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History of Louisisana

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If it is resolved to demand from the other nation the reason of the
hostilities committed by them, they name one of their bravest and most
eloquent warriors, as a second to their speech-maker or chancellor,
who is to carry the pipe of peace, and address that nation. These two
are accompanied by a troop of the bravest warriors, so that the
embassy has the appearance of a warlike expedition; and, if
satisfaction is not given, sometimes ends in one. The ambassadors
carry no presents with them, to shew that they do not intend to
supplicate or beg a peace: they take with them only the pipe of peace,
{351} as a proof that they come as friends. The embassy is always well
received, entertained in the best manner, and kept as long as
possible; and if the other nation is not inclined to begin a war, they
make very large presents to the ambassadors, and all their retinue, to
make up for the losses which their nation complains of.

[Illustration: _Bringing the Pipe of Peace_]

If a nation begins actual hostilities without any formalities, the
nation invaded is generally assisted by several allies, {352} keeps
itself on the defensive, gives orders to those who live at a great
distance to join the main body of the nation, prepares logs for
building a fort, and every morning sends some warriors out upon the
scout, choosing for that purpose those who trust more to their heels
than their heart.

The assistance of the allies is generally solicited by the pipe of
peace, the stalk of which is about four feet and a half long, and is
covered all over with the skin of a duck's neck, the feathers of which
are glossy and of various colours. To this pipe is fastened a fan made
of the feathers of white eagles, the ends of which are black, and are
ornamented with a tuft dyed a beautiful red.

When the allies are assembled a general council is held in presence of
the sovereign, and is composed of the great war-chief, the war-chiefs
of the allies, and all the old warriors. The great war-chief opens the
assembly with a speech, in which he exhorts them to take vengeance of
the insults they have received; and after the point is debated, and
the war agreed upon, all the warriors go a hunting to procure game for
the war-feast, which, as well as the war-dance, lasts three days.

The natives distinguish the warriors into three classes, namely, true
warriors, who have always given proofs of their courage; common
warriors, and apprentice-warriors. They likewise divide our military
men into the two classes of true warriors and young warriors. By the
former they mean the settlers, of whom the greatest part, upon their
arrival, were soldiers, who being now perfectly acquainted with the
tricks and wiles of the natives, practice them upon their enemy, whom
they do not greatly fear. The young warriors are the soldiers of the
regular troops, as the companies are generally composed of young men,
who are ignorant of the stratagems used by the natives in time of war.

When the war-feast is ready the warriors repair to it, painted from
head to foot with stripes of different colours. They have nothing on
but their belt, from whence hangs their apron, their bells, or their
rattling gourds, and their tomahawk. In their right hand they have a
bow, and those of the {353} north in their left carry a buckler formed
of two round pieces of buffalo's hide sewed together.

The feast is kept in a meadow, the grass of which is mowed to a great
extent; there the dishes, which are of hollow wood, are placed round
in circles of about twelve or fifteen feet diameter, and the number of
those circular tables is proportioned to the largeness of the
assembly, in the midst of whom is placed the pipe of war upon the end
of a pole seven or eight feet high. At the foot of this pole, in the
middle of a circle is placed the chief dish of all, which is a large
dog roasted whole; the other plates are ranged circularly by threes;
one of these contains maiz boiled in broth like gruel, another roasted
deer's flesh, and the other boiled. They all begin with eating of the
dog, to denote their fidelity and attachment to their chief; but
before they taste of any thing, an old warrior, who, on account of his
great age, is not able to accompany the rest to the war, makes an
harangue to the warriors, and by recounting his own exploits, excites
them to act with bravery against the enemy. All the warriors then,
according to their rank, smoke in the pipe of war, after which they
begin their repast; but while they eat, they keep walking continually,
to signify that a warrior ought to be always in action and upon his
guard.

