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back halves and abandoned the rear half which faced the Back Bay. That was showing what he thought of the value of Back Bay property.
The road separatingthe north and south halves is now known as Division street.
Mr. De Launay lived in New Orleans at the time but when yellow fever broke out there in 1832 he moved his family to Biloxi where he lived until 1860.
When the capital was moved from Biloxi to New Orleans few people remained at Biloxi except the Indians. A hundred years later Mr. De Launay found only six white families.
Along the shore beyond the light house he found a little cemetery, a little plot set aside for the purpose by Mr. Fazier not so many years before.
Those graves have'all been moved back to make place for the driveway and beach. That was the beginning of the Biloxi Cemetery.
The above facts were given by one of Mr. De Launay’s descendants, Mr. Ernest Desportes.
The descendants of the Fazier family are now called Fayard.
NO BUZZARDS ON SHIP ISLAND
No man claims to have seen one—except once—in two hundred years. You may find them on all the
other islands and on the main land; but not on Ship Island! And here is the story.
Two hundred years.ago a French priest lay dying there; and he made a prayer to the Good Lord that his bones might never be disturbed by birds or beasts of prey. And that was the end of buzzards on Ship Island.
Goats are not allowed on the island and many years ago the lighthouse keeper, Peter Clarice, found a number of wild goats and shot them. No buzzards appeared. Then one day he killed a bull near the lighthouse, and much to his regret, again no buzzards attended... He was forced to gather reeds and brush and make a pyre. And so the matter ran until in recent years Mr. Ernest Desportes, a retired pilot, visited the island and was told by the light house keeper that a buzzard had appeared the evening before!
It seemed that the interdiction was- at last suspended. Mr. Desportes inquired into the particulars and found that at about sundown a buzzard was seen to light on the portion of land lying between the lighthouse and the quarantine station. Walking down that way to see what the attraction might be he found nothing but the buzzard himself—dead!
Since that day there have been no more buzzards.
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