Editor Joseph G. Tregle’s introduction places this little book in the historical context of the young United States and its ambition for further frontiers in the late eighteenth century. He informs us about Thomas Hutchins’ career, as well as the circumstances under which this geographical description of Louisiana and West Florida was published. Shortly after the American Revolution Hutchins’ work was privately printed and sold, the facsimile title page advises, in Philadelphia, “near the Coffee-House in Market street.” The author was well known at the time, being, by apparent connivance, geographer of the United States and also a friend of both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.
With a curiosity typical of many Americans at that time Hutchins describes the Mississippi River. In his enthusiasm, he gives it an ominous presence in the whole narrative, such as it must have really had to those whose livelihood depended upon water transportation. The rich soil of the riverbank produced indigo of a “colour . . . brighter than that . . . at St. Domingo” (p. 38). Myrtle-wax, cotton, rice, and beans were lesser crops of Louisiana and West Florida. When slaves were not busy planting and harvesting, they were set to cutting trees, squaring them and splitting them into boards. By means of canals, these lumber products were floated to bayous or rivers which ultimately connected them to the Great River, thence to the market. Lumber was a big business—nearly as big as pelts—and Hutchins anticipated a fine future for the timber men, when the coast’s settlement advanced.
Although he describes New Orleans in matter of fact terms, most of his journeys were through vacant wilderness, under strenuous physical conditions relieved only by the occasional village, plantation, or Indian camp.
The book’s content is clear and invaluable to the researcher for expressing the attitude of a knowledgeable man of the time, and for its factual description of the landscape.