VIEWS OF LOUISIANA, 
<U2 
fat pork, seldom any fresh meat, or vegetables, and large quan¬ 
tities of milk and coarse corn bread are used. The mephitic 
exhalations from putrid vegetables, and from enormous masses 
of putrifying trees, in the new clearings, also contribute to this 
insalubrity. The fields of corn, with which the settler surrounds 
his cabin, are thought by many, to be another cause; the foliage 
of the corn is so rich and massy, that it shades the earth, and 
prevents the action of the sun from exhaling unwholesome 
damps. 
The last season was uncommonly unhealthy throughout the 
western country, and this territory experienced it in a degree 
not less than many other places. The natives, and the oldest in- 
habitants, were attacked, as well as strangers. The Missouri, 
which had never experienced it, did not escape. This season 
did great injury to the commencing emigration to this country; 
many who had suffered, retired from it, and others who had 
determined to come, changed their minds. 
CHAPTER IV. 
POLITICAL DIVISIONS—INHABITANTS-SETTLEMENTS—. 
POPULATION. 
SHORTLY after the taking possession of this territory, 
it was divided by proclamation of governor Harrison, into sis 
districts: 
1 St. Charles, 4 Cape Girardeau? 
2 St Louis, 5 New Madrid, 
3 St. Genevieve, 6 Arkansas. 
The territorial legislature has again subdivided these districts 
yito townships. The term “ district” corresponds with the 
f»unty of the states. 
The inhabitants are composed of whites, Indians, metiffs, a 
f£w civilized Indians, and negro slaves. 
The whites, consist of the ancient inhabitants, and of those 
Who have settled since the change of government. The former, 
