48; 



STATE OF LOUISIANA. 



SITUATION AND EXTENT. 



This state is bounded west by the Sabine river, and a meridional 

 line from the 32° to the 3S° of north latitude, which separate it from 

 the Spanish province of Texas ; north by the 33° of north latitude^ 

 dividing it from Missouri territory ; east by Mississippi territory 

 and the gulf of Mexico ; south by the gulf of Mexico ; containing 

 45,850 square miles ; 29,359,400 acres ; or 34,681,623 arpents of Pa- 

 ris : deducting one-fifth for water, swamps, and other unproductive 

 tracts, leaves 23,480,320 acres; or 27,745,300 arpents, as the pro- 

 ductive soil of the state of Louisiana. 



Civil divisions and population.. ..Louisiana is divided into coun- 

 ties, parishes, and senatorial districts. In some instances the same dis- 

 trict or tract of county is both acounty and parish. In fact, at present, the 

 division of county is little more than nominal, and originated from the 

 enlargement of the parish with a view to some arrangement of a political 

 or judicial nature; but the present system has nearly done away the 

 objects of the county division. In each parish there is a parish judge, 

 with jurisdiction to the amount of three hundred dollars, in civil 

 cases, and a trifling criminal jurisdiction. He is the judge of probates 

 in the county ; generally notary public and auctioneer ; and the chief of 

 the parish jury, a body of twelve inhabitants, who have the superin- 

 tendance of matters of police within the parish, such as assessing and 

 appropriating the parish taxes, laying out roads, the passing of by- 

 laws, and the superintendance of levees, a thing of great importance. 

 The greater part of this business in the other states, takes up the 

 time of the court, and is perhaps less advantageously executed. The 

 following table will shew the number of inhabitants in the different 

 parishes in 1814 : 



SOUTH-EAST SECTION. 



Parishes. Population. 



New Orleans (the city and > 



Fauxbourgs) 

 St. Bernard, . 

 Plaquemines, 

 St. Charles, . 

 St. John the Baptist, 

 St. James, 

 Ascension, 

 Assumption, 

 Interior of La Fourche, 



s 



28,000 



1,040 

 7,120 

 3,640 

 3,320 

 4,000 

 2,500 

 2.720 

 2,210 



Parishes. 

 Iberville, . 

 West Baton Rouge, 

 Point Coupee, 

 Filiciana, 



East Baton Rouge, . 

 St. Tammany, 

 St. Helena, 



Population^ 



2,970' 



1,620 



5,000 



1 

 I 



>• 16,600" 

 I 



J 



75,558 



NORTH-WEST AND SOUTH-WEST DIVISIONS. 



Natchitoches, 



Ouachitta, 



Concordia, 



Warren, 



Catahoola, 



Rapide, 



3,330 

 1,200 



3,203 



1,293 



2,440 



Avoyelles, 

 Opelousas, 

 Attakapas, 



1,340 

 5,6 10 

 8,164 



More than two-thirds of the inhabitants are slaves. 