While they are thus employed, one of the young men goes behind a bush
about two hundred paces off, and raises the cry of death. Instantly
all the warriors seize their arms, and run to the place whence the cry
comes; and when they are near it the young warrior shews himself
again, raises the cry of death, and is answered by all the rest, who
then return to the feast, and take up the victuals which in their
hurry they had thrown upon the ground. The same alarm is given two
other times, and the warriors each time act as at first. The war drink
then goes round, which is a heady liquor drawn from the leaves of the
Cassine after they have been a long while boiled. The feast being
finished, they all assemble about fifty paces from a large post, which
represents the enemy; and this each of them in his turn runs up to,
and strikes with his tomahawk, recounting at the same time all his
former brave exploits, and sometimes boasting of valorous deeds that
he never performed. But {354} they have the complaisance to each other
to pardon this gasconading.

All of them having successively struck the post, they begin the dance
of war with their arms in their hands; and this dance and the
war-feast are celebrated for three days together, after which they set
out for the war. The women some time before are employed in preparing
victuals for their husbands, and the old men in engraving upon bark
the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that attacks, and of their number
of warriors.

Their manner of making war is to attack by surprize; accordingly, when
they draw near to any of the enemy's villages, they march only in the
night; and that they may not be discovered, raise up the grass over
which they trod. One half of the warriors watch, while the other half
sleep in the thickest and most unfrequented part of the wood.

If any of their scouts can discover a hut of the enemy detached from
the rest, they all surround it about day-break, and some of the
warriors entering, endeavor to knock the people on the head as they
awake, or take some man prisoner. Having scalped the dead, they carry
off the women and children prisoners, and place against a tree near
the hut the hieroglyphic picture, before which they plant two arrows
with their points crossing each other. Instantly they retreat into the
woods, and make great turnings to conceal their route.

The women and children whom they take prisoners are made slaves. But
if they take a man prisoner the joy is universal, and the glory of
their nation is at its height. The warriors, when they draw near to
their own villages after an expedition, raise the cry of war three
times successively; and if they have a man prisoner with them,
immediately go and look for three poles to torture him upon; which,
however weary or hungry they be, must be provided before they take any
refreshment. When they have provided those poles, and tied the
prisoner to them, they may then go and take some victuals. The poles
are about ten feet long; two of them are planted upright in the ground
at a proper distance, and the other is cut through in the middle, and
the two pieces are fastened crossways {355} to the other two, so that
they form a square about five feet every way. The prisoner being first
scalped by the person who took him, is tied to this square, his hands
to the upper part, and his feet to the lower, in such a manner that he
forms the figure of a St. Andrew's cross. The young men in the mean
time having prepared several bundles of canes, set fire to them; and
several of the warriors taking those flaming canes, burn the prisoner
in different parts of his body, while others burn him in other parts
with their tobacco-pipes. The patience of prisoners in those miserable
circumstances is altogether astonishing. No cries or lamentations
proceed from them; and some have been known to suffer tortures, and
sing for three days and nights without intermission. Sometimes it
happens that a young woman who has lost her husband in the war, asks
the prisoner to supply the room of the deceased, and her request is
immediately granted.

[Illustration: _Torture of Prisoners_--INSET: _Plan of Fort_]

I mentioned above that when one nation declares war against another,
they leave a picture near one of their villages. That picture is
designed in the following manner. On the top towards the right hand is
the hieroglyphic sign of the nation that declares war; next is a naked
man with a tomahawk in his hand; and then an arrow pointed against a
woman, who is flying away, her hair floating behind her in the air;
immediately {356} before this woman is the proper emblem of the nation
against whom the war is declared. All this is on one line; and below
is drawn the figure of the moon, which is followed by one I, or more;
and a man is here represented, before whom is a number of arrows which
seem to pierce a woman who is running away. By this is denoted, when
such a moon is so many days old, they will come in great numbers and
attack such a nation; but this lower part of the picture does not
always carry true intelligence. The nation that has offered the
insult, or commenced hostilities wrongfully, rarely finds any allies
even among those nations who call them brothers.

In carrying on a war they have no such thing as pitched battles, or
carrying on of sieges; all the mischief they do each other, is by
surprise and skirmishing, and in this their courage and address
consists. Among them flight is no ways shameful; their bravery lies
often in their legs; and to kill a man asleep or at unawares, is quite
as honourable among them, as to gain a signal victory after a stout
battle.

