etc. These canals have cost the state river and railway. And there will be upwards of $29,000,000, besides the an- but little rivalry between the different nual charges for repairs and maintenance. The state has received in tolls from the canals since 1824, $59,413.870. The railways of the United States in operation comprise about 15,000 miles, at an average cost of, say $25,000 per mile; making an aggregate expenditure of some $375,000,000. Nearly all of this railway that has affected the lake and river trade of 1851, has been opened since the commercial returns of 1848, or at least a large portion of it, and it has been seen that the results are beyond all anticipations. But the business of 1851 was benefited by less than 10,000 miles of railway, whereas, in 1855, we shall have in operation over 20,000 miles, penetrating the agricultural and mineral hearts of almost all the western states. What must result from the opening of so many feeders to the great through water routes? It has been observed that the amount of inland commerce reaching the seaboard is but a little of the "total movement." It is only the surplus that seeks a foreign market, while the great bulk, the unmeasured, the unfathomed mass, is consumed, changed and interchanged among the several states. A little of it adheres to the hands of every person who touches it, as it were; it pays to every exchanger, transporter and laborer its stipend, as its passes about to its places of consumption. It is, most unquestionably, a good thing to have a foreign commerce through which to dispose of our surplus products, but we should not, for this, sacrifice the internal commerce, so much more valuable to the whole country, and without which our foreign commerce could not survive a single day. In concluding this subject, the question naturally suggests itself: if such has been the progress of our commerce during the past thirty years, what is to be its future? If such results have followed the partial opening of the resources of the new states by water routes, what is to follow the perfect exhumation of the interior of all the states by means of the iron tracks which are to act as feeders to the great northern and southern water routes? The year 1860 will draw upon an internal traffic in the United States valued at no less than $1,800,000,000, including lake, canal, routes. They will work harmoniously Rail History and Statistics of the Louisiana Parishes. 431 they will be exchanged among the ing them at various points, will weld States, and the surplus finds its way to together all the various interests of the the seaboard. By them the northeast several states in such a bond of union and southwest will be forever united, as will prove forever inseparable. while the numerous iron ways intersect ART. III-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL COLLECTIONS OF LOUISIANA. THE PARISH OF TENSAS. [As Superintendent of the Bureau of Statistics of the State of Louisiana, we published a great number of papers, including material relating to the majority of the parishes. We have deferred a general report upon them all, in the hope of obtaining additional material, and in expectation of the completion of the national census, so as to embody its statistical results. As this report will be published, if possible, before the close of the summer, we continue to solicit information, and beg our friends to send to the office of the Review anything of interest that may relate to the history and statistics of their parishes and towns of the state. As a guide to the nature of the information de sired, we refer to the papers already published by us, and to the annexed circular, which has been so often published before :] I. Time of settlement of your parish or town; dates of oldest land grants; number and condition of first settlers; whence emigrating; other facts relating to settlement and history. II. Indian names in your vicinity; what tribes originally; what relics or monuments of them; if Indians still, in what condition? III. Biography, anecdotes, &c., of individuals distinguished in your vicinity in the past for ingenuity, enterprise, literature, talents, civil or military, &c. IV. Topographical description of your parish, mountains, rivers, ponds, animals, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, &c., vegetable growths, rocks, minerals, sand clays, chalk, flint, marble, pit coal, pigments, medicinal and poisonous substances, elevation above the sea, nature of surface, forests, or undergrowth, what wells and quality of well water, nature of coasts, does the water make inroads, mineral springs, caves, &c. V. Agricultural description of parish'; former and present state of cultivation; changes taking place; introduction of cotton, sugar, rice, indigo, tobacco, grains, fruits, vines, &c., &c. ; present products; lands occupied and unoccupied, and character of soils; value of lands; state of improvements; value of agricultural products; horses, cattle, mules. hogs, and whence supplied; profits of agriculture, prices of products; new estates opening; improvements suggested in cultivation, and new growths; improvements in communication, roads, bridges, canals, &c.; kind and quantity of timber, fuel, &c.; state of the roads, summer and winter: kinds of inclosures, and of what timber; manures; natural and artificial pastures; agricultural implements used; fruit trees, vines, and orchards; modes of transportation; extent of internal navigation; levees, &c.; modes of cultivating and manufacturing sugar in use. VI. Instances of longevity and fecundity; observations on diseases in your section; localities, healthful or otherwise; statistics of diseases, deaths, summer seats, &c. VII. Population of your parish; increase and progress, distinguishing white and black; Spanish, French, American, or German origin; foreigners, classes of population; number in towns; growth of towns and villages, &c.; condition, employment, ages; comparative value of free and slave labor; comparative tables of increase; marriages, births, &c.; meteorological tables of temperature, weather, rains, &c. VIII. Education and Religion.