[305] "Que si M. de Lamothe-Cadillac lui portoit tant d'animositié, c'étoit à cause du refus qu'il avoit fait d'épouser sa fille."—Bienville in Gayarré, i. 116.
[306] Mémoire du Curé de la Vente, 1714.
[307] The earlier cargoes of girls seem to have been better chosen, and there was no difficulty in mating them. Serious disputes sometimes rose from the competition of rival suitors.—Dumont, Mémoires historiques de la Louisiane, chap. v.
[308] Prominent officials of the colony are said to have got wives from these sources. Nicolas de la Salle is reported to have had two in succession, both from the hospitals. Bénard de la Harpe, 107 (ed. 1831).
[309] Lettres patentes en forme d'Édit portant établissement de la Compagnie d'Occident, in Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, i. 47.
[310] Règlement de Régie, 1721.
[311] Saint-Simon, Mémoires (ed. Chéruel), xvii. 461.
[312] De Chassin au Ministre, 1 Juillet, 1722, in Gayarré, i. 190.
[313] A considerable number of the whites brought to Louisiana in the name of the Company had been sent at the charge of persons to whom it had granted lands in various parts of the colony. Among these was John Law himself, who had the grant of large tracts on the Arkansas.
[314] Bénard de la Harpe, 371 (ed. 1831).