whose estate lay just above the town, bought a supply of seed cane from Solis, planted a large field with it, engaged a professional sugar maker, and installed grinding and boiling apparatus against the time of harvest.  The day set for the test brought a throng of onlookers whose joy broke forth at the sight of crystals in the cooling fluid—­for the good fortune of Bore, who received some $12,000 for his crop of 1796, was an earnest of general prosperity.

Other men of enterprise followed the resort to sugar when opportunity permitted them to get seed cane, mills and cauldrons.  In spite of a dearth of both capital and labor and in spite of wartime restrictions on maritime commerce, the sugar estates within nine years reached the number of eighty-one, a good many of which were doubtless the property of San Domingan refugees who were now pouring into the province with whatever slaves and other movables they had been able to snatch from the black revolution.  Some of these had fled first to Cuba and after a sojourn there, during which they found the Spanish government oppressive, removed afresh to Louisiana.  As late as 1809 the year’s immigration from the two islands was reported by the mayor of New Orleans to the governor of Louisiana at 2,731 whites and 3,102 free persons of color, together with 3,226 slaves warranted as the property of the free immigrants.[38] The volume of the San Domingan influx from first to last was great enough to double the French-speaking population.  The newcomers settled mainly in the New Orleans neighborhood, the whites among them promptly merging themselves with the original Creole population.  By reason of their previous familiarity with sugar culture they gave additional stimulus to that industry.

[Footnote 38:  Moniteur de la Louisiane (New Orleans), Jan. 27 and Mch. 24, 1810.]

Meanwhile the purchase of Louisiana by the United States in 1803 had transformed the political destinies of the community and considerably changed its economic prospects.  After prohibiting in 1804 the importation into the territory of any slaves who had been brought from Africa since 1798, Congress passed a new act in 1805 which, though probably intended to continue the prohibition, was interpreted by the attorney-general to permit the inhabitants to bring in any slaves whatever from any place within the United States.[39] This news was published with delight by the New Orleans newspapers at the end of February, 1806;[40] and from that time until the end of the following year their columns bristled with advertisements of slaves from African cargoes “just arrived from Charleston.”  Of these the following, issued by the firm of Kenner and Henderson, June 24, 1806, is an example:  “The subscribers offer for sale 74 prime slaves of the Fantee nation on board the schooner Reliance, I. Potter master, from Charleston, now lying opposite this city.  The sales will commence on the 25th. inst. at 9 o’clock A.M., and will continue from day to day until the whole is sold.[41] Good endorsed notes will be taken in payment, payable the 1st. of January, 1807.  Also [for sale] the above mentioned schooner Reliance, burthen about 60 tons, completely fitted for an African voyage.”