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History of Louisisana

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Hops grow naturally in the gullies in the high lands.

Maiden-hair grows in Louisiana more beautiful, at least as good as
that of Canada, which is in so great repute. It {235} grows in gullies
upon the sides of hills, in places that are absolutely impenetrable to
the most ardent rays of the sun. It seldom rises above a foot, and it
bears a thick shaggy head. The native physicians know more of its
virtues than we do in France.

The canes or reeds which I have mentioned so often may be divided into
two kinds. One kind grows in moist places to the height of eighteen
feet, and the thickness of the wrist. The natives makes matts, sieves,
small boxes, and other works of it. Those that grow in dry places are
neither so high nor so thick, but are so hard, that before the arrival
of the French, the natives used splits of those canes to cut their
victuals with. After a certain number of years, the large canes bear a
great abundance of grain, which is somewhat like oats, but about three
times as large. The natives carefully gather these grains and make
bread or gruel of them. This flour swells as much as that of wheat.
When the reeds have yielded the grain they die, and none appear for a
long time after in the same place, especially if fire has been set to
the old ones.

The flat-root receives its name from the form of its root, which is
thin, flat, pretty often indented, and sometimes even pierced through:
it is a line or sometimes two lines in thickness, and its breadth is
commonly a foot and a half. From this large root hang several other
small straight roots, which draw the nourishment from the earth. This
plant, which grows in meadows that are not very rich, sends up from
the same root several straight stalks about eighteen inches high,
which are as hard as wood, and on the top of the stalks it bears small
purplish, flowers, in their figure greatly resembling those of heath;
its seed is contained in a deep cup closed at the head, and in a
manner crowned. Its leaves are about an inch broad, and about two
long, without any indenting, of a dark green, inclining to a brown. It
is so strong a sudorific, that the natives never use any other for
promoting sweating, although they are perfectly acquainted with
sassafras, salsaparilla, the esquine and others.

The rattle-snake-herb has a bulbous root, like that of the tuberose,
but twice as large. The leaves of both have the same {236} shape and
the same colour, and on the under side have some flame-coloured spots;
but those of the rattle-snake plant are twice as large as the others,
end in a very firm point, and are armed with very hard prickles on
both sides. Its stalk grows to the height of about three feet, and
from the head rise five or six sprigs in different directions, each of
which bears a purple flower an inch broad, with five leaves in the
form of a {237} cup. After these leaves are shed there remains a head
about the size of a small nut, but shaped like the head of a poppy.
This head is separated into four divisions, each of which contains
four black seeds, equally thick throughout, and about the size of a
large lentil. When the head is ripe, it will, when shaken, give the
same sound as the tail of a rattle-snake, which seems to indicate the
property of the plant; for it is the specific remedy against the bite
of that dangerous reptile. The person who has been bit ought
immediately to take a root, bite off part of it, chew it for some
time, and apply it to the wound. In five or six hours it will extract
the whole poison, and no bad consequences need be apprehended.

[Illustration: _Rattlesnake herb_ (on p. 236)]

Ground-ivy is said by the natives to possess many more virtues than
are known to our botanists. It is said to ease women in labour when
drank in a decoction; to cure ulcers, if bruised and laid upon the
ulcered part; to be a sovereign remedy for the head-ach; a
considerable quantity of its leaves bruised, and laid as a cataplasm.
upon the head, quickly removes the pain. As this is an inconvenient
application to a person that wears his hair, I thought of taking the
salts of the plant, and I gave some of them in vulnerary water to a
friend of mine who was often attacked with the head-ach, advising him
likewise to draw up some drops by the nose: he seldom practised this
but he was relieved a few moments after.

The Achechy is only to be found in the shade of a wood, and never
grows higher than six or seven inches. It has a small stalk, and its
leaves are not above three lines long. Its root consists of a great
many sprigs a line in diameter, full of red juice like chickens blood.
Having transplanted this plant from an overshadowed place into my
garden, I expected to see it greatly improved; but it was not above an
inch taller, and its head was only a little bushier than usual. It is
with the juice of this plant that the natives dye their red colour.
Having first dyed their feathers or hair yellow or a beautiful citron
colour with the ayac wood, they boil the roots of the achechy in
water, then squeeze them with all their force, and the expressed
liquor serves for the red dye. That which was naturally white before
it was dyed yellow, takes a beautiful scarlet; {238} that which was
brown, such as buffalo's hair, which is of a chesnut colour, becomes a
reddish brown.