-Advantages of schools, colleges, libraries enjoyed; proportion educated at home and abroad; expense of education; school returns, churches or chapels in parish, when and by whom erected, how supplied with clergy; how supported and attended; oldest interments; church vaults, &c. IX. Products in Manufactures and the Arts.-Kinds of manufactures in parish; persons employed; kind of power; capital; wages; per centum profit; raw material; sugar and cotton; machinery and improvements; kind and value; manufacturing sites, &c. X. Commercial Statistics.-Value of the imports and exports of Louisiana with each of the other states of the Union, as far as any approximation may be made or data given; growth and condition of towns; increase in towns, &c. XI. General Statistics-Embracing banking, rail-roads, insurances, navigation, intercommunication; learned and scientific societies; crime, pauperism, charities, public and benevolent institutions; militia, newspapers, &c.; application of parish taxes; expenses of roads, levees, &c. ; number of suits decided in different courts; expenses and perfection of justice; number of parish officers, lawyers, physicians, &c. XII. Date, extent, consequences, and other circumstances of droughts, freshets, whirlwinds, storms, lightnings, hurricanes, or other remarkable physical events in your section from remote periods; other meteorological phenomena; changes in climate, &c., &c. XIII. Literary productions emanating from your neighborhood; your associations, if any; what manuscripts, public or private records, letters, journals, &c., or rare old books, interesting in their relation to the history of Louisiana, are possessed by individuals within your knowledge. State any other matters of interest. Tensas parish is the youngest daughter of "Old Concordia," being the last parish stricken off that extensive domain, which formerly reached from the mouth of Red River to the Arkansas line. It was divided in 1843. It has a river border of between fifty and sixty miles. It is bounded north by Madison parish, west by Franklin parish and Catahoula, east by the Mississippi River, south by the Mississippi River and Concordia parish. It embraces a territory of six hundred and twenty-five square miles, or about four hundred and six thousand acres. SETTLEMENT.-As with other places on the great river, nothing very accurate can be obtained in reference to the first settlements. As might be supposed, in very early times individuals passing down the river were attracted by favorable locations which presented themselves, and made temporary settlements, and these, no doubt, were in some instances cotemporaneous with the settlements made on the other side of the Mississippi. These temporary settlements being abandoned were occupied by persons of more energy, whose occupation was the cultivation of the soil. It was at a house known as the "Stone Chimney," nearly opposite the site on which Grand Gulf has since been built, that Aaron Burr took up his residence for a short time in 1807, where he was maturing his plans for ambition or personal aggrandizement in the South. The nearest post-office was Port Gibson, in Mississippi, and the messenger who was employed to convey his correspondence and receive his letters, identified him as the man. His stay was short, but memorable. No doubt the first permanent settler was Job Routh, the father of John Routh, Esq., who made his settlement in 1800, or perhaps before that time. The following are some of the early settlers, and the date of their settlement:Job Routh, Lake St. Joseph, 1800; John Routh, Esq., Lake St. Joseph, 1808; James Miller, Mississippi River, 1808; Ebenezer Miller, Mississippi River, 1808; James Bray, 1800; Jacob Bieller, 1808; Burrel Vick, do., 1808; Mrs. Sa rah Hays, in 1804, who is still a resident of the parish at the advanced age of 80 years; Job Bass, 1805; Arthur Andrews was representative of the parish from 1815 to 1825, and resident of this part of it, at what is now called the Mar dis Place, owned, I believe, now by Dr. Duncan. Scales' and Nichol's Plantation was settled in 1806 or 1808. It was at a period later than the above-mentioned dates that the country back from the Mississippi and Lake St. Joseph was settled, though there were not lacking pioneers who penetrated the swamp to test its value. In 1813, two men, tanners, came from Greenville, Mi., for the purpose of killing alligators and cat-fish for oil, which they needed to carry on their business, at a time when commerce was suspended, and when the southern country was threatened with war. They bivouacked at what is now called Lake Shackleford, which derived its name from one of these adventurers. They