usand people, many of them voyageurs,
coureurs-de-bois, converted Indians, and transients of one sort or
another. In 1765 there were not above seventy permanent families. Few
of the towns, indeed, attained a population of more than two or three
hundred. All French colonial enterprise had been based on the assumption
that settlers would be few. The trader preferred it so, because
settlements meant restrictions upon his traffic. The Jesuit was of the
same mind, because such settlements broke up his mission field. The
Government at Paris forbade the emigration of the one class of people
that cared to emigrate, the Huguenots.

Though some of the settlements had picturesque sites and others drew
distinction from their fortifications, in general they presented a drab
appearance. There were usually two or three long, narrow streets, with
no paving, and often knee-deep with mud. The houses were built on either
side, at intervals sufficient to give space for yards and garden plots,
each homestead being enclosed with a crude picket fence. Wood and thatch
were the commonest building materials, although stone was sometimes
used; and the houses were regularly one story high, with large
vine-covered verandas. Land was abundant and cheap. Every enterprising
settler had a plot for himself, and as a rule one large field, or more,
was held for use in common. In these, the operations of ploughing,
sowing, and reaping were carefully regulated by public ordinance.
Occasionally a village drew some distinction from the proximity of a
large, well-managed estate, such as that of the opulent M. Beauvais
of Kaskaskia, in whose mill and brewery more than eighty slaves were
employed.

Agriculture was carried on somewhat extensively, and it is recorded
that, in the year 1746 alone, when there was a shortage of foodstuffs at
New Orleans, the Illinois settlers were able to send thither "upward of
eight hundred thousand weight of flour." Hunting and trading, however,
continued to be the principal occupations; and the sugar, indigo,
cotton, and other luxuries which the people were able to import directly
from Europe were paid for mainly with consignments of furs, hides,
tallow, and beeswax. Money was practically unknown in the settlements,
so that domestic trade likewise took the form of simple barter. Periods
of industry and prosperity alternated with periods of depression, and
the easy-going habitants--"farmers, hunters, traders by turn, with
a stro