[Illustration: TOP: _Red Dye Plant_--BOTTOM: _Flat Root_]

I shall not enlarge upon the strawberries, which are of an excellent
flavour, and so plentiful, that from the beginning of April the
savannahs or meadows appear quite red with them. I shall also only
just mention the tobacco, which I reserve for the article of
agriculture; but I ought not to omit to take notice, that hemp grows
naturally on the lands adjoining to the lakes {239} on the west of the
Missisippi. The stalks are as thick as one's finger, and about six
feet long. They are quite like ours both in the wood, the leaf, and
the rind. The flax which was sown in this country rose three feet
high.

I cannot affirm from my own knowledge that the soil in this province
produces either white mushrooms or truffles. But morelles in their
season are to be found in the greatest abundance, and round mushrooms
in the autumn.

When I consider the mild temperature of this climate, I am persuaded
that all our flowers would succeed extremely well in it. The country
has flowers peculiar to itself, and, in such abundance, that from the
month of May till the end of summer, you can hardly see the grass in
the meadows; and of such various hues that one is at a loss which to
admire most and declare to be the most beautiful. The number and
diversity of those flowers quite enchant the sight. I will not however
attempt to give a particular account of them, as I am not qualified on
this head to satisfy the desires of the curious, from my having
neglected to consider the various flowers themselves. I have seen
single and small roses without any smell; and another kind of rose
with four white petals, which in its smell, chives, and pointal,
differed in nothing from our damask roses. But of all the flowers of
this country, that which struck me most, as it is both very common and
lasts a long time, is the flower called Lion's Mouth. The flowers
which decorate its stalk, its shady colours, its blowing for more than
three months, justly entitle it to the preference before all other
flowers. It forms of itself an agreeable nosegay; and in my opinion,
it deserves to be ranked with the finest flowers, and to be cultivated
with attention in the gardens of our kings.

As to cotton and indigo, I defer speaking of them till I come to the
chapter of agriculture.

{240}




CHAPTER VI.

_Of the Quadrupedes._


Before I speak of the animals which the first settlers found in
Louisiana, it is proper to observe, that all those which were brought
hither from France, or from New Spain and Carolina, such as horses,
oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, and others, have multiplied and
thriven perfectly well. However it ought to be remarked, that in Lower
Louisiana, where the ground is moist and much covered with wood, they
can neither be so good nor so beautiful as in Higher Louisiana, where
the soil is dry, where there are most extensive meadows, and where the
sun warms the earth to a much greater degree.

The buffalo is about the size of one of our largest oxen, but he
appears rather bigger, on account of his long curled wool, which makes
him appear to the eye much larger than he really is. This wool is very
fine and very thick, and is of a dark chesnut colour, as are likewise
his bristly hairs, which are also curled, and so long, that the bush
between his horns often falls over his eyes, and hinders him from
seeing before him; but his sense of hearing and smelling is so
exquisite as in some measure to supply the want of the other. A pretty
large bunch rises on his shoulders in the place where they join to the
neck. His horns are thick, short, and black; and his hoof is also
black. The cows of this species have small udders like those of a
mare.

This buffalo is the chief food of the natives, and of the French also
for a long time past; the best piece is the bunch on the shoulders,
the taste of which is extremely delicate. They hunt this animal in the
winter; for which purpose they leave Lower Louisiana, and the river
Missisippi, as he cannot penetrate thither on account of the thickness
of the woods; and besides loves to feed on long grass, which is only
to be found in the meadows of the high lands. In order to get near
enough to fire upon him, they go against the wind, and they take aim
at the hollow of the shoulder, that they may bring him to the ground
at once, for if he is only slightly wounded, he runs against his
enemy. The natives when hunting seldom {241} choose to kill any but
the cows, having experienced that the flesh of the male smells rank;
but this they might easily prevent, if they did but cut off the
testicles from the beast as soon as he is dead, as they do from stags
and wild boars. By killing the males there is less hazard of
diminishing the species than by killing the females; and besides, the
males have much more tallow, and their skins are the largest and best.

