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

Two leagues higher up than le Baton Rouge, was the Grant of M. Paris du Vernai. This settlement is called Bayou-Ogoulas, from a nation of that name, which formerly dwelt here. It is on the west side of the Missisippi, and twenty-eight leagues from New Orleans.

At a league on this side of Pointe Coupée, are les Petits Ecores, (little Cliffs) where was the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres. At this grant were a director and under-director; but the surgeon found out the secret of remaining sole master. The place is very beautiful, especially behind les Petits Ecores, where we go up by a gentle ascent. Near these cliffs, a rivulet falls into the Missisippi, into which a spring discharges its waters, which so attract the buffalos, that they are very often found on its banks. 'Tis a pity this ground was deserted; there was enough of it to make a very considerable grant: a good water-mill might be guilt on the brook I just mentioned.

At forty leagues from New Orleans lies a la Pointe Coupée, so called, because the Missisippi made there an elbow or winding, and formed the figure of a circle, open only about an hundred and odd toises, thro' which it made itself a shorter way, and where all its water runs at present. This was not the work of nature alone: two travellers, coming down the Missisippi, were forced to stop short at this place, because they observed at a distance the surff, or waves, to be very high, the wind beating against the current, and the river being out, so that they durst not venture to proceed. Just by them passed a rivulet, caused by the inundation, which might be a foot deep, by four or five feet broad, more or less. One of the travellers, seeing himself without any thing to do, took his fusil and followed the course of this rivulet, in hopes of killing some game. He had not gone an hundred toises, before he was put into a very great surprize, on perceiving a great opening, as when one is just getting out of a thick forest. He continues to advance, sees a large extent of water, which he takes for a lake; but turning on his left, he espies les Petits Ecores, just mentioned, and by experience he knew, he must go ten leagues to get thither: Upon this he knew, these were the waters of the river. He runs to acquaint his companion: this last wants to be sure of it: certain as they are both of it, they resolve, that it was necessary to cut away the roots, which stood in the passage, and to level the more elevated places. They attempted at length to pass their pettyaugre through, by pushing it before them. They succeeded beyond their expectation; the water which came on, aided them as much by its weight as by its depth, which was increased by the obstacle it met in its way: and they saw themselves in a short time in the Missisippi, ten leagues lower down than they were an hour before; or than they would have been, if they had followed the bed of the river, as they were formerly constrained to do.

This little labour of our travellers moved the earth; the roots being cut away in part, proved no longer an obstacle to the course of the water; the slope or descent in this small passage was equal to that in the river for the ten leagues of the compass it took; in fine, nature, though feebly aided, performed the rest. The first time I went up the river, its entire body of water passed through this part; and though the channel was only made six years before, the old bed was almost filled with the ooze, which the river had there deposited; and I have seen trees growing there of an astonishing size, that one might wonder how they should come to be so large in so short a time.

In this spot, which is called la Pointe Coupée, the Cut-point, was the Grant of M. de Meuse, at present one of the most considerable posts of the colony, with a fort, a garrison, and an officer to command there. The river is on each side lined with inhabitants, who make a great deal of tobacco. There an Inspector resides, who examines and receives it, in order to prevent the merchants being defrauded. The inhabitants of the west side have high lands behind them, which form a very fine country, as I have observed above.

Twenty leagues above this Cut-point, and sixty leagues from New Orleans, we meet with the Red River. In an island formed by that river, stands a French post, with a fort, a garrison, its commandant and officers. The first inhabitants who settled there, were some soldiers of that post, discharged after their time of serving was expired, who set themselves to make tobacco in the island. But the fine sand, carried by the wind upon the leaves of the tobacco, made it of a bad quality, which obliged them to abandon the island and settle on the continent, where they found a good soil, on which they made better tobacco. This post is called the Nachitoches, from a nation of that name, settled in the neighbourhood. At this post M. de St. Denis commanded.

Several inhabitants of Louisiana, allured thither by the hopes of making soon great fortunes, because distant only seven leagues from the Spaniards, imagined the abundant treasures of New Mexico would pour in upon them. But in this they happened to be mistaken; for the Spanish post, called the Adaïes less money in it than the poorest village in Europe: the Spaniards being ill clad, ill fed, and always ready to buy goods of the French on credit: which may be said in general of all the Spaniards of New Mexico, amidst all their mines of gold and silver. This we are well informed of by our merchants, who have dealt with the Spaniards of this post, and found their habitations and way of living to be very mean, and more so than those of the French.

From the confluence of this Red River, in going up the Missisippi, as we have hitherto done, we find, about thirty leagues higher up, the post of the Natchez.

Let not the reader be displeased at my saying often, nearly, or about so many leagues: we can ascertain nothing justly as to the distances in a country where we travel only by water. Those who go up the Missisippi, having more trouble, and taking more time than those who go down, reckon the route more or less long, according to the time in which they make their voyage; besides, when the water is high, it covers passes, which often shorten the way a great deal.

The Natchez are situate in about 32° odd minutes of north latitude, and 280° of longitude. The fort at this post stands two hundred feet perpendicular above low-water mark. From this fort the point of view extends west of the Missisippi quite to the horizon, that is, on the side opposite to that where the fort stands, though the west side be covered with woods, because the foot of the fort stands much higher than the trees. On the same side with the fort, the country holds at a pretty equal height, and declines only by a gentle and almost imperceptible slope, insensibly losing itself from one eminence to another.