m 
VIEWS OP LOUISIANA. 
ready to pour over the bank of the other. On a slight glance 3 . ( 
this country, between the Mississippi and the Washita, nearly 
four hundred miles on the river, and generally supposed to be 
annually covered with water to the depth of several feet, is di¬ 
vided into long narrow slips, by the parallel courses of the Mis¬ 
sissippi, bayou Mas§on, riviere aux Boeufs, and the Washita y. 
with numerous connecting bayoux, which in time, will be as 
useful as artificial canals, and insterspersed with lakes whose 
banks are above the reach of inundation. During the flood of 
1811, two Indians who had set off from fort Adams, arrived at 
Sicilly island, bringing with them several horses. They declare 
ed that they had to swim but two bayoux, having followed the. 
ridges of high land. 
Ail those bayoux are deep, and at all seasons afford sufficient 
water to navigate the largest barges. Their courses are gene-, 
rally cropked, and narrow, in places perhaps choked with logs 
tand rafts. The Washita as high up as the 33° of N. lat. is sel¬ 
dom more than forty miles from the Mississippi. Two roads 
have been cut, one to fort Mira, and the other to bayou Berthe- 
lemie, thirty miles above; they pass through thick cane brakes, 
and in high water, it is necessary to swim a great number of 
bayoux, and to wade through places overflown. 
I am conscious how difficult it is to convey any idea of a. 
country, particularly such as this, without a map; 1 do not know 
of any extant, which I can recommend to the reader: that of 
Lafon, is undoubtedly the best yet published, but from my own 
observation, and from w T hat I have learned from others, it is by 
no means to be relied on. It was, however, the best that could 
be made at the time of its publication, but since then the coun-. 
try has become much better known. The manuscript map of 
Mr. Darby is greatly superior, the greater part of it being taken 
from actual survey. 
The principal settlements are those of Concordia, Cata-* 
boula, and Washita. In the two last, the settlers cultivate cotton, 
but in the other, their principal dependence is in the raising of 
stock and the culture of Indian corn, and they generally live poor, 
having but few of the comforts and conveniences of lifp. 