were so much pleased that they made preparation to reside there, and cultivate the ground, but the high water of 1815 discouraged them, and drove them back again to the hills. The river settlements, as we have said, were early made and constantly increasing in value. The deep forests in the rear were considered by many only as reservoirs which were necessary to hold the floods of the Mississippi, and not intended for cultivation. Up to the year 1836 there were not known but very few settlers on the Tensas River, from its mouth to its source. During the administration of Judge George S. Guion, who was parish judge from 1828 to 1836, there were but two or three settlements back from the Mississippi; two of these were on Walnut Bayou, and one or two on the Tensas River, and were ferrymen on the route of travel to Alexandria, La., and Texas. It was between the years of 1836 and 1845 that the principal emigration set in to this parish, invited by the defences made on the Mississippi for protection, and the exemption of the country from overflow for so many years. It was in 1843 that the great land sales took place at Munroe, for back concessions on the Mississippi, and for the lands in the interior of the parish. The lands had been previously settled, and needed only the proof of pre-emption to give the happy settler a title to his home. The contrast which a few years presented in the settlement and growth of the Parish was great. Formerly the roads leading up and down the river were the only ones, with no back settlements. Then and now there are roads traversing the parish in every direction, and leading to Settlement-Biography-Rivers and Lakes. 433 neighborhoods which abound with life brooked the difficulties which presented and industry. It was in the year 1828 themselves to a poor man in a new counthat the road from the Mississippi to try, and gained competence and even Sicily Island was established by the wealth. The town of Waterproof was police, usually called the Rodney Road. laid out in 1846, and sold the next year. Before that time it was merely a by- Mr. Miller shaped his course to suit the path, and afterward, until there were exigencies of the times and the pressing settlements on the route, that had its demands of the people. care, unless in the fall or summer, it was not a very pleasant road to travel, though the shortest through the swamp. MOUNDS.--There are numerous mounds in this parish; so numerous that I think it has a pre-eminence in this respect, and was a favorite resort of the tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited this country, and whom Robert Patterson, formerly editor of the Concordia Intelligencer, styled the Mound Builders, a name very applicable. All attempts to fathom their history is, of course, of no avail. There they stand-the monuments of an age or ages gone by, leaving no record of the past save their beautiful appearance, in contrast with the dead level of the surrounding country, and the bones which are frequently disinterred by the spade or plow. They are always on streams or lakes, and stand in clusters, one larger than the rest. They are usually cultivated with the balance of the plantation, or used, when convenient, for orchards. Their height is from twelve to twenty feet above the ordinary level. I know of one used as a convivial spot on a fourth of July occasion. When the party had assembled, there was a piece of paper found nailed to a tree, with these words-"Three feet beneath this ground lie human bones. Will the inhabitants of a Christian country dance over the graves of the aborigines of our country!" It had no effect on their mirth; with a few remarks on the person who wrote it, the dance went on. BIOGRAPHY.-Perhaps it may not be amiss to mention, under this head, one who has certainly contributed very much to the prosperity of the portion of the parish where he resided, who gave an impulse to business, encouragement to the new settlers, and was the founder of Waterproof, now a thriving village on the Mississippi, 21 miles from Natchez, numbering 200 in population-James Miller, (deceased.) He came to this country, with his brothers Ebenezer and Robert Miller, in 1808, when the banks of the Mississippi were lined with cane; was John Routh, Esq., has been for several years at the head of the Police Court in this parish; was the chief man in urging taxation to build levees, so important to rescue the parish from the disastrous effects of the overflow, which, by his influence and energy, he carried out. He is now a member of the legislature from this parish, where he greatly instrumental in carrying out a system of taxation for levee purposes, in the two upper parishes and Catahoula, which were most concerned, and thereby making the cause a general one, as these parishes are dependent on each other for protection. Mr. Routh pays taxes on more than 30,000 acres of land in this parish, and makes near or quite 4,000 bales of cotton annually. Dr. Thos. Newell is known as having been the means of bringing to the use of the cotton region an excellent press, now called the "Newell Press," and of some machinery connected with a mill, used on Lake St. Joseph. He was formerly a practitioner of medicine, but having for several years relinquished the practice, except as a neighborly act, he has devoted himself to planting, in which he exhibits neatness and a due attention to the cultivation of the soil. RIVERS AND LAKES.