xt7kd50fv775 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7kd50fv775/data/mets.xml Pittman, Philip. 1906  books b929177p6872009 English A.H. Clark Company : Cleveland, Ohio Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Mississippi River --Description and travel. Mississippi River Valley --History --To 1803. The present state of the European settlements on the Mississippi, with a geographical description of that river illustrated by plans and draughts, by Captain Philip Pittman. An exact reprint of the original edition, London, 1770; ed., with introduction, notes, and index, by Frank Heywood Hodder ... with facsimiles of the original maps and plans. text The present state of the European settlements on the Mississippi, with a geographical description of that river illustrated by plans and draughts, by Captain Philip Pittman. An exact reprint of the original edition, London, 1770; ed., with introduction, notes, and index, by Frank Heywood Hodder ... with facsimiles of the original maps and plans. 1906 2009 true xt7kd50fv775 section xt7kd50fv775 
    
    
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   PITTMAN'S EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI 
    
   THE PRESENT STATE

OF THE

european settlements on the missisippi

With a Geographical Description of that River illustrated by Plans and Draughts

by

CAPTAIN PHILIP PITTMAN

An exact reprint of the original edition, London, 1770 ; edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Index, by

FRANK HEYWOOD HODDER

Professor of American History University of Kansas

With facsimiles of the original maps and plans

Cleveland The Arthur H. Clark Company

1906 
   COPYRIGHT 1906, BY the arthur h. clark company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
   CONTENTS

Introduction.   The Editor     .... 9 Pittman's "European Settlements on the Missisippi"

Preface      ....... 23

Of the River Missisippi      .... 29

Of the Post and Settlements on the Missisippi 38

New Orleans      .      .      .      .      .      . 41

River Ibbeville   ...... 62

Pointe Coupee    .      .       .      .      .      . 72

Tonicas      ....... 75

Pelousas     ....... j6

Natches     .      ...      .      .      . 78

Post of Arcansas       ..... 82

Cascasquias        .      .      .      .      .      . 84

La Praire de Roches  ..... 87

Fort Chartres     .      .      .      .      .      . 88

Saint Philippe     ...... 91

Kaoquias    ....... 92

Saint Louis, or Paincourt    .... 94

Sainte Genevieuve, or Misere                           95

Of the Country of the Illinois     ... 97

Of the Government of the Country of Illinois 99

Of the Inhabitants..... 102

Arret of the Superior Council of the Province

October 29, 1768        .... 105

Index.   The Editor .      .      .      .      . .163 
    
   ILLUSTRATIONS

Facsimile of Original Title-Page        .      . 21

Folding Maps and Plans    .      .    At end of volume

A Draught of the River Missisippi from the Balise up to Fort Chartres (in three parts)

A Plan of Mobile

Plan of New Orleans

Draught of the R. Ibbeville

Plan of Fort Rosalia

A Plan of Cascaskies 
    
   INTRODUCTION

Respecting Philip Pittman, the author of the book that is here reprinted, but few biographical data are obtainable. It appears from the British Army Lists that he was commissioned an ensign July 13, 1760 and he is reported as an ensign in the 48th Regiment of Foot in the Lists for 1761, 1762, and 1763. By the Peace of Paris England obtained from France all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi River except the Isle of Orleans, and from Spain the province of Florida. It immediately became necessary to occupy and to organize this newly acquired territory. August 7, 1763 the 3rd Battery of Royal Artillery from Havana received Pensacola from the Spanish commandant, and October 20 a detachment of Highlanders received Mobile from the French. Pittman must have come with the first British troops or soon afterward, since he says that he " resided five years as an engineer in those parts " and it is definitely known that he left them toward the close of 1768.

The King's proclamation of October 7 divided the territory acquired from France and Spain on the Gulf of Mexico into the two provinces of East and West Florida by the line of the Appalachicola. The military command of the two provinces was assigned to General Henry Bouquet, the hero of Pontiac's war, but he died soon after his arrival 
   IO        Pittman's Mississippi Settlements

there and the command devolved upon Colonel William Taylor. A Scotchman by the name of George Johnstone was appointed governor of West Florida and arrived early in 1764. He proved to be a man of violent temper and the two years of his administration were filled with continuous quarrels with the military authorities. As yet the Illinois villages had not been occupied by the English. For this purpose Major Arthur Loftus was sent from Mobile up the Mississippi with a detachment of the 22d regiment. Reaching a point, then known as Davion's heights, a little above the mouth of the Red River, he was attacked by the Tonicas on the twentieth of March, 1764, and driven back with a loss of five men killed and four wounded, as Pitt-man tells us. A few months later Pittman made an attempt to ascend the river. He does not mention it himself but Parkman found a record of it in Pittman's correspondence with D'Abbadie in the French archives. From this it appears that Pitt-man "bethought himself of assuming the disguise of a Frenchman, joining a party of Creole traders, and thus reaching his destination by stealth; but, weighing the risk of detection, he abandoned this design and returned to Mobile."

