Population of an industrious and hardy character was filling up the
West, and the demand from that quarter alone was equal to the
production, and both were increasing so rapidly as to induce the belief
that it would be as much as all the sugar lands in the State could
accomplish to supply this demand. Steam power for crushing the cane was
introduced--an economy of labor which enhanced the profits of the
production--and a new and national interest was developed, rendering
more and more independent of foreign supply, at least that portion of
the Union most difficult of access to foreign commerce--the great and
growing West.

The Americans, or those Americans speaking English alone, immigrating
into these sections of Louisiana, so far as the language, manners, and
customs of the people were concerned, were going into a foreign land.
The language of the entire population was French, or a patois, as the
European French term it--a provincialism which a Parisian finds it
difficult to understand. The ignorance and squalid poverty of these
people put their society entirely out of the question, even if their
language had been comprehensible. They were amiable, kind, law-abiding,
virtuous, and honest, beyond any population of similar character to be
found in any country. Out of some fifty thousand people, extending over
five or six parishes, such a thing as a suit for slander, or an
indictment for malicious mischief, or a case of bastardy was not known
or heard of once in ten years. This will seem strange when we reflect
that at this time schools were unknown, and not one out of fifty of the
people could read or write, and when it was common for the judge of the
District Court to ask, when a grand jury was impanelled, if there was a
man upon it who could write, that he might make him foreman. And not
unfrequently was he compelled to call from the court-room one who
could, and trump him on the jury for a foreman, as the action was
termed. There was not upon the La Fourche, which comprised three large
parishes, but one pleasure carriage, and not half a dozen ladies'
bonnets. The females wore a colored handkerchief tastily tied about
their heads, when visiting or at church; and when not, not anything but
blowzed, uncombed hair.

The enterprise of the new-comers did not stimulate to emulation the
action of these people. They were content and unenvious, and when
kindly received and respectfully treated, were social and generous in
th