they were called _filles a la cassette_, or girls with a chest), who
were to be disposed of under the direction of the Ursuline nuns, in
marriage to the colonists. Other consignments followed; and the homes
thus established soon gave to the population of the city a more quiet
and orderly character.

[Illustration: Le Moyne de Bienville]

Through various experiences, chiefly disastrous wars with the Natchez,
that remarkable people {285} whom La Salle visited on his great
exploration, and whom the French finally broke up and scattered, and
with the Chickasaws in Mississippi, that hardy breed of warriors who
had fought Soto so fiercely, and who now sent the Frenchmen back
discomfited, Bienville in his later years lost much of his earlier
prestige. But the fact remains that it was he who grasped the meaning
of La Salle's plan, he who founded New Orleans, and he who guided the
struggling colony through its perilous infancy. He well earned his
title of "Father of Louisiana."

[1] These matchless horsemen, probably unsurpassed in the world, are
also great jockeys, passionately fond of horse-racing and deeply versed
in all its tricks. The following laughable account of a race that he
witnessed is given by Col. Dodge in his very entertaining book, "Our
Wild Indians": "A band of Comanches once camped near Fort Chadbourne,
in Texas. Some of the officers were decidedly 'horsey,' owning blood
horses whose relative speed was well known. The Comanche chief was
bantered for a race, and, after several days of manoeuvring, a race was
made against the third best horse of the garrison, distance four
hundred yards.

"The Indians wagered robes and plunder of various kinds, to the value
of sixty or seventy dollars, against money, flour, sugar, etc., to a
like amount. At the appointed time the Indians 'showed' a miserable
sheep of a pony, with legs like churns, a three-inch coat of rough hair
stuck out all over the body; and a general expression of neglect,
helplessness, and patient suffering struck pity into the hearts of all
beholders. The rider was a stalwart buck of one hundred and seventy
pounds, looking big and strong enough to carry the poor beast on his
shoulders. He was armed with a huge club, with which, after the word
was given, he belabored the miserable animal from start to finish. To
the astonishment of all the whites, the Indian won by a neck.

"Another race was proposed by the officers, and, after much
'dic