The History of Louisiana Part 26

[Ill.u.s.tration: Top: _Cat Fish_--Middle: _Gar Fish_--Bottom: _Spoonbill Catfish_]

The Burgo-Breaker is an excellent fish; it is usually a foot and a foot and a half long: it is round, with gold-coloured scales. In its throat it has two bones with a surface like that of a file to break the sh.e.l.l-fish named Burgo. Though delicate, it is nevertheless very firm. It is best when not much boiled.

{276} The Ring-Skate is found in the river up as far as New Orleans, but no higher. It is very good, and no way tough. In other respects it is exactly like that of France.

The Spatula is so called, because from its snout a substance extends about a foot in length, in the form of an apothecary's Spatula. This fish, which is about two feet in length, is neither round or flat, but square, having at its sides and in the under part bones that forman angle like those of the back.

No Pikes are caught above a foot and a half long. As this is a voracious fish, perhaps the Armed-fish pursues it, both from jealousy and appet.i.te. The pike, besides being small, is very rare.

The Choupic is a very beautiful fish; many people mistake it for the trout, as it takes a fly in the same manner. But it is very different from the trout, as it prefers muddy and dead water to a clear stream, and its flesh is so soft that it is only good when fried.

The Sardine or small Pilchard of the river Missisippi, is about three or four fingers in breadth, and between six and seven inches long; it is good and delicate. One year I salted about the quant.i.ty of forty pints of them, and all the French who eat of them acknowledged them to be Sardines from their flesh, their bones, and their taste. They appear only for a short season, and are caught by the natives, when swimming against the strongest current, with nets made for that purpose only.

The Pata.s.sa, so called by the natives for its flatness, is the roach or fresh-water mullet of this country.

The Armed-Fish has its name from its arms, and its scaly mail. Its arms are its very sharp teeth, about the tenth of an inch in diameter, and as much distant from each other, and near half an inch long. The interval of the larger teeth is filled with shorter teeth. These arms are a proof of its voracity. Its mail is nothing but its scales, which are white, as hard as ivory, and about the tenth of an inch in thickness. They are near an inch long, about half as much in breadth, end in a {277} point, and have two cutting sides. There are two ranges of them down the back, shaped exactly like the head of a spontoon, and opposite to the point of the scale has a little shank, about three tenths of an inch long, which the natives insert into the end of their arrows, making the scale serve for a head. The flesh of this fish is hard and not relis.h.i.+ng.

There are a great number of Eels in the river Missisippi, and very large ones are found in all the rivers and creeks.

The whole lower part of the river abounds in Crayfish. Upon my first arrival in the colony the ground was covered with little hillocks, about six or seven inches high, which the crayfish had made for taking the air out of the water; but since dikes have been raised for keeping off the river from the low grounds, they no longer shew themselves.

Whenever they are wanted, they fish for them with the leg of a frog, and in a few moments they will catch a large dish of them.

The Shrimps are diminutive crayfish; they are usually about three inches long, and of the size of the little finger. Although in other countries they are generally found in the sea only, yet in Louisiana you will meet with great numbers of them more than an hundred leagues up the river. In the lake St. Louis, about two leagues from New Orleans, the waters of which, having a communication with the sea, are somewhat brackish, are found several sorts both of sea fish, and fresh water fish. As the bottom of the lake is very level, they fish in it with large nets lately brought from France.

Near the lake, when we pa.s.s by the outlets to the sea, and continue along the coasts, we meet with small oysters in great abundance, that are very well tasted. On the other hand, when we quit the lake by another lake that communicates with one of the mouths of the river, we meet with oysters four or five inches broad, and six or seven long.

These large oysters eat best fried, having hardly any saltness, but in other respects are large and delicate.

Having spoken of the oysters of Louisiana, I shall take some notice of the oysters that are found on the trees at St. Domingo. When I arrived at the harbour of Cape Francois in {278} my way to Louisiana, I was much surprised to see oysters hanging to the branches of some shrubs; but M. Chaineau, who was our second captain, explained the phaenomenon to me. According to him, the twigs of the shrubs are bent down at high water, to the very bottom of the sh.o.r.e, whenever the sea is any ways agitated. The oysters in that place no sooner feel the twigs than they lay hold of them, and when the sea retires they appear suspended upon them.

Towards the mouths of the river we meet with mussels no salter than the large oysters above mentioned; and this is owing to the water being only brackish in those parts, as the river there empties itself by three large mouths, and five other small ones, besides several short creeks, which all together throw at once an immense quant.i.ty of water into the sea; the whole marshy ground occupies an extent of ten or twelve leagues.

