relish when baked or roasted. They are eat dry, or
cut into small slices in milk without sugar, for they are sweet of
themselves. Good sweetmeats are also {206} made of them, and some
Frenchmen have drawn brandy from them.

[Illustration: Top: _Appalachean Beans,_--Bottom: _Sweet Potatoes_
(on p. 205)]

The Cushaws are a kind of pompion. There are two sorts of them, the
one round, and the other in the shape of a hunting horn. These last
are the best, being of a more firm substance, which makes them keep
much better than the others; their sweetness is not so insipid, and
they have fewer seeds. They make sweetmeats of these last, and use
both kinds in soup; they make fritters of them, fry them, bake them,
and roast them on the coals, and in all ways of cooking they are good
and palatable.

All kinds of melons grow admirably well in Louisiana. Those of Spain,
of France, of England, which last are called white melons, are there
infinitely finer than in the countries from whence they have their
name; but the best of all are the water melons. As they are hardly
known in France, except in Provence, where a few of the small kind
grow, I fancy a description of them will not be disagreeable to the
reader.

The stalk of this melon spreads like ours upon the ground, and extends
to the length of ten feet. It is so tender, that when it is any way
bruised by treading upon it, the fruit dies; and if it is rubbed in
the least, it grows warm. The leaves are very much indented, as broad
as the hand when they are spread out, and are somewhat of a sea-green
colour. The fruit is either round like a pompion, or long. There are
some good melons of this last kind, but the first sort are most
esteemed, and deservedly so. The weight of the largest rarely exceeds
thirty pounds, but that of the smallest is always above ten pounds.
Their rind is of a pale green colour, interspersed with large white
spots. The substance that adheres to the rind is white, crude, and of
a disagreeable tartness, and is therefore never eaten. The space
within that is filled with a light and sparkling substance, that may
be called for its properties a rose-coloured snow. It melts in the
mouth as if it were actually snow, and leaves a relish like that of
the water prepared for sick people from gooseberry jelly. This fruit
cannot fail therefore of being very refreshing, and is so wholesome,
that persons in all kinds of distempers may satisfy their {207}
appetite with it, without any apprehension of being the worse for it.
The water-melons of Africa are not near so relishing as those of
Louisiana.

[Illustration: Watermelon]

The seeds of water-melons are placed like those of the French melons.
Their shape is oval and flat, being as thick at the ends as towards
the middle; their length is about six lines, and their breadth four.
Some are black and others red; but the black are the best, and it is
those you ought to choose {208} for sowing, if you would wish to have
good fruit; which you cannot fail of, if they are not planted in
strong ground, where they would degenerate and become red.

All kinds of greens and roots which have been brought from Europe into
that colony succeed better there than in France, provided they be
planted in a soil suited to them; for it is certainly absurd to think
that onions and other bulbous plants should thrive there in a soft and
watery soil, when every where else they require a light and dry earth.

CHAPTER II.

_Of the Fruit Trees of_ Louisiana.

I shall now proceed to give an account of the fruit trees of this
colony, and shall begin with the Vine, which is so common in
Louisiana, that whatever way you walk from the sea coast for five
hundred leagues northwards, you cannot proceed an hundred steps
without meeting with one; but unless the vine-shoots should happen to
grow in an exposed place, it cannot be expected that their fruit
should ever come to perfect maturity. The trees to which they twine
are so high, and so thick of leaves, and the intervals of underwood
are so filled with reeds, that the sun cannot warm the earth, or ripen
the fruit of this shrub. I will not undertake to describe all the
kinds of grapes which this country produces; it is even impossible to
know them all; I shall only speak of three or four.

The first sort that I shall mention does not perhaps deserve the name
of a grape, although its wood and its leaf greatly resemble the vine.
This shrub bears no bunches, and you hardly ever see upon it above two
grapes together. The grape in substance and colour is very like a
violet damask plum, and its stone, which is always single, greatly
resembles a nut. Though not very relishing, it has not however that
disagreeable sharpness of the grape that grows in the neighbourhood of
New Orleans.

On the edge of the savannahs or meadows we meet with a grape, the
shoots of which resemble those of the Burgundy {209} grape. They make
from this a tolerable good wine, if they take care to expose it to the
sun in summer, and to the cold in winter. I have made this experiment
myself, and must say that I never could turn it into vinegar.

There is another kind of grape which I make no difficulty of classing
with the grapes of Corinth, commonly called currants. It resembles
them in the wood, the leaf, the tree, the size, and the sweetness. Its
tartness is owing to its being prevented from ripening by the thick
shade of the large trees to which it twines. If it were planted and
cultivated in an open field, I make not the least doubt but it would
equal the grape of Corinth, with which I class it.

Muscadine grapes, of an amber colour, of a very good kind, and very
sweet, have been found upon declivities of a good exposure, even so
far north as the latitude of 31 degrees. There is the greatest
probability that they might make excellent wine of these, as it cannot
be doubted but the grapes might be brought to great perfection in this
country, since in the moist soil of New Orleans, the cuttings of the
grape which some of the inhabitants of that city brought from France,
have succeeded extremely well, and afforded good wine.

