lish language and form American associations, imbibe American ideas,
and essay to rival American enterprise. Still there is a distinct
difference in appearance. Perhaps the difference in bearing, and in
other characteristics, may be attributable to early education, but the
first and most radical is surely that of blood.

The settlements upon the Red and Washita Rivers did not augment the
French population in the country; it has declined, but more signally
upon the latter than the former river. There remain but few families
there of the ancient population, and these are now so completely
Americanized as scarcely to be distinguishable. The descendants of the
Marquis de Breard, in one or two families, are there, but all who
located on the Bayou Des Arc (and here was the principal settlement),
with perhaps one family only, are gone, and the stranger is in their
homes.

The French character seems to want that fixity of purpose, that
self-denial, and steady perseverance, which is so necessary to those
who would colonize and subdue a new and inhospitable country. The
elevated civilization of the French has long accustomed them to the
refinements and luxuries of life; it has entered into and become a part
of their natures, and they cannot do violence to this in a sufficient
degree to encounter the wilderness and all its privations, or to create
from this wilderness those luxuries, and be content in their enjoyment
for all the hardships endured in procuring them: they shrink away from
these, and prefer the inconveniences and privations of a crowded
community with its enjoyments, even in poverty, to the rough and trying
troubles which surround and distress the pioneer, who pierces the
forest and makes him a home, which, at least, promises all the comforts
of wealth and independence to his posterity. He rather prefers to take
care that he enjoys as he desires the present, and leaves posterity to
do as they prefer. Yet there are many instances of great daring and
high enterprise in the French Creole: these are the exceptions, not the
rule.

CHAPTER XXVII.

ABOLITION OF LICENSED GAMBLING.

BATON ROUGE--FLORIDA PARISHES--DISSATISFACTION--WHERE THERE'S A WILL,
THERE'S A WAY--STORMING A FORT ON HORSEBACK--ANNEXATION AT THE POINT
OF THE POKER--RAPHIGNAC AND LARRY MOORE--FIGHTING THE "TIGER"--CARRYING
A PRACTICAL JOKE TOO FAR--A SILVER TEA-SET.

That portion of Louisiana known as the Florida parishes, and consisting
of th