The History of Louisiana, Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina / Containing a Description of the Countries That Lie on Both Sides of the River Missisippi

by Le Page du Pratz

But those gross commodities that afford these sources of navigation, however valuable they may be to the public, and to this nation in particular, are far from being so to individuals: they are cheap, and of small value, either to make, or to trade in them; and for that reason they are neglected by private people, who never think of making them, unless the public takes care to give them all due encouragement, and to set them about those employments; for which purpose good and proper lands, such as those on the Missisippi, are absolutely necessary, without which nothing can be done.

The many advantages of such lands that produce a staple for Britain, in North America, are not to be told. The whole interest of the nation in those colonies depends upon them, if not the colonies themselves. Such lands alone enable the colonies to take their manufactures and other necessaries from Britain, to the mutual advantage of both. And how necessary that may be will appear from the state of those colonies in North America, which do not make, one with another, as much as is sufficient to supply them only with the necessary article of cloathing; not to mention the many other things they want and take from Britain; and even how they pay for that is more than any man can tell. In short, it would appear that our colonies in North America cannot subsist much longer, if at all, in a state of dependence for all their manufactures and other necessaries, unless they are provided with other lands that may enable them to purchase them; and where they will find any such lands, but upon the Missisippi, is more than we can tell. When their lands are worn out, are poor and barren, or in an improper climate or situation, or that they will produce nothing to send to Britain, such lands can only be converted into corn and pasture grounds; and the people in our colonies are thereby necessarily obliged, for a bare subsistence, to interfere with Britain, not only in manufactures, but in the very produce of their lands.

By this we may perceive the absurdity of the popular outcry, that we have already land enough, and more than we can make use of in North America. They who may be of that opinion should shew us, where that land is to be found, and what it will produce, that may turn to any account to the nation. Those people derive their opinion from what they see in Europe, where the quantity of land that we possess in North America, will, no doubt, maintain a greater number of people than we have there. But they should consider, that those people in Europe are not maintained by the planting of a bare raw commodity, with such immense charges upon it, but by farming, manufactures, trade, and commerce; which they will soon reduce our colonies to, who would confine them to their present settlements, between the sea coast and the mountains that surround them.

Some of our colonies perhaps may imagine they cannot subsist without these employments; which indeed would appear to be the case in their present state: but that seems to be as contrary to their true interest, as it is to their condition of British colonies. They have neither skill, materials, nor any other conveniences to make manufactures; whereas their lands require only culture to produce a staple commodity, providing they are possessed of such as are fit for that purpose. Manufactures are the produce of labour, which is both scarce and dear among them; whereas lands are, or may, and should be made, both cheap and in plenty; by which they may always reap much greater profits from the one than the other. That is, moreover, a certain pledge for the allegiance and dependance of the colonies; and at the same time makes their dependance to become their interest. It has been found by frequent experience, that the making of a staple commodity for Britain, is more profitable than manufactures, providing they have good lands to work.

It were to be wished indeed, that we could support our interest in America, and those sources of navigation, by countries that were more convenient to it, than those on the Missisippi. But that, we fear, is not to be done, however it may be desired. We wish we could say as much of the lands in Florida, and on the bay of Mexico, as of those on the Missisippi: but they are not to be compared to these, by all accounts, however convenient they may be in other respects to navigation. In all those southern and maritime parts of that continent the lands are in general but very poor and mean, being little more than pine barrens, or sandy desarts. The climate is at the same time so intemperate, that white people are in a great measure unfit for labour in it, as much as they are in the islands; this obliges them to make use of slaves, which are now become so dear, that it is to be doubted, whether all the produce of those lands will enable the proprietors of them to purchase slaves, or any other labourers; without which they can turn to little or no account to the nation, and those countries can support but very few people, if it were only to protect and defend them.