The attempts to reach the Illinois country from the south in 1764 having failed, in the spring of 1765 Major George Croghan was sent from Fort Pitt through the western country to propitiate the Indians. He reached Fort Chartres and returned to Detroit, whence he reported the success of his mission.  A company of the 42d Highlanders under 
   Introduction

Captain Thomas Stirling was then sent down the Ohio and arrived at Fort Chartres in time to take possession on October 10. In the spring of 1765 Pittman was making the survey of the Iberville and the report to General Gage in regard to it that he includes in his book. While Captain Stirling was floating down the Ohio River, Major Robert Farmer and the 34th Regiment of Foot, with Pittman as engineer, were slowly making their way up the Mississippi. Passing the Iberville in July, they reached the present site of Natchez in August, when Pittman says that he made his survey of Fort Rosalie. As they did not reach Fort Chartres until December 4, the date upon which Major Farmer superseded Captain Stirling, they must have been more than five months on the way. Pittman remained in the Illinois villages until the spring of 1767. On the way up the river and during the year that he spent in Illinois, he must have made the surveys and investigations that he reports in his book.

In March of 1767 General Frederick Haldimand arrived in Pensacola as the successor of General Bouquet in the command of the Southern District of North America. From his papers, which have been copied and calendared by the Canadian government, may be gathered the history of the Flor-idas during his administration. The following quotations from the calendar show that Pittman was busily engaged during the years 1767 and 1768 in making surveys in different parts of West Florida. April 31, 1767, "Lt. Pitman has arrived from Illinois." June 16, "Lt. Pittman gone with a surveyor 
   12        Pittman's Mississippi Settlements

employed by the Admiralty to prepare a plan of the Appalaches," which was the post at the head of Mobile Bay. October 30, " Capt. Denny, Commandant at Iberville, and Lieut. Pittman, hired a small schooner to come to Pensacola by Lake Pont-chartrain; left on the 8th and no word of her; not uneasy as some vessels have taken 42 days to come." November 28, General Haldimand writes: " Has employed Lt. Pittman in surveying the rivers leading to Tombecbay." Tombecbe was a French outpost on the Tombigbee above the confluence of the Black Warrior. December 16, Stuart writes Haldimand: "The expedition of Mr. Pitman will be delayed by bad weather." February 9, 1768, Acting Governor Montford Browne "Asks that Mr. Pitman be sent with him as engineer on a visit he proposes to make to different parts of the Province " and later in the month " Regrets that Mr. Pitman, engineer cannot be spared." February 28, General Haldimand notes " Return to Mobile of the garrison of Tombecbe. Survey of the river by Lieut. Pittman." The winter was one of unusual severity and Haldimand decided to abandon the post. Among the Haldimand papers are five undated reports addressed by "Lieut. Pittman, R. E." to General Haldimand.  Their titles are:

Description of the Fort at Appalache and the Lookout Tower. Description of the face of the country. Communication from Pensacola to Appalache. Communication from Appalache to St. Augustine. The boundaries of West Florida. 
   Introduction

13

Two engineering projects engaged the attention of the English in the Floridas: first the opening of a passage from the Mississippi to the Gulf by way of the Iberville, in order to reduce the distance and avoid the necessity of going to New Orleans, and second the building of a road connecting Mobile, Pensacola and St. Augustine. To the former Pittman had devoted a great deal of time. The latter was the subject of two of the papers just mentioned. It was also at this time that the surveys of Mobile and New Orleans were made.

