percentage in proportion to their total original immigration much higher than that of any other race."

The Creoles of Louisiana.

The influence of the French Huguenots had been considerable, but the refugees did not found in the South any permanent large settlement. It was French Catholics who established, in 1699, at the present Ocean Springs, the colony of Louisiana, which has exerted a great influence on the history and the civilization of the United States. It was a Frenchman, La Salle, who explored and named the country watered by the great Mississippi and who lost his life in an attempt to colonize Louisiana. It was a French Canadian, Iberville, who, aided by his brother Bienville, succeeded in colonizing the country named by La Salle for King Louis XIV. It was Frenchmen and their sons who thought, in 1768, of establishing a republic in New Orleans, after they had expelled the Spanish governor imposed upon them; and when Galvez drove the British from West Florida and took a glorious part in the war of the American Revolution, he had Louisianians of French origin among his most valiant soldiers. The Creoles of Louisiana, the descendants of the French colonists, of pure white blood, have played such an important part in the history of Louisiana that it is impossible to relate that history without mentioning them. They fought under Jackson in 1814 and 1815 as well as under Galvez in 1779, 1780, and 1781, and when the great War between the States broke out in 1861, one of the ablest and most chivalric captains of the Confederacy was G. T. Beauregard, a Creole of Louisiana.

Bossu, a French officer stationed in Louisiana in 1751, said: "One calls Creoles those who are born of a Frenchman and a Frenchwoman or of a Euro

pean woman. The Creoles, in general, are very brave, tall and well made; they have many talents for the arts and sciences; but as they cannot cultivate them perfectly on account of the scarcity of good teachers, the rich and sensible fathers do not fail to send their children to France, as to the first school in the world in all things. As to the sex that has no other duty to perform but that of pleasing, it is born here with that advantage and has no need to go to seek the deceitful art in Europe.'

Colonel Francisco Bouligny, in a memoir to the Spanish government, said in 1776: "The Creoles are of a healthy and robust temperament, capable of the most violent exercises. Accustomed from childhood to hunting, they pass entire days with their feet in the water, without suffering the least inconvenience. Their industry and diligence are not less, because it is rare to see a father of a family who does not have the best books about agriculture and the exploitation of timber and lumber. There are few houses of which the furniture has not been made by the owners themselves, and men of means do not disdain to pass entire days handling a plow, in the mill, in the carpenter shop or the blacksmith shop. In all other countries, the men who devote themselves to cultivation of the fields are mere daylaborers in general, and the owners of important plantations disdain the knowledge and the details of husbandry. In this country, on the contrary, there is a noble and worthy pride, since the greatest praise that can be given to a young man is to call him a good planter, that is to say, a man who understands the labors of the fields. The ladies themselves distinguish and praise the most intelligent and the most diligent, a policy sufficiently strong to make the country reach the highest perfection. The Creoles are not satisfied with theory only, but with

daily practice, without having that rudeness which is brought about generally by the heavy labors of the fields. They leave the plow which they have been handling for hours to offer their hands to a lady to help her across the furrows that they themselves have opened. Foreigners admire the elegance of their manners and the good sense with which they reason on all subjects."

The French literature of Louisiana, the literature of the Creoles, is interesting and important. It began in 1779 with a short epic poem, and has continued to our day. Poems, dramas, histories, novels have been written in Louisiana, of which some may be compared with works written in France by authors of great merit, and to preserve the French language in the state a literary society, the Athénée Louisianais, was established in 1876. There is also in New Orleans a daily French paper, l'Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans, founded in 1827, in which are published the laws enacted by the legislature and judicial advertisements. The Creoles of Louisiana are greatly attached to the French language and use it in their homes as a mother tongue, although they know English also.

The French in the South.

In speaking of the French in the South we may recall the fact that it was in Virginia that Cornwallis surrendered his sword to Washington, who had received the powerful aid of Lafayette, of Rochambeau, of French soldiers and French sailors. After the War of the Revolution the South received the visit, in 1797, of the Duke of Orleans, later King Louis Philippe, and his brothers Beaujolais and Montpensier, who resided in Louisiana for a short time. In 1804 General Moreau, the victor of Hohenlinden, was in New Orleans. General Humbert was