Excerpt from Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana No wonder then that Louisiana at the time of the cession, was so little known to the United States. They had suddenly and unexpectedly acquired a territory of which they knew not the extent; they were equally unacquainted with its climates, soils and productions, the magnitude and impor tance of its numerous rivers, and its commercial and other natural advantages. I therefore indulge the expectation, that the subsequent sketches, however inaccurate or errone ous, will not prove wholly unacceptable to the public; par ticularly as no one before me, to my knowledge, has at: tempted an history and description of this territory. Historians have but partially noticed that country; none of their works seem to embrace, in regular detail, any con siderable number of years they are extremely barren of events, and unfortunately contain many chasms. These are in part supplied from some ancient manuscriptjournals, and other documents, to which I gained access; yet it is to be regretted that materials are still wanting to exhibit even the prominent historical features of Louisiana. The writings of missionaries at least those I have seen, and the accounts pub-3 lished by Friench officers who were employed in the coun try during part of the two last centuries, are mostly of an uninteresting nature. I am, however, much indebted to both dead and living authors; and ifi have been less solicitous to acknowledge my obligations to them, than to collect and arrange the substance of their labors, it was because I relucted at marginal and other references. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.