When a nation is too weak to defend itself in the field, they
endeavour to protect themselves by a fort. This fort is built
circularly of two rows of large logs of wood, the logs of the inner
row being opposite to the joining of the logs of the outer row. These
logs are about fifteen feet long, five feet of which are sunk in the
ground. The outer logs are about two feet thick, and the inner about
half as much. At every forty paces along the wall a circular tower
jets out; and at the entrance of the fort, which is always next to the
river, the two ends of the wall pass beyond each other, and leave a
side opening. In the middle of the fort stands a tree with its
branches lopt off within six or eight inches of the trunk, and this
serves for a watch-tower. Round this tree are some huts, for the
protection of the women and children from random arrows; but
notwithstanding all these precautions for defense, if the besieged are
but hindered from coming out to water, they are soon obliged to
retire.

When a nation finds itself no longer able to oppose its enemy, the
chiefs send a pipe of peace to a neutral nation, and solicit their
mediation, which is generally successful, the vanquished {357} nation
sheltering themselves under the name of the mediators, and for the
future making but one nation with them.

Here it may be observed that when they go to attack others, it
sometimes happens that they lose some of their own warriors. In that
case, they immediately, if possible, scalp their dead friends, to
hinder the enemy from having that subject of triumph. Moreover, when
they return home, whether as victors or otherwise, the great warchief
pays to the respective families for those whom he does, not bring back
with him; which renders the chiefs very careful of the lives of their
warriors.




CHAPTER IV.

_Of the Negroes of_ Louisiana.




SECTION I.

_Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distemper, and the Manner of curing
them._


Having finished my account of the natives of Louisiana, I shall
conclude this treatise with some observations relating to the negroes;
who, in the lower part of the province especially, perform all the
labours of agriculture. On that account I have thought proper to give
some instructions concerning them, for the benefit of those who are
inclined to settle in that province.

The negroes must be governed differently from the Europeans; not
because they are black, nor because they are slaves; but because they
think differently from the white men.

First, they imbibe a prejudice from their infancy, that the white men
buy them for no other purpose but to drink their blood; which is owing
to this, that when the first negroes saw the Europeans drink claret,
they imagined it was blood, as that wine is of a deep red colour; so
that nothing but the actual experience of the contrary can eradicate
the false opinion. But as none of those slaves who have had that
experience ever return to their own country, the same prejudice
continues to subsist on the coast of Guinea where we purchase them.
Some {358} who are strangers to the manner of thinking that prevails
among the negroes, may perhaps think that the above remark is of no
consequence, in respect to those slaves who are already sold to the
French. There have been instances however of bad consequences flowing
from this prejudice; especially if the negroes found no old slave of
their own country upon their first arrival in our colonies. Some of
them have killed or drowned themselves, several of them have deserted
(which they call making themselves Marons) and all this from an
apprehension that the white men were going to drink their blood. When
they desert they believe they can get back to their own country by
going round the sea, and may live in the woods upon the fruits, which
they imagine are as common every where as with them.

They are very superstitious, and are much attached to their
prejudices, and little toys which they call _gris, gris_. It would be
improper therefore to take them from them, or even speak of them to
them; for they would believe themselves undone, if they were stripped
of those trinkets. The old negroes soon make them lose conceit of
them.

The first thing you ought to do when you purchase negroes, is to cause
them to be examined by a skilful surgeon and an honest man, to
discover if they have the venereal or any other distemper. When they
are viewed, both men and women are stripped naked as the hand, and are
carefully examined from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet,
then between the toes and between the fingers, in the mouth, in the
ears, not excepting even the parts naturally concealed, though then
exposed to view. You must ask your examining surgeon if he is
acquainted with the distemper of the yaws, which is the virus of
Guinea, and incurable by a great many French surgeons, though very
skilful in the management of European distempers. Be careful not to be
deceived in this point; for your surgeon may be deceived himself;
therefore attend at the examination yourself, and observe carefully
over all the body of the negro, whether you can discover any parts of
the skin, which though black like the rest, are however as smooth as a
looking-glass, without any tumor or rising. Such spots may be easily
discovered; {359} for the skin of a person who goes naked is usually
all over wrinkles. Wherefore if you see such marks you must reject the
negro, whether man or woman. There are always experienced surgeons at
the sale of new negroes, who purchase them; and many of those surgeons
have made fortunes by that means; but they generally keep their secret
to themselves.