Parkman has remarked the propensity of a handful of men in a wilderness to quarrel. The British in West Florida were no exception to the rule and Haldimand noted upon his arrival that party strife was the bane of the province. There were two factions : the military party and the adherents of the governor. With the latter Pittman allied himself. The outcome of the struggle between them was the court-martial of Major Farmer, which was the principal excitement in West Florida in 1767 and 1768 and the constant theme of General Haldimand's letters. Charges of embezzlement were made against Major Farmer by Governor Johnstone in September 1766. After Governor Johnstone's retirement Pittman took up the charges against Major Farmer and the Haldimand papers contain " Articles of accusation against Major Farmer, given in by Lt. Pittman, as corroborating the charge by Governor Johnstone." Farmer returned from Illinois for trial and made counter charges against Pittman. On account of the difficulty of getting officers to 
   14        Pittman's Mississippi Settlements

constitute the court, the trial was delayed until the spring of 1768. March 17 the court-martial "had at last assembled " and by June 26 Haldimand had transmitted its findings, which vindicated Farmer, to the Secretary of War. General Haldimand was unwilling to incur the trouble and expense of another court-martial. February 8 General Gage had written from New York that Lieut. Pittman might be sent to Headquarters for trial and April 29 Haldimand replied that he intended to send him. A month later, he writes: "Lieut. Pittman and Major Farmer may come to New York, where the former may be tried, if the latter chooses to prosecute." August 21 Haldimand writes to Farmer that "a courtmartial might be held at New York without delay, if he desires to prosecute Pittman." Farmer, however, appears to have been satisfied with his vindication and, upon the approval of the findings of the court-martial by the King, retired from the service and settled in Mobile. The details of this controversy seem trivial enough but they are after all merely a different phase of the struggle between military and civil power which in New England culminated in the Revolution.

Pittman left West Florida at the close of 1768, doubtless discomfited if not discredited by the outcome of Major Farmer's trial. He next appears as Captain Pittman, the author of The Present State of the European Settlements on the Missisippi, published by J. Nourse in London in 1770. He says that the book " was originally wrote at the request and for the perusal only, of the secretary of state 
   Introduction

15

for the colonies." Arriving in London it would be natural for Pittman to appeal to ex-Governor Johnstone, whose cause he had taken up in West Florida, and Johnstone, now a member of Parliament and a man of some influence, may have recommended Pittman to the favor of the ministry. As no further record of him has been found, it seems probable that he retired from the service upon his return to England and was brevetted a captain upon his retirement.

There were several contemporary notices of Pitt-man's book. The London Magazine announced its publication " price 6 s." with the remark that it was "An article of importance executed with considerable judgment and fidelity." The Gentleman's Magazine printed a series of extracts. The Monthly Review and Literary lournal transcribed "for the entertainment of our readers" the account of the country of the Illinois and of the government of the country, when belonging to the French, and gave the book an extended notice, commending its subject matter, reflecting mildly upon its style, but giving no information about the author not derivable from the book itself. Pittman's book was the first English book to describe the West. It was followed in course of time by the Topographical Descriptions of Governor Pownall, Thomas Hutchins, and Captain Imlay. It was the author's evident object to impress the English people with the advantage of the possession of the Floridas and the Mississippi. He printed the Arret of the Superior Council of October 29, 1768 in full for the 
   16        Pittman's Mississippi Settlements

purpose of emphasizing the extent of French discontent with Spanish rule and inspiring the English conquest of New Orleans. He might possibly have accomplished something in this direction had not the outbreak of the American Revolution diverted attention from the territory in question and changed the course of events.

Later historians have found the book an important historical source. It was particularly commended by Mr. William F. Poole, who was one of the earliest of American scholars to appreciate the full significance of the West. Mr. Joseph Wallace reprints a large part of the text in his Illinois and Louisiana under French rule. The plans of Mobile, New Orleans, Fort Rosalie and Kaskaskia have been frequently reproduced. In a note in the first volume of the Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Mr. H. W. Beckwith claimed that the plan of Kaskaskia was drawn by Thomas Hutchins but gave no proof of the statement. It is not to be supposed that Pittman himself made all the surveys upon which his maps were based. There was published in London in 1772 a map of the Course of the Mississipi, from the Balise to fort Chartres; taken on an expedition to the Illinois, in the latter end of the year 1765. By lieut. Ross of the 34th regiment: improved from the surveys of that river made by the French. This map was reissued in 1775 for Jefferys's American Atlas and parts of it are reproduced in Winsor's Mississippi Basin. It was based upon the surveys made by the expedition that Pittman accompanied and from its 
   Introduction

*7

title it appears that there were earlier French surveys of the river. Pittman merely used all the available material for the drawings from which Thomas Kitchin engraved the maps and plans in his book.

