1114. CANAL, New Orleans.—[continued].
The first interests of the
company will be to bring a practicable navigation
from the Lake Pontchartrain through the
Bayou St. Jean and Canal de Carondelet to the
city, because that entitles them to a toll on the
profitable part of the enterprise. But this
would answer no object of the government unless
it was carried through to the Mississippi,
so that our armed vessels drawing five feet of
water might pass through. Instead therefore of
the ground I suggested in my last letter, I
would propose to lend them a sum of money
on the condition of their applying it entirely
to that part of the canal which, beginning at the
Mississippi, goes round the city to a junction
with the canal of Carondelet; and we May
moreover at our own expense erect the locks.—
To Governor Claiborne. Washington ed. v, 319.
(W.
July. 1808)
