Other acts of cold-blooded cruelty, and false-hearted tyranny followed, till he became the execration and abhorrence of the whole colony. He introduced the Spanish colonial system, and subjected the inhabitants to every species of indignity and abuse. At length, the extravagance of his measures, and his unprincipled abuse of power, wrought its own ruin. He was recalled by his King, and disgraced—if one already so infamous could by any means be rendered more so. His successor was Unzoga, who was shortly after superseded by Galvez.

The colony now enjoyed a brief season of comparative quiet. But the war between England and Spain, which broke out in 1779, afforded an opportunity for Governor Galvez to show his loyal zeal, and exercise his military talents. With the troops under his command, he invaded Florida, took possession of Baton Rouge, and Fort Charlotte, near Mobile, and proceeded to Pensacola, which, after an obstinate resistance, also submitted to his authority. Thus was the Spanish dominion completely established in Florida.

Governor Miro, who succeeded Galvez, carried into full effect the colonial system of Spain, which was by no means relished by the French inhabitants of the colony.

In 1785, a new firebrand was thrown into the midst of these combustible elements. An attempt was made to establish an office of the Inquisition in Louisiana. It was fearlessly opposed, and fortunately crushed without bloodshed. The agent, to whom the obnoxious business was entrusted, was seized in his bed, conveyed forcibly on board a vessel, and sent home to Spain.

A census of the province, taken in 1788, just ninety years from the date of the first settlement, showed a population of 42,611. Of these, 19,445 were whites, 21,465 slaves, and 1701 colored freemen. New Orleans, then 70 years old, contained 5,338 inhabitants.

The Baron de Carondelet was appointed Governor in 1792. During his administration, in the year 1794, the first newspaper, called "Le Moniteur," was published in Louisiana. At the same period the Canal Carondelet was commenced; and the cultivation of indigo and the sugar cane, which had hitherto been the great staples of the colony, was suspended.

In 1795, by the treaty of St. Lorenzo, the navigation of the Mississippi was opened to the western States of the Union, and the great impulse given to the commercial prosperity of New Orleans, which secured forever the pre-eminence of the Crescent City. The same treaty defined the boundaries, as they now exist, between Florida and Mississippi. But Carondelet, being rather more tardy in yielding possession, than suited the active, enterprising spirit of the Americans, the territory was seized by an armed force, under Andrew Elliott.

Two years after this, a plan set on foot by Carondelet, to dismember the American Union, by drawing the Western States into a separate compact, was detected and defeated by the address of General Wilkinson. Whether Aaron Burr was in the plot, or only took a hint from it a few years later, does not appear of record. Carondelet was succeeded by Gayosa de Lamor, Casa Calvo, and Salvado, who, successively, but for a very brief period, wielded the chief magistracy of the colony.

In 1803, Louisiana was re-transferred to France, and immediately sold to the United States for 15,000,000 of dollars. The treaty which accomplished this important object was entered into on the 30th of April. Possession was taken, in behalf of the United States, by General Wilkinson and William C. Claiborne, amid the rejoicings of a people attached to liberty, and eager to grasp at any opportunity to shake off the yoke of Spain.

The population of Louisiana, at the time of the purchase, did not exceed fifty thousand, exclusive of the Indians, and these were scattered over every part of its immense territory. Seven years after, the population had nearly trebled, and her prosperity had advanced in equal proportion.

The year 1812 was a memorable era in the history of Louisiana, and marked with incidents never to be forgotten by her citizens. It was in this year, that the first Steam Boat was seen on the bosom of "the great river," now alive with hundreds of these winged messengers, plying to and fro. In the same year war was declared with Great Britain, and Louisiana, as now constituted, was admitted, as an independent State, into the great American Confederacy.

The Cotton Plant.

THE STATE OF LOUISIANA

Plantation House and Works.

The State of Louisiana is bounded on the north by the states of Arkansas, and Mississippi; on the east by the latter and the Gulf of Mexico; on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by Mexico and Texas. It is a well watered garden, the soil being rich, and intersected by the Mississippi, Red, and Wachita Rivers, and many inferior streams, and washed, on its western limit, by the Sabine.

The face of the country is exceedingly level, so much so, that in a portion equal to three fourths of the State, there is scarcely a hill to be found. Those parts that are covered with pine woods are usually uneven, sometimes rising into fine swells, with broad table summits, intersected with valleys from thirty to forty feet deep. They do not lie in any particular range, but, like the ocean in a high and regular swell, present a uniform undulated surface. The alluvial soil is, of course level, and the swamps, which are only inundated alluvions, are dead flats.

A range of gentle elevations commences in Opelousas, and gradually increasing in height as it advances, diverges toward the Sabine. In the vicinity of Natchitoches, this range holds its way northwestwardly; about half way between the Red and the Sabine Rivers, and continues to increase in altitude, till it reaches the western border of the State. Seen from the pine hills above Natchitoches, it has the blue outline and general aspect of a range of mountains.

Another line of hills, commencing not far from Alexandria, on the northern side of the Red River, and separating the waters of that stream from those of the Dudgemony, extends northwardly, till it approaches, and runs into, the mammillæ, or bluffs, that bound the alluvions of the Wachita, diverging gradually from the line of that stream, as it passes beyond the western limits of the State.

That remote part of Natchitoches called Allen's settlement, is a high rolling country. There are also hills of considerable magnitude on the east side of the Mississippi, beyond the alluvions. But generally speaking, Louisiana may be considered as one immense plain, divided into pine woods, prairies, alluvions, swamps, and hickory and oak lands.

The pine-wood lands, as I have already said, are usually rolling. There are some exceptions, but they are very few. They have almost invariably a poor soil. Some of those west of Opelousas, and those between the Wachita and Red Rivers, are even sterile, answering well to the name by which they are called in some other parts of the country, Pine Barrens.

Some parts of the prairies of Opelousas are of great fertility, and those of Attakapas are still more so. As a general feature, they are more level than those of the upper country. An extensive belt