From the time of La Salle to the American Civil War the possession of the Mississippi has been a controlling motive in American history, though its full importance was not always recognized. Even Burke, if he was the author of the Account of the European Settlements in America, thought that Mobile was more important than New Orleans not only for the control of the Gulf but of the inland trade as well, and Great Britain refused both banks of the Mississippi in 1763 and insisted upon the cession of Florida. Pittman's presence upon the scene and his " acquaintance with the principal inhabitants" just at this time enabled him to describe the Mississippi settlements as they were at the end of an era, the era of French possession. He saw the Illinois villages before they were deserted by the French and before the coming of the Americans. He was in close touch with the French at New Orleans at the time of the insurrection against Ulloa and just before the coming of "Cruel O'Reilly." His picture has therefore the advantage of having been taken at an important historical moment.

F. H. H. 
   7 
   PITTMAN'S EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI 
    
   THE

PRESENT STATE

OF THE

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS

ON THE

MISSISIPPI;

with

A Geographical Description of that River, illustrated by PLANS    and DRAUGHTS.

By Captain  PHILIP PITTMAN.

LONDON, Printed for J. Nour.se, Bookfeller to His MAJESTY. mdcclxx. 
    
   PREFACE

The European settlements on the river Missisippi comprehend Louisiana, part of West Florida, and the country of Illinois. Five years residence as an engineer in those countries, during which time I was chiefly employed in surveying and exploring their interior parts, and an acquaintance with the principal inhabitants, enables me to speak with at least as much authority as any author who has hitherto wrote on the same subject.

Louisiana is no longer the same as in the time of Pere Hennepin,1 and all other authors that I have read on this subject rather abound with Indian stories and talks, than with useful information.

Father Charlevoix2 made so rapid a progress through those countries, that the greatest part of what he advances must be from the doubtful information of others, and not from his own personal knowledge. Neither is the reader recompensed by the small quantity of pure ore he can extract from that mass of dross, in the elaborate accounts of Le Page du Pratz.3

1A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America (London, 1698).

'Journal of a Voyage to North America (London, 1761), and Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguicres (London, 1763)- These are different translations of the third volume of Charlevoix's Nouvcllc France (Paris, 1744). Appearing toward the close of the Seven Years' War, they are said to have impressed the ministry with the importance of acquiring Canada. The Histoire had not at this time been translated into English.

*Histoire de la Louisiane (Paris, 1758; English translation, London, 1763).

23 
   24        Pittman's Missisippi Settlements

It may be thought extraordinary that I have confined my accounts to the banks of the Missisippi, and not touched on the other parts of West Florida, which may be supposed equally interesting.

This work was originally wrote at the request, and for the perusal only, of the secretary of state for the colonies; [vi] and I imagined that he must have received every information necessary to form a perfect knowledge of that province, from persons who have commanded in it. Besides, my ingenious friend governor Johnstone1 has told me, that he intends soon to publish a book on this subject; by which means the deficiency in mine will be amply made up, and the publick will have the advantage of receiving instruction and entertainment from a much more pleasing and abler pen.

I am surprised that nobody has yet attempted to wipe off the unfavourable impressions that have taken place in the minds of many people, from the unjust reports made of the climate of West Florida, and which still retards the settling of that fine country. A regard for truth, and a desire to render service to that valuable province, the welfare of which has been obstructed by ignorance and misrepresentation, makes me take this occasion to shew the true causes of its supposed unhealthiness.

Pensacola and Mobile have both proved fatal to our troops; the former from mismanagement, the

1 George Johnstone was Governor of West Florida from 1763 to 1766, and was later a member of Parliament and commodore in the navy. The projected book was "a description of the province for the purpose of attracting settlers." 
   Pittman's Missisippi Settlements 25

latter from its situation. When we took possession of Pensacola, in the latter end of the year 1763, it consisted of a fort and a few straggling houses; the fort was constructed of high stockades, enclosing in a very small space a house for the governor, and several miserable huts, built with pieces of bark, covered with the same materials, and most of them without floors; so that in the summer they were as hot as stoves, and the land engendered all sorts of vermin: in these wretched habitations the officers and soldiers dwelt.

[vii] After we had possession some time, the commandant, with a view of making the fortification more respectable, surrounded the fort with a ditch; which, in fact, could answer no other purpose, than holding a quantity of stagnated water to empoison the little air that could find its way into the garrison. The thirty-first regiment of foot, which suffered remarkably from sickness and mortality in this place, was sent to it in the hottest part of the summer of 1765, unprovided with every thing necessary to preserve health in such a sudden change of climate. Brigadier-general Haldimand,1 in the beginning of 1767, immediately after his arrival here, caused the enceinte of the fort to be considerably extended, widened the streets, removed every thing that could obstruct a free circulation of air, and laid the place open to the sea, to give admission to the breezes.   The ensuing summer was

1 General, afterward Sir Frederick Haldimand was commander-in-chief of the military forces in the Floridas from 1766 to 1773. 
   26 Pittman's Missisippi Settlements

excessive hot, the thermometer having rose to one hundred and fourteen degrees; yet, by the salutary precautions the general had taken, the troops were remarkably healthy, few fell sick, and scarce any died; although their lodgings, which of themselves may be supposed sufficient to destroy a good constitution, were little improved: from hence I presume that Pensacola is as healthy as any English settlement in the southern provinces of North America.

