FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

good milk cow with her calf costs 12 to 15 piasters, and all this is worth more here than
in New Orleans. <strong>The</strong>re is really no comparison.
As for the country and the climate, I find them more and more agreeable. You always
see the sun shining in a clear sky, the nights are cool, and there are so few mosquitos in
these higher lands that one could sleep all night without a mosquito net.
<strong>The</strong> magnolias are in flower at this time, and scent the atmosphere. For several days we
have been eating mulberries. It is quite odd that the mulberry, so late in blooming in
Europe, is here very early. <strong>The</strong>re is no doubt about the natural riches of this region. <strong>The</strong>
woods are full of Muscadelles [grapevines], which produces very good roots [grapes?], as
thick as the end of your little finger, and need only to be cultivated to outdo those in
Europe. <strong>The</strong> aromatic trees, the gum resin, the Patina [prima?] Christi from which they
extract castor oil, medicinal plants of a quality that is most efficacious, are found
everywhere. How can people stay dragging on in misery, deprived of dignity, in Europe
and especially in England, as so many of our friends are doing, when they can come settle
in a country where living costs so little, where with a little work they can make a fortune,
and where one finds, in the climate, the soil, circumstances and society, everything that
makes life agreeable!
I have already told you that the father, mother and sister of Madame Herries and her
husband, Mr. Skipwith, former consul-general of the United States in France, are
supposed to come this fall from England to come here, and I sent you their address, so
that you can see about coming with them. Mr. Herries recommends strongly that you all
come to Pensacola, Havana, or Mobile, from which points you could easily come on here,
and you would have by this route the advantage of bringing in everything you carry with
you at a duty rate of only six percent. Besides, you won’t be able to bring in anything
into ports of the United States.
Here we are only 30 miles from Bayou Sara. A pretty little town is being established
there. You get there by horse in 8 to 10 hours. I haven’t yet gone to see Mr. Kirkland,
for I am always waiting on more recent news to take to him. I will go soon and take with
me the printed advertisements for distribution in the neighborhood. <strong>The</strong>re are two or
three hundred rich residents at Bayou Sara and at Thompson’s Creek, in that region
rightly called Feliciana, and they are waiting impatiently for us to set ourselves up, so I’m
told, having no other way of educating their children than to send them to Philadelphia or
Baltimore.
Give a thousand regards to all our friends, French and English. If they knew the beauty
and bountifulness of this country, they would come here in droves with you. Embrace all
my four dear little ones, yourself, and all your brothers, with all the tenderness of a father,
husband and brother. Oh, when will I have the good fortune that is due me in having you
all reunited with me!
I again urge you strongly not to forget to bring with you all manner of seeds, nuts,
kernels, onions and roots, of fruit, flowers, vegetables, etc., etc., and especially of alfalfa,
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