BOUNDARIES, SURFACE, &c.—BOOK II. 173 
most exhausted, having been compelled to stand up the greater 
part of the time, and chilled to the very heart. Here the atten¬ 
tion and kindness of the good people, soon made us forget what 
we had endured, or remembered only to felicitate ourselves on 
its having passed. These accidents do not frequently occur. 
4. Settlements of La Fourche—Coast of the Mississippi—* 
Fausse riviere . 
The settlers of La Fourche, are chiefly what the French call, 
petits habitants , small planters, and are therefore, more numer¬ 
ous than on the coast, for it requires many cottages to make one 
chateau. There are however, some extensive establishments. 
Lands have risen here in price, since they have grown in de* 
mand for sugar plantations, and many of the petits habitants 
bought out. The settlers from the Canal, up to the mouth of 
the Fourche, are principally of Spanish origin, and speak but lit¬ 
tle French. They are a poor and miserable population; seem 
lazy and careless, and are destitute of those little comforts, and 
that neatness, which are found in the cottage of the poorest 
French creole. 
The most pleasant part of Louisiana, when we take into con¬ 
sideration the comforts and conveniences of life, is that which is 
called the Coast, and proves to us what may be done by the art 
and industry of man, even in those parts which nature has left 
rude and unsightly. It affords one of the strongest arguments 
in favor of civilization, and ought to go far in reconciling the 
philanthropic mind to the circumstance of the present inhabit¬ 
ants, having shoved off the pitiable, careless race, who first pos¬ 
sessed it. Would it be too much to say, that this improvement 
and cultivation of the face of nature, was the condition on which 
the Creator gave to the human race the lordship of the earth l 
Even the garden of Eden required the fostering care of Adam 
£nd his partner: 
a On to their morning’s rural work they haste, 
Among sweet dews and flow’rs; where any tow 
