14 THE ‘MISSISSIPPI VALLEY : 
tention given to agriculture, as wellas the addition of such 
staple articles of production as rice, sugar, and tobacco ‘in 
the south, and wheat in the Illinois country. As one of 
the darkest shades upon this bright side of the picture, we 
are also compelled to note the first introduction of negro 
slaves into Louisiana, under the auspices of the Mississippi 
Company in 1719. It was during this period of time also, 
that Spanish jealousy made itself conspicuous by encroach- 
ments on the French colonies, both on the east and west, 
from Florida and Mexico. The year 1729 was memorable 
tor the massacre of the French colony at Natchez, by the 
Natchez Indians, who were provoked to this act by repeated 
insults and injuries received from the French military au- 
thorities. In the following year this flourishing tribe was 
in its turn almost completely extirpated, only a miserable 
remnant of survivors being sent to end their days as slaves 
in San Domingo. Subsequent to the failure of the Mississ- 
ippi scheme, the country gradually increased in population 
and wealth. The period of time from 1732 to 1754, being 
| regarded as the palmy days of French settlement in the IIl- 
inois country. Hereis whata French writer, Vivier, writes 
of Illinois, in a letter dated June 8th, 1750 (Annals of West, 
page 38): 
| “We have here whites, negroes, and Indians, to say noth- 
ing of cross-breeds. There are five French villages, and 
three villages of the natives within a space of twenty-one 
leagues, situated between the Mississippi and a village 
called the Karkadiad (Kaskaskias). In the five French vil- 
jages are perhaps eleven hundred whites, three hundred 
blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages. The three 
Illinois towns do not contain more than eight hundred souls, 
all told. Most of the French till the soil, they raise wheat, 
eattle, pigs, and horses, and live like princes. Three times 
_ as much is produced as can be consumed, and great quanti- 
| ties of grain and flour are sent to New Orleans.” 
| 
