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Cane settlement. On the Bayou Pierre branch there is a considerable population. This settlement was commenced by the French in the year 1730. At Natchitoches, 250 miles from the Mississippi, there are about 100 houses extending along the right bank of the river. The first were constructed by French families in 1714. Thirty miles higher, at a place called Comté, and near the Spanish posts of North Mexico, one of which is said to be within the limits of this state, some families are established. The settlements on the Washita, which the French commenced in the year 1727, extend thirty miles above Fort Miro, in latitude 32° 30′. There are some rich settlements on the Bayou Siard; and on the eastern branches of the Sabine several families are established, some of which came from St. Antonio and Nagodoches. The houses of the settlers are generally of wood, one storey high, and painted white. On the levee, or embankment of the Mississippi, which extends from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, they are elevated above the surface by means of piles, or pickets.

Diseases. In the lower parts of Louisiana, bilious fever often prevails, particularly in autumn, when it assumes the symptoms and character of the yellow fever. The other most common diseases are, sore throat, tetanus, and dysentery: consumption, rheumatism, and cutaneous maladies, are rare. A disease of a new character, a malignant pneumonia, prevailed at New Orleans and Fort St Philip, in April and May 1814. The troops at Fort Bower, on Mobile Point, were subject to ophthalmia, owing probably to the reflection of

light and heat from the burning sand. * The country watered by Red river is as healthy as other parts of the state, though six-tenths of the surface, near the present settlements, are covered with water, and there is no sea-breeze to cool the hot atmosphere of summer. To the west of Red river the country is elevated, well watered and healthy. † At New Orleans the most sickly season is in August, when the water of the adjacent ponds, evaporated by the great heat, leaves their muddy bottoms to send forth daily clouds of pestilential vapours. This does not take place during a very rainy season, which has a contrary effect on other parts of the country. ‡ Beyond New Orleans and the Bayou St John, there is a place called Le Lepreux, which supposes the existence of the loathsome disease of leprosy. In the city of New Orleans the number of births and deaths, from March 1807 to March 1808, were as follows: Births, 456; deaths, 769. Of the former 137 were whites, and 319 persons of colour. Of the latter 318 were whites of adult age, 56 children, and 286 were persons of colour and of adult age, and 109 children. § According to the report of Major Stoddard, several creoles of New Orleans, at the time of the cession of this country to the United States, were found to be between 70 and 80 years, and three nearly 100.

Heustis, p. 132.

+ Stoddard's History of Louisiana, &c.

Heustis's Physical Observations in Louisiana. New York, 1817, p. 39.

§ L'Annuaire Louisianois, par B. Lafon.

Mr Bartram gives an account of a Frenchman, the proprietor of a plantation on an island near the mouth of Pearl river, who was eighty years old; his mother 105, and both were active and cheerful. It has been observed, that the Ohio boatmen are more subject than any other description of people to inflammatory bilious fever, owing, it may be presumed, to habits of intemperance, when exposed to the sun and heavy dews of the evening. There is no donbt concerning the unhealthiness of the climate in autumn in the low country; but many diseases are produced by local or personal circumstances. For several years previous to 1817, yellow fever had not prevailed at New Orleans, though the increase of population had multiplied the causes of its production. But a highly bilious fever made its appearance in the month of August 1817; during a week, ending the 25th, 41 persons were interred in the Protestant burying-ground; and from the 1st to the 25th, 127, in the Catholic burying-ground, including those from the Charity Hospital. The average annual number of persons buried in the last place, from the year 1813 to 1816 inclusive, was ninetyfour. The deaths in the city and suburbs from the 25th August to the 3d September following, were 100, of whom 84 were whites, and 16 people of colour. The American troops quartered at the Chickasaw Bluffs, Fort Adams, and other places on the banks of the Lower Mississippi, suffered severely, while those at Natchitoches and in the Opelousas enjoyed good health. The malady known by the name of Coup de Soleil, or stroke of the sun, affects those only who re

sun's rays.

main for some time in the same place exposed to the Dr Heustis, in his account of the pestilential scurvy *which prevailed in the army at camp Terre aux Boeufs † during the months of June, July, and August, of the year 1809, observes, that "such was the progress of this destructive malady, that of 2000 troops that were encamped at Terre aux Bœufs, 1000 fell a sacrifice to its ravages. The place of their first encampment, however, was not the only scene of their destruction, though it was the source of the mortality 150 were destroyed at Terre aux Bœufs, 250 upon their passage up the river to Washington on the Mississippi, and about 600 after their arrival there."

They were transported up the river in open boats, and were forty days in ascending, during which time they were enveloped in an idio-miasmatic atmosphere, generated by their own putrifying and filthy bodies." This afflicting malady is ascribed by this physician to unwholesome provisions, the want of vegetables, and the immoderate use of mercury as the means of cure. Other circumstances increased the mortality. The detachment consisted of new levies; the season was unusually sickly; the situation was marshy; there was no hospital; no protection against the bite of musquitoes; and the troops, overpowered by excessive fatigue during

Second Chapter of his Physical Observations, &c.

This place is about fifteen miles below New Orleans, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the river Mississippi on its eastern side.

the day in draining the camp, found no repose during the night. *

Agriculture.-Immense numbers of cattle of every kind are raised in the natural meadows of the Opelou sas and Atakapas. Some individuals have from 5000 to 6000 head, besides horses and mules. The mutton of this country is superior in flavour to that of the northern states; but the flesh of all other animals is inferior. † Maize is cultivated throughout the state. It is planted in March, April, and May, and even as late as June, and ripens, according to the time of sowing, from August to November. The produce on alluvial lands is from fifty to sixty bushels; and, in some parts, above 100; but towards the north, at some distance from the rivers, on a moderate soil, and in a regular season, fifteen or twenty bushels are considered as a good crop. The usual price is a dollar a bushel. Maize thrives on a blackish light earth, and grows well on every kind of soil where the dogwood is found; and it has been ascertained that the best time for planting is when this tree is in blossom. Along the 35th parallel of latitude, however, it is much more productive than in Louisiana; and the farmers now prefer receiving this article from the countries watered by the Ohio, in exchange for which they can raise to greater advantage, sugar, cotton, and rice. Maize was cultivated by the Indians of this country for their subsistence during

Report of the Committee of the House of Representatives appointed to investigate the causes of this calamity.

Heustis, &c. p. 43.

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