FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

Letter 21.
[Letter translated, not original, in English, handwritten, in the Edward Ladd collection,
Mobile, AL]
Natchitoches [Louisiana] 6 December 1809
[Apparently to both Marguerite Marie LeDet de Segrais and her brother Emmanuel, but
addressed to:]
To: E.M. Ledet, Esq., New Orleans
I did not expect to write you a second time from here, my good friend, by the post, but all
circumstances have combined to prevent me from leaving sooner. <strong>The</strong> weather has been
so unfavorable up to the present that it has been impossible for me to leave by land or
water, nor have I been able to load the barge. I hope, however, that by Sunday or
Monday I will be en route.
I count upon bringing to you, my dear Emanuel, twenty bales of cotton, and two or three
thousand rolls of tobacco, of which two thousand are on commission. We embarked all
of the Tobacco from the German side, because they send the two thousand surplus rolls to
be sold on their account by Ledet, and they value them at four Dutch shillings.
I can draw upon you, my dear friend, by letter of exchange for $86.03 at one month’s
sight, to the order of an old thief of an inhabitant here who passed the Cotton through his
gin last Spring, and who insisted on having the Cash. Ah! My friend, there was the devil
to pay before bringing this gentleman to reason. He demands his pay, but never pays
anything himself, so you see what a devil he is. I have much to tell you about him.
<strong>The</strong> post has arrived sooner than usual and is leaving at once, so I only have time to
embrace you and all those I love. You say that I do not see to things, that I only count the
minutes till I am en route, that I fret like a child, and damn this place like a man. You
draw but a feeble picture of my situation. Ah! Soon! Ah! Soon, my best loved, my dear
little ones. Ah! Soon!
J.B. Florian
74