605 LOU 
and runs a fouth-wefterly courfe, through the Georgia 
wefiern lands, and joins the Mifliflippi juft below the 
Walnut-hills, and ten miles from Stony-river. It is thirty 
yards wide at its mouth, and faid to be navigable for canoes 
thirty or forty leagues. 
LOU'ISBURG, a town and capital of theifland of Cape 
Breton, fituated on a point of land on the fouth-ealt fide 
of the ifland. Its ftreets are regular and broad, conlifting 
for the molt part of (tone houfes, with a large parade at a 
little diftance from the citadel ; the ir.fide of which is a 
fine fquare, near 200 feet every way. On its north fide, 
w hile poflefled by the French, ltood the governor’s houfe, 
end the church ; the other tides were taken up with bar¬ 
racks, bomb-proof; in which the French fecured their 
women and children during the fiege. The town is near 
half an Englifh mile in length, and two in circuit. The 
harbour is more than half an Englifli mile in breadth, 
from north-weft to fouth-eaft in the narrowed part, and 
fix miles in length from uorth-eaft to fouth-weft. In the 
north-eaft part of the harbour is a fine careening wharf to 
heave down; and very fecure from all winds. On the 
oppofite fide are the fifhing-llages, and room for 2000 boats 
to cure their fifli. In winter, the harbour is totally im¬ 
practicable, being entirely frozen, fo as to be walked over; 
that feafon begins here at the dole of November, and lafts 
till May or June : fometimes the frofts fet in fooner, and 
are more intenfe; as particularly in 1745, when by the 
middle of OCtober a great part of the harbour was already 
frozen. The principal if not the only trade of Louifburg, 
is the cod-fifhery, the plenty of fifli being remarkable, and 
at the fame time better than any about Newfoundland. 
The anchorage, or mooring, is good, and fhips may run 
a-ground without any danger. Its entrance is not above 
300 toifes in breadth, formed by two fmall iflands. Here 
is plenty of cod ; and the fifhery may, in general, be con¬ 
tinued from April to the dole of December. It was 
taken from the French by the Englifli fleet under fir Pe¬ 
ter Warren, and cur American forces commanded by fir 
William Pepperel, in the year 1745; but afterwards re- 
ftored to France by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. 
It was again taken by the Englifli under the command of 
admiral Bofcawen and lieutenant-general Amherft, on 
the 27th of July, 1758 ; and its fortifications fince demo- 
liftied. Lat. 45. 55. N. Ion. 59. 50. W. 
LOU'ISBURG, in Pennfylvania. See Harriseurg, 
vol. ix. 
LOU'ISBURG, ,ci county in Orangeburgli diftrid, South 
Carolina.—A poft-town of North Carolina, and capital of 
Franklin county, which lies on Tar river, and contains 
between twenty and thirty houfes, a com t-houfe, and gaol; 
thirty, miles north of Raleigh.—A poft-town and chief 
town of Greenbriar county, Virginia, on the north fide of 
■Greenbriar river, containing about fixty houfes, a court- 
houfe, and gaol; 250 miles weft-by-north of Richmond. 
Lat. 38. 8. N.—A poft-town of Northumberland county, 
Pennfylvania, called alfo Tarftown, on the weft fide of 
the Sufquehanna, feven miles above Northumberland; 
containing about fixty houfes, and well fituated for a good 
trade with the north-weft part of the ftate; thirty miles 
eaft-by-north from Aaronfburg. 
LOUISIA'DE, the fouthern_coaft of a confiderable 
ifland belonging to New Guinea ; fo called by Bougain¬ 
ville in 1768. 
LOUISIA'NA, a country of North America, firft dif- 
covered by Ferdinand de Soto in 1541, and afterwards 
vjfited by Col. Wood in 1654, and by Capt. Boltin 1670. 
But the firft perfon who attempted to fettle in this coun¬ 
try was M. de la Salle, who, in 1682, travelled the Miffif- 
fippi; and in the following year he repaired to France, 
and, in confequence of the reprefentations which he made 
of his difcoveries, obtained a grant of four fmall veflels 
and x 70 men; with which armament hefetfail forthe mouth 
of the Mifliflippi. In 1685, this fmall colony, under the 
.direction of their leader, landed in the Bay of St. Bernard’s, 
nbout 300 miles weft of the place of their deftiaation. 