-Lake St. Joseph lies in the northern part of the parish, is twenty-five miles long, and was named by Mr. Job Routh in honor of Joseph Vidal, commandant of the Concordia district, from whom he received a requetté of land. Lake Bruin lies a few miles back of the town of St. Joseph, and was named after Judge Bruin of Mississippi, who possibly owned land on its banks. It was formerly called Lake Peter, after Peter Walker, the father of our present governor, who was himself a land surveyor in this parish. Chactá Lake, Lake Easely, Tensas Lake, a part of the Tensas River, the river running through it, Saddletree Lake, and Bullus Lake. RIVERS.-Tensas River is near 300 miles long. It runs through the northern and western part of the parish. It rises in Lake Providence, and runs in a devious three feet higher than the slough. I way, like the Mississippi, which it resem- have heard of no minerals of any sort bles. At one point it is not more than in this parish. For water, cisterns seven or eight miles from that river. It are preferred. Wells are used where drains the parish-every bayou in the these cannot be attained. The water is parish communicating with it, and with healthy, slightly therapeutical. Upon others which lead to it. It receives its analysis a small quantity of iron has waters from the Mississippi at one point at been found in it, and some magnesia. New Carthage. Its banks are rough and The land recedes as you go back from irregular, like the Mississippi. It is na- the Mississippi at about three inches in a vigable to Roundaway Bayou, Madison mile. I gather this from an estimate parish, whence steamboats ply regularly taken by engineers who surveyed the during business season. The difference route from Providence to Munroe. It is between high water and low water is seventy-five or seventy-six feet at Waabout thirty feet. The first steamboat terproof above the level of the sea. which ascended the river was in '40 or may as well mention another fact in this '42. Most of the boats which ascend connection-that the river opposite the it act the part of pioneers. The accumu- parish, near Hard Times, is deeper than lation of drift is such as needs a yearly it is any where else on the river. removal. The greater part of the country which flanks the Tensas is newly settled, or at least within the last ten years. This accounts for the number of trees still standing between the banks, not in the channel, which, if removed, would produce a depression in high water of some considerable extent. BAYOUS.-Bayou Mason lies on the western part of the parish, and runs into the Tensas. It separates the parish from Franklin, and is navigable for steamboats to near the Arkansas line. There are also Derosset Bayou, Shackleford Bayou, Mill Bayou, Mound Bayou, Saddletree Bayou, Big Chacta, Little Chacta, Clark's Bayou, Van Buren Bayou, Little Tensas, Water Hole Bayou, Roaring Bayou, Cross Bayou, Dickard Bayou, Green's Bayou, Black Bayou, and Hunter's Bayou. Besides these there are innumerable small bayous everywhere which drain the land. They do not serve the use of ditches, for the land lying level every where, to make the yield commensurate with the fertility of the soil, ditches are positively necessary. The appearance of the land is everywhere the same, but the color of the soil is different in different localities, owing to the time which it has been in cultivation. The soil has a hard surface, and from the constant necessity imposed on it, in the course of time it loses its rich loamy appearance, and assumes a brownish color. Though there is very little of this worn-out land, where so much rich virgin land can be attained, yet on the front in some places it has very much the appearance of age and poverty. The land lies rolling, that is, a ridge and a slough, the ridges about I It is 200 feet deep. The growth of the forest is the same every where on the low-lands on the Mississippi. Gum, oak of every variety, cotton wood, hackberry, pecan, which grows large and yields abundant fruit, locust, dogwood, cypress, mulberry, willow, elm, haw, swamp piney, persimmon, and occasionally is found a small pine. I have found some while hunting in the woods for trees to adorn a yard. A good deal of attention is paid in this parish to stock, though the overflow of 1850 was very injurious in this particular, $68,000 worth of various kinds having perished in that eventful year. Mules are generally used for farming purposes; oxen for hauling. The range renders them almost without expense, except when on the road. Many planters raise their own meat. The range is good for cattle, and mast for hogs. There are numbers of wild animals in the parish. In many places there are large tracts uninhabited, where the thick cane-brakes and dense undergrowth afford layers for the wild beast, and refuge when pursued-deer, bear, panther, wild-cat, catamount, wolf, raccoon, opossum. A great many deer and bear have been and are still killed. The bear fights with spirit, and but few bear hunts terminate without injury to some one or more valuable dogs. They are great depredators. I understand that Mr. James Gordon, on Lake St. Joseph, generally plants twenty-five acres of corn yearly for the bear. Whether you plant it or not, but few escape their nightly visitations, and they soon lay waste, if not checked, the fairest prospects. They are very destructive to |