102
Few countries exhibit a more delightful appearance than this settlement. The plantations are extremely beautiful, and the soil exceedingly rich. The cotton raised here is of the best quality in Louisiana. The corn and tobacco are very good, as are all kinds of vegetables. The orange and fig trees grow luxuriously, and the climate is delightful.
At the Rapide is a fall of water, occasioned by a soft rock which crosses the bed of the river, so that from July to December there is not sufficient water for boats to pass over, but the rest of the season they pass with ease. This rock is so very soft, as not much to exceed, in hardness, some kinds of hard clay, and it is presumed a passage might be cut through it, with very little difficulty, so as to make it as low as the bed of the river.
From the Rapide to the Indian villages is about twenty miles, with very few settlements for the whole distance, although the land is fine, and susceptible of all kind of cultivation. The Indian villages are pleasantly situated on both sides of the river, and the land very good. Just above these villages is Gillard's station, on an high pine bluff, which, on the east side, overlooks extensive fields and meadows, in a good state of cultivation, and affords a view of a very long reach of the river. Here is an excellent spring of water, gushing out from an aperture in a rock on the bank of the river, about high water mark. Back from the
