LOUISIANA. 
Gys 
It is watered by the Red River, the Arkanfas, St. Francis, 
and the Miffouri, with a vaft number of fmaller ftreams 
which fall into thefe or the Miffiflippi. From the lower 
fettlement at Sans la Grace, to the upper fettlement on 
the Miffouri, about the diftance of two hundred and fifty 
miles, is a country equal to any part of the weftern territo¬ 
ry, containing a population of fifty or fixty thoufand, and 
furnilhing lead and iron mines. The foil is at the bottom 
a folid red clay ; and this is covered by a light earth, almoft 
black, and very fertile. The grafs grows here to a great 
height; towards the end of September it is fetonfire; and, 
in eight or ten days after, the young grafs (hoots up half 
a foot high. In advancing northwards towards the Ar- 
ka'nfas and St. Francis, the country becomes more beauti¬ 
ful and fertile, abounding with various kinds of game, as 
beavers, &c. and herds of deer, elks, and buffaloes, from 
ten to a hundred in a drove. Here have been alfo found 
fpeciinens of rock-cry flal, plafter of Paris, lead and iron 
ore, lime-ftone, and pit-coal. It has all the trees known 
in Europe, befides others that are there unknown. The 
cedars are remarkably fine ; the cotton-trees grow to fuel) 
a fize, that the Indians make canoes out of theirtrunks; 
hemp grows naturally; tar is made from the pines on the 
fea-coaft; and the country affords every material for fhip- 
building. Beansgrovv toa large fize without culture ; peifcch- 
trees are heavily laden with fruit; and the forefts are full 
of mulberry and plum-trees. Pomegranate and cbefnut 
trees are covered with vines, whofe grapes are very large 
and fweet. They have three or four crops oflndian corn 
in the year; as they have no other winter befides fome 
rains. Here are alfo mines of pit-coal, lead and copper, 
quarries of free-ftone, and of black, white, and jafper-like, 
marble, of which they make their calumets. One fpecies 
of timber, which is common from the mouth of the Ohio 
down the Miffiflippi fwamp, is cotton-wood, refembling 
the Lombardy poplar in the quicknefs of its growth, and 
the foftnefs of the timber. Here are alfo the papaw and 
black aft), button-wood or fycamore, hickory and cyprefs; 
wild cherry, faftafras, beech, cbefnut, and Bermudian mul¬ 
berry-trees. From the Walnut-hills to Point Coupee, and 
eafterly fifteen or thirty miles, the whole country in its 
natural ftate is one-continued cane-brake. The cane in 
general is thirty-fix feet high, often forty-two; intermin¬ 
gled with a fmaller fpecies, which continue thence on all 
the creeks to the gulf of Mexico. 
As to the climate of this country, during the winter 
the weather is very changeable, generally throughout 
Lower and the fouthern part of Upper Louiliana. In rum¬ 
mer it is regularly hot. In the latitude of the Natchez, 
Fahrenheit’s thermometer ranges from 17 0 to 96°. The 
average degree of heat is ftatecl to be 14 0 greater than in 
Pennlylvania. The climate of Louifiana varies in pro¬ 
portion as it extends northward. Its fouthern parts are 
not fubjedt to the fame degree of heat as the fame latitudes 
in Africa, nor its northern parts to the fame degree of 
cold as the correfponding latitudes in Europe ; owing to 
the thick woods which cover the country, and to the great 
number of rivers which interfe<ft it. The prevailing 
difeafes on the lower part of the Ohio, on the Miffiflippi, 
and through the Floridas, are bilious fevers. In fome 
feafons they are mild, and are little more than common 
intermittents ; in others they are very malignant, and ap¬ 
proach the genuine yellow fever of the Weft Indies. 
The total population of all the parts or diftri£Is of Loui¬ 
fiana, including whites, free people of colour, and (laves, 
is faid to be 42,375, of whom 12,920 are Haves. But it 
is apprehended that this number is too fmall. The Spa- 
nifli government is fully perfuaded that the population 
confiderably exceeds 50,000 perfens. The inhabitants of 
this country are chiefly the defeendants of the French and 
Canadians. In New Orleans there is a confiderable num¬ 
ber of Engiifh and Americans. The two German coafts 
are peopled by the defeendants of ie.ttiers from. Germany, 
and by French mixed with them. The three fucceeding 
^Elements up to Baton Rouge contain nsoftly Acadians,- 
baniflied from Nova Scotia by the Englifl), and their de¬ 
feendants. The government of Baton Rouge, efpecially 
on the eaft fide, which includes the whole country be¬ 
tween the Ibberville and the American line, js compofed 
partly of Acadians, a few French, and a great majority 
of Americans. On the weft: fide they are moltly Acadians ; 
at Point Coupee and Fauffee River they are French and 
Acadians ; of the population of the Atacapas arid Ope- 
loufas, a confiderable part is Americans ; Natchitoches, 
on the Red River, contains but a few Americans, and the 
reft of the inhabitants are French ; but the former are 
more numerous in the other fettlemetits on that river, viz. 