Mobile is situated on the banks of the river of that name, just at the place where the fresh and salt waters mix; when the tide goes out it leaves an abundance of small fishes on the marshes which lie opposite the town, and the heat of the sun in summer kills the fish; and the stench of them, of the stagnated water in the neighbouring swamps, and the slimy mud, render the air putrid. To [viii] this may be added, that the water of the wells is brackish, and there is none to be found wholsome within less than one mile and a half of the place. The twenty-first regiment of foot was sent to Mobile at the same time that the thirty-first regiment garrisoned Pensacola, and being equally unprovided with things necessary for troops newly arrived from Europe, and unseasoned to such a climate, suffered almost as much. I shall only add on this subject, which is a little distant from the true intent of my preface, that West Florida possesses the greatest advantage, as to its situation for commerce, and the communications to the different parts are rendered easy by fine navigable rivers, the banks of which 
   Pittman's Missisippi Settlements 27

are covered by a fresh luxuriant soil, capable of producing every thing natural to these climates.

I have endeavoured to be as concise as possible; indeed the purpose it was wrote for seemed to demand it: I could with ease have been much more diffuse on subjects in which so much matter is contained.

It is with fear and diffidence that I presume to appear as an author; but a desire of communicating what I have been assured by friends would be of use to the publick, has been my only inducement; and if they have judged right, my utmost wishes will be amply gratified. 
    
   THE PRESENT STATE OF THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS ON THE MISSISIPPI

OF THE RIVER MISSISIPPI

The river Missisippi has been known by a variety of names; the first discoverers from Canada gave it the name of Colbert, in honour to that great minister, who was then in power. The famous adventurer, Monsieur de Salle, when he discovered the mouth, called it the river Saint Louis, - by which name it has ever been distinguished in all publick acts, respecting the province of Louissianna: But its present general appellation of Missisippi1 is a corruption of Metchasippi; by which name it is still known to the Northern Savages, that word signifying, in their language, the Father of Rivers.

Nothing can, with propriety, be asserted with respect to the source of this river, tho' there are people still existing, who pretend to have been there. The accounts, which I think should be paid most attention to, are those which have been given by the Sioux, a [2] very numerous itinerant nation of Indians, who generally reside in the countries North of the Missisippi:   A few of them have sometimes

1 There is great variation among early writers in the spelling of Mississippi. The original of the modern form, Misisipi, has been gradually altered by doubling the consonants. It is still spelled with one "p" in French.

29 
   30 Pittman's Missisippi Settlements

come to the French post, on the River Illinois, to barter skins and furrs; but in general they dislike the Europeans, and have little inclination to be much acquainted with them. Their account is as follows: The river Missisippi rises from a very extensive swamp, and its waters are encreased by several rivers (some of them not inconsiderable) emptying themselves into it in its course to the fall of St. Anthony, which, by their accounts, is not less than seven hundred leagues from the great swamps: This is formed by a rock running a-cross the river, and falls- about twelve feet perpendicular; and this place is known to be eight hundred leagues from the sea. So that it is most probable that the Missisippi runs, at least, four thousand five hundred miles.

The principal rivers which fall into the Missisippi, below the fall of St. Anthony, are, the river St. Pierre,1 which comes from the West; Saint Croix, from the East; Moingona,2 which is two hundred and fifty leagues below the fall, comes from the West, and is said to run one hundred and fifty leagues; and the river Illinois, the source of which is near the lake Michigan, East of the Missisippi two hundred leagues.