The most convenient part of those countries seems to be about Mobile and Pensacola; which are, as it were, an entrepot between our present settlements and the Missisippi, and safe station for our ships. But it is a pity that the lands about them are the most barren, and the climate the most intemperate, by all accounts, of any perhaps in all America.^[11] And our author tells us, the lands are not much better even on the river of Mobile; which is but a very inconsiderable one. But the great inconvenience of those countries proceeds from the number of Indians in them; which will make it very difficult to settle any profitable plantations among them, especially in the inland parts that are more fertile; whereas the Missisippi is free from Indians for 1000 miles. It was but in the year 1715, that those Indians overran all the colony of Carolina, even to Charles-Town; by which the French got possession of that country, and of the Missisippi; both which they had just before, in June 1713, dispossessed us of.

If we turn our eyes again to the lands in our northern colonies, it is to be feared we can expect much less from them. There is an inconvenience attending them, with regard to any improvements on them for Britain, which is not to be remedied. The climate is so severe, and the winters so long, that the people are obliged to spend that time in providing the necessaries of life, which should be employed in profitable colonies, on the making of some staple commodity, and returns to Britain. They are obliged to feed their creatures for five or six months in the year, which employs their time in summer, and takes up the best of their lands, such as they are, which should produce their staple commodities, to provide for themselves and their stocks against winter. For that reason the people in all our northern colonies are necessarily obliged to become farmers, to make corn and provisions, instead of planters, who make a staple commodity for Britain; and thereby interfere with their mother country in the most material and essential of all employments to a nation, agriculture.

In short, neither the soil nor climate will admit of any improvements for Britain, in any of those northern colonies. If they would produce any thing of that kind, it must be hemp; which never could be made in them to any advantage, as appears from many trials of it in New England.^[12] The great dependance of those northern colonies is upon the supplies of lumber and provisions which they send to the islands. But as they increase and multiply, their woods are cut down, lumber becomes scarce and dear, and the number of people inhances the value of land, and of every thing it produces, especially provisions.

If this is the case of those northern colonies on the sea coast, what can we expect from the inland parts; in which the soil is not only more barren, and the climate more severe, but they are, with all these disadvantages, so inconvenient to navigation, both on account of their distance, and of the many falls and currents in the river St. Lawrence, that it is to be feared those inland parts of our northern colonies will never produce any thing for Britain, more than a few furrs; which they will do much better in the hands of the natives, than in ours. These our northern colonies, however, are very populous, and increase and multiply very fast. There are above a million of people in them, who can make but very little upon their lands for themselves, and still less for their mother country. For these reasons it is presumed, it would be an advantage to them, as well as to the whole nation, to remove their spare people, who want lands, to those vacant lands in the southern parts of the continent, which turn to so much greater account than any that they are possessed of. There they may have the necessaries of life in the greatest plenty; their stocks maintain themselves the whole year round, with little or no cost or labour; "by which means many people have a thousand head of cattle, and for one man to have two hundred, is very common, with other stock in proportion."^[13] This enables them to bestow their whole labour, both in summer and winter, on the making of some staple commodity for Britain, getting lumber and provisions for the islands, &c. which both enriches them and the whole nation. That is much better, surely, than to perish in winter for want of cloathing, which they must do unless they make it; and to excite those grudges and jealousies, which must ever subsist between them and their mother country in their present state, and grow so much the worse, the longer they continue in it.

The many advantages that would ensue from the peopling of those southern parts of the continent from our northern colonies, are hardly to be told. We might thereby people and secure those countries, and reap the profits of them, without any loss of people; which are not to be spared for that purpose in Britain, or any other of her dominions. This is the great use and advantage that may be made of the expulsion of the French from those northern parts of America. They have hitherto obliged us to strengthen those northern colonies, and have confined the people in them to towns and townships, in which their labour could turn to no great account, either to themselves or to the nation, by which we have, in a great measure, loss the labour of one half of the people in our colonies. But as they are now free from any danger on their borders, they may extend their settlements with safety, disperse themselves on plantations, and cultivate those lands that may turn to some account, both to them and to the whole nation. In short, they may now make some staple commodity for Britain; on which the interest of the colonies, and of the nation in them, chiefly depends; and which we can never expect from those colonies in their present situation.