navigable almost to its heads, which chiefly proceed from the ridge of
hills that separate this province from New Mexico," [Footnote:
Description of Carolina, p. 37] and runs through the rich and
fertile country on the coast above mentioned.

The western part of this country is more fertile, says our author,
than that on the east side of the Missisippi; in which part, however,
says he, the lands are very fertile, with a rich {vii} black mould
three feet deep in the hills, and much deeper in the bottoms, with a
strong clayey foundation. Reeds and canes even grow upon the hill
sides; which, with the oaks, walnuts, tulip-trees, &c. are a sure sign
of a good and rich soil. And all along the Missisippi on both sides,
Dumont tells, "The lands, which are all free from inundations, are
excellent for culture, particularly those about Baton Rouge,
Cut-Point, Arkansas, Natchez, and Yasous, which produce Indian corn,
tobacco, indigo, &c. and all kinds of provisions and esculent plants,
with little or no care or labour, and almost without culture; the soil
being in all those places a black mould of an excellent quality."
[Footnote: Memoires, I. 16.]

These accounts are confirmed by our own people, who were sent by the
government of Virginia in 1742, to view these the western parts of
that province; and although they only went down the Ohio and
Missisippi to New Orleans, they reported, that "they saw more good
land on the Missisippi, and its many large branches, than they judge
is in all the English colonies, as far as they are inhabited;" as
appears from the report of that government to the board of trade.

What makes this fertile country more eligible and valuable, is, that
it appears both from its situation, and from the experience the French