“Spain, in a short while, found the territory of Louisiana so costly a burthen that, in 1781, she gladly receded it to France. But France was now in the clutches of Napoleon I, and delirious with revolution, was contending in battle with all the powers of Europe. The movement of her armies required money, and in 1803 she sold Louisiana to the United States for the sum of $15,000,000.”

from The History of Claiborne Parish, Louisiana by D. W. Harris and B. M. Hulse W. H. Stansbury & Company 24 Natchez Street New Orleans, La. 1886