LOUISIANA (ante). In 1541 De Soto visited and explored the region around New Orleans, and, dying in the following year, was buried in the waters of the Mississippi. In 1673 fattier Marquette and his Canadian followers descended the river to its mouth, but founded no settlement. In 1682 La Salle descended the river and took possession of the country in the name of Louis XIV., in whose honor he named it Louisiana. It is believed, however, that no colony was founded before Iberville in 1699, with a num ber of colonists, settled in Biloxi, now in Alabama. Iberville, dying soon afterwards, was succeeded by Bienville, who, after he and his colonists had endured great priva tions, led them to the present site of New Orleans in 1706, where they made a stand and unfurled the flan. of France. The colony languished, but the colonists did not abandon their post. °In 1712 Louis XIV. gave to Anthony Crozat, a Paris merchant, the exclusive privilege for 15 years of trading in all this vast region, of sending a ship once a year to Africa for a cargo of slaves, and of working the mines, one-fourth of the products of which Crozat agreed to pay over to the king. In 1717 he relinquished the colony as unprofitable, and the province fell into the hands of John Law, the great speculator, who soon came to financial dicaster, and was followed by Bienville, who built up the town of New Orleans, which was made the capital of the colony in 1723. The affairs of the new settlement remained under the direction of the French crown until 1762, when the province was secretly transferred to Spain, which ruled it with a rod of iron for 38 years, when in 1800 it was restored to Frauce. Three years later it was sold to the United States for $15,000,000. At that time it embraced nearly all of the present states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Dakotah territory. most of Kansas and the Indian territory, part of Colorado, most of Wyoming, and the whole of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington territory. In 1804 the southern portion of this vast region was organized by congress as the territory of Orleans. In 1810 another part of the state, lying between the -Mississippi and the Amity and Pearl rivers, was annexed to Orleans; and in April, 1812. the territory as thus constituted was admitted to the union as a state, with the name of Louisiana. Three mouths after this the United States declared war against Great Britain. The war continued a little over two years, the treaty of peace being signed at Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814. Before news of
the peace could cross the ocean a British force of 12,000 rnen, led by sir John Packen• ham, landed on the coast of Louisiana and made an attack upon New Orleans, which was successfully resisted by gen. Jackson with only 5,000 men, mostly militia from Tennessee and Kentucky. The progress of the state after this was rapid.
The surface of Louisiana is mostly low and level, much of the southern part especi ally being not more than 10 ft. above the sea-level and liable to frequent inundations from the rivers. The delta of the :Mississippi is full of swamps, and the coast is lined with salt marshes. The land along the 'Mississippi below New Orleans and 120 m above is below the surface of the river at high water, and protected from inundation by artificial embankments called levees. A breach in a levee, called in the language of the country a crevasse, sometimes occurs, inundating hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable land and destroying the °Towing crops. The northern and western part of the state is somewhat broken b3r low hills, nowhere rising above 200 feet. The river bottoms are exceedingly fertile, and the alluvial land is easily drained. The latter is heavily timbered, and covered with a thick undergrowth of cane. The prairies are better fitted for grazing than for culture. The hilly portion of the state consists mainly of pine barrens, on which are found oak, elm, cypress, honey-locust, and other timber. Among the forest trees of the state are the ash, walnut, hickory, poplar, mulberry, magnolia, cotton-wood, maple, buckeye, willow, paw paw, pecan, dogwood, and persimmon. The wild cane sometimes grows to a height of 30 feet. Among the fruit trees are the quince, plum, peach, fig. orange, lemon, and lime. The orange grows only in the southern, the apple only in the northern, section. The chief agricultural staples are cotton, sugar, rice, and corn. The rice and sugar plantations are found only in the southern part of the state, below lat. 30°, upon the alluvial lands along the Mississippi. Nearly all the sugar made in the United States is produced here. It is a somewhat uncertain crop. The mineral productions of the state are unimportant. Rock salt of unknown depth is found at Petit Anse upon an area of more than 140 acres, and in Calcasieu parish are deposits of gypsum and sulphur. There are salt wells in Bienville, Natchitoches, and Winn parishes.