There are likewise excellent mussels upon the northern sh.o.r.e of the lake St. Louis, especially in the river of Pearls; they may be about six or seven inches long, and sometimes contain pretty large pearls, but of no great value.

The largest of the sh.e.l.l-fish on the coast is the Burgo, well known in France. There is another fish much smaller and of a different shape.

Its hollow sh.e.l.l is strong and beautiful, and the flat one is generally black; some blue ones are found, and are much esteemed.

These sh.e.l.ls have long been in request for tobacco-boxes.

{279}

THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

_The Origin of the Americans._

The remarkable difference I observed between the Natchez, including in that name the nations whom they treat as brethren, and the other people of Louisiana, made me extremely desirous to know whence both of them might originally come. We had not then that full information which we have since received from the voyages and discoveries of M. De Lisle in the eastern parts of the Russian empire. I therefore applied myself one day to put the keeper of the temple in good humour, and having succeeded in that without much difficulty, I then told him, that from the little resemblance I observed between the Natchez and the neighbouring nations, I was inclined to believe that they were not originally of the country which they then inhabited; and that if the ancient speech taught him any thing on that subject, he would do me a great pleasure to inform me of it. At these words he leaned his head on his two hands, with which he covered his eyes, and having remained in that posture about a quarter of an hour, as if to recollect himself, he answered to the following effect:

"Before we came into this land we lived yonder under the sun, (pointing with his finger nearly south-west, by which I understood that he meant Mexico;) we lived in a fine country where the earth is always pleasant; there our Suns had their abode, and our nation maintained itself for a long time against the ancients of the country, who conquered some of our villages {280} in the plains, but never could force us from the mountains. Our nation extended itself along the great water where this large river loses itself; but as our enemies were become very numerous, and very wicked, our Suns sent some of their subjects who lived near this river, to examine whether we could retire into the country through which it flowed. The country on the east side of the river being found extremely pleasant, the Great Sun, upon the return of those who had examined it, ordered all his subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselves against the antients of this country, to remove into this land, here to build a temple, and to preserve the eternal fire.

"A great part of our nation accordingly settled here, where they lived in peace and abundance for several generations. The Great Sun, and those who had remained with him, never thought of joining us, being tempted to continue where they were by the pleasantness of the country, which was very warm, and by the weakness of their enemies, who had fallen into civil dissentions, in consequence of the ambition of one of their chiefs, who wanted to raise himself from a state of equality with the other chiefs of the villages, and to treat all the people of his nation as slaves. During those discords among our enemies, some of them even entered into an alliance with the Great Sun, who still remained in our old country, that he might conveniently a.s.sist our other brethren who had settled on the banks of the Great Water to the east of the large river, and extended themselves so far on the coast and among the isles, that the Great Sun did not hear of them sometimes for five or six years together.

"It was not till after many generations that the Great Suns came and joined us in this country, where, from the fine climate, and the peace we had enjoyed, we had multiplied like the leaves of the trees.

Warriors of fire, who made the earth to tremble, had arrived in our old country, and having entered into an alliance with our brethren, conquered our ancient enemies; but attempting afterwards to make slaves of our Suns, they, rather than submit to them, left our brethren who refused to follow them, and came hither attended only with their slaves."

{281} Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he replied, that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a brownish colour, who carried arms that darted out fire with a great noise, and killed at a great distance; that they had likewise heavy arms which killed a great many men at once, and like thunder made the earth tremble; and that they came from the sun-rising in floating villages.

The ancients of the country he said were very numerous, and inhabited from the western coast of the great water to the northern countries on his side the sun, and very far upon the same coast beyond the sun.

They had a great number of large and small villages, which were all built of stone, and in which there were houses large enough to lodge a whole village. Their temples were built with great labour and art, and they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials.

But ye yourselves, said I, whence are ye come? The ancient speech, he replied, does not say from what land we came; all that we know is, that our fathers, to come hither, followed the sun, and came with him from the place where he rises; that they were a long time on their journey, were all on the point of peris.h.i.+ng, and were brought into this country without seeking it.

To this account of the keeper of the temple, which was afterwards confirmed to me by the Great Sun, I shall add the following pa.s.sage of Diodorus Siculus, which seems to confirm the opinion of those who think the eastern Americans are descended from the Europeans, who may have been driven by the winds upon the coasts of Guiana or Brazil.

