oderately hilly; the soil a good second quality, clay; timber, large oak, hickory, some short leaved pine; and several small streams of clear running water. This description of lands extended back 5 or 6 miles, and bounded by open pine woods, which continue, for 30 miles, to Ocatahola. I found Mr. Hoomes' house on a high bluff very near the river; his plantation the same description of land through which I had passed, producing good corn, cotton and tobacco, and he told me he had tried it in wheat, which succeeded well, but having no mills to manufacture it, had only made the experiment. Mr. Hoomes told me all the lands round his, for many miles, were vacant. On the south side there is a large body of rich, low grounds, extending to the borders of Appalousa, watered and drained by Bayau Robert, and Bayau Beauf, two handsome streams of clear water that rise in the high Jands between Red river and Sabine, and after meandering through this immense mass of low grounds of 30 or 40 miles square, fall into the Chaffeli, to the southward of Avoyall. I believe, in point of soil, growth of timber, goodness of water, and conveniency to navigation, there is not a more valua ble body of land in this part of Louisiana. From Mr. Hoomes' to the mouth of Rapide Bayau is, by the river, 35 miles. A few scattering settlements on the right side, but none on the left; the right is preferred to settle on, on account of their stocks being convenient to the high lands; but the settlers on the right side own the lands on the left side too; the lands on the Bayau Rapide are the same quality as those on Bayaus Robert and Beauf, and, in fact, are a continuation of the same body of lands. Bayau Rapide is somewhat in the form of a half moon; the two points, or horns, meeting the river about 20 miles from each other: the length of the bayau is about 30 miles; on the back of it there is a large, bayau falls in, on which there is a saw mill, very advantageously situated, in respect to a never failing supply of water; plenty of timber; and the plank can be taken from the mill tail by water. This bayau is excellent water; rises in the pine woods, and discharges itself each way into the river, by both ends of Bayau Rapide. Boats cannot pass through the bayau, from the river to the river again, on account of rafts of timber choaking the upper end of it, but can enter the lower end and ascend it more than half through it. On the lower end of the bayau, on each side, is the principal Rapide settlement, as it is called; no country whatever can exhibit handsomer plantations, or better lands. The Rapide is a fall, or shoal, occasioned by a soft rock in the bed of the river, that extends from side to side, over which, for about five months in the year, (viz.) from July to December, there is not sufficient water for boats to pass without lightening, but at all other seasons it is the same as any other part of the river. This rock, or hard clay, for it resembles the latter almost as much as the former, is so soft it may be cut away with a pen knife, or any sharp instrument, and scarcely turn the edge, and extends up and down the river but a few yards; and I have heard several intelligent persons give it as their opinion, that the extraordinary expense and trouble the inhabitants were at, in one year, in getting loaded boats over this shoal, would be more than sufficient to cut a passage through it; but it happens at a season of the year when the able planters are occupied at home, and would make no use of the river were there no obstructions in it; but at any rate, the navigation of the river is clear a longer proportion of the year than the rivers in the northern countries are clear of ice. But this obstruction is certainly removable, at a very trifling expense, in comparison to the importance of having it done; and nothing but the nature of the government we have lately emerged from, can be assigned as a reason for its not having been effected long ago.

After passing the Rapides there are very few settlements to be seen, on the main river, for about 20 miles, though both sides appeared to me to be capable of making as valuable settlements as any on the river; we arrive then at the Indian villages, on both sides, situated exceedingly pleasant, and

on the best lands; after passing which you arrive at a large, beautiful plantation of Mr. Gillard; the house is on a point of a high pine woods bluff, close to the river, 60 or 70 feet above the common surface of the country, overlooking, on the east, or opposite side, very extensive fields of low grounds, in high cultivation, and a long reach of the river, up and down; and there is an excellent spring of water issues from the bluff, on which the house is situated, from an aperture in the rock that seems to have been cloven on purpose for it to flow, and a small distance, back of the house, there is a lake of clear water, abounding with fish in summer and fowl in winter. I have seen in all my life, very few more beautiful or advantageously situated places.