LOU 
After ftruggling with many hardfhips, both in their land¬ 
ing and 111 their endeavours to fettle, fome of this colony 
murdered La Salle, and all the reft periflied, except feven 
perfons, who penetrated through the country of Canada. 
In 1699, M. Ibberville, of Canada, a brave naval officer, 
having obtained the patronage of the French'court, failed 
from Rochfort with two fhips and a number of men, and 
laid the foundation of the firft French colony on the Mif- 
fifiippi. This colony was diminifhed by fome unfavour¬ 
able circumfcances, in 1712, to twenty-eight families. At 
this time, Crozat, a merchant of great opulence and an 
adventuring Spirit, obtained the excluuve trade of Loui- 
fiana; but his plans, which were extenfive and patriotic 
proving ineffectual, he refigned his charter, in 1717, to’ 
a company formed by the famous projector John Law. 
From this period the country became an objeCt of in- 
tereft to fpeculative adventurers; fo that,.in 1718 and 
1719, a numerous colony of labourers, collected from 
France, Germany, and Swifferland, was conveyed to Lou- 
ifiana, and fettled in a diftriCt called Biloxi, on the ifland 
of New Orleans, a barren and unhealthy fituation, where 
many hundreds died through want and vexation. This 
event ruined the reputation of the country; and, the co¬ 
lony having languifhed till the year i 73I , the company 
at length, for the fum of 1,450,000 livres, purchafed the 
favour of furrendering their concerns into the hands of 
the government, i he French continued in quiet poflef- 
fion of Louifiana, frequent Cornells with the Indians ex¬ 
cepted, till the year 1762. Among thefe tribes of hoftile 
Indians, we may reckon t he Natchez, who appear in the year 
1731 to have been almoft wholly extirpated. In 1736 and 
1740 the colonifts were engaged in bloody wars with the 
Chickafaw Indians; but thefe, in procefs of time, termi¬ 
nated in permanent peace. From this time the profpeCfs 
of the colonifts were brightening, as their peltry-trade 
with the Indians and their commerce with the Welt Indie# 
were increafing. Several hundred Canadians and recruit# 
of inhabitants from other countries fettled on the banks of 
the Mifliflippi, and imparted additional ftrength and prof, 
perity to the original colony. ^ 
Such was the ftate of the country, when in the year 
1764 the inhabitants received information, that in Novem¬ 
ber 1762, Louifiana, comprehending New Orleans and the 
whole territory weft of the Mifliflippi, had been ceded to 
Spain by a fecret treaty. This meafure incenfed the co¬ 
lonifts, and was vigoroufly oppofed, fo that complete pof- 
feflion of the countiy was not obtained by Spain till the 
17th of Auguft, 1769 ; after which event, feveral victims 
were facnficed to atone for the delay of fubmiflion, and 
others were conveyed away to languifli out their lives in 
the dungeons of the Havannah. By the treaty of peace 
m 1763, which ceded Canada to Great Britain, the boun¬ 
daries of the Britifh provinces were extended fouthward 
to the Gulf of Mexico, and weftward to the Mifliflippi ■ 
and Louifiana was limited north by Canada, and eaft by 
the Mifliflippi, excepting that it included the ifland of 
New Orleans on its eaft bank. This ftate of things re¬ 
mained till the American revolutionary war, during which 
Spain took from Great Britain the two Florida#. The 
United States, according to their prefent limits, became 
an independent government; and left to Great Britain 
of all her American provinces, thofe only which lie north 
and eaft of the United States. All thefe changes were 
fanCtioned and confirmed by the treaty of 1783. 
Thus things continued till the treaty of St. Ildefonfo 
OCtober 1, 1800, by which Spain engaged to cede to the 
French republic, on certain conditions, the colony or pro¬ 
vince of Louifiana, with the fame extent which it actually 
had when France poflefled it. This treaty was confirmed 
and enforced by the treaty of Madrid, March 12, 1801. 
From France it palled to the United States by the treaty 
of the 30th of April, 1803. In conlideration of this cel- 
fion, the government of the United States engaged to pay 
to the French government, under certain ftipulations, the 
lum of 6.5,000,000 francs, independent of the fum which 
• fhould 