"To the west of Africa, he says, lies a very large island, distant many days sail from that part of our continent. Its fertile soil is partly plain, and partly mountainous. The plain country is most sweet and pleasant, being watered every where with rivulets, and navigable rivers; it is beautified with many gardens, which are planted with all kinds of trees, and the orchards particularly are watered with pleasant streams. The villages are adorned with houses built in a magnificent taste, having parterres ornamented with arbours covered with flowers. Hither the inhabitants retire during the summer to enjoy the fruits which the country furnishes them with in the greatest {282} abundance. The mountainous part is covered with large woods, and all manner of fruit trees, and in the vallies, which are watered with rivulets, the inhabitants meet with every thing that can render life agreeable. In a word, the whole island, by its fertility and the abundance of its springs, furnishes the inhabitants not only with every thing that may flatter their wishes, but with what may also contribute to their health and strength of body. Hunting furnishes them with such an infinite number of animals, that in their feasts they have nothing to wish for in regard either to plenty or delicacy.

Besides, the sea, which surrounds the island, supplies them plentifully with all kinds of fish, and indeed the sea in general is very abundant. The air of this island is so temperate that the trees bear leaves and fruit almost the whole year round. In a word, this island is so delicious, that it seems rather the abode of the G.o.ds than of men.

"Anciently, on account of its remote situation, it was altogether unknown; but afterwards it was discovered by accident. It is well known, that from the earliest ages the Phenicians undertook long voyages in order to extend their commerce, and in consequence of those voyages established several colonies in Africa and the western parts of Europe. Every thing succeeding to their wish, and being become very powerful, they attempted to pa.s.s the pillars of Hercules and enter the ocean. They accordingly pa.s.sed those pillars, and in their neighbourhood built a city upon a peninsula of Spain, which they named Gades. There, amongst the other buildings proper for the place, they built a temple to Hercules, to whom they inst.i.tuted splendid sacrifices after the manner of their country. This temple is in great veneration at this day, and several Romans who have rendered themselves ill.u.s.trious by their exploits, have performed their vows to Hercules for the success of their enterprizes.

"The Phenicians accordingly having pa.s.sed the Streights of Spain, sailed along Africa, when by the violence of the winds they were driven far out to sea, and the storm continuing several days, they were at length thrown on this island. Being the first who were acquainted with its beauty and fertility, they {283} published them to other nations. The Tuscans, when they were masters at sea, designed to send a colony thither, but the Carthaginians found means to prevent them on the two following accounts; first, they were afraid lest their citizens, tempted by the charms of that island, should pa.s.s over hither in too great numbers, and desert their own country; next they looked upon it as a secure asylum for themselves, if ever any terrible disaster should befal their republic."

This description of Diodorus is very applicable in many circ.u.mstances to America, particularly in the agreeable temperature of the climate to Africans, the prodigious fertility of the earth, the vast forests, the large rivers, and the mult.i.tude of rivulets and springs. The Natchez may then justly be supposed to be descended from some Phenicians or Carthaginians, who had been wrecked on the sh.o.r.es of South America, in which case they might well be imagined to have but little acquaintance with the arts, as those who first landed would be obliged to apply all their thoughts to their immediate subsistence, and consequently would soon become rude and barbarous. Their wors.h.i.+p of the eternal fire likewise implies their descent from the Phenicians; for every body knows that this superst.i.tion, which first took its rise in Egypt, was introduced by the Phenicians into all the countries that they visited. The figurative stile, and the bold and Syriac expressions in the language of the Natchez, is likewise another proof of their being descended from the Phenicians. [Footnote: The author might have mentioned a singular custom, in which both nations agree; for it appears from _Polybius_, 1 I. c. 6. that Carthaginians practised scalping.]

As to those whom the Natchez, long after their first establishment, found inhabiting the western coasts of America, and whom we name Mexicans, the arts which they possessed and cultivated with success, obliged me to give them a different origin. Their temples, their sacrifices, their buildings, their form of government, and their manner of making war, all denote a people who have transmigrated in a body, and brought with them the arts, the sciences, and the customs of their country. Those people had the art of writing, and also of {284} painting. Their archives consisted of cloths of cotton, whereon they had painted or drawn all those transactions which they thought worthy of being transmitted to posterity. It were greatly to be wished that the first conquerors of this new world had preserved to us the figures of those drawings; for by comparing them with the characters used by other nations, we might perhaps have discovered the origin of the inhabitants. The knowledge which we have of the Chinese characters, which are rather irregular drawings than characters, would probably have facilitated such a discovery; and perhaps those of j.a.pan would have been found greatly to have resembled the Mexican; for I am strongly of opinion that the Mexicans are descended from one of those two nations.