Another mortal distemper with which many negroes from Guinea are
attacked, is the scurvy. It discovers itself by the gums, but
sometimes it is so inveterate as to appear outwardly, in which case it
is generally fatal. If any of my readers shall have the misfortune to
have a negro attacked with one of those distempers, I will now teach
him how to save him, by putting him in a way of being radically cured
by the surgeons; for I have no inclination to fall out with those
gentlemen. I learned this secret from a negro physician, who was upon
the king's plantation, when I took the superintendence of it.

You must never put an iron instrument into the yaw; such an
application would be certain death. In order to open the yaw, you take
iron rust reduced to an impalpable powder, and passed through a fine
search; you afterwards mix that powder with citron juice till it be of
the consistence of an ointment, which you spread upon a linen cloth
greased with hog's grease, or fresh lard without salt, for want of a
better. You lay the plastier upon the yaw, and renew it evening and
morning, which will open the yaw in a very short time without any
incision.

The opening being once made, you take about the bulk of a goose's egg
of hog's lard without salt, in which you incorporate about an ounce of
good terebinthine; after which take a quantity of powdered verdigris,
and soak it half a day in good vinegar, which you must then pour off
gently with all the scum that floats at top. Drop a cloth all over
with the verdigris that remains, and upon that apply your last
ointment. All these operations are performed without the assistance of
fire. The whole ointment being well mixed with a spatula, you dress
the yaw with it; after that put your negro into a copious sweat, and
he will be cured. Take special care that your surgeon uses no
mercurial medicine, as I have seen; for that will occasion the death
of the patient.

{360} The scurvy is no less to be dreaded than the yaws; nevertheless
you may get the better of it, by adhering exactly to the following
prescription: take some scurvy-grass, if you have any plants of it,
some ground-ivy, called by some St. John's wort, water-cresses from a
spring or brook, and for want of that, wild cresses; take these three
herbs, or the two last, if you have no scurvy-grass; pound them, and
mix them with citron-juice, to make of them a soft paste, which the
patient must keep upon both his gums till they be clean, at all times
but when he is eating. In the mean while he must be suffered to drink
nothing but an infusion of the herbs above named. You pound two
handfuls of them, roots and all, after washing off any earth that may
be upon the roots or leaves; to these you join a fresh citron, cut
into slices. Having pounded all together, you then steep them in an
earthen pan in a pint of pure water of the measure of Paris; after
that you add about the size of a walnut of powdered and purified
saltpetre, and to make it a little relishing to the negro, you add
some powder sugar. After the water has stood one night, you squeeze
out the herbs pretty strongly. The whole is performed cold, or without
fire. Such is the dose for a bottle of water Paris measure; but as the
patient ought to drink two pints a day, you may make several pints at
a time in the above proportion.

In these two distempers the patients must be supported with good
nourishment, and made to sweat copiously. It would be a mistake to
think that they ought to be kept to a spare diet; you must give them
nourishing food, but a little at a time. A negro can no more than any
other person support remedies upon bad food, and still less upon a
spare diet; but the quantity must be proportioned to the state of the
patient, and the nature of the distemper. Besides, good food makes the
best part of the remedy to those who in common are but poorly fed. The
negro who taught me these two remedies, observing the great care I
took of both the negro men and negro women, taught me likewise the
cure of all the distempers to which the women are subject; for the
negro women are as liable to diseases as the white women.

{361}




SECTION II.

