vation of the cane, and the
manufacturing of sugar, was successfully introduced in Louisiana, and
demonstrated to be practicable. It was then that this precious reed
was really naturalized in the colony, and began to be a source of
ever-growing wealth, [owing to the enterprise of Jean Etienne de
Bore].

On board of the same ships, there came sixty girls, who were
transported to Louisiana at the expense of the King. It was the last
emigration of the kind. These girls were married to such soldiers as
had distinguished themselves for their good conduct, and who, in
consideration of their marriage, were discharged from service.
Concessions of land were made to each happy pair, with one cow and its
calf, one cock and five hens, one gun, one axe, and one spade. During
the first three years of their settlement, they were to receive
rations of provisions, and a small quantity of powder, shot, grains
and seeds of all sorts.

Such is the humble origin of many of our most respectable and wealthy
families, and well may they be proud of a social position, which is
due to the honest industry and hereditary virtues of several
generations. Whilst some of patrician extraction, crushed under the
weight of vices, or made inert by sloth, or labor-contemning pride,
and degenerating from pure gold into vile dross, have been swept away,
and have sunk into the dregs and sewers of the commonwealth. Thus in
Louisiana, the high and the low, although the country has never
suffered from any political or civil convulsions, seem to have, in the
course of one century, frequently exchanged with one another their
respective positions, much to the philosopher's edification. . .

On the 23rd of September, the intendant Commissary, Michel de la
Rouvilliere, made a favorable report on the state of agriculture in
Louisiana. "The cultivation of the wax tree," says he, "has succeeded
admirably. Mr. Dubreuil, alone, has made six thousand pounds of wax.
Others have obtained as handsome results, in proportion to their
forces; some went to the seashore, where the wax tree grows wild, in
order to use it in its natural state. It is the only luminary used
here by the inhabitants, and it is exported to other parts of America
and to France. We stand in need of tillers of the ground, and of
negroes. The colony prospers rapidly from its own impulse, and
requires only gentle stimulation. In the last three years, forty-five
brick houses were erected in New Orleans, and