shingles. The streets cross each other at right angles, and are 32 French feet wide. The squares between the intersections of the streets have a front of 300 French feet. There is in the middle of the front of the city a place d'armes, facing which the church and town house are built. There are from 12 to 1,400 houses in the city and suburbs. The population may be estimated at 10,000, including the seamen and garrison. It was fortified in 1793, but the works were originally defective, could not have been defended, and are now in ruins. The powder magazine is on the opposite bank of the river. The public buildings and other public property in NewOrleans are as follows: Two very extensive brick stores, from 160 to 180 feet in length and about 30 in breadth. They are one-story high, and covered with shingles. A government house, stables, and garden, occupying a front of about 220 feet on the river, in the middle of the town, and extending 336 feet back to the next street. A military hospital. An ill-built custom-house of wood, almost in ruins, in the upper part of the city, near the river. An extensive barrack in the lower part of the city, fronting on the river, and calculated to lodge 12 or 1,400 men. A large lot adjoining the king's stores, with a few sheds in it. It serves as a park for artillery. A prison, town house, market house, assembly room, some ground rents, and the common about the town. A public school for the rudiments of the Spanish language. A cathedral church unfinished, and some houses belonging to it. A charitable hospital, with some houses belonging to it, and a revenue of 1,500 dollars annually, endowed by an individual lately deceased. The canal de Carondelet has been already described. * Number of Inhabitants.— According to the annexed census, No. 2, of Louisiana, including Pensacola and the Natchez, as made in 1785, the whole number of inhabitants amounted to 32,062, of which 14,215 were free whites, 1,303 free people of colour, and 16,544 slaves. The statement, No. 3, from the latest documents, makes the whole number 42,375, the free whites, 21,244, the free people of colour. 1,768, and the slaves, 12,920. *Referring to appendix not here printed. A particular statement respecting the population, &c., of Upper Louisiana, and another containing the census of New Orleans, in this year, are numbered 4 and 5 in the appendix. These papers certainly exhibit a smaller number than the real population of the country. From an official document, made in July last, and received from Atacapas since the statement, No. 3, was formed, it appears that it contained 2,270 whites, 210 free people of colour, 1,266 slaves, in all 3,746 souls instead of 1,447, as therein stated. It is highly probable that the return for the neighbouring district of Opelousas is in the same proportion underrated. A conjectural estimation made by a gentleman of great respectability and correct information, residing at Natchez, raises the number of whites in the island of New Orleans, on the west side of the river, and some settlements on the east side, to 50, 150, and the number of blacks to 39,820. His statement is also subjoined, No. 6. It is at all times difficult to obtain the full census of a county, and the impediments are increased in this from its scattered population. The actual enumeration may therefore fall short of the true numbers. Militia.—There is a militia in Louisiana. The following is the return of it, made to the court of Spain, by the Baron of Carondelet. ――― From Balize to the city - volunteers of the Mississippi, Artillery company, with supernumeraries, Mixed legion of the Mississippi, comprehending Galveztown, Baton-Rouge, Pointe Coupee, Atacapas, and Opelousas, viz. Militia. 400 500 120 100 300 1,600 Avoyelles, 1 company of infantry, These are always above the com- } 10 companies, viz. 2 of grenadiers, 8 fusileers, Mobille and the country east of Lake Ponchartrain, 2 companies of horse and foot incomplete, 3. Atacapas, along the coast, between the Delta of the Mississippi and the river Sabine, 4. Opelousas, 5,440 The same gentleman alluded to, page [13], makes the number of the militia to amount to 10,340 men within the same limits to which his estimate of the population applies. He distributes them in the several settlements, as follows: 1. The island of New-Orleans, with the opposite margin and the adjacent settlements, 2. The west margin from Manchac, including Pointe Coupee, and extending to the Red River, 5. Red River, including Bayou Bœuf, Avoyelles, Rapide, and Natchitoches, 6. Ouachita, 7. Concord, 8. Arkansas, 9. New Madrid and its vicinity, 10. Illinois and Missouri, II. The settlements on the east side of the Mississippi, from the American line to the Iberville, and some other settlements, 100 100 200 100 800 1,000 120 5,000 800 350 750 1,000 300 40 150 350 1,000 600 10,340 It is to be observed that none of these statements include the country beyond the river Sabine, nor even all those which lie eastwardly of it. Data are also wanting to give them. Fortifications.