_Of the Manner of governing the Negroes._


When a negro man or woman comes home to you, it is proper to caress
them, to give them something good to eat, with a glass of brandy; it
is best to dress them the same day, to give them something to sleep
on, and a covering. I suppose the others have been treated in the same
manner; for those marks of humanity flatter them, and attach them to
their masters. If they are fatigued or weakened by a journey, or by
any distempers, make them work little; but keep them always busy as
long as they are able to do any thing, never suffering them to be
idle, but when they are at their meals. Take care of them when they
are sick, and give attention both to their remedies and their food,
which last ought then to be more nourishing than what they usually
subsist upon. It is your interest so to do, both for their
preservation, and to attach them more closely to you; for though many
Frenchmen say that negroes are ungrateful, I have experienced that it
is very easy to render them much attached to you by good treatment,
and by doing them justice, as I shall mention afterwards.

If a negro woman lies-in, cause her to be taken care of in every thing
that her condition makes necessary, and let your wife, if you have
one, not disdain to take the immediate care of her herself, or at
least have an eye over her.

A Christian ought to take care that the children be baptised and
instructed, since they have an immortal soul. The mother ought then to
receive half a ration more than usual, and a quart of milk a day, to
assist her to nurse her child.

Prudence requires that your negroes be lodged at a proper distance, to
prevent them from being troublesome or offensive; but at the same time
near enough for your conveniently observing what passes among them.
When I say that they ought not to be placed so near your habitation as
to be offensive, I mean by that the smell which is natural to some
nations of negroes, such as the Congos, the Angolas, the Aradas, and
others. On this account it is proper to have in their camp a bathing
place formed by thick planks, buried in the earth about a foot or a
{362} foot and a half at most, and never more water in it than about
that depth, for fear lest the children should drown themselves in it;
it ought likewise to have an edge, that the little children may not
have access to it, and there ought to be a pond without the camp to
supply it with water and keep fish. The negro camp ought to be
inclosed all round with palisades, and to have a door to shut with a
lock and key. The huts ought to be detached from each other, for fear
of fire, and to be built in direct lines, both for the sake of
neatness, and in order to know easily the hut of each negro. But that
you may be as little incommoded as possible with their natural smell,
you must have the precaution to place the negro camp to the north or
north-east of your house, as the winds that blow from these quarters
are not so warm as the others, and it is only when the negroes are
warm that they send forth a disagreeable smell.

The negroes that have the worst smell are those that are the least
black; and what I have said of their bad smell, ought to warn you to
keep always on the windward side of them when you visit them at their
work; never to suffer them to come near your children, who, exclusive
of the bad smell, can learn nothing good from them, either as to
morals, education, or language.

From what I have said, I conclude that a French father and his wife
are great enemies to their posterity when they give their children
such nurses. For the milk being the purest blood of the woman, one
must be a step-mother indeed to give her child to a negro nurse in
such a country as Louisiana, where the mother has all conveniences of
being served, of accommodating and carrying their children, who by
that means may be always under their eyes. The mother then has nothing
else to do but to give the breast to her child.

I have no inclination to employ my pen in censuring the over-delicacy
and selfishness of the women, who thus sacrifice their children; it
may, without further illustration, be easily perceived how much
society is interested in this affair. I shall only say, that for any
kind of service whatever about the house, I would advise no other kind
of negroes, either young or old, but Senegals, called among themselves
Diolaufs, because of all {363} the negroes I have known, these have
the purest blood; they have more fidelity and a better understanding
than the rest, and are consequently fitter for learning a trade, or
for menial services. It is true they are not so strong as the others
for the labours of the field, and for bearing the great heats.

The Senegals however are the blackest, and I never saw any who had a
bad smell. They are very grateful; and when one knows how to attach
them to him, they have been found to sacrifice their own life to save
that of their master. They are good commanders over other negroes,
both on account of their fidelity and gratitude, and because they seem
to be born for commanding. As they are high-minded, they may be easily
encouraged to learn a trade, or to serve in the house, by the
distinction they will thereby acquire over the other negroes, and the
neatness of dress which that condition will entitle them to.

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