Six miles above Gillard's, you arrive at the small village of Boluxa Indians, where the river is divided into two channels, forming an island of about 50 miles in length, and 3 or 4 in breadth. The right hand division is called the Rigula de Bondieu, on which are no settlements; but, I am informed, will admit of being well settled; the left hand division is the boat channel, at present, to Natchitoches: the other is likewise boatable. Ascending the left hand branch for about 24 miles, we pass a thick settlement and a number of wealthy inhabitants. This is called the River Cane settlement; called so, I believe, from the banks some years ago, being a remarkable thick cane-brake.

After passing this settlement of about forty families, the river divides again, forming another island of about thirty miles in length, and from two to four in breadth, called the Isle Brevel, after a reputable old man now living in it, who first settled it. This island is sub-divided by a bayau that communicates from one river to the other, called also Bayau Brevel. The middle division of the river, is called Little river, and it is thickly settled, and is the boat channel: the westward division of the river is called False river; is navigable, but not settled; the banks are too low; it passes through a lake called Lac Occassa. When you arrive at Natchitoches, you find it a small, irregular, and meanly built village, half a dozen houses excepted, on the west side of that division of the river it is on, the high pine and oak woods approach within two or three hundred yards of the river. In the village are about forty families, twelve or fifteen are merchants or traders, nearly all French. The fort built by our troops since their arrival, called Fort Claiborne, is situated on a small hill, one street from the river, and about thirty feet higher than the river banks. All the hill is occupied by the fort and barracks, and does not exceed two acres of ground. The southern and eastern prospects from it are very beautiful. One has an extensive view of the fields and habitations down the river, and the other a similar view over the river, and of the whole village. This town, thirty or forty years ago, was much larger than at present, and situated on a hill about half a mile from its present site. Then most of the families of the district lived in the town, but finding it inconvenient on account of the stocks and farms, they filed off, one after another, and settled up and down the river. The merchants and trading people found being on the bank of the river more convenient for loading and`unloading their boats, left the hill on that account; and others, finding the river ground much superiour for gardens, to which they are in the habit of paying great attention, followed the merchants; after them the priests and commandant; then the church and jail (or calleboose), and now nothing of the old town is left, but the form of their gardens and some ornamental trees. It is now a very extensive common of several hundred acres, entirely tufted with clover, and covered with sheep and cattle. The hill is a stiff clay, and used to make miry streets; the river soil, though much richer, is of a loose, sandy, texture; the streets are neither miry nor very dusty. Our wells do not afford us good water, and the river water, in summer, is too brackish to drink, and never clear

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Our springs are about half a mile back from the river, but the inhabitants, many of them, have large cisterns, and use, principally, rain water, which is preferred to the spring water. The planters along on the river generally use rain water; though when the river is high, and the water taken up and settled in large earthen jars, (which the Indian women make of good quality and at a moderate price) it can be drank tolerably well, but it makes bad tea. Near Natchitoches there are two large lakes, one within a mile, the other six miles to the nearest parts. One of them is fifty or sixty miles in circumference, the other upwards of thirty these lakes rise and fall with the river. When the river is rising the bayaus that connect with the lakes, run into the lakes like a mill-tail, till the lakes are filled; and when the river is falling, it is the same the contrary way, just like the tide, but only annual. On these creeks good mills might be erected, but the present inhabitants know nothing of mills by water, yet have excellent cotton gins worked by horses. I do not know a single mechanick in the district, who is a native of it, one tailor excepted. Every thing of the kind is done by strangers, mostly Americans. Though Natchitoches has been settled almost one hundred years, it is not more than twelve or fifteen years since they ever had a plough, or a flat to cross the river with; both which were introduced by an Irish Pennsylvanian, under a similar opposition to the Copernican system. "Tis almost incredible the quantity of fish and fowl these lakes supply. It is not uncommon in winter for a single man to kill from two to four hundred fowl in one evening; they fly between sundown and dark; the air is filled with them; they load and fire as fast as they can, without taking any particular aim, continuing at the same stand till they think they have killed enough, and then pick up what they have killed; they consist of several kinds of duck, geese, brant, and swan. In summer the quantities of fish are nearly in proportion. One Indian, with a bow and arrow, sometimes will kill them faster than another, with two horses, can bring them in; they weigh, some of them, thirty or forty pounds. The lakes likewise afford plenty of shells for lime, and at low water, the greater of them is a most luxuriant meadow, where the inhabitants fatten their horses. All round these lakes above high water mark, there is a border of rich land, generally wide enough for a field. On the bank of one of them, there is plenty of stone coal, and several quarries of tolerable good building stone; at high water boats can go out of the river into them. Similar lakes are found all along Red river, for five or six hundred miles, which, besides the uses already mentioned, nature seems to have provided as reservoirs for the immense quantity of water beyond what the banks of the river will contain; otherwise no part of them could be inhabited the low grounds, from hill to hill, would be inundated. About twelve miles north of Natchitoches, on the north east side of the river, there is a large lake called Lac Noiz; the bayau of it communicates to the Rigula de Bondieu, opposite Natchitoch, which is boatable the greater part of the year. Near this lake are the salt works, from which all the salt that is used in the district, is made; and which is made with so much ease, that two old men, both of them cripples, with ten or twelve old pots and kettles, have, for several years past, made an abundant supply of salt for the whole district; they inform me they make six bushels per day. I have not been at the place, but have a bottle of the water brought to me, which I found nearly saturated. The salt is good. I never had better bacon than I make with it. I am informed, there are twelve saline springs now open; and by digging for them, for ought any one knows, twelve hundred might be opened. A few months ago, captain Burnet, of the Mississippi territory, coming to this place by Washita, came by the salt works, and purchased the right of one of the okl men he found there, and has lately sent up a boat, with some large kettles and some negroes, under the direction of his son; and expects, when they get all in order, to be able to make thirty or forty bushels a day. Captain Burnet is of opinion, that he shall be able to supply the Mississippi territory

