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a popular resort it has been given a more euphon-eous one.
SHIP ISLAND—
South of Biloxi. Iberville anchored at Ship Island February 10, 1699. It was his first harbor and it remained the chief one of the colony until superceded by New Orleans.
The first German colonists, purchased from a German prince by John Law’s “Western Company,” arrived at Ship Island October, 1719.
The British fleet arrived December 14, 1814 and remained until after their defeat at the battle of New Orleans. They evacuated the harbor in March, 1815.
Ship Island belonged to Mississippi until 1838 when it was ceded to the United States Government; but the state of Mississippi retained police jurisdiction over the island, concurrently with the United States, and in the waters one mile around it.
Federal forces occupied the island during the Civil War, at which time Fort Massachusetts was completed. Thousands of federal troops and prisoners were encamped there.
A quarantine station and a light house are maintained on the island now.
CAT ISLAND—
South of Gulfport. The French mistook the rac-
coons they saw for cats, hence the name, Isle an au Chat.
DEER ISLAND—
This island is about one mile south of Biloxi and Ocean Springs. The Indians told that deer, hunted on the main land, took refuge there, and they named it Deer Island. They also told that at one time deer could jump from the main land to the island. The plate *shows the western end of Deer Island only a quarter of a mile off shore. It is therefore probable that at some former period the island was a part of the Biloxi peninsula.
When New Biloxi was, as Phelps puts it, “The seat of government, or, rather, the centre of confusion,” the hospital was located on Deer Island. (1>
Years ago a lone, dead, pine stood on the island with all but one of its branches hewn off. It was believed by many that the one remaining limb pointed in the direction of buried treasure hidden by pirates who, for many years, frequented the coast.
CASSETTE GIRLS
Biloxi suffered her share of the misfortune of having the scum of France shipped to her shores as colonists. The royalty of France was possessed with the idea that the new land had mines of gold and precious stones that were only waiting for the French to find them to become immediately rich!
(1) King, p. 84.
*	Opp. p. 19.