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Show 96 and trn.dino- people found being on the b~1 nk of the river more 0 convcnicnt for loading and unloading their boats, left the hill on that account; and others, finding the river ground n1uch superior for garden.s, to \Yhich they are in the habit of paying great a~tent10n, followl'd the tnerchants; after then1 the pnests and commandant; then the church and jail (or calleboose), and now nothing of the old town is left, but the fon.n of their gardens and smne ornamental trees. It Is now a very extcnsi ve common of several hundred acres, entirely tufted with clover and covered with sheep and, cattle. The .hill is? stiff clay, and u~ed to make tniry streets; the nver soil, thrugh much n:hcr, is of a loose, sanely, texture; the streets arc netther miry nor very dusty.. Our well~ do not aff~rd us good water, and the nver water, m smnmer~ IS too brackish to drink, and never clear. Our spnngs are about half a mile back from the river, but the inhabitants, tnany of them, have large cisterns, and use, principnlly, rain \Yater, which is preferred to the spring water. The planters along on the river generally use rain water; though when the river is high, and the water taken up and settled in large earthern jars, (which the Indian women make of good qualiLy and at a n1oderate price), it can be drank tolerably well, bnt it makes bad tea. Near Natchitoches there arP t\\·o large lakes, one \Vithin a n1ile, the other six miles to the nearest parts. One of them is fifty or sixty miles in circumference, the other upwards of thirty: these lakes rise and fall with the river. When the river is rising the bayaus that connect with the lakes, run into the lakes like a mill-tale, till the lakes arc filled; and when the river is falling, it is the san1e the contrary way, just like ~he tide, but only annual. On these creeks good mills might be erected, but the present inhabitants know nothing of mills by water, yet have excellent cotton gins " ·orked by horses. I do not know a single J?e· chanic in the district, who is a native of it, one tru.lor 91 excepted. Every thin~ of the k~nd is done by strang. ers, and tnostly A.mencans. 1 houn·h Natchitoches b b has een settled ahnost one hundred years, it is not more than twelve or fifteen years since they ever had a plow, or a flat to cross 1h (:: river wtth; both which '~er~ introdu~c.d by an Irish Pennsylvanian, under a stmtla~· oppo.~1t10n to the copernican system. 'T'is almost mcred1ble the quantity of fi~h and iowl thc::,e lakes supply. It is not unc01nmon in winter lor a single man to kill from two to four hundred fowl in one evening; they fly between snndo,rn and dark· the air is filled \\·ith them; they load and fire as 1~1s~ as .they can, without taking any particular aitn, continumg · at the san1e stand till thL:y think they have killed enou.gh, and then pick up " ·hat they have killed; thev COilSISt of several kinds of cluck, geese, brant, ancl ~wan. In .st:t.uner, the quantities of fish are nearly m proportiOn.. One Indian will ' with a bow and .arrow, son1etm1es kill the1n faster than another, with two hors~s, can bring them in; they weigh, ::;ome of them, thirty or forty pounds. The lakes likewise afford plenty of shells for lime; and at low water, the greater of then1 is a most luxuriant 1neadow where the inhabitants fatten their horses. All rom;d these l~kes above high water mark, there is a border of nch land, generally wide enough for a field. On the bank of one ?f them, t)lere is plenty of stone coal, and s~veral quarnes of tolerable good building stone; at h~g~ water boats can go out of the river into them. Sim.Ilar lakes are found all along Red river, for five or st~ hundred miles, which, besides the uses already mentt.oned, nature see1ns to have provided as reservOirs for the itnmense quantity of water beyond what the banks of the river will contain; otherwis~ no part of them could be inhabited: the low o-rounds fr?m hill to hill, would be inundated. Abo~t twelv~ ~tie~ north of Natchitoches, on the north-east side of t le nver, there is a large Jake called Lac Noiz · the bayau of it co1nmunicates to the Rigula de Bondieu, 13 |