Louisiana

Inland waterways have always been an important factor in Louisiana's transportation system. There are systems of improved bayous, lakes and canals, which, in conjunction with the Missis sippi river, afford a total navigable length of waterways amounting to approximately 1,800 miles. Chief among the artificial water ways is the industrial canal (opened Feb. 6, 1923) which con nects the Mississippi river at New Orleans with Lake Pontchar train, thus giving shipping a more direct access to the sea. Corn merce on the Mississippi river between Vicksburg, Mississippi, and New Orleans amounted, in to 9,186,967 tons, of which the shipment of petroleum and its products comprised 7,304,433 tons. The total water-borne imports and exports for the State in 1935 were 2,456,682 and 2,100,407 cargo tons, respectively. Of this total the city of New Orleans had imports of 2,197,389 tons and exports of 1,471,055 tons, with a combined value of $267, This marks an increase of $42,578,000 over the total for 1934. Other ports of some importance are Baton Rouge, Avondale and Saint Rose.

Exploration and Settlement.

The early history of Louisi ana belongs to the romance of American history. It is possible that the mouth of the Mississippi was discovered in 1519 by Alonso Alvarez de Pilieda, but this interpretation of his vague manuscript remains conjectural; and that it was discovered by the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez cannot be established. That Hernando de Soto entered the borders of the present State of Louisiana, and that his burial place in the Mississippi was where that river takes the waters of the Red, are probable enough, but incapable of conclusive proof. Survivors of de Soto's expedition, however, descended the Mississippi to its mouth in 1542. Spain set up no claim to the region, and when Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, came down the river in 1682 from the French pos sessions to the north, he took possession in the name of France, which thereby gained her first title to the vast drainage basin of the Mississippi. In honour of Louis XIV., the new possession was named "Louisiana"--a name then and until 1812 applied to a much larger area than that of the present State. La Salle at tempted to settle a colony in 1684, but missed the Mississippi's mouth and landed in Texas, where he was murdered in 1687 by some of his followers. In 1697, after Ryswick, Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville (1661-1706) was chosen to lead another colony, which reached the Gulf coast early in 1699. Soon after Iberville had built Fort Maurepas (near the present city of Biloxi, Mississippi) in 1699, a fort was erected on the Mississippi river about 4o m. above the mouth.

This was the earliest settlement in what is now the State of Louisiana. It was unhealthy and unprosperous. From 1712 to 1717 "Louisiana," or the French possessions of the Mississippi valley, was held by Antoine Crozat (1655-1738) as a private grant from the king. It proved as great a drain upon his purse as it had proved to the crown, and he willingly parted with it to the so-called "Western Company," afterwards incorporated with the great Company of the Indies (see LAW, JOHN). The Corn pany accomplished much for the colony of Louisiana. Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville (168o-1768), a brother of Iberville, was sent out as governor. For 4o years he was the life of the colony. One of his first acts was to found the city of New Orleans on its present site in 1718. In this same year seven

vessels were sent from France with stores and immigrants; eleven followed during the next year. Five hundred negroes from the Guinea coast were imported in 1719, and many hundreds more soon followed. The Law company eventually came to an end fatal to its creditors in France, but its misfortunes did not check the prosperity of "Louisiana." The company retained its grant of the colony until 1731, when it reverted to the crown. Cotton culture began in 1740, and sugar-cane was successfully intro duced from Santo Domingo by the Jesuits in 1751. Tafia rum and a waxy, sticky sugar syrup subsequently became important prod ucts; but not until the end of the century were the means found to crystallize sugar and so give real prosperity to the industry.

The Spanish Period.

By a secret treaty of Nov. 3, 1762, "Louisiana" was transferred from France to Spain. This treaty was not made public for a year and a half, and Spain did not take full possession of the colony until 1769. By a treaty between Spain and France on the one hand and Great Britain and Portu gal on the other, signed at Paris in Feb. 1763, all that portion lying east of the Mississippi river, the Iberville river, and Lakes Maure pas and Pontchartrain was ceded to Great Britain. The inter national interests thus created, and others that sprang from them, heavily burdened the diplomacy, and even threatened the safety of the United States after they were placed in possession of the eastern bank of the Mississippi down to 31° in 1783.

The news of the cession of the colony to Spain roused strong discontent among the colonists. Antonio de Ulloa (1716-95), a distinguished Spanish naval officer and scholar, came to New Orleans in 1766 to take possession for his king. An official census taken the same year showed a total population of 5,552. The merchants, many civil officers and the military refused to sup port Ulloa who was compelled to continue in an ambiguous and anomalous position—which his lack of military force probably first compelled him to assume—ruling the colony through the French governor, Philippe Aubry, without publicly exhibiting his powers. When the colonists found protests at Paris unavail ing, they turned to the idea of independence, but sought in vain the armed support of the British at Pensacola. Nevertheless they compelled Ulloa to leave the colony in Nov. 1768. There is no doubt that the men who led the Creole opposition contemplated independence, and this gives the incident peculiar interest. In the summer of 1769 Alejandro O'Reilly came to New Orleans with a strong military force (3,60o troops). Beginning his rule with an affability that allayed suspicions and securing from Aubry proofs against the popular leaders, he invited them to a reception and arrested them while they were his guests. Five were put to death and others were imprisoned at Havana. O'Reilly put down the rebellion with determination and in accord with the instructions of his king. He was, however, liberal and enlightened in his general rule. Among the incidents of these troubled years was the arrival in Louisiana (after 1765) of some hundreds of French exiles from Acadia, who made their homes in the Attakapas country. There their descendants live to-day, still somewhat primitively, and still in somewhat of the glamour thrown over land and people by the Evangeline of Longfellow.