CHEF MENTEUR, THE LYING CHIEF.

357

said that they suddenly made their appearance, and rapidly overran the whole country. That appearance was so spontaneous, that it seemed as if they had sprung up from the earth like mushrooms. With regard to their manners, their customs, and their degree of civilization, it is sufficient to say, that they had many characteristic traits in common with the other Indian nations. However, they were much inferior to the Natchez in many respects. They had more imperfect notions of the divinity, and were much more superstitious. They were proverbially filthy and stupid in the estimation of all who knew them, and they were exceedingly boastful, although notoriously less brave than any other of the red tribes.

What the Choctaws were most conspicuous for, was their hatred of falsehood and their love of truth. Tra dition relates that one of their chiefs became so addicted to the vice of lying, that, in disgust, they drove him away from their territory. In the now parish of Orleans, back of Gentilly, there is a space of land, in the shape of an isthmus, projecting itself into Lake Pontchartrain, not far from the Rigolets, and terminating in what is called "Pointe aux herbes," or herb point. It was there that the exiled Choctaw chief retired with his family and a few adherents, near a bayou which discharges itself into the lake. From that circumstance, that space of land received, and still retains the appellation of " Chef Menteur," or "Lying Chief."

The Chickasaws ruled over a fertile region, which extended from the Mississippi to the Tombecbee, in the upper part of the state of Mississippi, and near the frontiers of the present state of Tennessee. They numbered from two to three thousand warriors, and were by far the most warlike of all the Louisiana tribes. They had numerous slaves, well-cultivated fields, and numerous

358

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

herds of cattle. They never deviated in their attachment to the English, and they became exceedingly troublesome to the French. With some shades of difference, they had, on the main, the invariable and well-known attributes of the Indian character. Therefore, to pur sue the subject into further details would, perhaps, be running the danger of falling into the dullness of monotonous and uninteresting description. Suffice it to say, that they were the Spartans, as the Natchez were the Athenians, and the Choctaws the Boeotians of Louisiana.

FOURTH LECTURE.

TRANSFER OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT TO NEW ORLEANS-ITS POPULATION AND APPEARANCE IN 1724-BOISBRIANT, GOVERNOR AD INTERIM-BLACK CODE-EXPULSION OF THE JEWS-CATHOLIC RELIGION TO BE THE SOLE RELIGION OF THE LAND-PERIer appointed GOVERNOR-LEAGUE OF ALL THE OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT AGAINST DE LA CHAISE, THE KING'S COMMISSARY-HE TRIUMPHS OVER THEM ALL-REPUBLICANISM OF THE COLONISTS THE URSULINE NUNS AND THE JESUITS PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS MADE OR CONTEMPLATED BY GOVERNOR PERIER -CENSUS IN 1727-EXPENSES OF THE COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION-EDICT OF HENRY THE SECOND AGAINST UNMARRIED WOMEN-OTHER FACTS AND EVENTS FROM 1723 TO 1727-TRADITIONS ON THE MUSIC HEARD AT THE MOUTH OF PASCAGOULA RIVER, AND ON THE DATE TREE AT THE CORNER OF DAUPHINE AND ORLEANS STREETS.

IN 1723, the seat of government was at last and definitively transferred to New Orleans, much to the satisfaction of Bienville. That city, now so populous and so flourishing, contained at that time about one hundred very humble dwellings, and between two and three hundred souls. All the streets were drawn at right angles, dividing the town into sixty-six squares of three hundred feet each. The city thus presented a front on the river of eleven squares, by six in depth. The squares were divided into lots of sixty feet front on the street, with a depth varying from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty. The name of New Orleans was given to the city in compliment to the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, and Chartres-street was called after the Duke of Chartres, son of the Regent :-Maine, Condé, Conti, Toulouse, and Bourbon streets were also named after the princes of the royal blood, such as the Prince of Conti, Duke of Maine,

360

THE "GERMAN COAST."

Prince of Condé, Count of Toulouse, and Duke of Bourbon. One of the streets was honored with the name of Bienville, the founder of the city, and deservedly has that name been lately bestowed on one of the parishes of this state. The only establishments which then existed between New Orleans and Natchez, were those of Mezières and St. Reine, a little below Point Coupeé; this of Diron d'Artaguette, at Baton Rouge; that of Paris Duvernay, near Bayou Manchac; of the Marquis d'Ancenis, near Bayou Lafourche; of the Marquis d'Artagnac, at the Cannes Brulées, or Burnt Canes; of De Meuse, a little lower, and of the Brothers Chauvin, at Tchoupitoulas. With the exception of the Chauvins, these aristocratic possessors of the virgin soil of Louisiana were not destined to strike deep roots in it, and their names soon disappeared from the list of the landholders in the colony.

In that year, however, another settlement, which was to grow rapidly in importance, was made on that portion of the banks of the river which now forms the parishes of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist. Large tracts of land were conceded to those Germans, whom Law had sent from Alsatia, to settle on the twelve square miles of territory which had been granted to him on Arkansas River, by the India Company. When these German families were informed of the fate of Law, and saw themselves abandoned to their own resources in that distant part of the colony, they broke up their establishment, and descended the Mississippi in a body, with the intention of returning to their native country. But, fortunately, they were prevailed upon to settle at a distance of about thirty miles from New Orleans, on a section of the banks of the river, which, from that circumstance, drew the appellation of the German Coast, under which it was long known. Every Saturday, they

SUFFERING FROM WANT OF PROVISIONS.

361

were seen floating down the river in small boats, to carry to the market of New Orleans, the provisions which were the result of their industry. From this humble but decent origin, issued some of our most respectable citizens, and of our most wealthy sugar planters. They have, long ago, forgotten the German language, and adopted the French, but the names of some of them clearly indicate the blood that flows in their veins, although more than one name has been so Frenchified, as to appear of Gallic parentage. The German Coast, so poor and beggarly at first, became in time the producer and the receptacle of such wealth, that, a century after, it was called the Gold Coast, or Côte d'or.

In the very year when these industrious people came to reside at the German Coast, and before they could show what rich harvests could spring from the prolific soil of Louisiana, the colony suffered extremely from the want of provisions, and, in a dispatch of the 24th of January, the Superior Council informed the French government "that the colonists would absolutely starve, if the India Company did not send by every vessel an ample supply of salt meat." From 1699 to 1723, such representations, however incredible they may appear, had been made every year, and had forced the French government into heavy expenses, so that it is calculated in a memoir of that epoch, that the few individuals scattered over Louisiana had, at an average, cost annually to France, in provisions alone, about one hundred and fifty thousand livres. There must certainly have been much abuse and malversation at the bottom of this state of things, and it is evident that there was in the organization of the colony a defect, which, if it starved some, fattened others. Be it as it may, the existence of the colony was nothing but a pro