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and the settlements on Mississippi, from Point Coupee, upwards, lower than they can get it in New-Orleans and bring it up. Cathartic salts, and magnesia, might likewise be made in large quantities, if they understood it. The country all round the Sahine and Black lake is vacant, and from thence to Washita, a distance of about one hundred and twenty miles, which I am informed affords considerable quantities of well timbered good uplands, and well watered. There is a small stream we cross on the Washita road, the English call it Little River, the French Dogdimona, affording a wide rich bottom: this stream falls into the Acatahola lake; from thence to Washita, it is called Acatahola river; its course is eastwardly, and falls into Washita, near the mouth of Tensaw, where the road from Natchitoches to Natchez, crosses it; from the confluence of these three rivers, downwards, it is called

Black river, which falls into Red river, sixty miles below. There is a good salt spring near the Acatahola lake.

Ascending Red river, above Natchitoches, in about three miles arrive at the upper mouth of the Rigula de Bondieu: there are settlements all along; plantations adjoining. From the upper mouth of the Rigula de Bondieu, the river is one channel through the settlement called Grand Ecore, of about six miles; it is called Grand Ecore, (or in English the Great Bluff) being such a one on the left hand side, near one hundred feet high. The face next the river, almost perpendicular, of a soft, white rock; the top, a gravel loam, of considerale extent, on which grow large oaks, hickory, black cherry, and grape vines. At the bottom of one of these bluffs, for there are two near each other, is a large quantity of stone-coal, and near them several springs of the best water in this part of the country; and a lake of clear water within two hundred yards, bounded by a gravelly margin. I pretend to have no knowledge of military tacticks, but think, from the river in this place being all in one channel, the goodness of the water, a high, healthy country, and well timbered all round it, no height near it so high, its commanding the river, and a very publick ferry just under it, and at a small expense, would be capable of great defence with a small force. The road from it to the westward, better than from Nachitoch, and by land only about five miles above it, and near it plenty of good building stone. These advantages it possesses beyond any other place within my knowledge on the river, for a strong fort, and safe place of deposit. Just about this bluff, the river makes a large bend to the right, and a long reach nearly due east and west by it; the bluff overlooks, on the opposite side, several handsome plantations. I have been induced, from the advantages this place appeared to me to possess, to purchase it, with four or five small settlements adjoining, including both bluffs, the ferry, springs and lake, the stone quarries, and coal; and a field of about five hundred acres of the best low grounds, on the opposite side. After leaving Grand Ecore, about a mile,on the left side comes in a large bayau, from the Spanish lake, as it is called, boatable the greater part of the year. This lake is said to be about fifty miles in circumference, and rises and falls with the river, into which, from the river, the largest boats may ascend, and from it, up the mouths of several large bayaus that fall into it, for some distance, one in particular called bayau Dupong, up which boats may ascend within one and a half mile of old fort Adaize. Leaving this bayau about two miles, arrive at a fork or division of the river; the left hand branch bears westwardly for sixty or eighty miles; then eastwardly, meeting the branch it left, after forming an island of about one hundred miles long, and, in some places, nearly thirty miles wide. Six or seven years ago, boats used to pass this way into the main river again; its communication with which being above the great raft or obstruction; but it is now choaked, and requires a portage of three miles; but at any season, boats can go from Natchitoches, about eighty miles, to the place called the point, where the French had a factory, and a small station of soldiers to guard the Indian trade, and is now undoubtedly a very Vol. III. Appendix. H

