CHAPTER I.

BEGINNINGS OF LOUISIANA AND NEW ORLEANS.

A PicxuRES(2UE Origin—Knight-Errantry in the American Wilderness
—L'e Soto and La Salle—D'Iberville and the Settlement at Bi-
lox:—Appearance of the En(;lish—Grant to Crozat—New Orleans
Foukdeu .\s the Chief City—Charlevoix's Description—Introduc¬
tion of Negro Slaves—Louisiana Opened to all French Settlers
—CorrriN and Sugar—Cession to Spain—Louisiana in the Revolu-
TioNAkv War—Ceded back to France, i8oi—Purchase of the Ter¬
ritory BY the United States in 1803—New Orleans an American
City—War of 1812 and Battle of New Orleans—Stagnation Suc¬
ceeded BY Prosperity—Growth of the City.
 

m^
 

HERE has been a constant element of picturesqueness in the
story of Louisiana and New Orleans, which the development of
material interests, the lapse of time, and even the practical
modernity of the Nineteenth Century, have not effaced. This
history did nol begin for more than a century after De Soto appeared on
the banks of tbe Mississippi, bringing " the knight-errantry of the Old
World into the depths of the American Wilderness ; " but that apparition
of the steel-clad cavaliers of Sixteenth Century Spain, picking their way
through the foiests of what are now the Gulf States, remains as the
romantic background of the long and interesting story.

The special purpose of this volume renders it unadvisable to dwell
at length on the early events in the history of Louisiana, as the existence
of adequate narratives render it also unnecessary. After De Soto's fatal
visit in 1543, the next European to appear upon this scene was the Sieur
de la  Salle, who in   1682   pushed from  Canada, down  the   Illinois  and