[Illustration: Top: _Panther or Catamount_--BOTTOM: _Bison or Buffalo_]

{242} These skins are an object of no small consideration. The natives
dress them with their wool on, to such great perfection, as to render
them more pliable than our buff. They dye them different colours, and
cloath themselves therewith. To the French they supply the place of
the best blankets, being at the same time very warm and very light.

The stag is entirely the same with that of France, only he is a little
larger. They are only to be found in Upper Louisiana, where the woods
are much thinner than in Lower Louisiana, and the chesnuts which the
stag greatly loves are very common.

The deer is very frequent in this province, notwithstanding the great
numbers of them that are killed by the natives. According to the
hunters, he partly resembles the stag, the rein-deer, and the
roe-buck. As to myself, I can only say what I have seen; that he is
about four feet high, has large horns bending forwards, and decorated
with several antlers, the ends of which are formed somewhat like a
rose; that his flesh is dry like that of ours, and when he is fat
tastes like mutton. They feed in herds, and are not in the least of a
fierce nature. They are excessively capricious, hardly remain a moment
in one place, but are coming and going continually. The natives dress
the skin extremely well, like buff, and afterwards paint it. Those
skins that are brought to France are often called does skins.

The natives hunt the deer sometimes in companies, and sometimes alone.
The hunter who goes out alone, furnishes himself with the dried head of
a deer, with part of the skin of the neck fastened to it, and this skin
is stretched out with several hoops made of split cane, which are kept
in their places by other splits placed along the inside of the skin, so
that the hands and arms may be easily put within the neck. Being thus
provided, he goes in quest of the deer, and takes all necessary
precautions not to be discovered by that animal: when he sees one, he
approaches it as gently as possible, hiding himself behind a bush which
he carries in his hand, till he be within shot of it. But if, before he
can come near enough, the buck shakes its head, which is a sign that he
is going to make some {243} capers and run away, the hunter immediately
counterfeits the cries of those animals when they call each other, in
which case the buck frequently comes up towards him. He then shews the
head which he holds in his hand, and by lowering and lifting his arm by
turns, it makes the appearance of a buck feeding, and lifting his head
from time to time to graze. The hunter still keeps himself behind the
bush, till the buck comes near enough to him, and the moment he turns
his side, he fires at the hollow of his shoulder, and lays him dead.

[Illustration: _Indian Deer Hunt_]

{244} When the natives want to make the dance of the deer; or if they
want to exercise themselves merrily; or if it should happen that the
Great Sun inclines to such sport, they go about an hundred of them in
a company to the hunting of this animals, which they must bring home
alive. As it is a diverting exercise, many young men are generally of
the party, who disperse themselves in the meadows among the thickets
in order to discover the deer. They no sooner perceive one than they
advance towards him in a wide crescent, one point of which may be a
quarter of a league from the other. Part of the crescent draws near to
him, which frightens him away to another point; that part likewise
advancing, he immediately flies back to the other sidee. He is kept
thus running from one side to another a considerable time, on purpose
to exercise the young men, and afford diversion to the Great Sun, or
to another Little Sun, who is nominated to supply his place. The deer
sometimes attempts to get out and escape by the openings of the
crescent, in which case those who are at the points run forwards, and
oblige him to go back. The crescent then gradually forms a circle; and
when they perceive the deer beginning to be tired, part of them stoop
almost to the ground, and remain in that posture till he approaches
them, when they rise and shout: he instantly flies off to the other
side, where they do the same; by which means he is at length so
exhausted, that he is no longer able to stand on his legs, and suffers
himself to be taken like a lamb. Sometimes, however, he defends
himself on the ground with his antlers and forefeet; they therefore
use the precaution to seize upon him behind, and even in that case
they are sometimes wounded.

The hunters having seized the deer present it to the Great Sun, or in
his absence, to the person whom he sent to represent him. If he says,
_well_, the roe-buck is immediately opened, and its four quarters
carried to the hut of the Great Sun, who gives portions of them to the
chief men among the hunters.

The wolf is not above fifteen inches high, and of a proportionable
length. He is not so brown as our wolves, nor so fierce and dangerous;
he is therefore more like a dog than a wolf, especially the dog of the
natives, who differs from him {245} in nothing, but that he barks. The
wolf is very common in the hunting countries; and when the hunter
makes a hut for himself in the evening upon the bank of a river, if he
sees the wolf, he may be confident that the buffaloes are not at a
very great distance. It is said, that this animal, not daring to
attack the buffalo when in a herd, will come and give notice to the
hunter that he may kill him, in hopes of coming in for the offals. The
wolves are actually so familiar, that they come and go on all sides
when looking for something to eat, without minding in the least
whether they be near or at a distance from the habitations of men.

