|
a ACADIAN REBIRTH article
Cultures
of Acadiana |
Lafayette (La) Daily Advertiser, April 27,1999
Travel described Cajuns as 'passionate Frenchmen'
by Jim Bradshaw
Frenchman Charles C'esar Robin visited Louisiana in 1804 and 1805 and wrote about his travels in a book called "Voyage to Louisiana" that was published shortly after he returned to France.
One of the places he visited was the so-called "Acadian Coast" on the Mississippi River, where the Acadians had been settled for a generation or more and were finally beginning to establish themselves. Robin notes that the families had already begun to subdivide their river frontage as sons of the original settlers married and began their own families. Eventually, the Acadian coast became so fragmented that it was impossible to divide the land further.
Here are excerpts from Robin's description, as translated by Stuart O. Landry.
Twenty leagues above the city the Acadian coast begins and runs another twenty up from there. Like the Germans (at Des Allemandes) they work their own farms. Only a few of them have Negroes. Already the population has risen so that the farms are sub-divided into strips of two or three arpents of frontage. You must remember that each plot ran back forty arpents from the river. Only about half that depth, however, is under cultivation, the rest being inundated and covered with cypress and similar swamp vegetation.
Rice, corn, several kinds of beans, melons (on season), pumpkin, salted pork and beef make up their principal diet. Their customs can be compared to those of our farmers of Beauce and Brice (France). Good fellows! They do not show the zeal in their work that their European confreres would, for on the once hand, they are not pressed by necessity, and on the other hand, the lack of outlets for their product discourages them from greater efforts. However, they are still Frenchmen, passionately loving their country, proud to work for it, and showing a great predilection for its products.
Ordinarily, their manner is reserved but they are no strangers to gaiety. They love to dance most of all; more than any other people in the colony. At one time during the year, they give balls for travelers and will go ten or fifteen leagues to attend one. Everyone dances, even Grandmere and Grandpere no matter what the difficulties they must bear. There may be only a couple of fiddles to play for the crowed, three may be only four candles for light, placed on wooden arms attached to the wall; nothing but long wooden benches to sit on, and only exceptionally a few bottles of Tafia (a rum-like drink) diluted with water for refreshment. No matter, everyone dances. But always everyone has a helping of Gombo, the Creole dish par excellence; then "Good night;" "Good evening;" "So long," "See you next week" (if it isn't sooner). One showers off in his pirogue, his paddle in his hand; another gallops off on horseback, others who love near walk home singing and laughing. The Carmagolle (a short coast) is the usual garment. Clean clothes are a great luxury for them. The women wear a simple cotton dress and often in the summer they wear only a skirt. They go to dances barefoot, as they go to the fields, and even then men only wear shoes when they are dressed formally. As for learning they don't know what it is. Most of them cannot read.