Avoyelles, Rapide, and Ouacheta. At Arkanfas they are 
moftly French ; and at New Madrid, Americans. At 
leaft two-fifths, if not a greater proportion, of all the fet- 
tlers on the Spanifh fide of the Miffiflippi, in the Illinois 
country, are likewife fuppofed to be Americans. Below 
New Orleans the population is altogether French, and the 
defeendants of Frenchmen. The natives of the fouthern 
part of the Miffiflippi are fprightly ; they have a turn for 
mechanics and the fine arts ; but th^ir fyftem of educa¬ 
tion is fo wretched, that little real fcier.ce is obtained. 
Many of the planters are opulent, induftrious, and hofpi- 
table. There is a militia in Louifiana, amounting, as it 
is faid, to about 10,340. 
The Indian nations within the limits of Louifiana, are 
as follow, according to the ftatement of the late prefident 
of the United States, Mr. Tefferfon :—On the eaft bank of 
the Miffiflippi, about twenty-five leagues above Orleans, 
are the remains of the Houmas, or red men, amounting 
to about 60 perfons ; on the weft fide of the fame river 
are the remains of the Tounicas, fettled near and above 
Point Coupee, confifting of 50 or 60 perfons.—In the 
Atacapas, on the lower part of the Bayou Teche, about 
eleven or twelve leagues from the fea, are two villages of 
Chitimachas, confifting of about 100 perfons; the Ata- 
capas, properly fo called, difperfed throughout the dif- 
trift, are about 100 ; and there are about 50 wanderers of 
the tribes of Biloxis and Choftaws on Bayou Crocodile, 
which empties into the Teche,—In the Opeloufas, north- 
weft of Atacapas, are two villages of Alibamasin the cen¬ 
tre of the diftriit, confifting of 100 perfons ; and the Con- 
chales difperfed through the country as far as the Sabinas 
and its neighbourhood, are about 350. O11 the river 
Rouge, at Avoyelles, nineteen leagues from the Miffiflippi, 
is a village of the Biloni nation, and another on the lake 
of the Avoyelles, the whole including about 60 perfons. 
—At the Rapide, twenty-fix leagues from the Miffiflippi, 
is a village of Choftaw'S, confiding of 100 perfons, and 
another of Biloxes, about two leagues from it, of about 
100 more; and at about eight or nine leagues higher up 
the Red River is a village including about 50 perfons. 
All thefe are occafionally employed by the fettlers as boat¬ 
men.—About eighty leagues above Natchitoches, on the 
Red River, is the nation of the Cadoquies, or Cados, who 
can raife from three to four hundred warriors, the friends 
of the whites, and efteemed the braveft and moft generous 
of all the nations in this vaft country 5 they are rapidly 
declining by their intemperance, and by the attacks of 
the Ofages and Cho&aws. Near one of their villages is a 
rich filver-mine ; another lies further north. Lead ore is 
alfo found in different places, and alfo iron-ore, pit-coal, 
marble, (late, and piafter of Paris. There are 500 fa¬ 
milies of the Choflaws difperfed on the weft fide of the 
Milfiftippi, on the Ouacheta and Red Rivers, as far weft as 
Natchitoches. On the river Arkanfas is a natiop of the 
fame name, confifting of about 260 warriors, brave, yet 
peaceable and vvell-difpofed, attached to the French, and 
difpofed to engage in their wars with tile Chickafaws, 
They live in three villages at eighteen leagues from the 
Miffiflippi on the Arkanfas river; and the others are at 
three and fix leagues from the fit ft. A fcarcity of game 
on the eaft fide of the Miffiflippi has induced a number of 
Cherokees, Chcftaws, Chickafaws, &c. to. frequent the 
neighbourhood of Arkanfas, where game it Hill abundant, 
2 where 