The source of the river Missoury is unknown; the French traders go betwixt three and four hundred leagues up, to traffic with the Indians who inhabit near its banks, and this branch of commerce is very considerable; it employs annually eight thou-

1 Minnesota River.

2 Des Moines River. 
   Pittman's Missisippi Settlements 31

sand pounds worth of European goods, including a small quantity of rum, of all which the freight amounts to about one hundred per cent. Their returns are, at least, at the rate of three hundred per cent, so that they are certain of two hundred per cent profit. The mouth of this great river is five leagues below the river Illinois, and is generally called five hundred from the sea, tho' in fact it is not more than four hundred and fifty. From its confluence to its source is supposed to be [3] eight hundred leagues, running from the north-west to the south-east. The muddy waters of the Missotiry prevail over those of the Missisippi, running with violent rapidity to the ocean. The Missisippi glides with a gentle and clear stream, 'till it meets with this interruption. The next river of note, is the Ohio or Belle Riviere; it empties itself about seventy leagues below the Missoury: its source is near the lake Erie, running from the north-east to the south-west, upwards of four hundred leagues.

Ninety leagues further down is the river Saint Francis, on the west side of the Missisippi: this is a very small river, and is remarkable for nothing but being the general rendez-vous of the hunters from New Orleans, who winter there, and make a provision of salted meats, suet, and bears oil, for the supply of that city. The river Arkansas is thirty-five leagues lower down, and two hundred from New Orleans; it is so called from a nation of Indians of the same name; its source is said to be 
   32 Pittman's Missisippi Settlements

in the same latitude as Santa Fe in New Mexico, and holds its course near three hundred leagues.

The river Yazous comes from the north-east, and discharges itself into the Missisippi, sixty leagues from the Arkansas: formerly a nation of Indians of the same name had their villages on it, and there was a French post and settlement. The nation is entirely extinct, and there is not the least trace of any settlement.

It is near sixty leagues from this little river to the river Rouge, which is so called from its waters, being of a reddish colour, and they tinge those of the Missisippi at the time of the floods; its source is in New Mexico, and it runs about two hundred leagues: the river Noir empties itself into this river about ten leagues from its confluence. The famous Ferdinand Soto ended his discoveries at the entrance of the river Rouge, and was buried there.

[4] Near seventy leagues up this river is a very considerable post, belonging to the French;1 it is a frontier on the Spanish settlements, being twenty miles from the Fort of Adaies.2 The French fort is garrisoned by a captain, two subalterns, and about fifty men: there are forty families, consisting mostly of discharged soldiers, and some merchants who trade with the Spaniards. A great quantity of tobacco is cultivated at this port, and sells for a good price at New Orleans, being held in great

1 Natchitoches.

2 Adaes was on the Sabine River. The name was that of an Indian tribe among whom the Spaniards had a mission.

01 
   Pittman's Missisippi Settlements 33

esteem: they send also some peltry, which they receive in trade from the neighbouring Indians.

From the river Rouge to the sea, there are only some small brooks, of no account. The Bayouk of Pelousas, which is about three miles from the river Rouge and the river Ibberville, are described in the account hereafter given of the settlements on the river Missisippi.

It is peculiar to the river Missisippi, that no part of the waters which overflow its banks, ever return to their former channel: this is a circumstance, which I believe is not to be met with in any other river in the world. All the lands from the river Ibbeville to the sea, have been formed in the succession of ages, by the vast quantities of slimy mud, trees, dead wood, and leaves which the river brings down at its annual floods, which begin in the month of March, by the melting of the snow and ice in the northern parts. This innundation continues three months. The muddy lands produce long grass, canes, and reeds in great abundance: at the overflowings of the river, the grass, canes, and reeds stop great quantities of the mud and rubbish that descend with the current. The long grass, &c. nearest the river, must receive a greater quantity of this rubbish than that which is more distant, and this causes the bank of the Missisippi to be higher than the interior land, and accounts for the waters never returning to the river; and we may reasonably suppose, that the lakes on each side are parts of the sea, not yet filled up.  Thus the land is annually raised, 
   34        Pittman's Missisippi Settlements

and continually [5] gains on the sea. The Balize, a small fort, erected by the French on a little island, was, in the year 1734, at the mouth of the river; it is now two miles up. In the year 1767, Don Antonio D'Ulloa erected some barracks on a small island (to which he gave the name of Saint Carlos) for the convenience of pilots, and other purposes, being near the south-east entrance of the river, and a more dry and higher situation than any thereabouts. There was not the least appearance of this island twenty years ago.

Before I quit this subject, I must observe, that on digging ten or twelve feet in the lands I have above described, large bodies of trees have been frequently found. The craw-fish abound in this country; they are in every part of the earth, and when the inhabitants chuse a dish of them, they send to their gardens, where they have a small pond dug for that purpose, and are sure of getting as many as they have occasion for. A dish of shrimps is as easily procured by hanging a small canvas bag with a bit of meat in it, to the bank of the river, and letting it drop a little below the