d occupied it
until 1824. On every side the work of improvement proceeded gradually,
but effectually. Among other expedients to hasten the progress of
population, "a company ship brought out a number of poor girls, shipped
by the company. They had not been taken, as those whom it had
transported before, in the houses of correction in Paris. It had
supplied each of them with a small box, _cassette_, containing a few
articles of clothing. From this circumstance, and to distinguish them
from those who had preceded them, they were called girls _de la
cassette_. Till they could be disposed of in marriage, they remained
under the care of the nuns."

The fig tree was introduced from Provence, and the orange from
Hispaniola, both now so abundant and so excellent at New-Orleans.

Injustice to the aborigines seems to have marked the march of the white
man in all its stages; nor were the victims of his cupidity slow in
their revenge, or wanting in courage and ingenuity in prosecuting it. We
have an instance of this, which we think interesting enough to be
extracted.--

"The indiscretion and ill conduct of Chepar, who commanded at
Fort Rosalie, in the country of the Natchez, induced these
Indians to become principals, instead of auxiliaries, in the
havock.

"This officer, coveting a tract of land in the possession of
one of the chiefs, had used menaces to induce him to surrender
it, and unable to intimidate the sturdy Indian, had resorted to
violence. The nation, to whom the commandant's conduct had
rendered him obnoxious, took part with its injured member--and
revenge was determined on. The suns sat in council to devise
the means of annoyance, and determined not to confine
chastisement to the offender; but, having secured the
co-operation of all the tribes hostile to the French, to effect
the total overthrow of the settlement, murder all white men in
it, and reduce the women and children to slavery. Messengers
were accordingly sent to all the villages of the Natchez and
the tribes in their alliance, to induce them to get themselves
ready, and come on a given day to begin the slaughter. For this
purpose bundles of an equal number of sticks were prepared and
sent to every village, with directions to take out a stick
everyday, after that of the new moon, and the attack was to be
on that on which the last stick was taken