In my time two very large black wolves were seen in Louisiana. The
oldest inhabitants, and those who travel to the remotest parts of the
colony, declared that they had never before seen any such; from whence
it was concluded, that they were foreign wolves which had lost their
way. Fortunately they killed them both; for one of them was a she-wolf
big with young.

The bear appears in Louisiana in winter, as the snows, which then
cover the northern climates, hinder him from procuring a subsistence
there, and force him southwards. If some few are seen in the summer
time, they are only the slow young bears, that have not been strong
enough to follow the herd northwards. The bear lives upon roots and
fruits, particularly acorns; but this most delicate food is honey and
milk. When he meets with either of these last, he will suffer himself
to be killed than quit his prize. Our colonists have sometimes
diverted themselves by burying a small pail with some milk in it
almost up to the edge in the ground, and setting two young bears to
it. The contest then was which of the two should hinder the other from
tasting the milk, and both of them so tore the earth with their paws,
and pulled at the pail, that they generally overturned the milk,
before either of them had tasted of it.

In opposition to the general opinion, which supposes the bear a
carnivorous animal, I affirm, with all the inhabitants of this colony,
and the neighbouring countries, that he never feeds upon flesh. It is
indeed to be lamented that the first {246} travellers had the
impudence to publish to the world a thousand false stories, which were
easily believed because they were new. People, so far from wishing to
be undeceived, have even been offended with those who attempted to
detect the general errors; but it is my duty to speak the truth, for
the sake of those who are willing to hear it. What I maintain here is
not a mere conjectural supposition, but a known fact over all North
America, which may be attested by the evidence of a great number of
people who have lived there, and by the traders who are going and
coming continually. There is not one instance can be given of their
having devoured men, notwithstanding their great multitudes, and the
extreme hunger which they must sometimes have suffered; for even in
that case they never so much as touch the butchers meat which they
meet with.

The bears seldom quit the banks of the Missisippi, as it is there that
they can best procure a subsistence; but when I lived at the Natchez
there happened so severe a winter, that those animals came from the
north in such numbers that they starved each other, and were very
lean. Their great hunger obliged them to quit the woods which line the
banks of the river: they were seen at night running among the
settlements; and they sometimes even entered those court-yards that
were not well shut; they there found butchers meat exposed to the open
air, but they never touched it, and eat only the corn or roots they
could meet with. Certainly on such occasion as this, and in such a
pressing want, they would have proved carnivorous, if it had been in
the least degree their natural disposition.

But perhaps one will say, "It is true they never touch dead flesh; it
is only living flesh that they devour." That is being very delicate
indeed, and what I can by no means allow them: for if they were
flesh-eaters, I greatly suspect that, in the severe famine which I
have spoken of, they would have made a hearty meal of the butchers
meat which they found in the court-yards; or at least would have
devoured several persons, who fell in their way, which they never did.
The following fact however will be a more compleat answer to this
objection.

{247} Two Canadians, who were on a journey, landed on a sand-bank,
when they perceived a bear crossing the river. As he appeared fat, and
consequently would yield a great deal of oil, one of the travellers
ran forwards and fired at him. Unhappily however he only slightly
wounded him; and as the bears in that case always turn upon their
enemy, the hunter was immediately seized by the wounded bear, who in a
few moments squeezed him to death, without wounding him in the least
with his teeth, although his muzzle was against his face, and he must
certainly have been exasperated. The other Canadian, who was not above
three hundred paces distance, ran to save his comrade with the utmost
speed, but he was dead before he came up to him; and the bear escaped
into the wood. Upon examining the corpse he found the place, where the
bear had squeezed it, pressed in two inches more than the rest of the
breast.