eligible situation for a similar establishment. The country bounded to the east and north, by this branch or division of the river, is called the bayau Pierre settlement, which was begun, and some of the lands granted before Louisiana was ceded to Spain by France, and continued under the jurisdiction of the commandant of Natchitoches until about twenty years ago, when, by an agreement between a Mr. Vogone, then commandant of this place, and a Mr. Elibarbe, commandant at Natchitoches, the settlement called bayau Pierre, was placed under the jurisdiction of the latter, and has so continued ever since. The settlement, I believe, contains about forty families, and generally they have large stocks of cattle: they supply us with our cheese entirely, and of a tolerable quality, and we get from them some excellent bacon hams. The country is interspersed with prairies, resembling, as to richness, the river bottoms, and, in size, from five to five thousand acres. The hills are a good grey soil, and produce very well, and afford beautiful situations. The creek called Bayau Pierre, (stony creek) passes through the settlement, and affords a number of good mill seats, and its bed and banks lined with a good kind of building stone, but no mills are erected on it. Some of the inhabitants have tried the uplands in wheat, which succeeded well. They are high, gently rolling, and rich enough; produce good corn, cotton, and tobacco. I was through the settlement in July last, and found good water, either from a spring or well, at every house. The inhabitants are all French, one family excepted. A few miles to the westward, towards Sabine, there is a Saline, where the inhabitants go and make their salt. On the whole, for health, good water, good living, plenty of food for every kind of animal, general conveniency, and handsome surface, I have seen few parts of the world more inviting to settlers.

Returning back again to the fork of the main river we left, for the purpose of exploring the Bayau Pierre branch, we find irregular settlements, including Campti, where a few families are settled together on a hill near the river, northeast side. For about 20 miles, the river land is much the same every where, but the Campti settlement is more broken with bayaus and lagoons than any place I am acquainted with on the river, and for want of about a dozen bridges is inconvenient to get to, or travel through. The upper end of this settlement is the last on the main branch of Red river, which, straight by land, does not exceed 25 miles above Natchitoches. At the upper house the great raft or jam of timber begins; this raft choaks the main channel for upwards of 100 miles, by the course of the river; not one entire jam from the beginning to the end of it, but only at the points, with places of several leagues that are clear. The river is very crooked, and the low grounds are wide and rich, and I am informed, no part of Red river will afford better plantations than along its banks by this raft, which is represented as being so important as to render the country above it of little value for settlements; this opinion is founded entirely upon incorrect information. The first or lowest part of the raft is at a bend or point in the river, just below the upper ,plantation, at which, on the right side, a large bayau, or division of the river, called Bayau Channo, comes in, which is free of any obstructions, and the greater part of the year boats of any size may ascend it, into lake Bistino, through which, to its communication with the lake, is only about three miles; the lake is about 60 miles long, and lays nearly parallel with the river, from the upper end of which it communicates again with the river, by a bayau called Daichet, about 40 miles above the upper end of the raft; from the lake to the river, through Bayau Daichet, is called nine miles; there is always in this bayau sufficient water for any boat to pass; from thence upwards Red river is free of all obstructions to the mountains. By lake Bistino, and these two bayaus, an island is formed, about 70 miles long, and three or four wide, capable of affording settlements inferiour to none on the river. From the above account you will perceive, that the only difficulty in opening a boat passage by this raft, through the lake, which is much shorter than by the course of the river, and avoid the current, and indeed, was the river unobstructed,