dollars, every {242} thing included. As the settlements are chiefly in single lines along the bank of the river, the land is commonly sold by the measurement in front, running back about 40 arpents,[243] and have been disposed of at as much as 3000 dollars per arpent in front, or 75 dollars per arpent actual measurement.
Notwithstanding the fearful tyranny exercised over the slaves on these large plantations, the annals of this settlement are not without the remembrance of serious symptoms of revolt. About nine years ago, a party of negroes, equipped with arms, liberated themselves, after destroying their master with two or three other individuals who attempted to oppose them, and were not subdued until totally destroyed by the neighbouring militia. There were of them 300, who were routed near to Red Church, about twenty-four miles above New Orleans; so that, betwixt the fears of inundation, the efforts of the enslaved Africans to emancipate themselves, and the fatality of the climate, the opulent planters of Louisiana possess no enviable advantage over the happy peasant, who dwells in the security which honest industry and salutary frugality afford him.[244]
The excessive attachment to gambling which characterises the inhabitants of Louisiana, and the love of speculation, exhibited in the great and transitory influx of