In fact, where is the impossibility, that some prince in one of those countries, upon failing in an attempt to raise himself to the sovereign power, should leave his native country with all his partizans, and look for some new land, where, after he had established himself, he might drop all foreign correspondence? The easy navigation of the South Sea renders the thing probable; and the new map of the eastern bounds of Asia, and the western of North America, lately published by Mr. De Lisle, makes it still more likely. This map makes it plainly appear, that between the islands of j.a.pan, or northern coasts of China, and those of America, there are other lands, which to this day have remained unknown; and who will take upon him to say there is no land, because it has never yet been discovered? I have therefore good grounds to believe, that the Mexicans came originally from China or j.a.pan, especially when I consider their reserved and uncommunicative disposition, which to this day prevails among the people of the eastern parts of Asia. The great antiquity of the Chinese nation likewise makes it possible that a colony might have gone from thence to America early enough to be looked upon as _the Ancients of the country_, by the first of the Phenicians who could be supposed to arrive there. As a further corroboration of my conjectures, I was informed by a man of learning in 1752, that in the king's library there is a Chinese ma.n.u.script, which positively affirms that America was peopled by the inhabitants of Corea.

{285} When the Natchez retired to this part of America, where I saw them, they there found several nations, or rather the remains of several nations, some on the east, others on the west of the Missisippi. These are the people who are distinguished among the natives by the name of Red Men; and their origin is so much the more obscure, as they have not so distinct a tradition, as the Natchez, nor arts and sciences like the Mexicans, from whence we might draw some satisfactory inferences. All that I could learn from them was, that they came from between the north and the sun-setting; and this account they uniformly adhered to whenever they gave any account of their origin. This lame tradition no ways satisfying the desire I had to be informed on this point, I made great inquiries to know if there was any wise old man among the neighbouring nations, who could give me further intelligence about the origin of the natives. I was happy enough to discover one, named Moncacht-ape among the Yazous, a nation about forty leagues north from the Natchez. This man was remarkable for his solid understanding and elevation of sentiments; and I may justly compare him to those first Greeks, who travelled chiefly into the east to examine the manners and customs of different nations, and to communicate to their fellow-citizens, upon their return, the knowledge which they had acquired. Moncacht-ape, indeed, never executed so n.o.ble a plan; but he had however conceived it, and had spared no labour and pains to effectuate it. He was by the French called the Interpreter, because he understood several of the North American languages; but the other name which I have mentioned was given him by his own nation, and signifies _the killer of pain and fatigue_. This name was indeed most justly applicable to him; for, to satisfy his curiosity, he had made light of the most dangerous and painful journeys, in which he had spent several years of his life. He stayed two or three days with me; and upon my desiring him to give me an account of his travels, he very readily complied with my request, and spoke to the following effect:

"I had lost my wife, and all the children whom I had by her, when I undertook my journey towards the sun-rising. I set out from my village contrary to the inclinations of all my {286} relations, and went first to the Chicasaws, our friends and neighbours. I continued among them several days to inform myself whether they knew whence we all came, or at least whence they themselves came; they, who were our elders; since from them came the language of the country. As they could not inform me, I proceeded on my journey. I reached the country of the Chaouanous, and afterwards went up the Wabash or Ohio, almost to its source, which is in the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. I left them however towards the north; and during the winter, which in that country is very severe and very long, I lived in a village of the Abenaquis, where I contracted an acquaintance with a man somewhat older than myself, who promised to conduct me the following spring to the Great Water. Accordingly when the snows were melted, and the weather was settled, we proceeded eastward, and, after several days journey, I at length saw the Great Water, which filled me with such joy and admiration that I could not speak. Night drawing on, we took up our lodging on a high bank above the water, which was sorely vexed by the wind, and made so great a noise that I could not sleep. Next day the ebbing and flowing of the water filled me with great apprehension; but my companion quieted my fears, by a.s.suring me that the water observed certain bounds both in advancing and retiring.

Having satisfied our curiosity in viewing the Great Water, we returned to the village of the Abenaquis, where I continued the following winter; and after the snows were melted, my companion and I went and viewed the great fall of the river St. Laurence at Niagara, which was distant from the village several days journey. The view of this great fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, I had the courage to walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio, and my companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we formed it into a pettiaugre, which served to conduct me down the Ohio and the Missisippi, after which, with much difficulty I went up our small river; and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were rejoiced to see me in good health.