Abbadie, S.J., Father J. Francis, Grand Coteau, Louisiana, to Archbishop Anthony Blanc, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1858 March 14

Since Abbadie completed his task and the letter which accompanied it, a Lorman of Pont Breaux, living outside the limits Abbadie proposed, was brought to be buried here. When Abbadie asked the reason from those who accompanied him, they said that they were nearer and the roads were better. Mr. Gillard had already said this about his house. If their parish is a little larger, there are more to serve it. Abbadie pleads only for the people that they may take their devotion where they wish. Personally Abbadie would not be sorry if Prairie Mallet was given to Opelousas, and the prairie between Queue de Tortue and Plaquemine to Lafayette or Vermillion. Bounding St. Charles from that side to the prairie between the line of Lafayette and branch is from Bayou Plaquemine to l'Anse Robert. Abbadie has heard that Father Stephen Jules Foltier claims that the people of Carencro do not wish to change parishes but to continue ecclesiastically as they have done up to now. The decision once made, Blanc will find no one more obedient that Abbadie. P.S. Father Anthony De Chaignon, S.J. is back from Junction. During the Mass, De Chaignon explained that, except in extraordinary cases, he could no longer baptize the children of another parish. After Mass Al. Savoie brought a child for baptism. Savoie said he was from the civil parish of Pont Breaux but nothing else, that in the time of Father Louis Roccofort, S.J. they had presented a petition to fulfil their Christian duties in the chapel at Junction and that the Archbishop had granted it. So De Chaignon performed the baptism. :: VI-1-n A.L.S. French 2pp. 4to.