Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz

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The following article, among eleven others, is part of the 2014 educational calendar produced by the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) in Thibodaux. This calendar, a tidal graph calendar produced annually, typically presents information related to historic landmarks, wildlife, and culture of the area. This year's entries focus on Louisiana naturalists, from colonial times to the twentieth century. Written by BTNEP's Andrew Barron and reproduced for Country Roads readers with BTNEP's permission, these articles highlight the rich biodiversity of our state and the individuals who've spent their lives documenting and/or protecting it.

Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz

Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz (1695?—1775) was most famous for his publication Histoire de la Louisiane. He made some of the first descriptions of Native American cultures, flora, fauna, geology, and geography in the Lower Mississippi River Valley during the early 1700s.

Du Pratz was born in the Netherlands, raised in France, and served as a dragoon soldier for Louis the XIV in Germany during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713. In May 1718, he left with eight hundred soldiers for the Louisiana territories, living there until 1734. After returning to France, du Pratz waited fifteen years to write a memoir about his experiences in Louisiana and then published it as Historie de la Louisiane in 1758. It contained seven books about the natural and human history of the region.

He described the Chickasaw, Yazoo, and Natchez uprising, the massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie in 1729 (in Natchez, Miss.), the defeat of the rebellion in 1731, and the consequent enslavement of the Natchez tribe. He also described the natural resources of the region, which can be placed into three categories, as follows: 1) geological: saltpeter, plaster, building stone, marble, slate, copper, lead, and silver; 2) agricultural: maize, rice, indigo, tobacco, wax, cotton, hops, saffron, silk worm, and fruit; and 3) plant and animal: forest trees, shrubs, creeping plants, quadrupeds, birds, insects, fish and shellfish.

After the British defeated the French in 1763 during the Seven Years’ War, the areas east of the Mississippi River were ceded to the British and du Pratz’s publication was translated into English as The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina. Du Pratz’s work contained invaluable information about the landscape, flora, fauna, and cultures of the Louisiana territories and was used extensively by later naturalists and explorers, a copy even taken by Lewis and Clark during their exploration of western North America.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine-Simon_Le_Page_du_Pratz

Google Books: The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina