"Since the failure of Law, and his departure from France, his grant at the Arkansas had been entirely neglected, and the greatest part of the settlers, whom he had transported thither from Germany, finding themselves abandoned and disappointed, came down to New-Orleans, with the hope of obtaining a passage to some port of France, from which they might be enabled to return home. The colonial government being unable or unwilling to grant it, small allotments of land were made to them twenty miles above New-Orleans, on both sides of the river, on which they settled in cottage farms. The Chevalier d'Arensbourg, a Swedish officer, lately arrived, was appointed commandant of the new post. This was the beginning of the settlement, known as the German coast, or the parishes of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist. These laborious men supplied the troops and the inhabitants of New-Orleans with garden stuff. Loading their pirogues with the produce of their week's work, on Saturday evening, they floated down the river, and were ready to spread at sun-rise, on the first market that was held on the banks of the Mississippi, their supplies of vegetables, fowls, and butter. Returning, at the close of the market, they reached their homes early in the night, and were ready to resume their work at sun-rise; having brought the groceries and other articles needed in the course of the week."
A few years later, the Jesuit and Ursuline nuns arrived at New-Orleans, and began the improvement of a tract of land immediately above the city. They erected a house and chapel; they planted the front of their land with the myrtle wax shrub. Soon after, the foundation was laid for a large nunnery, into which the ladies removed in 1730, and occupied it until 1824. On every side the work of improvement proceeded gradually, but effectually. Among other expedients to hasten the progress of population, "a company ship brought out a number of poor girls, shipped by the company. They had not been taken, as those whom it had transported before, in the houses of correction in Paris. It had supplied each of them with a small box, cassette, containing a few articles of clothing. From this circumstance, and to distinguish them from those who had preceded them, they were called girls de la cassette. Till they could be disposed of in marriage, they remained under the care of the nuns."
The fig tree was introduced from Provence, and the orange from Hispaniola, both now so abundant and so excellent at New-Orleans.
Injustice to the aborigines seems to have marked the march of the white man in all its stages; nor were the victims of his cupidity slow in their revenge, or wanting in courage and ingenuity in prosecuting it. We have an instance of this, which we think interesting enough to be extracted.—
"The indiscretion and ill conduct of Chepar, who commanded at Fort Rosalie, in the country of the Natchez, induced these Indians to become principals, instead of auxiliaries, in the havock.
"This officer, coveting a tract of land in the possession of one of the chiefs, had used menaces to induce him to surrender it, and unable to intimidate the sturdy Indian, had resorted to violence. The nation, to whom the commandant's conduct had rendered him obnoxious, took part with its injured member—and revenge was determined on. The suns sat in council to devise the means of annoyance, and determined not to confine chastisement to the offender; but, having secured the co-operation of all the tribes hostile to the French, to effect the total overthrow of the settlement, murder all white men in it, and reduce the women and children to slavery. Messengers were accordingly sent to all the villages of the Natchez and the tribes in their alliance, to induce them to get themselves ready, and come on a given day to begin the slaughter. For this purpose bundles of an equal number of sticks were prepared and sent to every village, with directions to take out a stick everyday, after that of the new moon, and the attack was to be on that on which the last stick was taken out.
"This matter was kept a profound secret among the chiefs and the Indians employed by them, and particular care was taken to conceal it from the women. One of the female suns, however, soon discovered that a momentous measure, of which she was not informed, was on foot. Leading one of her sons to a distant and retired spot, in the woods, she upbraided him with his want of confidence in his mother, and artfully drew from him the details of the intended attack. The bundle of sticks for her village had been deposited in the temple, and to the keeper of it, the care had been intrusted of taking out a stick daily. Having from her rank access to the fane at all times, she secretly, and at different moments, detached one or two sticks, and then threw them into the sacred fire. Unsatisfied with this, she gave notice of the impending danger to an officer of the garrison, in whom she placed confidence. But the information was either disbelieved or disregarded."
This well concerted plan of revenge was carried into a terrible execution; and the aggressor who had caused it was among the victims.
A circumstance, purely accidental, and, in itself, altogether insignificant, was the beginning of an agricultural experiment in Louisiana, which, long afterwards, was followed by a success, important not only to that territory, but to these United States.
"Two hundred recruits arrived from France on the 17th of April, for the completion of the quota of troops allotted to the province. The king's ships, in which they were embarked, touched at the cape, in the Island of Hispaniola, where, with a view of trying with what success the sugar cane could be cultivated on the banks of the Mississippi, the Jesuits of that island were permitted to ship to their brethren in Louisiana, a quantity of it. A number of negroes, acquainted with the culture and manufacture of sugar, came in the fleet. The canes were planted on the land of the fathers immediately above the city, in the lower part of the spot now known as the suburb St. Mary. Before this time, the front of the plantation had been improved in the raising of the myrtle wax shrub; the rest was sown with indigo."