As a proof of the fertility of Louisiana, I cannot forbear mentioning
the following fact; an inhabitant of New Orleans having planted in his
garden a few twigs of this Muscadine vine, with a view of making an
arbour of them, one of his sons, with another negro boy, entered the
garden in the month of June, when the grapes are ripe, and broke off
all the bunches they could find. The father, after severely chiding
the two boys, pruned the twigs that had been broken and bruised; and
as several months of summer still remained, the vine pushed out new
shoots, and new bunches, which ripened and were as good as the former.

The Persimmon, which the French of the colony call Placminier, very
much resembles our medlar-tree in its leaf and wood: its flower, which
is about an inch and a half broad, is white, and is composed of five
petals; its fruit is about the size of a large hen's egg; it is shaped
like our medlar, but its substance is sweeter and more delicate. This
fruit is astringent; {210} when it is quite ripe the natives make
bread of it, which they keep from year to year; and the bread has this
remarkable property that it will stop the most violent looseness or
dysentery; therefore it ought to be used with caution, and only after
physic. The natives, in order to make this bread, squeeze the fruit
over fine sieves to separate the pulp from the skin and the kernels.
Of this pulp, which is like paste or thick pap, they make cakes about
a foot and a half long, a foot broad, and a finger's breadth in
thickness: these they dry in an oven, upon gridirons, or else in the
sun; which last method of drying gives a greater relish to the bread.
This is one of their articles of traffick with the French.

Their plum-trees are of two sorts: the best is that which bears
violet-coloured plums, quite like ours, which are not disagreeable,
and which certainly would be good if they did not grow in the middle
of woods. The other kind bears plums of the colour of an unripe
cherry, and these are so tart that no body can eat them; but I am of
opinion they might be preserved like gooseberries; especially if pains
were taken to cultivate them in open grounds. The small cherries,
called the Indian cherry, are frequent in this country. Their wood is
very beautiful, and their leaves differ in nothing from those of the
cherry tree.

The Papaws are only to be found far up in Higher Louisiana. These
trees, it would seem, do not love heat; they do not grow so tall as
the plum-trees; their wood is very hard and flexible; for the lower
branches are sometimes so loaded with fruit that they hang
perpendicularly downwards; and if you unload them of their fruit in
the evening, you will find them next morning in their natural erect
position. The fruit resembles a middle-sized cucumber; the pulp is
very agreeable and very wholesome; but the rind, which is easily
stripped off, leaves on the fingers so sharp an acid, that if you
touch your eye with them before you wash them, it will be immediately
inflamed, and itch most insupportably for twenty-four hours after.

The natives had doubtless got the peach-trees and fig-trees from the
English colony of Carolina, before the French {211} established
themselves in Louisiana. The peaches are of the kind which we call
Alberges; are of the size of the fist, adhere to the stone, and
contain so much water that they make a kind of wine of it. The figs
are either blue or white; are large and well enough tasted. Our
colonists plant the peach stones about the end of February, and suffer
the trees to grow exposed to all weathers. In the third year they will
gather from one tree at least two hundred peaches, and double that
number for six {212} or seven years more, when the tree dies
irrecoverably. As new trees are so easily produced, the loss of the
old ones is not in the least regretted.

[Illustration: Top: _Pawpaw_--Bottom: _Blue Whortle-berry_ (on p. 211)]

The orange-trees and citron-trees that were brought from Cape Francois
have succeeded extremely well; however I have seen so severe a winter
that those kinds of trees were entirely frozen to the very trunk. In
that case they cut the trees down to the ground, and the following
summer they produced shoots that were better than the former. If these
trees have succeeded in the flat and moist soil of New Orleans, what
may we not expect when they are planted in better soil, and upon
declivities of a good exposure? The oranges and citrons are as good as
those of other countries; but the rind of the orange in particular is
very thick, which makes it the better for a sweet-meat.

There is plenty of wild apples in Louisiana, like those in Europe; and
the inhabitants have got many kind of fruit trees from France, such as
apples, pears, plums, cherries, &c. which in the low grounds run more
into wood than fruit; the few I had at the Natches proved that high
ground is much more suited to them than the low.

The blue Whortle-berry is a shrub somewhat taller than our largest
gooseberry bushes, which are left to grow as they please. Its berries
are of the shape of a gooseberry, grow single, and are of a blue
colour: they taste like a sweetish gooseberry, and when infused in
brandy it makes a good dram. They attribute several virtues to it,
which, as I never experienced, I cannot answer for. It loves a poor
gravelly soil.

Louisiana produces no black mulberries: but from the sea to the
Arkansas, which is an extent of navigation upon the river of two
hundred leagues, we meet very frequently with three kinds of
mulberries; one a bright red, another perfectly white, and a third
white and sweetish. The first of these kinds is very common, but the
two last are more rare. Of the red mulberries they make excellent
vinegar, which keeps a long time, provided they take care in the
making of it to keep it in the shade in a vessel well stopped,
contrary to the practice in France. They make vinegar also of bramble
berries, but this {213} is not so good as the former. I do not doubt
but the colonists at present apply themselves seriously to the
cultivation of mulberries, to feed silk-worms, especially as the
countries adjoining to France, and which supplied us with silk, have
now made the exportation of it difficult.

The olive-trees in this colony are surprisingly beautiful. The trunk
is sometimes a foot and a half diameter, and thirty feet high before
it spreads out into branches. The Provencals settled in the colony
affirm, that its olives would afford as good an oil as those of their
country. Some of the olives that were prepared to be eat green, were
as good as those of Provence. I have reason to think, that if they
were planted on the coasts, the olives would have a finer relish.

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