SPANISH TERRITORY.

SETTLERS ON THE TOMBIGBEE AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS--LA SALLE--NATCHEZ--
FAMILY APPORTIONMENT--THE HILL COUNTRY--HOSPITALITY--BENEFIT OF
AFRICAN SLAVERY--CAPACITY OF THE NEGRO--HIS FUTURE.

About the year 1777, many persons of the then colonies, fearful of the
consequences of the war then commencing for the independence of the
colonies, removed and sought a home beyond their limits. Some selected
the Tombigbee, and others the Mississippi River, and, braving the
horrors of the wilderness, made a home for themselves and posterity,
amid the rude inhospitalies of uncultivated nature.

There were, at that time, small settlements of French and Spanish
adventurers upon these streams, in different localities. La Salle
descended upon Canada, and, taking possession of Louisiana in the name
of the French king, had created among many of the chivalrous and
adventurous spirits of France a desire to take possession of the entire
country, from the mouth of the Saint Lawrence to that of the
Mississippi. Nova Scotia, called Acadia by its first settlers, and the
provinces of Canada, were his already, and France desired to restrict
the further expansion of the English colonies, now growing into
importance along the Atlantic coast.

The vast extent of the continent and its immense fertility, with its
mighty rivers, its peculiar adaptation to settlement, and the yielding
of all the necessaries and luxuries of human wants, had aroused the
enterprise of Europe. Spain had possessed herself of South America,
Mexico, and Cuba, the pride of the Antilles. The success of her scheme
of colonization stimulated both England and France to push forward
their settlements, and to foster and protect them with Governmental
care. After some fruitless attempts, the mouth of the Mississippi had
been discovered, and approached from the Gulf. The expedition under La
Salle had failed to find it. The small colony brought by him for
settlement upon the Mississippi, had been landed many leagues west of
the river's mouth, and owing to disputes between that great and
enterprising man and the officer commanding the two ships which had
transported them across the Atlantic, they were mercilessly left by
this officer, without protection, and almost without provisions, upon
the coast of what is now Texas. La Salle had started with a small
escort, by land, to find the great river. These men became
dissatisfied, and not sharing in the adventurous and en