169 
BOUNDARIES, SURFACE, &c.—BOOK II. 
on half in depth on both sides. It is supposed, that on this ba¬ 
you, and on others connected with it, there is twice as much ha¬ 
bitable land, as there is from its entrance, on both sides of the 
Mississippi, to New Orleans. For nearly thirty miles down, 
on each side, there appears a continual village, and it is tolera* 
bly well settled for thirty miles further. 
3. Attakapas and Opelousas . 
Opelousas is separated from the Attakapas by bayou Fusil- 
lier, which connects the Teche with the Vermillion, and is a 
natural canal, which might with eafce be rendered navigable.—- 
On the S. W. side of the Vermillion it is separated by the Ca- 
raiicro, a stream which takes its rise in the prairies, and falls into 
the Vermillion. The traveller, on approaching the Teche from 
the Vermillion, easily discerns where the high primitive ground 
gradually descends inter the lower prairies of the Attakapas.—. 
These, I have already observed, are covered with a coarser ve¬ 
getation,. and are better wooded than those of the Opelousas, 
but there is a much greater portion of them waste, and subject to 
be drowned by rains, and are even sometimes inundated by the 
Teche: the greater part is probably alluvion, at least for a mile 
or two on the S. W. side, and the whole on the other. The soil 
is extremely rich, though of a texture somewhat too close, lia¬ 
ble to bake and become hard and stiff Cotton is at present the 
principal culture; the sugar-cane has been found to succeed as 
well if not better than on the Mississippi. A number of planters, 
of late, are turning their attention to it. Several cotton planters 
of the Mississippi territory, have sold their plantations, and 
commenced establishments on the Teche. On lake Tasse there 
is a sugar establishment of some years standing, but this is the 
only one which has yet been completed. 
The Vermillion and the Teche are the principal rivers of the 
Attakapas, neither of them formed by the refluent watersof other 
rivers, but rising in the high prairies of the Opelousas; the 
Vermillion in the neighborhood of the Opelousas church, and 
the Teche considerably north of it. Their general courses are 
nearly the same to the lake Tasse, where the Teche winds some¬ 
what east of south. Their channels are deep, the waters of a 
