mained, five of whom were shot, and seven sent to confinement for ten years in the Moro Castle at the Havannah. This conduct inspired a general indignation against him, and the colony was happily delivered from his violence by his removal in 1770. In 1780, the English fort of Mobile surrendered to the Spanish governor, which led to the reduction of Pensacola, in consequence of which, West Florida fell into the hands of Spain. In 1795, a treaty was entered into between the United States and Spain, by which a line of boundary was agreed to, and the free navigation of the river secured. In 1798, all the Spanish posts to the north of the 31st degree were evacuated; and the year following, the line of demarcation between Spain and the United States was settled by commissioners. Notwithstanding these treaties, Spanish privateers and ships of war committed spoliations on the commerce of the United States; and the free navigation of the river Mississippi, and the right of deposit at New Orleans, was refused. This induced the president of the United States to prepare a force on the river Ohio to act against this colony, which, however, from a change of political circumstances, was dis banded in 1800. The year following, Mr Jefferson, who was called to the presidency, demanded from Spain the execution of the treaty; and she, unwilling to comply, and fearing a rupture, sold the colony to the French republic, on the 21st of March 1801. The French expedition, prepared in the ports of Holland for the purpose of taking possession of this country, was prevented from sailing by an English squadron; and the French government sold it on the 3d of April

1803 to the United States, for the sum of 60,000,000 of francs, in which sum was to be included the amount of debts due by France to citizens of the United States. The terms of this treaty led to a discussion about the limits of the ceded territory, which is not yet concluded. A pretty full account has been given of the points in dispute in the first chapter of this work, which renders it unnecessary to resume the subject here. In 1816, various complaints were made by the Spanish minister, at Washington, of assistance being rendered to the revolutionists in Mexico by persons in Louisiana. In answer to these complaints, it was shown that all means had been used by the civil officers at New Orleans, to prevent bodies of armed men from collecting within the state, for the object alluded to. If arms had been exported by sea from New Orleans, and sold to the revolutionists, this was a species of commerce open to each party, and not prohibited by law. All vessels (of which a list was given) employed in violation of the neutrality of the United States, and in aid of the United Provinces of New Grenada and Mexico, had been seized and libelled under the act of the 5th June 1794, and the property restored to the original Spanish owners. The demand of the Spanish minister, that possession should be given to Spain of West Florida, that the Spanish insurgents within the limits of the United States should be given up to their officers or agents, and that the Spanish flags of Carthagena, Mexico, and Buenos Ayres, should be excluded from the American ports, was formally refused by the American government in the reply of the secretary of state, dated the 16th of January 1816.

The importance of Louisiana to the United States, which, for some years after the purchase, was a matter of doubt and uncertainty, is now universally acknowledged. Protection against Indian warfare has been to a certain extent obtained; foreign powers are deprived of the means of annoying the union through the Mississippi, and a channel of communication, of incalculable value to the western states, has been secured. The country itself, by the fertility of its soil, the nature and extent of its productions, the mildness. of its climate, and its vicinity to Mexico and the West Indies, is extremely useful to the union. The delicate question involved in buying or selling a colony without consulting the inhabitants, need scarcely be touched, since no transfer of the kind was ever so obviously beneficial to the parties transferred. Of this the inhabitants of Louisiana are fully sensible, and though composed of men of every country in Europe, they are united by the strongest zeal in support of the government. Free trade is found to be far more advantageous than monopoly; trial by jury is acknowledged to be preferable to military law; and elective authority far more desirable than the absolute rule of a military commander. In the course of a very few years, the population of the city of New Orleans has increased from 10,000 to 30,000; and many of the proprietors who were in a state of indigence under the dominion of Spain, have risen to sudden wealth by the rise on the value of land, which followed the change of government. * Among the new buildings are a legislative

*Hall's Travels, p. 377.

hall, a hall of justice, and an office of insurance. Two banks and an inland navigation company have been established; and what is of still greater importance, a college or seminary of learning. There are five weekly newspapers; the Courier, and the Ami des Lois, in French, and the Louisiana Gazetle, the Orleans Gazette, and a Price Current, or Commercial Register, in English.

Books and Documents relating to this State.

1687. Marquette, Decouverte de quelques Pays et Nations de l'Amerique Septentrionale. The Journal of this Jesuit's travels to the Mississippi, with Joliet, in 1687, in the Collection of Voyages by Thevenot.

1683. Hennepin, (R. P. Louis, of Douay,) Déscription de la Louisiane, nouvellement découverte au sud de la Nouvelle France, 1 vol. in 8vo.

Voyage en un Pays plus grand que l'Eu

rope, entre la Mer Glaciale et le Nouveau Mexique.

Nouvelle Description d'un três grand Pays situé dans l'Amérique entre les Nouveau Mexique et la Mer Glaciale.

1691. Leclercq, Premier établissement de la foi dans la Nou. velle France.

1705. La Hontan, Voyages dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, &c.

1713. Joutel, Journal Historique due dernier Voyages de La Salle, rédigé et mis en ordre par M. de Michel; with a small map. 1715. Delile, (the French Geographer,) Lettre à M. Cassini sur l'Embouchure de la Rivière Mississippi. Contained in the Recueil de Voyages au Nord. Amsterdam, 3 tom.

1744. Charlevoix, Histoire et Déscription Générale de la Nouvelle France. Paris, 3 vols. in 4to.

1753. Dumont. Mémoire Historique sur la Louisiane, composé sur les Mémoires de Dumont, par M. L. L. M. 2 vols. in 8vo. Paris. With a small map of the country. This officer resided' twenty-two years in the country.

1758. Du Pratz, (Le Page,) Histoire de la Louisiane, 3 vols. in 8vo. Paris. This author resided sixteen years in Louisiana, and eight of them at the Post of Natchez. There is an English translation of this work, published in London, 1774.

1767. Bossu, (Capitaine dans les troupes de la marine,) Nou. veaux Voyages aux Indes Occidentales, contenant une Relation des differents Peuples qui habitent les Environs du grand Fleuve St Louis, appellé vulgairement la Mississippi, &c. Paris, 2 vols. in

12mo.

Pittman's (Captain Philip) Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi, illustrated by plans and draughts. London, in 4to.

1774. Present State of Louisiana. London.

1776. Champigny, Etat Présent de la Louisiane. A la Haye, in

Svo.

1778. Bartram's (William) Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, in the years 17731778.

1787. Ulioa, Mémoires Philosophiques, Historiques, et Physiques, 2 vols. in 8vo. Avec des Observations et Additions par Schneider.

1797. Regulations concerning General Police, the repair of Bridges, Roads, and Mounds, and the Treatment and Discipline of Slaves, by the Governor, the Baron de Carondelet.

1801. Pintard's Observations respecting Louisiana, and the Western Countries adjoining the Mississippi. Inserted in the 5th volume of the Medical Repository of New York, p. 489.

1802. De Vergennes, Mémoire Politique et Historique sur la Louisiane. Paris. This author was minister of foreign affairs under Lewis XVI.

1802. Voyage à la Louisiane et sur le Continent de l'Amerique Septentrionale, fait dans les Années 1794 à 1798: contenant un Tableau Historique de la Louisiane, par B. D. Baudry de Lozières. Paris, in 8vo, -1803. Second Voyage, Paris, 2 vols. in 8vo.

1802. Mémoire ou Coup-d'œil rapide sur mes Voyages dans la Louisiane, et mon sêjour dans la Nation Creek, par le General Milfort, Testanogy, ou grand Chef de la Nation Creek, et General de Brigade, Paris, in Svo.