- St. Louis has a lieutenant colonel to com mand in it, and but few troops. Baton-Rouge is an ill-constructed fort, and has about 50 men. In describing the canal of Carondelet, the small fort of St. Jean has been mentioned, as has the block house at the Balize in its proper place. The fortifications of New-Orleans, noticed before, consist of five illconstructed redoubts, with a covered way, palisade and ditch. The whole is going fast to decay, and it is supposed they would be of but little service in case of an attack. Though the powder magazine is on the opposite side of the river, there is no sufficient provision made for its removal to the city, in case of need. The fort of Plaquemines, which is about twelve or thirteen leagues from the sea, is an ill-constructed, irregular brick work, on the eastern side of the Mississippi, with a ditch in front of the river, and protected on the lower side by a deep creek, flowing from the river to the sea. It is, however, imperfectly closed behind, and almost without defence there, too much reliance having been placed on the swampiness of the ground, which hardens daily. It might be taken, perhaps, by escalade, without difficulty. It is in a degree ruinous. The principal. front is meant to defend the approach from the sea, and can oppose, at most, but eight heavy guns. It is built at a turn in the river, where ships in general must anchor, as the wind which brings them up so far is contrary in the next reach, which they mostly work through; and they would, therefore, be exposed to the fire of the fort. On the opposite bank are the ruins of a small closed redoubt, called Fort Bourbon, usually guarded by a sergeant's command. Its fire was intended to Hank that of the fort of Plaquemines, and prevent shipping and craft from ascending or descending on that side. When a vessel appears, a signal is made on one side, and answered on the other. Should she attempt to pass without sending a boat on shore, she would be immediately fired upon. Indians. The Indian nations within the limits of Louisiana are as far known as follows, and consist of the numbers hereafter specified. On the eastern bank of the Mississippi, about 25 leagues above Orleans, the remains of the nation of Houmas, or Red Men, which do not exceed 60 persons. There are no other Indians settled on this side of the river, either in Louisiana or West Florida, though they are at times frequented by parties of wandering Choctaws. On the west side of the Mississippi are the remains of the Tounicas, settled near, and above Pointe Coupee on the river, consisting of fifty or sixty persons. In the Atacapas.— On the lower parts of the Bayou Teche, at about eleven or twelve leagues from the sea, are two villages of Chitimachas, consisting of about an hundred souls. The Atacapas, properly so called, dispersed thoughout the district, and chiefly on the Bayou or creek of Vermillion, about one hundred souls. Wanderers of the tribes of Bilexis and Choctaws on Bayou Crocodile, which empties into the Teche, about fifty souls. In the Opelousas, to the N. W. of Atacapas.- Two villages of Alibamas in the centre of the district near the church, consisting of one hundred persons. Conchates dispersed through the country as far west as the river Sabinas and its neighbourhood, about three hundred and fifty persons. On the River Rouge.- At Avoyelles, nineteen leagues from the Mississippi, is a village of the Biloni nation, and another on the lake of the Avoyelles, the whole about sixty souls. At the Rapide, twenty-six leagues from the Mississippi, is a village of Choctaws of one hundred souls, and another of Biloxes, about two leagues from it, of about one hundred more: about eight or nine leagues higher up the Red River is a village of about fifty souls. All these are occasionally employed by the settlers in their neighbourhood as boatmen. About eighty leagues above Natchitoches on the Red River is the nation of the Cadoquies, called by abbreviation Cados. They can raise from three to four hundred warriors, are the friends of the whites, and are esteemed the bravest and most generous of all the nations in this vast country. They are rapidly decreasing, owing to intemperance and the numbers annually destroyed by the Osages and Choctaws. There are, besides the foregoing, at least four to five hundred families of Choctaws, who are dispersed on the west side of the Mississippi, on the Ouacheta and Red Rivers, as far west as Natchitoches; and the whole nation would have emigrated across the Mississippi, had it not been for the opposition of the Spaniards and the Indians on that side who had suffered by their aggressions. On the River Arkansas, etc.- Between the Red River and the Arkansas there are but a few Indians, the remains of tribes |
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