/;?g from Canada to Louisiana their own em- 

 migrants, they may in the like manner get not 

 onlij this hut every other branch of the trade 

 of North America. 

 Similarly, a Freiicli writer spoke of Louisiana's im- 

 portant tobacco industry when he said: 



Tobacco is the onhj production of the earth 

 which gives the English an advantage over us. 

 Providence, which reserved for us the discov- 

 ery of Louisiana, has given us the possession 

 of it, that we may he their rivals in this partic- 

 ular, or at least that we may be able to do 

 without their tobacco. 



Xhick and succulent' 



The Frencli were hopeful that the Louisiana tobacco 

 trade would put them out of the business of importing 

 English tobacco altogether and thus would develop a 

 balance of trade more favorable to France. 



The European settlers carefully examined the to- 

 bacco trade as handled by local Indians. Le Page de 

 Pratz, a French traveler and writer who lived in Louis- 

 iana for fifteen years, noted in his writings that the 

 "tobacco wliich was found among the Indians of Louisi- 

 ana ... is \er\' large." He went on to describe it 

 more carefullv: 



. . . Its stalk, wJien suffered to run to seed, 

 sJioots to five and a half to six feet; the lower 

 part of its stem is at least eighteen lines in 

 diameter, and its leaves often near two feet 

 long, which are often thick and succulent, its 

 juice is strong but never disorders the head. 



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