Some perhaps may still add, that the mildness of the climate of
Louisiana may have an effect upon the disposition of the bears, and
prevent them from being so voracious as those of our continent; but I
affirm that carnivorous animals retain the same disposition in all
countries. The wolves of Louisiana are carnivorous as well as those of
Europe, although they differ in other particulars. The tigers of
Africa, and those of America, are equally mischievous animals. The
wild-cats of America, though very different from those of Europe,
have however the same appetite for mice when they are tamed. It is the
same with other species, naturally inclined to live upon other
animals; and the bears of America, if flesh-eaters, would not quit the
countries covered with snow, where they would find men and other
animals in abundance, to come so far in search of fruits and roots;
which kind of nourishment carnivorous animals refuse to taste.
[Footnote: Since I wrote the above account of the bears, I have been
certainly informed, that in the mountains of Savoy there are two sorts
of bears. The one black, like that of Louisiana, and not carnivorous;
the other red, and no less carnivorous than the wolves. Both turn upon
their enemy when wounded.]


Bears are seen very frequently in Louisiana in the winter time, and
they are so little dreaded, that the people sometimes {248} make it a
diversion to hunt them. When they are fat, that is about the end of
December, they cannot run so fast as a man; therefore the hunters are
in no danger if they should turn upon them. The she-bears are
tolerably fat when they are big with young; but after they have
littered they quickly become lean.

The bears usually arrive in Louisiana towards the end of autumn; and
then they are very lean, as they do not leave the north till the earth
be wholly covered with snow, and find often but a very scanty
subsistence in their way southwards. I said above, that those animals
seldom go to any great distance from the river; and on both banks
travellers meet with such a beaten path in winter, that to those who
are not acquainted with it, it appears like the track of men. I
myself, the first time I observed it, was deceived by it. I was then
near two hundred miles from any human dwelling, yet the path at first
appeared to me as if it had been made by thousands of men, who had
walked that way bare-footed. Upon a narrower inspection however, I
observed, that the prints of the feet were shorter than that of a man,
and that there was the impression of a claw at the end of each toe. It
is proper to observe that in those paths the bear does not pique
himself upon politeness, and will yield the way to nobody; therefore
it is prudent in a traveller not to fall out with him for such a
trifling affair.

The bears, after they have been a short time in the country, and found
abundance of fruits, turn fat and lazy, and it is then the natives go
out to hunt them. The bear, when he is fat, huts himself, that is,
retires into the hollow trunk of some rotten tree that has died on
end. The natives, when they meet with any of those trees, which they
suspect contains a bear in it, give two or three strong blows against
the trunk, and immediately run behind the next tree opposite to the
lowest breach. If there be a bear within, he appears in a few minutes
at the breach, to look out and spy the occasion of the disturbance;
but upon observing nothing likely to annoy him, he goes down again to
the bottom of his castle.

The natives having once seen their prey, gather a heap of dried canes,
which they bruise with their feet, that they may {249} burn the
easier, and one of them mounting upon a tree adjoining to that in
which the bear is, sets fire to the reeds, and darts them one after
another into the breach; the other hunters having planted themselves
in ambuscade upon other trees. The bear is quickly burned out of his
habitation, and he no sooner appears on the outside, than they let fly
their arrows at him, and often kill him before he gets to the bottom
of the tree.

He is no sooner dead than some of the hunters are dispatched to look
for a deer, and they seldom fail of bringing in one or two. When a
deer is brought, they cut off the head, and then take off the skin
whole, beginning at the neck, and rolling it down, as they cut it,
like a stocking. The legs they cut off at the knee-joints, and having
cleaned and washed the skin, they stop all the holes except the neck,
with a kind of paste made of the fat of the deer mixed with ashes,
over which they tie several bindings with the bark of the lime-tree.
Having thus provided a kind of cask, they fill it with the oil of the
bear, which they prepare by boiling the flesh and fat together. This
Deer of Oil, as it is called, they sell to the French for a gun, a
yard of cloth, or any other thing of that value. The French, before
they use it, purify it, by putting it into a large kettle, with a
handful of laurel leaves; and sprinkling it when it begins to be hot
with some water, in which they have dissolved a large quantity of
salt. The smoke that rises upon this sprinkling carries off with it
any bad smell the fat may have; they next pour it off into a vessel,
and eight days after there is found on the top of it a clear oil which
serves all the purposes of olive oil; what remains below is a fine
kind of lard, proper for the kitchen, and a sovereign remedy for all
kinds of pains. I myself was cured of the rheumatism in my shoulder by
it.

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