lity, and very white, is made from sea shells, which are found in great abundance near the banks of the river.

Products of Vegetable Substances.-Along the Mississippi, from the distance of 60 miles above New Orleans, to 42 miles above Plaquemines, 36 saw-mills are in operation, some of which, working night and day from February to July, gave an annual revenue of from 30,000 to 40,000 francs. The machinery is driven by water, which is suffered to escape from the river through small canals. Some mills, driven by steam, saw 5000 feet of board in twelve hours. There is one of this power at the outlet of the Manchac. On Bayou Bœuf, a considerable quantity of plank and scantling is annually manufactured from white and yellow cypress, and from the pine, the wood of which resembles that of the north of Europe. Pitch and tar are extracted from the pine to the east of Lake Ponchartrain, and afford a very lucrative commerce. The wood is cut in pieces of about two feet in length, split, and placed on iron bars, below which the resinous substance is received in a basin four or five feet square, and five or six inches in depth. The cane, or reed of the country, is employed to make hats, mats, sieves, baskets, and other works. The small species is so hard, that the Indians made knives of it before cutlery was introduced by the French. When arrived at maturity, it produces a grain like oats, but larger, which is gathered and made into bread or gruel. Black-cherry (Cerasus Canadensis) serves for the manufacture of furniture, and is highly valuable on account of its durability and beautiful appearance. The berries of the myrtle wax shrub

(Myrtica cerifera) contain a thick oily substance, which is separated by boiling water, and, when bleached, by a chemical process, is employed for candles and other domestic uses. The discovery is due to an English carpenter named Martel, by whom it was made known to Alexander, a surgeon and chemist, who found out the secret of bleaching it, as is practised with the bees' wax of Europe. Barbe Espagnole,* (Tillandsia usneoides,) a parasite plant, which covers the trees of this country, affords nourishment for cattle, and is also employed to stuff mattresses and saddles, for which purpose it is beaten, washed in an alkaline solution, and dried; it then has the appearance of long black threads, and is so durable, that it is considered as incorruptible. It is also mixed with mud, for the purpose of building. The bark of the linden tree is employed to make cords; that of the cypress to cover houses, in which situation it will last from ten to twelve years. A fine liquor is extracted from the fruit of the persimon, which ripens after the first frosty weather; a bushel of fruit yields about a gallon of spirits. The fruit is an excellent astringent, and a sovereign remedy for the dysentery. The seeds, reduced to powder, infused twenty-four hours in cold water, and drank fasting, are administered for the gravel. The ripe fruit is formed into a sort of bread, which is dried in the sun, and reserved for long voyages, † like sea

So called by the natives, from a fancied resemblance to the beards of the Spaniards.

+ Bossu, Vol. II. p. 153.

biscuit. The fruit of the red mulberry is employed to make vinegar. The liquidambar, copalm, or sweet gum tree, yields a balm, or aromatic resinous substance, of an agreeable odour, and not inferior to that of Peru. Animals wounded in the chace are said to heal the wound by rubbing it against the balm which exudes from this tree. On account of its fine odour it was formerly burnt in the temples of Mexico. This substance is procured, in spring, from an incision made in the trunk, on the southern side. The plane tree bark affords a red dye. Sassafras tree is valuable for its medicinal qualities. Barbed-creeper is a febrifuge and stomachic. Milla pertuis affords an excellent oil for wounds.

The surplus productions of an immense country, watered by the Ohio, Missouri, Red river, and other great branches of the Mississippi, will naturally descend to New Orleans, and be thence transported to Mexico or the West Indies. * Besides, there will be

* In 1721, when this colony belonged to France, the directors of the Company of the West fixed the price of the merchandises which the inhabitants should bring and deposit in the magazines,tobacco at 25 livres the quintal; rice at 12; French merchandise was sold at Biloxi, Mobile, and New Orleans, at 50 per cent. prcfit on the invoice; at Natchez and the Yazoos, at 70 per cent.; 80 at the Arkansas and Natchitoches; 50 at the Alibamas, and 100 at the Illinois. Tobacco, which cost four sous in merchandise, and two in money, was sold, in France, at 50 sous, by the agent of the company. With the Royal Company of Havannah there was a treaty of commerce, by which pitch was to be delivered at two piastres a barrel; tar at three, and boards at two reals each. † In + Vaudreuil's Letters.

a constant exchange of commodities with the more northern states. In 1804, the exports from New Orleans amounted to 1,600,362 dollars. The quantity of sugar imported into the United States, in 1802,

1744, the trade with Florida, Havannah, and the Bay of Champeachy, was valued at 150,000 pieces of eight. A great quantity of productions were annually brought down the Mississippi, in convoys, at the latter end of December, and the boats returned in the middle of February. Immense quantities of lumber were sent to the Leeward Islands; maize, beans, and rice, to St Domingo. Notwithstanding this, the trade was unprofitable to the company, to France, and to Spain. During five years, when the country be. longed to Crozat, the whole trade yielded but 300,000 livres; and the expences amounted to 425,000, leaving a balance against him of 125,000 livres.

Mr De Vergennes gave the following statement of the commerce of this country during the time of his ministry. †

• In the decree of the Superior Council, in 1768, against Ulloa, it is stated that this trade amounted to eighty or a hundred cargoes, which brought an annual income to the colony of 300,000 livres.

+ Memoire sur la Louisiane, p. 178.

from Louisiana and 1,576,933 pounds. †

the Floridas, amounted to

In 1809, the exports were, cot

ton, 3500 bales; sugar, 12,000 barrels ; tobacco, 3000; flour, 250,000.

* When the Floridas belonged to Great Britain, the commodities transported to Pensacola, the capital of West Florida, amounted to L. 97,000; those exported from Pensacola to Great Britain to 63,000. See the American Traveller, London, 1769.

+ See Jefferson's Report on the Productions of this country.