Kind feelings exist between the
populations, and the prejudices which have so effectually kept them
apart for so long a time are giving way rapidly now, since most of the
younger portion of the Creole-French population are educated in the
United States, and away from New Orleans; consequently they speak the
English language and form American associations, imbibe American ideas,
and essay to rival American enterprise. Still there is a distinct
difference in appearance. Perhaps the difference in bearing, and in
other characteristics, may be attributable to early education, but the
first and most radical is surely that of blood.
The settlements upon the Red and Washita Rivers did not augment the
French population in the country; it has declined, but more signally
upon the latter than the former river. There remain but few families
there of the ancient population, and these are now so completely
Americanized as scarcely to be distinguishable. The descendants of the
Marquis de Breard, in one or two families, are there, but all who
located on the Bayou Des Arc (and here was the principal settlement),
with perhaps one family only, are gone, and the stranger is in their
homes.
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