106 JWIN uw
A contemporary map showed many mines which today, nearly two and
a halt con Ulrica later, remain undiscovered. One contemporary wiler, ut
tbo lioighl of tbc boom in tho Company's shares deelnred that Louisiana
was an island, and another pamphleteer of the lime, who wrote for the
benefit of tbo ladies of Louis \V's court, asserted, doubtless not without
uotm* justification, that few of them probably knew whether Mississippi
was a continent, an Islam! or a river.
Tbo truth waft that Louisiana was as yet a seareely habitable desert, tht;
area near the Mississippi's mouth bem# ravaged by yellow fever and the
territory of its upper renehes hy various Indian tribes, llo\\evet\ sotuc
conscientious attempts at eoloni/alion \verc made at this time,, and settle*
mcnts were granted by the Company to various prominent frenchmen
on condition that they populated them with immigrants. Law himself
took a reservation in Arkansas and despalehed thither a colony of (Jermarm
which bo bad recruited m the Uhenish Palatinate* But these means were
found to provide nn insufficient number of colonists, and so reeourse
was had to the methods of the pressing. By an edict of June, 1710,
vagabonds, tramps and domestic servants, who remained out tif em*
ploymcnt for longer than four days, could all be, transported to the Mfosw-
sippL At tho name time the hospitals and prisons were eombed for prosti-
tutes, since there was an acute shortage of women in the new eolony, ami
it was felt that the fertility of the race might be encouraged by the im*
portation of groups of these unfortunate fenndes, The first boat-load
which arrived in Louisiana was eagerly set/ed upon by the male eohmtslM
on tho spot, and after they had hern inspected to the, satisfaction of their
future, husbands its contents were curried off satisfactorily to the marriage
bed, although a dispute between two claimants for the hatul of th« ln*t
woman to bo disembarked was only with difficulty resolved by lot in
preference to armed encounter. The prospective wives* whose favours
were thm ao eagerly desired, in most CUMIN turned out disappointingly
since they wore quite unauited to the primitive conditions of colonial Wot
so that .subsequent cargoes were disposed of much less rapidly than the
first Still, most of them did eventually find hotnes of a kind,
Complaints were received by tho directors of the Company of the louaa
methodw of life as well as venereal dweaves introduced into Louis'uwa by
the latest immigrants, and it was decided in future to send out warned
colonists. Here again tho arrangwnentH were, carried out with more luwta
than discretion on the part of the author it Jw responsible. In September,
1719,180 brides wore married at n mass wedding to an many young men